Chapman International College (CIC) endeavors to raise disciples in Southeast Asia to be the leaders and ministers of the churches in their respective places, including Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as the minority people groups therein. It provides quality and transformational education through innovative and cutting-edge delivery systems. CIC has three main campuses and about 40 centers throughout Southeast Asia.
In 2017, the college started the Mobile Education Program (MEP), dubbed “Bible College in your hand,” to provide accessible ministerial preparation to train pastors and lay leaders where they are. MEP has been the answer to the leaders’ prayers for the multiplication of local ministers. It enables the college to overcome geographical barriers and a lack of available teachers.
CIC’s Mobile Education Program (CIC MEP) follows a simple but organized process for all the Course of Study: translate, video record/edit, upload. By way of recording all the lectures of the 24 Course of Study (COS) into video clips, we can use and reuse these lectures anytime, anywhere for the academic programs both for lay and ministerial students, Nazarenes and non-Nazarenes, in the Southeast Asia Field and beyond. Thus, prospective students can join and study without leaving their vocational environment – growing rice in the fields or working in the factories.
CIC MEP features two ways of learning. One way is to access training videos through an online website (www.onlinecic.net). It is an asynchronous program of the Course of Study. Through this, 10 Myanmar pastors finished their Diploma of Ministry while they were in Indianapolis, Indiana, last July 2022. Pastor Ray McCrary, the senior pastor of the Southside Church of the Nazarene, happily facilitated and hosted the program.
The other innovation of MEP is the use of Tablets. The same videos and clips of lectures are saved on tablets via SD cards. It is specially designed to assist the learning and training of disciples in Creative Access Areas (CAA), where literacy is low and internet access is a challenge. Translated handbooks and other ministry materials are also made available in those cards.
In April, 13 disciples from CAA10 South crossed the Thailand border to have their first ministerial Course of Study. The hunger and thirst for learning became vivid. One disciple testified, “Studying is valuable, especially God’s Word. I prayed for many years but never had the opportunity to study. Thank God He provided the way through CIC.”
Each disciple was given a tablet on the fourth day of that intensive training. For the next hour, they were oriented to the CIC MEP goal, the tablet use, and the security and protection they would receive as they lived in a CAA. It was clear that the tablet would further assist and reinforce what they learned during the week. They were encouraged to watch and listen to video clips as often as possible. Likewise, they were earnestly advised to pre-watch and listen to the next course days and weeks before they again crossed the border. Thus, this will be the cycle of using these valuable tablets for Nazarene disciples in this area.
SEA Field envisions a remarkable multiplication of Christlike disciple makers that make disciples in CAA10. The above tablet project is also planned for the ministry training in CAA10 North and CAA Central. Through these tablets, CIC can raise Nazarene ministers and lay leaders who will lead the disciple-making movement in CAA10.
Thanks to the Nampa Ministry Partnership, this project and its outcomes will be possible.
