Dr Laurence Turner delivered a series of powerful presentations during Newbold's Week of Spiritual Emphasis (WOSE), which ran from 21-28 September. He shared inspirational lessons from the lives of Bible characters, underlining the title of the programme: 'Men and Women Just Like Us'.
The former head of Newbold's Department of Theology provided down-to-earth talks each evening, taking time to reveal how God uses ordinary people 'just like us' to achieve extraordinary things. He explored the lives of well-known Bible characters such as Abraham and Sarah, Samson and David and talked about the faith-building benefits of revisiting Bible narratives.
Dr Turner made interesting comments about Bible characters such as Esther and Daniel, but especially about Joseph [Jesus's father]," said Daniel Dos Santos, a student at Newbold's English Language Centre. "I never thought about him in that way, how he lost his reputation because Mary was pregnant before they were married."
Dr Turner also spoke about the lesser-known Heman the Ezrahite, author of Psalm 88, to illustrate how the psalmists expressed negative emotions unreservedly as part of their worship; often ending on a positive note. "The Christian life is a journey, not a destination," concluded Dr Turner. "Our aim should be to have enough humility to desire continuing growth in self-reflection and maturity."
"We are pleased with the success of this semester's programme," said Newbold alumnus and Acting Campus Ministries Coordinator, João Macedo. "Dr Turner was amazing and he was backed up by the hard work of a lot of people," he added. "The planning team did a marvellous job and they put on great programmes day after day. This was the best attended WOSE of the last few years."
Videos of Dr Turner's talks are available on the College's Facebook page: facebook.com/newboldcollege
