AP Story Mentions APNTS

March 31, 6:15 PM EDT

Giraffe to Receive Master of Divinity

By ANN DAYAMO
AP Education Writer

Taytay, Rizal, Philippines (AP)--Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary (APNTS), located in the suburbs of Manila, has always prided itself on providing quality graduate theological education to students from many different cultures. This year is no exception. In commencement services to be held on the Seminary's campus Saturday, April 4, a giraffe will march in the graduation ceremony, receiving his Master of Divinity degree along with seven human counterparts from three different countries.

The Rev. Mr. Steven Fulsian is the first non-human to take courses in the twenty-five year history of APNTS. Mr. Fulsian says, "It was hard for me to adjust to the low ceilings, but through the help of God I have been able to finish my degree in only four years." Before coming to the Seminary, Mr. Fulsian, an ordained minister in the Saharan Holiness Church, had established and maintained a ministry geared toward the physical and spiritual needs of giraffes in his native Kenya. "I hope," he continues, "that my success will encourage other non-humans to pursue theological education."

Mr. Fulsian's academic pursuits were not without their challenges, however. According to Dr. Floyd Cunningham, president of APNTS, "Our initial fear was not Steven's height, but his ability to communicate in English." Due to the existence of hundreds of languages and dialects throughout the Asia-Pacific region APNTS serves, all instruction at the Seminary is conducted in English. Incoming students whose native language is not English are required to pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Master of Divinity students like Mr. Fulsian must pass with a minimum TOEFL score of 500, while candidates for some other degrees must achieve at least 550. Though Mr. Fulsian had learned a good deal of English on an informal basis, listening to missionaries teaching English to children in Kenya, he had certain physiological difficulties which made speaking a bit of a chore. In addition, the English used in academic theology is more sophisticated than the typical conversational English to which Mr. Fulsian had previously been exposed. Upon his arrival at the APNTS campus in July 2005, Mr. Fulsian's initial TOEFL score was 460, insufficient to begin taking graduate classes. However, students scoring between 450 and 499 are allowed provisional acceptance and the privilege of taking non-credit English courses. Mr. Fulsian spent his first year of study in such courses, under the tutelage of Professor Beverly Gruver. Mrs. Gruver says, "Steven fervently applied himself to the study of English, and achieved one of the highest levels of improvement in TOEFL scores ever seen at APNTS." When Mr. Fulsian took the TOEFL again the next July, his score was 575, sufficient to enroll in any degree program offered by the Seminary.

Mr. Fulsian's physical stature also contributed to his unique experience. The APNTS campus is built on two adjoining, hilly plots of land in the Manila suburb of Taytay. Human students often complain of the arduous climb, especially of the 40 steps up to the main classroom building, known as Owens Hall, after the founding president of the Seminary. The Seminary conceded to Mr. Fulsian's needs by providing secure platforms at strategic points along the hill where he could stand and be able to stick his head through open windows to participate in class. In addition, computer operators and reading assistants were employed throughout Mr. Fulsian's stay at the Seminary to compensate for his lack of fingers. Mr. Fulsian praised the Seminary's efforts to accomodate his imposing physical presence. "APNTS really opened their doors," he says. Then, correcting himself, he continues, "I mean, their windows to me, and I am forever in their debt." Mr. Fulsian's height will also necessitate a change in the typical graduation exercises. Normally students wear academic gowns and walk across the stage one at a time to receive a hood from faculty members, decorated with the colors of the degree and the Seminary. In Mr. Fulsian's case, the gown and the stage march are excluded, but he will be given a hood. After the ceremony, when he stretches to his full height, the hood will settle across his shoulders as it is designed to do.

Master of Divinity graduates at APNTS are required to complete 90 semester hours, not including any remedial English study that may be needed. The Seminary also offers the degrees of Master of Arts in Religious Education, Master of Arts in Christian Communication, and Master of Science in Theology. APNTS is a graduate school in the Wesleyan tradition, preparing men and women--and, now, giraffes--for Christlike leadership and excellence in ministries.

What were you doing last year?

I've already told this story before, in a sermon/testimony in front of the student prayer meeting back in August (I think), but it certainly bears repeating. This is a significant day for for me, to which point I shall return in a moment. But first, to quote my seminary president, from a time before this was my seminary and before he was the president:

Dr. Modine,

Greetings from Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary. Our school is located near Manila in the Philippines...

We are looking for a teacher in Old Testament...

Would you be interested in applying for this position?

Thus began the whirlwind tour. And this message was dated February 6, 2008.

Yep. One year ago today. Four months and eleven days after that message, I had wheels down in Manila. That was an amazingly fast turnaround by anyone's reckoning, and even though "normal" is merely a setting on a dryer, my situation was not "normal" by any stretch of the imagination.

This email, my response to it, and the machinations that took place to evaluate, appoint, and train me together constituted the fulfillment of a more-than-decade-old dream. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Another passing

Kuya Mike, a much beloved member of the staff, went to be with his Lord on Saturday. That now makes three people directly connected with our campus who have passed away in the previous five months. I suppose this is one of the things that happens when you have people who have been working in one place for 25 years as is the case with some of our staff members, but still...and in any event that doesn't even begin to make sense of what happened with little EJ. I tempted to say that God is wise, that his mercy and compassion far outstrip human understanding and leave it at that. While this is true, somehow in the middle of shock and grief it seems like a cop-out...

Inter-Seminary Sports Fest

I was defeated. Soundly. Once again, on the chessboard, I made some silly blunders upon which my opponent capitalized, and I very quickly found myself on the losing end of the proposition. The tournament was a team format, with school A pitting three players against school B, and the school with the greater number of wins advancing on. In the two matches we played, we only won two games. Our best player won both his games, while I and the third player were both sorely overmatched. Because of one team's default, however, we had a chance to get into the finals with a win in the second match. But my performance in the second game was even more dismal than the first; I was checkmated in less than thirty moves. And then I came home and tried to console myself through some online chess victories, only to see myself make several more key blunders and lose a number of them in a row. Maybe I just need to quit playing for a while. It's not like I don't have a lot to do...

Ping pong and chess

Over the last couple of days, I have been practicing for the upcoming Inter-Seminary Sports Fest, which is exactly what it sounds like. I don't recall having an event like this when I was in seminary in the States, but that's a secondary matter relating to how seminaries of different traditions interact with one another. If the results of my "friendlies" are any indication, I should be out of the two tournaments for which I am registered in relatively short order.

I have signed up for chess and ping pong. I realize you cannot get two more opposite sports (except maybe darts and decathlon) but whatever. On Wednesday I was obliterated in four chess matches against one of our students who is also signed up to play, though he may not because he's going also to be taking photographs of the event. I made some blunders, and he capitalized on them brilliantly, and I got smashed.

In ping pong, the results were the same. Last night I was defeated in three straight games by a student playing ping pong in ISSF (though a different one from the chess guy). The scores were 21-14, 21-13, and 21-10, convincing and crushing defeats. My only decent performance was in the first game, in which we were back-and-forth tied until 9-9, then he pulled out ahead 12-9 and didn't look back.

Incidentally, this brings my overall ping pong record at APNTS to a disappointing 1-3.

How many ways can you say I've got a lot to do?

Under the gun, behind the eight ball, long way to go and a short time to get there...

Let's see:

1. I'm writing a paper for a conference here in Manila next month.
2. I'm writing a paper for a conference in Indiana in March.
   
3. I'm editing a book manuscript due at the end of June.
4. I'm editing a book manuscript due at the beginning of August.
5. I'm thinking about a proposal for a conference in Louisiana in November (proposals due March 1).
6. I'd like to get my grading done and back to my students in a timely manner.
7. I'm preparing my lectures on the fly, usually the night before, which cannot be good for quality and depth, or something.
8. I'm trying to be a good and attentive boyfriend, which I am discovering takes a lot of effort and a lot of time...but the benefits far outweigh the necessary investment.
9. I'm also shepherding a student through the writing of a master's thesis due in the middle of March.
10. I'm also (supposed to be) in touch with the folks at the other Nazarene Theological Seminary on a collaborative project.

Geesh! I never thought the life of a professor would be so busy. Every bit of it is better than withering to death in a bank teller window, but still...

White hair should not follow black

Our campus is in mourning this Saturday morning.

Yesterday we learned the tragic news that the five-year-old son of two of our staff persons died from diphtheria. They had been at a public hospital for infectious and communicable diseases here in Manila since Sunday or Monday. They had initially thought the little guy had the mumps, because there was the tell-tale swelling on at least one side of his face. But, as it turned out, the real diagnosis was much more severe.

I have no idea of the source, or even if it is authentic to China, but I am given to understand that there is a Chinese proverb that runs, "White hair should never follow black." Wherever I read this interpreted this saying as saying (wow, the puns are thick today) that the older generation should not outlive the younger generation. This is a bit of folksy wisdom from all over the world, I would imagine, so there is no particular reason that this statement should be Chinese specifically. It is never supposed to happen that the little ones die before their parents, and especially not when the little ones are still little. I find I don't have any grand theological answers. And that's ok.

Another first

This morning (actually in four hours from right now) I will attend my first thesis proposal defense. A student whom I inherited is finishing his thesis for the Master of Science in Theology. I have discussed his situation in other entries from time to time. But this is my first proposal defense not only as a professor, but period. When I was in graduate school, my institution did not require an oral defense of the proposal. Instead it got shipped off to my readers who approved it and then off to an interdisciplinary committee of the graduate school. This interdisciplinary committee rejected it the first time (which, incidentally, was the 15th or 16th actual draft) then accepted it the next time. By that point, I had already written a significant amount of the dissertation, so it was just a few months from approval of my proposal (March I think) to graduation (October). So this will be an interesting experience. This particular student is very talented and articulate, so he shouldn't have any problem...and if he does, it sort of becomes my problem because I am his adviser.

First New Year's Eve in the Philippines

I hear from everyone that New Year's Eve is a very festive, very loud occasion in the Philippines. A student told me last evening, in fact, that I'll be hearing fireworks explode throughout the day today (and indeed I have been hearing them steadily for over a week), but between 11:30 PM and 1:30 AM on New Year's Day, she said it will sound like we're in the middle of a battle. I'm actually looking forward to it. I'll be off in the mountains with a great view of the displays around the area, and then I'll get a ride back to the seminary after everything is over. It's too bad I don't have a camera to record it as best I can.

On the camera: I have ordered a replacement and it should hopefully get to my colleague in Kansas in time for her to bring it back in her luggage. If not, the husband of the one who described the battle (himself also a student) is going back to the States for some meetings in January and he'll be able to bring it back. So I'll be cameraless for as little as two weeks or as long as six weeks. No big deal. I'm really thankful for loving supporters (i.e., family).

I looked at my own travel plans to come to the States in March. It looks like I can get a great deal for a flight to Nashville in the end of February, returning the first week of March. I'm still hoping and praying for support for my friend to come along. I've sent out a couple of appeals, but we'll see how that goes. Of course, we don't even know if he'd be granted a visa, since the US has seemed to tighten its controls on persons coming from the Philippines, even with American sponsors and for short-term trips. We'll see. Keep praying.

I'm going to try in the next few weeks to set up links to show people how they can help, but I haven't figured that out with Blogger yet. I'm sort of treating this blog like the standard "missionary newsletter," and so this is one of the things that goes into that kind of document. Anyhow, prayer is the most important means of support. Partnering is, of course, another. But that's all I'll say. I promise.

Faculty devotions and meeting

I have just a few minutes before faculty devotions begin. Today is the first non-holiday Monday of the month, so we will have our monthly faculty meeting this morning. As the most junior member of the faculty, secretarial duties fall to me. It's a low-face-on-the-totem-pole sort of thing. Which is okay, I guess. But I'm really praying for the potential new faculty members we may have coming next hear...haha. I suppose it's selfish of me to be praying like that. Just for the record, I'm not; I just thought it would sound funny if I said I was. Anyway, this cannot be a long post because it is now 7:58 and everything gets started at 8:00. I don't really want to be late since my office is right next door to the room where we have our devotions so it would look kind of bad if I were the last one to arrive...

Congratulations, Mr. President

The buzz about campus today was the inauguration ceremony for the fifth President of Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary, Dr. Floyd Timothy Cunningham. Dr. Cunningham has been teaching church history at APNTS since the school's inception in 1983, and has held many posts since then, chaplain and dean of students, academic dean, regional education coordinator for the Church of the Nazarene, missionary pastor and church planter, and so on. The continuity of leadership represented by Dr. Cunningham's unanimous election by the board of trustees earlier this year represents significant hope for the future of the seminary. This was also my first academic procession as a member of a faculty. I was honored to have a part in this drama, reading the Old Testament lesson, but also showing my support of the leadership through my presence and attendance at the event.

I also saw again the person whose initial recommendation that started the ball rolling--very quickly--to come here to APNTS. He reaffirmed his confidence and comfort with his choice, which made me feel really valued. I was able to tell many people today how short the turnaround was from first contact by Dr. Cunningham (before he was elected president) to arrival on the ground in Manila (4 months and 11 days). My head is still spinning around at how quickly everything happened...but then again, is that not how God usually works?

I will post pictures of the inauguration in due course, most likely to my Facebook account. Right now, I have syllabi to write for the second semester which starts Monday.

Reading and research week

This is reading and research week at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary. It is designed to give students time to work on semester projects without having to attend class in the meantime. When I was a student at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, I never used the similar week for reading and research, but always for another "R & R." I suspect many of the students here are doing the same, which is fine. It's good to have a break sometimes, but now as a professor R & R week will actually be spent doing reading and research--preparing the last few lectures for this semester, getting started on next, and working on various writing projects. I have much to do, and none of it includes making posts to a blog. :-)

Scriptures read for class devotions: Week 12

I confess. I've quit reading the Hebrew even before the end of the first semester like I promised in the last post. It just seemed pedantic, especially toward the end of the semester when less and less people are there right as class begins. I've even stopped being worried about duplicating a particular reading in class or trying to fit the Scripture chosen to the topic of the lecture that day. The former is a good thing, because I needn't worry about such simple things, but the latter is somewhat more serious because it may tend toward eisegesis or at least a rather contorted interpretation. But, in any event, here are the English-only biblical texts read in class this past week:

Intro to Old Testament:
9/16 Ezekiel 37:1-14
9/18 Micah 6:6-8

Pentateuch:
9/16 Numbers 6:22-27
9/18 Numbers 9:15-9:23

Scriptures read for class devotions: Week 11

I've finally come to a decision. I am not going to continue the Hebrew readings in subsequent semesters. It's been interesting, and it has helped me gain a new appreciation for the language of the Bible, and it has generated in some students the desire to know more...but on the other hand it has created a good bit of stress and it is of dubious pedagogical value. The stress it has generated has mostly to do with my desire to avoid duplication of passages in either of the classes, but also with sometimes having forgotten to practice and learn one in time for a class meeting on Tuesday or Thursday. As for the dubious pedagogical value, it seems that this, like other attempts at innovation, catches the minds of some students while flying unreachably over the heads of others. The promise of a given innovation, in my mind, lies in the proportion of students who "get it" to those who either do not understand the practice or think that it is pedantic. If A=>B+C, then the practice should be continued. But, alas, in this case it is not. I will continue it through the end of this semsester (five weeks), but will stop afterward. Pedagogical value aside, it is also of dubious spiritual value as a devotional practice which, should, after all, be the main point of the exercise, especially seeing how I have titled most of the relevant blog posts as "Scriptures read for class devotions:"

Intro to Old Testament
9/9 Isaiah 40:1-8
9/11 Jeremiah 20:7-9

Pentateuch
9/9 Leviticus 18:1-4
9/11 Numbers 24:1-9

Scriptures read for class devotions: Week 10

It's hard to believe that I'm already on the down side of my first semester as a teacher. It's been an extremely fun couple of months, but also taxing and stretching in ways I could never have imagined. With this week's Scriptures, there is a gap because of having called off Pentateuch class today, but here are the rest of them. (I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this practice in the next and following semesters, or revamp my strategy/rules for it. Stay tuned.):

Intro to Old Testament
9/2 2 Kings 18:1-8
9/14 Deuteronomy 18:18-22

Pentateuch
9/2 Deuteronomy 28:1-6

Scriptures read for class devotions: Week 9

Like last week, in one of the classes there was only one text read because of the midterm exam. I have also been a little more intentional this week in lining up the devotional text read with the topic of that day's discussion:

Intro to OT:
8/26 Joshua 24:14-17
8/28 1 Samuel 2:1-10

Pentateuch
8/26 Leviticus 26:3-13

Scriptures read for class devotions: Week 8

I was a little lazy this week, doubling up the readings on Tuesday. I also skipped Thursday in the Intro class, since there was a midterm and I wanted to maximize the available time for the students to complete the test. Similarly, Pentateuch class has a midterm next Thursday so there will be one fewer then as well:

Intro to OT:
8/19 Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Pentateuch:
8/19 Deuteronomy 6:1-9
8/21 Leviticus 19:1-4

I haven't been nearly as systematic or intentional about this as I should have. Perhaps in subsequent semesters I can do better. After all, this was a last-minute inspiration, as I have already said.

Scriptures read for class devotions: Week 7

This week's Scriptures represent, I think, a turning of the corner in the practice/discipline I'm developing. For I decided at the last minute before Thursday's Pentateuch meeting to read the Hebrew of the Ten Commandments in Exodus. I was able to read more quickly than I have in the past, with the exception of passages with which I was already familiar for aloud reading. I had never read the Ten Commandments in Hebrew out loud until that time, and the ease with which it flowed convinces me that, by the grace of God, my skill is improving. As for the English translations, those are aided somewhat by the arrival of my parallel-column Hebrew/English Jewish Publication Society Tanakh. ;-) I don't feel as bad about cheating with the English.

Intro to Old Testament:
8/12 Deuteronomy 26:1-11
8/14 Psalm 117

Pentateuch
8/12 Exodus 15:1-18
8/14 Exodus 20:1-17

Scriptures read for class devotions: Week 6

This was a hard week. I didn't have anything prepared as of this morning for either of my classes, so I pulled out a softball for Intro (one that I had already used for Pentateuch). As far as Pentateuch goes, I was thinking about the "my ancestor was a wandering Aramaean" bit from Deut 26, but I couldn't get it together in time. I had a difficult time selecting the passages, and I even looked at some of the Daily Office readings. These were singularly unhelpful, since the "Old Testament" reading for today was from the Apocrypha. While the book of Judith is wonderful, I'm too much of a Protestant to use that stuff. And I don't have it in Hebrew anyway, which is part of the reason why it wasn't in the OT canon to begin with.

Intro to OT:
8/5 Jeremiah 31:31-34
8/7 Genesis 2:1-4a

Pentateuch:
8/5 Genesis 32:23-32 [Eng. 22-31]
8/7 Genesis 2:18-25

The idea to use the story of the creation of the woman from the side of the man was a kind of deus ex machina for me, seeing as how I had just about given up on not using something twice in the same class. I was tempted to go back to the priestly blessing in Numbers 6, since that's a really great text. But Genesis 2 leapt out at me (and plus I already know that one well in Hebrew).

Scriptures read for class devotions: week 5

It's getting harder to prepare the Hebrew readings for each class session, rather than easier as I thought it might as I gained more experience in this practice. But I will not give it up; rather, I may take time in the next couple of days to plan out what I'll use the remainder of the semester in each class, since I didn't even select my passages until late last evening. I was still practicing the Pentateuch reading just before lunch, with class meeting at 1:30 PM and, as you'll see, I cheated again somewhat and doubled up one of the readings. However, it's only partially cheating, because I have been working through in Intro to OT some of the call stories. I've done Joshua, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and now Moses. Perhaps I'll find some others since, again, I can choose anything in the canon. This is not to mention that I'm a bit leery about sticking too closely to the Psalms because, even though these are wonderful material for what I'm doing, I don't want to get too much reading out of one book or even one block of literature in that class.

Intro to OT:
7/29 Isaiah 6:1-8
7/31 Exodus 3:1-15

Pentateuch
7/29 Exodus 3:1-15
7/31 Genesis 45:1-11