Blog

New Work in the New Year

Posted on January 5, 2021

We ring in the new year with praise to God for the graduation of 20 students from our Three-Year Certificate Program at the WP training site in December 2020. With plans to open up another four to five sites, we anticipate graduating a total of a hundred or so students in the next few years. We rejoice over these developments especially during a global pandemic! To our delight, a number of graduates at WP desired further training in order to become more well-rounded, stronger disciplers. These fresh SALT grads had already earned BS and/or MS Bible...

The Lord has led me on the Journey

Posted on December 4, 2020

It's claimed by some that evangelism in East Asia is headed for a cold winter, but how true is this? No-one knows for sure, but after hearing the heartening and humbling feedback from our lead-trainers in the field, we beg to differ! When asked if they would continue serving with SALT in the face of ever-challenging conditions including tight controls and diminished resources, our teachers responded with a resounding, "Yes!" Philip, a seasoned SALT trainer for over 20 years, declared: "There is no doubt I will continue to serve. Circumstances may worsen, the risks...

Shattered Expectations

Posted on November 5, 2020

Ah-Shen was not new to training programs. She had been to several before and had grown weary of them . . . dry content and of little practical use for ministry. She stayed away from SALT training in her area until a friend convinced her that this training was different. Certain that our Three-Year Teaching Certificate Program would be as disappointing as all the others, Ah-Shen attended Practical Church Management with great reluctance and skepticism. But, oh, was she in for a wonderful surprise! Immediately at the end of the last class, she rushed forward to catch...

Autumn Again

Posted on October 5, 2020

As the Chinese saying goes, "Time flies: another autumn is upon us." Looking back on 2020 thus far with all the unprecedented hardships, we give thanks to God because it is solely by His grace that our ministry has continued to make progress. The raging coronavirus and its resulting economic turmoil have forced many ministries to grind to a halt. Not unscathed, SALT's East Asia training was suspended for more than four months, reopening bit by bit at the end of May. During the first half of the year, we taught...

Encountering God in History

Posted on September 4, 2020

Testimony by KK History is treasured in both eastern and western cultures. A famous emperor once claimed: "The past can be used as a mirror to discern the future rise and fall of dynasties." Lord Byron the 19th century British poet similarly remarked: "The past is the best prophet of the future." While teaching for the first time with SALT, I indeed gained a deeper understanding of the present by learning about the past as I conducted the Church History course at a local church during the past two quarters. Prior to the 1980s, the...

NT100 Revamp

Posted on August 8, 2020

The idea was first floated more than a year ago. The closer we looked at it, the more problems we noticed. Following a teaching experiment reflecting changes in our newer courses, the enthusiastic responses of our students convinced us it was past time to refresh one of our most popular foundational courses, NT Survey, 100 Steps (NT100). Though it has served us well for over 20 years, it is clearly outdated and not meeting the expectations and higher education levels of both pastors and believers in East Asia. Unlike all our recent...

Best of Both

Posted on July 8, 2020

How do we keep the best of both worlds? How can we retain the favorable features of traditional classroom teaching within a new delivery format? That is the challenge before us now as we evaluate the video course we had designed in order to comply with social-distancing regulations due to the pandemic. From participant feedback on the Chinese Church History 1 video course that was taught at a local church last quarter, we discovered that almost all respondents appreciated the flexibility in terms of time and place: students could view the lessons at their convenience,...

Where are Your Eyes?

Posted on June 2, 2020

We typically share in these monthly emails about what is happening "over here" in Asia. In this new era of COVID-19, however, there is no over here and over there. We are all in the same little boat, drifting and dazed in the same unknown and un-navigated current. For some, the virus is inconvenient, but for many others, it is painful, even perilous. In the developing nations across Asia where we work, COVID-19 is placing severe strain on people whose lives are tenuous even in normal circumstances. Many of the people...

Grace in the Time of Pandemic

Posted on May 8, 2020

"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9, ESV) COVID-19 is not the only novelty! Despite suspensions of SALT trainings across East Asia since January, our God of breakthrough has birthed multiple developments during this quiet season of reflection, evaluation, consolidation and completion of unfinished business. First off, after months of rigorous review based on field-test results, and in consultation with an independent language expert, Bible Study Skills 2 (BSS2) was finally completed and even made...

Still but not Idle

Posted on April 4, 2020

Like you, we have been learning what it means, quite literally, to "be still and know that I am God" during this pandemic. All national trainings have been suspended since January. During this difficult time, we have received encouraging notes from some of our three-year certificate students who completed their first three courses last year. Their reflections on that experience serve as reminders to us that the pandemic has only increased the vast demand for biblical training in the region. Below are excerpts from two of those notes: "After these three...