The celebration of 30th anniversary of reopening was held in the chapel of the Guangdong Union Theological Seminary(GUTS) on Sept 21. The leaders of two sessions of Christianity, the seminary alumni, teachers and students at school, guests at home and abroad, nearly some 800 people attended the celebration.
Guangdong Union Theological Seminary reopened in 1986, from two years of theological secondary school, to three years of college in 1994, and then the school were approved to be the first provincial undergraduate Theological College all over nation by State Administration of Religious Affairs in 2009, culivating more than 700 theological granduates so far. In addtion, it added pastoral training class and training classes of students about 800 graduates, accounted for 75% of pastoral in Guangdong province, meanwhile, most of them serve in the church of Guangdong.
The Secretary General of Guangdong CCCTSPM led the congregation to pray, and the choir of theological seminary sang Praise the Cannon in worship. Afterwards, Rev. Wu Bo from Xuwen County, alumni of Guangdong GUTS, recalled his frist serve, his experience of entering in GUTS to study theology, and his stroies of being back to grassroot-church to serve after granduation.
Rev. Wu went into a church of rural island in 1986, asked to make a preaching because of his literacy at that time. He began to read Bible stories nervously. Little by little, he started his preaching. In the same year, he coincided with rerun of Guangdong Theological College, preparing to take an examination and study theology under the recommendation of the church, and receiving the letter of admission later although he hadn’t so much biblical knowlege at that time. He received baptism after enrollment in the college. “I became a student of God, and then became a believer.” Reverend Wu said. At that time, there was no reverends, two sessions of Christianity of province sent somebody to give local believers baptism respectively in 1987 and 1992. Reverend Wu was holding the water used for baptism when the older pastors served, then he was greatly moved by the phenomenon.
Reverend Wu experienced a plenty of challenges after returned to the church to continue to offer service, however, he had no salary at the beginning of the course. He reminisced that he was the frist theological student of the local church and then a mass of person looked at him every monment. In order to encourage himself, he wrote an aticle: I’m willing to be a Preacher for Rural Church. Wu got a lot of encouragement and support of the GUTS later, and was grateful for this.
“As a preacher, I must learn to mature and grow in a harsh environment.” Wu shared his feelings and exprience with everyone, “The Lord Jesus said, he has chosen us, loved us, valued us, and we should engrave this on our minds.” He continued, quoted words from Martin Luther, “It is not that we are good, that the Lord loves us, but the Lord loves us, and we are so good.” “David knew very well that he was not so good, and so did we, even if we got the honor and the achievement in front of people, also is the result that the Lord loves us. What does the Lord choose us for?”
Reverend Wu thought it is for more results. It is a process of being a fisherman and saving the lost people, in addtion, it maybe need high costly. The Lord has chosen us, the most important is to see whether he had achieved the purpose of choosing us, rather than the level of education, beyond that, the Lord intend to see how many churches we built, and how many souls we rescued on the land we live in.
“Whether in the city or in the countryside, we are deeply in love with our compatriots, we are willing to give our best youth to the Lord and devote our energy to doing much many things for the Lord.” said Wu.
