Welcoming Words from the Vice Chancellor
Welcome to Eswatini Medical Christian University (EMCU)—a Christian medical community of serving leaders.
EMCU is a university established to train young leaders who serve people in Eswatini, Africa and the world through medicine and the Gospel. As the name of EMCU suggests, medicine and the Gospel are the two pillars of this University. Medicine is a tool to care for people’s physical health, and the Gospel is the way to serve people’s spiritual health. Medical care requires professional knowledge and skills, and the Gospel emphasizes the spirit of service. EMCU will focus on educating and training leaders with outstanding medical expertise to serve people like Jesus. To this end, specifically, the University will focus on the following keywords:
The first keyword I want to share with you is “Blessings to Others”. I wish that all studies in this campus will focus on the blessing to EmaSwati and people in Africa. Just as each of you becomes a channel of EmaSwati’s blessing, EMCU should also become a channel through which Eswatini can be blessed.
Our university is a medical university. Why does a medical university exist in this small country? I believe that the only reason is to make EMCU a channel of blessing to the people who are not receiving adequate health care in Eswatini and Africa. I believe that the biblical blessing is not to become the final destination of God’s blessing, but to become the channel of God’s blessing to others.
The second keyword is “Serving Spirit”. This is closely related to the first keyword. Today, many companies, government agencies, and NGOs emphasize servant leadership. But the best example of servant leadership is Jesus Christ. In Mark 10:45, Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
For the last five hundred years, western people have dominated the world with their science, technology, military and economic power. But let’s have the vision in EMCU that we can serve the world with God’s love. Let’s create a bright era in which EmaSwati and people in Africa serve the world. Let’s all come together and dream of making the 21st century as an African renaissance.
The third keyword I want to share with you is “Globalization”. What I am talking about here is not globalization from a capitalist perspective or an imperialist perspective. The key to globalization I speak of is sharing knowledge, people and resources with others.
Recently, EMCU is preparing some projects for the globalization. The first is to start EMCU Seminars and the second is to launch two international scholarly journals. Through EMCU Seminars, every year, 20-25 internationally renowned scholars and professionals in health care would be connected with our university. And every year, through two international journals, more than 10 scholars would be connected with our university. The participation of renowned scholars and professionals of health care in our projects will be an important watershed in upgrading and globalizing our university.
The fourth keyword I would like to share with you is “The 4th Industrial Revolution.” It is based on the 3rd Industrial Revolution, the so-called “the Digital Revolution.” It can be characterized by the words big data, cloud service, IoT, mobile technology, artificial intelligence, and their super-connectivity, etc.
To date, Eswatini was a difficult country to visit from other countries. It took me nearly 40 hours to get to EMCU from my home in Vancouver, Canada. It takes more than 35 hours to get here from South Korea. But in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, Eswatini is no longer a remote country. In fact, there is no more isolated place on this planet. In the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, there is no need for people to come physically. This is why and how EMCU can and should be globalized.
As a medical university, I believe, EMCU can be benefitted from the 4th Industrial Revolution. EMCU Seminars and academic journals which I have already mentioned earlier, would not be possible without high speed internet, cloud service and real-time streaming. Have you heard about telemedicine? Telemedicine is the practice of medicine using real-time streaming technology to deliver medical care at a distance. If our medical school is accredited, EMCU can humbly start telemedicine to heal EmaSwati and people in Africa.
Let’s create a new model for Christian university together. Let’s make a model for a new medical school together. Let’s have a vision in the near future to serve people in Africa as well as EmaSwati.
Now, I would like to close my welcoming words by sharing the words of God that I love the most. In Genesis 12:2b, God said to Abraham, “I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” God did not promise to make Abraham rich. HE said that HE would make Abraham a blessing to others. The reason God made Abraham’s name great was to make it a blessing to others.
I believe that this is the essence of the real blessing the Bible speaks of. The Bible says that the only reason we are blessed is to be a blessing to others. I hope that you all can enjoy the blessing of Abrahams through the study in EMCU. I invite that you all will dream of serving EmaSwati and the world with us.
May God bless your life and future to be a blessing to others.
Prof. Paul S. Yang, PhD.
Vice Chancellor, EMCU