Perspectives of Bob Sabean (one of the founders of CCI Latin America) & Robert Bruneau (Executive Director of CCI/LA)

Bob Sabean: 
Fellow missionary with Latin America Mission and co-Senior Professor on the team
(missionary in Costa Rica for 48 years)
"As I sit here and look at our team of professors, I realize that I dreamt of having this caliber of leaders back in 1992 after our first Institute for Forming Instructors. How naïve was I back then to think we’d get quality like this after just one training event! But, the vision was right on, my timing was not! Ha, ha, ha. God knew the proper time of germination and maturation."

Our multiculturalism is God's gift to the team and to those we will serve

Bob explains to the team a bit of American history

Robert Bruneau:

Fellow missionary with Latin America Mission and executive director of CCI/LA: When Lisa presented the plan for the Leadership Summit in 2010, I asked: Why Pittsburgh? Now I see two things. First: We needed to leave our countries to see Latin America, our home, as a whole, as a mission field.





Second: I realized after spending an afternoon at the Heinz Museum that Pittsburgh is a city of innovation and is multicultural! That’s exactly the spirit we want to foster amongst our team of professors: innovation and appreciation for the richness of our multiculturalism.

Lisa explaining the unique aspects of Pittsburgh.

Robert Bruneau:

We gathered around our guest teacher, Jim Plueddemann, to lay hands on him, pray, thank him for his dedication to us this week, and Robert said:

Of all the thousands of students Jim has had, God sent one in particular to Latin America to work for CCI/LA. Twenty years later, fifteen students return to the USA to continue to learn and now will return to Latin America to continue the pilgrim journey, this silent revolution in Christian Education, inviting others to join them to seek God’s glory in all they do.

Amen Robert, so be it, amen and amen.

Lisa Anderson-Umaña earned her MA in education at Wheaton College with Dr Jim Plueddemann. His Christian philosophy of education undergirds all our texts in CCI Latin America. It was a privilege to have Dr. Plueddemann (now with Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where Lisa is presently a doctoral candidate) teach us for an entire week. 

The journey of learning marches on

What are my thoughts and feeling as I sit in class for a class on Leadership and Organizational Development and then attend a one-day conference for missions work? 

• What a wealth of new knowledge is available to us because scholars, students, practitioners have invested untold hours of their time and thought to study and distill but a small part of all they are learning.
•  How can I effectively "translate" some of these gold nuggets to those I work with?
•  Listening to these brilliant men and women make me curious to know more. It makes me thirsty. 
• Listening to these scholars lets me put but a finger on the world of knowledge that floats around like a huge iceberg. I see only the tip of the iceberg as a missionary in Latin America.
• There has been so much study and thought under-girding the missionary endeavor that I am completely unaware of. 
• I have long been content to just be a practitioner, now I am being challenged to be a reflexive practitioner, to act and think and think and act. 
• I am ashamed to admit that for much of my missionary career, I had a hidden disdain for scholarly work and schooling. I just wanted to get the job done!
• I am thankful for God opening my eyes to value the work of scholars, great thinkers, and to setting aside significant hours to think, ponder, and investigate what others around the world are doing and thinking.

In my own PhD journey, I have three more courses to take here at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School  and at that point I will  be a third of the way through.  I will have to do my comprehensive exams which means writing two publishable papers and finally my dissertation.

Whew...

I love each step of the journey and count it a privilege to be walking this path with numerous other co-scholars, outstanding professors, and my group of friends and family who all want a piece of that diploma...when I finally get it!

What journey have you been on lately? How's it feel?