MG Ministry Weekend Reflections – Part 2
Last week we shared part one of reflections from three Mentoring Groups (MG) on their EAST MG Ministry Weekend trips. We now present more reports from three other MGs who visited an Indochina country and a neighbouring country where Singaporeans love to go for weekend trips. To find out more, read the reflections by Dr Justine Han, Dr Raymond Go & Rev Derek Atkins, and Dr Lewis Winkler who are MG leaders.
4. Teaching and Outreach in Ho Chi Minh City – Dr Justine Han
Our MG experienced a great unity as a team in serving one another personally and while doing ministry. We had great fun and bonding times to get to know each other better. Although almost all of our ten student team members were new in going for the ministry weekend, we thoroughly enjoyed serving the hosting church members through presenting four seminars and two children outreach programs.
Newly Arrived Students: Thanawat & Phichanida Wichaphon
L-R: Rev Jonathan Yao (seated), Wong Ee Yuing, Boon-Koh Aitee, Phichanida Wichaphon (Peung), Thanawat Wichaphon (Off)
Thanawat and Phichanida Wichaphons are the first couple to have arrived in Singapore from Thailand for our new semester this June. They are better known by their nicknames Off and Peung. Off has been enrolled in Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies since July 2022 and Peung has been attending online Partners-in-Ministry classes. They are thrilled to finally take the classes at EAST on-site in the upcoming semester and have face to face interactions with faculty, students and staff.
EAST News had the opportunity to ask a few questions to get to know this “cool couple” better (as some have described them) and share their journey to EAST. Read more
Clare Chen: God of Possibilities
A slice of Japanese life – mother with daughter. Photo credit: Clare Chen
Ms Clare Chen, a final year MA in Intercultural Studies student, recently went for a mission trip to Kyoto, Japan, a most unlikely place for her. Clare’s initiative to spend her term break for missions resulted in a mindset-changing missional experience for her. Read her reflection from the trip – why not Japan, what she had learned more about God, the Japanese people and herself.
“I would go anywhere for missions, but Japan” was the mentality I held for many years because it is a place of hard soil. But we all know too well what typically happens when you claim a “never” statement such as this: God laughs, and things happen. This December, I was led to go on a mission trip to Japan with a few schoolmates. Despite the challenges, God reminded me of his sovereignty. God is a big God and is there anything impossible with Him (Luke 1:37)?
New Faculty: Dr Mona P. Bias
Dr Mona P. Bias
In September 2023, Dr Mona P Bias joined EAST in Singapore as a resident faculty of Singapore. Below is a short interview with her to get to know her better and introduce this learned professor of the Old Testament to our wider community at EAST. We are honoured and privileged to have her join us as part of EAST Community and know she will be a blessing to many.
- Kindly share with us how you became a Christian, felt called to Christian ministry and finally, how God led you to serve at EAST.
It was on my second year in college when I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. Someone shared the Gospel to me using the Four Spiritual Laws. I was then faithfully discipled and mentored by some Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) staff.
As a young person, I dreamt to be a medical doctor to serve in the boondocks and remote places of the Philippines. I actually passed the entrance exam to medical school. About that time, the Director of the International School of Theology-Asia asked me to take some classes at ISOT-Asia, which I did just for fun. On the third quarter, I realized that the Lord was calling me to full time Christian work. It was then that I decided to just finish the Master of Divinity program.
New Faculty: Dr Alvin Tey
L-R: Dr Alvin Tey, Kalene, Josiah, Natalie & Charlotte
EAST welcomes Dr Alvin Tey as our newest resident faculty! We invited him to share with us some serious, some spiritual, and some fun things about himself and his family as he joins our EAST community.
- Kindly share with us how you became a Christian, felt called to Christian ministry and finally, how God led you to serve at EAST.
I came from a Chinese ancestral worshipping family and became a Christian when I was 17 years old through a friend from Singapore Youth for Christ. In the years thereafter, I grew as a Christian and was discipled through the NavTeens ministry. In the small family church which I worship in, I also grew through serving in various ministries (including missions). It was through my church missions ministry that I first got acquainted with Operation Mobilisation (OM) in the early 2000s and started serving in mission trips to OM’s ministry among the Dalits (Untouchables) in South India. Read more
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