EAST Mission Hub: A Facility to Bless the Nations

 

Since the founding of East Asia School of Theology in 1992, the Lord has provided suitable places to nurture the school. In the initial years at a meeting room in Cru’s Great Commission Training Centre expanding to a larger rented facility inside Parish of Christ Church that became home to the growing EAST family for 25 years. In 2018, thrust into a period of transition with a building re-development in Christ Church, the Lord led the Board of Cru Asia Ltd and the leadership of EAST to a freehold commercial building in the Joo Chiat area. Today, 118 Joo Chiat Road is home to East Asia School of Theology as the EAST Mission Hub.

We are thrilled that our sojourning has led us here with ample space to help us fulfil EAST’s God-given vision and mission. We currently occupy three of the five levels of the building. Level three is designed to meet all our classroom and meeting room needs. We have crafted four large meeting rooms. a recording studio, prayer room, and a lounge. Level four is the base for our leadership, faculty, and administration. We have allocated spaces for two meeting rooms and three Zoom rooms where faculty can host their virtual classes and online meetings. Level five which is also the attic is our Resource Centre. This houses our physical resources like books and journals and provide access to digital works. Faculty, staff and students are also able to access diverse online and digital resources complementing our physical holdings. We have also carved out two small meeting rooms for group study and collaboration. The reference room is also designed to easily convert to a classroom with direct access to the reference books. Spaces are specially created in all three levels to encourage community bonding and relationship building. Intentional pockets of spaces for fellowship and a rooftop garden to host informal small gathering have also been created.

EAST Mission Hub is the missional base that will accelerate the loving and reaching of nations by equipping Christlike servant leaders in the residential school and extension centres. We desire to share our God-given space with those who need an incubator for their small groups or a start-up church. We seek collaboration with likeminded others to fully maximize the resources that we have been blessed with. We hope to leverage this place to show God’s love for our multicultural neighbours. This includes community engagement, outreach, collaboration with neighbourhood churches and ministries, or independent groups in need of a venue. We hope that 118 Joo Chiat Road will be a beacon, a happening place that will deeply impact the community with the love of Christ.

We want to thank the Board of Cru Asia Ltd, leadership of Cru Singapore, donors, faculty, staff, students and alumni of East Asia School of Theology who have journeyed with us through these years. They have generously invested in the lives of men and women who have been and will be agents of God’s transformative work back to their home countries and beyond.

The above article is part of a series on the impact of EAST Mission Hub on our vision, mission, strategy, education, and ministry effectiveness of the EAST community and beyond. This article is written by Mr Nelson Lo, an EAST Resident Faculty and the Dean of Administration.