Breakfast at the Seminary

Saturday 21st of March was a first for the Baptist Seminary in Tacna as we held a breakfast for the pastors of the Tacna churches. Elizabeth Almanza and Rosa Espinosa were up early to prepare juice and eggs and Lourdes and John Brew arrived with the bread and proceeded to set the tables. When Graham and Lourdes Williamson came down they were sent back up to bring down knives and spoons as Lourdes Brew went home to bring back more glasses.

The first pastors arrived about 8.00 o’clock and we were still not quite ready as Lourdes Williamson set to help preparing eggs and Maritza Casas started pouring the juice. It was about 8.20 when we made a start with a short devotional message from II Tim 2:2 about how the Seminary could help the churches prepare faithful men to bring the apostolic message to the next generation.

After Silas Ramos gave thanks we all shared a lovely breakfast, and then our Administrator, Elizabeth Almanza gave us a Power Point talk, prepared by herself and Blanca Valenzuela about what the Seminary had to offer in terms of courses. Graham Williamson, our Director of Studies then thanked everyone for coming and asked if there were any questions. He then ably fielded these with a bit of help from John Brew.

It was encouraging to hear former students saying how much they had appreciated their time at the Seminary and how it had helped them in their present ministries. Timoteo Alverez hit the right note when he said that he had learnt some things at the Seminary but that he still had to continue studying and learning all the time. That is the type of attitude we want to see in our graduates, not one that says, “now I know everything”, but rather one which says, “now I have the tools and know how to study I am better equipped to undertake my ministry for the Lord. Graham then closed the meeting in prayer.

We had hoped to show a video of former students speaking about how the Seminary has helped them but this was not possible due to technical difficulties. Elizabeth Almanza and Raul Sanchez spent many hours preparing this and it was a great shame that it could not be used. Once again Elizabeth has gone far beyond the call of duty in preparing for this event and along with Rosa Espinoza and John and Lourdes Brew was still cleaning up at 11.30 in the morning.

This was a really worthwhile experience and would encourage us to try new initiatives in reaching the churches in Tacna in the future.