In 2022, Russia assaulted Irpin Biblical Seminary after receiving reports of civilians fleeing there. Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association says, “That school endured 30 rounds of mortar fire that turned the second floor of the school into an inferno, destroyed many of the rooms on the first floor, and, of course, vaporized the roof. For all intents and purposes, that building was gutted while 120 people were hiding in the basement below – and they survived.”

Irpin Biblical Seminary (Photo courtesy of Eric Mock/SGA)

Rebuilt and Thriving

Mock visited the school after the attack in 2022 and says it was hard to see. People were reeling from the war.

In time, the Slavic Gospel Association, as well as the seminary’s other supporters, helped them rebuild. Now just over three years later with the war still being fought, Mock says the seminary is like a new place.

“There was joy in the hallways. The professors that were there walked up and gave me great hugs with smiles on their faces, saying, ‘It’s good to see you.’ The students in between the breaks when I was teaching, were worshiping. Literally, they gathered around a piano and worshiped.”

Irpin Biblical Seminary (Photo courtesy of Eric Mock/SGA)

Yet the war was right outside. Mock says that while he was teaching classes there was anti-aircraft fire in the distance and even drones flying around the area to exhaust the people. These drones are sent especially between one a.m. and four a.m. to disrupt sleep patterns. However, people remain hungry for the Word of God and continue to joyfully serve God and each other.

“It was startling to see how much joy there was, how much effort there was to press forward. So as much as the Russian army is trying to bring the people to despair, the churches, the Bible-teaching churches we serve (which are over 1900 churches in Ukraine), these are the churches that are proclaiming hope of the Gospel and shining light in the middle of a dark time.”

A Reminder of Gospel Joy in Trials

Mock says this should serve as a reminder of truth for American Christians. It is like looking at a living hall of faith from Hebrews 12. We can see the Gospel being lived out by ordinary people who now are living in extraordinary circumstances and trials.

Irpin Biblical Seminary (Photo courtesy of Eric Mock/SGA)

“In Isaiah, 30 verses 20 to 22 and verse 21 it talks about, ‘You will hear the voice of the teacher, and he will say, this is the way when you turn to the left or the right.’ And we need to have that laser focus on Him, and that will guide us through these times. That’s what I saw in Ukraine, not despair, but joy. That’s kind of the story behind the story – is God advancing His church, and it’s a glorious thing to see.”

Please pray that God would continue to sustain the church in Ukraine. If you want to get involved with the Slavic Gospel Association, click here.

Header photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association.

Regan Miller with Mission India shares the story of a woman named Rajeshree, whose family was in a downward spiral of poverty. 

“She and her husband were both illiterate. The only jobs they could get were low-paying, day labor jobs,” Miller says. “They really were in need of hope.”

Today, Rajeshree is a follower of Christ and a small business owner. (Photo courtesy of Mission India)

As Rajeshree and her husband fell into addiction to alcohol and tobacco, their family sunk deeper into poverty. She became more and more responsible to provide for their needs, which quickly led to exhaustion, anger and hopelessness. 

“As much as she wanted to change her life, she didn’t know how. Then an adult literacy class came along, and she was able to enroll. Not only did she learn how to read and write, but she got care from a compassionate Christian teacher,” Miller says. 

“Through that teacher’s discipleship and the Bible-based lessons, Rajeshree actually came to faith in Jesus, and it changed everything.” 

Because of Jesus, Rajeshree’s entire demeanor changed from bitterness to kindness. She and her husband realized the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol and quit both. She also received training on how to start a small business of locally sourced products. 

“She was so excited. She learned how to make dish soap, laundry detergent, cooking oil, all kinds of practical things that people in the neighborhood would need to buy anyway,” Miller says. (Read even more about her story here.)

Would you pray that Rajeshree’s entire family will come to know Christ as Savior? You can also be part of sending another person like her to literacy class this upcoming school year. 

“It only costs $40 for a student to go to one of these classes for a whole year,” says Miller. 

Learn more and sponsor a literacy class student here.

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

Regan Miller with Mission India tells us, “In India, one in four adults is illiterate. If you’ve never had an education, there’s so much you don’t know: your rights in society, or why you should maintain a clean home, how to feed your kids nutritious food, when to take your kids to the doctor.” 

She explains, “It’s really difficult especially [for] parents in India to maintain a clean home or to have consistent income. Some are so desperate for income that they even send their kids to work instead of school. So then the cycle just continues and poverty becomes a generational issue.”

For these men and women, Mission India’s adult literacy classes are the start of a new life. 

An Adult Literacy Class with Mission India. (Photo courtesy of Mission India via Facebook)

“When they [are] done, they’ll have a fifth grade level education in reading, writing and math,” Miller says. “They’ll be able to count money, they’ll be able to open a bank account, they’ll be able to read the bus signs so that they can take transportation around town.”

Mission India believes that this holistic lifting up of a person’s life is part of what Jesus meant when He said in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

“He came to change our lives not just for eternity, but for today,” Miller says.

Every literacy class is led by Christian teachers, who keep the gospel at the core of the class. The Bible is one of the first texts that students read.

“As students start to see that everything they’re learning is a gift from God, they also are learning Scripture in the process. They come to put it together that Jesus is who is blessing them,” Miller says. 

“They’re learning these new skills, they’re being spiritually changed. So many of them end up receiving Christ as Savior as a result.”

Please pray! Miller says, “We would love prayers over these students as they finish out their year, that they will be persevering to the finish line and be excited about what they’re learning and eager to pass it on — especially [what] they’re learning about Christ.”

Connect with Mission India here to read about students like Bisma and Kishu whose lives were transformed through literacy classes.

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

Eric Mock says the Russian advance came within one kilometer of the seminary. “The upper part of the seminary had become an inferno so hot that it liquefied all the metal on that upper floor. Yet one floor down, the worship center, the library, and the dining room escaped with no damage, not even smoke damage.”

Symbol of hope

Last week, 164 students started classes at the seminary once again. Mock says the community sees it as a symbol of perseverance. “They are aware that the seminary was used to provide protection, food, and aid for people that were forcibly driven out of their houses because of the fighting.”

The Russian army only targeted the building after learning about the civilians hiding there.

“We were able to visit the seminary, to encourage them, and to see what was going on. We saw the destruction in Irpin, Bucha, and Kyiv.”

Ukrainian Christians

Recently, joint classes began at the Polish Baptist Seminary in Warsaw, helping train pastors among the Ukrainian refugees.

Ask God to strengthen Ukrainian Christians throughout Europe.

In the embattled Kherson region of Ukraine, mortar fire hit the house of a local pastor. A wall collapsed, injuring the daughter as well as the mother.

Mock was recently able to visit them. “It was overwhelming to meet up with grandfather, a pastor, and to hear him continue to praise God, even in the hardship. He said he had an opportunity to share the Gospel at the hospital wherever the Lord placed him.”

The header photo shows the damaged seminary from above. (Photo courtesy of the Slavic Gospel Association) 

Haytham Dieck is teaching a new course about monasticism with Bethlehem Bible College. He says, “When you go deeply into the history of monasticism, you get really surprised. People just left their materialistic lives to follow Jesus as He said. They went in the desert, to the Judean Desert, the same place where Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.”

The Judean Desert is a very harsh environment. But Christians turned it into a city with 70 monasteries. At different times of day, one could hear bells ringing from all directions.

From here, monasticism spread out to other parts of the Christian world as well. It also led to a lot of theological development. Dieck says, “Probably the first establishment of Arab theology started in the monasteries in the Judean Desert, which is absolutely phenomenal. That is exactly the concentration of the course.”

Course details

The course will be taught in nine sessions, Dieck says, “Each class will run for almost an hour and a half. That means the class will total almost 13 hours.”

Dieck has previously taught courses on discovering Jerusalem, Galilee, and Bethlehem. In the future, he hopes to teach on the women of the Bible.

Want to learn more? Consider signing up for the online class here.

Header photo courtesy of Bethlehem Bible College. 

LSESD Partner Relations Coordinator Daniella Daou says, “In Lebanon, we have no mandated special education, so students we serve at schools would leave at grade 9 or 10, with no future in sight in terms of academic or vocational education.”

How the partnership works

On NDU’s campus, SKILD operates an office that helps students struggling with their academic performance. NDU psychologists work with the students to help them find the best academic practices for their education.

The partnership also led to a new, 2-year certificate program for students that cannot enroll in traditional institutions. Daou says this program is the only one of its kind in Lebanon. “The students take academic courses, as well as life and social skills courses. They audit regular university courses, they have internships on campus and off-campus.”

“We want them to be equipped academically and in their social skills to become independent citizens.”

Daou says LSESD wants to foster a culture of inclusion in higher education. “That’s what we don’t have right now. We are modeling the inclusive community on campus that we hope to see on a larger scale someday.”

SKILD’s work has brought together Christians from many different Christian and religious groups in Lebanon.

How to pray

Pray God’s love would be evident in the work of SKILD and the other branches of LSESD.

Since the economic crisis began, SKILD has lost a lot of qualified staff members as people flee the country. Daou says, “This has affected our capacity to run assessments as usual and serve kids. Please pray that we find qualified, passionate, people.”

LSESD expects more power cuts this month as well, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ask God to sustain the ministry.

The header photo shows Lebanon’s Notre Dame University. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

At first, van der Knijff studied econometrics, which is the mathematical side of economics. But he eventually left that line of study to attend a seminary in Amsterdam. There, he obtained a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology.

Teaching theology

In the spring of 2021, he and his family moved to Lebanon, where he began teaching at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary. He says, “I’ve been teaching a course on providence and prayer, the relationship between God’s plans, God’s care for creation, and our influence when we pray. That has been a joy to do. In the future, I will be mainly teaching systematic theology and historical theology.”

What is the difference between historical and systematic theology? van der Knijff says, “Historical theology is mainly where we study the development of Christian thought throughout history and the worldwide church.” Meanwhile, systematic theology looks at different doctrinal topics and expresses what the Church believes and why.

Challenges in Lebanon

Right now, van der Knijff spends a lot of his time learning Arabic. He intends to stay in the country, despite the financial crisis and unstable political situation. “Prayer for Lebanon and for the people who are suffering is much needed. For the region, I would say in almost all the countries where students from ABTS live, the church is in a difficult situation. It takes great courage and great wisdom to be a pastor and to be a church in those circumstances.”

ABTS students work in churches across the Middle East and North Africa. The seminary gives them affordable education they can use right away in their ministries. Ask God to strengthen these churches.

And pray that God will equip van der Knijff and his family as they adjust to life and ministry in Lebanon.

The header photo shows Kees van der Knijff. (Photo courtesy of ABTS)

Andrew Bush, Director of the Institute of Peace and Justice, talks about the fall classes now underway. “We have 30 students from several different nations involved. Most of these are seasoned peacemakers themselves. They hail from Liberia, Scotland, England, Holland, Canada, the Philippines, and the United States.”

This is such important work for churches to be doing, Bush says. In fact, it’s part of the Great Commission, since Jesus commanded his disciples to bring peace. “Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ This is often a neglected agenda in Christian work. We see it as something perhaps superfluous to our ministries in our churches.”

The classes

This photo shows Andrew Bush welcoming students at the beginning of classes. (Photo courtesy of Bethlehem Bible College on Facebook)

The classes are taught in English, and the lectures are posted online to be available to students with any schedule living in different time zones.

Peace-making isn’t easy in the 21^st century, as demonstrated by the sorrow and complexity of the Israel-Palestine conflicts. That’s why the Institute tackles the subject from the perspective of Palestinians.

Bush says students tie this conflict into their own experiences. “They have seen their families divided over issues and friendships broken up over particular issues. They feel a real sense of grief at that which they experienced on a personal level.”

Get involved

Pray the Institute will help bring God’s lasting peace to Palestine and around the world. Bush says, “We’re currently forming a course with Indian Christian theologians. We’re also preparing an anti-bullying campaign for the local schools because we are intent on helping promote peace within Palestinian society.”

Interested in joining courses at the Institute? Visit bipj.org to sign up or learn more.

The header photo shows murals painted on a segment of the separation wall between Israel and Palestine. (Photo courtesy of Bethlehem Bible College) 

Three days earlier, Malati had gone to a bank in India to make her deposit. Equivalent to roughly $34 USD today, the 2,500 rupees were a large sum for the average Indian family.

However, there was one problem at the bank. Malati couldn’t read or write. Not that this was unusual. Around 35 percent of women in India are illiterate. So Malati asked a seemingly kind young man to assist her with the deposit. He graciously listened as she told him what to write and filled out the deposit form for her.

Now, Malati realized what had happened. The young man, so willing to assist her, had written down his personal bank information and routed all 2,500 of her rupees to fill his own pockets. When Malati’s husband found out, he was furious. There was nothing she could do.

Not long afterward, Malati heard there was an Adult Literacy Class with Mission India starting in her village.

Mission India’s Adult Literacy Classes are year-round and led by indigenous teachers who are trained through the ministry.

Bartholomew* with Mission India explains, “The goal educationally at the end of these Adult Literacy Classes [is] that these adults will have a fifth-grade education level. So they’re able to proficiently do math and read and write, which all then translates into success in terms of those adults’ daily lives.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

“The best part of it is they…get introduced to Jesus — some for the very first time. So it’s just amazing to see the kind of transformation these classes can bring to their communities.”

As for Malati, when she heard about the Adult Literacy Class, “She signed up right away. She was just so excited. She didn’t want to lose any money anymore. The teacher, Sunitha, helped Malati in many ways and Sunitha would actually visit the bank with Malati to teach her about the transactions and how to fill out the deposit form so she could do it on her own now.”

Bartholomew says, “One day, as Malati was listening to Sunitha talk about the lesson, Sunitha started talking about Jesus. She shared the Gospel with Malati and her classmates. Malati was just so moved by hearing about the Gospel and what Jesus did for her, that day…Malati gave her life to Jesus.”

Today, Malati has graduated from the class and learned how to start her own vegetable garden. She sells the produce from her garden in her village and is earning her own income.

An Adult Literacy Class with Mission India. (Photo courtesy of Mission India via Facebook)

“As I’m saying this, I have a smile on my face,” Bartholomew reflects, “because you’re getting to see really the Kingdom of God come forward! You are seeing people who are transformed emotionally and physically and also spiritually through these classes.”

There are many women and even men in India who would benefit from access to an Adult Literacy Class with Mission India. You can be a part of connecting them with educational tools and spiritual hope that could change their lives! Malati’s story is just one of several that Mission India hears every month on the holistic impact of their classes.

“First and foremost, we believe prayer is the first work in missions. So we would ask your readers and listeners to join us in praying for people like Malati, and also for people like Sunitha who are taking up their time in teaching these men and women how to be literate.”

You can also support an Indian woman or man in an Adult Literacy Class! All it takes is $40 for one enrollment.

“During that time, you’re going to give them a year-long transformation,” says Bartholomew. “It’s not just a week, it’s not just a day — $40 enrolls one person for the entire year where they not only learn how to transform themselves, but they get to learn how to transform their families and communities.”

Click here to give to Mission India’s Adult Literacy Classes.

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

*Name changed for security purposes.

E-learning: The Possibilities

PTEE’s e-learning project involves formatting PTEE’s established Bachelor of Theology curriculum into online classes. PTEE will have 50 bachelor level courses available online once the project is complete. Right now, PTEE is testing its second online course with students from 10 different countries, mostly in the Arab world and the Arab diaspora.

(Header and photo courtesy of PTEE)

“We want to expand our already wide reach across the Arab world into even more countries and make it even more accessible and more affordable to students,” PTEE’s e-learning Director Dr. Rick Weymouth says.

“We want to equip and empower believers wherever they live in the Arab world in their communities, in their churches, and in their local contexts. And e-learning is going to help us fulfill our mission and God’s mission for us as a program even more effectively.”

The e-learning project will provide a significant advantage for students, who on average are in their mid-thirties with families and established homes. PTEE strives to train students where they are geographically, but these students can sometimes miss out on connecting with classmates from different countries. However, e-learning will bring students together through online forums. It will build bridges to help connect and unify Arab believers throughout the Arab world and diaspora.

Since PTEE specifically reaches out to Arab believers from various backgrounds, this includes the younger generations and those who are of the Arab diaspora. PTEE’s e-learning project will allow students to study in Arabic regardless of where they are currently living, including if they are in the West.

Education Abroad

Years of war in the Middle East has caused thousands of Arab believers to seek asylum in other countries. These countries include regions where Arabic is a minority language. However, PTEE allows these believers to stay connected with the Arab church. Online courses will let them learn in their native language while preparing them to serve their new communities and hopefully their home countries when possible. Still, these believers are only one example of how this e-learning program will benefit PTEE students, particularly those living where the population of Arabic-speaking believers is small.

“We want to connect them. We want to join people, [Arab believers] together so that we can grow the church…and ultimately we’re hoping among those who’ve left the region and the diaspora, that they’re going to be supporting, encouraging, and maybe coming back to serve in the Middle East region,” Weymouth shares.

“We need to train believers to serve in this part of the world. We need to equip them, empower them, encourage them. Lift them up, lift their spirits, and this is one small way that we can be a help to that process through the PTEE and our online learning programs.”

PTEE e-learning Accessibility

PTEE courses are designed to help immediately impact local communities and churches through the education of the PTEE student. Courses through PTEE emphasize leadership education on location. It is an expectation that PTEE students will remain in their communities and continue serving in their churches while receiving their education. This means PTEE courses are immediately applied to real-life situations. The e-learning project will help this education model thrive with the changing generations and technological advances.

(Photo courtesy of PTEE)

“This online learning opportunity offers the PTEE unprecedented opportunity to expand our existing wide reach by increasing access to quality courses, and we hope we can grow our student base significantly through the online courses,” Weymouth explains.

PTEE has been encouraged by the high number of students who have participated in its field-testing for its first two online courses. In fact, most of these students are new to PTEE, which shows how this e-learning project is already growing PTEE’s student base.

“PTEE is going to be one of the first accredited TEE programs in the world to have its entire curriculum online. And God willing we’ll be the first theological program in the Arab world to offer 100 percent of a bachelor’s degree through our online courses.”

Be Prayerful, Be Active

PTEE would love for qualified educators, computer, internet, and video specialists to pray about the possibility of serving with PTEE. The ministry also could use financial partners and prayer partners.

Pray for the online courses PTEE is testing, the international students helping test these courses, and the IT support team involved with the e-learning program. Also, pray for the developers of these courses as they continue creating and tweaking these classes. Pray for Weymouth as he helps train and retrain tutors for leadership in the online context.

Finally, pray for the funds to finish the e-learning project. Pray for the right people to join the team and help complete the project. Ask God to glorify Himself through the work.

To donate to PTEE, click here.