"The Art of Bridge Building": Redefining Seminary

As a disclaimer, the following was written by me, but its not really an official blog-post.

I really wanted to blog something today, but there are still so many other things for me to write. I just couldn't justify taking the time to satisfy my blogging appetites. Instead, I decided to post an article that I wrote yesterday for a newspaper column. It gives a good picture of some of the work that I am doing here in Manila for APNTS.

By Jarrett Davis
APNTS Communications Officer

What comes to mind when you think of “Seminary”? Pristine brick edifices? Arched church ceilings? Monks and Priests behind high walls? Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary (APNTS) believes that a Seminary should be more about bridging divides, than building walls. Its founding motto is, “Bridging Cultures for Christ.” Through this key drive, the school has committed itself to developing leaders from its surrounding communities.

StepUP

Human Trafficking is perhaps one of the greatest and darkest challenges of today's society. It is an inhumane business that nets a global profit of nearly 32 Billion US Dollars. As a part of the fight against this terrible crime, APNTS has partnered with the Visayan Forum Foundation as well as Microsoft Philippines, to offer the StepUP Program. This program offers employable computer and life skills to out-of-school youth from at-risk communities.

APNTS utilizes what they call the "Multiplier Effect", which is the idea of training trainers from the local communities that are able to, in turn, train others. This method had greatly aided in the programs ability to spread in a grass roots fashion. Dr. Robert Donahue is professor of Missions and Urban Ministry and Director of Donald Owens School of World Mission. He has directed the "StepUP" program since its inception 2 years ago, and reports that nearly 600 trainers and youth have been trained in the program over the past two years, and nearly 150 have been trained to train others and establish community centers.

The stepUP program brought a new awareness of the communities surrounding the APNTS. Many participants in the program came from socially and/or economically underprivileged areas and were delayed in their educations. Although, the StepUP program was able to give them employable skills, it was not able to help them finish a basic education. Something else was needed.

Alternative Learning System

In response the greater educational needs of its surrounding community members, APNTS partnered with the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) to establish the Alternative Learning System (ALS) on their campus. ALS is designed for filipnios who have not gone through formal schooling. The program, funded by a grant from Overseas Council International, helps academically delayed students to meet requirements for graduation, employment, and even higher education.

Dr. Nativity Petallar is the Director of the Holistic Child Development Program at APNTS and coordinates the ALS program at the school. Dr. Petallar is able to work alongside of her Masters and PhD students to help them not only teach and minister to the children and youth, but to help them to become advocates of the children and young adults in their contexts. She comments that most NGO's focus on social and economic development a people groups, however, the approach of APNTS the approach of APNTS adds another special concentration on the spiritual development of children.


The students of this program come from a diversity of backgrounds. Some are coming out of Human trafficking situations and receive rehabilitation from the School's partnering agencies. Other groups are vulnerable to drugs and other social equally significant social problems. The HDC students of APNTS strive to work in this context to bring a holistic kind of development these young people.

Why a Seminary?

While the common image of Seminaries may be their walls and edifices, APNTS hopes that its image will be of the bridges that it is able to build. APNTS president Floyd Cunningham says, "Seminary education must not only convey knowledge, build competency, and shape character, but direct attention to our immediate context of ministry. ...We must think outside the walls and reach beyond whatever seals off the church, by bridging the walls that separate us from the people among whom we live."

APNTS continues to expand its advocacy in these areas through the integration of trafficking and migration issues into its curriculum, and by encouraging its students and ministry partners to support such community-based initiatives. The school is excited to be an integral part of the lives of the people it serves, however it recognizes that it would be unable to do what it does without the generous participation and support from its partnering organizations.

A Significant Gathering:

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the “Commitment Day Against Trafficking in Persons." The event drew a host of significant political and civic figures from the Philippines and partnering nations as well as humanitarian, religious and academic groups to reaffirm and celebrate their commitment to end Human Trafficking and Exploitation of persons in the Philippines. Everything about this gathering excited me. It excited me not only because I care deeply about the fight against human trafficking and exploitation, but also because there were few people at this gathering whose job I did not want. Namely, the jobs of the Ambassador of the United States to the Philippines and absolutely ANYONE from the US Agency for International Development.

I was there in behalf of APNTS and in support of the school and Nazarene Compassionate Ministries which have both played some big roles in programs for trafficking awareness and prevention. While there, Dr Donahue gave the school's official pledge to aid in empowering vulnerable communities through alternative learning, values formation and vocational, life skills and computer training.

I truly enjoyed to see the great amount multi-sector collaboration that had gone into this event. Religious Groups, Academic Instituions, the Department of Justice, and even MTV. The crowd was incredibly diverse, but incredibly unified in their passion and support for the work against trafficking and exploitation.

It was fascinating to see how each group played it's own unique role. I remember one group, called "HapPinoy", who teaches with rural Sari-Sari Store* owners in Philippine villages about the dynamics of Human Trafficking. Why Sari-Sari store owners, you ask? Because, anyone who has ever lived in a filipino community knows that the local Sari-Sari Store is the hub for all of the community's gossip. Seriously, if you need to know anything about ANYONE, at all, at any time, ever, in a filipino community, just ask the local Sari-Sari store owner. They are the eyes and ears of every barangay. HapPinoy works to teach these shopkeepers about the system of trafficking and what signs to look for. Its an immediate grassroots, community of informants, operating in the rural, hard-to-reach places, where eyes and ears are needed most.

This was an encouraging day. It gave me new ideas, questions and made me want to do much more in this line of work.

That brings me to tomorrow. I will be going to Antipolo to the "Center of Hope" to talk with the director of a center that deals with girls that have been rescued from trafficking and exploitation.

(* A Sari-Sari Store is like a Small, rugged convenient store--sometimes even a stand--which is found on nearly every street corner in the Philippines.)

A Brief Update:

Greetings, readers of this blog!

I have made it back to the Philippine Islands safe and unharmed. (Also, on an unrelated side note, I have not been killed by a giant Tsunami, nor have I perished in a gaping crater opened up by an violent earthquake. After receiving a few long-distance phone calls, I realize that this might be something that I should say. ) My journey back was long, stressful, and deserving of an entire blog post (maybe two) in its honor. However, that story will take some time to tell, and time is something that has been running scarce. So, that story, along with its pictures, is still to come.

As many of you may already know, I have returned to the Philippines to serve temporarily as the Communications Officer for APNTS (Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary). My goal is essentially to get people talking and connected: person to person, department to department, committee to committee, and then APNTS to the Globe. A large focus (and my personal interest) will be with an initiative against Human Trafficking and Exploitation called "StepUP". This is a large partnership between APNTS, Visayan Forum, NCM, and a few other NGO/Humanitarian groups. I hope to become well acquainted with this kind of work and eventually do my Dissertation in the community/human development and the integration of such programs. That is another story that is yet to be told.

In the meantime, my life has been consumed with papers and final revisions to my thesis before it goes for publishing. I have felt terrible for, once again, allowing this blog to gather dust while my life galavants onward--stories untold, and thoughts unrecorded. So... to stave off the encroaching feelings of guilt and soothe the inklings journalistic negligence, I thought I would jot you all a quick note to say that all is well. And it is.

Until next post,

Jarrett

(** The picture above is from "American Culture Day". I made it back to the Philippines just in time to join. At APNTS every cultural group has their own day in which they share a little about their culture and provide some "cultural food". This year, we made Peanut Butter and Jelly.)