Insight 2014 March 2014 | Page 22

Rev. Dr. Basanth Prakash Shrestha, Dean, South Asia Bible College TOWARDS ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE We began the Academic year 2013-14 with 248 students from different parts of our constituencies joining into various disciplines: 177 in the Master of Divinity, 71 in the Bachelor of Theology. With thanks, we recognize and appreciate the contribution of our visiting faculty members: Dr. Ajit Prasadam (and his team), Rev. Francis Jeba, Mr. Jacob Isaac, Ms. Joni Middleton, Dr. Julian Sunder Singh, Dr. Mike Waldner, Dr. P. C. Mathew, Rev. Patterson Lamech, Mr. Rajasekhar Moorthy, Ms. Rebekah Patole, Ms. Renuka Athistha, Rev. Sudhakar Mondithoka and Rev. Sunny Prasad. Our special thanks to our guest lecturers: Drs. Evelyn and Everest Mckinney, who taught Creative Teaching and Church Administration; Dr Douglas Shaw (and his team) facilitated International Students Inc. Seminar; Dr. Melvin T. Johnson taught Principles of Ministerial Relationship; Dr. Ruth Burgess taught Mediated Learning, and Dr. Tom Richardson taught Relational Evangelism. Southern Asia Bible College is committed to develop leaders for the Church. We are proud of the 74 students graduating this year; 52 with Masters of Divinity, and 22 with Bachelor of Theology. SABC also offers a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) programme that aims at developing ‘Leaders worth Following.’ Launched in 2008, D. Min. programme presently has 54 participants in four cohorts. The first and second cohort have completed their Project Design module and submitted their project prospectuses. They are in their project phase – the final lap of their programme! The third cohort completed their last module Global Pentecostal Theology with Professor Stanley M. Burgess. They met for the Project Design module with Dr. Basant Prakash Shrestha and submitted their Project Prospectuses in February 2014. 22 The fourth cohort had a module on ‘Kingdom Leadership’ with Dr. David Clarence and Dr. Jacob Cherian in the June 2013, They completed their third module Contemporary Pentecostal/Charismatic Issues with Professor Jean Daniel Pluss in the month of November 2013. We have four participants graduating this year: Duke Jeyaraj who graduated from SABC with an M. Div. in 2001, following his graduation, Duke served as the youth pastor with the Delhi Assemblies of God apart from teaching in the Central Bible College. Duke eventually went on to found grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission (G4 Mission), a trans-denominational ministry to present-day people in 2006. Pastor Symon N. Sarker teaches at Assemblies of God Bible College and Christian Discipleship Centre. He also serves as Director of Youth Evangelism (YEB) and President of International Needs. Symon has a passion to evangelize and establish churches in rural areas. Pastor Abraham Mathew is the Senior Pastor at Ebenezer Indian Pentecostal Church, Viveknagar, Bangalore. He also serves as the Chairman of Ebenezer Village Ministries. He carries a passion to train pastors in leadership and plans to organize seminars for Pastors and believers to educate them on the issues of Contemporary challenges, Persecution, Constitutional rights of minority Christians. Nireekshana Kumar Kancharla serves as a Director of Maranatha Veda Patasala in Hyderabad. Along with his teaching at the Bible school, he also pastors two congregations, travels in different parts of India and abroad for gospel meetings, and conducts leadership seminars for youth and pastors. He plans to share gospel message with urban professionals, politicians, industrialists, and bureaucrats.