THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION IN A DISINTEGRATING WORLD (II)
Rev Dr Park Seung Kyu
Part 2 of sermon preached at the 45th Graduation Service of the Far Eastern Bible College on 14 November 2020
The late Rev Dr Timothy Tow, the founding principal of the Far Eastern Bible College, said to his students, “You have to serve the Lord unconditionally.” I would like to apply these words to today’s message.
Let Us Do What We Can Do: Be Instant in Season, Out of Season
Let us do what we can to preach and teach the Word in season and out of season. In the current COVID-19 situation, there are many things we are not allowed to do. We are restricted from gathering to worship on the Lord’s Day. Our students who returned to their home countries during the holidays cannot come back to the College premises in Singapore. Yet, there is something we can do. We are worshiping online on the Lord’s Day. Brethren who are thousands of miles away, like those in Africa, can participate in this worship service as well. Our online prayer meetings allow brethren from all over the world to join.
Many students are able to listen to the lectures with the live streaming of our day and night classes. During the last vacation, four subjects were offered in the online Daily Vacation Bible College. In the last semester, 12 subjects were live streamed. I am incredibly happy with this. There are some students in the Bible College of East Africa, who wanted to fly to the Far Eastern Bible College to study, but the immigration doors were closed. Of course, the best solution is still for African students to come over to Singapore and learn directly from the professors. But if that is not possible, why not we find another way to do it? I believe that we have found the way already because of COVID-19. Now we can use all the lectures available online to teach and train our students all over the world.
The reason we love the Far Eastern Bible College is because of the faithful teaching of the Word of God, and not because of the benefits of Singapore. The Word of God has the power, not buildings and systems. If there is a way to preach the Word of God, we must do it, and continue to do it!
Let me introduce you to another saying of the Rev Dr Timothy Tow. He said, “The four walls of the church cannot contain me.” Let us not keep the faithful teaching of the Word of God within the four walls of Far Eastern Bible College, or within the shores of Singapore. Up till today, there are people around the world who earnestly long for God’s Word correctly proclaimed. There are those who desperately desire to learn the faithful teaching of the Far Eastern Bible College. If they cannot come here, should we not go to them? Please remember the Word: “Be instant in season, out of season.”
I believe the situation we live in today, with COVID-19 still as a looming threat, is an example of “out of season”. The full-swing of activities in most churches has slowed down. Some have completely stopped worship services. But even in such out-of-season times, we still have to preach the Word! As we have been admonished, “Preach the Word, in season and out of season”.
We thank God for establishing and sustaining the Far Eastern Bible College. May the Lord use this Bible College mightily for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Let us preach the Word and be instant in season, out of season. Amen.
[The Rev Dr Park Seung Kyu is the Principal of the Bible College of East Africa in Tanzania. His wife Ra Chae Won has just graduated with her MDiv from the Far Eastern Bible College and will serve with him in Tanzania. Their two daughters Angela and Joyce are currently undergraduate students at the Far Eastern Bible College.]
FAR EASTERN BIBLE COLLEGE
Students are now entering into the final week of the Daily Vacation Bible College (DVBC) courses and will take their exams by the end of the week. Then it will be the Christmas break before the new semester begins on Monday 4 January 2021 with a day of prayer.
Thank God for a blessed and successful graduation service held on November 14 for the Class of 2020. We had a total of 25 graduates. (This is an update from an earlier announcement since there was a last minute inclusion—Dn Low Boon Siang of Gethsemane Bible-Presbyterian Church who graduated with his CertRK.
Here is a breakdown of the awards given out that day: Certificate of Religious Knowledge (CertRK): 5, Certificate of Biblical Studies (CertBS): 2, Diploma in Theology (DipTh): 5, Bachelor of Theology (BTh): 3, Master of Religious Education (MRE): 2, Master of Divinity (MDiv): 7, and Doctor of Religious Education (DRE): 1.
Jemima and I praise the Lord for our daughter May Lynn who graduated with her BTh after four years of studies. She entered FEBC after completing junior college. The Lord had called her and she was sure of it. We are thankful to the Lord for His grace in her life. She is now serving as a staff assistant at FEBC, taking over the kitchen from her grandmother—Mrs Ivy Tow—as part of her duties. She teaches in the Sunday School, serves in the Young People’s Fellowship, and plays the piano in church. She also volunteers in a girls’ home for troubled teens needing counsel and refuge.
It is interesting to know that May Lynn and Abigail (daughter of the Rev & Mrs George Skariah) graduated together from Far Eastern Kindergarten (FEK) when they were six years old, and now 17 years later, from FEBC. How time flies and how God works!
I pray that more parents will give their sons and daughters to full-time ministry, or support them when they have a desire to do so having heard God’s call. One such parent is Dr Winston Chew an Elder of Truth Bible-Presbyterian Church whose son David just graduated with his BTh, and daughter Hadassah is now studying at FEBC. Elder Chew himself graduated with a CertBS.
We pray for more Singaporeans to answer the Gospel call. And if you have heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” (Isa 6:8). JK
