Latest / Reformed Thinking / Global Opportunities through Education: Advantages, Trends, and Issues

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Global Opportunities through Education: Advantages, Trends, and Issues · Reformed Thinking

0:01
Imagine a missionary right now. Just, you know, fix that image
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in your mind. Yeah, you are probably picturing
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A dusty, remote jungle village. Right.
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Or maybe someone translating the Gospel of John by the flickering
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light of a kerosene lamp in a rural outpost.
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Well, that is the classic historical picture we all have.
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But today we are taking a deep dive into a reality that
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completely shatters that mental image.
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Because the absolute front lines of modern global missions do not
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look like a jungle anymore. No, they really do not.
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They look like a bustling air conditioned university lecture
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hall in Dubai. Or they look like a virtual
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English tutoring session, you know, happening on a laptop in a
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suburban living room. We are looking at global
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education today and this is an industry approaching $10
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trillion in annual expenditures. That number is just staggering,
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$10 trillion. Right and right in the middle of
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that massive global marketplace, unprecedented doors are swinging
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wide open for the gospel. Welcome to Reformed thinking.
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I am so glad we are getting into this today because that $10
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trillion figure, I mean, it is almost impossible to wrap the
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human mind around. It really is.
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But it dictates the movement of millions of people globally
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every single year. And the sheer scale of the
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education sector creates logistical pathways that, well,
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traditional mission boards could never afford to build
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themselves. Oh, absolutely.
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There is a massive irony here though, when you look at the
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geopolitical landscape. What do you mean by that?
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Well, you have these nations that fiercely lock their borders
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like they will completely deny to anyone holding a religious
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visa. Right, they are entirely closed
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to traditional missionaries. Yeah, but at the exact same
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time, those specific nations are spending billions of dollars to
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recruit Western educators. They are literally rolling out
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the red carpet for them. Spot on.
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They provide housing, they offer competitive salaries, and they
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grant legal residency. All for teachers,
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administrators, and, you know, university professors.
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But before we get into the sheer mechanics of how that works on a
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global scale today, we have to look at this through a
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theological lens. I agree, the theology really
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sets the stage here. Because this entire dynamic
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perfectly aligns with a historically reformed
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understanding of vocation. Right.
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We often fall into this mental trap, you know, where we divide
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the world into two distinct categories.
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The sacred and secular. Yes, we assume the vocational
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pastor or the career missionary is doing the quote UN quote,
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real holy work. While the high school math
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teacher or the software engineer is just punching a clock.
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Yeah, just existing in the secular realm to pay the
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mortgage. But if you read the Westminster
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Confession, that sacred secular divide gets completely
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demolished. It really does, because every
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honest profession, when done unto the Lord, glorifies God.
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Right. The act of teaching a student
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how to properly conjugate English verbs or how to balance
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a complex chemistry equation is a literal act of bringing order
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to God's creation. It is a holy vocation.
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And what we are seeing now is that this specific vocation of
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teaching is currently the single greatest key for unlocking
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closed borders. That theological framing
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provides the perfect starting point, but to truly understand
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the mechanics of what is happening in the 21st century,
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we actually need to rewind the clock.
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Yeah, we need to go all the way back to the 1st century.
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Because the modern educator stepping onto a campus in
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Beijing or Riyadh is not inventing a new strategy.
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Not at all. The Apostle Paul provides the
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absolute blueprint for integrating secular work with
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Global Witness. When we analyze Paul's specific
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missionary strategies, we find 6 distinct professional advantages
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that he leveraged. And every single one of them
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mirrors the reality of the modern global educator.
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Let's break those down. What is the first advantage?
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The first advantage is his strategic use of language.
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Paul's native heart language was likely Aramaic.
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Right. But when he traveled, he
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utilized Greek to communicate with Gentiles throughout the
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entire Roman world. Because Greek was the lingua
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franca of his day. It was the operating system of
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the Mediterranean. You would hear it in political
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arenas, philosophical debates and mundane transactions in the
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meat market. So he leveraged the dominant
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language of commerce to communicate the gospel to the
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broadest possible audience. He didn't just speak the, you
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know, insular language of the local synagogue.
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He actually spoke the language of the international trade
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routes. That makes perfect sense.
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And that brings us to the second advantage in his blueprint.
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Which is his highly portable, globally demanded marketplace
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job. Well, we see in Acts chapter 18
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that he was a tent maker. You know he worked with leather
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and canvas. And that specific artisanal
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skill was required wherever armies marched.
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Or wherever merchants travelled and wherever people live,
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really. So it allowed him to secure
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immediate employment. He wasn't permanently tethered
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to a single static location. Which leads directly into his
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third advantage. Paul functioned as an
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independent contractor. Right, he funded his own
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ministry. Yeah, by paying for his own
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food, his supplies, and his rented quarters, which we see
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explicitly at the end of Acts chapter 28.
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So he retained total operational freedom.
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Spot on. He was not waiting for a
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financial stipend from the church in Antioch to dictate his
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next move. This self funding mechanism gave
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him the flexibility to teach disciples and evangelize in the
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public squares on his own preferred schedule.
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I want to offer an analogy here because this drastically changes
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how we view Paul. Oh, go for it.
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What is the analogy? When we look at him stitching
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canvas to fund his travels, he is essentially operating like an
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ancient gig economy worker. Oh, that is a really good way to
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put it. Right.
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Think of a modern freelance software developer or like an
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Upwork consultant. Yeah, they can open their laptop
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in a coffee shop in Tokyo or a Co working space in Berlin.
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They knockout their client deliverables to pay the rent.
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And then they spend the rest of their week entirely engaged with
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the local culture. Yeah, Paul wasn't tied down by a
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rigid 9 to 5 corporate structure that dictated his every waking
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hour. His hands paid his rent, but his
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schedule belonged entirely to the mission.
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He could work his leather in the early morning and then go debate
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Stoic philosophers in the Areopagus in the afternoon.
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The gig economy analogy captures his operational freedom
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perfectly, and it connects directly to his fourth
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advantage. Which was what?
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His trade was culturally acceptable.
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Tent making was practical, understood and valued by
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society. It raised 0 suspicion from local
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magistrates or Roman governors. Rome was notoriously paranoid
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about secret societies and political subversives.
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Yeah, they were. But nobody looked at a man
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quietly repairing canvas awnings and assumed he was a threat to
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the social order. His job was a legitimate,
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undisputed contribution to the local economy.
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Which brings us to his fifth advantage, his ability to travel
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widely using state funded infrastructure.
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The Roman Empire maintained an unprecedented network of
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international thoroughfares. They cleared the seas of pirates
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and paved roads across continents.
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And Paul utilized these Roman roads to journey across Israel,
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Arabia, Asia Minor and Europe. Establishing churches across a
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massive geographical footprint. Finally, we have his sixth
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advantage, which was his Roman citizenship.
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This legal status granted him access, prestige and
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preferential treatment. It allowed him to navigate
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complex legal systems and avoid certain punishments.
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And to cross borders that would have been absolutely closed to a
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standard provincial subject. Let's connect this directly to
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the reformed perspective on Providence.
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Oh, this is a brilliant connection.
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We believe God sovereignly orchestrates the geopolitical
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movements of human history for the sake of His.
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Right, God didn't just passively watch the Roman Empire build its
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Rd. system. And he didn't just casually
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observe the Greeks spreading their language after the
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conquest of Alexander the Great. No, God actively oversaw the
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construction of that physical Roman infrastructure.
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And the dissemination of the Greek language specifically to
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facilitate the rapid explosive spread of the Christian Church
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in the 1st century. And what becomes incredibly
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clear is that God is doing the exact same thing right now with
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the infrastructure of globally in the English language.
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The parallels are undeniable. The modern education sector
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perfectly mirrors Paul's six advantages.
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Today, the global use of English is far more pervasive than Greek
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ever was in the ancient world. And education itself is a
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borderless international business.
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Modern educators are highly mobile, moving effortlessly
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between massive global financial hubs and smaller provincial
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cities. Just like Paul, an overseas
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educator can be entirely self-sufficient, funding their
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own ministry efforts through a very comfortable secular salary.
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Furthermore, the role of a teacher is universally respected
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by citizens and governments alike.
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It provides immediate, unquestioned cultural
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acceptability. You are viewed as an asset to
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the community, not a foreign religious agitator.
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And modern passports combined with globalized commercial air
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transit act as the new Roman roads and Roman citizenship.
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They provide legal entry into restricted access nations where
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traditional vocational missionaries are legally barred
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from ever stepping foot. I really want you, the listener,
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to pause and evaluate your own secular profession right now.
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Yeah, look at the specific skills you have spent years
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acquiring. Are they portable?
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Are they in demand across international borders?
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We so often think our secular qualifications are just
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mechanisms for climbing the corporate ladder or padding a
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retirement account. But how might Providence be
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arranging your specific secular qualifications for Kingdom
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expansion? Whether that is an ESL
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certification, a master's degree in engineering, or a background
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in higher education administration.
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God might have given you that specific skill set so you could
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use it as your own modern version of tent making.
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If we recognize that we possess this modern tent making
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capability, the logical next step is to figure out where the
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actual demand is located. Right, where are the modern
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Macedonian calls coming from? The data reveals 4 major global
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educational trends that are currently ripe for the harvest.
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The first massive trend is international enrollment.
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Universities all over the world are actively recruiting across
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borders. They are hiring faculty
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internationally and building cross cultural research
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partnerships. This creates A fascinating multi
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layered dynamic for evangelism. You have host country evangelism
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where you reach the international students coming
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into your own native country. You have second country
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evangelism, where you pack up and go to teach in a foreign
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nation. And then you have this brilliant
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concept of third country evangelism.
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This is where an educator from one nation meets a student from
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another nation in a completely different third country.
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There is a phenomenal historical anecdote about this exact third
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country dynamic in the sources. Oh yes, the story about the
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student from Taiwan. Right, so this student from
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Taiwan traveled to the United States to study for a PhD in
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electrical engineering. And while he was grinding
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through this intense academic program at an American
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University, a local church with an international student
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outreach. Welcome to men.
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Through that hospitality, he and his wife heard the gospel and
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were converted. After graduating with his
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doctorate, he could have easily gone back to Taiwan for a highly
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lucrative career in their tech sector.
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Instead, he made a deliberate choice to become a professor at
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a university in Singapore. Why did you do that?
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Because that specific university in Singapore attracts massive
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numbers of students from mainland China.
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He and his wife joined a Chinese speaking church in Singapore and
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started a campus ministry specifically to disciple those
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mainland Chinese students. It is a masterpiece of
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Providence. Really.
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God brought a Taiwanese man to America to save him.
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Then he deployed him to Singapore, all to reach mainland
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Chinese students who are otherwise extremely difficult to
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access. You are reaching multiple
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unreached people groups simultaneously, all converging
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in a single classroom. That specific sequence of events
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perfectly illustrates the Reformed doctrine of the
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irresistible call. God actively draws his elect
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from every corner of the globe. He will literally orchestrate
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geopolitical movements, academic ambitions, and university
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enrollment algorithm. All to ensure His people are in
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the exact right place at the right time to hear the gospel.
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The second major trend facilitating this global
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movement is English education. English has become the
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undisputed global language of science, technology, aviation
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and commerce. Prominent figures in language
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education note that English is the absolute required language
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for publishing in international academic journals.
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Because of this economic and academic reality, nations are
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mandating English instruction at younger and younger ages.
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We are seeing a massive rise in what the industry calls ESP or
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English for specific purpose. This is not just basic
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conversational English. Right.
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No. This is teaching medical English
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to nurses in Southeast Asia or aviation English to pilots in
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the Middle East. Or business English to
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executives in Latin America. Short term high energy English
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camps during summer months are also exploding in popularity
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across Europe and Asia. I am going to step in and and
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play the skeptic for a second because I know someone listening
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is probably feeling a bit uneasy about this.
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Oh sure, what is the push back? Isn't this aggressive push for
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Western English education just a repackaged form of cultural
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imperialism? Yeah, it's a very common
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question. Doesn't this sound suspiciously
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like the 19th century British East India Company claiming they
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were providing A mutually beneficial service while
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actually just exporting Western dominance and erasing local
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cultures? It is a valid historical
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concern, but the underlying mechanics of what is happening
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today are completely different from 19th century colonialism.
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How so? The sources are pretty clear on
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this distinction. Well, this is not a case of
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Westerners rolling in with military backing and forcing
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their language onto unwilling populations.
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Right, The text clarifies that this is a response to genuine,
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eager, organically generated global demand.
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The mandates for English instruction are being written by
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the educational ministries of the host countries themselves.
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Developing nations recognize that English proficiency is the
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literal gatekeeper to participating in the modern
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global economy. It is required for accessing
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cutting edge scientific research and securing upward mobility for
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their citizens. By providing English education,
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a Christian teacher is offering a legitimate, highly requested
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service. They are fulfilling a contract
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that the host culture desperately wants fulfilled.
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OK, so the agency lies with the host country.
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They are the ones putting out the job postings because they
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want the economic benefits the language provides.
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Exactly. Wait, I mean spot on.
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It is a consensual, mutually beneficial exchange.
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We provide the high level education they are desperate for
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and in doing so we earn a legitimate place in their
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society to build relationships and live out the gospel.
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So if English education is the second trend, where is the third
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area of growth? The third trend is online
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education. This sector obviously saw a
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massive forced acceleration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Oh, absolutely. Teachers everywhere were just
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thrust in front of computer screens.
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And the global infrastructure for digital learning matured by
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like a decade overnight. Which means private online
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language tutoring has completely taken off.
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Right, the source text gives this amazing example of a female
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educator. She had a real burden for the
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Muslim world. Right.
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Yeah, she did, But relocating to the Middle East just wasn't
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feasible for her. So what did she do?
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Well, she started tutoring Saudi women one-on-one in English.
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Oh wow, just via online video calls?
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Yeah, right Through her webcam, she charged a modest standard
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hourly fee. Which is smart because that
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establishes A respectful professional dynamic.
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It does, but through those consistent hours of weekly
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conversation, she built genuine, trusting friendships.
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And that digital connection LED directly to spiritual
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conversations. In a nation that is historically
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completely closed to physical missionary access.
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That blows my mind. She is actively crossing
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international borders and bypassing strict national
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security protocols. And entering restricted
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households right through a webcam in her living room.
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You don't even need to renew a passport for that kind of global
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outreach. That is very true, but for those
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who do want to go physically, the fourth major trend is
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expatriate education. There has been an unbelievable
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boom in international schools over the last 20 years.
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Driven by rapid globalization and multinational corporate
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expansion, the number of English language international schools
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worldwide grew from about 1000 to over 8000.
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They now house roughly 4.5 million students.
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Cities like Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo and Riyadh have dozens of
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these sprawling, well funded campuses.
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These multinational corporations need places to send the children
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of their executives, so they demand high tier western
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education. Additionally, wealthy local
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citizens in these host countries often want their children to
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attend these schools to prepare them for Western universities.
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And these institutions are constantly looking for qualified
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state certified Western educators to staff their
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classrooms. All right, hearing all of this,
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a zealous believer listening to this deep dive might be ready to
17:35
pack their bags immediately. It sounds like a guaranteed
17:38
foolproof success. You get a great salary, you live
17:41
in a fascinating global city, and you get to do mission work.
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But we need to pump the brakes heavily right here.
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Yeah, stepping into this arena brings severe practical
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challenges that can completely derail the mission if they are
17:52
not anticipated. The friction is real.
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This is where you have to count the cost.
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Yes, raw enthusiasm must be matched with clear eyed sober
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preparation. The sheer logistics of living
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overseas will test anyone. The first massive challenge is
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maintaining mission clarity. When you are working a demanding
18:10
full time secular job overseas, grading papers, dealing with
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administration and managing parent expectations, it is
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remarkably easy to completely lose sight of why you moved
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across the world in the first place.
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The primary goal must always remain God's glory in the
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building up of the local church. This is why it is insisted that
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even fully self funded educators should be officially sent out by
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an established home church. They need that structural
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accountability and the confirmation of their calling by
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a body of elders. Once they arrive on the field,
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they must prioritize partnering with a healthy local church or
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working alongside others to plant one if none exists.
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If a Christian just moves to Tokyo, teaches excellent English
18:52
for five years, but never connects their students to the
18:55
body of Christ, they're entirely missing the biblical objective.
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The second challenge is language learning.
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And I have to throw another friction point at you here,
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because this seems to directly contradict the entire premise we
19:06
just established. Oh, how so?
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Well, if English is the undisputed language of global
19:11
trade, and the local citizens are literally paying us their
19:14
hard earned money to speak English to them, why on earth
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should a western teacher expend years agonizing over learning
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the local indigenous dialect? That is a very valid question.
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Why subject ourselves to that grueling, frustrating effort
19:30
when we already possess the language they want?
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It is a profound paradox. Wait.
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I mean, it is a very intense paradox, but it is an absolutely
19:39
essential one for the Christian. Explain that for us.
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While English transfers data and economic opportunity, the heart
19:45
language transfers love and dignity.
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Oh, that makes a lot of. Sense When you rely solely on
19:50
English, you maintain a position of cultural power, convenience
19:53
and dominance. You are forcing the local people
19:56
to always come to you on your terms.
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But when you endure the gruelling, humiliating effort to
20:00
learn the local dialect, you communicate a deep, undeniable
20:04
respect for the people. You were telling them your
20:06
culture possesses something of inherent value that I want to
20:08
learn. Furthermore, learning the local
20:11
tongue forces the highly educated Western teacher into
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the humbling posture of an infant.
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It strips away all their perceived academic superiority.
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You transition from being the expert with a master's degree to
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being the person stumbling over basic verb tenses, desperately
20:26
needing a local teenager's help just to buy vegetables at the
20:30
market. That mechanism of forced
20:31
humiliation perfectly bridges into the third challenge, which
20:35
is humility and listening. There is a massive danger of
20:39
adopting the sage on the stage mentality in.
20:42
Many Asian and Middle Eastern cultures teachers are given
20:45
immense, almost unquestioned reverence.
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If you combine that local cultural reverence with a
20:51
Western superiority complex, it is an absolute recipe for
20:54
disaster. The teacher becomes an
20:56
unteachable dictator. I love the framework provided by
20:59
Donald and Larson and the sources.
21:00
He was an anthropology and linguistics professor, right?
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Yeah, and he outlined 3 progressing roles every cross
21:06
cultural worker must adopt the learner, the trader and the
21:09
storyteller. He suggested spending months, if
21:12
not years, purely functioning as a learner, where your only job
21:16
is to absorb the language and observe the culture.
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Larson's framework is brilliant because it actively fights human
21:22
pride It. Forces the educator to delay
21:25
their natural urge to impart knowledge until they have
21:29
actually earned the relational capital to do so.
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You start purely as a learner, completely dependent on the host
21:35
culture to survive your daily life.
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Then as you gain competence, you slowly transition into a
21:40
traitor. You begin exchanging cultural
21:42
insights, sharing parts of your background while still receiving
21:45
theirs, building reciprocal, balanced relationships.
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Only after successfully navigating those first two
21:51
stages do you earn the platform to be a Storyteller.
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This is when you can finally share the gospel in a way that
21:57
truly resonates with local context, because you actually
22:00
understand their fears, their idioms, and their worldview.
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Westerners who are trained to be highly individualistic problem
22:07
solvers, need to listen far more than they speak when they arrive
22:11
in a new culture. And if they don't listen, if
22:13
they come in loudly and aggressively, they run head
22:16
first into the fourth challenge, which is outsider suspicion.
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When you show up in a restricted access nation, the local
22:24
population is not automatically assume you are there out of the
22:28
goodness of your heart. Look at the experience of a man
22:30
named Thomas Hale the Third. He worked in the former Soviet
22:33
Union for 19 years, right? Yeah, he attended a local
22:36
underground church there for over a year, worshipping quietly
22:40
right alongside the congregation week after week.
22:43
Finally, after a year of observation, they asked him to
22:46
stand up and share his testimony.
22:48
After he finished, the local woman introducing him casually
22:51
mentions the entire congregation that for the first several
22:54
months he attended, she was absolutely certain he was a
22:57
western spy. Wow.
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She just logically assumed his educational work was a front for
23:02
CIA espionage. Thomas Hale offers a very sharp
23:05
warning regarding this dynamic of suspicion.
23:08
He. Warns against what he calls the
23:09
civilizing mission of colonialism.
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This is the deeply flawed, highly arrogant notion that
23:15
Westerners are duty bound to elevate other cultures to an
23:18
advanced level of civilization. We have to violently separate
23:22
our cultural biases from biblical truth.
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The goal of a Christian educator is not to make an Asian or
23:29
African student act, dress, or thing like a middle class
23:32
American. The goal is to see them conform
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to the image of Christ within their own cultural context.
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We must look again to Pauls model in First Corinthians
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Chowder 9. He says he became all things to
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all men, that by all means he might save some.
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Paul willingly discarded his own cultural preferences, his ethnic
23:51
pride, and his dietary habits to remove any unnecessary
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sociological stumbling blocks to the gospel.
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Modern educators must do the exact same thing.
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They must strip away their Western political and cultural
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baggage so the local people only stumble over the cross of
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Christ, not the teacher's arrogance.
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Let's let's shift the scale of this conversation a bit.
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Sure. Where are we heading?
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Well, we have been looking closely at the posture of the
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individual educator, you know, the single teacher in a
24:18
classroom or on a webcam. But what happens when we scale
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that blueprint, like what happens when believers
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institutionalized this effort? Oh, you mean moving beyond
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individual tutoring? Yeah, pooling resources to start
24:30
fully accredited schools or universities in non Christian
24:33
contexts. What happens when a Christian
24:35
worldview actually owns the building?
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Well, when we move to the institutional level, we operate
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under a governing principle found in the book of Jeremiah.
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Chapter 29, Verse 7. Oh spot on.
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This is where God commands the Jewish exiles living in Babylon
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to actively seek the peace and well-being of the Pagan city
24:53
where He has sent them. So establishing a Christian LED
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university in a foreign restricted nation is a
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monumental structural way to seek the well-being of that
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society. There are four major tangible
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benefits to this institutional approach.
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First, it allows a body of believers to actively love their
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neighbors by putting the students learning and holistic
25:14
development first rather than just treating them as a revenue
25:17
stream. Second, it authenticates the
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gospel message through the visible corporate witness of
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transformed lives and stable families among the faculty. 3rd,
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it provides a massive accredited platform to teach academic truth
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from a cohesive biblical worldview, actively instilling
25:33
core virtues like hard work, academic integrity, and honesty.
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And 4th, it actively strengthens local churches by providing a
25:41
geographic hub for discipleship and a reliable pipeline for
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producing mature, educated believers who can lead those
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churches. The contrast between these
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Christian institutions and the local state-run schools in many
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developing nations is absolutely staggering.
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In many non Christian majority contexts, state-run universities
26:00
suffer terribly from chronic underfunding and systemic top to
26:03
bottom corruption. Professors routinely demand cash
26:06
bribes from students just to grant passing grades.
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The entire educational system is compromised by extortion.
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But when a group of Christian professors steps into that
26:14
environment and offers honest, high quality, rigorous education
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and absolutely refuses to demand unrighteous compensation, it
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sends shockwaves through the entire community.
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It is an anomaly that demands an explanation.
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This is where our Reformed theology provides a very clear
26:30
analytical lens for understanding the sociological
26:32
situation. The Reformed view of total
26:34
depravity perfectly explains the rampant bribery and corruption
26:38
found in those secular institutions.
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Human nature, left entirely to its own devices, will inherently
26:45
seek selfish gain and exploit any available system of power.
26:49
It is entirely predictable. But when a Christian university
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operates in that exact same corrupt environment and
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absolutely refuses to participate in bribery, not just
27:00
because it violates a Western corporate rulebook, but out of a
27:03
trembling reverence for a holy God, it creates a stark,
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undeniable contrast. The local culture watches this
27:10
happen. They see an entire institution
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operating on an entirely different moral axis.
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That corporate integrity validates the reality of the
27:17
gospel message more loudly and clearly than any theology
27:21
lecturer ever could. I want to use an analogy to
27:24
capture the mechanics of what one of these institutions
27:26
actually does for a society. I love analogies.
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Let's hear it. Setting up a Christian
27:30
university in a corrupt or restricted nation operates a lot
27:33
like installing a massive water filtration system in a town with
27:37
a heavily polluted water supply. Oh, that makes a lot of visual
27:40
sense. The institution takes in the
27:42
raw, culturally influenced students, you know, students who
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are accustomed to cheating, bribery and selfishness.
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And it passes them through the rigorous filter of biblical
27:52
integrity, honest grading, and Christian mentorship.
27:55
Over the course of four years, it outputs clean, reliable,
27:59
honest graduates who then flow out to become the business
28:02
leaders, politicians and church elders of that society.
28:06
It purifies the leadership pipeline, but maintaining that
28:10
filtration system requires fighting a harsh, incredibly
28:14
hostile environment. That hostile environment is very
28:16
real, and the institutional challenges these universities
28:19
face are severe. First, there are intense, often
28:23
antagonistic government regulations.
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In many nations, teaching exclusive biblical Christianity
28:28
is actively labeled as hate speech or cultural subversion by
28:31
the state, putting the school's charge at constant risk.
28:34
Second, there is fierce market pushback.
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When you introduce a high quality, high integrity
28:39
educational model, the corrupt self protective establishment
28:42
feels highly threatened. They will push back aggressively
28:45
to protect their own extortion rackets. 3rd, there is the
28:48
relentless logistical challenge of maintaining faithful faculty.
28:52
You cannot run a Christian university with secular,
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unbelieving staff. You need highly qualified
28:58
academics with PhDs who are also faithful, mature, or church
29:04
members willing to live overseas.
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Finding those individuals is incredibly difficult.
29:09
And finally, there is the ever present creeping danger of
29:13
mission drift. Mission drift is terrifying
29:16
because the history of higher education is littered with
29:18
examples of it. Just look at the Ivy League in
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the United States. Institutions like Harvard, Yale,
29:24
and Princeton were founded specifically to train Orthodox
29:27
Christian ministers. Today they are completely
29:29
secularized and often actively hostile to the faith that
29:31
founded them. Without vigorous, unyielding
29:34
oversight from a dedicated board of directors, an institution
29:37
will inevitably lose its founding theological vision
29:40
within a generation or two. You have to fight constantly,
29:43
tooth and nail to keep sound theology central to the academic
29:46
mission. To prove that these principles,
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you know, maintaining absolute theological fidelity while
29:51
effectively engaging a secular campus are not just theoretical
29:55
ideas on a whiteboard, we can look at a brilliant boots on the
29:59
ground case study. It takes us to Lilongwe Moi,
30:02
specifically to a high density bustling district called Area
30:05
25. This case study perfectly
30:08
encapsulates the mechanics of what it looks like when sound
30:11
doctrine is put into action in an educational setting.
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Yes, the story of Reformation Bible Church in Area 25.
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This local church decided to start a campus outreach to the
30:21
surrounding colleges, but they did not do it the way most
30:24
modern western ministries operate.
30:26
They didn't rent out a stadium or bring in a rock band.
30:29
They simply set up basic wooden book tables on the local college
30:32
campuses. And they stocked those tables
30:34
primarily with dense, centuries old Puritan writings.
30:38
We really have to highlight the sharp contrast here.
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The usual campus ministries operating in Malawi at the time
30:44
relied heavily on flashy showmanship, emotional
30:47
excitement, and completely student LED movements that were
30:51
deliberately disconnected from the oversight and authority of a
30:54
local church. The result of those emotionally
30:57
driven, untethered movements was often an environment environment
31:00
dominated by spiritual immaturity and moral failure
31:03
among the students. Reformation Bible Church looked
31:06
at that landscape and took the exact opposite approach.
31:09
They established 4 non negotiable tenets for their
31:13
campus work. Getting the Gospel right through
31:15
clear biblical evangelism. Getting the Bible right through
31:19
rigorous systematic study. Getting the church right through
31:23
formal, accountable membership. And getting missions right in
31:26
their daily life and practice. And the practical result of that
31:29
approach speaks for itself. The work didn't just generate
31:32
artificially inflated attendance numbers or temporary emotional
31:35
highs that faded by Monday morning.
31:37
It produced highly mature, rooted believers.
31:40
These college students grew in the faith, graduated, stayed in
31:43
the community, and eventually became the mature elders and
31:47
deacons of the local church. They practically fulfilled the
31:49
mandate of Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 2, where Paul
31:53
tells Timothy to entrust the teachings to faithful men who
31:57
will be able to teach others also.
31:59
They built a sustainable multi generational leadership pipeline
32:02
without any gimmicks. What is truly fascinating to
32:05
analyze is the psychology of why the these young Malawian
32:08
students were so magnetically drawn to the Puritans.
32:11
These were old, unadorned paperback books written by men
32:15
in the 1600s. But those books clearly,
32:19
unflinchingly explained God's absolute holiness, man's radical
32:22
total depravity, and Christ's perfect substitutionary
32:26
redemption. The students saw the brokenness
32:28
and corruption in their own society, and they saw the sin in
32:31
their own hearts. The Puritans didn't offer
32:33
superficial band aids. They offered a diagnosis that
32:36
matched the severity of the disease.
32:38
This completely validates the Reformed confessional belief
32:41
that the unvarnished truth of Scripture has an inherent divine
32:44
efficacy. The truth is far more compelling
32:47
to the human soul than any watered down imported
32:50
entertainment. There is a brilliant, almost
32:53
humorous irony here. Oh, definitely.
32:56
If you hired a modern marketing firm to design A campus
32:59
ministry, the experts would tell you that college students in
33:02
their early 20s only want pizza parties, laser tags, smoke
33:06
machines and lighthearted motivational pep talks.
33:09
Yet these young adults in Malawi bypassed all the flashy, loud,
33:14
well funded movements. A eagerly devoured, heavy,
33:17
uncompromising theology because it actually offered real,
33:21
substantive answers to the human condition.
33:23
It didn't treat them like fragile consumers.
33:26
It treated them like sinners in desperate need of a massive
33:28
Savior. That Mallowing case study brings
33:31
our entire discussion full circle.
33:32
It summarizes the the core reality that the massive global
33:35
education sector is not just a secular marketplace meant solely
33:39
for career advancement and wealth accumulation.
33:41
It's a highly fertile, structurally open field for the
33:44
Great Commission. Whether you are a young
33:46
professional teaching English online to a single student
33:49
across the globe, a seasoned administrator shaping academic
33:53
policy at a massive International School in Dubai,
33:56
or a local church member faithfully sharing paperback
33:59
books at a wooden table in the long way.
34:02
The core goal remains the same, right?
34:03
The glory of God and the building up of His church.
34:06
The logistical opportunities are vast, the global demand is
34:09
incredibly real, and the vocational tools required are
34:12
very likely already in our hands.
34:15
I want to leave you, the listener, with a final thought
34:18
to ponder as we close this deep dive.
34:20
Think about your own life trajectory.
34:22
You have likely spent years, maybe even decades, accumulating
34:26
university degrees, professional certifications, and highly
34:30
specialized industry knowledge. You have stayed up late taking
34:33
the exams, writing the research papers and climbing the
34:35
corporate ladder. But what if the primary reason
34:38
God allowed you to acquire that specific secular knowledge
34:41
wasn't just to secure a comfortable suburban mortgage or
34:45
to build a robust retirement portfolio?
34:47
What if that specific university degree hanging on your wall is
34:51
actually your Providence ordained ticket into a closed
34:54
country? What if it is the exact
34:57
credential required to place you in a classroom where a future
35:00
brother or sister in Christ is currently sitting waiting for a
35:03
teacher to arrive and finally tell them the truth?
35:06
Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking.