Logsdon students experience Baptist life in Europe
Posted: 8/18/06
| Logsdon Seminary students (from left) Nathan Pruett, Darrell Smith, Daniel Dotson, Chazley Dotson, Jaci Jackson and Amanda Cutbirth visit the Bebelplatz, the courtyard in front of the library at Humboldt University, where the Nazis burned 20,000 books in May, 1933. |
Logsdon students experience Baptist life in Europe
By Laura Frase
Communications Intern
ABILENE—While students at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon Seminary were hunched over their desks rapidly scribbling notes, thousands of miles away, six students explored Holocaust museums, snapped pictures of castles and cathedrals, and met European Baptist leaders.
As part of the seminary’s missions immersion class and “Baptists in Eastern Europe” class, students learned by spending one month traveling across Europe, examining the culture and meeting prominent Baptist leaders.
Rob Sellers, missions professor at Logsdon, explained the trip’s purpose was to introduce students to important historical, political, cultural and religious sites in the cities they explored.
Local guides, political leaders, theology professors, denominational executives and veteran missionaries provided insights about each setting where mission work is ongoing.
Prior to the trip, students researched their destinations of Berlin; Wroclaw, Katowice, Auschwitz, and Krakow, Poland; Salzburg and Vienna, Austria; Ljublijana, Slovenia; and Skopje, Macedonia. They continued research throughout the trip. After they returned, they wrote essays and papers reflecting on their experiences. Students documented their trip in a daily journal and interviewed Europeans about their culture to learn what missionaries experience.
“They were able to get a sense of who the people are,” Sellers said.
Student Nathan Pruett participated in the missions immersion experience to learn firsthand about religious life in Europe. “Even though some churches are struggling, Baptist life is alive and well and growing in Europe,” he said. “And it’s really heartening to see that.”
Pruett found interest in missionary work, as well.
“It was good to talk to them about life as a missionary, because they talked about raising a family in the field,” he said. “It calmed my wife’s nerves and my own about raising children in a missionary setting.”
Amanda Cutbirth knew she wanted to be a missionary, and the trip reinforced her desire to serve in missions.
“I saw a little bit of an idea of a missionary’s life,” she said. “It gave me a sense of reality about it.”
By the end of the trip, Cutbirth realized “this is something I could do,” she said. “I saw firsthand what it was like to be a missionary. It was always distant in my head, but I know now it’s possible.”
The students also gained a greater understanding of what missionaries do.
In Macedonia—the students’ favorite destination—Cooperative Baptist Fellow-ship field personnel sponsor a ministry in ethnic reconciliation. Missionaries are trying to reconcile Albanians and Macedonians—two distinct, and often feuding, cultural groups, Pruett said.
“The missionaries don’t just tell people about Jesus; they minister to them in so many different ways,” he said.
Cutbirth and Pruett agreed they learned more through firsthand experience, rather than jotting down statistics and information in class.
“It’s good to have the experience in the culture,” Cutbirth said. “Until you immerse yourself in the culture, it’s hard to imagine. Not that this prepares me for any culture in the world, but it helps me understand.”
“Understanding—that’s a major goal for an immersion experience—understanding the place, the people, the challenges, the opportunities and God’s call,” Sellers added. “So, when even one student begins to understand, I feel that all the effort and time was worth it.”