{"id":453,"date":"2024-09-13T04:53:16","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T04:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiaseminary.com\/?page_id=453"},"modified":"2024-09-28T02:50:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T02:50:53","slug":"meet-the-president","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/staging.asiaseminary.com\/index.php\/meet-the-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the President"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Back Home in Asia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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It was May 2008 \u2013 15 years ago. I sat in the auditorium of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary for assignment day. My name was read, \u201cJonathan Bare, Graduate Mission Associate \u2013 East Asia.\u201d By the middle of the next month, I had been commissioned and was on a plane to Asia. Asia became my new home, the place my wife Kim and I would meet (she was serving there as a Friends Network missionary) and get married, where our son Josiah would be born, and where we\u2019d serve until taking a call back to our new home in the U.S. in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward seven years. In January this year, my family moved \u201cback home\u201d to a new home in Asia. My current call is to serve as the president of Asia Lutheran Seminary and the Integrator of the Asia One Team. Before my arrival, Asia Lutheran Seminary was asked to transition from being a seminary for only East Asia to being a regional seminary for all of Asia. To facilitate that pivot, my family and I are stationed in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which serves as the hub of the Asia One Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what\u2019s it like to be \u201cback home\u201d in Asia? First off, many things have changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s the obvious \u2013 my family situation has changed. When I moved to East Asia in 2008, I was single. An international move meant boxing up a few belongings that would stay in my parents\u2019 basement, packing two suitcases, and getting on a plane. Now Josiah is ten and we have a six-year old daughter, Elina. Moving meant giving away trailer loads of stuff, packing up a few dozen boxes that would be stored, selling vehicles, and finding a way to get 12 suitcases to the airport (not including our carry-ons). Moving meant tearful goodbyes to family, friends, and coworkers and finding a new house, a new school, a new car. . . the list goes on and on. In the process, God taught us to be patient and flexible every step of the way. He still teaches us that a bit more every day, it seems. Moving \u201cback home\u201d with a family means a daily resetting of expectations, working through sadness over the loss of friends, and figuring out new lives in Thailand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team has changed. Missionaries have come and gone \u2013 some to new calls or retirement in the U.S., and a few, home to heaven. East Asia was its own field in 2008. Now all of Asia is served by one WELS team of missionaries. The Asia One Team serves over 16 different countries with a unified vision for reaching out and serving all of Asia. The work of the team is divided into three main branches: Explore, <\/em>this includes following up on new opportunities and expansions. A second branch is Asia Lutheran Seminary<\/em>, which coordinates the training and equipping of leaders throughout Asia. Finally, support<\/em>, which provide the tools and expertise our missionaries and our sister churches can use to carry out their work. It\u2019s a growing team too \u2013 this year alone, two new missionaries have already accepted calls to join us. God willing, by the end of this year we\u2019ll welcome three more to their new home in Asia!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asia Lutheran Seminary has changed. When I first arrived, Asia Lutheran Seminary was focused on training in Hong Kong. That expanded to East Asia and our first cohort of East Asia students graduated in 2016. Since that time, Asia Lutheran Seminary became a fully-accredited, Master of Divinity-granting seminary serving all of East Asia, and now Asia Lutheran Seminary is pivoting to serve all of Asia (all while continuing to focus on Hong Kong and East Asia). We have initial plans in place to establish a regional branch of Asia Lutheran Seminary in Chiang Mai. We\u2019ve also created a Regional Theological Education Program within the seminary to assist with meeting the needs of our sister churches throughout Asia. And in addition to all those changes, I came in and am now the president of these efforts \u2013 humbling, to be sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not everything has changed, this is still home \u2013 and it\u2019s good to be \u201cback home.\u201d We know it\u2019s home because it\u2019s the place that God has called us to be. He has placed us here \u2013 and we know that he is with us each and every step of the way. It has not changed that his word is still going out to all the world \u2013 and we are still his witnesses. As his word goes out, he is accomplishing his purpose through it and strengthening us for the task in front of us. Because of that, it\u2019s good to be \u201cback home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back Home in Asia It was May 2008 \u2013 15 years ago. I sat in the auditorium of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary for assignment day. My name was read, \u201cJonathan Bare, Graduate Mission Associate \u2013 East Asia.\u201d By the middle of the next month, I had been commissioned and was on a plane to Asia. Asia became my new home, the place my wife Kim and I would meet (she was serving there as a Friends Network missionary) and get married, where our son Josiah would be born, and where we\u2019d serve until taking a call back … Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-453","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"infinite-scroll-item"},"yoast_head":"\nMeet the President - Asia Lutheran Seminary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the President - Asia Lutheran Seminary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Back Home in Asia It was May 2008 \u2013 15 years ago. 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