At 2:00 am in Manila, most people are asleep. But not Dr Beatrice Ang. Instead, she joined us live on Langham Live, beaming into homes across the UK and beyond with a gentle spirit and radiant smile. It was a powerful reminder of the global family that is Langham Partnership—and the faithfulness of those, like Dr Ang, who serve God tirelessly even in the early hours.
Beatrice is a Langham Scholar based in the Philippines. She is many things: theologian, leader, mentor, daughter, teacher, and most of all, servant of Christ. Her journey is a testimony to God’s grace and the impact of equipping leaders to strengthen the global church.
From Classroom to Calling
Beatrice grew up in a vibrant, faith-filled home in the Philippines. Though ethnically Chinese, her upbringing was firmly rooted in Filipino culture and Christian witness. Her mother, the first believer in the family, was instrumental in bringing both Beatrice’s father and extended relatives to Christ. Their home, she says, was “a little church”—a sacred space where faith was lived and passed on.
After college, Beatrice taught preschool for two years before responding to a long-felt call to mission. She entered the seminary with dreams of serving overseas. But God had another plan. Her professors noticed something special in her—an academic spark and a gift for teaching. With their encouragement, she pursued further theological studies, sensing a new kind of mission field opening up: the classroom.
A Scholar Formed by Family and Faith
In time, Beatrice began her PhD studies at the University of Edinburgh, eventually earning her doctorate with a dissertation exploring the theology and leadership of John Chrysostom, the early church father known as “the Golden Mouth.” But her journey to scholarship was not easy. Initially, Langham was unable to offer her a scholarship. Still, the organisation extended friendship and support through local scholar coordinators Liz and Malcolm. Later, Langham officially welcomed her into the Scholar programme—a decision that proved to be life-changing.
Through Langham, Beatrice found more than financial aid. She found community. “They made sure I wasn’t isolated,” she recalled. “It wasn’t just academic support—it was prayer, mentorship, friendship. Even after returning to the Philippines, I could still message Liz and Malcolm when I faced ministry challenges. They were always there.”
A Vision to Empower Asian Leaders
Beatrice now serves as the Director of the Center for Theological Inquiry in Asia, based at the International Graduate School of Leadership—her former seminary. The centre’s mission is both bold and beautiful: to bring together scholars and church leaders to explore theology that is rooted in Asian contexts, responsive to real-world needs, and deeply biblical.
Their projects include a groundbreaking two-volume work on historical theology in Asia, written by young scholars across the continent. “We want to be a bridge,” she explains. “We want the academy to hear the church, and the church to benefit from theology. We ask good questions, just like Jesus did.”
She is also co-authoring a new Langham book on the Ten Commandments, contributing a chapter on honouring one’s parents—an especially meaningful topic in Asian culture. Her reflections weave together biblical wisdom and cultural insight, enriching the global church’s understanding of family and discipleship.
Faithfulness in Every Season
Beatrice’s academic and leadership work is matched by a deep commitment to local ministry. Having recently returned to her home church, she now leads a women’s Bible study group and mentors younger believers—including, unexpectedly, her own cousins. “I was looking to mentor others,” she laughs, “and my cousins said, ‘Mentor us!’ I didn’t think they were that interested, but God opened the door.”
What’s striking is her posture of humility. Whether directing a theological centre or hosting a Bible study in her living room, she remains faithful to the small and large opportunities God places in her path. “I’m just saying yes to what God has placed on my lap at this time,” she says simply.
A Living Example of the Langham Vision
Beatrice’s story is a shining example of what Langham Partnership is all about: equipping leaders who will return to serve the Church in their context, bringing lasting transformation. Her work is helping to shape the future of theology in Asia. Her teaching is training a new generation of godly leaders. Her life is bearing fruit in classrooms, churches, and homes.
It’s easy to talk about impact in abstract terms. But when we meet people like Beatrice, we see that impact made real—in a life surrendered to Christ, in faith that endures hardship, in scholarship that feeds the church, and in a vision that is lifting others up.
Thank you for supporting Langham Scholars. Through your prayers and generosity, you are part of Beatrice’s story—and the stories of hundreds like her who are ministering faithfully between heaven and earth.
Video Transcript
Summary
- Langham Live welcomes Dr. Beatrice Ang from Manila, Philippines. This is actually the second time that Mark Armstrong has interviewed her.
- Beatrice studied at Edinburgh University. Her dissertation title was Ministering Between Heaven and Earth. Her vision is to shape godly leaders for the church and other areas in society.
- The biggest challenge in training leaders in the Philippines is the lack of good leaders. Everybody has to wear multiple hats and do multiple ministries.
- Following Beatrice’s studies, she returned home to the Philippines. Now, she’s directing their research centre called the Centre for Theological Inquiry in Asia.
- The Centre’s vision is to bring academicians and practitioners together, becoming both catalyst and a bridge. They also want academia to listen to what the church has to say to help the body of Christ in Asia flourish much more.
Transcript
So many Thursdays at the end of the month where you are so faithful in coming and joining with us on Langham Live. It’s a real encouragement to us as part of the Langham staff, the Langham team in the UK and we trust it’s a real blessing to you as you come and listen to the different things that are happening around Langham partnership around the world. I could have just said this stage.
If you think of any way in which we could improve now, there’s things that we can’t improve when it comes to technology and things like that. It’s just the way it is. But if you think there’s any way we could improve the actual presentations, please let us know.
And we can’t promise we will, but we certainly would appreciate your feedback. As you know, one of our programs is Langham Scholars where we provide PhD scholarships for individuals who will study and then will go back to their home nation and there get involved in different ministries. There’s about 340 or over 340 that Langham has been, is supported or has been given scholarships.
I was just thinking during the week, I guess in this life I will never meet the most of them. A matter of fact, some of them, we don’t even know the work they’re involved in because they’re involved in really sensitive countries. But our guest this evening, not only have I met in person, this is actually the second time that I will have interviewed her.
I interviewed her before she was a doctor. At that stage she was just a miss, but now she’s a doctor. And it’s really my privilege to welcome Dr.
Beatrice Ang. Beatrice, lovely to see you this evening. Lovely to see you again.
And I want to say a massive thank you to you for taking time out for joining with us this evening. First of all, could you let us know first of all where you’re calling from and secondly what time it is at the minute. Hello everyone.
Thank you for having me. So I am coming from Manila, Philippines and it’s 2am in the morning currently. Just to remind you, if you haven’t muted your sound at the minute, perhaps you could just do that and that would just help us.
But please remember to unmute whenever we come to the prayer time. So Beatrice, as I was saying to you earlier on, if I was your boss, I would tell you to take the day off. But I’m not your boss.
But we really appreciate you either getting out of bed or staying out of bed to join with us this evening. First of all, Beatrice, would you like to tell Us a little about your, little bit about your background, a little bit about your family, and indeed, how you came to faith. All right, so I’m Chinese by ethnicity, but I was born and I grew up in the Philippines.
I still live with my parents and my siblings, two of them. One of my eldest sibling has gotten married, and I have two nieces by her. So it’s been awesome.
We have a full and happy family. Ever since I was young, I felt the call of the Lord to become a missionary. So after I graduated from college and then did two years as a preschool teacher, I decided to go and enter seminary with the perspective or the desire to become a missionary afterwards.
But as I was there, the Lord revealed different gifts that I had, particularly in the area of teaching or theological education. And through the encouragement of my professors, I decided to take further studies so that I could also become a teacher. And in some way, this is like a mission field that God has given me, because in the seminary that I belonged, when I was studying in the Philippines, it was quite varied.
The sort of students that we had, coming from different traditions, different cultures, different countries. And it just became a way for me to be able to serve a more global ministry through teaching these people who were also training to become leaders. Yeah.
I was reading your acknowledgments on your dissertation just yesterday, and one of the lovely things that you referred to your parents is this, that there was a willingness for them to surrender their daughter to God and that your home and that your home was a little church to them. So it must have been a very special relationship that you have with your parents and that they really nurtured you into the ministry and what you’re involved in today. Yes, I remember it was my mother who bought me my first Bible.
I think she was also the first one in her family to become a Christian. And she led her parents and brothers and to Jesus Christ and my father as well. She led my father.
Yeah. That’s wonderful. That’s wonderful.
I hear that you’re talking now about two nieces. Whenever you were, I was talking to, you only had one. So that has now increased, which is great.
Tell us a little bit about the Philippines, a little bit about the number of Christians, and just give us a picture of what the Philippines looks like for us who have never been there. Ah. So the Philippines is a wonderful country in many ways.
It’s predominantly Roman Catholic, but we also get a lot of evangelical Christians. And at the southernmost island, we have a lot of Muslims. The Philippines is always hot.
It’s always a very hot weather all year round, but we have a lot of island. So if you like going to beaches and, you know, eating good food, then come to the Philippines and you will really enjoy it. Yeah, I certainly have it.
Both myself, my wife have it on our bucket list. We must go to the Philippines and we look forward to the day in which we are able to do that. Obviously you have that ability to teach and that has been developed and you did academic study and obviously there’s a time whenever you were wanting to progress that academic study, which means at some stage you came in connection with Langham.
So how did that happen? When I was in the Philippines thinking about going for my PhD studies, Langham was recommended to me by other Langham graduates. So people have been supported by Langham already and in fact I now work with a lot of those people in various projects and they have been such a huge support to me when I returned to the Philippines. But initially Langham actually didn’t accept me as a scholar.
It was only when I was about to enter my second year at the University of Edinburgh that I received their support. But so even when they hadn’t accepted me yet, they did introduce me to Liz and Malcolm who were the scholar care coordinators in Edinburgh at the time. And so I received moral support from Langham from the very beginning.
And then after that the scholarship came and, you know, and I’m now part of this wonderful community. Yeah, so you are the one that almost got away then on us. You are.
So you’ve just indicated there regarding that Langham scholar. And the scholarship is more than just simply paying for fees, it’s a lot wider about support. Would you like to just to speak a little bit into that and how Malcolm has supported you during your time in Edinburgh? Yes, I’m going to a new country where the culture is very different.
That’s really difficult. If I didn’t have them, I don’t think that I would have had a chance to be, you know, to receive that spiritual support, that prayer, constant checking up on me, how am I doing, making sure that I’m not isolated as I do my studies. And then through them I was also connected with other Langham scholars who are doing their studies in the uk and we’ve developed wonderful friendships that have lasted to this day and I think will last, you know, for a very, very long time.
And you really need that kind of support, I feel, because you don’t want your studies to just be purely academic, something that stays in the mind, but you want to have that integrity of life. Living in such a way that pleases the Lord and walking alongside others is really an important part of that. So, yeah, I, I received a lot of mentorship and help from Liz and Malcolm.
Even when I got back to the Philippines and I was facing some, you know, troubles in ministry and things like that, I could still email them, chat them in WhatsApp. And they were always willing to give a lot of advice and not only listen, Malcolm, but I also remember, like, you know, Riad Kassis coming to the Philippines, Lina thought coming to the Philippines and just encouraging us scholars. That has been really, really such a blessing.
Yeah, it seems to be. It certainly becomes a wonderful family. I’ve heard so many times that it’s a family that you join and you never leave, that once you become a Langham Scholar, of course, you came to the UK to do your studies and you studied at Edinburgh University. And I’m going to read out what your dissertation title was, because I would never remember it. Your dissertation title was Ministering Between Heaven and Earth.
John Christendom, Theology and Practice of Church Leadership. The obvious question is why did you pick that title? Oh, why did I pick the title? So I wanted to study early Christianity because I felt like in the seminary in the Philippines, we tend to focus on the Bible, rightly so, and also on the Reformation, but we only pass through the earlier parts of the development of Christianity. So we get some stories about Augustine, for example, and John Chrysostom in our church history classes, but we don’t really delve into their theology.
And I felt that since they are part of our heritage, even as evangelicals, I think it would be good if we had people studying them. So I sort of use John Chrysostom as my window into the world of early Christianity. And the school that I was studying at that time for my mdiv is called the International Graduate School of Leadership.
So it used to be the International School of Theology, Asia, but then they realized that leadership is really an important aspect of training people for ministry. We need to learn how to become leaders. And we had students also who were serving in countries where Christianity isn’t welcomed.
So they had to have a degree, for example, that was more generic sounding. So that’s the practical side of things. But essentially the vision is to shape godly leaders for the church and for other areas in society.
So, yeah, that’s why I decided I would focus on John Chrysostom, who was known as the Golden Mouth and who could was said to be A very good preacher, but also a very good church leader. And I felt that I could learn something from him, both from his. The wonderful things that he did and also his mistakes that I could bring to bear on the present time.
So that’s how. So just question on the side, is there a challenge regarding the training of godly leadership within the Philippines? A challenge? I think the biggest challenge in training leaders in the Philippines would be that there’s not enough of us of leaders. I mean, because everybody has to be wearing multiple hats and doing multiple ministries.
They’re serving in the church, they’re teaching in seminaries, and sometimes they also have to work to feed their families, you know, so it’s really difficult. In some ways, it’s important. I think wearing multiple hats is a good training for theologians because we need to be aware of what’s happening in the world, and we cannot just be in our ivory hours.
But, yeah, it’s a huge challenge. We need more people. We need more leaders.
Yeah. So following your studies, you have returned home, back to the Philippines. So would you like to give us a flavor of what you’ve been involved in since you’ve returned back home again? Okay.
So actually, when I returned to the Philippines, I started teaching in a seminary called the Biblical Seminary of the Philippines. But at the time, I was immediately. I received a lot of administrative work, and I think I was entrusted with responsibilities that were beyond what I.
I could do at the time. I think there. There were certain things, for example, take into consideration, like your age and then returning back and still being involved in writing and stuff, that having a lot of administrative responsibilities sort of took away.
So with a lot of prayer and with a lot of consultation with my various mentors, I decided to leave that seminary and take on a new role in. Back into the seminary where I used to study, which is the International Graduate School of Leadership. So now I’m directing their research center called the center for Theological Inquiry in Asia.
And this center has become a hub, or we’re aiming for it to become a hub to really showcase the writings and the theology of Asian scholars, Asian evangelical scholars. I didn’t have to. Sorry, sorry.
Go ahead, go ahead. It wasn’t me that founded this center. This was founded by a friend of Langham’s, Dr.
Steve Bardu. So he really put in the work in terms of establishing this center. And, you know, this center, we call it the center for Theological Inquiry because we really believe in asking good questions.
We feel like if you want to trigger a good response, you have to ask Good questions. And good questions, you know, causes you to think about the world in a different way and in a. In similarly to what Jesus.
Jesus did. Jesus asked a lot of questions, didn’t he, in the Bible? It wasn’t always rhetorical. It was really.
Questions cost you to think. Yeah, yeah, that’s. No, that’s.
That’s wonderful. And obviously you’ve taken on the role now as director. So what’s your.
What’s your vision for it? For the. For the future? So we’re doing multiple projects. Some of those is with Langham, actually.
Right. The writing of books, for example. One of the projects that we’re doing is a book on historical theology in Asia.
And I don’t think this is something that has really been done before. We gathered a lot of young scholars to write chapters for this book. And it is going to be like two volumes.
For example, in the first volume, we study some of the famous figures in church history, but do it from our unication perspective. In the second volume, we actually look at the local histories of various countries in Asia and then write about that. Not just recounting the history, but looking at the theology and how it can improve the way that we serve the Church, for example.
So the center, our vision is actually to bring academicians and practitioners together. We want to become both catalysts and a bridge. We want to bring the best of academia to the world of the church.
But we also want academia to listen to what the church has to say, what the grassroots has to say. And through those conversations, that collaboration through everyone bringing their respective, you know, gifts onto the table, we feel that we can help the body of Christ in Asia flourish much more. So that’s the vision and mission for this center.
Yeah. I was just thinking whilst you were speaking, Beatrice, that this is just viable data of what Langham Scholars is all about, is seeing those who have received the training, going back home and really empowering the church and teaching the church in such a real and powerful way in which you are seeking to do. But obviously you’re teaching in other colleges.
Are you at this time as well? It will be starting during the next semester. So I took a break this semester to focus on the work at the center. But beginning next semester, I will be teaching in various seminaries, including the seminary that I left.
Actually, I see it as a wonderful way to really reach out to the younger generation. Like, I feel like that’s where they are. If we want them to be involved in the work of the center, then I have to do this.
Yeah, yeah. Excellent. And what subjects do you teach, just by the way? Usually I teach church history and church tradition, so historical theology, patristics, Reformation.
That certain. Yeah. So we’ll be going to prayer just in a few moments.
So you’ve already told us that you’re involved in writing. Are you involved in any other writing or what are you thinking about writing in the future? Currently, we’re also writing this book on the Ten Commandments. So this project is actually being edited by Langham scholars and it’s a multi author volume written by various Filipino Langham scholars.
And my particular chapter is on honor your father and mother. So I’m really keen to look at that from the perspective again of the Asian culture because sometimes I do feel like there are similarities or parallels between say, Asian, how Asian view, how Asians view the honoring of parents in the Confucian society. For example, you honor parents for the sake of creating a harmonious society.
And that finds some resonance in the Bible. But there are also certain things that the Bible bring in that our culture doesn’t. So if you look at the, the command to honor your father and mother in the book of Exodus and how it’s associated in the land that God was giving to Israel, then you know that there are themes there of gratitude to God that you have to bring in and provision for parents so that honoring one’s parents does not become just blind obedience, we might say, or allegiance to family.
Blind allegiance to family. But there is, there are really other themes there that need to be considered. So that’s a sample of the things that we are planning to do.
We want it to be very practical, a way to disciple also the church. It’s not just for again, the academics, but we really want it to be something that’s a book that’s needed for more than. More than your.
The more than for Asians. I think that’s a book that’s needed for the world regarding parenting and how we treat our parents. Finally, before we go to the prayer time, also, you’re also involved very much in local Bible studies, both within your family and within your local church.
So would you like to speak just a couple of minutes into that? Oh, yes. So it’s been a long time since I led Bible study. Like when I went for my PhD at Edinburgh and I was gone for like three and a half years or so, I didn’t really have a church ministry.
And when I got back to the Philippines, because I was so busy in the seminary that I was teaching in, again with the administrative work, I didn’t and it was located in a place that was quite far away from from my home church. I didn’t have the time or the opportunity to minister in my home church as well. And it’s only now that I’ve begun to go back into it.
And I have to thank Chris Wright and Dave Benson because last year they invited me to this mentoring group called the Alongsiders. And so again, the Langham Connection, you know, we met once a month and I was really inspired by what they were doing. So I said, well, that finished last year.
So this year I said, I want to keep on doing something like this. And there was a group of women in the church who has been inviting me again and again to come and lead Bible study. And I have said no so many times, but finally the Lord opened the door and I said yes.
And it has been going flourishing really well. And as for my family, my cousins, that’s also an interesting story because I told them that I was looking to mentor younger people and they said, why are you looking for others? Mentor us? I didn’t want because I didn’t think they were that interested, you know, and mentoring your family members is really, I think that’s tough. But again, God opened the door and I’m just saying yes, basically to what God has placed on my lap at this time.
Yeah, we’re going to go to prayer now and the, the prayer points should come up all in the chat box. Is there any these points you want us protect us to particularly focus on or is there anything else you want to mention before we go to prayer, Beatrice? No, I think, yeah, I have been able to share. Yeah, yeah, that’s great.
Well, listen, Beatrice, thank you so much for taking your time. It’s now half two in the morning and I’m aware of that where you are, but we’re going to go to prayer now, folks, and we’ll go into our groups.