This week we’ve enjoyed having BCOM students join our urban team as together they went out into the streets, witnessing and sharing the Kingdom of God!

During the coming week, STEM will have two teams out, one ministering in Urban Minneapolis and the other in Biloxi, MS.

Here are some specific prayers for each: For special anointing on the family team from Washington state ministering in urban Minneapolis as they give themselves to other cultures in our city. Continue to pray for a good mix in the leadership, STEM, the sending church, and the on-field facilitators, and praise God with us that the three teams mentioned last week now have leaders. For our facilitator in the Gulf Coast (Biloxi) as he along with STEM teams are helping a very poor urban church do some much needed remodeling in their building.

Bethany College of Missions (BCOM)

Our application deadline is quickly approaching! There is still time though if you or someone you know is wanting to submit an application for Fall 09. We will be accepting applications until July 6, so if you are planning to come in the Fall make sure you submit your application before the deadline!

You can quickly and easily submit your application online at www.bcom.org/apply.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact our admissions team. You can call 1-800-323-3417. 
We’d love to help you out in any way we can!

Scholarship Opportunities

We have multiple scholarships available for students who are in need of financial aid. 

Our commitment is to do everything that we can to help students graduate debt-free from BCOM, so that you can immediately pursue the calling that God has for your life without being held back because of debt.

Because of that we can assure you that if you apply for one or more of the available scholarships you absolutely WILL receive some financial aid!

Click HERE to find out which scholarships are available.

New BCOM Web Site

Have you checked out the new and improved BCOM website???

New Features:

-New and Improved Look
-Easy Navigation
-Blog

Hope you like it!

Kay Hudgins from the YWAM Jewish World Office, was our special guest speaker Sunday, June 21. She shared on God’s heart for Israel along with how and why to pray for the Jewish people.

Her message and others are posted on BHOP’s Web site.

Summer Schedule Change

Effective this week, Bethany House of Prayer is cutting back on the number of prayer watches they are doing in order for the staff to work “behind the scenes” on building structure from which to establish a 24/7 prayer room. Please join them in praying for God’s wisdom and knowledge as they move forward.

Click here to view the new Prayer Room Schedule.

More Teams Go Out with STEM

This coming week, Short-Term Evanglical Missions will have four teams ministering in Urban Minneapolis, Gulf Coast, Jamaica, and Trinidad. Here are some specific prayers for each:

• For health and safety for each participant
• For a good mix in the leadership, STEM, the sending church, and the on-field facilitators
• For effective ministry - fruit that remains both in the receivers and in the goers!

We’re still lacking leaders for three Gulf Coast teams; please pray that God will bring the right people for each team.

Former BCOM student and BIM associate, Paul McKaughan (’61), was on campus June 10 to meet with associates and to speak in chapel. God has given him a unique platform of ministry as an encourager, cross-pollinator and helper to mission and ministry leaders.

Missions can be expressed in the following words today:

• Meaning - Short term bursts instead of long term streams of missionaries
• Multiplication - New Christians in former unreached areas
• Transformation - Of ministries and lives
• Cooperation - Collaboration between individuals and ministries
• Communication - This generation is gathering on the internet and there is ongoing contact with people who show an interest in Christ.

As Paul shared, history tends to start with us. We can decide to be faithful or disobedient. If we are disobedient, we will miss out on what God has. Our job is to be faithful. Faithfulness is our responsibility; success is in God’s hands.

George Foster is writing devotionals that are posted weekly on the Bethany International website. George has a wonderful way of communicating truth that strengthens and encourages people. They are available online here.

Bethany House of  Prayer

The notes and messages from the Forerunner Gatherings in BHOP are available online. Richee Parks just spoke on the Great Commission. Check out his and other inspirational messages here!

Bethany House of Prayer
Are you an early bird? There is a new “Live Watch” every Tuesday morning from 6 to 8 AM in the Bethany Prayer Room. All are invited!

Short-Term Evangelical Missions
Please take a moment to pray for our Katrina Relief team ministering in Mississippi through June 5. As always we want team members to know they are there to primarily introduce the Kingdom of God. The vehicle we use is hard work done diligently and with a cheerful spirit. Pray that team members will be sensitive to listen both to people who’ve been affected by disasters and to the Holy Spirit so they can have effective ministry.

STEM continues to gear up for over 20 teams going out this summer, preparing training materials, going over details with sending organizations, making plans with receivers on the field. Please pray that they won’t miss any of the many important details! They still have openings on several outreaches, and are praying for people to fill the teams. If you know anyone who is interested in joining a powerful short-term mission this summer, please check their website for open teams.

I am in the Charlotte, NC airport returning from a week of meetings with the Ethne steering committee in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Thanks to you who were praying. This was very beneficial week of developing new relationships and establishing opportunities for future partnership.

Today, one fourth or 27% of the world has almost no access to the Gospel. The Ethne Group’s vision is “peoples joining together to glorify God among all peoples.”  This group of mission leaders seeks to celebrate Great Commission progress, access current opportunities and resources, and accelerate movements. I was asked to join them because of Bethany’s missions training and sending experience and legacy. The leadership came from around the world (there were about 45 of us). What is so powerful about this group is that they are truly practitioners; all focused on reaching unreached peoples and encouraging initiatives, particularly church planting movements. They were planning and preparing for the Ethne Gathering to be held in Bogota, Colombia the first week of November.

Sub areas of emphasis were mobilizing workers, raising up young leaders, arts and worship, prayer, member/worker health, community development, and church planting movements.

I have also reflected on a working mission statement for Bethany during this week. In Isaiah 9:6-7 it is prophesied, “of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end.” You have heard me talk of this as the “everywhere, always” increase of God’s Kingdom. This passage ends up by stating the “zeal of the Lord God Almighty will accomplish this.”  So many people speak of “finishing the task.” I have to honestly admit that I don’t know how that really happens since there are always new generations coming along.  However, the task that can increasingly move toward fulfillment is mobilizing a sustaining witness of the Gospel of the Kingdom among all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages. Doing that is our part in the process. So, in fairly straightforward terms, we serve to increase God’s Kingdom by mobilizing disciples of Jesus and the church worldwide to reach the unreached wherever they are found. This is not just a one time event; it is a strategically sustainable process of gathering together God’s people, equipping them to minister as Jesus ministered, and going where people have not heard.

This just can’t be done alone. We must work with others, being faithful in what God has called us to do. There is a great interest among the Ethne “members” for Bethany International to work together with them in mobilizing workers. There is strong agreement with our definition of mobilize: create awareness, recruit, train, send, and support for a sustainable, strategic and effective witness. I see that we are entering a season of serving the body of Christ as seen in the mission community in our calling to pray, train, and go!

• Harold Brokke on “Noah: A Righteous Man”
• Paris Reidheid on the well-known story of Ten Shekels and a Shirt

Click here to go to our “Podcast” page, or click the link below to listen to the message.

Listen Now

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