In Eckleburg's Eyes - 3/11/2009, Part 2

News & Notes from Tuesday, March 10th, 2009, Part 1

-On Tuesday morning, CBP allowed me to lecture her class at Carson-Newman College for the third consecutive semester. On this day, I would be teaching her Intro to the New Testament courses on Paul and the book of Romans.

-The class used the Fifth Edition of Stephen L. Harris’ The New Testament: A Student's Introduction as the text. I had an hour to teach the vast amount of material. It was not my finest hour as a teacher and my lack of experience showed as I struggled pace the class.

-The first class met at 8 AM which gave me the rare opportunity to see a sunrise. (Notice that the street light is still on in this photo.) My poor performance in the early class was exceeded only by the abysmal response of the students. There were only eight students present. Of the eight, two slept during part or all of the lecture and one left prematurely! I take credit for putting only one student to sleep as the other was asleep before I opened my mouth. I repeatedly used the word “uh” which I cannot ever remember doing. On the plus side, I did not say “basically”... (see the March 13th, 2008 edition of “In Eckleburg’s Eyes” for details.)

-I could not help but notice birds chirping outside. They sounded strikingly like crickets to me. Thankfully, two nursing students were attentive and attempted to help their drowning lecturer.

-In between classes I got to talk with CBP and HBT and meet Christine Jones, the Assistant Professor of Religion. I really enjoyed this. HBT asked how I would teach the difficult Romans 9-11 passage. I said all I would say was that it was “really hard”. He appreciated this.

-At 10:30, I taught a much larger class who were far more receptive to me and my questions. The first class only had one student who had previously heard me, while the second had roughly half a dozen. This probably helped a lot. I was not good in the second class but I was far better than the first.

-I then drove back to Knoxville to volunteer at the Hope Resource Center. My 2 PM appointment was very easy and even showed up early. I needed this as I was drained.

-Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, I was visited by my uncle RLN who let me know that my cousin HLN was accepted to Goucher College, her first choice. This is great news. Now, please start praying for funding.