True Teachers

 

True Teachers

 

What, pray tell, is a teacher?

What does a true teacher do?

A teacher loves without a reason

A teacher pulls you through . . .

All the lazy days, the hazy days

A teacher lets you know

What you are now, what you could be

True teachers help you grow.

A teachers knows that real respect

Is something that you earn,

And although the teacher teaches

She's always willing to learn.

A teacher is more than a chalkboard

A teacher is more than a pen

A teacher changes the future

Though she never knows quite when.

So as you stand in your classroom

Know you're part of the race of rare creatures

Who stand out from the average instructors,

And call themselves true teachers.

 

                    Melinda Danae Poitras

 

"A teacher affects eternity: she can never know where her influence stops."

(Henry Brooke Adams)

Pacific Report

Kevin Vacca reports: In the Philippines, I was able to make a presentation to the Board of Christian Education which was well received with all the Bible school presidents expressing enthusiasm for the program. The chairman of the Board of Christian Education recommended that I make a presentation for GATS at the February 2009 Executive Board meeting. At this meeting we scheduled Bible School teachers training for two days (sixteen total hours) during the month of May. This will involve forty teachers from the five schools. We will use the GATS Advance Educators Series. We presented GATS at the Micronesia West General Conference. I will be traveling to Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga in March to introduce GATS. We also have a regional retreat next year in October, and we can do more promotion there. And perhaps start a Pacific Bible School Association.

Regional Update; Brother and Sister Roger Buckland, GATS Regional Representative, Europe/Middle East

Continue to pray for the Sister Buckland's father. He suffered a slight heart attack, his heart is extremely weak, and he has cancer.

 

Quoting Jesus, Brother Buckland writes: "...that your fruit may remain..." indicates how important training and mentoring were to our Lord. Bible School endeavors are one of the principle means in which we invest in the harvest. A worthy goal is to provide Bible School education opportunities in each nation of our region. The EME Christian Board of Education is pledging itself to assist you in this invaluable ministry.

 

They have recently established scholarship funds for EME Bible School students.

 

Brother and Sister R. Kelley and Harvest Bible College report: We have just received some excellent news! We have passed the first stage of the accreditation process! We are both shocked and excited. It is just hard to believe we have actually made it thus far. Now we will be subjected to on sight inspections.

 

Following are recent regional stats provided by Brother Buckland:

 

• This school year, there is an average of fifteen students per school.
  
• Nearly 400 students have graduated from these schools within the past 12 years.
  
• One hundred and eight former graduates and students are presently in the ministry (25%), resulting in one of every four entering the ministry.
  
• Two hundred and ninety are now working in a local church ministry resulting in more than half of those who graduate actively involved in the local church.
  
• To date, eleven national district officials and three regional missionaries have been trained in our Bible
  
• Schools. Two more applications have been received for Regional Missionary Status from former EME Bible School students.
  

Graduation in Ghana

We recently had a fabulous graduation service in Ghana. Brother Raymond Woodward, from Fredericton, was our special speaker. He did a great job. At the end of the service seventeen received the Holy Ghost.

One other highlight in the graduation service was the gift from the Bible school to Jim Poitras, for twenty-five years of service in West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria). Principal, Nick Sisco, pulled off this great surprise and is pictured above.

Ghana now has five schools that are part of the Global Association of Theological Studies. The main campus in located in Accra, and there are four extension schools in various locations throughout Ghana, with more planning to open in the future.

And Taught Much People

I’m sure you’ve noticed the first time the word “Christian” was used in God’s Word. “They assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Alan Redpath once said, “The conversion of a soul is the miracle of the moment, the manufacture of a saint is a task of a lifetime.” We at the Global Association of Theological Studies, and our training programs are pursuing the task of a lifetime - developing saints and ministers for the kingdom of God.

News Flash from Serbia

Our GATS representative and Regional Director just reported forty students that have signed up for the new Balkan Bible Institute in Serbia! They are rejoicing. We are too!

Benefits of Faculty Education

I wanted to include a quote received this morning from Brother Bennie DeMerchant, a fabulous veteran missionary. "Re- translation of your faculty training material into Portuguese. This is a good solid move for the future of Bible schools. The trained teachers produce great students who develop into great leaders. The leaders in pulpits know how to teach and develop great members and families etc., so training faculty members starts dominos falling in the right direction."