Answering Questions: Part Two

How did you even hear about this place?

Some Background

Campus ministry affords unique challenges and opportunities. The young people who are often seeking and searching offer a fertile ground, amazing potential for churches and workers. Among other unique opportunities of campus ministry is the schedule. College work allows me to work 60-70-80 hours many weeks during the fall and spring semesters. Days that are 10-12-14 hours or more are common occurrences. Office hours, campus time, one on one with students, no days off during the week, hosting college students in our home, social and recreational events many nights, and meetings upon meetings are all a part of the work from day to day and week to week. On the flip side, when the semester is not in session, our family has amazing flexibility. It is kind of like earning comp time from stacking long hours during the semester. The elders at University church of Christ have been very understanding allowing us to immerse ourselves in the work and then to take some time during the summer to back away a little. A perfect example of this is in the summer of 2015 when the elders allowed our family to spend an entire summer, three months, in Asunción, Paraguay working with the church and bible college there. Those three months gave us an insight into mission work; that insight is something that we have built on and discussed for years. We have always loved to consider the potential that exists in foreign mission fields.

A Passing Comment

This past summer, 2018, Lisa and I were visiting family after another long semester when I had the opportunity to have lunch with a good friend, Tim Burroughs. Tim works with the North Main congregation in Weatherford, TX and has encouraged me in many ways. He is also a true local worker who is trying to build up the body of Christ in every way where he is located. During the course of a lunch conversation, Tim asked me a fairly innocent question, “Have you ever considered foreign mission work?” 

Unknown to Tim, since 2015 Lisa and I had talked about the abstract possibility of doing foreign mission work, and even more so over the preceding year. When I told him yes, he was somewhat shocked.  Tim insisted that there was a work that I needed to investigate which was badly in need of a willing worker or two: the Four Seas College of Bible and Missions in Singapore. Tim has been visiting Singapore and the East for nearly two decades and has long been a proponent of the good work there. He gushed over the work that Peter Chin is currently doing as director of the college as well as the local congregations in Singapore at Jurong and Lim Ah Pin that support the work and the good student body. Unfortunately, the work of the school is currently being carried on short handed as only brother Chin serves as full-time faculty. From our conversation there was one thing that stood out to me aside from the great need: potential. The potential to be busy about the Lord’s work. The potential of working in an Alpha City with millions of people from dozens of countries and cultures. The potential of getting trained local workers into countries all over Asia! Potential. The gospel is powerful and the church must hold that light-giving Word to the world.

So, that lunch conversation led to another conversation at home between Lisa and me. That discussion provided questions that needed to be researched and re-asked. Good brethren who have long worked with the school and church in Singapore who are located stateside were able to provide us with answers and insight through phone conversations and email. The history of the school is recorded in a few pages of brother Ira Rice’s biography, so I decided I needed to refresh myself with his book. The internet is a wealth of knowledge. There are YouTube videos and forums and more that answered many questions we had.

Here are some random answers to questions you may or may not have asked:

Singapore is located in such a place to influence almost the entire Asian continent, and Four Seas counts as alumni students from over twenty different nations. When I checked Wikipedia for the populations of those nations, the totals were in the billions. Billions. {That is amazing potential!}

The school has been training Christians continuously since 1965. {That is some serious consistency.} Singapore is not in China. It is also not in Malaysia and hasn’t been for fifty years. Singapore is a separate and distinct city-state just off the Malaysian peninsula. It is a hub of industry, finance, culture, food, and education. The church is strong there thanks to efforts of missionaries long ago and continued dedication from Singaporean brethren. Classes at Four Seas are taught in English and most of the population speaks English. Singaporeans are very well educated and amazingly hard workers. The city is extremely expensive. 

You can learn more. I could tell you some or you could Google it. 

We still had some questions that could not be answered through phone or email with brethren in the US or in Singapore. The need at the school was real. The potential of Four Seas to affect Asia and the world was (and is) very great. The city seemed to be a place that our family could live. The church seemed to be a people our family could fit with. The school’s needs seemed to be a compliment to my experience and interest. But, some things you really need to see for yourself because Google can’t answer every question. So, last August, I took a trip to try to answer those questions and more. But, that’s another blog post.

How did you even hear about this place?

Tim Burroughs.

Where is Singapore?

Just off the tip of the Malaysian peninsula.

What was on your mind while you were asking, praying, researching, Googling, emailing, talking, and praying?

Potential.

-Trent

Answering Questions: Part 1

Answering Questions: Part 3