In this newsletter

• Out of the Whirlwind
• Work & Ministry Update
• PhD Acknowledgements
• Knowing God, Scripture, and Ourselves: New Training in the Dominican Republic
• Pray With Us

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Post PhD in Durham City Center with Meghan. Rue is taking the picture (hence the low angle) and Willa, well, Willa just flat out refused to get out of the shot.

Out of the Whirlwind

Since I last wrote at the beginning of September, the Kirk family spent a month in Florida, I traveled to the Dominican Republic and back to help launch a new training site with TLI, we weathered Hurricane Ian, returned to the UK, and, earlier this week, I passed my viva voce (oral exam) and finished my PhD. It has been a whirlwind—much of which we have not been able to properly process yet. But Meghan and I remain immensely grateful for the path the LORD has charted for us, the work he has given us to do, and the opportunities before us.

For an update on the PhD/what I am doing now, you can check out this video:

Rue’s first day of Reception, i.e., UK Kindergarten.

You are Training Pastors to be Faithful to Scripture & Strengthening the Global Church

• The PhD is over! On October 11, I passed my viva voce, the oral exam that you have to complete after you submit your dissertation.
• I had a rich time teaching in the Dominican Republic from September 10–17. We launched a new training site and I got to teach the first course.
• We spent the month of September in Florida, reconnecting with friends and family.
• From October 22–30, I’ll be in Colorado teaching a course on the Pentateuch for William Tennent School of Theology. This will be the inaugural residency for our third cohort of students.
• From November 18–23, I’ll be in Denver at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting where I am presenting on a panel I helped to organize. The subject is humor in biblical wisdom literature—should be entertaining.
• From December 3–12, I’ll be back in the Dominican Republic teaching Biblical Theology with TLI. This will be the second course in TLI’s 9-course sequence and I look forward to being involved in two back-to-back trainings.
• While at home, Meghan and I are thrilled to be mentoring university students, leading bible studies, hosting a support group for theology majors, and generally being involved in student ministry, here in Durham.

Thank you. Your prayers and support empower everything we do.

Rue posin’ with me, post viva. Maybe my favorite overlook in Durham.

PhD Acknowledgements

For anyone who is interested, I decided to reproduce the acknowledgements from my dissertation in full below. “Acknowledgements” are a sorta genre in their own right. I always enjoy reading them on other people’s work because they are the most personal and human part; they tell a bit of the story behind the work and open a window on the scholar behind it. Mine are long, and perhaps that seems self-indulgent, but it reflects the long journey to this point. What I hope comes through is how completely overwhelmed with gratitude and God’s providence we are. You should all find yourselves in there in one way or another.

If you could do it, I suppose, it would be a good idea to live your life in a straight line—starting, say, in the Dark Wood of Error, and proceeding by logical steps through Hell and Purgatory and into Heaven. Or you could take the King’s Highway past appropriately named dangers, toils, and snares, and finally cross the River of Death and enter the Celestial City. But that is not the way I have done it, so far, I am a pilgrim, but my pilgrimage has been wandering and unmarked. Often what has looked like a straight line to me has been a circle or a doubling back. I have been in the Dark Wood of Error any number of times. I have known something of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, but not always in that order. The name of many snares and dangers have been made known to me, but I have seen them only in looking back. Often I have not known where I was going until I was already there. I have had my share of desires and goals, but my life has come to me or I have gone to it mainly by way of mistakes and surprises. Often I have received better than I have deserved. Often my fairest hopes have rested on bad mistakes. I am an ignorant pilgrim, crossing a dark valley. And yet for a long time, looking back, I have been unable to shake off the feeling that I have been led—make of that what you will. —Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

… for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs. —George Eliot, Middlemarch

If you date the journey from the first time I started working on Proverbs 30, this dissertation has been nearly ten years in the making. However, like Jayber Crow, as I look back on my life, I feel inexorably that I have been led. It has indeed been a long journey, filled with doubling back, stalled goals, and many mistakes. I have indeed received better than I have deserved, and I have gathered many debts of gratitude on the road.

Without the example and early encouragement of Professor Bruce Waltke, I doubt I would ever have set out to become an Old Testament scholar. While I was still an undergraduate, Dr. Waltke’s quite passion in his commentaries and lectures introduced me to the beauty and awe of the Old Testament. Over half a dozen lunches and dinners he offered sage advice, which shaped my journey more than he may realize. In 2013, during the final semester of my MDiv, Dr. Waltke graciously admitted me to his DMin course on the book of Proverbs. I told him I was interested in applying to PhD programs, so I asked him to suggest a meaty topic for my term paper that might make a good writing sample. He told me the unity of Proverbs 30 was an open question, and I have been working on it ever since.

I have been immensely privileged to have both Walter Moberly and Stuart Weeks as supervisors on this project. This double blessing has occasionally felt like a sort of curse as their interpretive instincts do not always head in the same direction. Still, that two scholars, despite being wired so differently, are both willing and able to co-supervise a project like this speaks to their mutual respect, their adaptability, and, indeed, the deeply irenic context of studying theology at Durham. Navigating the push and pull, however, has helped to shape me and undoubtedly strengthened the work. Walter’s module, “Bible and Hermeneutics,” not to mention his famous informal seminar, taught me to read with charity, precision, and faith. His invested reading of my own writing slowly and steadily improved it and consistently encouraged me. Stuart, on the other hand, did me the honor of never being quite satisfied with my work. I have always longed for a teacher willing to really push me, and in Stuart, I found one. In many long sessions at various pubs while I was still writing part-time, Stuart apprenticed me in philology and set a high bar for the work I was attempting. Later, as I drafted chapters, Stuart sent me back to re-write them again and again. He kept insisting that I didn’t quite have my whole argument worked out yet. He was, of course, right. If they had not challenged, cared for, and guided me, I cannot imagine how impoverished this work would be. I am now proud to call myself both a philologist and a theologian.

Many other friends, colleagues, and mentors in academia have also helped my on this journey. From my RTS-Orlando days, Mark Futato, Scott Swain, Scott Jones, and, especially, Scott Redd encouraged and aided me. Robert Holmstedt, my MA supervisor at Toronto, introduced me to the philological tools that made this dissertation possible. Professor Holmstedt also encouraged me to publish my first two articles and has readily provided bits of syntactic guidance over the years. Bernd Schipper welcomed me to two consecutive years of his Berlin-Oxford Summer School and has been an enthusiastic conversation partner on all things Proverbs. Demetrios Alibertis infiltrated some of the world’s best libraries to send me critical editions of the Peshitta when I could not access them. Chris Ansberry invited me to present bits of this research and has encouraged me with his enthusiasm for the work. My examiners, Suzanna Millar and David Janzen, posed helpful questions, pushed me toward sharper definitions in key places, and spotted many a typo. Will Kynes and Katherine Southwood have both supplied much-needed advice, encouragement, and have even read portions of this dissertation. John Screnock has been like an older brother (although not by much!). Since our first meeting at SBL 2013 in Baltimore, he has been unflaggingly supportive—from viewing apartments in Toronto for us, to providing excellent, detailed feedback on the most technical parts of this dissertation, to helping navigate academia and giving me opportunities. John has become a great friend. Likewise, Rony Kozman and Jacques Boulet have both become fast friends and brothers in life and scholarship; their camaraderie and companionship—even at great distances—has enriched my journey and kept me going.

When I began this PhD, I was studying part-time while living in Minneapolis and working for Training Leaders International. Without the support of TLI—and our network of faithful partners who fund my work teaching pastors in the majority world—this dissertation would not have happened. To our partners, we owe you an indescribable debt of gratitude for your generosity and your faith in us. It is an honor. At TLI, Daren Carlson, in particular, supported my desire to get a PhD and helped make it possible. Jim Jordan, Paul Smith, Jonathan Worthington, and Joost Nixon were also particularly supportive, understanding, and encouraging. During this season, Jesse Peterson, fellow non-residential student of Stuart Weeks, also become a good friend. Encouraging one another and pressing towards great scholarship while we were both working and living in not-Durham was invaluable. In the same vein, Jesse Schumann, coached, encouraged, and challenged me in all things Hebrew as he was starting a non-residential PhD at University of the Free State while I was studying at Durham. Pierre-Yves Koenig has my thanks for help with a handful of French resources. Robb Coleman, Joseph Justiss, and Hannah Bash all read bits of this dissertation, made helpful comments, and I am the further beneficiary of their friendship. Finally, Michael Morgan’s gracious generosity and good will know no bounds—when I was hardly half-way through this project he gave me a teaching post at William Tennent School of Theology and has not stopped encouraging me since.

When we moved to Durham in 2019 we were quickly welcomed into a community of post-graduates, fellow pilgrims on the way. Richard Rohlfing deserves special thanks—having never met me he helped secure us the perfect place to live. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, this big home, as much or more than any other blessing, made writing this dissertation possible. We owe Brandon and Brittany Hurlbert a massive thank you. They welcomed us quickly and, as our near neighbors, have been there for us when we truly needed them. They have sat with our girls when we took late night trips to A&E, and they watched Rue and Willa when Janie was born. Beyond this Brandon has been a steady companion, particularly during the 2021–22 academic year, when it felt like we alone were left in all of Durham. Dan and Megan York also deserve special thanks. We dearly miss you guys and Rue has yet to meet anyone she enjoys as much as Ephraim. Dan’s intellectual friendship always challenged me. On many, many long walks around Durham during COVID, we hammered out our approaches and outlines for our dissertations together and helped each other process our training and traditions. It was a gift. To Luke and Bekah Irwin, what can I say? We’ll always have COVID. In the winter dark of 2020–21, the Christmas lockdown threatened to extinguish all hope—our Sunday dinners helped us get through. Particularly in the last year or so of writing, Luke’s friendship, our mutual love for literature, and his example of finishing well were a great encouragement. For these friends we are deeply thankful.

To Jeff and Rebecca Kiel, my wonderful in-laws, I owe deep thanks. Their home and their hearts have always been open to me. They have never questioned or doubted the life-choices that Meghan and I have made, even when I know we left them scratching their heads. They have never stopped supporting this work through their generosity and their prayers.

To my mom and dad, Larry and Connie Kirk—you guys planted in me from my earliest days the commitment to Scripture that has led me to this point. Dad’s faithfully preaching the text week in and week out and Mom’s unflinching conviction that all truth is God’s truth have shaped me completely. You guys gave me my earliest and, in many ways, best education. Thank you for your example, your prayers, your generosity, and your sacrificial love.

To my little girls, Rue, Willa, and Janie—all three of whom were born while I worked on this dissertation!—you bring me such joy. I will cherish our Saturday daddy-daughter-days as long as I live. Your presence has been God’s gift of perspective. I often think I will look back with great fondness on these years when you were all so small and COVID forced me to work from home. In recent weeks, when I would come down from the office, some little voice often asked, “Did you finish your disstertation?” Yes! I am done now.

To Meghan, my sweet wife—babe, you will never live up to the portrait of Wisdom in Proverbs 31, and, thank the Lord, I am no King Solomon. But here we are. Over the last thirteen years, you have sacrificed greatly and believed in my totally and we have grown together deeply. More than any other person, you made this dissertation possible. More than that, you are teaching me what it means to be present, to live in relationship, and to cease striving. Truly, we are learning to do it together.

Finally, though some will sneer, I would be remiss in my own conscience if I did not acknowledge the Lord my God, whose presence I have learned to appreciate in a new way during the years in which I wrote this dissertation. Ultimately, his incongruous grace enabled this work, from the natural gifts and inclinations he placed within me, to the parents in whose care he placed me, to the woman he placed in my path, the scholars he placed me under, and the resources he has placed at my disposal along the way. What do I have that I did not receive?

Alex Kirk
31 August, 2022
Durham, England

Teaching Haitian leaders in the Dominican Republic with Training Leaders International.

Knowing God, Scripture, and Ourselves: New Training in the Dominican Republic

Just over a year ago, my colleague, Pastor Jean Garry August, TLI’s national partner in Haiti, moved to the Dominican Republic for the health and safety of his family. But Garry simply cannot stop doing ministry—particularly working to educate Haitian pastors. Estimates are that the Haitian diaspora in the Dominican Republic is over one million individuals. There are immersive Haitian communities in the DR and Haitian churches are everywhere. But if opportunities for quality theological education are limited for Haitians in Haiti, in the DR they are non-existent. Haitians are largely viewed as pariahs and there are little-to-no jobs, services, or opportunities for them. That makes this a strategic opportunity. The Haitians who have made it to the DR are driven, smart, and enterprising. Few of them plan to stay—they are seeking passage to places like Chile, Brazil, Quebec, the US, and France. Some will end up returning to Haiti. By reaching Haitians in the Dominican Republic, we are investing in a missionary population who will be sent out into an expanding diaspora with many needs and opportunities.

Most of our team, Jacob Cates, myself, Pastor Ismael (local professor), and Phil Pike.

After just a few months in the DR, Pastor Garry made a connection with another enterprising Haitian pastor named Smith. Smith had started a small training school based in his church, but he was lacking the resources and bandwidth to make it what he hoped it could be. Garry’s arrival was an answered prayer because Garry had experience teaching, pastoring in the local church, and administering a theological school. Through Garry’s relationships with us, TLI got involved and we are now thrilled to be offering non-formal training to some 70 pastors and ministry leaders in Santiago.

At lunch with one of my students, Delma, a 31-year-old pastor of a local Haitian congregation.

From September 10–17 we held the first course in our nine-course sequence: Knowing God, Scripture, and Ourselves. The course is the foundation to all that we hope to accomplish in our three years of training. Really, the course is an introduction to theological studies that focuses on three things 1.) who God is, 2.) how God reveals himself, and 3.) how ministers ought to conduct themselves in light of 1. and 2. In short, God is sovereign, wise, and good and he has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Spirit. Scripture is his authoritative revelation and so as ministers of the gospel we are bound to faithfully minister according to and under the authority of Scripture, even as we labor to communicate God’s word in changing cultural contexts. While these ideas might seem somewhat basic, they are often things that the students have not been taught clearly or systematically. Over five evenings, we worked through many many passages of Scripture in an effort to help the students not just hear us saying these things, but to see them in Scripture for themselves. Implicitly then, we are also modeling the main idea of the course—we labor under the authority of Scripture—and teaching skills for reading God’s word that we will develop and hone in the courses to follow.

By the grace of God we laid a foundation for promising work to come. I will be returning to the Dominican Republic to teach on the second course in December. Watch this space! I look forward to sharing more of what God is doing in the lives of our students in the DR in the future.

Students in Brian Wiseman’s class, focused on an exercise in the biblical text.

LORD, you know the end of all things from their beginning and work all things according to your purposes. Everything that we have comes from you. We are deeply grateful for your care and attention to our little lives out of all history. Continue to foster in us a deeper sense of gratitude for who you are and how you guide us. Lead us to your self.

From the Trujillo monument at the top of Santiago.

Pray With Us

• This Fall is very busy with lots of international travel (every few weeks for me), and lots of teaching and ministry when I am at home. I am still trying to decompress from the PhD and need some space to think through goals and desires for the coming year—I want to be intentional not just reactive. Please pray for the needed headspace and rest to make this all happen.
• Pray for the developing work in the Dominican Republic with Haitian church leaders. There are many obstacles in their path, but the hunger and the love for God and his word is there. May the LORD direct our efforts, channel them toward his purposes, and care for and enrich the students through the process.
• Pray for the students at William Tennent in the Pentateuch class, that they will encounter the LORD in his word in deeper ways while developing skills in reading and interpreting Scripture that will stay with them throughout their ministries.
• Pray for our work with university students in Durham—the opportunities here are rare and rich. Pray that Meghan and I would invest thoughtfully and honestly, that we can steer these kids toward authentic, deepening relationships with God in Christ.