Meet “Jacob”.

I would like for you to meet Jacob. Jacob is what they call a “Bethel Boy.” At the age of seven, he was brought from his rural village to Bethel by his single mother. He has grown up in the home for boys, studied at the matriculation school, and is now entering his second year of college at Bethel Bible Institute. He is an outstanding young man. Just the other night I sat with him in his room looking through old papers that he had submitted at the school. I have to admit... he put me to shame. His work was meticulous, everything was well-researched, cited, with full bibliographies and stated in nearly perfect english. Did I mention that he was only 19? Did I also mention that all of this papers were done without a computer? Paper after paper was hand-written with numbered footnotes, organized original sources, and evenly-measured margins. He told me that it often took him several tries to make the paper just right. After seeing those, I didn’t even think to tell him about my habitual negligence to proof-read my papers that have been word-processed and automatically formated. He told me that he wants to continue through his Masters and Doctoral work so that he can be a New Testament professor like Dr. Kanagaraj (the man whose house I am staying in). I would certainly assess that he has what it takes.

It’s wonderful to understand where this boy, and many others like him, have come from. They have been provided with a nurturing (albeit, firm and disciplined) christian environment. His tuition and living expenses have been paid by a foreign sponsor church, which the school has provided him, that he keeps in contact with regularly. He remembers his sponsors from early in his life, often sending letters and grade cards to them, and receiving gift from them at Christmastime.

We have talked and shared quite a bit over the week that I have been here. He loves talking about culture and theology and is a little nerdy when it come to Greek (obviously, we get along wonderfully). It is the people like this that have made my stay here most memorable. It is beautiful to see how God can work in and through the lives of his people.