Development: Why It's Symbolic at WCIU

Dear WCIU Colleagues and Friends,

I come now to the final word in the description of our degree: Master of Arts in International Development.

So, what do we mean by development?

I can think of no better way to describe this than to highlight the work of one of our students. I could select from many examples, but space requires brevity! So I select one, whose research at WCIU focused on a remote mountain people in East Asia. I will not reveal the country for reasons of security.

Here is an overview:

The student presented a profile of the Mountain People and a brief history of the work done among them by Christians.They explored the impact of urbanization and globalization on this people group. Then they examined the biblical basis and scope of eight major sectors of society: family, education, science, business, arts, media, government, and church. Then they analyzed how each sector has affected the Mountain People, in order to ascertain "progress so that they could propose principles and a next step plan for each sector, toward a holistic transformational development strategy to make disciples, accelerating a gospel movement, bringing blessing to this "nation".

Holistic. Blessing. Transformational.

This is the vision behind WCIU as we offer the Master of Arts in International Development.

I am proud to be involved!

Kevin Higgins

President, WCIU