Westminster is honored to welcome Dr. Cephas Tushima to our campus this month. Dr. Tushima, a Westminster alumnus (Ph.D. ‘09), currently serves at Jos ECWA Theological Seminary (JETS) in Jos, Nigeria, and is visiting the U.S. for one year on a Fulbright Scholarship.

A program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Scholarship-in-Residence program is a distinguished honor, with 800 scholarships granted annually. The goal of the Fulbright program is to increase mutual understanding and support friendly and peaceful relations between people in the U.S. and other countries.

Dr. Tushima’s Fulbright Scholarship was granted through Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA. As part of this program, Dr.Tushima will travel around the country speaking at a variety of graduate institutions—we are grateful that Westminster is one of them.

While he is here on October 20th, Dr. Tushima will lecture in Dr. Iain Duguid’s Old Testament History and Theology class, discussing a culturally unique approach to Genesis 3. Dr. Duguid is looking forward to the fresh, cultural perspective that Tushima will bring to his students. “I think this will be a really rich educational experience for the students to see what a familiar passage of Scripture means through a different cultural context,” said Duguid.

While on campus, Dr. Tushima will also speak and spend time with students at the Global Mission Fellowship. If you are on campus, come hear him speak about the church in Nigeria and ask questions about his ministry.

Since he returned to Nigeria after completing his Ph.D. at Westminster, Dr. Tushima has sought to equip his fellow Nigerians with the skills they need to preach the Word of God biblically and winsomely. Founded in 1990 by the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA), JETS is one of a handful of schools in Nigeria that offer graduate-level programs in theology. Dr. Tushima serves the seminary as the Deputy Provost of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Biblical Studies. In addition, Tushima travels around Nigeria hosting preaching conferences with the aim of training both pastors and lay leaders to preach and shepherd their congregations effectively.

Along with his extensive experience in preaching and teaching, Dr. Tushima has written and published multiple scholarly papers, articles, and ebooks, including his doctoral dissertation, “The Fate of Saul’s Progeny in The Reign of David” (Cambridge: James Clark & Co., 2012).

When he isn’t teaching, preaching, or writing, Dr. Tushima is advocating for theological education in Nigeria. Dr. Tushima presides over an association of theological institutions that is seeking to have a bill passed through the Nigerian Congress to provide accreditation of theological programs throughout the country.

We have been honored to receive regular updates on Dr. Tushima’s ministry in Nigeria over the past few years, and we are very pleased to be able to welcome him back to campus to speak to our students. Mark your calendars for October 20, 2016!

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