Tuesday 15 July 2008

SBL International Meeting: It's A Small World

One can never really know who one will meet at SBL meetings. It was a joy to catch up with Bruce Winter and Bob Jewett, and also meet other new friends. But it was a pleasant surprise to meet Stepher Haar at the conference. Stephen was with us at STM last year for a semester, and he lightened my teaching load by taking a couple of NT courses away from me. I was grateful for this as Stephen was there at the right time. I was preparing for my PhD examination and had to be back in the UK for a month for my viva. Stephen is now the Academic Dean of the Australian Lutheran College in Adelaide.

I also caught up with Peter Lau whom I met last year at Tyndale House, Cambridge. Apart from Peter, I had the joy of meeting Dr Moses Khor from Tabor College Victoria, Melbourne. Moses hails from Malaysia, and he is recently featured in The Star (read the article for some interesting story about Moses' life). He is also the former pastor of two of my current students in the seminary, Chee Keat and Simon.


Of course, it was great to have fellow blogger friend, keropok lekor, at the conference. He is a medical student at the University of Auckland who decides to sign up for SBL Meeting (if you are wondering what has medical studies got to do with theology, then ask keropok lekor!).


It's a small world. And I must say that while the papers from the conference would feed my academic interest, it is the people that make it memorable.

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