We are filled with joy as we stand together, offering our most sincere congratulations to the

graduating students.
Congratulations!! For the past 4 years we have seen and appreciated your hard work.
Some may wonder about the importance of studying theology, the Bible and ministry with
our College.  In answer to that, I have two points:
My first point is that God is holding all things by the word of his power.  He is all mighty; His
greatness no one can fathom.  Our God is our creator and our redeemer; forever He isGod
over all.
Doesn’t He deserve to be known better?  Shouldn’t the ones who serve Him seek to serve
Him more effectively?
Even one who chooses to work as an assistant to a barber must be trained for the position.
At the university, you need 4 years for a Bachelor’s degree, 2 or 3 years for a Master’s, and
another additional 2 or 3 years for PhD.
And yet, why do some people believe they can serve the Lord without study and
preparation?
The Lord Himself trained His disciples for three and a half years.
The leading Universities of the USA began as Christian institutions.  “Harvard” is the name
of a pastor, Yale started as a college to train Bible students, and Princeton’s founding motto
is: “With God we prosper.”
It’s also the same in the UK: Oxford and Cambridge, and even the oldest university in the
world, St. Andrews in Scotland, were all formed for the purpose of training ministers.
My second point is that we need good Bible teachers and ministers.  The world is raising
difficult questions. People have opened up to many things and life has gotten complicated. 
Atheism is growing and temptations and distractions are arriving from every direction.  The
gospel must be delivered honestly and with simplicity.  Its relevance must be
demonstrated.  We must address the issues that are driving people away from the Lord and
meet them where they are, in the busy rush of their lives.  We need equipped Christian
leaders in this world!
Why in this college and why we should support it?
Nazareth Theology College is one of the initiatives of the Baptist Churches Association.  We
were formed from the merger of two colleges that came out from our local Evangelical core:
The Galilee Bible College was formerly a branch of the Bethlehem Bible College.
In a time when we see a lot of division within the church, the Lord performed a miracle when
He brought these two colleges together, desiring that the two should be made one.   Unity is
so pleasing to the heart of the Lord. The Lord gave me the privilege to contribute in the
integration of these two colleges while I was in the administration board of one of them.
This college is not only the core of our Evangelical lives, but it plays an important role in our
society, because it is centered in a local context and is a part of the community.
The Lord has created us as Palestinian Arabs, and has put us in the State of Israel. We
have our own language, customs, history and heritage. We rejoice for the joy of our people
and we mourn for their grief. How can we serve our people and minister to them, if we don’t
love them? And how can we love our people if we do not love their language, customs,
traditions and heritage?
We mourn for the killing of the young man Yusuf Abdul Khaliq and we are angry for the
demolition of homes in the unrecognized villages. At the same time we rejoice with Hussam
Hayek for his scientific discoveries.  We celebrate with Marie Atrash, the swimmer from Beit
Sahour and with Haitham Khalayleh the son of Majd al-Krum in Arab Idol.
This college teaches us how to be effective as disciples of the Lord in our own unique
context.  We learn how to represent Him as Christian citizens of Israel, seeking to live our
faith openly with the Jewish and Muslim majority.
To this end, the college organizes lectures for Christian clergy of all denominations.  We
sponsor Jewish-Arab meetings and studies on reconciliation, marriage counseling, and how
to become peacemakers in this Arab-Israeli conflict. Every year, we host a peace
conference and a leadership conference.
As a leader in the church and a secular servant with full-time officers, let me share three
words of advice with our graduates:
1. Keep the vision before you. The fact that you joined the college and studied theology was
not a coincidence, but a part of God’s plan for your life. Now go, and find your own calling. It
may not necessarily be in the auspices of a Church, but perhaps in a school, an
organization or some other place. The Lord may open doors for you to work in one of the
usual fields of services or production and you will use what you have learned here in your
professional lives. The Lord wants heroes of faith who know Him and will live out their faith
in all areas of life.
2. Don’t only share your teaching and your information with your colleagues or students but
share your whole life with them.
Pour out your life and share it with your students, just as the Lord Jesus did. He was not
only a teacher, but a friend and companion who He shared with His disciples the sweet and
difficult times of their lives.
Servants of the Gospel should not work as machines or robots, but as real human beings of
flesh and blood who can share their lives with their students. The Christian message should
always be at the core of our lives.
3. Do not make this title the last thing you learn. Don’t settle for what you have already
reached, but work hard to continue learning and to join other tracks. Hear the call of God for
your life and continue to refine it, whether you are called to be a preacher or Bible teacher,
or whether you are called for Christian Education, the science of ancient manuscripts,
Christian counseling or some other field.
The expansion and growth of the Body of Christ will fill the region of Nazareth and Galilee,
as pleasing to the heart of the Lord. Let our local culture (inside and outside the church) be
filled with the values of evangelical Christianity, so that the pure aroma of Christ is diffused
to everyone around us. Let there be lawyers, engineers, teachers, construction workers,
accountants, doctors and nurses who know the Lord and who have received theological
training.
Personally, if the Lord is willing, I would like to take a course in the college now, since my
wife has just finished her education here.
In closing, I want to mention that we are from Nazareth—the city of Jesus—and that Galilee
was His home region. These particular places should honor Him because Jesus chose
them precisely among other villages and cities of the earth. The Lord did not choose New
York or Moscow, nor Beijing, nor even Rome, Delhi or London, but He chose Nazareth,
Bethlehem and Jerusalem.  From this very place, let our lives be a living testimony to His
honor. With the training you have received, may God make you into His true and faithful
witnesses.
Again— congratulations and keep pressing on!

Dear Professors, Staff, Honoured Guests, Families and Fellow Graduates

On behalf of the graduating class of 2017, I say welcome to everyone and

Reminiscing about our time here as students of the Social Science faculty at
UIB there are a plethora of words that can be used to highlight the events,
trials and our feelings. I will try to sum it all by saying we thought of
ourselves in the right way.

Two years ago, each one of us made the firm decision to pursue a graduate
degree course in our beloved university. I bet in the middle of it; we wanted
to give up, we wanted to pack our books and bags and go home. Some have
done that. Honestly, that would have been an easier choice, but we stuck
through it all, thick and thin. So for what lies ahead, I challenge you, and I
encourage you to do the same.

Today we are gathered here to celebrate our success. One we can raise our
heads high for we have overcome all the challenges life threw at us in the
past two years. It has not been easy, but we have reached the end of this
hurdle. It is also the beginning of a new one, and I want to encourage you
never to relent. I want to encourage you to use the same spirit that you
have shown, the sacrifices you have made, the sleepless nights you have
endured, this I promise you my friends it is our ticket to our next
destination.

Some of us came to this great university with expectations, high or low but
graduating today, tells me only one thing that our expectations have been
met, and the ball has been thrown at us to transform our lives, our families,
communities, and humanity in general. Hence, what is needed today more
than ever is for each one of us to think about ourselves in the right way.

Education they say is the key to success; I add that a transformative

At UIB I have met great people and individuals that have inspired me to a
greater length. One of those is my classmate and comrade Bheki. Bheki was,
in fact, the first real friend I got here in Bergen four months after my arrival.
Indeed it was this university that brought us together. Bheki is an old soul
with many layers, and like many old souls he has a habit of speaking in
quotes and phrases and I quote, “Life is a complex phenomenon for some
and others it is a walk in the park.”  For us, it was a walk in the classrooms,
reading halls, libraries and the social events we organize to bond, and to
start everlasting friendships.

I am proud to say that today, we have grown, we are different from the
person we were when we first got here. We have transcended into new
humanity that appreciates diversity. Today, I do not consider myself only as
a Gambian for Bangladesh has touched me, Norway, Ghana, Uganda and
most importantly tiny Swaziland. No, not Switzerland, Swaziland. That is
where Bheki comes from.

It was our life journeys that got us here. To some it just happened to others,
it was a matter of life and death. For me, it was both.

This very month two years ago, I was planning my exit from Gambia due to
political persecution. Today I am returning home with a load of life lessons in
my already overweight luggage. One lesson that Norway has taught me
while seeking refuge here from political persecution and abruptly uprooting
my whole life is that in the middle of chaos things have a way of working
out. This is one life lesson I consider very valuable, and one I hope you
share with me.  
I came here as a Student at Risk. This was made possible for me and many
others some of whom like Bheki who cannot return home due to political
prosecution by Norwegian students (SAIH and NSO) and the beautiful people
of Norway. I want to use this opportunity to show my appreciation to all the
people behind the student at Risk and the Quota scheme that have made it
possible for many to get an education. Although, it is rather unfortunate that
Quota as we know it is no more, we are still hopeful that new schemes will
emerge to support the less privileged. I strongly believe that through such
initiatives of solidarity, we will grow and advance humanity for all.

The big question for many of us now is what we are going to do next. For
some of us, we might decide to take a walk in the park; others will decide to
get married and start a family like the many of my classmates who have
already implemented family policies while collecting data for their thesis. I
am proud to say that some are graduating today with double degrees.

I say to you right here whether you decide to take a walk in the park or go
for that Ph.D. or your dream job always think about yourself in the right
way. See yourself as the reflection of the next person sitting next to you on
the bus. Or that starving kid somewhere,  the homeless person that you
passed by on your way to work, or the women that continue to endure
suffering due to a male-dominated society, or the millions of migrants
drowning in the Mediterranean seeking a better life somewhere.

The success we are celebrating today was conditioned by the amount of risk
we were willing to take, but also by the friendship and the cultural
exchanges we shared. I add the many different foods we experienced here:
the pinnekjøtt and fårikål been my favorite.

Before we close this chapter in our lives and start the next one, it is rightly
important to thank all the people that have been there for us along the way.
To all our families for your love and guidance throughout the years. To our
professors, you have done your part. To the administrators like our amazing
Denise that took care of us with love, we say Tusen Takk.

Maybe a decade from now we will not remember some of the theories we
learned in class, but we will remember the love we shared here. And at the
end of the day, it is this love for us, our friends, our university and humanity
that will make the difference in our lives. We must continue to nurture a love
for our world today with all its challenges, needs it more than ever before.
I do not promise you an easy journey nor am I assuming that it will be the
same for everyone, but it is up to each one of us to make our dreams walk,
it is up to each one of us to keep pushing and push harder. At the end of the
day, if we all do that, from our various locations, in Africa, Europe, America
Asia, Latin America or wherever one might be at the time, humanity will win.

To conclude, I will once again quote my friend, whom I wish can soon rather
than later return to a democratic Swaziland. And I quote “If it is not us who
are learning from our experiences, then others shall learn from our lives,
and they will become better than us.”

Gratulere and Congratulations