Greetings, brethren! I hope this report finds you well and your New Year off to a great start! Ours certainly is. We enjoyed a nice break from classes over the holidays, but it wasn’t all just time off. On January 1, I left for Padova, Italy to speak at the annual seminar held by the church there on January 6, which is a national holiday there. I very much enjoyed my time with Jeremy Korodaj and getting to know Jeff and Tia Brauer and their family. This mission team is doing a great work. After a somewhat stressful day full of rescheduling my itinerary due to flight delays and cancellations in Europe, I made it home on January 8.
Classes began for our third quarter on January 12. This quarter I am teaching Advanced Homiletics (Homiletics II) to the Juniors and Seniors. I love teaching this class! Teaching a class on sermon preparation and delivery has, if nothing else, made my own sermons better. There are nine men in this class and I have much confidence that they will do great things in God’s kingdom.
Because of my teaching schedule, I have not been able to get a lot done on the development of our new online program. However, I am hopeful that beginning around the middle of March, I will be able to devote my full attention to this work. The potential of taking advantage of technology to provide training via the Internet is truly unimaginable. I suppose a better way to say that is that as much as I can imagine (which is a lot), I realize there is a great deal more beyond that and I know that God is able to fill that void (Ephesians 3:20). I humbly ask you to keep this new program in your prayers.
On a personal note, we have been blessed to be able to sign a lease on a house. Lord willing, we will be moving the first week of March. While it is still a rental, it will give us much more room and flexibility than our apartment has.
Thank you all for your continued support and interest in this work. May God bless you richly in His service!
Donnie Bates