Review of 1st term at Cornhill

With the 1^st years, we went through…..

2 Timothy (Christopher Ash)

Bible Basics (Stuart Allen)

session 1: The Law

session 2: The Former Prophets

session 3: The Latter Prophets

session 4: The Writings

session 5: The Gospels

session 6: The Acts and Letters

Principles of Expository Preaching (David Jackman)

What kind of book is the Bible? (Nigel Styles)

Ministry Topics: (Christopher Ash)

- Who decides what the Bible means?

- Why do Christians meet?

- What kind of leadership do churches need?

- The blessings of Expository Ministry, “The Whole Counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) Planning Bible Teaching Programmes, Study Resources for Bible Teaching, Putting the talk together, Getting the talk across

- Christmas Speaking Opportunities

Pastoral Topics: women and men in Christian service (Christopher Ash & Carrie Saddom)

Gobbet Groups: 1 Tim, Luke, Acts, Deut, Malachi (Stuart Allen)

Exodus (David Jackman)

Pastoral Topics: Thinking Blibically about Christian meetings & buildings (Mark Ashton)

Carol Services (Christopher Ash)

Pastoral Topics: Contemporary Culture ‘Where in the World Are We?’ (Mark Maynell)

With the 2^nd years, we went through….

Romans 1-5 (Christopher Ash)

Principles of Exposition – Epistles (David Jackman)

Principles of Exposition – Gospels (David Jackman)

Principles of Exposition – Prophesy (David Jackman)

Malachi (Lee Gatiss)

Revelation (John Richardson)

Women’s Stream….

Recovering Blibical womanhood (Carrie Saddom)

Godly Women, Godly Beauty, Godly Speech, Godly in Good Deeds (Caroline West)

Blibical Womanhood at Work, ‘Careering out of control’ The pressures on working women today (Carrie Saddom)

Training women to serve, Encouraging Women into ‘Full-time’ Ministry (Jane Leggett)

Women in cross cultural mission (Genevieve Jennings)

Teaching children & all ages (Caroline West)

Model Expository Talk (Jane Leggett)

Evangelism with women, Evangelism strategy and programme, Teaching Women (Lizzy Smallwood & Daphne)

Model all age talk (Caroline West)

Ministry to married women (Tricia Marnham)

Leading Bible Studies (Annabel Heywood)

God’s sovereignty when things go wrong, God’s sovereignty and human responsibility (Carrie Saddom)

Issues women face, addressing pastoral issues (Caroline West)

Ministering to Singles, Single in ministry (Jane Leggett)

How did God us these women in their situations? (Carolyn Ash)

WOW! After I’ve reviewed what I’ve learnt, it’s a lot! Some may have doubt it since it’s a non-certificated course. But a lot of my school-mates will testify that it’s a really intensive course and stress at times, as our 5min gobbet, 7min exposition & 20min talks are like our exam dates. And the preparation for each will be 2.5hrs, 3.5hrs and 10hrs respectively. And besides that, you’ll need to spread out those hours, because it’s unlikely you’ll be able to think of the big idea (ie, forming 1 sentence of 10 or less words) in a day from the passage you’re studying. You’ll need to ponder and I struggle a lot with my sin and my background spectacles I read it with, keeping in mind that there’s the impact of the letter at those ancient times, and aim to handle God’s word aright and teach it correctly, especially teaching it to myself and often my mind gets blown by the treasures found and how it all clicks together. 5min gobbet’s audience is a mix group of 12, 7min exposition’s audience is the whole class of 50, 20min talk’s audience is 3 women school-mates. Every session there’s at least 1 teacher around supervising.

I get feedback from teachers and also fellow school-mates who assess what I’ve said based on context, content and whether teaching points came from the passage. I get encouragements too to trust in the Holy Spirit to do the work in men’s hearts and just keep praying.

Aside from that, there's the weekly homework to do. For example, this morning we can be given homework to read the 10 plagues in Exodus tonight, and the next morning we have to discuss about it. Phew! Keeps you on your toes and doing the work is really beneficial, because it helps the discussions we have with each other. Of course, there'll be some of us who can't get homework done because we're busy with ministry/church matters. How good it is to be able to spur each other on and sharpen each other.

Did I mention how humble my teachers are? They are all grasping God’s grace and teach with such quiet confidence, holding out God’s word for us to understand and heed, to follow our Lord Jesus for the rest of our lives till He returns! And they allow others to challenge them, to sharpen each other and they are always learning, knowing that though they may teach currently what it means at 45 years old, God may correct them when they’re 70 years old and they’ll accept that it’ll happen, not thinking they know it all and close their ears. You can see God’s work in them, for they couldn’t be the person they are if not for God working in each of their lives, turning them from darkness into the light of the kingdom of His son.

Sure am looking forward to my 2^nd term!! There’s mission trip to get more exposure as we go away separate ways to help various churches around London. Hoping to get to know my school-mates better too. In total, we have 21 countries represented. I’m the only Singaporean. Other Asians include Koreans, China,….Pakistan and Uzbekistan aren’t Asian, right? There are 2 english girls, one can speak better mandarin than me, and another can speak fluent Japanese, and both plan to return to China & Japan to continue with their mission work which they left for awhile to be equipped for further work there. So encouraging! Praying that there’ll be more Asians equipped in wanting to handle God’s word aright.

Know that I promised some of you that I’ll update my blog with what I’ve learnt weekly (at least I thought I’ll try), but the time went by so fast, that alas, like some of you told me already, it’s good enough if I’m able to do it monthly =) Shall try updating monthly…