Studying theology can be hard, even if English is your first language.
Why then, have a few Bachelor of Divinity students at Moore College decided to spend four years of their lives studying in their second language?
Klaus Hickel reveals that it is "the languages and big slabs of reading that I struggle with".
Klaus moved to Australia from Germany in 2000 and is a student minister at Unichurch at UNSW.
He also attends St Matthew's Ashbury with his wife and two children and is a Sydney Anglican candidate for ordination.
Klaus originally came to Australia to be involved in research with the CSIRO in Canberra.
It was "the expository preaching and word-centred ministry that really impacted my Christian walk, through uni ministry and Crossroads Christian Church,” he says.
This influenced Klaus to come and study at Moore, after a couple of years of working for the CSIRO.
His long-term plan is to go back to Germany and minister there. Klaus says that, "ministry in Germany needs quite an academic approach because of its whole philosophical, European background".
Doing the hard work on languages and essays is well worth it for the future, he says.
"Ironically in my essays I usually get best marks for my English expression".
"Also there's one advantage, a lot of Reformation church history books are written in German and this has been helpful as we study that topic this year".
One word, three languages
Andrew Tung agrees that learning in English means, "study takes a lot more effort and it creates a barrier that reduces the time I can concentrate".
However Andrew says that "it's harder for others than it is for me, my parents came to Australia from Hong Kong about 15 years ago".
Despite this, he finds that studying Greek is "difficult but valuable”.
“To be honest, English is more intimidating than Greek,” he says.
Giving talks comes more easily than study as Andrew preaches in Cantonese. He is a student minister at Northern District Chinese Christian Church, where he also runs a small group.
Andrew encourages his fellow Australian students by reminding them how easy they've got it. "So easy for you" has become his favourite line if anyone begins to complain.
Andrew plans to go to Malaysia after college to "teach the words of the gospel there".
This week is will be Moore College Mission Awareness Week with a focus for students on taking the word of God to the world.
