[dropcap3]“B[/dropcap3]e a teacher, you get the summers off!” Oh, how we, as teachers, laugh at this comment. The truth is that summertime is the time to keep learning. Here at PBU it is a chance for our International Campuses to run in full swing. Each summer, teachers from around the world assemble in Germany and Hong Kong to study in the Master of Science in Education program. Teachers receive advanced training in education in order to go out from PBU and serve Christ around the globe. Some of our students are Americans who have chosen to serve God through teaching in other countries. Many of our students are national teachers who leave their own country, study education (in English) with us, and then return to their own country to continue teaching. During our summer classes our students learn, some for the first time, how teaching can be done from a uniquely biblical point of view. We examine theories of learning, philosophies of education, and even specific methodology with the purpose of learning how we can glorify God as educators.
So where have our graduates gone and how are they walking a different path? Currently, graduates of PBU’s International Campuses hold key leadership positions with the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) in France and Francophone Africa, Africa, Brazil, and Hungary. In these positions, our graduates are impacting Christian education in countries where Christian education can be the main entry point for church planting. In an ACSI report Dan Egeler, senior vice president for ACSI Global stated, “Education with a Christian worldview will unshackle the minds of young men and women to truly change their country.” The article went on to highlight the work of a PBU International Campus graduate. The article shares how our graduate was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help Christian schools retrain teachers and introduce Christian curriculum. He was there to “come alongside the Congolese staff as older brothers, ensuring this effort is thoroughly indigenous.” Our graduates are able to serve God in ways that, as Americans, we could not do.
In addition, we have graduates working as Christian school principals and Christian school teachers in countries literally around the globe glorifying God through their work with children. Some of our graduates have taken what they have learned about education and use it to bless home schooling families in Europe and in Asia. One graduate uses her education to help train national Bible translators. In each case, our students are able to advance the good news of Christ through the gifts that God has given to them at the place where God has led them. Many of these graduates work in countries in which we do not have access and in languages most of us do not know.
One day, men and women from every tribe, tongue, and nation will glorify the Father in heaven. Some of them will have heard the Word from a teacher.
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Dr. Debbie MacCullough is the Dean of the School of Education. A graduate of the University, she has been on faculty since 2005. She can be reached at dmaccullough@cairn.edu.
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