Mid-Semester Update
I wrote this up as a thank-you letter for a scholarship donor, and I thought I would share the inte
resting bits with everyone!
We had a good summer back home in Michigan. I took one class online (Trinitarianism) and was able to plug into my home church by teaching the college Sunday school class as well as preaching once. I was able to do a lot of work around the house for my dad (who was out of town), which was good. We were staying on a lake, so we were able to do a lot of swimming as well. 
The biggest news was that we had our third child this summer. Christopher Paul was born on July 22, and my wife’s labor was blessedly quick and easy (as it had been for our first two). Right now he is smiling and cooing a lot, and is getting close to rolling over. He enjoys watching his big brother and big sister tear around the house, though the “big kids” make his mom and dad a little nervous!
This semester I began an internship at Northwest Bible Church in the Outreach department. I am working with our church’s African refugee ministry, and I am overseeing our church’s ESL tutor program. We connect willing members of the church with refugees to practice English. I am also putting together an equipping class for the leaders of the church which will hopefully start next semester. It has been a good learning experience to work within a much larger church than I was a part of back in Michigan.
I have had a great line-up of classes this semester. I am taking my third semester of Hebrew, which has been good (studying the book of Ruth and a few Psalms). I also took an elective called Hebrew Reading, which has really helped me. We’ve focused primarily on narrative in Genesis and Judges, but we are just now transitioning into the last segment of the class, which is on poetry. I am also taking Exegesis of Romans,” which is our fifth Greek class. This is very enjoyable course. I love the book of Romans, and I think it’s one of the most important books of the Bible (along with Genesis and Mark). I’m also taking a class called Creative Writing, which has been a lot of fun. I aspire to write fiction on the side (haha), so it’s been very helpful. I’m signed up for Advanced Creative Writing with the same teacher next semester, where I will be focusing on preparing a novel I have written for hopeful publication. My last class this semester is our second preaching class. This covers narrative preaching (in Mark and Genesis), and I have learned a lot in this so far.
As far as future plans, I am once again wrestling with the decision of whether or not to pursue a PhD in New Testament here at DTS. On one hand I would really love the additional training, and I think it would only help me in the future. On the other hand, since I want to be a pastor (not a professor), I know it is not strictly required, and so I wonder if it is worth the time and cost to my family. I am probably learning at the moment toward doing it. I had a good talk with one of our NT professors, and he advised that he thought there is a great need for “scholar pastors” who can minister in the church from a such a level of training. I will be doing an informal internship with him in the near future as well, and so I hope that will help clarify my direction. I would appreciate your prayers!
Greg Rhodea
