Community Service Day

The Union Mission Volunteers

Today I taught my first class of the new academic year. As always, it is great to get back into the classroom, especially to teach first year students. The new students displayed their usual eagerness and enthusiasm, with just a touch of nervousness and uncertainty.

Last week was orientation week. Like every law school we filled the week with instruction on briefing cases, outlining courses, and taking exams. All important and all well-done by Associate Dean Gantt and my faculty colleagues.


Orientation week ended in a way that is probably not so usual in law schools—or schools of any kind for that matter. We put aside the books on Friday and headed out to 10 locations around Hampton Roads and eastern Virginia to serve the community. One hundred twenty-eight students, faculty, and staff sorted clothes and cleared brush at Union Mission; they worked to protect oyster beds at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; they assisted Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to provide homes for the less fortunate.

What a great day! I was with the students at Union Mission. The day was hot. The work was hard. Bees were living in the brush and stung several students. Sounds like a recipe for disaster--and yet it truly was a great day! I was impressed by the students’ determination and diligence. I was impressed by their teamwork. And I was most impressed by their willingness to put their own interests aside to serve others.

While this was only our second year for Community Service Day, the day is now a vital part of orientation—and of Regent University School of Law. We were able to provide hundreds of hours of valuable service to friends and neighbors in our community. It was really good for us, too. Students grew to know each other and began to build friendships in a way that they would not have just sitting in a classroom. And the day emphasized to all of us—up front and right at the beginning of the year—what our ultimate mission is: to train a generation of lawyers who are servants. Servants of God and servants of those in need around us.

Hi from Strasbourg (Part III)

We are in our last week of classes here in Strasbourg. I taught the last Human Rights class yesterday and exams start on Thursday.

It is a been a great summer! Excellent students, informative and fun field trips, engaging guest lecturers. There is another feature of the program, though, that makes the program special. While we study hard during the week, all of us use weekends to travel throughout Europe. Strasbourg is centrally located in Western Europe and a great starting point for weekend travel to France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and many other places. This summer students have seen Rome, Salzburg, and London. They have gone to the top of the Alps and on diving expeditions in the Mediterranean. They have had an amazing opportunity to see and experience the beauty, culture, and history of Europe.

I'll share one personal travel experience. One weekend our family traveled to London. We saw Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Les Miserables, and more. One of the most powerful experiences for me, though, was visiting the British Museum. The museum contains an unbelievable collection of artifacts from all of human history (the Rosetta stone, statues and carved panels from the Parthenon in Greece, a 3500 year old gigantic bust of Ramses II from Egypt).

My favorite room told the history of Assyria. Assyria was, for a time (800-700 BC?), the most powerful nation on earth. It conquered the northern 10 tribes of Israel and threatened Judah. It is the nation that Jonah (most reluctantly!) visited as he called the people of Ninevah to repentance.

You will remember that Jonah didn't want to go to Ninevah and was upset that God showed grace to its people and forgave them when they repented. I understand Jonah's emotions much better now. The British Museum contained large carved panels that decorated the king's palace in Ninevah. The panels are quite an insight into Ninevah culture and values. No beautiful scenery or stories of love here. The panels glorify war, killing, and cruelty. They show Assyrians cutting off enemies' heads and holding them as trophies; they display Assyrian soldiers stepping on the heads of conquered peoples; they show conquered people groveling before the king begging for mercy (some would receive it, some would receive death). One panel showed the conquered people of Lachish, crawling before King Sennacherib (see II Kings 18).

I left the room upset by the cruelty that Assyria (and, sadly, many nations since) displayed and glorified. I also left the room praising God--for two reasons:

1. God is an amazing God of grace. Like even the Assyrians, I can trust that he will pour out his grace on me and forgive if I turn to him in faith and repentance.
   
2. God is truly the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Assyria is gone today. Except for some panels in a museum, there is nothing left. But God still reigns. Indeed, he was Lord even during Assyria's ascendancy. Sometime read II Kings 18-19. It tells how God miraculously saved the people of Judah from Assyria when Hezekiah was king. Judah had no basis for hope to stand against the world's superpower. But God rescued his people.

Praise God. He reigns today! He reigns in power and grace and mercy.