Evangelical Theological Society Trip

The trip to Philadelphia was a memorable one. I'm told that between the ETS and SBL conferences there were 12,000 delegates. I met my supervisor I. Howard Marshall who was very gracious and kind. Helpful with his suggestions. Sat in on 20 lectures in 2.5 days.

Thursday night was the Near East Archaeological Society supper and meeting. Dr. Edwin Yamouchi opened in prayer. I spoke with him and thanked him for being the inspiration for my thesis. Conversation was rich sitting beside Dr. Charles Aling and Clyde Biddington (editor to Artefax magazine). I had just written an editorial to this magazine so it was fitting I should be sitting beside the editor. We parted as good friends. Dr. Ronald Youngblood our president of NEAS (author of Heart of the OT used at ABU) gave a presentation on the seven churches which I am working on for my Ph.D. so I was very interested. Dr. Bryant Wood, Mike Luddenni and Mark Wilson were also in attendance.

Friday night a colleague and I attended a special lecture at 10th Presbyterian Church by Donald MacLeod on the life and accomplishments of Stanford Reid the Canadian historian from Guelph University. I had heard him 25 years ago at Atlantic Baptist University Guptile lecture series on the Reformation. Dr. Wilson my History professor was a student of his. In fact his name was mentioned in the lecture. There were about 30 present and a few of us were representing the Canadian connections.

The highlight for me was the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Spent Saturday there photographing their Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Egyptian displays. Their displays are among the nicest I have seen in museums. While they only have about 5% of their collection on display it helps to sort through the "junk" to see the really spectacular items. I took 250 pictures.

Then off to Westminster Theological Seminary Alumni Banquet Friday night. I shared a great time of fellowship with about 50 alumni and a tour of the Hebrew Morphing Institute. They code all of the Hebrew for the software on the market today. There was a presentation on the upcoming projects. Surprisingly they use all Dell machines for their labs.

Sunday morning it was off to Church to the historic 10th Presbyterian church again. Dr. Rykan preached and the music was incredible. Organ and violine playing Mozart for the prelude. Then familiar hymns from our very own Trinity Hymn book. The church was packed.

Lots of memories and two suitcases full of books (everything was on sale). Oh and I've ordered the new archaeology NIV Bible. I've worn out my old one (since 1976). I was thinking this would be a good idea and sure enough Zonervan came out with one. It is done by the profs at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.

Look forward to my next trip.