Investing in Refugees and Scholars

                          Some of the Burmese refugee students who are learning Greek with Lisa.

                   When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
                   and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.          Isaiah 43:2

Dear Friends,
As I (Lisa) write this letter from the deck of our home-for-now in a lovely forest within the city of Durham, NC, taking in the sunlight as it dapples the leaves of maples and pines, my heart is at peace. But the past month has had its share of storms, including the literal deluge of rain in the days following Hurricane Debby.  Our daughter Becca was hospitalized for six days (she is doing fine now) and there have been painfully strained relational dynamics between other family members. Caring for my mom is overall a good gift, but her severe loss of hearing has added to the difficulty recently—it’s frustrating for all concerned. We’ve felt grief, concern, and confusion so often that I find myself surprised to come to the end of this challenging month with a solid amount of peace and gratitude.  We are not out of the woods entirely—it is, after all, where we live—but we are past the storm, and we see so many ways in which God was with us, as God promised through Isaiah. In the midst of the challenges we’ve faced, the ministry in which I have been able to engage has been joyful and good. I’d like to share about two current courses I’m teaching and an exciting new opportunity that is emerging.

It's all Greek to the Burmese!
When I say at church here in Durham that I’m teaching Greek to Burmese refugees who are living in Kuala Lumpur, I can get stares of incomprehension. First, folks who’ve not known me for a long time think of me as a preaching professor. But my college major was Latin and Greek, which let me jump into several semesters of advanced work in the Greek New Testament while a seminary student. I’d let it slide, but I decided a few years ago to revive my knowledge base. For the past few years, I’ve tried to read a few verses of the Greek New Testament each day and to build back a strong vocabulary. Last year, I co-taught a Greek course as an elective at St. Paul’s, and loved it. It was fully online, which gave me a vision for how well that can work.

The second reason I get some blank stares is that people in the US may be unaware of how very many refugees from Burma are in the relatively small nation of Malaysia—over 200,000, with some estimates of much higher numbers. They are not allowed to work in official jobs, nor are their children allowed to go to public schools. So, many Christians have begun simple schools for them. One such is Ruth Education Center, which you can learn more about here. Many of its alumni teach there during the days and attend Judson Bible College Malaysia in the evenings. I hope you’ll take a moment and learn Ben’s story here.

Ben’s story is particularly moving to me as an adjunct faculty member at SPTC, since he was trained there and is now leading at both Ruth and Judson. Rich first taught a Biblical Leadership course with these students last year. He was so impressed with their dedication that he eagerly invited me to join him when he took them out to dinner at the end of the term. I was impressed and moved by their stories as well. So, when Ben reached out to ask if I could teach Greek, I was glad to say yes. I am happily overwhelming them in the first hour of each session with the grammatical complexities of this delightful and confounding language, then calming and encouraging them and treating them to a few verses from the gospel of John in the second hour—a little like sending them into a storm and then into a sunlit forest. 😊

Ethics in Asia: This live, online course has also been a joy. I introduced the students, from all over Asia, to the range of secular and Christian approaches to ethics, and they returned the favor by teaching me about how those play out in their contexts, from anti-natalism in Singapore to the changing face of elder care in Thailand. I’ll be reading their papers next week, as well as the final papers for the Fuller D.Min. course I’ve taught for the past nine months.

A New Direction for Lisa!
With this move has come losses and gains, and one reality I have faced is that the main school at which I invested my time in Kuala Lumpur is eager, for good reasons, to prioritize teaching done by faculty who can be in the room with students. I will teach for them some this year, but much less than in the past three years, and obviously I no longer attend staff meetings, preach in chapel, or join students for informal dinners between afternoon and evening classes. I have been praying and wondering how I might be able to continue to contribute to the enterprise of theological education in Asia, and an exciting opportunity has emerged.

We have been fans of Scholar Leaders for many years. This organization funds and supports students from the developing world to study (in the West or anywhere in the world). Its priority is equipping Ph.D. students who can return to their home countries to teach in and lead seminaries there. I had met Christopher Hays, the president of Scholar Leaders, at a conference in San Diego several years ago when he was teaching the New Testament in Colombia; he now directs the ministry from nearby Raleigh, NC. We met recently to discern together whether there might be a part I could play in their work. He mentioned that they are eager to better support the women who come through their program. “Would I be interested in helping to move that forward?” “Why yes, I would be thrilled!” For now, this is an unpaid,10-15 hour per week role, funded by your generous giving to Paraclete, and we will see if more involvement emerges. I’m so grateful that your gifts make this work possible. One example of how I will jump in: They have begun funding small cohorts of women to do Th.M. degrees at Duke, readying them for Ph.D. level work. They meet monthly for fellowship and a book study; I’ll join that gathering next week. Here is what Christopher Hays had to say about this new opportunity:

We at Scholar Leaders are so thrilled to welcome Dr. Lisa Lamb to our team. As a ministry dedicated to cultivating global theological leaders for lifetimes of impact in the Church and on societies, we in Scholar Leaders seek out colleagues who combine top-tier theological expertise with a passion for the Majority World Church. Lisa's experience training pastors and theologians in South East Asia, combined with her own pastoral tenure, makes her an exciting addition to our team, as she brings those skills to bear in mentoring and encouraging young scholars from around the globe. Furthermore, Lisa is assuming leadership of our Women in Theological Leadership program area, investing in a new generation of the most gifted women theological leaders from the Majority World. Thank you for investing in her ongoing missional impact in service of training leaders for the global Church.
       Dr. Christopher M. Hays, President, www.scholarleaders.org

I find myself in awe of God’s goodness in providing me this opportunity, and the other settings in which I can teach and contribute, including the work we’re doing to gather the young adults of our church here in Durham.

Please pray for us:

• For Rich as he continues to equip pastors in India, and discernment about when he might next visit India.
• For Lisa as she teaches an intensive course remotely for SPTC next week, her ongoing Greek class, and the new ministry opportunities with Scholar Leaders.
• For both of us as we seek to care well for Lisa’s mom, Nancy.
• For our family as we continue to navigate some difficult realities.  

With gratitude and hope, Lisa and Rich