The School of Biblical Studies is About to Begin!

We have just a few days to finish preparing for the 2018-2019 class to arrive. This is the third year that the School of Biblical Studies will run at YWAM Vancouver and it will look a lot different this year. The staff team has changed as many of those who served the past couple of years have moved on and a few new faces have signed on. We have a new lead for our school too so there will be a few tweaks to how the school is run.

We look forward to another nine months walking through the Bible with a new group of students. The school is very intense and the first few weeks can be especially difficult as the stresses of moving and getting to know new house mates is compounded by the work load and challenges of learning how to study the Bible inductively.

As you may know, all YWAM staff are required to raise support to cover their personal expenses while they are with the organization. We have been able to continue to serve with financial support from fellow believers and through contract work that I have been able to do alongside my work at YWAM. I am very grateful for those who have supported our family in this way over the 4+ years we have been involved with YWAM. There are both students and staff seeking to raise finances for this years school. Please pray with us as we continue to trust God for provision.

Please pray for the staff as we prepare housing and classrooms and teachings. Pray for our students as they make their way to Vancouver. Pray that God will be working in the logistics and finances and especially in all of our hearts and minds as we begin this season together.

December 2017 Update

We are 33% of the way through the Bible. With only 1 book left to study through this quarter we are quickly approaching the conclusion of the this opening quarter of the 2017/18 Chronological School of Biblical Studies at YWAM Vancouver. Our students are getting very familiar with the Old Testament narratives and becoming well practiced at the inductive Bible study method.

This first quarter is usually the most difficult for our classes. The current class has ridden the roller coaster through the narrative and wisdom books of the Old Testament. All of the students have at some point questioned their life choices as they stared down some of the largest books of the Bible and tried to make sense of the many difficulties they find in God's word.

Over the past ten days our students studied through all of Kings and Chronicles. We were once again blessed to have Dr. Mark Smith as a guest lecturer for these two books. He, as always, brought history to life and helped our class to connect secular history to Biblical events.

Read our school blog for more frequent updates on our class and do contact me if you have any questions about what we do here in the CSBS or at YWAM Vancouver.

November 2017 Update

Our second Chronological School of Biblical Studies is well under way at YWAM Vancouver.

It has been quite a while since I have taken the time to post an update so a lot has happened. We concluded the school last year focusing on the New Testament for the last 3 months. YWAM Vancouver moved between quarters which brought a few short term difficulties but we are now enjoying having enough space for students and staff to do what we do.

During the summer the staff began preparing for the next school, some of the staff were involved in other ministry work and all of us spent some time raising support. I was blessed to have some short contract work to do on the side so I was away for a couple weeks and we did a couple of short family road trips as well.

We started this current school in late September and have just wrapped up the book of Joshua. We have 11 students again this year who are hopefully now getting past the feeling of being overwhelmed with work and settling into a routine. During the first month of the school there is a relatively steep learning curve as we teach through all of the steps of the inductive Bible study method we use. We will have our first guest speaker this week, Dr. Armerding, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Regent College here in Vancouver. He will be helping us study through the book of Judges.

Please pray that God would be working in the hearts and minds of these students as they study His Word. You can follow what is going on with the school with the weekly blog post and I will post another update here soon too.

March Update

The SBS -
Today was a big day for the students and staff at the Vancouver School of Biblical Studies. We had our teaching on the book of Malachi, yes the last Old Testament book! It feels like we have been in the prophets forever and at the same time it seems like we just began. Much like the people of Israel who had recently returned from exile, we as a school are all very much looking forward to the Messiah.
Unlike the post-exilic Israelites who waited 400 long years, we know when the Messiah arrives, next week, when we study through the Gospel of Matthew. We are looking forward to having retired pastor and professor Dan Lewis arrive to teach us about the intertestamental period and Matthew.
There are 3 weeks left in this quarter and the students are feeling quite worn out. The prophets tend to have that effect!  Pray with us for a strong finish to the quarter, a restful few days between quarters and energy and ambition to work through the New Testament!

YWAM Vancouver -
While we are busy studying, the YWAM Vancouver base is moving. We have a month to prepare the new space and get out of the current one. Please also be praying for this move, for funds, volunteers and for God to be working in all the details to make the move happen on time and without disrupting classes.

Working Through the Prophets

A break from book work! To get some fresh air and away from books for a bit

we went to Mount Seymour and built Nineveh as part of our Nahum assignment.

Christmas came and went quickly and we are well into the second quarter now. You need to understand that this is a frightening quarter, not only because of the oft catastrophic message delivered by the prophets we are studying, but also because this is the quarter when the students have the three biggest books to study through. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the most daunting "big book" weeks of the whole school and despite lacking in sleep and moments of despair that arose multiple times a day during those weeks of staring down unsettlingly large stacks of homework the students have all survived! As a result the class has gained much insight into who God is and His unrelenting love for His people and I can see that many of the students have gained a lot of confidence in their application of the inductive study method that will benefit them for the rest of this school and in all their future studies of the Bible! On a side note - please pray for the staff team who is currently buried in homework to grade... 

So we are through all the pre-exilic prophets and we are moving onto Daniel this week and the rest of the post-exilic prophets in the next couple weeks. Please pray for the staff and students as we continue to strive for truth and insight while we study.

December 2016 Newsletter

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We are done quarter one of the very first YWAM Vancouver CSBS! We wrapped up the quarter with the book of Job and all the students are looking forward to the Christmas break after three months of reading, taking notes in class and lots of homework. We will be hitting the ground running in the new year studying the prophets.

Click here for our December 2016 update on the school and our family.

Merry Christmas!

Joshua to Chronicles

It's been a few weeks since I have written an update. We have worked our way through Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel (1st & 2nd), and Psalms. This week we are enjoying a guest speaker who is bringing a wealth of historical knowledge to us as we study though Kings and Chronicles. Dr. Mark Smith is a historian and archaeologist who does a wonderful job connecting the Biblical Text to archaeological finds and history as we understand it today.

The students have been keeping up their high level of work and getting a lot of practice using the Inductive Bible Study method as we've pushed through some of these large chunks of scripture.