New Fast-Tracked Bible Degrees

Abanoub Isaac with NBIC says the school, which follows the Anglican Diocese of Egypt, is growing. They are offering more classes and programs for Sudanese people in Egypt. One program with tremendous growth is a one-year Bible degree that offers coursework on church planting, missions, and understanding people from different backgrounds.

This streamlined Bible training is crucial for Sudanese churches which are exploding with new Christians but lack trained pastors.

(Image courtesy of Tima Miroshnichenko via Pexels)

Isaac says, “They have new believers every day. But they don’t have equipped ministries or pastors. They have to make [people] pastors in church without even reading the Bible one time. So, they don’t have any leadership skills, any biblical knowledge. So just he is good with people, knows the big message of Christ, but he can’t discipleship or make a Bible study, or anything else in the church – just worship.”

The one-year course begins with five months of studying in Egypt. This is followed by two months of practical ministry in Sudan and then a final five months back in Cairo. At the end of this intensive year, students are ready to go back to Sudan for good to lead their churches.

The program has been very successful. The first year they received 50-55 applications and the next year 90 people applied. During the first two-month practical training in Sudan, pastors were leaving their congregations in the hands of the students because they were so prepared.

However, even with the successes and growth of NBIC, they have had significant barriers to overcome.

Meeting Challenges Head-On

Isaac says one issue is that education has been poor in Sudan because of the war. Even identifying good candidates for leadership can be difficult. Many people just don’t have significant prior schooling.

Additionally, the war has continued to foster deep feelings of tribalism. The years of struggle make it difficult to get the church to come together over tribal lines.

“Actually, we faced a lot [the accusation] that we are racist against some tribes,” Isaac states. “Even we don’t know the tribes! We are not putting anything in our applications [about] which tribe you are from. But when we choose people to do something because we see that they have potential, they relate this to the tribe, not the potential of the people. So we faced a lot this accusation that we are racist [against some] tribes.”

NBIC is working to equip leaders from every tribe to combat these accusations in addition to their stated goal of training qualified leaders.

Join in Prayer

Training refugees to minister in war-torn areas is challenging work and Isaac asks for prayer. Unity among the tribes and Church at large is a major prayer request from NBIC.

“We [are] trying to give them lot of perspective. We have teachers from all over the places: Sudanese, Egyptians, some foreigners come. We give them retreats in Coptic places when they have worship nights and the Bible was read with like, six or seven different languages to make them know how important unity is.”

Please also pray for Sudanese Christians who are facing practical problems including racism, the cost of living in Egypt, and families who have been separated.

Header photo courtesy of Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.

Super Ball and Human Trafficking

This year the Super Bowl is being held at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Here the New England Patriots will play the Los Angeles Rams. Per CNBC Make It, over a million people are expected to pass through Atlanta for the Super Bowl.

But, did you know the Super Bowl is one of the biggest events of the year for human trafficking, particularly sex trafficking in the United States?

Atlanta, Georgia (Photo by Jessica Furtney on Unsplash)

Human trafficking is the second fastest growing industry worldwide. It comes right behind the illegal drug industry. Each year, human traffickers profit $150,000,000,000 from exploiting vulnerable people.

Slavery has been around for centuries. But today, it takes a different form than what some history books might portray.

Modern-day slavery can look like human trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, child marriage, and more. This is happening in nearly every country, including the United States.

What is trafficking? The legal definition per the Merriam-Webster dictionary is below.

Human Trafficking: noun : the business of inducing a person to perform labor or engage in prostitution through force, fraud, or coercion.

About 40 million people worldwide are slaves. Of that number, 24 million (or 60 percent) are women and children. To break it down even further, 12 million (or 30 percent); are underage children. The average age of a slave—12 years old. And every 30 seconds, someone else becomes a slave, too.

Find more facts on modern-day slavery here.

The Freedom Challenge’s Super Bowl Prayer Challenge

(Photo courtesy of the Freedom Challenge via Facebook)

Atlanta is already a hotbed for human trafficking because it hosts events throughout the year and is home to one of the busiest airports in the world.

But this year, the Freedom Challenge (an initiative through Operation Mobilization) is participating with It’s a Penalty and the International Institute of Human Trafficking during the Super Bowl.

It’s a Penalty is a campaign working to use major sporting events to raise awareness and globally prevent abuse, exploitation, and trafficking.

During Super Bowl weekend, the Freedom Challenge is inviting people to do one of the easiest and more powerful things they can do to end human trafficking—they’re inviting folks to pray.

How?

With the Super Bowl Prayer Challenge 2019.

Through praise and worship, the Freedom Challenge is encouraging people to trust God and through that trust, face modern-day slavering by putting it in His hands.

The Super Bowl Prayer Challenge 2019 begins February 2 at 9:00 am to 8:30 pm and will resume February 3 at 1:30 pm until 4:30 pm.

“This strategic partnering with the international institute of human trafficking in Atlanta and ‘It’s a Penalty’ around the Super Bowl and creating that prayer challenge where we’ll be having two full days of very focused long prayer, I would one, welcome anyone who would want to participate in that way and two, prayer for that,” Director of the Freedom Challenge Tracy Daugherty says.

Get Involved

Will you join in a time of intercession through prayer and worship and ask for protection, prevention, and the rescue of those enslaved by human trafficking?

Learn more about the Super Bowl Prayer Challenge 2019 here.

Passionate about ending human trafficking? The Freedom Challenge is rolling out new initiatives for women in 2019. Find them here.

“I think the prayer is that God continues to build a movement of women who care, who are resourceful, who are passionate, and who are willing to use their body, their soul, their spirit for the benefit of other women and children. And that is our prayer and we’re not stopping until we see a difference made,” Daugherty says.

For an insider look at the Freedom Challenge, click here.

(Header photo courtesy of the Freedom Challenge via Facebook)

Houssney and the Horizons team just finished a training event in Lebanon called Engaging Islam Institute that lasted from June 4-15 and saw almost 140 attendees. Most of the training was done in the classroom, but they also sent people out with bags full of Bibles and Christian t-shirts to share the Gospel with Muslims.

(Photo and header photo courtesy of Horizons International)

“The way that we are engaging Islam is through engaging Muslims one at a time, so our training curriculum has been built to help believers understand who Muslims are, what they believe, and how we can begin practically sharing the Gospel with them,” Houssney says.

“Whether online, through video, audio, in-person training events we do in churches around the world, or our ministry centers, we want them to go out and, wherever they have contact with Muslims, start converting that contact into loving conversations that are bold.”

However, there has been pushback from locals, and even Christians aren’t all pleased to see the work Horizons is doing. Many believers are averse to the idea of loving Muslims so directly. One man even interrupted a conversation between Horizons students and Muslims to rip the Bibles from the hands of the Muslim young men.

But Houssney says that often changes after an intentional conversation. “Many of them, when they realize that Muslims are becoming Christians because of this event, because we’re training hundreds of Christians in how to reach out effectively reach out to Muslims based on our experiences, people get really excited about that.”

And the more Muslims come to Christ, the more people are interested in sharing the Gospel.

(Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

“We actually have dozens of converts from Islam among the 135 people at this training event here in Beirut that are themselves learning how to reach other Muslims for Christ, so it’s a very exciting event.”

But Houssney says it can’t just be about numbers. The Gospel is meant to be lived out.

“It’s not just about learning something hypothetically or theoretically in the classroom, it’s about actually seeing the power of God to change hearts and lives right before our eyes,” he says. “Unfortunately, the church has become focused on the inside, and instead of saying ‘Go out among the nations’ the way Jesus called us to in the Great Commission, we have sat in the churches and said “come to us.’”

That’s why Horizons and its partners are working to equip Christian leaders in Lebanon.

“You can just pray that the Lord continues to open the hearts of Muslims, but honestly the bigger prayer request is that God would move his Church to get out of the four walls of churches and be called out.”

Join Horizons in their efforts by clicking here.

Doctors and nurses trained in Ghana are leaving the country almost immediately after training to find higher paying jobs internationally, therefore ridding Ghana of its best medical personnel and decreasing the quality of healthcare in the country.

Ghana's medical system, as well as several others in Western Africa, is in extreme need of reliable doctors and training, especially for victims of trauma (one of the leading causes of death in the country).

Currently, there is one doctor to every 11,000 inhabitants in Ghana, compared with one doctor to every 2,000 residents in the U.S. Although doctors and nurses are being trained in Ghana, many simply cannot afford to work there, and over 50 percent leave the country in search of higher pay.

A few organizations have collaborated to change this downturn. International Aid, in conjunction with Johnson and Johnson and the West African College of Surgeons, built the Karle bu Hospital in Ghana in 2005 and has been training medical students there since.

"[We] have gotten together in Ghana with the purpose of better training the doctors in West Africa to better take care of the health care needs in that area," says International Aid's Myron Aldrink. By training doctors with updated technology and keeping them in Ghana as opposed to the U.K. or the U.S., International Aid hopes to reverse the brain drain and keep doctors in the country.

"We train them in the local institutes, support the local institutes, so that they keep their loyalty to Ghana and to West Africa and [remain here]" says Aldrink. This has been made easier and easier as technology improves. Aldrink notes that they are now able to use video conferencing from other parts of the world (in one case Toronto) to communicate to doctors in Ghana so they can see and hear how other professionals are performing surgeries. In turn, these newly-trained doctors can do the same sort of technology to teach these methods to doctors all throughout Western Africa.

As a Christian organization, International Aid has been able to use their position in the medical field to be a light for Christ. Aldrink says that as they provide medical attention, they are in an optimal position to provide spiritual answers for seekers as well. Pray that International Aid workers would reflect Christ in their actions and compassion so that as patients inevitably ask "Why?" the staff will be ready with a response.

To learn more about International Aid or to help them in their endeavors, click here .

Impact director Dave Warn explains, "So many campus
ministers right now are seeing students come to faith here and there, or seen
Bible studies grow or even seen a fairly large movement raised up on a
particular campus. But, many are so longing to see their entire campus
transformed, and that's what's at the heart of the "Institute for Campus
Revival and Awakening.'"

The job sounds simple enough.  Campus ministry leaders disciple Christian
students.  They, in turn, will influence
the lost on campus. The difficulty comes in presenting the hope of Christ to a
secular academic environment.  For
Christian students, their faith and testimony face ridicule, and they're
constantly challenged to reflect the purity and power of God.

Tools of the trade and a little 'how-to' training are what's
needed.  Inspiring speakers and breakout
sessions are part of the upcoming Institute, June 20-27, hosted at Yale University
in New Haven, Connecticut. 
 

Why Yale? Many of the Ivy League schools were founded on
Christian principles with an expressed Christian
mission.

Warn says since last year's event, "There have been
systemic changes within ministry focusing on the issues of prayer or brokenness
over our sin.  [In] seeing God's spirit
released on campus, there's a variety of things that I think are percolating
right now, many of them connected with what the Holy Spirit is doing, many of
them connected to what we're doing at the Institute." 

Registration is open, but space is limited to the first 100.
Click here if you want to fill out an application.

Oasis International Training Center, of Oasis International , is a school that offers vocational training in computers and accounting and Biblical studies.  It is located between Prampram and New Ningo in Ghana.

Ambrose Brennan of OITC said they are seeing the effects of their biblical studies being taken to outside communities.  Speaking of Joseph Hartey, an advanced student, Brennan said, ;quot;He's taking the scriptural knowledge he's gaining here and he's spreading it to a community that's next to Prampram.

Hartey said that the Biblical discussions they have are helping him to be successful.  Even
though his training was done last October he decided to continue at the school to build up his "spiritual affair in the Lord."

"The Bible has been elaborated in different situations which made me to be more knowledgeable now and to be able to stand on my feet," said Hartey.

Though Hartey would be able to take a job outside of the ministry after finishing his training he is planning on going into ministry.  "I have decided fully so in my heart, because
with the tool of God I hope I can be able to pray or preach the Word to others in the darkness," said Hartey.

The opportunity for education has helped Hartey polish his spoken English which is needed in his ministry.  "Also, it elaborates me to do much about Christ.  And also to open up my mind to know the divine issues of the Lord, more importantly," said Hartey.

Hartey plans to direct others to the institute so they can know the Lord better and get training that will help them better themselves.

Brennan said that some students who come knowing only about the computer classes end up enrolling for Bible classes as well. 

If you would like to donate, the institute has begun reaching out to the disabled in the community.  Brennan said "We really would love to try to find a van or a small bus that could facilitate transporting the disabled people here for meetings."

Also, pray that as they minister to their students and local youth leaders that they will be able to impart the Word of God and raise up the next generation.