Guanajuato City is a lovely city of narrow streets and colorful sandstone buildings 240 miles northwest of Mexico City. The Spanish founded the town in the sixteenth century as a mining outpost. It is the home town of the great muralist, Diego Rivera. It is also the location of the University of Guanajuato with its 17,000 students.

The Society of Christian Scholars is finally here! The Society is a global community of, by, and for missional Christian scholars. It is a fresh way to equip believing scholars for more effective service to students, universities, and disciplines by offering at least fourteen needed benefits.

“If the Christian Studies Program does not start this year, you can forget about it!”

That is what the dean of a university in West Africa told a group of Canadian Global Scholars professors who had worked for three years to establish a department of Christian Studies at his institution. The scholars had worked together with representatives of the country’s evangelical minority to design a program that would be a recognized voice for the Gospel in the small nation’s only university.

The new year is a fresh opportunity for many of us to create space to assess the past and plan for the future. Thinking about 2018, I intend to learn from my mistakes. But more than that, I want to see the Spirit’s hand at work in my life, and in and through Global Scholars. What God is doing seems so unusual I cannot wait to share what is on the horizon!

It is with gratitude and thanksgiving that the Global Scholars team wishes you and yours a wonderful Christmas season. Without Christ being born as one of us, there would be no reason to celebrate, for we would have no hope. Nor would we have any reason to take Christ to the nations. The birth of Jesus of Nazareth changed all that!

For this issue I’ve asked Dr. Osam Temple, Global Scholar’s Regional Representative in Africa, to reflect on two important gatherings he recently attended in West Africa. Thank you for making the ministry of Global Scholars possible!

Serving in a university as a lecturer, researcher, or administrator is one of the most influential professions in the world. Every day around the world millions of people–not only students–look to university professors for advice, insight, hope, and inspiration. Global Scholars and those who partner with us recognize the great potential for good and harm, truth and falsehood, even life and death that resides within everyone who accepts the mantle of a professor.

Today marks the 17th anniversary of one of the most tragic days in American history. On this day in 2001, a terrorist organization that called itself Al-Qaida launched a coordinated attack on the United States. The attack left about 3000 innocent and unassuming victims dead.

As university students worldwide embark on a new school year, we want to give you a snapshot of the work of two Global Scholars who are married, Dalton and Kerri, who serve in a closed country in Asia. Thanks to your partnership, they make an impact daily among their students and colleagues, and in their university.