EAST Homecoming Reunion 2022

Over 120 alumni, faculty, staff and children attended the Homecoming Reunion in celebration of EAST’s 30th anniversary on 18 Nov 2022.

 

I graduated in 2002 with a Master of Divinity when EAST was at Dorset Road. I remembered fondly my time there: together with school friends, we either had meals at Cambridge market (‘Hokkien mee’ or seafood soup) or at KK Hospital. Upon graduation, I lost contact with EAST and most of my school mates. It was only in 2017, when I joined EAST Alumni Relations Office, I was back in the loop with some alumni. I managed to compile the database of every EAST alumni. But many of the alumni that I have been writing prayer emails to were just names to me. During the pandemic, I got to see some of them during the Alumni Zoom meetings. A week before the Homecoming Reunion, I managed to meet up with some alumni who visited EAST. I was able to meet up with Sufen (Taiwan) after 20 years. I met Baataraa (Mongolia) and Timothy Saw (Myanmar) when they came to visit EAST during the last chapel.

I was excited and looking forward to the Homecoming Reunion – my very first reunion and this will not be the last. I wanted to connect with some of the alumni and their families. My heart was full of thanksgiving by just being there at the reunion. Together with the EAST family, I saw and heard of God’s blessings upon EAST for the past 30 years. God has been faithful in bringing students to EAST; from a handful in 1992, we have seen 484 graduates passed through the gates of EAST. I rejoiced to connect with many alumni who came. These alumni are faithfully serving the Lord, be it in full-time ministry or in the marketplace. They came to EAST, to be equipped as scholarly ministry practitioners; in heart, head and hands. As they were developed as servant leaders for the Great Commission, many are back in their countries faithfully serving Him.

Seeing these alumni and hearing their stories in the videos shown, I am encouraged and thankful to God for keeping each of them faithful to Him. It was also heartening to know the alumni are serving in 28 different countries. As for the Alumni ministry, CCH challenged the alumni to start the EAST Alumni Association. This will be a good start for us in the Alumni Relations Office to work together with the alumni in supporting them in a deeper way and in bridging the alumni with EAST. I thank God too for the former faculty, Dr Wilson Lau and Dr Ng Tjoh Dju, who came.

I saw God’s faithfulness in providing EAST with a permanent campus at Joo Chiat Road. Trusting God to provide all the remaining funds to pay off the building, may EAST continue to be used by God as a mission hub to develop servant leaders for the Great Commission in Singapore and beyond. To God be the glory!

The above article is written by Esther Tan, both an EAST Alumna (MDiv in Missions & Evangelism, 2002) and an Alumni Relations Officer. She is married to Darrell Tan, staff with World Evangelisation for Christ (WEC). They have two teenage children, Nat (18 years old) and Lizzie (13 years old), whom they worship together with at Zion Bible Presbyterian Church.