Students take a walk through the Bible
February 6, 2001
The living room of FarmHouse Fraternity will be transformed into an ancient Middle eastern land tonight, as students walk through thousands of years of history in one night. A storyteller will guide students through events of the Bible, but first he must create the setting.A corner of the room will become the Red sea, a wall will become a mountain range … until the entire Biblical scene has been recreated in the minds of all present, said Zach Keller, who will lead the event at FarmHouse, 311 Ash Ave. Once everyone has an idea of where things are geographically, participants can begin to understand how the events occurred chronologically. The storyteller will then guide students through the room, leading them through all the major events recorded in the Bible, from the garden of Eden to the end of time, Keller said.The FarmHouse walk-through will begin at 8 p.m. A similar Biblical walk-through was also held at 8 p.m. Monday in the furniture room of Maple Hall. The walk-throughs are open to anyone and are organized by University Connection, a student group from Ontario Bible Church in the Scheman Building, said Keller, sophomore in pre-business. Both walk-throughs will continue weekly for the next eight weeks, said Nathan Haila, who is leading the Maple walk-through.A general overview of the whole Bible will be laid out the first week, and, in the following weeks, it will explore some of the stories in more depth. Each week, leaders will review the big picture to help participants see the stories in context, said Haila, junior in advertising. The walk-through helps people see the Bible as a whole, Keller said. He said it has helped him see how everything in the Bible connects and forms a whole, and the stories are not just isolated random events. “It has helped me understand how things have unfolded and how they build on each other,” he said. “The basis of the walk-through is a study of history. There is a clear intelligible story you can trace through history. It fits into life now just as it did thousands of years ago.”The audience also helps in the telling of the stories, and everyone is encouraged to discuss the events and add comments, Haila said. The walk-throughs also give people the opportunity to access the claims of the Bible, and decide if it is true, said Randy Beckett, pastor of Ontario Bible Church.Often people reject Christ because of perceptions of Christianity and not the actual claims of the Bible, Beckett said.Beckett said past walk-throughs have helped students find direction in their lives. Some students have begun to see the big picture of the Bible, and it has had a big impact on how they’ve chosen to invest their lives, he said. People of many different religious backgrounds have enjoyed the walk-throughs in the past, Keller said. “We aren’t assuming that the people who are coming are going to have the same perspective we do,” he said. “That’s what makes it fun.”