FOCUS ON ASIA
SUNSET INTERNATIONAL BIBLE INSTITUTE
SINGAPORE
Newsletter of Charles and Tamara Cook
Pasir Panjang Church of Christ
347 Pasir Panjang Rd.
Singapore 118688
ccook00@gmail.com http://focusonasia.wordpress.com
November, 2009
GORACKES ON FURLOUGH The Goracke family left Oct 28th for a furlough in the States. They arrived safely in West Texas. They will be visiting Sunset, family, supporters and beefing up their support base for another two years with SIBI Singapore. This family is dearly loved and appreciated by everyone at the Pasir Panjang Church and the students that come to the school. Before they left for the States, Tom made a two week tour of places where they have labored in the past and made many contacts with those who would be especially interested in attending SIBI Singapore. (More later)
OUR FIRST FULLTIME FOREIGN STUDENT
We introduced you to our first student visa ap
plicant and fulltime student in our previous newsletter…here’s more. By the way, there is one more mound of “red tape” to climb before we actually have our government registration in hand, but we are assured we are registered and will be notified soon following “a few more signatures.” Immanuel Maddala from India (right), will continue to stay in Singapore on an extended work permit until December. We have three other students from India set to join us in January.
As you can see in the photo (right), in the meantime Immanuel is taking Ed Wharton’s course on Scheme of Redemption with me as the co-teacher. He studies via DVD with Ed for three hours each morning and then he meets with me for further discussions about what he learned. We are most happy with this arrangement since we can also begin teaching him now instead of waiting for January. All the other foreign students have returned to their native places, and we hope some of them can return on student visas. Additionally, since Immanuel is still living at the shipyard where he works, each evening he is teaching a group of about 15 fellow workers from Andra Pradesh, India. Really, they’ve asked him to preach and that’s what he does each evening. They all speak Telegu. Immanuel’s command of English is excellent and I assume his Telegu is too. He has some experience in preaching the Word and with SIBI training I know he will make a difference when he goes back to Andra Pradesh, India.
(Left: elders Beng Chuan & William Wong, myself & foreign students)
KEEPING OUR PERSPECTIVE
The Church is growing rapidly in many parts of the world. That’s the good news! The bad news is: A great number of these new brethren have little or no formal Bible training. We have met and hear of others who are crying out for our Bible resources, for training, for any kind of help. Most will never have a chance to go to Bible school, certainly not to SIBI Lubbock. And, for some very practical reasons, they shouldn’t. That’s why we are here.
So we bring the Bible school to them–not buildings and chairs–but Bible instruction and resources. Our equipping is not just academically oriented, but practical and thoroughly biblical. We are trying to stimulate growth in each student and ultimately in the kingdom in the following significant ways: 1) biblical knowledge; 2) ministry skills; 3) character growth; 4) relationships; 5) church planting.
All of our teaching is grounded in the Scriptures. Core subjects include Bible study methods, teaching and preaching–in other words, hermeneutics and homiletics. We focus on all areas of great importance, i.e. every book of the Bible, leadership, counseling and a contagious church planting movement in every country. Let us work on keeping our perspective!
COMING UP – All of December is a holiday month here, the city will be brightly decorated by all the major religions, and things tend to take on a slower pace. We use this season to reach out beyond Singapore. Tamara and I will be joining the Wangsa Maju congregation of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for their annual Bible camp followed by a Seminar on Ephesians. I will be their camp speaker (Fort Dickson) and afterward teach the seminar at their church facility in K.L. Meanwhile we are preparing courses for 2010 and recruiting students from India, Philippines, Malaysia, and that other “heavily populated” country.
To Those Who Support Us: We daily thank God for brethren who give of themselves and their means to keep works like ours going. Your support is deeply appreciated.
God bless you all,
Charles and Tamara Cook
