Two more one-session seminars

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

Our second and third holiday-season seminars were held on Dec 17 and 30.

I was scheduled to teach the Dec 17 seminar, on "How to Use a Concordance and Lexicons". Due to my mother-in-law's funeral, I was unable to do the presentation, but Ray Pratt stepped in, and based on comments from the students he did a terrific job. Thank you, Ray!  Nine students attended, including one new student.

Last evening (the 30th) our final one-session seminar, "Managing Conflict in Christian Marriage", was presented by Jared and Nisa Johnson. Five students attended. The format included discussion, and all of the students participated. Everyone stayed after for coffee and conversation.

My assessment is that holding one-session classes during the holidays has been a success. Several of our regular students attended one or more, and others were very positive about the idea, even if they didn't attend any themselves. Besides the direct benefit to those who attended, we have been able to demonstrate a year-round commitment to our students, staying engaged with them.

On another front — our Tuesday Bible study is now being attended by up to 4 regular students, besides members of the ecclesia. ("Up to 4" because they seldom all come, "regular" because all 4 do come often.) As we expected would be the case, it took some time before students started attending this class, but we hope that we're now developing a core who will continue. This class has continued every week through the holiday period. We are still studying 1 Corinthians, which will likely occupy us for the next 6-8 weeks.

Our winter term begins next week. Quite a few have signed up for "Basic Discipleship", and a smaller number for our second offering of "How to Study the Bible". We pray for the Father's blessing on these classes and the other activities at the Center, which we pray bring glory to His name.

Bus signs

Early on, we decided that advertising on the city buses would be one way to reach our target market. It turned out that the bus system allows interior signs at no charge for non-profits. We only have to get the signs printed.

We have caught glimpses of our signs on the buses, but hadn't previously gotten a picture. But the intrepid Guy Grant got on and snapped this picture today!

This is the third sign we've used on the buses. When these were dropped off, it appeared that we might be wearing out our welcome. I don't think they were expecting us to change out the signs every couple of months, but you really need to change things periodically, or people stop seeing them. It's good to see that, even if they weren't terribly happy about it, they went ahead and put up the new signs.

One-session seminar

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

On Saturday we hosted our first single-session seminar. During the holiday period, from Thanksgiving until New Year, we figured that most people are pretty busy, and committing to a series of classes would be difficult. We asked our students about it, and they agreed. But they also said they would like some one-session classes, so they could stay connected.

We've scheduled 3 seminars during the holiday period. The first was led by Ray Pratt this Saturday, on the subject "Managing Money as a Believer". Seven students registered, and five attended. (We knew that one wouldn't make it due to being scheduled to work.)  Some members of the Champaign and Bloomington ecclesias also attended. The seminar went well, the students appreciated it, and we had a chance once again to build relationships, as most of the students stayed afterwards to talk.

Unfortunately, this reporter failed to take any pictures of the event. (It's just so hard to get good help these days...)

Our next two seminars will be "How to Use a Concordance and Lexicons" on Dec 17, and "Managing Conflict in a Christian Marriage" on Dec 30.  Then on Jan 5 we will launch our winter term classes.

Pre-loved books

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

When we started out, some books were donated to the BEC, and this formed the core of our library — reference and inspirational books that might be of interest to our students.There has not been a huge amount of interest in these, but there has been some, and a couple of students have checked books out.

Recently a few more books were donated by well-meaning brothers and sisters — and I wondered what we should do with them. I wasn't really sure adding them to the library would be useful. In Durban, we had received some similar donations, and we had offered them for sale very cheap, as "pre-loved books". But we didn't have enough to make any kind of display that anyone would want to browse through.

Then, one of the on-line booksellers we use sent an electronic newsletter, highlighting free shipping for some used books. I thought, what if we could find some fairly decent used Bibles and study aids, and offer them? I poked around through the site, and found some Bibles, a handful of Bible atlases, and some other reference books. They were cheap enough to give it a try.

The books came in over the weekend, and yesterday we set up our own "pre-loved books" display. As with everything we've done, this is an experiment. Will there be interest?  Don't know — but we're going to find out! Hopefully, this can be an additional service we can provide to students and others who come in: locating low cost ways for people to add to their personal library of Bibles and related materials.

 

Bible Challenge

The brainchild of our Bro Norm Fadelle, our BEC now has a "Bible Challenge" to attract the attention of those who walk by the Center. There are a lot of people who walk in the mall for exercise, and we've noticed that, while some slow down to take a look, very few ever come in. So Norm's idea was to give them something that would make them actually stop, and maybe some would end up coming inside.

The sign with the first challenge went up today. It's directly above the table where we put free items – outside our door, in the mall.

A small brochure on the table repeats the challenge, and provides the Bible answers. It also gives our address, phone, hours, and info on upcoming classes. On the first day, response to the new challenge was...well, underwhelming. We hope that on the weekdays, when the most walkers are in the mall, we'll get some response.

 

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An unrelated matter: today was the day of the Run For the Everlasting Cure, organized worldwide by Sis Rebekah Hunter. The Bloomington ecclesia participated, as it has for the past few years - and since the formation of the new Champaign County ecclesia, Sister Nisa Johnson of Bloomington organizes jointly for the two ecclesias. We (Paul & Jane Zilmer) were working in the BEC today, so could not participate. So we wore the T-shirts, and had our own "virtual" run. We were able to tell visitors to the BEC about the event behind the shirt.

More student recognition pix

More pictures of our student recognition event. Paul's talk, giving the awards, and discussion over lunch.

Student recognition - Fall 2009

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

On Saturday, November 21, we held a special event to recognize the commitment and accomplishments of our students. Fifteen students had completed one or more courses, since the BEC opened the first week of August. Eleven were able to attend the recognition, and three brought guests.

Students started arriving (early!) at a little after 10:00, and most had arrived by 10:30, for refreshments and conversation. Many of the students have gotten to know one another and have built relationships. Norm Fadelle kicked off the program right on time at 10:45, and the first order of business was to recognize the completers. There was a slide for each completer, showing a picture and listing the courses they had finished. Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor (one of the students!) we were able to give each completer a copy of Understanding the Bible by A.D. Norris to commemorate their accomplishment.

After a warm round of applause for all the completers, Paul Zilmer gave a Bible talk entitled "Well done, good and faithful servant". We shared the wonderful offer of entering into the joy of our Lord, and read from the Scriptures what that joy will entail.

After the talk, we set up tables and had lunch together, provided by several of the sisters in the ecclesia. There was excellent discussion over lunch. Afterwards, several of the students signed up for the next round of classes. During the busy holiday period, we will have a few one-session classes so people can stay engaged. We also invited them to join our regular Tuesday evening study, which will continue through the holidays. We've also published the schedule of Winter Term classes, which will begin in January.

Many thanks to all those who contributed to a great day together!  Special thanks to Deb, Dana, Nisa, Jennifer, and Jen for providing the lunch!

Here are a few pictures. Hope to have more pix to post soon.

 

 

 

Volunteers from St Paul

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

We were delighted to have Bro Dennis and Sis Vicki Martin help us out this week. Thank you, Dennis & Vicki!!

The Martins drove down from St Paul, MN on Tuesday. After grabbing some supper, we whisked them off to the Tuesday night class, a study in 1 Corinthians led by Ray. We basically never let them stop moving. They worked in the shop part of the BEC on Wednesday and Thursday – Wed with Jane and Thu with me. They got to experience signing up a new student, marking the lessons for a self-study student, answering phone questions from someone who saw an ad, waiting on customers, etc. (Sounds like it was busier than it actually was, I guess. We didn't have all that many people coming in...but we had some really good conversations.)

In the evenings, Dennis and Vicki joined in the classes – Acts on Wed, with our 2 active students in that class, and Prophecy on Thu, with 8 of the 9 active students. (In the previous post, you can catch a glimpse of them in one of the pictures in the prophecy class.)

They said they got a lot out of the whole experience. And we thoroughly enjoyed having them. With God's blessing, they hope to be back, maybe in late winter, to give a single-session seminar.

So...how about YOU?  We would love to have you come and volunteer, for as long as you're able to. Drop an email to urbanabec@gmail.com!

[With any luck, by the time you're here we'll have a furnace!  We've been frustrated by the mall management's slowness in replacing the furnace that conked out a month ago. But now they promise the new one will be in by Thanksgiving...  So far, it hasn't actually been too bad.]

Prophecy class pix

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

Norm's Bible Prophecy 101 class has been very lively. There are 9 consistent students. As planned from the start, Norm left the final two weeks for discussion of whatever prophecy-related issues the class wanted to talk about. Last night was the first of those discussions.

Norm gave one of the students a chance to explain his point of view on several aspects of last days prophecy. Norm then provided his own thoughts, and the class discussed. The key learning out of this exercise: pay careful attention to exactly what the Bible says, without reading into it what you have heard.

Topics covered included tribulation, the war in Ezekiel 38-39, the time periods in Daniel & elsewhere, false teachers in the churches, and anti-Christ. Excellent discussion, and great food for thought. Norm proved that it is possible to keep a discussion like this positive - that is, what the Bible does say, rather than what it doesn't say.

Afterwards, I had a follow-up conversation with one of the students. Everyone stayed very engaged, and in fact stayed late to talk. Norm asked some for permission to take their pictures.

Conversation starters

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

We don't sell much merchandise in our BEC. This is a change from the BEC Jane and I worked at in Durban, South Africa, where we sold quite a few Bibles, as well as some Bible oriented books.

But one thing is the same: the displays of materials attract people to come in and look. Even in Durban, the three book cases of Christian books and gift items didn't sell a lot — but a lot of people came in to browse, and some of them signed up for a course. Here in Urbana we see a similar thing. People will come in to look at our display of Bibles for sale, and at the rack that contains our lending library. We haven't sold a lot of Bibles, and we haven't had very many books borrowed. But people do come in to look, and to talk.

We've recently added a couple more conversation starters, which are also helpful study aids. Several years ago in Israel Jane and I bought a poster that shows the "family tree" of people mentioned in the Bible, all the way from Adam and Eve to people of Jesus' time. It's been hanging in my office for 8 years, seldom looked at. It's now on the wall in the BEC, and people are looking at it! The second item is a 10 foot long Bible timeline chart. It is colorful and has attractive illustrations, but the big value is that it shows how the people and events of the Bible line up over time. Most people have no idea that the first book of the Bible covers almost half of the Old Testament time period, and a almost a third of human history. The timeline has been up less than a week, and it has already prompted multiple conversations about how important Genesis is as the foundation of God's work with mankind.

Print ads

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

We have new print ads, to go along with our October promotion of Bible reading plans and the self-study course.  Pictures of our ads in the Coffee News and the Thrifty Nickel are below. We're supposed to have a small ad in the Religious Services section of the U of I paper also, but there's been a problem with them getting our payment posted to our account. (They cashed the check, but it didn't get credited to us.)

[Follow-up: Turns out the Daily Illini ad was running. Photo now added below.]

The Coffee News ad has resulted in two new students. Both made the first contact by phone. We haven't had anyone mention that they saw the Thrifty Nickel ad — but that ad doesn't include the phone number. As we knew we would, we are learning — sometimes slowly!  It's clear now that we need to include the phone number in all of our ads!

 

"Read & study for yourself"

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

Our last round of classes for the year has started, and most people will be reluctant to join a class that's already going. So, what should we focus on in our advertising?

We are promoting reading and studying for oneself.  Yesterday we delivered a new set of signs to be placed in the Champaign-Urbana buses - pictured below.

The same kind of message is the focus of new fliers we are handing out in the shop. Our push through August and September was to sign up for evening classes. Now we are promoting:

• The self-study God's Master Plan course. We have only a few sign-ups for this course so far, and only 2 students actively doing the lessons. We've put up a new sign to promote it.
  
• Bible reading plans. We offer two choices: the Bible Companion, with 3 portions each day, and a plan where you read in just one place, but more chapters. Both cover the OT once and NT twice in a year. Sister Dana Pratt is laminating these, and they have been quite popular – we're keeping her busy!
  
• Read the Bible in your own language. We've had interest in other languages from day one, and lately from several people regarding Chinese Bibles. We have ordered a couple of additional editions to add to the two we already had. We have a sign encouraging people to read, in all the languages we carry.

This week we tried again to launch the Acts class – and this time we had liftoff!  Four students joined in, and actively participated in discussion. This was billed as an "advanced" class, and it appears to be challenging the students, in a positive way.

On Thursday Norm continued with his Prophecy 101 class. Attendance was 8 this week, down from 10 last week, but one of those was sick and her husband came, and took notes home for her. She plans to be back next week. A couple of pictures below, from the discussion section of the class.

Second round of classes

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

This week we launched our second set of classes. I'm teaching "Acts of the Apostles" on Wednesdays, and Norm is teaching "Bible Prophecy 101" on Thursdays.

Wednesday night was one of our disappointments. We had 8 students registered, however 2 of them had already canceled, and 3 more seemed to be pretty iffy. The remaining 3 all had something come up that evening, so we ended up with no one. So, we've made contact with those 3 and the iffy ones, and let them know that we'll launch the class next week instead, and they haven't missed anything. The intent of the class is to cover the first 9 chapters of Acts, not the whole book, and go into some depth. We're advertising this as an "advanced" level class. We may find that the word "advanced" scares people off. Obviously we're still learning!

The contrast last night for Norm's first class couldn't have been greater!  We had 10 people registered, and 9 of them came — plus two others, for a total of 11. Many of the students had attended the previous classes, so we're starting to build a core of continuing students. The students all appeared to find the class very stimulating. Norm laid the foundation of Bible prophecy from Genesis, and pointed out how it is all both Jesus-centered and Israel-centered.

In spite of the disappointment on Wednesday, the past week has been exciting. We've registered 6 new students, we had our second-biggest day ever on Tuesday, in terms of people coming in, we had some great conversations and some private classes, and we had the great start for our Thursday evening sessions.

We pray that our God will continue to guide us and bless our efforts, and ask for your prayers too.

Lessons learned from the classes so far

(posted by Norm Fadelle & Paul Zilmer)

Lessons learned and Assessment so far:

1. There are people in the Urbana/Champaign community who want to learn more about God's word
2. The Urbana BEC does offer a unique, wanted and meaningful community service — people tell us this directly, including people who don't sign up or buy anything 
3. God sends people on His time, not ours — sometimes we've been disappointed, other times encouraged beyond our expectations
4. We can, must, and do learn from our visitors and from our students — they let us know what they need, we don't tell them what they need
5. It is important to establish a personal relationship from the outset — in the very first class session, or even better, the first time they are in the shop; showing personal interest in them via post-cards has surprised & delighted several
6. We need to continue to be flexible about everything: e.g., hours open, Bible versions, private classes
7. The people who ended up registering for classes learned about the BEC through all the different advertising media we employed — except for leafleting
8. You need a staff of two during open hours, and at least two to manage the evening classes
9. People dropped in just to talk, ask for directions, or borrow bus fare — expecting we would help
10. Refreshments at the classes fostered a friendly setting; one student twice made and brought treats for all
11. The students loved getting a class-completed certificate
12. The time, effort and money spent appear to be worth it, i.e., the BEC prototype shows good promise
13. Our initial cost projections have proven to be pretty close
14. The low-pressure, positive approach does attract students, who do hear fundamental teaching — time will tell what the ultimate outcome will be

Photos of final BEC instructor-led classes in the opening series

(posted by Norman Fadelle)

Brethren,

The first 8 are photos from Paul's 4th class (and final) class in the opening series while the last 3 are from my final class the next evening.

Paul's set illustrates a fairly consistent attendance; one dropped out because of a hearing problem.  After handing out the certificates and refunding the appropriate students, we got verbal and written feedback (two samples attached); of the 9 sheets turned in, 4 suggested extending the time, 4 asked to change the nights to Tue & Thurs (vs. Wed & Thurs), all said "yes" to recommending to friends, and all who go the refund for attending all the classes donated the money back to the BEC cause!   All of the verbal comments were very positive, communicated that they had really gotten the message on how to study Scripture, and that God has wonderfully blessed their minds and hearts in this short but very instructive time; a couple of the students got into the situation they were facing in their own church.  Three signed up for the upcoming class on Prophecy 101, and one ordered a large print, ESV leather bound center reference Bible for himself = he wanted to get his personal study Bible.

For my class photos, Liane was the single carryover - others did not attend because back-to-back classes proved too much.  There is a sample of the certificate [designed and printed out by Paul]  that all course-completion students got for their respective classes.  The last photo was a shot of LIane's notes: she reads the homework passages prior to the class, makes notes & brings questions.  The one-on-one turns out to be just the thing for her.  She has signed up for both Acts and Prophecy 101 classes, each an 8-session series.  She says she has entered a whole new world, and since she has the time, she wants to make the commitment.  Please pray for her and all the students.

Norm