This is a personal comment's section, to express ideas and feelings about things that are happening with education, missions, government, churches, about God and Christian people. It is a place to express my frustration with different policies and people, both Christian and non-Christian. You can even make a comment below at the bottom of this page. So, consider the following points:  

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15 July 2021 Update - I've completed another booklet entitled, 'Isaiah, An Exposition'. I believe the book has turned out rather well. I learned a lot in writing it up. I have started on another study, Ezekiel and Daniel together. This will take me two years to complete. I also completed a booklet on ESOL Dictation. I sent this to MTI in South Korea and they were very excited about it. At church: At least one book a week seems to be going out from the collection at church. Some are being updated; for example, the Life of Christ. I reread that book for I'd forgotten how much information I included in it. Something else: there is a conference on about apologetics which I hope to attend on 13 and 14 of August. In addition: My teaching is continuing. One Korean girl, Yubien wants to go the Japan, but the covid-19 situation is still bad so she doesn't think she will be able to go this year. Yeunjie and his wife are still working very hard and still hope to come to New Zealand. He is ready to take the IELTs test; i think he will do very good on it. The other Korean couple studying at MTI hopes to go to Tuckey , but he really isn't ready yet, English wise. Well, health wise, the doctor says I need a back operation, but first I am going to have a second opinion. If I have to pay for it myself, it will be 20,000 which I don't really have. My daughter is visiting from the South Island. It is good to see her. I am quite encouraged about life and I praise God for that. Staying in the Word with these studies keeps me encouraged and exited about how good God is. 

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9 June 2021 - The last six months I have felt very close to God. I often go for walks beside the river and just pray and praise God. What a blessing. I haven't added anything to these comments for six months now. Lot of things are happening with me. I am still teaching online and that fills a large part of my time. I still teach an IELTs preparation class at the church on Wednesday nights. I have eight students in the class and I really enjoy it. I have added some new booklets to the pages in this blog. I have actually printed these nine books out and provided them to the people at church. I am still working on another study on the book of Isaiah. The thing with Isaiah; he foretold the coming of Jesus very clearly seven hundred years before Christ came. It is also interesting that from the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have a complete copy of Isaiah 150 years before the time of Christ. So we have the same book as what Jesus read from. I just finished an ESOL by Dictation booklet. This took me about six weeks to write. Most of it was from my teaching knowledge except the Bible topics I used. Just today, I am experiencing more back problems. I just turned 72; except for my back I don't really feel like it. Covid-19 continues over the world. New Zealand is providing shots for everyone and we should be getting ours any week now. Some people are afraid to take them; I don't know why. 

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9 June 2021 - The last six months I have felt very close to God. I often go for walks beside the river and just pray and praise God. What a blessing. I haven't added anything to these comments for six months now. Lot of things are happening with me. I am still teaching online and that fills a large part of my time. I still teach an IELTs preparation class at the church on Wednesday nights. I have eight students in the class and I really enjoy it. I have added some new booklets to the pages in this blog. I have actually printed these nine books out and provided them to the people at church. I am still working on another study on the book of Isaiah. The thing with Isaiah; he foretold the coming of Jesus very clearly seven hundred years before Christ came. It is also interesting that from the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have a complete copy of Isaiah 150 years before the time of Christ. So we have the same book as what Jesus read from. I just finished an ESOL by Dictation booklet. This took me about six weeks to write. Most of it was from my teaching knowledge except the Bible topics I used. Just today, I am experiencing more back problems. I just turned 72; except for my back I don't really feel like it. Covid-19 continues over the world. New Zealand is providing shots for everyone and we should be getting ours any week now. Some people are afraid to take them; I don't know why. 

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7 Dec 2020 - Politics & The Church, and Christmas - Sadly, Trump lost; his policies were okay but he certainly was a strange political person. For the church, it is going well, especially Wednesday night sessions. Victoria, a girl from Columbia who heads the English Language program up is doing a great job. A very unbiased and committed person to the Lord. She presented a nativity scene to a lot of non-Christian language learners and it was really good. I was very impressed. And for Craig and Dave, the church pastors, their preaching is incredibly in-depth and clear to the point. I just love our church; it is so good. Their desire is to get people to know Jesus more and more. I believe that the lack of understanding of Jesus and how he can help a person, comes from a lack of the study of God's Word. I'm convinced that doubt and inability to trust God and that any antagonistic thinking from Christians comes from not having the right understanding of what Christ can do in a person's life. This comes from a lack of study and knowledge of God himself. Janice continues to teach and relate to different second language speakers in the community; the opportunities to pray and share God's word with people in the community is amazing.

 

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8 Nov 2020 - Missionary Training Institute, Korea - I have taught about 20 different people throughout the year; all from MTI in Korea. I hope that will continue next year. It was a great year and God blessed our sessions together. One such person hopes to come to New Zealand and attend EastWest. I have tried to talk him out of such an action because of the expense involved, but he is determined. Well, for my study in the Book of Isaiah, it is progressing slowly. I have only studied and researched about fifteen books so far this year. Right now, I'm working through Barns' notes, about 400 pages in regards to my research on Isaiah. I like Barns, as he provides the Hebrew for many important words and how they apply historically. I am taking the time to enter those words into my Language Database, thus comparing words used to other Semitic words that I have already covered. This Database is made up of spoken Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Babylonian and Aramaic. The development of this language database is another side project that I have been working on for several years. Christmas is almost upon us; I have, as I usually do, try to dwell on what Jesus has done for us in coming to save us. Indeed, it is amazing. The commercialization of Christmas no longer affects me as it used to.

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7 Sept 2020 - Teaching and The Book of Isaiah - Teaching is going well. I have two South Korean Students associated with MTI that I'm teaching right now. The number of students I teach changes from time to time. One hopes to join WEC and another hopes to go to Japan with another mission. I continue to work on an expose of the Book of Isaiah. I have already learned a lot. I have read five books already and taken notes from each of them but have another ten or so books lined up for research. One such study on Isaiah consists of 30 lectures by a university professor. I lot more research to do yet before I can mode my thoughts together into a book. I have got to develop a purpose in order to focus my research. I'm thinking perhaps focusing on the unity of Isaiah relating it to God's purpose of the book, particularly in regards to the unique prophecies it holds. I still have in mind to develop an English grammar ebook also. Lot's of fun! I put a comments section at the end of this page. Still need to list it on the web search for the purpose of those searching for the subject matter I present. 

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4 Aug 2020 - Covid-19, Teaching and Writing - The world seems to be going from bad to worst. There is no let up on what is happening. More and more people are catching the virus and more and more people are dying from it. Still, one wanders what God is doing. There are all kinds of crazy posts on face-book and other places. America, like Brazil and India are bad off. Trump isn't as popular as he once was and I question whether he will get in again. It seems to me that he represents the only stable thing in the west at this point. China is reasserting their totalitarian rule over Hong Kong. New Zealand parliament continues to pass outlandish laws to their own detriment. But in all of this, I believe God is in control of the situation. It is really great to be assured of this. - I will start teaching English again very soon, perhaps next week. I'm not sure how many hours though. I finished an IELTs preparation e-book recently. I will soon start on two more e-books; one for English grammar and one on Book of Isaiah. I recently completed  a year and a half long study on Job. I learned so much about the sovereignty of God and the suffering of Job. The book is as relevant today as it has been throughout history. You can download this study from the Biblical Studies page of this blog.

 

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25 June 2020 - My Church - I belong to a great church where there is obvious love and concern for one another. I have never heard a harsh word from anyone in that place toward me. There is good sound preaching going on from the Bible. There are many things to become involved in if you want. The teaching is very Bible based. I believe that we are to be committed to the study of the Bible, growing in the knowledge of the Lord. But I have attended other churches in Hamilton that seemed to be divided on what God's Word was all about. I have attended other churches in the world where people seemed confused as to who God was and how they were to relate to him. I know that the church is battling with the pressure of the secular world and with Satan wanting his way in our lives. Staying strong involves reading the Word, studying the Word constantly and praying constantly. You must let the Word of God resonate in your heart. I have referenced their web-site at the bottom of the Christian Studies Page. Please come and visit us. It is great having such a Godly place to come to and worship God. 

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21 June 2020 - Covid-19 Virus - The Bible teaches us that God is in control. So, what is God doing in regards to this virus? Should we consider God in regards to it? We are fortunate here in New Zealand to have experienced a limited effect so far, but it is still rampant all over the world. As of today, there has been over a 100,000 deaths in America alone and millions worldwide. This is being repeated all over the world. Some people I've talked to, they think it might be the beginning of the end times. I don't know, but people everywhere felt as if the bottom of their lives had dropped out from under them. During lock-down people no longer had a job, nor did they have money for the basics in life. They no longer had anything. Suicides increased during this time in New Zealand. Many lost all hope. Our trust in our jobs, our way of living, the economy and our country and now the world has come to a staggering halt.  So in this, I think God wants us to turn to him. I believe that Jesus is our only hope. There is only false hope in material possessions, our country and other religions and such things.  Is this what God is trying to tell us? Is this what he is trying to show the world? But whatever you think, know this, God is in control of the situation. You will see this if you turn your life over to Jesus asking him to come into your life.

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17 June 2020 - The Farce of Accreditation - So, in New Zealand, NZQA accreditation is supposed to be the end all of acceptance in terms of study programs. In other words, if it is NZQA then it is a good program and it will be accepted anywhere. Every country and/or institute has their own, from universities and to colleges around the world. Of course the student has no idea of what is acceptable and what isn't. This is why they readily accept the college or institute as having an acceptable program to study. They assume this. This is fair enough for they just don't know; they have no idea. But such qualifications are far from being an end to a means. Sadly, the student does just enough work to pass the course markers that have been set for him or her. Eventually he or she completes all the assignments and course markers and get their certificate with as much as a minimum amount of time invested. This is the way it is done. They've got the diploma and therefore should know the material! This is the farce; The accreditation says that they know the material and that they are qualified. They may be able to relate to perhaps ten percent of the material after finishing the course hopefully, perhaps, if that! The percentage goes up if the program has a more practical component. In New Zealand, this accreditation is government sponsored which begs to question, do you want a secular non-Christian governing body to set Biblical standards? So student have spent tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands on a piece of paper, a certificate or diploma saying that they know the material, when in fact they don't. They have put the minimum of effort into study as required by the institution by professors and/or teachers who may or may not have been trained to teach adults. So, they have purchased that piece of paper. They have simply bought their diploma. 

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12 June 2020 - WEC International Mission - WEC is a large international Christian mission with its headquarters in Singapore. It was started by C.T. Stud early in the 20th century. There are good things and negative things about it. They recruit from countries like Britain, USA, Europe, South America, New Zealand and Asia. My wife and I are actually retired from it. We were nearly 20 years in the mission and spent most of our time in the Middle East. Many people do have a great ministry serving in the country they are in and God has been able to use them greatly. For myself, I believe there is a huge lack of individual support, especially in areas of encouragement in the mission. My experience in the mission was most un-present. This was very sad. But, know that this is my experience over the years. Oh, you can have a great ministry in the mission and many a young Christian missionary has indeed experienced fulfillment. If you are praying about going overseas with this mission, make very sure that is what God wants you to do. I would advise you to consider other mission organizations as well.

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10 June 2020 - Online Teaching - Today, I start with the advent of online education recently coming to the foreground more so than the past. With Covid-19 closing schools down, people are looking to online education more and more. One of the problems associated with this is the lack of understanding from those studying is first knowing how to study. Sure, Education and teaching is very involved which really required expert knowledge in order to be really effective, but obviously the teacher doesn't know how to teach online and the student doesn't know how to relate to online studies. Students are so used to being handled everything on a dish and told in a step by step way of what to do in the classroom setting. Oh, there are exceptions to this especially with those institutes that have practiced online study for a number of years. However, mostly both teacher and student are lost outside of that environment but yet they jump into online teaching and thinking that it is the same. Teachers don't do enough to teach  the student how they should go about independent study either. I don't think the teacher really knows; they should! This is also part of the problem. I am talking about adult learning here. Recently I presented a program of study to a student to do an online Bible Diploma program. It was a rare opportunity, actually. That student didn't have the discipline and I suspect knowledge to go about it. I made myself available for instruction but I wasn't to be her mentor as that wasn't part of the agreement.