Teaching for EuNC

Teaching in Montana, Bulgaria

I just returned to Sighisoara a few days ago after spending a week in Bulgaria. I was there to teach a class for European Nazarene College (EuNC).

When I taught the course “God’s Mission and the Church” in Razgrad, Bulgaria, last year (click here to read about it), the students from the church in Montana, Bulgaria, were unable to participate. So I spent last week in Montana teaching the class. We had class three hours a day for 6 days (except one day when it was 5 hours) and enjoyed meals together.

Montana, Bulgaria, is just one of EuNC’s 30+ teaching locations (organized into 15 learning centers) in 16 different countries across Europe and the former Soviet Union. Students in all of the learning centers follow the same course of study and have very similar requirements.

From Campus to Learning Centers. In 2011 EuNC announced that it was discontinuing its residential campus program and would focus entirely on developing its learning centers. At that point, campus enrollment had been steadily decreasing while learning center enrollment was increasing. Due to the success of this transition, EuNC announced earlier this month that the campus in Buesingen, Germany, which has been home to EuNC since its founding in 1965 has been sold. (Read about it here.)

Map showing EuNC's teaching locations

Cataloging library books in
Montana, Bulgaria

One way EuNC is investing in the development of learning centers is by providing funds for library resources. Last week in Bulgaria, while we were having class in one room, a Bulgarian woman was in the next room cataloging the books to develop a library for their EuNC learning center. Similarly, here in Romania, we are beginning to purchase books to form a library which will serve students in the Romania Learning Center.

Where I’m teaching. For the past several years, I’ve taught about once a year for EuNC. But this year I’ll be doing a bit more. In August, I will travel to Russia to teach the same class I just taught in Bulgaria. And at the end of September, I’ll travel to Albania to teach it once again for students from Albania and Kosovo.

EuNC students in Romania with a district minister's license

EuNC in Romania. Here in Romania, there are generally 4 or 5 classes offered each year. I’ll be co-teaching a class on worship here in a few months. We currently have over a dozen Romanian students who are taking EuNC classes. Four of them have a district minister’s license and are preparing for ordination. As I mentioned above, we are starting to develop a library by purchasing Christian books which are translated into Romanian. We will add to that by translating Wesleyan-holiness theology books into Romanian.

Please pray for EuNC – for the administration, for the development of the Learning Centers, for the faculty, and (most importantly), for the hundreds of students who are preparing for ministry.