It was a busy second day at the Strategic Regional Workshop of the Increase Association held at the Malaysia Bible Seminary.
We commenced with a worship and devotional led by TEE Malaysia. Our speaker delivered a brief message based on the conference’s theme verse, 1 Corinthians 15:58.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
He focused on the initial phrase for the day’s devotional, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters.“
Then, we spent time reflecting on and sharing our thoughts about the points our speaker had presented. During the devotional, we were divided into groups of six people, ensuring that the members came from different countries.
The verse serves as a reminder to everyone involved in His Kingdom’s work. The reflection session provided a wonderful opportunity to hear one another’s thoughts, which were all encouraging and motivating.
Graham and Lewis led the “Training and Resources” section. In the “Training and Resources” session, we sat with our co-delegates from the same region, Oceana, composed of Australian and New Zealand delegates.
Among the many group activities is drawing our vision for our TEE association.
I loved cartooning. I used to draw editorial cartoons for our school paper but haven’t done much since finishing university in 1989. So, I summoned my creative nerves to draw the hopes and dreams for TEE Aotearoa that our group members shared.
As customary, each TEE country shared their output. I always love visioning sessions because hearing the various dreams and aspirations signals that God’s work is alive and progressing. Seeing and hearing Southeast Asia and Oceania TEEs’ visions is exciting and encouraging.
The day featured two reporting sessions covering TEE Aotearoa, TEE Australia, ITEEP (Philippines), and CLD (Thailand).
After TEE Australia and New Zealand finished their reports, the two associations signed a covenant to strengthen the ministry of church-based theological education and discipleship training.
My thoughts and feelings after hearing the reports are the humbling realisation that there is much to be done in New Zealand to advance discipleship programs using the TEE methods and resources.
I remember, as a young seminary student in 1992, in one chapel worship service, an Australian missionary who attended shared her thoughts on the mission and ministries in the Philippines. She said she is quite amazed by the faith shown through how much ministry work was done with so few resources.
Yesterday, I couldn’t help having the same thoughts after listening to the reports from the Philippines and Thailand. Now, we are spurred to do more in Aotearoa, picking up from where we left off and advancing discipleship programs that we have started.
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