A Thanksgiving Thank You Note
To my esteemed African colleagues at Asbury Seminary,
Thank you all for coming to our Thanksgiving fellowship and swallowship yesterday. I am sure you would all agree with me that we had such a great time! First, thanks are due to Pastor and Dr. Gatobu for their wonderful hospitality. Their lovely home was even cozier on account of their warm reception and the presence of many friends.
To all who attended let me thank you for making it such a memorable occasion. To my best estimation I counted more than fifty people last night. Some guests from out of town were such a wonderful addition. It was great meeting new people as well as catching up with old friends. I must point out how proud I am of all our children of various ages. They kept such good manners throughout the evening. Kids: this is a thumbs-up for you. And to the parents, thank you for keeping our African relational values, even though we are far away from home.
Note that this was our last fellowship for the calendar year 2010. Around this time we have already started getting ready for finals and those papers we often save for the last moment. I hope we all do well in our various classes and degrees. May Africa rise and shine again, even through our seminary careers and ministry opportunities.
Calendar
Here is how the Spring Semester is looking so far:
February 7 Classes start
February 19 African Fellowship meets – Catching up, election of new leaders
March 17 Dr. Jim Ault with African Fellowship (potluck dinner)
March 18 Dr. Jim Ault speaks at Estes Chapel
April 15 New Cabinet takes over leadership of African Fellowship
May 20 Semester Ends
[1] I will give you more information about my friend Dr. Jim Ault during our February meeting. Let me give some more information here, though. I met Jim at the February 2010 EMS conference in Chicago. He was leading a workshop on use of media (particularly video) in missions. The videos he showed were from Africa. You can find more at his web site: jamesault.com. During our conversations at the conference and at the hotel I found him to be a very interesting and missiologically valuable man. When I set out to invite Jim Ault at the start of the fall 2010 semester, all I had in mind was the African Fellowship. But being the kind of man that he is, I later thought it best to involve the wider Asbury Seminary community. When he comes in March Jim will spend time with the postgraduate students at the ESJ Missions Seminar, the Beeson leaders as well as with the African fellowship. I am excited to welcome him and am sure you will find him wonderful to relate with. So, please plan to welcome him with me.
