Feye Bernardino is a United Neon Foundation Scholar from International Graduate School of Leadership (IGSL) in which she is taking Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership major in Leadership Studies. And to know more about Feye and her journey, she decided to contribute a regular newsletter to inspire her fellow students who are undergoing their online classes during this COVID-19 Pandemic.
Grace upon Grace
It has been more than eight years since I stopped taking classes for my MATL (Transformational Leadership) course in IGSL. I thought to myself that it is okay even if I won’t get a diploma since I have already been using what I learned in my ministry like in training OFW Ministers in GFM, discipling pros in CCF and teaching in Messiah College as a Part-Time Faculty while discipling first year students. However, God has a beautiful plan. After our Alumni Homecoming July of 2019, I prayed about it. Months before I was about to enroll, God provided a scholarship and living allowance through a former discipler and her husband. When I finally enrolled, the Registrar informed me that amazingly I have taken all prerequisite subjects so I was allowed to continue in the old Curriculum Program. Isn’t that amazing? He has planned out everything for me in His own time. It was a grace from IGSL, but ultimately, It was a grace from the Lord
Lockdown experience
Where is God in the midst of Covid 19? I was asked by our batch leader in elementary to share in our Batch wall in light of what is happening today. I readily answered yes by all means. It was very timely because we have been studying in my 1st theology class this semester (God, Angels and Humanity) the attributes of God. I have also been reading a book on the same topic by A.W. Tozer. I first discussed on the Sovereignity of God and where is God in all these that are happening in the world today. I then discussed on the brevity of life, finding hope in the Lord and segue to the Gospel presentation. I made a long and very passionate statements that I pray would really minister and moved my batchmate to really seek God in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic.
In our Theology class, we also touched on Theodicy, a philosophical concept that recognized the probability of the existence of God and theorized that both good and evil needed to exist in the world in order to create a sense of balance. In the Christian perspective, we know that God has and definitely must have a good reason for allowing evil. I shared in our Zoom online class that if it was for the more and more people who are now more open to the Gospel and a number of those who are already coming to Christ because of COVID-19, then we are fully convinced that God has the best reason for this pandemic.