A new trimester is beginning today at the Seminary. My mug is filled with coffee, the office is bursting with students, and the library is overflowing as students and faculty prepare for another round of classes to close out the academic year. Seeing as Cassie and I are still relatively new within the academic world we are experiencing for the first time a repeat of a class that we have already taught.
Our course is entitled “The Transformation of Conflicts and Reconciliation.” Over the past year we have had the opportunity to revise and update the reading materials for our students, the class assignments that will be handed out and the subject matters that will be surveyed within the classroom. With our students we will be developing a theological basis as to why and how we are to go about dealing with the conflicts that we face. Also, we will be constructing a process to assess and mediate conflicts within our own lives, within the church and at the societal level. Our hope is that through this process our students will have the space to come face to face with their own conflicts and that in doing so they can find healing and acceptance. We also hope that they will see the necessity for reconciliation within their own context and within their own churches as they seek to bring restoration and healing to those to whom they minister.
We are excited to be able to teach this class again, especially when we consider that we have another year of experience here in Nicaragua. We are grateful that we have had the opportunity to learn much about the culture and that we have another year of Spanish acquisition for better facilitating the learning process. We ask that you please keep us in your prayers as our work continues here, asking that our time with the students can bear much fruit in the coming weeks and months ahead.
Pictured above are a few of our new students. We look forward to spending more time with them!
La paz es para el mundo lo que la levadura para la masa.
-Juan Pablo II
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