After we checked out of our Bangkok hotel, a family checked in at the same counter. Turns out, they were missionaries, and the wife was a counselor in nearby Chiang Mai. When I noted that I am a professor at Singapore Bible College, she replied, “Oh, our only Thai counselor was hoping to attend SBC in a few months, but she can’t afford it since her husband is also a seminary student and they have a young daughter.”
“Really?” I responded. “Our church in Texas has funds to invest in Asian families attending SBC!”
Fast forward nearly two years, and they have already returned to Thailand to serve their people. God provided their funds to enter Singapore through our Texas church. An apartment was provided through a graduating family that moved back to India. Their daughter got a kindergarten scholarship at the same school as the previous tenants, and they ministered extensively to our Singapore church. Kulying (the wife and mother) has helped begin the Christian Counseling Association Thailand, counsels in Thai at The Well International, and teaches counseling at a local seminary. Her husband, Jattanakorn, teaches at Chiang Mai Theological Seminary, whose president is one of my SBC students from years back!
What are we about? We may appear to be about students who enter Singapore for training, but we are actually all about hitting that return key.
The return key on your computer also often doubles as the enter key. We see this in our lives right now. We planned to return to the USA briefly in our seven-month sabbatical, and then enter Jordan to teach one semester at Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary (JETS).
But, that return key was actually an enter key once the pandemic shut down Jordan. Rather than return, I now enter an entirely new online world of teaching. From June to July, I taught Revelation and Salvation courses in Korea via Zoom from Washington state. Now I am teaching OT Survey and Isaiah online at JETS eight hours a week on Tuesday and Thursdays. How nice that 8 AM to noon in California is a comfortable 6-10 PM in Amman. For security reasons, I cannot show a picture of these 16 precious Arab leaders online from Jordan, Egypt, Chad, Morocco, Sudan, Dubai, Germany, and Spain—but they are quality servants of Christ impacting the Arab world.
We also plan to return to Singapore in the coming weeks so we can enter before the upcoming January semester where I will teach two preaching courses and resume pastoring at Crossroads International Church Singapore.