Teaching at Asian Christian University

July Highlights

• Camp and VBS season is in full swing. Scottie and Samantha attended Bible camps at Inagehi and Horizons (FHU). Garrison attended VBS at Woodstock, Piedmont Rd., and Rome congregations. Scottie and Samantha helped at Woodstock VBS with outdoors and art stations.

• Scott and Alexis started a How to Study the Bible study with a young married couple from Woodstock.

• Scott spent the month in the Philippines, preaching and teaching.

Teaching Prison and Pastoral Epistles at Asian Christian University

At the end of May, I had the privilege of traveling to the Philippines to teach at Asian Christian University (ACU). ACU is a four-year Bible college which focuses on preparing preachers for ministry. My good friend, Derek Brown, encouraged me to teach a six-week course there in the classroom. This was a great opportunity because much of my Bible teaching is conducted online. It was nice to have the opportunity to stay in one place for an extended period and work with a small group of students. By getting to know each other personally, we were able to forge stronger connections and develop continuity in learning that would be difficult if we are only meeting online alone.

The class I taught was on the Prison and Pastoral Epistles of Paul (Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, Philippians, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus). We met in person for two hours, three times (6 hrs. total) per week for four weeks. We finished the remaining two-weeks of the course over Google Meet once I returned to the States. Because of the nature of these books, much of our time was spent discussing the supremacy of Christ, the joyful and transformed life of a Christian, and the special ministry call to preach the Gospel. The students were expected to read every chapter before class and complete a reading quiz. That way they were all familiar with the content and prepared to discuss it.

As part of the course, I also asked the students to preach an expository sermon on one of the passages covered in the course during chapel. This was one of the more rewarding parts. The reason is because it is important when teaching the Bible to not only teach facts, but to learn how to apply those facts to life and ministry, or in their case, especially to preaching and teaching. We learned a lot from these sermons. I was able to learn much about their culture and how they communicate priorities differently than we do. At the same time, I was able to encourage them with suggestions for improvement in sermon form and delivery. It was especially exciting to see them make immediate adjustments when confronted with their areas of improvement. They were eager learners!

Encouragement from the Students

ACU is a four-year Bible college which focuses on preparing preachers for ministry. These students come from all over the Philippines because they believe that ACU is the most serious place to learn the Bible in all of the Philippines. When they first arrive, many are leaving their family and churches for the first time. They are hours (sometimes even days) away from their families. They grow up with little exposure to English. (Social media and signs in town are mostly in English). However, they don’t understand it well, and they don’t speak it well. When they come to ACU, it is complete immersion into English. Classes and preaching are all in English. This is important because the best Bible study tools are only available in English. But by the time they reach the second year (like my students were), they can understand and preach quite well in English.

These students inspired me. Not only were they learning the Bible to a level that can only be found with great dedication and zeal, but they were doing so in new languages, even showing interest in Greek and Hebrew. They each had a contagious passion for evangelism. Meanwhile, they all maintained joyful and positive attitudes. I was sad at times because I missed my family. But many of them had not seen their families for over two years (since travel is too expensive and difficult for some of them). Yet, I never once heard a student complain about their workload, money, or not seeing their families. That inspired me to keep going.

Other Preaching and Speaking Engagements

During my time in the Philippines, I stayed busy with many other activities. Here are a few of the other things I worked on while there.

• VBS at Metro South congregation in Manila. I participated in VBS, and I was the guest speaker for the adult class.

• Graduation for audit students. High School students from all over Philippines visited ACU for a 6-week preaching or “audit” camp. I participated in graduation ceremonies, and I was one of the guest speakers.

• Sermons and Bible classes. Nearly every Sunday service and midweek service, I was either preaching or teaching, or both. I visited 7 different congregations while there.

• Chapel talks. I preached at ACU chapel several times.

• Drug Awareness community event. I was the guest speaker for a community (not sponsored by the church) Drug Awareness event. I talked briefly about the dangers of drugs, but mostly preached the Gospel.

• Evangelism campaign. We spent one Saturday gathering with area-wide congregations to conduct an outreach campaign in an area with a small congregation.

• Anniversary events. I helped four different congregations celebrate their anniversary. (And in the process, I had the pleasure of sampling the local potluck traditions!)

On top of all the hard work and joy of teaching and preaching, I got to spend a few days enjoying God’s creation. We spent time hiking a mountain, and I spent one day with just my students and a few other faculty going island hopping!

Love,

The Ihle Crew

Logos Answers Statistics for May—July:

	Lessons Published	Visits / Views	Watch Time (min.)	Interactions
English	-	303	105	23
Tagalog	-	40	8	-
Ukrainian	-	17	1	-
Arabic	-	5	-	-
Telugu	-	6	-	-
Khmer	6	58	-	-