A Week With Daniel at the BI

We took this picture after the final session this morning.

I’m writing this note in the Business Center across from Gate 64 at the Tampa airport. In about an hour, I’ll board a plane to fly home, thus ending my final trip of the year. This week I’ve had the privilege of spending four days teaching the book of Daniel to 200 eager students at Word of Life Bible Institute in Hudson, Florida. This is the third time I’ve taught Daniel here, and I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. Teaching in a classroom setting is quite different from preaching on Sunday morning. Although I preached through Daniel in 2000, I never taught it in the classroom until two years ago. That year I didn’t use any PowerPoint because, well, because I usually don’t use PowerPoint. Last year I used PowerPoint when I taught Daniel the second time, and once I got the hang of it, things seemed to go well. This year I finally felt at home with Daniel and with my PowerPoint slides.

Each year at the BI I have a completely different group of students. Each class has its own personality. Some seem very studious, others want to talk a lot. This year’s class (very young, it seemed, or else I’m getting older) listened very well, didn’t ask a lot of questions, and seemed to really enjoy being together. I taught on a 3-2-3-2 format, three hours one day, two hours the next. They had classes before me and usually classes after me plus most of them are working on the big Christmas musical production that starts right after Thanksgiving. They stay busy all day long and then have study hours in the evening and Christian service assignments on the weekends. I think most of them flourish in this high-energy atmosphere. 

Each year I spend a few weeks teaching students in various settings. I teach Galatians in New York, Daniel in Florida, and I taught 1 Peter in South Korea last month. I’ve also agreed to teach James in Florida next year. It’s part of our vision at Keep Believing to help equip the next generation of rising Christian leaders. 

After the final session today (I let them out early for this purpose), we adjourned to the parking lot to take a group picture. If perhaps the Lord will raise up an army of young Daniels from these students, then my time in Florida will have been well spent indeed.