Winter Quarter in Zambia
Time travel is one of the themes often portrayed in science fiction. People would like to invent a machine that makes it possible for them to travel to the past or the future. But such a machine already exists—it is the jet airplane. Flying across time zones, it is possible for a traveler to arrive at his destination earlier on the same day than his departure time. Last year when I returned to Mequon from a teaching assignment in Hong Kong, I flew more than 14 hours and more than 8,000 miles — but when I arrived in Chicago, it was earlier on the same day than it had been when I left Hong Kong. I had traveled back in time. With modern high-speed travel it is possible to experience the same day twice or to skip a day. It is possible to travel from one day to the next without ever experiencing darkness. It is possible to travel from summer to winter in a single day.
I had this experience in July when I taught for the Lutheran Church of Central Africa at its seminary in Chelston, Lusaka, Zambia. On a Friday afternoon I wrapped up Summer Quarter in Mequon and headed for the airport for a thirty-hour journey to Central Africa. By Monday I was teaching Winter Quarter in Africa.
Winter Quarter in Africa is similar to Summer Quarter in Mequon. Both are continuing education programs for pastors, but there are some significant differences. Our Summer Quarter is attended by a very small percentage of WELS pastors while this year in Zambia, Winter Quarter was attended by nearly all the pastors in the two WELS affiliated church bodies. For many years our Summer Quarter has been graduating men who have completed the program requirements with a Masters of Sacred Theology degree. The program in Africa is just in the first stages of establishing a prescribed course of study that will culminate in graduation with some sort of recognition for completing the program.
This year’s course, The Law in Life, was completed by 44 pastors from Zambia and Malawi, including four American missionaries. Each day for one week classes ran from 8 AM to 4:30 PM with a half-hour break for tea, an hour and a half for lunch, and a 15-minute break in the afternoon. Since there was no classroom big enough to hold the group, the campus church has been set up as a classroom with the benches removed and the chairs and tables brought over from the classroom building. In the afternoon session of each day, the class was divided into three discussion groups led by three of the African professors, and I circulated between the groups. One group stayed in the church, one sat in a circle on the ground out front near the bell tower, and the third sat on a large log out behind the church. As in regular sessions, the students are very active with questions and discussion of applying the law and gospel to the life of their church.
The sessions made extensive use of PowerPoints to present the main features of Old Testament priesthood, sacrifices, and festivals. This was something new for the class, but it went off with only minor technical problems. One day when a “rolling blackout” of power was expected a generator was on standby, but thankfully, it was never needed.
Though it was winter, daytime highs were near 70˚. Flowers were plentiful. Only fallen leaves from some trees made it apparent that it was winter. Meals were eaten in the open air, under a canopy or under shade trees near the guest house.
Informal Winter Quarter sessions have been presented by WLS professors for a number of years. The difference was that this year’s course ended in a formal test, taken by all the participants. It is hoped that this will be the first step in an ongoing program which will lead to some formal recognition of those who successfully complete the course of study. We hope this will be the beginning of a long-term cooperative project between Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and our sister seminary in Central Africa.