Fifi is my hero

Bruce Chick is the pastor of the Sovereign Grace Community Church in Roanoke, VA, and our instructor for this week. He is teaching the 2nd of our Old Testament classes, after teaching the first component last fall. Besides being a warmly pastoral man, Bruce also has the distinction of being one of the few pastors in Sovereign Grace with bona-fide athletic skills. He played AAA baseball, primarily in the Red Sox farm system, in the early-mid 90’s before attending seminary and becoming a pastor. So, one of his unique contributions to our year here is to introduce athletic challenges throughout his weeks of teaching that allow us to opt-out of quizzes if we are successful.
Thursday’s challenge was archery. Fortunately, one of the members of our class, Efisio Setzu, is a bowhunter. Efisio, whom we affectionately call Fifi, is from Vista New Life Church in El Paso, TX. He is generally a quiet and unassuming guy, though he does bear a striking resemblance to Nacho Libre. His first challenge was to beat one of the interns here, Merritt Anderson, in a shooting contest from 20 yards. He won handily. But then we elevated the stakes. We asked Bruce if we could get an essay removed from our test if Fifi knocked an apple of the target from 20 yards away. Bruce agreed and the stage was set. The apple was carefully perched atop the target and Efisio readied himself. We all were eagerly waiting to see what the outcome would be, though 20 yards seemed a huge distance for such a small target. Efisio loosed his arrow and a split-second later, phoosh!, the apple was knocked from its perch. That might have been the biggest roar heard from the PC this entire year. It was a small but important victory for the entire class, and Fifi is our official hero--at least for a few days. Just a brief insight into the trials and travails of Pastors College life.