We celebrated today with 40 Bible College graduates here in Jamaica. It was indeed an exciting day! It is very hard to beleive that we have finished our first academic year at the college. It seems like we just arrived yesterday....well no not yesterday, maybe last week!17 of the students were resident students. 7 were Carribean School of Theology students and 16 were extension students. We had direct contact with the 17 resident students. They were our teachers as we endeavor to learn the Jamaican way of doing things and we were their teachers in the classroom. Precious students....may they do well as they enter their place of ministry.
In the beginning of May we started seeing rain daily. One of our rooms in the house was flooded this past Tuesday, what a mess. All of a sudden, overnight, the rainy season began! Wouldn't you know it minutes before the graduation was to begin, the downpour arrived in Christiana. In the meantime, I was running frantically looking for bobbypins to hold down my mortar board! No success, so 10 minutes till one I was running downtown to a little store, hoping they would have them!
The processional began to Chariots of Fire! Awesome! The program was going along fine when it was the Kingston Extension students turn to give their item (special). The first note sounded and I gasped! Uh-Oh! It was the same song that I had practiced with the resident choir.
Let's just say we took that Uh-Oh and saw God use it to confirm His message for the day!
Give myself away so He can use me
Here I am, Here I stand
Lord my life is in your hands
Lord I long to see your desire within me
All my dreams, All my plans
Lord I place them in your hands
So I give myself away
So you can use me!
This is a commitment that even the audience can make along with the graduates as well as the lecturers. It was a powerful ceremony and to think that it is over makes me a little sad! Saying goodbye to students that we have grown accostumed to over the months brings transition and change. Not always a pleasant feeling.
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