Pomp and Circumstance, Honduran Style

Straighten up and look dignified! It’s time for some Pomp and Circumstance at Pastors’ Training School. Well, substitute Pomp and Circumstance for mariachi music, but you get the idea. It’s graduation time and we should all celebrate--Honduran style!

Russell slipped out of the ceremony for around two dozen 2nd year students to tell me about all the goings on. Russell’s father-in-law and two of his brothers-in-law provided the aforementioned mariachi music. There are no caps and gowns, but there are diplomas. There’s not a catered banquet, but they did have ice cream last night. And that’s a pretty sweet way to mark the occasion. Sweeter still, there’s a time to pray over each graduate.

While searching for something clever or moving to say about graduation, I stumbled across a list of the fifteen best graduation speeches of 2016. Some of the speakers whose quotes made the list include President Obama, Steven Spielberg, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator and star of the Broadway hit Hamilton. But my favorite quote from the list is from a speech given by tech gurus Richard and Mary Templeton at Southern Methodist University. Here’s the inspirational nugget:

“Small and steady steps can be quite big and spectacular. They move you to a bigger place.”

The pastors involved in training school have taken the small and steady steps. They have attended classes three days a month for the past eight months. They’ve taken time away from their families and congregations in order to better equip themselves for their roles as biblical leaders.

The star 2nd year students have mentored the 1st year students. They were also responsible for over half of the teaching for the 1st year class. Next year, around twenty 2nd year students will become 3rd year students. The star students will continue to serve as mentors for the class below them. The majority of this year’s 1st year students will come back next year, too. Clay Powell, who heads up the Pastors’ Training School effort is seeking to raise up students from this year’s 1st year class to serve as mentors for next year’s new students.

When the newly graduated 2nd year class leaves, the 1st year students will arrive. They will complete their final three days of classes for the year and will graduate on Friday, October 6th. It should be noted that twenty-seven of the twenty-eight first year students who started the year will receive diplomas. That’s a pretty impressive statistic for a voluntary educational program

Russell is quick to give credit where it is due. Four ministries are responsible for Pastors’ Training School. They are:

• Seeds of Salvation
• 61 Isaiah
• New Beginnings, Honduras (though the missionary family had to leave for medical reasons earlier this year)
• And, of course, Sowers4Pastors.

- posted by Christi