Fun can be Good for Everyone!

Here is a quote I read today that warns of the dangers of costly entertainments:

“entertainments…great preparations and costly magnificence, demanding the expenditure of endless care and trouble about things of little concern.” – Plutarch (46-120 AD)

Not to detract from Plutarch, but sometimes our entertainments enable us to succeed. My interest in computers came to the rescue of our ministry last week.

We are temporarily housebound by car problems. But we found ways to extend our ministry. I was able to teach our Bible college classes and keep in touch with our partners in the ministry by a new method. By God’s good grace, our pleasures have helped us to promote matters of great concern.

Last week I was going to miss teaching my class again. But then Ron called. Ron is a fellow missionary I work with at Puerto Rico Baptist College. We spoke about recording my class. But since I do not have a video camera, I thought it could not be done. But then I remembered we did have a little webcam and a cheap microphone. We decided to give it a shot. Without leaving home, I made a videos for both classes and emailed them to my student assistants. Friday morning I was still stuck at home, but I was also seen teaching two classes in another town at the same time!

Learning how to do a Wiki has helped. A Wiki is an internet site that a lot of people can create together at once. I can have students post their homework as web pages, correct them online and leave them there to quickly construct a new website. This way, all class work is cumulative and goes to build an online website that can teach others the same subject. I can post class video clips here as well.

We are starting to get exited about this! We made a lecture that can be seen anywhere in the world and anytime. We hope to continue this, even when we are free from our temporary captivity. We hope to have a complete course available on the internet. We are excited, because this could help us build an online Bible College and Seminary more quickly than we had imagined!