Here in the United States, we are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving. I am thankful for you and for your investment in Global Scholars.
I wanted to share with you some of the things that our team of Regional Representatives are thankful for this year. Regional Representatives are a key part of our strategy to equip Christian professors to be salt and light. They are citizens and scholars of their regions, giving them a deep understanding of local realities. They engage on the ground with professors through mentoring, small groups, and local conferences.
Currently, we have four Regional Representatives. With God’s help and your support, we hope to add a fifth representative early in 2025. Please join me in thanking God for these examples of fruit that our current Regional Representatives are seeing in their ministry!
Peter Cimala, our Regional Representative for Europe, is thankful for God’s work in mentoring relationships. One professor whom he is mentoring wrote:
You gave organized and constructive meaning about how I can proceed with writing my doctoral dissertation… At the end, I was touched by the prayer… and I could feel the strength and hope of helping each other as members even though we are in different countries.
Sam, our East Asia Regional Representative, is thankful for how community with other Christian professors is helping a professor who is facing discrimination and persecution for her faith:
At a Christian scholars’ retreat, a professor shared her situation. The university where she works, afraid that her Christian faith would influence the students, forced her out of her professorship to become a librarian. She became a heretic in this university. The retreat provided a place where she could talk about what was happening to her. The Bible says, “Mourn with those who mourn.” We can’t change what happened to this professor, but we can listen and comfort her.
I’ll share more from our Regional Representatives in Latin America and Anglophone Africa next month. God is powerfully at work in those regions as well. In the meantime, may God bless you and your loved ones this Thanksgiving. I am thankful for you!
For Christ and the university,
Stan
Italicized name has been changed to protect privacy.
Why do universities require students to take classes in the humanities during their first few years? My guest in this episode of the College Faith podcast, Dr. David Horner, who has taught these classes for many years, helps us see the wisdom of requiring these courses. Dave earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy at Oxford University, is a professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, and is the author of (among other books) the popular Mind Your Faith: A Student’s Guide to Thinking and Living Well.
In this episode of the Thinking Christianly podcast, we continue our series by engaging Chapter 2 of my new book, Have We Lost Our Minds?: Neuroscience, Neurotheology, the Soul, and Human Flourishing. We discuss the difference between an ontological unity and a functional unity of body and soul, where neurotheology goes wrong in explaining the nature of the human person, and more.
Our November prayer calendar is now posted on our website. Download the prayer calendar to pray for professors, students, and current needs in higher education.
