A New Year
It’s hard to imagine that 2015 has already come and gone. As a kid, I never really believed that time went by faster when you got older. Boy, was I wrong!
2015 was a good year for us. Noma continues to work for the Addenbrook Classical Academy charter school. She is one of the original staff there. The school continues to grow and we are very happy that she has the opportunity to work there. This school year (2015-2016) our Jessica was also hired to work at Addenbrook, so she and her mom get to see each other every day. Jessica also teaches a night course at Red Rocks Community College.
In June, I was asked to become the Dean of Graduate Studies at Bear Valley. Since I’ve mentioned that in earlier editions of this newsletter, I won’t belabor the point now, other than to give a brief review of how that has gone. I am learning (slowly) more about how to do this job. By that I mean, there are fewer and fewer questions I have to ask someone else when they are posed to me. That doesn’t mean I’ve got them all figured out yet, but I’m getting there. As I noted in the last newsletter, my first Blitz Week was at the end of October. All in all, it was a good week; we just need to work on getting more students here to take advantage of excellent instruction on a graduate level. The next Blitz Week is scheduled for February 16-19, 2016. Our classes and professors for that week are: Advanced Hermeneutics with Dr. Denny Petrillo and Ephesians with Dr. Jay Lochart.
A New Quarter Begins
One week from today (January 11, 2016) the third quarter of our school year begins. We have a smaller class coming in this time. They will not number nearly as much as the class that came in last August, but that is normal. Our January classes are typically smaller. I will be teaching two courses this quarter. I will have the Freshmen and Sophomores for Exodus-Deuteronomy, and the Juniors and Seniors for Advanced Homiletics.
For the 2015-2016 school year we changed our curriculum, adding several courses. One of those changes was to separate out the book of Genesis from our study of the Pentateuch. I taught that class last quarter. Now, Exodus-Deuteronomy is the continuation of that study. Homiletics is the “science and art of sermon preparation and delivery.” Advanced Homiletics focuses on the Expository Sermon. I will be spending much of this week finalizing these two courses for the upcoming seven weeks (this is our shortest quarter).
I am also the instructor for three of our graduate level “In-Ministry” courses, i.e. courses that graduate students study at home on their own time. In the MBS program (Masters in Biblical Studies) I am responsible for grading the work in the Introduction to Graduate Studies and the Church Growth and Evangelism courses. In the MM program (Masters in Missions) I am responsible for the Missionary Issues course. I have work in those courses that I will be grading over the next few days, trying to catch up since the last quarter kept me from getting to those as quickly as I would have liked.
Thank You!!
I said this in the last issue, but I cannot improve on the feelings of gratitude we have for you. We appreciate so much each one of you and the encouragement and support (whether financial, moral, or spiritual) that you give us in partnering with us in this work. We owe everything to God and I am as convinced of this as much as I am convinced of anything, that you are part of His plan to bless us in this work.
God bless you and thank you for your interested in and support of this work.
Donnie Bates
Dean of Graduate Studies
Bear Valley Bible Institute
2707 S. Lamar St.
Denver, CO 80227
(303) 986-5800 (office)
(303) 718-7040 (cell)