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October 28, 2010 - From
Dr. Paul Wright I am overdue
in bringing greetings from Jerusalem for our Fall 2010 semester. We
are deep into our studies and adventures, and happy to have so many
eager students who are making the most of their time in Israel.
Associated schools sending students to JUC this semester include
Calvin College, Calvin Seminary, Cedarville University, Columbia
International University, Eastern University, Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University, Lancaster Bible
College, LeTourneau University, Messiah College, Northwestern
College, Philadelphia Biblical University, Taylor University Trinity
International University, Westmont College and Wheaton College.
In addition, 23 graduate students are currently pursuing the JUC MA
degree.
We welcome Greenville College, Malone
University and Wesley Biblical Seminary to our Consortium
of Associated Schools. We are glad to work with your students and
faculty in providing purposeful, enriching and secure study programs
in the lands of the Bible. We look forward to many productive years
ahead.
We are very happy to have Dr. Larry and
Joyce Helyer with us this fall. Larry is Emeritus Professor of
Biblical Studies at Taylor University and our visiting professor
this semester. He is teaching the course The Prophetic Landscape
of Ancient Israel. Joyce is providing important and timely
support work in the JUC library. We welcome you both!
Other new staff this fall include
Cameron Simon, Dan and Paula Moore, and Justin and Mandy Kelley.
Cameron is serving as my personal assistant with special
responsibilities in our Short-Term Studies Program. Dan and Paula
are volunteering for the entire academic year as dinner cooks, and
Justin and Mandy have taken on the responsibility of Directors of
Student Life.
We also welcome Dr. Eldon Clem to the ranks of
our adjunct faculty. I am very pleased that we have been able to
revive Aramaic in our course offerings. This fall Eldon is teaching
the course Introduction to Aramaic, and next spring
will continue with Introduction to Jewish Palestinian Aramaic.
These courses are open to anyone with one year of Biblical Hebrew,
but are offered specifically with our graduate students in mind.
Next spring we will inaugurate a new course, The Evangelical
Imprint in the Middle East, taught by Dr. David Schmidt (for
the Israeli Messianic perspective) and Dr. Salim Munayer (for the
Arab Christian perspective).
Our campus is the site of an archaeological
excavation! For some months now (over 13 to be exact) we have
been working with various governmental agencies to connect our
campus to the municipal sewer system. As I reported in my last
update to you, what should be a fairly straightforward process is
anything but, here on Mt. Zion. We knew that the Israeli Antiquities
Authority would want to do a salvage dig and sure enough, this
October archaeologist Amit Re’em excavated two squares adjacent to
our classroom building where the connecting pipes will run. I can’t
report what Amit found since announcement and publication rights are
his, but I can say that it is something unexpected and dates to the
Second Temple Period (the First Century AD).
Our October Pastor-Parishioner program,
taught by Dr. Jack Beck, is winding up their two-week program
here in Israel and Jordan. As expected, everyone is having a most
wonderful time. The value of what is gained for the time, money and
energy spent in a program such as this cannot be measured. There is
wide and confident agreement that our study programs simply cannot
be beat.
Enrollment for our upcoming January programs
looks very good. We are expecting two groups from Taylor University
this January, as well as groups from Bethel University, Calvin
College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Grace University
(NE).
It has been a very hot and dry fall—unusually
so, it seems to me. I feel as though weather-wise we are in the
“seven lean years” of Joseph in Egypt. At the same time, tourism
is at an all-time high in Israel—hot and not dry at all. On
Tuesday of this week I stopped at the Mount of Beatitudes with our
Physical Settings of the Bible class and counted 27 busses
there besides ours. That’s over 1000 people at just this one (small)
site, at just this one moment in the day! The bus company that we
have been using for decades had 78 different groups in the field all
at the same time this past weekend. And I hear that the hotels in
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are at 90% capacity (the 10% that is not full
is mostly composed of the very high and very low end rooms, not the
sort of places that our constituency typically stays in). All of
this means that we are working 18-24 months in advance in scheduling
our own groups. I say this partly to let everyone know that space
fills up rapidly, and partly to encourage you to consider JUC as the
most excellent provider of quality on-site instruction in the lands
of the Bible.
We are most grateful for our circle of
friends and alumni who have been able to contribute financially to
our scholarship funds this past year. Our goal remains to grow
our scholarship endowment to a level that will allow us to offer
tuition scholarships in the amount of 50% to all of our graduate
students. Those who have made the commitment of pursuing the JUC MA
degree are most in need, for they are not allowed by law to work for
pay during their two years in Israel. It is very difficult for
nearly all of them to fund their two-year program in advance. With
your gracious help, by the grace of God, we will be able to meet our
goal.
I look
forward to see as many of you as possible at the Evangelical
Theological Society meetings in Atlanta November 17-19. All
friends, alumni and reps of our associated schools are invited to
the JUC breakfast on Thursday Nov 18, at 7:00am in the
Atlanta Hilton & Towers.
With blessings, and thanks,
Dr. Paul Wright
Director, JUC |
