Bible Studies

By Simon Liley

I cannot overemphasize how needed the Bible studies on this internship have been. We started in Genesis and have spent a significant amount of time in it.

One of the first few concepts that we learned was that with the creation of night and day and the phrase, “and there was day, there was night the first day,” God created time. This has been relevant in several situations. The most significant being in regard to the poverty and need that I’ve seen. Walking down the road and looking at the needs, my mind naturally moved to solutions. Very quickly, the issues' utter magnitude moved and frustrated me. It felt hopeless. However, I could reflect on that phrase and think of it in the context of our GOD community.

Upon arriving, Mr. Garner emphasized everything we have accomplished in Uganda over the last decade. He talked about the capacity that our cooperatives and their families have developed and the kind of life that is present on campus. That took years to develop — it took time. The solutions I needed when looking at the need around me needed God, and they needed time.

Systemic issues require time and age. My resolve, on the other side, is to continue to learn God’s Word to become people with capacity, like our cooperatives, who are ordering their environment and meeting the needs of people around them. It is Bible studies like that that have informed my experience here, framing my experience so I can process them.