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!”
Cheering Chin Leng on!
Lim Chin Leng, EAST Alumnus from Class of 2008, with daughter Jayna.
EAST Alumnus Chin Leng has recently been diagnosed with Stage 3 Pancreatic Cancer and this has been a shocking news to his family and our community at EAST. However, Chin Leng has remained positive and is taking the Straits Times Virtual Run Challenge of 17.5KM, setting a goal to complete it within these two weeks as a #chemowarrior.
His daughter Jayna has written a heartfelt poem regards to her dad’s condition titled, “I Hate Cancer.” Below is the poem she has penned.
Alumna Debbie Tan Serving in Spain
Debbie is in the front row, on the left
In 2014, Alumna Debbie Tan graduated with a Graduate Diploma in Biblical Studies and now resides in Costa del Sol, a “comarca” (county) in southern Spain. She is involved in running a weekly Spanish bible study group for about six people. Additionally, she has reached out to a gentleman named Jim in his seventies who had relocated to the UK due to his wife’s infirmities. She supports him and his wife by holding a Wednesday bible study with Jim and a few friends.
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