Celebrating Jewish Passover with APU

You may not know this, but yesterday was the first day of the Jewish Passover. This week long festival commemorates and celebrates the time when God set his people free by bringing them out of Egypt. About a year ago, I was approached by Azusa Pacific University to see whether I would be interested in a collaborative effort between our two schools revolving around Passover 2016. Fast-forward one year later… Friday morning, in conjunction with APU, our Junior High students participated in a traditional Passover Seder. This meal was lead by APU professor Robert Duke and a team of students. They took the students through the entire story of the exodus as students learned the symbolism behind everything the ate. The meal also included a dramatic performance from a theater class, as well as a couple of Hebrew songs performed by various music classes. It was informative, engaging, and gave our students a wonderful way to connect to the Hebraic roots of the Christian faith.

Like I said before, the Passover Seder was actually the culmination of a collaborative effort between the APU Biblical Studies department and my JH Bible classes. Last week, dozens of college students taught various interactive lessons over a three-day period to each of my six classes. These lessons were designed to give the students a working knowledge of the Passover events from the book of Exodus. The feedback I received from the APU professors and students was wholly positive. They said they were impressed by a couple of things. First, they were pleasantly surprised that the students were so respectful and eagerly participated in their lessons. Secondly, they were amazed at how much Hebrew our students already knew and that they seemed well versed in the Passover story. Such positive responses make me excited about what we might do in the future with APU. Plans are already in the works. Stay tuned!

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Jacob Gaines

Junior High Bible Teacher