Bethany International

In the days to come you will hear more about ways in which you can become involved to provide long-term solutions to human trafficking. A primary way to do this is through the Anti-Human Trafficking Challenge - the Minneapolis Marathon and Half-Marathon. Now you may say, “I am not a runner.” You DON’T need to be a runner to participate in this event on June 3, 2012. There are many other ways you can participate. You can form a relay team with each person doing about 6.5 miles to complete the marathon. You can even walk!! If you live in the Twin Cities you can do the event either in Minneapolis with about 1,500 other people or right in the Bethany community. As a participant you would contact some friends and ask them to make a donation to this anti-human trafficking challenge. Very soon we will give specific details as to how the funds raised will be used.  Now, if you don’t want to join in the event you can promote it to your church youth group. Flyers and brochures will be available for this. If you have a Facebook page, you can let your friends know about the Challenge. They can participate in the event even if they don’t live in the Twin Cities. Thanks for considering how you can join the Bethany community in this very significant venture!

STEM

Last week we announced the April 12 - 14, 2012, Short-Term Mission Leaders Conference “The Leaders Call,” sponsored by Bethany and STEM International. It’s designed to train all participants in short-term missions, whether goers or senders or receivers. Here’s the link to register: http://www.cvent.com/d/1cq7vh/4W. For more information about the conference, you can go here: http://stemintl.org/training/stmlc.

Thanks to the Bethany Press team for sharing with the Bethany Family the new model of publishing that is emerging today. For the past 5 ½ years we have prayed for and wondered if there was a “new” expression of publishing Christian resources and a possible expansion of the historic “Business as Missions” model that was so much a part of Bethany’s heritage.
Then a few months ago, right after placing the Bible printing web press in Cambodia, things began to break loose. A Bethany Press associate and former missionary kid had breakthrough insights into a very simple digital print center model (though he has received some pretty complex revelation to get things simple). This led to a meeting with the Billion Soul Network leadership. It became clear that that there was a unique opportunity to serve the global church. For too long the direction of Christian publishing had been the “West to the rest.” Now it was time to bring the “best to the rest” - the whole church to the whole church. God seemed to say, “Now is the time.” Bethany Press has been given a thought and execution leadership window to serve. And it has been non-stop!!!
Equipment from the digital print center was shipped to Orlando, FL for the Synergize3 conference. Bethany’s innovations will be on stage and introduced to church leadership from around the world. BPI leadership is also going to meet for 1 ½ days with the leadership of the Billion Soul Network to explore and expand how we can serve the global church through these initiatives.

The Bethany family celebrated the launch of a Bible press in the heart of Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Thanksgiving Day. The vision behind the press is to see one million Bibles printed in the Khmer language in the next five years. For the first time in Cambodia’s history, the Bible will be accessible to all Khmer believers!

Partners in Publishing, a ministry of Bethany International composed of Christian publishing professionals who volunteer their time to accelerate indigenous Christian publishing, is at the center of this project, raising funds, purchasing the press, the paper, and training Cambodian partners to print and bind Bibles. This is a labor of love, fueled by proceeds from the projects publishers print with Bethany Press, so that we all can see a Bible in the hands of each new Christian in Cambodia.

Christians all over the world join together today to pray for those suffering poverty. There are approximately 1 billion people who struggle to survive on less than one dollar a day. Often, efforts to help these suffering masses are unsuccessful because of government corruption.

Bethany will hold a 1/2 Day Set Apart tomorrow, Tuesday, December 13 to participate in this Global Day of Prayer. Please contact the Bethany Welcome Center if you would like to attend (952-944-2121).

Location: Bethany Church

Time: 11:10 am to 2:45 pm.

Our Ministry Interns join World Vision staff in guiding us through a Poverty Simulation. This experience helps participants begin to understand what it might be like to live in a low-income family trying to survive month to month. It is not a game! The object is to sensitize us to the realities faced by people living in poverty. Participants must try to provide the basic necessities for their “families” during four 15 minute “weeks”. Each Family interacts with a mock community composed of various businesses and community services.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1

Some of our college interns have left Kenya due to safety issues there. They moved to Tanzania and are learning Swahili.

Lowell and Sheri Glick (Mexico) have started a new outreach in Monte los Garcia.

Paul S. is in Nigeria to teach and consult nationals.

Ross H. is in Africa assisting nationals begin a training school.

Other college interns are in South Asia and Thailand, learning the local languages and researching ministries where they can get involved.

Accreditation

The Evaluation Visit Report from the Association for Biblical Higher Education arrived this week. We have until December 15 to respond to the letter by describing progress the College has made toward 11 key recommendations.

Scholarships for the College

Our goal is to raise $100,000 and match it with $100,000 from Bethany revenues to provide additional scholarship help to students. This initiative would provide 125 students in 2012 an extra $1,600 in financial aid.

What the students are learning

Freshmen: Evangelism, Discipleship and Community, Synoptic Gospels

Sophomore: Hermeneutics and Exegetical Skills, Theology II

At the Bethany gathering on October 27, Dan Brokke reminded the Bethany community of its calling to “go” to the nations together. We don’t just tell others to “go,” but we go ourselves through prayer, personal involvement and support.  God is working among us and this is a time for deeper involvement in prayer focused on the “places where the church is not…yet.” Dan emphasized Nehemiah 3 & 4 noting that “families worked side by side”, “together in war and construction”.  With these in mind, almost unanimously, those in attendance responded to the call to come alongside the students in a deeper way. With focused prayer initiatives the full community desires to facilitate students and graduates all the way to the field - and stand with them there. These prayer initiatives will begin through circles of prayer for half-hour segments on every other Tuesday (12:30 -1:00) beginning November 8, our half day set apart. Staff and students will choose areas for prayer emphasis from global regions expecting God to move us deeper in commitment to one another and to fulfill His heart’s desire.

BCOM Preview

Twenty-eight prospective students and five parents arrived on campus Thursday afternoon for the college’s campus visit day, called BCOM Preview. They received an orientation and enjoyed the International Dinner. Later they gathered in the Prayer Chapel for worship and the word.

Bethany International Ministries {BIM}

Kerry Olson reports from Mexico City, “Each year as part of our annual church conference, an evangelistic outreach is organized. Church members were encouraged to bring along unsaved family and friends to attend an evangelistic theatrical performance with an altar call to receive Christ as their Savior. This year’s response was off the charts! The church auditorium was packed with 2700 in attendance and 879 people came forward to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior! An amazing response to the Gospel! Please pray for the follow-up activities for those who received Christ. While we recognize this was a work of God, unemployment, economic problems, unrelenting violence and lack of confidence in Mexico’s government have seemed to create an even stronger sense of spiritual need among the population in general.  The apostle Paul stated in Romans 5:20 ‘But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.’ We thank God for being a part of what He is doing and for His grace that continues to abound much more in Mexico.”

Short-term Evangelical Missions {STEM}

One of the benefits of using STEM to facilitate a short-term mission trip is the training. They use a multi-part training to prepare people for cross-cultural ministry. Ordinarily that happens about a month before the team leaves, but in certain cases, they bring the team to one location to spend a couple intensive days together before traveling overseas. That is the case next week. Pray for STEM staff, Adam and Vicky as they train the team, then Adam as he leads this group to prayer walk and serve among an unreached people. They will be overseas November 8-22.

Last Monday and Tuesday the ABHE accreditation site team visited Bethany and read reports, visited with the board, students, graduates, and staff, faculty, and administration personnel. Each day they would research and assess and each evening would write reports.

Our accreditation committee met with the five-member accreditation site team for their final report. The site visit team provided us with several commendations regarding the College.

The second part of the report consisted of 12 suggestions. While we are not required to act on these suggestions, it will be for the best of the College if we do respond to them.

The final part consisted of 11 recommendations. Each of these related to specific requirements of the Standards. The recommendations are areas where we will take action. We will share more on these in the weeks and months ahead.

The ABHE Accreditation Commission will review the report received from the site team and then send a letter to us outlining the recommendations and providing further detail. Overall we are pleased with what we learned from the accreditation site visit.

Kindle

Last Thursday about a dozen students, interns and staff members met to discuss the global challenge of unreached people. Earlier in the day, a ministry intern asked about next steps to form a team to go to the hard places. Later a group of students commented that they are looking at the same thing. God is stirring. Here are four steps we all can do:

1. Ask God to download His heart to you in a new way
2. Research and learn all you can about what He is doing and where there is need
3. Prepare and discover ways that you can serve
4. Join or form a team to meet that need

Let’s Pray

The staff at STEM Ministries appreciates your prayer and support as this is a special season of team recruiting. They hope to send out 40 or more teams made up of 600 or more individuals in the coming year.

Bethany College of Missions is applying for accreditation with The Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE) which is not only recognized by the United States Department of Education but also by the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education, the theological education affiliate of the World Evangelical Alliance. The Council is a global community sponsored by eight continental/regional associations of theological schools.

ABHE is governed by its member institutions through a delegate assembly which elects members of both a Board of Directors and a Commission on Accreditation at an annual business meeting. Accrediting decisions are made by the Commission on Accreditation.

Our accreditation five-member site team will be at Bethany from October 10-12, 2011. Besides meeting with our Trustee Board, the team will interview students, staff and faculty.  They will assess the College based on 11 standards that deal with such areas as academic programs, enrollment, faculty, student life and finances.

This past week the MANI Conference was held in Abuja, Nigeria. About 700 African and international leaders met  to address and plan responses to significant needs and opportunities that present themselves. One presenter defined so clearly what an opportunity is: a great need to which there is great resource that can be connected. NEED, RESOURCE, and CONNECTION.  The simplicity of this finds its fulfillment and impact when God is in the midst moving in power.

He then went on to show that the evangelical church on the African continent is the largest in the world. What an untapped resource.  We could not miss that God has positioned Bethany in a favored position to serve what God is doing in Africa today.

Members of our Bethany family have been investing for years into relationship, consulting, teaching, mobilizing, and partnership development. But today is a unique time. The African church is embracing that this is their season to act and respond at a completely different level to their place in the Great Commission. We presented the resource of the Go100 mission training consultation resource and our online Graduate Studies programs. There was a steady stream of interest and connection in both programs. As we also shared the Graduate Studies program with our partner in Abuja, there again was great excitement and interest.

Welcome to the 32 new freshmen who came on campus last week. We are impressed with them and look forward to seeing them grow in understanding and confidence as they embrace God’s calling. Already, they have had significant encounters with the Lord and growth of relationship with each other and the sophomores.

Cambodia

Bethany is partnering with Words of Life Ministries in Cambodia to purchase and install a web press in-country for the printing and distribution of the newest version of the Bible in Khmer.  The $64,000 web press was built in India and last week week was shipped out to port in Cambodia.  A $25,000 container load of Bible paper is on its way from Spain.  These two components should arrive in the port in Cambodia soon.

Please pray for favor with customs in the country as duty can be as high as 100% on this type of equipment.  Praise God for the donors who have given generously to this project.  Bethany’s Partners in Publishing ministry will send two staff members to Cambodia in October to map out the sales and distribution plan for the vision of distributing one million Bibles in country within the next four to five years.  This is a faith-filled project to meet a great need and opportunity.  More than 10,000 Cambodians a month are converting to Christ yet there is a woeful shortage of Bibles at present.  Imagine the impact that a million Bibles can have on this people group movement that is taking place before our very eyes. God has assembled a team of very committed people to help make this project a success.

Short-term Evangelical Missions {STEM}

John P. just returned from leading a recent STEM team to an unreached People Group in Central Asia.  A Twin Cities-based church adopted this group 12 years ago and as part of their strategy to impact this people group partnered with STEM to send seven people from their congregation to prayer walk in strategic locations, participate in conversational English, and encourage the long-term workers they support.  God protected the team and opened many doors for the hope of the Gospel to be shared through MP3 players loaded with culturally relevant Bible studies (100 lessons on The Way of Righteousness), scripture portions, and music.