Scholars Interviewed in California
Scholars and Scholar Teams meet in Northern California
The first week of November, people involved in Scholar teams came together for an Open House at Meritt Sawyer’s home, Our International Director for Scholars. This gathering saw 6 of the current Fuller Scholars and two graduated scholars spending the evening with over 50 people that have been involved in Scholar Teams over the years.
But what exactly is a scholar team. These are groups of individuals, and church missions teams, that come together to provide financial and spritual support for scholars that are completing their PhD programs. These teams interact with the scholar they are partnered with to get to know them, providing prayer support and inviting them to participate in their churches.
Doug Lee, from Grace Fellowship Community Church in San Fransisco, recently wrote about an upcoming trip to visit the scholar they have supported over the last few years. Sunday Agang was home in Nigeria and Doug wrote:
“This trip comes at an important time as the folks surrounding Sunday (including the widows and orphans) have been praying for us in the aftermath of the death of Bob Appleby, our senior pastor, in early May. Sunday has played a huge role in praying with and for us and came up for the funeral services we held in San Francisco. We have learned so much from him as one so steeped in theology and in the heartbreak of the Church in Africa.”
Meritt Sawyer says “This is one reason why the JSM Care Team concept has been so important. It is about reciprocity of learning.”
Upon returning from this trip Doug wrote again:
We are back from our adventure in Nigeria, and it was everything that we had hoped it would be and far, far more. We had a very high view of Sunday Agang before we left for Nigeria, and our appreciation for him and those he is connected to only increased as we ate virtually every meal in his home and were shown the dramatic reconciling work that he and others are doing to bridge the religious, economic, and social divides in northern Nigeria. We also gained insight into the JETS (Jos Evangelical Theological Seminary) and the ECWA denomination as we spent much time with local pastors and worshiped in three local congregations.