Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Dear Friends,
We want to pause to say, “Thank you!” for your prayers, friendship and encouragement. We have finished our Fall 2020 semester Final Exam Week this past week at Tyndale Theological Seminary in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Linda and I are so grateful to all of you who continue to support us.
August 2020 marked our twentieth year at Tyndale Theological Seminary and our 30th year in Europe.
The past Spring 2020 semester and this Fall 2020 semester have been rather bizarre due to the COVID virus. In the Spring 2020 our faculty, staff and students managed to avoid any infections, but we had a pretty strict lockdown in the Netherlands, which the government ordered. In mid-March 2020 we started to teach all classes virtually using video conferencing.
Linda and I decided not to travel to the US this past summer of 2020 due to COVID. Others on our faculty and staff did return to the US and some, who returned to NL from the US, fell ill with COVID.
This past summer (2020) while on vacation we prayed and sought the Lord about our future. As we reported earlier, we believe the Lord is leading us to leave Tyndale in June 2021. We plan to return to the US for a year and then to go to Zaporozhye, Ukraine for two to four years (until 2024-26) before we officially retire. We will teach as a part of the Master of Theology program of the Zaporozhye Bible Seminary where we have taught before and where Phil has been coordinating the MTh program.
We returned to the classroom at the end of August 2020 only to have the seminary shut down an extra week during our normal Fall 2020 Reading Week (so two weeks). Unfortunately, the second wave of COVID affected 30-40% of our faculty, staff and students. One student was hospitalized and is still struggling.
After that Fall 2020 extra week-long Reading Week (two weeks) some professors elected to continue with face-to-face classes and others, like us, decided to return to video conferencing classes. Throughout the Fall 2020 semester Linda struggled with two health crises, one being COVID. Thankfully, she is fully recovered from both.
LIke many of you we have also had to suffice with virtual church. We both miss singing and playing in the music group at church. Both of us have contributed to the worship by recording sermons and music for some of these services. Our church has decided to cancel Christmas Eve services due to the new measures instituted by the Dutch government on COVID.
Since we expect to sell our home here in the Netherlands in June 2021 we are in the process of sorting, packing and giving things away. We have accumulated a lot of stuff here in Europe over the past 34 years. This process is both one of a slow saying goodbye and more or less a process of cutting down what will remain in Europe and what will either be sent to the US or given away.
Despite the circumstances we have taught a large number of courses. Phil taught Foundations for Theology, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the History of Philosophy I in the Spring 2020 Semester. Linda was on sabbatical and worked on writing a history of Tyndale Theological Seminary which is about half done.
In the Fall 2020 Semester Phil has taught the Ethics of War, Peace and Peace-making, Communicating Christ to Postmodern Culture and Introduction to Islamic Philosophy. He also had three mentees for spiritual formation and one Master of Evangelical Theology thesis writer. Linda taught Research Methods (two sections: Master of Divinity and Master of Evangelical Theology) and Topics from the Reformation. She had worked with one MET thesis student, but that was the student who came down with COVID and was hospitalized and then decided to stop her studies for this semester.
In Spring 2021 Phil will teach the same three courses as last Spring semester. He will also have the three mentees for spiritual formation and the thesis writer who will hopefully defend his thesis in May. Linda will teach Modern Church History and Thesis Prospectus (helping MET thesis writers develop their thesis proposals).
We appreciate how you have continued to support us financially and emotionally with your prayers and encouragement. We are grateful to you and the Lord that we have had 30 years of ministry in Europe next summer. We hope by God’s grace to last until we hit 40 years as missionaries in 2024.
Warmly in Christ,
Phil & Linda Gottschalk
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