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The
Archives staff are always looking for ways that they can cooperate,
assist and exchange information and services with other Christian
archives around the world. We got a special opportunity in 2005
from Singapore Bible College and the Overseas Missionary Fellowship's
international headquarters. The two institutions jointly invited
the Archives to send a staff member to Singapore lead a seminar
on basic archival practice for Christian institutions in Southeast
Asia. Bob traveled there and spent most of August in that beautiful
country. He lead the three day seminar, as well as conducting oral
history interviews on SBC and OMF history for those institutions
(the BGC Archives also got copies of the six hours of tape) and
spent days consulting with the staff of SBC and OMF on the future
development of their individual archives.
The
seminar on August 25-27 was the core of the trip. It was intended
to help small Christian institutions - missions, colleges, seminaries,
evangelistic ministries - appreciate the importance of their historical
files and show them simple and inexpensive ways they could be preserved
and used. Thirty-five people attended, from seventeen institutions
in seven countries. The program included description of basic archival
practices, practice exercises in such things as writing mission statements
and describing actual documents, discussion of oral history, and a
visit to the Singapore National Archives. Perhaps the greatest benefit
was simply bringing people interested in preserving Southeast Christian
history together and giving them a chance to establish contacts and
learn what each was doing. It was an encouraging time for all. As
the October issue of the SBC newsletter concluded, "The Conference
instilled a deep sense of urgency into the hearts of the participants
to document church and mission history in their own organizations.
Read Bob's concluding
remarks to the seminar.
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Picture of the entire group attending the seminar, standing at the entrance of Singapore Bible College. |
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Cover (left) of the handbook given to participants in the archival seminar. (Below) Portion of comments partici-pants
wrote on the back of Bob's hand-book at the end of the seminar. |
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| Cindy Wu, library director of SBC, opening the seminar. |
Kang San Tan, Research Director for OMF International, speaking on the need to preserve the history of Asian Christianity.
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Bob leading a session.
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Participants studying archival records which they then described as a class exercise.
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David Bok talking about the history of the Navigators. Participants at several ponts in the seminar had an opportunity to learn about each other's programs.
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Hearing a paper conservationist at the National Archives of Singapore describe her work.
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Bob with the staff of SBC's library discussing the college's archives. Left to right: Cindy Wu, Canny Lin, Jan Shen, Bob, Chew Koon Yong.
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The
department heads of OMF International during a meeting at
which Bob discussed the preservation of the archvies of the
mission's many fields. From left to right: Steve Griffiths,
Personnel; Wee Cheow Beng, Director of Finance and Administration;
Ian Prescott, Director for Evangelization, John Fuller, Director
for Mobilization, Tan Kang San, Director of Research.
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Bob didn't travel half a world away just to dispense information, but also to learn and share in the life of his Singaporean colleagues in the archival and missions worlds. |
Bob with a group of seminar participants and new friends. |
Here is an excerpt from the annual report of one of the seminar
participants, Mabel Koh, librarian of Baptist Theological Seminary
in Singapore:
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Mr. Shuster was also the main speaker and trainer for the
seminar, “Rescuing Asian Christian Heritage-Training
Conference for Archivists”. He was assisted by Dr. Cindy
Wu and Mr. Tan Kan San. The conference drew about 34 participants
from Singapore and other countries like Philippines, Indonesia,
Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand. The topics touched on
the need to collect and preserve archival materials and items
for research, educational and historical purposes. On the
second day of the conference participants were given a tour
of the Singapore National Archive Museum to see how materials
are restored, preserved, and kept.
Mr. Shuster said that an archivist collects
fragments of the story of the Christian church; stories of
the work of God in our individual lives, our congregation,
denomination or mission; or archives built around a special
theme. One example of the preserved work is our gospels which
are written records of Jesus’ disciples’ memories
of Him . Christian archives need to be part of the public
record of their country or region. They are in private hands
but are available to all. For they are not only part of the
history of that region, but they are a record of the grace
of God through Jesus Christ working in region throughout the
world. Archive building starts, therefore, in the recognition
that history is being made in an everyday sort of way in a
whole range of situations and places, involving people sometimes
in the most unlikely places and in unlikely ways. It requires
a painstaking dedication to the task. A work of collaboration
is needed, involving church members, men and women and young
people, church leaders, scholars, theologians, historians,
archivists, students. It involves all persons and groups who,
in one way or another, share this vision to work together
to gather and preserve this exciting body of new material
that reflects the life, thought and witness of the Christian
communities. |
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