순수한 여대생

There are many events that happen around my ESL university teaching job, and here is another one for this journal. For my English Conversation class (similar to Intro to Public Speaking) midterm tests, my students have to choose a Korean book from a list I provide and then make an English ppt presentation and prepare a twelve minute speech about a certain question about that book.  There are usually ten books on the list and one autobiographical question which applied to all the books.  Every semester, the booklist and question changes so as to cut down on cheating and plagiarism, especially the action taken by many Korean students where the higher classmen/women give their assignments to the lower classmen/women.  

Luckily, being employed at a Catholic University gives me leeway in terms of assigning religious material, so I always put the New Testament (in Korean) on the list, but many students don't read it for the midterm or the final for many semesters. However, the opportunity is always there for students. 

There was one girl who is taking three of my classes, which means she was supposed to read three different books, prepare two different presentations, and write one essay. She was facing a very stressful midterm time because it is common knowledge that my expectations for my students are high. 

But, I told her I would make a deal with her (the same I made with a few other students in the same predicament as her):  If she read the New Testament, she would only have to read that one book for her three classes. She would still have to prepare two different presentations and one essay, but it would considerably reduce her work load because the reading load was dramatically decreased. The deal was quickly accepted and she promptly went out during the break time between two of my back-to-back classes and bought a copy of the New Testament so she could get her extra credit for buying the book (one benefit of working at a religious university is that Bibles are plenty in the campus bookstore). 

When she showed me the New Testament and a receipt a few weeks ago, she said, "I have never read the Bible before. My whole Korean family is all Buddhists and my friends are all Buddhists or Atheists. Even my roommates I have had were not Catholic or Christian, but I have always been interested in reading the Bible, especially since I have been studying at this Catholic university. So, when you made the deal with me, I thought it was a good chance." (She didn’t use the English word for Atheist, because it is not common to use she used the Korean word). I happily told her that it all worked out well for her and if she had any questions, I would be more than happy to help her.  This student was a double major (History Education and English), so this was the first semester I had seen her, and most of the double major students always attempt to take three or four sections of my classes all in the same semester (not a good idea considering the workload of the midterms and finals). 

The question for one of the classes was: "What did you learn from the book? How did your thinking change after reading the book?"  

As she prepared the presentations and the one essay, she was surprised by the content that unfolded as the onion skin pages passed. She would message me constantly, saying things, like:  Jesus dies in the first twenty pages of the New Testament!!! What is the rest of the book about? 

I told her to just keep reading. 

One pet peeve of mine has been when believers tell me how to read the Bible. I mean, when believers tell me to start at a certain book or read a certain verse or to have a certain state of mind when reading or to also read some other books or whatever. I have always just thought that the Bible should be enough and that anybody should just read it as it is. And, I take this stance when giving the Scriptures to other people. 

I got another message a few days later telling me that Jesus died again. Was the New Testament just the same story over and over again?

I told her to just keep reading. 

A week later, I get a message saying that Paul's teachings were inspirational and easier to follow than Jesus' teachings, although both had good moral and ethical ideas.

I told her to keep reading. 

Her final message said that Revelation was very weird and strange. What in the world was happening?

I agreed that it was weird and said we could talk about it a little later. 

She gave a very honest and interesting presentation about how she learned a lot about kindness and altruistically helping others from Jesus, but that she really liked Paul, because he seemed to have a deep love for people and a strong ambition for what he was doing.  She said she didn't know if she could truly believe in the miracles of Jesus, but his teachings stood on their own merit and were cause for further interest in him. She also said that one thing Catholicism/Christianity needed were temples (or holy places) like Buddhist temples where she could hike up to and see beautiful nature as she was surrounded by peaceful nature. It was very interesting hearing about the New Testament from someone with almost no pre-knowledge of the Bible and then see her gain something spiritual from it and gain an interest in it at the same time. 

I have seen some people read the Bible with absolutely no knowledge of Christ or almost none. It is amazing to see the power of God's Word in the form of the Scriptures work on people─and nothing else but the Scriptures that had that affect. The examples of believers have always had a big impact and epiphanies have brought conversions, but the Scriptures can also have that kind of power. 

It is always inspiring and uplifting to see the Spirit work through those around me.