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God is our Refuge and Strength Psalm 46:1 by Rev. Dr. Simon Samuel, Principal, New Theological College
Niyog 2021 has been pre- pared in the midst of two unusually upset-
ting and disruptive academic years (2019-20 & 2020-21) due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath that affect- ed all walks of human life all around the world.
In early January 2020 this pandemic struck in some remote place in far east Asia, and by mid-February it was spotted in south India and in early March, without any prior notice or warning or preparation, a nationwide lockdown was announced by the Central Government . In response to this we called off the remaining classes and the final examination of that academic year (2019-20) . We were like Paul and 276 men who were caught up in the shipwreck in the Adrian sea (Acts 27) by having to tell students that those who could travel by any means must do so . Some of them advanced their reserved tickets, others got new tick- ets and rushed to their homes . A few who did not get tickets remained at the College
until the lockdown was lifted . This was in- deed a panic time for us, for the students and their parents . We never before faced anything like this .
From mid-March to mid-May we ob- served a complete lockdown on campus and took all precautions to keep the com- munity safe . As a result of that and of God’s grace, we remained safe from COVID in- fection . The Lord showed mercy to our students who went home and most of them kept safe too . A few were affected, but they all recovered .
Early in 2020 when there was ease and no news of this pandemic, we sought the Lord for a theme for 2020-21 . The Lord gave us a theme from Psalm 46:1 which reads: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” . So we decided that ‘God is our Refuge’ as our theme for the new academic year . As stated earlier, at that time, there was no hint of any pandem- ic or its aftermath . But later as we entered the pandemic ‘panic’ and passed through it, we realized that the Lord was preparing us ahead of time to seek refuge in Him . We held on to this verse as God’s promise to us during this time praying, ‘Lord you told us that you are our refuge and a very present help in times of trouble’ . The Lord indeed heard our cry and remained faithful as our refuge and our very present help in trouble .
We were able to regroup in May-June and put a system in place for an online mode of learning and education . In this we were ahead of most universities and col- leges in India . Both teachers and students underwent the required training and ori- entation sessions for this online mode of education and learning . The Lord helped us to switch the on-campus mode of learn- ing to online mode through Google Class and Zoom classroom facilities . We used them not only for teaching and learning but also for conducting examinations, chapel services, prayer meetings, days of fasting, practice preaching, pastoral care group sessions, etc . Though in the beginning we