Dr. Chek Yat Phoon is preparing to retire later this year after 43 years of service to the Seventh-day Adventist church. Recently the education department of the General Conference recognized his service with the Award of Excellence.
This prestigious award is given sparingly and only awarded after careful examination of the candidate’s record. It is the greatest honor one of our educators can receive in the Adventist Church.
The requirements to be considered are as follows:
1. The candidate must have given at least 20 years of service including at least 15 years to Adventist education as a teacher, administrator or educational leader.
2. The positive impact of this service must have been clearly felt in at least two Unions or two educational within a Division.
3. The candidate must have earned the respect of his/her students and colleagues, and be a someone who has integrated professional excellence with a dynamic Christian faith.
4. The contribution of this candidate must have made an enduring contribution to Adventist education such as establishing new institutions, implementing new programs, or developing new educational tools.
Since he began ministry in 1972, Dr. Phoon has served as both a pastor and in educational ministry. In his early years of denominational work Dr. Phoon served as a teacher at Sunny Hill College in Sarawak, Malaysia, later as an instructor, professor, and president at the Southeast Asia Union College/Seminary, Singapore, and as professor and dean of theology at Hong Kong Adventist College and later as vice-president for institutional affairs for the newly established union—Chinese Union Mission.
He also served as a visiting professor at the main campus of Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS), and at the extension campus at Universitas Advent Indonesia (UNAI). Dr. Phoon served as a visiting scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California and at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dr. Chek Yat Phoon has served as the Northern Asia-Pacific Division Director of Education since 2006. In this capacity, his leadership and influence has been clearly felt across each of the Unions of the Northern Asia Pacific Division, Southern Asia Pacific Division and beyond.
We are honored to have had Dr. Phoon serve here in our field and we will surely miss him as he retires.
Article by Dr. David Ripley, NSD Ministerial Association Secretary