In-Person

Much of the teaching by LATTE recently has been on the internet instead of in-person. In the past through visiting trips of 1-3 months the professors often were able to model as well as coach students as they began practicing newly taught skills. With less in-person teaching now the professors often find it difficult to evaluate the preaching, teaching, evangelizing and counseling effectiveness of their students. 

 While here in Colombia teaching it has been possible to observe three students in action as they serve the congregation. For instance, Professor Larry was able to observe an excellent presentation by student Raul as he gave the devotion for midweek service and student pastors Henry and Tonny training new leaders of the congregation and national church. The students also had an opportunity to observe the professor preach one Sunday. The professors are grateful for the multiple blessings of these in-person visits.

Fall Update

One LATTE professor has now completed preparing an entire Dogmatics course for online presentation (moodle) and has taught it for the whole cycle. He has also prepared the Hermeneutics course for the same presentation. Another LATTE professor has been named director of the Mexican seminary by the national church. 

LATTE continues to provide training for future pastors as well as continued education for those already serving [in Latin America].

Class with 2 Mexican and 1 Colombian Students

I (Phil) am a professor on the Latin American Traveling Seminary team. At the present time I am living in La Paz, Bolivia because of a special assignment that I was given. Recently I was given a special opportunity, that of participating in the Mexico seminary program by means of Skype.

The two Mexican students that I am teaching are Dan and Luis. What makes the situation even more interesting is that Raúl, a seminary student from Quibdó, Colombia also joins the class. The class I am teaching to these three students is New Testament Isagogics. 

We thank the Lord for this technology which enables us to teach students in their own classrooms or settings even though we as professors live in distant countries.

Colombia Teaching Trip

Since September, 2009, I have been serving many of our LATTE students with doctrine courses that I teach using the Internet. Two of the students from Colombia, Henry and Tonny, have finished the six online doctrine courses. I have 11 other students right now who are studying doctrine this way and are at various stages of completion: 5 from Colombia, 3 from Bolivia, 1 from Argentina, and 2 from the USA.

I still do some traveling to teach our LATTE students face to face. Right now I am in Medellín, Colombia, for one month, teaching St. Paul´s Letter to the Ephesians to Henry, Tonny, Raul (computer screen), and Jairo. We study at the church in Medellín, but Raul, who lives in Quibdo, Colombia, connects to Skype to study with us (see photo).

 

  Tonny, Henry, & Raul (computer screen)

 

Jairo

We hold the class every afternoon, after Tonny gets done with work in a jeans factory, Monday through Friday, from 3 - 6 PM. We are studying the six chapters in the original Greek, discussing it, and then applying it to our and our members´ lives. I also meet with Henry in the mornings from 9 - 12 AM to teach Christian Education, a class that deals with the way people learn and all the classes a pastor teaches.

My wife, Kay, accompanied me on this trip, to fellowship with the ladies and families of the congregation, La Santísima Trinidad, to encourage them in their work. Of course Kay also makes sure I get home cooked meals and clean laundry.

Keep this work and our students in your prayers.

Mining the Gospel's Gems in Greek

Back in January as we were starting new classes in a new year, I shared that I was going to teach a Church History course from Mexico over Skype with three students in Colombia.  Recently I also began teaching Greek to two of those students.  I remain in Mexico; they remain in Colombia.  As long as all three of us have power and Internet, we should be ok.

The Holy Spirit in his divine wisdom chose to inspire the evangelists and apostles to write the New Testament using the Greek language of their time.  Pastors who are called to preach and teach the gospel faithfully will want to be able to mine the gospel's treasures in its original language as much as possible.

My prayer is that as Jairo and Raúl learn Greek grammar, analyze and understand its forms, and grow their Greek vocabulary, they will come to appreciate why the Holy Spirit chose this language, which tends to be quite exact and at the same time colorful, to reveal his gospel in the New Testament.  May it lead to a lifetime of mining the gospel's gems together with faithful translation and interpretation of gospel truth.

New Classes in the New Year

The new year has come, and with it the beginning of new classes for LATTE.

Some students are starting an online doctrine course called Escatología--the study of what the Bible says (and doesn't say) about the end times--with Professor Lorenzo.  Another student, nearing the end of his formal seminary studies, has started an intensive four-week study of the book of Isaiah with Professor Larry.  A few will continue examining the Augsburg Confession with Professor Philip  And still others are just starting a class on the history of the Christian church.  It is my privilege to teach this class on Church History.

And I'm looking forward to it.  I'm looking forward to getting to know Henry, Jairo and Raul, three student-pastors in Colombia whom I haven't yet met face-to-face, but will soon get to know over Skype.  I'm in Mexico; they're in Medellín and Quibdó, Colombia.  We'll study together across the Internet.

I'm also looking forward to reviewing the lessons we can learn from history.  I marvel at how God has preserved his church over the centuries.  I appreciate how past Christians have fought to defend Scripture's truth against subtle false doctrines.  I learn from them how to recognize and fight false doctrine today.

The new year has come.  And as we begin a new class on Church History, we ask God to help us learn lessons from the past.

Online Education

LATTE Professors offer online education to their students over the Internet. The professors are in the process of developing additional theological online courses for students to study in areas where LATTE isn't on-site and to be able to participate in online discussions with classmates throughout Latin America. Much preparation is needed for each course, so in the meantime, some classes are taught to the students via Skype. Several online courses are already available and have been taught to Latin American students including a few in the USA.

Online Course Completed

A LATTE professor just finished teaching a ten lesson, twenty week online course on doctrine. The course included a biblical study of faith, conversion, justification, sanctification, good works, prayer, the cross, and predestination.

Fifteen students finished the course:

-  Eight from Colombia

-  Three from Bolivia
-  Two from the USA
-  One from Chile
-  One from Guatemala

The students were Lutheran pastors and leaders from Lutheran Churches which have asked us to help them train their leaders. The students wrote a total of 2511 emails, most with homework that needed to be corrected, including 170 sets of comprehensive end-of-the-lesson review questions.

The course used the online Moodle platform which allows the professor to put the whole course online before the students begin to study. Students then receive a calendar for the course lessons, but can study the two text books and do the homework assignments according to their daily and weekly schedules, at anytime of the day.  The professor can do his correcrting and emails to the students according to his schedule too. This allows the professor to travel to other countries, including countries where the Internet is not available to the general populous, for face-to-face classes.

The courses of this type are designed as a package so national pastors can also give the same course, once they have taken it themselves.

Latin America Online

All of the LATTE professors are teaching courses online in Latin America. I have used Skype to teach Genesis to a student in Puerto Rico. I opened the course comments and questions for each lesson on my desktop, which he could also see. We both had good Internet connections so we could converse without any problems. We also used video cameras so we could see each other for the opening and closing sessions of the class. 

Many of our pastors and leaders in Latin America are dedicated Skype users. Our two pastors in Medellín, Colombia, use Skype to reach out to people in other cities and to teach. They also have an International Internet Church with members in South America, USA, France, Spain, that meets each Sunday using Skype.

Online Teaching

Some time ago, the WELS Board for World Missions mandated online courses to save travel expenses. It does!

The asynchronous Moodle platform allows me to reach Spanish speaking students all over the world, regardless of time zones or the work schedules of my students. I have students in Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Chile, Mexico, and the USA.

I teach dogmatics in Spanish using the Moodle platform. So far I have developed and taught 3 courses: Anthropology, Christology, and Soteriology 1. Each lesson has 5 reading assignments from our 2 dogmatics texts. There are then five graded forum assignments where the students have to write on assigned topics, read what other students have written, and then respond to what two others have written. Each lesson has review questions that are requested and then returned to the professor for grading. The course is designed for student pastors, seminary students, and church leaders including Sunday school teachers.

One advantage of methodology used is peer teaching. I am often gone for LATTE teaching trips to other countries, where I do not always have Internet service. But the students can continue studying, learning from one another. My wife functions as my assistant and sends out the end of the lesson questions for me.

Online teaching also has some disadvantages.  

• First, there is a high drop out rate. 

• Second, I have not met all of my students face to face.

• Third, we do little exegesis in the original Biblical languages. It is difficult to do using this methodology. We have also opened the course to students who have not studied Greek or Hebrew.

Prayer for LATTE and long distance education

Lord of the living harvest, bless the labors of the LATTE team, a team of missionaries aiding in the seminary training and continuing theological education of national pastors throughout Latin America.  

Bless especially their efforts to use modern technology and the internet to offer their classes in various countries at once in the near future, even as rising travel costs make it difficult to be present personally and teach their students face to face.  Thank you for giving us modern technology to be used as a tool in the spread of your saving gospel. Amen.

LATTE Continuing Education

Today the LATTE team is meeting at Milwaukee. Part of our agenda is some training in some new computer software for long distance learning. We have been working on getting ready to do some long distance education without having to do so much physical travel. The picture shows some of our professors getting some instruction from Martin Spriggs, the WELS tech expert. Thank you Martin.

LATTE & Videos

Professor Philip has a hobby of making audio-visual presentations. Presentations in this format are easy to use and are helpful to nationals who might not have a full grasp of the subject matter in question. The following is a web-link to a video done by Professor Philip in which a Law and Gospel presentation which he developed is given in Spanish. It is found on our WELS streaming video site: http://streams.wels.net/video/felipe1?sortby=date. This presentation is also available free of charge in DVD format at Multilanguage Publications. We would like to thank Gonzalo Delgadillo, the Spanish editor there, for his efforts in getting the video placed on WELS streaming and for getting copies made. The DVD is especially useful when a member of the church only has a brief contact with a person he would like to share the Gospel with, and therefore does not have time to make a full presentation. It is also helpful for students or members who have not yet learned to make a complete Law and Gospel presentation. Professor Philip uses this presentation as part of his Evangelism training course. He is also working at making other audio-visual presentations to accompany other courses.

(posted by Professor Philip)

Pray for Eric

Eric wants to study for the ministry. He studied our instruction course and was confirmed about a year ago by a pastor who lives several hundred miles away. Now Eric has two small groups that he has gathered around the Word and Sacraments. He wants to study more. But travel is very difficult. The other pastor is very busy. Is there another way?

We are going to try to teach Eric by "long distance learning" on the Internet. I e-mailed him a course. He is to answer the questions as he studies each lesson, then e-mail me the finished lesson for me to correct. There is one problem. Eric's country does not allow its citizens to own computers or to have an Internet connection. Eric does have access to a computer and the Internet at his job. But everything received and sent is filtered by the government. Will this work?

Pray for Eric.

(posted by Lorenzo)