For the second consecutive year we held our graduation virtually. God blessed us with many graduates coming from thirteen different countries including Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, the United States, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. We graduated a total of 68 students, a record number over the last four years. We infinitely thank God who has allowed us to be a means of blessing in equipping many men and women who he has called to ministry.
As part of the graduation, we also celebrated the 50th anniversary of SENDAS. We remembered the first seminary president, Rev. Howard Conrad, and his successors, Rev. Louis Regains, Dr. Jerry Porter, Dr. Enrique Guan, and Rev. Randy Vorce.
The graduation was dedicated to missionaries Rev. Dr. Ruben Fernandez and Rev. Dr. Monica Mastronardi de Fernandez for their 25 years of service and dedication to SENDAS which represents half the time that our institution has been in existence. For that we are profoundly grateful.
During the same event, Dr. Ruben E. Fernandez was given a plaque recognizing him as “Theological Person of 2021” by the Evangelical Association of Theological Education in Latin America (AETAL), an award of high honor for his incalculable service in the area of theological education over 35 years. Dr. Marco Velasco, representing the Board of Directors of AETAL, presented the award.
Dr. Ruben E. Fernandez, originally from Argentina, is the president of the Nazarene Seminary of the Americas and regional coordinator of education and clergy development in Mesoamerica. In the work of theological education, he has also served as academic dean and administrative dean.
As an educator, from the time he taught his first course in 1986 in the city of Buenos Aires, he has been a guest professor invited by Nazarene Seminary of the Southern Cone (STNCS), Interdenominational Evangelical Seminary of Theology (SEIT), Nazarene Seminary of the Americas (SENDAS), European Nazarene College (EuNC) campus in Spain, and Nazarene Theological Seminary (NTS) at its extension in Costa Rica.
AETAL, of which SENDAS has been one of its first member institutions, is part of ICETE (International Council of Evangelical Theological Education) and is the most extensive accrediting agency on the continent.
“We express our enormous gratitude to all those individuals who have served and continue to serve SENDAS as well as those who have placed their trust in this institution blessed by God for their ministry formation”. Said Dr. Marco A. Velasco Vice rector Academic
From: http://www.seminarionazareno.net/en/
