Panama Day 4: ICETE

The purpose for this trip to Panama is the trianual meetings of ICETE, the International Counsel for Evangelical Theological Education, the acrediting agency that Steve has worked for that brings together the regional acrediting agencies for theological schools, including both AETAL (Brazil and Latin America) and ACTEA (Africa) that he has worked most closely with over the years. I come along because it is my chance to put faces with names that I hear constantly in his work. I have been often enough over the years (most recently Turkey, 2015) to have many friends of my own to connect with.

This time we are 450 participants from more than 70 countries, representing more than 200 organizations. A couple new countries are represented this time--countries that previously could not attend for political reasons. (Ask me privately if you ae interested.) That is very exciting. Sadly a dozen people were denied entry for visa problems despite having followed all the instructions we had been given. Imagine spending 5 days traveling to a conference and being turned away at immigration with no recourse! Others were turned away at their points of embarcation or part way along the journey. One was a speaker!

Coffee breaks and mealtimes have been most important for networking conversations. The hotel has given us our own pavilion, surrounded by swimming pool, for our meals.

I picked one friend's mind on electronic publishing. Another may be the contact we have needed for accessing audio files for the enhanced e-book I have been working on with my friend Sylvia Scott.

The theme is doing away with the sacred/secular divide that compartmentalizes faith from Monday through Saturday activities. As theological educators, how can we encourage pastors to see ministry as not merely church-based ministry roles?

Worship times have been great. In a diverse group like this, it is especially meaningful to sing a text like, "We are one body, one body in Christ / and we do not stand alone."