SATS Christmas Message 2018

Highlights

We have come to the end of a remarkable year at SATS. Allow me to mention a few highlights.

We went through a change of senior leadership. After 18 months of planning and preparing, we bade farewell to Reuben van Rensburg, who retired as Principal. Although there have been many changes, the transition has been as smooth as it could have been. We have seen seminaries torn apart by ungodly transitions, so we praise God for a righteous and blessed change.

The Lord has added some amazing new people to our staff team. We welcome Drs Jesse Kipimo, Seyram Amenyedzi, and Cornelia van Deventer to our full-time academic team. Early in the new year, Dr Modisa Mzondi, soon-to-be Dr Batanayi Manyika, and Estelle Crafford should join the full-time academic staff. We dream of a diverse but world-class team of African scholars—and we see God at work adding them.

We reached record student numbers this year and celebrated with an amazing 115 students who attended our graduation ceremony. (We had 246 graduates this year.)

We received full re-accreditation for all our programmes for the next five years, hosted a ground-breaking webinar about Pentecostalisation in the Global South, sent faculty to several international conferences, made phenomenal strides with our technology, and much more.

I could go on, but it is enough to say that God has been good to us. Despite it being a tough year in South Africa, the Lord has blessed us abundantly.

Thank yous

On behalf of the leadership of SATS, allow me to say thank you very, very much:

Thank you to our staff, who have worked hard and worked smart! We have an awesome team of people who love Jesus and serve him [and you] sacrificially. We love and appreciate you all.

Thank you to our students. We know it has been a tough year for many of you, yet you have not abandoned your determination to prepare for effective ministry through your studies. We honour you and love serving you. In case you don’t know, we pray for you almost every day.

To our Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord, we know that you could do this without us. We are so grateful that you not only saved us, but also grant us the privilege of serving your sons and daughters with you.

Expectations

We are looking forward to a short break over Christmas, time to reflect on our Lord’s coming and to enjoy time with family, but we are also excited about our plans for next year.

We are starting a major drive to make our courses more media rich, mobile friend, and context-related.

We have applied for accreditation for a Master of Divinity degree, which will provide advanced training for second-career pastors.

We are launching SATS Short Course, an exciting project to provide engaging, practical teaching for everyone.

So to all who are part of the SATS experience, thank you for making 2018 a blessed and Christ-centred year. We can’t wait to see what God is going to do in 2019. See you there!