Greetings, dear brethren, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ! First, let me apologize for such a long break between newsletters. This past school year my teaching schedule changed in such a way as to make it necessary for me to try and do almost all of my traveling to give reports to supporting congregations during the Spring and early Summer. Since the middle of March I have done just that, giving this year’s report to twelve congregations. I still lack a couple that I will hopefully be seeing within the next couple of months. So, I have seen most of you in that time period, but getting out this newsletter has still been weighing on my mind.
As I said, I spent a lot of my time since March traveling, but most of that was in the months of April and May, since I was not in the classroom during the fourth quarter. However, once I returned from my trip in May, things got busy around here, as well. Our graduation exercises and activities filled the weekend of May 29-31. It is always exciting and sad at the same time as we say good-bye to our graduates; students we have grown to love so much. We bid them Godspeed and wish them every happiness and blessing in their work in God’s kingdom!
June is always a busy month here at Bear Valley. For me, it involved teaching a class via our Polycom video conferencing system to the new students in Guatemala. We studied Old Testament Introduction. They seem like a great group of students. The next week was our Future Preacher Training Camp. This year we had 35 young men (ages 13-18). This is always an exciting week and this year was no different. On Saturday of that week, my family and I left for one more trip to give reports, visiting the congregations in Wagoner, Hugo and Tecumseh, Oklahoma.
Two major changes in my work also occurred this summer. A new class schedule was finalized that will add eight new courses to our curriculum over the two year period. One of the new classes is English Composition and I have been asked to teach that class in the first quarter, which begins August 3rd this year. I am currently working on the syllabus and class notes and schedule for that course. The other big change for me is that I have been asked to become the new Dean of Graduate Studies here at Bear Valley. It is a big job and a little intimidating (so I covet your prayers), but I’m excited about the opportunity, as well. I’ll be sharing more details in future editions of this newsletter.
Thank you and God bless you for your continued interest in and support of this work!
God bless,
Donnie Bates