Our Leader Studies program awards scholarships to exceptional Majority World Christian leaders pursuing doctoral-level education in theology and related disciplines. Meet the 2025 new scholars.
Carmia Margaret
Carmia Margaret serves as an Associate Pastor and Secretary of the Board at Gereja Kristen Immanuel (GKIm) Hosanna, Bandung. She is also the lead teacher at Sekolah Teologi Untuk Jemaat Kristen (STUJK), Bandung, and a faculty member at Bandung Theological Seminary and STT SAPPI, Cianjur. She earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the South East Asia Bible Seminary in Malang, East Java, and is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, United Kingdom. Her research focuses on developing a hermeneutical approach that is both relevant and contextually rooted for the Chinese-Indonesian Christian community. Beyond her ministry and studies, she enjoys reading, watching movies, experimenting with coffee brewing, spending time in nature, and hanging out with close friends.
Dina
Dina is a New Testament scholar, published author, and lecturer from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. With a background in engineering, she is well-equipped to study the New Testament with prayerful, rigorous attention to detail. So her doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh explores how the Apostle Paul reuses themes from the prophet Isaiah to express a grand vision of salvation in the Book of Romans. She hopes her work will help make biblical theology more accessible in Arabic-speaking churches, where original resources for studying the Bible are extremely limited.
Oscar Garcia
Oscar Garcia was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He ministered in Puerto Rico and in Uruguay for twenty years, including the last ten years as seminary professor and academic dean. He gained his Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary in 2012. With the goal of strengthening Latin American theological education, he is now earning his PhD from SETECA in Guatemala. His research will model a contextual approach to curriculum development based on Latin American – and global – theologians. He is married to Charlotte, and they have two daughters, Sofía and Sara. They currently live and serve in Uruguay.
Miriam
“Miriam” is a Christian theologian, missionary, and educator serving in Pakistan. She is committed to empowering the most vulnerable, especially women and children. As Vice Principal of a theological seminary and a doctoral researcher at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (U.K.), she combines academic scholarship with practical ministry. Her passion is to amplify muted voices through the lens of God’s love and justice, a passion that she is pursuing in her dissertation, which explores God’s responses to those with muted voices in Genesis.
Hendrawan Wijoyo
Hendrawan Wijoyo is an Indonesian doctoral student at Emory University. He specializes in Religion, Ethics, and Society. His experience serving in churches spurs his interests in Christian political economy, political theology, virtue ethics, commons/commoning, solidarity economics, and theological anthropology. His dissertation will explore solidarity-based political economics so that Christians (and those of other faiths) can embody God’s vision of reciprocity, love, and just peace, especially in Indonesian society.
Elisabeth Viliengue
Elisabeth Viliengue is a university lecturer and United Methodist pastor. She is faculty at ISTEL in Angola, where she has served for 19 years, including for two years as Academic Director. In addition, she was Deputy Director for Academic Affairs at the Higher Evangelical Polytechnic Institute in Lubango, Angola, for five years. She lectures on contemporary theology, African theology, and philosophy of education. Currently she is a PhD candidate in Missiology at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Her research investigates Christian and African Traditional beliefs having to do with healing practices in southern Angola. Her hope is to craft new, culturally appropriate ways for Christian doctors and nurses to practice their callings. Elisabeth is married to Graciano Viliengue, and they have three children.
Thank you for supporting the 2025 cohort of Scholar Leaders as they begin their PhD programs, and for your generosity towards our ministry. As we seek to be the best friend of Majority World theologians, we thank God for friends like you who make it possible.
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