Free Mini-Courses in June & July

TRI is hosting free Mini-Courses which will begin this month. Each Mini-Course will last for one week. The purpose of this Mini-Course is to acquaint prospective students with how distance classes will actually work at TRI. The class will consist of 3 recorded class sessions with mini-assignments to give prospective students the experience of listening to class lectures, completing assignments, interacting with the Instructor and other class members, and receiving grades.

Since enrollment in the Mini-Course will be limited to 30 students, we will be repeating the Mini-Courses so that all prospective students will have the opportunity to enroll and "learn the ropes" of our distance learning experience. Each Mini-Course will begin with a lecture on how to use Moodle, our course-management interface, including assignments to assure that every student is comfortable with using the online interface. Then two more lectures on a given topic of study will conclude the class. Mini-Courses will be repeated to accommodate all who wish to enroll.

Schedule for Mini-Courses:

Class #1 – "Fundamental Issues in Bible Interpretation" – Instructor: Tim Hegg

Enrollment for this class: June 13-17
(beginning June 13, go to http://torahresourceinstitute.com to enroll).
Class begins June 20 and finishes June 27

1st Lecture: Introduction to Moodle, etc. – Gary Springer
2nd Lecture: "Meaning & Significance" – Tim Hegg
3rd Lecture: "Words & Meaning: Avoiding Pitfalls" – Tim Hegg

Class #2 – "History of the Intertestamental Period" – Instructor: Rob Vanhoff

Enrollment for this class: June 20–27
(beginning June 20, go to http://torahresourceinstitute.com to enroll).
Class begins June 27 and finishes July 4

1st Lecture: Introduction to Moodle, etc. – Gary Springer
2nd Lecture: "Historical Sources" – Rob Vanhoff
3rd Lecture: "The Maccabean Revolt" – Rob Vanhoff

These two Mini-Courses will be repeated in July as needed, to accommodate additional prospective students who wish to enroll.

Catalog

We are nearly finished with the TRI Catalog, which will detail classes being offered in the 2011–2012 school year, as well as future courses to be offered, outline of the academic programs, general policies, tuition costs, etc. We will be sending catalogs to all who have requested one as well as posting the catalog in pdf format on the TRI website. To request a catalog, please go to http://triclasses.com/joomla/request-information and fill out the request form if you have not already done so.

Business Plan

We have mailed out the TRI Business Plan for those who requested one and you should see it in your regular mail soon. If you did not previously request a copy and would like one please fill out the request form at http://triclasses.com/joomla/request-information

Prayer & Support

We are extremely grateful for those of you supporting us with your prayers as well as those who have given us financial support! HaShem has greatly encouraged us with your support, and we are all the more aware of His leading us forward in launching TRI.

Prayer Items:

1. We have made contact with several additional prospective Instructors who are eminently qualified to teach classes at TRI. Pray that, as HaShem wills, they will be enabled to join us in teaching classes at TRI. Pray also that HaShem will lead us to others who might join us as teachers at TRI.
2. Pray for all those who will enroll in classes this coming September, that they will be greatly encouraged as they give themselves to the rigor of study, and that they will deepen in their own walk with Yeshua as a result.
3. Pray that we will be enabled to complete all of the administrative tasks that are before us as we move toward Sept 6 and the first classes.
4. Pray that G-d will continue to supply our financial needs, including providing scholarship funds to assist students who may otherwise not be able to enroll in classes.

The Seminar will begin at 1:00pm, and will include three sessions:

1. The Deity of Yeshua: Why is this an Essential Element of our Faith? (1:15–2:30pm)
2. Our Primary Identity: "In Yeshua" (3:00–4:15pm)
3. Avoiding Identity Pitfalls (4:45–6:00pm)

No need to register for this seminar. All are welcome.

PLEASE NOTE: If you plan to attend, please do not arrive before 12:30pm, because the church will be having their morning service on that day, and we will need to give them time to finish and leave before we begin setting up for the seminar.

As we look forward to our celebration of Shavuot beginning this evening, my mind has been flooded in the past weeks with the importance of l'Dor v'Dor, "from generation to generation." In the middle of March, I received a phone call from the Administrator at Corban University School of Ministry with an interesting request: he wondered if I would be able to teach two classes in "Advanced Hebrew Reading" at their School of Ministry.

Let me explain: This year, Corban University (located in Portland, OR) took over Northwest Baptist Seminary, the school from which I graduated in 1976 and 1980. One of my primary mentors and Hebrew Professors was Dr. Hermann J. Austel. Dr. Austel had fallen ill and was in the hospital two days before the Spring Quarter began, so the university staff was looking for someone to take his two classes. Dr. Austel suggested me, and so I was contacted and gladly accepted.

I felt it a supreme privilege to stand in for my mentor, who was a giant among scholars, having taught at the graduate level for 58 years. He was one of the teachers whom HaShem used to mold my own life and thinking, and from whom I learned the basics of Biblical Hebrew. I also studied Ugaritic and Syriac under his mentorship, and learned to respect him, not only as a high ranking scholar, but also as a man of diligent and fervent faith.

The Sunday before the last week of classes I was teaching for Dr. Austel, he passed into the presence of Yeshua. So there I was, on the last Thursday of classes, just days after Dr. Austel had passed away, teaching in exactly the same room in which I had my Hebrew classes from him some 35 years ago. I felt the impact of l'Dor v'Dor, "from generation to generation," in a very real way. What a grand yet sobering responsibility to be reading, studying, and teaching the very words of HaShem which He gave to us at Shavuot millennia ago at Sinai and which, by His providence, the Jewish scribes have preserved for us through thousands of years.

As I opened class with prayer, I prayed that the young men who sat before me would be filled with the wonder of G-d's grace in revealing Himself to us in the eternal words of the Scriptures which we were about to read and study. And inwardly I gave thanks to the Almighty for allowing me the privilege of learning and teaching His unchangeable, living, and powerful word, and for a faithful teacher who now had finished his course and was at peace in the presence of the Almighty.

In the same way, I pray that you also will be overwhelmed by the majesty and wonder of G-d's grace in Yeshua, the living Torah, and that the joy we experience at this Shavuot would strengthen all of us for the mission to which we have been called: to make disciples of all the nations as witnesses of Yeshua, our risen Messiah.

Chag Shavuot Semeach!

Tim Hegg, Director