Faculty Development Days Reflection (Part 2)
Ms Napitchaya Su Panum is on the extreme left. This was part of a birthday celebration for the November and December celebrants at the Faculty Meeting during FDD.
From FEAR to FAITH: Reflection on Faculty Development Day (Nov 23, 2020) by Ms Napitchaya Su Panum, EAST Faculty
I joined EAST in October 2019 with little teaching experience. It was my first time being on the other side of a seminary classroom! The fear of inadequacy was one of the biggest challenges for a “teacher-in-training” like me. However, the Lord has turned my fear into faith in the One who calls through EAST’s Faculty Development Day (FDD) training!
My doubt was caused by my misconception about teaching and learning. I knew that I couldn’t meet the traditional “Sage on the Stage” lecturing standard. However, through my experience during FDD, I learned that the “Guide on the Side” facilitating skill is the real art and science of teaching and learning that I need to develop.
Update on Tuvshuu & Burnee
Tuvshintugs Tsogtbaatar (Tuvshuu), MA in Leadership (2018) and Burenjargal Jargal (Burnee), PIM Cert/ Grad Dip in Christian Ministry (2018), with their daughters Gerel (11) and Inuka (8), and family pet Lila. (Youngest son, Tergel, inside mum’s tummy at that time) Early November 2020
Over a week ago, on 7 November, Tuvshuu and Burnee, EAST Alumni from 2018 welcomed the arrival of their third child and youngest son named Tergel. In Mongolian, “Tergel” means “full moon”. He has been given this name in the hope that his life will fully reflect God’s light, just like how the full moon reflects the light of the sun. Also, that his life will be full of light and be complete like the “full moon”. His arrival has already brought much light and completion to the Tsogtbaatars, living up to his name.
Breaking News from Ulaanbaatar
Baatarsuren Bayanmandakh (Baataraa), our alumnus from Mongolia, sent us an urgent prayer request on 11 Nov:
“Today we have the first local Covid-19 cases (4 persons) in Ulaanbaatar. The government announced total lockdown for five days. People are scared and confused. One of my team members is in the countryside (Dornod province) and cannot come back home during the quarantine period..”
Pray for Baataraa and his team, who regularly go out to the deserts to share the gospel, follow up new believers, and make disciples, among desert nomads. These herders, who live in gers or portable round tents, make up 25 to 40 percent of its 3.3 million people. The uncertainty of Covid-19, plus the harsh winter conditions – the temperature dips to minus 40 degrees Celsius at its worst – makes it harder to reach the the nomadic people. From the 2020 census, there are 1.3 percent of Christians in Mongolia currently (48, 859 people).
Taka & Eri from Tokyo
Takahiro and Eri Ueki (Taka and Eri), senior staff members of Japan Campus Crusade (JCCC), graduated with Masters of Divinity in Teaching and Exposition and Masters of Arts in Biblical Studies, respectively, in 2008.
Before joining JCCC, Taka had studied only for a year in a seminary in Japan. He stopped because he was diagnosed with incurable Hepatitis C. But God did the impossible for him. He healed him through a clinical trial treatment in 2001-2002. That was when he reconsidered further theological studies and came to EAST.
Missionary Mei-Mei in Macau
Alumna Mei-Mei Lee, who grew up in San Francisco and served for eight years as a missionary in Macau with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), came to EAST to obtain her Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies over a decade ago. Back in 2009, Mei-Mei applied to a Baptist college in Singapore for a full-time program but was unsuccessful as the college lacked the resources to offer her a full-time program. At the time, CEF had given her only two years of study leave to complete her degree. By God’s divine appointment and her mentors’ recommendation, she applied to EAST instead and though EAST may not have been her first choice for theological studies, it was God’s choice for her. According to Mei-Mei, “God’s choice is the best choice!”
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