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Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland

Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland 2018

In November 2018 Dr.’s Jonathan Burnham and Vitaly Sorokun traveled To Voronezh, Russia to conduct a Seven Steps of Christian Living conference for pastors and district superintendents from different areas of Russia. The group was also able to Skype with Rev. Sonam Kabo, BMI Regional Director for South Asia. 

FIRST OF ITS KIND MEETING:  Also in Russia a group of prominent Russian businessmen met to discuss BMI Marketplace Biblical Mentorship Program. This is designed to help the business population use their Christian faith in their places of work. They study the 7 Steps, Encountering Christ, Christian Leadership and Management, and Financial Stewardship! The future is exciting in this new area of ministry. Kerry Olin, Microsoft Executive and BMI Board Member joined the group via Skype.

If you want to hear the beautiful singing from these Russian businessmen, click the video under these pictures! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RUSSIAN BUSINESSMEN SINGING REVELATION 15:3-4

After Russia, Jonathan and Vitaly traveled to Minsk, Belarus, to Minsk Theological Seminary (pictured below) to train pastors, seminary professors and some top women leaders from Ukraine and Belarus in Encountering Christ, Part 1.  The group will meet next year for Part 2.  Dr.’s Vitaly Sorokun and Jonathan Burnham also met with leaders from Minsk Theological Seminary who have already gone through the BMI training as well as their own higher education. These leaders are dedicated to the proclamation of Christ-centered theology and want to adopt the BMI Biblical Training and Mentoring Program into the seminary!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, Jonathan and Vitaly traveled to Kiev, Ukraine to Irpin Theological Seminary where many of the top women leaders in the Ukrainian Baptist Union met to learn about the BMI programs and training for women’s ministries.  Sue Burnham and Faith Burnham had the privilege of Skyping with this wonderful group of dedicated and talented ladies!  Irpin has adopted much of the BMI training materials into their curriculum, and Vitaly Sorokun travels regularly to teach there.  See these pictures and those of Vitaly’s trip as well below: 

 

2018 Took Great Strides in Women’s Ministry!

BMI is committed to ministry for everyone, and women need training too!  We have developed a program for training women all the way from our core theological curriculum to the discipleship program, 7 Steps of Christian Living, and our materials designed uniquely for women and their families.  The women’s program consists of: 

  • Encountering Christ
  • 7 Steps of Christian Living
  • Women’s Ministries 
  • Living With Your Emotions
  • Technology and Your Family
  • Children’s Ministry
  • Outreach Bible Studies

View this video from Cing Sian Thawn, Dean of SE Asia Mission College in Myanmar, talking about making disciples!

We are excited to have two special international women thus far who are dedicated to teaching these materials, Rita Kabo in Nepal and Nadia Morokhovets in Ukraine!  Pastor’s wife, Rose Mirpuri has been training homeschool groups in the Philippines too! 

We also are including women leaders in various conferences and working toward more training for women all over the world!

 

 

 

 

Here are more picture highlights from the year:  Click to view larger! 

 

Southeast Asia Ministry

Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,

Philippines, and Vietnam

The mentorship model of ministry has continued throughout many countries in SE Asia.  Jonathan Burnham traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Vietnam last spring teaching BMI materials Encountering Christ (Christ centered theology) and the 7 Steps of Christian Living. 

There were key Christian pastors and leaders from Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, the Philippines and the USA! 

 

Dr. Joshua Nguyen, BMI Regional Director for SE Asia, has traveled to many countries this year training the 7 Steps of Christian Living and the MBMP program that he designed to train Christian business professionals.  

Here are some pictures from his travels and teaching: Click to view larger:

It is exciting that the 7 Steps of Christian Living Course has been adopted by Bible colleges and seminaries and is being used by pastors and teachers in many regions of the world! 

Philippines and Myanmar:

 

 

 

 

247 Pastors and Leaders Trained in Rwanda!

East Africa 2018

Pastor Pascal works in partnership with Pastor Emmanuel Ndolimana, who is the BMI Africa Representative. Pastor Pascal recently became the new President of the Evangelical Baptist Churches of Rwanda. Both of these extraordinary men have been training BMI materials in many countries of Africa! Here is an excerpt from his recent email report:

“Greetings to you in Jesus name!

I am glad to be able to share with you the report of the trainings that we have done in Rwanda. In total we have trained 247 pastors and key church leaders in 4 locations from 14 denominations. 

Below is the list of the 4 locations and number of participants per location:

72 in Bumba, Karongi District – Rwanda 

61 in Musasa, Rutsiro District, Rwanda 

52 in Kivumu, Rutsiro District, Rwanda 

62 in Rugerero, Rubavu Distict, Rwanda 

The 7 Steps of Christian Living materials have been appreciated much by the people that we trained, they found the materials very applicable and beneficial to churches in their communities. This training was possible because of the facilitation from SMM by Emmanuel Ndolimana. The need is greater than the resources we have had, otherwise, we would have trained many spiritual thirst and hungry church leaders if we had enough resources. It’s our hope that if God provides more resources, next year much will be covered. 

As the New President of the Evangelical Baptist Churches of Rwanda, I want to recommend the use BMI materials into all our churches national wide because training is one of the greatest needs that we have currently. We already have 7 steps available translated into our local language (Kinyarwanda) but we need to get the rest of your materials as well. How can you help us to achieve this?”

 

Other News in Africa: 

Historic Training:

Last February seminary leaders and professors from all over East Africa came to Nairobi, Kenya, to hear about the BMI training and materials.  The response was enthusiastic and coming up this February 2019, five seminaries are sending two representatives each to be trained in the 7 Steps of Christian Living by Jonathan Burnham. 

We also brought together Christian leaders and pastors from six African countries for training in Rwanda! 

 

 

 

 

Rev. Sonam Kabo in Remote Part of Nepal

November 2018 

The Persa District of Nepal is near the border of India and is an extremely remote region. A pastor who was in the Indian Army, and gave his life to Christ there, requested that Rev. Sonam Kabo come to the region to start a BMI Biblical Training and Mentoring Program (BTMP). It is interesting to read Sonam’s account of his journey to this region: 

“The journey by bus was 13 hours one way – 8 hours by national highway and 5 hours on a riverside, muddy road through dense forests. This village was in the midst of a jungle and the pastor told me that on occasion there have been cases of wild tigers who come near the village and attack the children while playing outside their houses. There are also snakes that come inside the homes and bite people while they are sleeping. I felt that I was being taken to be slain while traveling by bus in this dense forest road which I have never experienced before in my life! However, by God’s grace, I was able to arrive in this village safely and the training went very well. Despite all these challenges, I was able to train 16 needy pastors and leaders of 14 house churches of this district!” 

Sonam also sent the number of participants of each region that were trained with the 7 Steps of Christian Living and the BTMP (Biblical Training and Mentoring Program) in just two months:

1. 16 people were trained in Persa District

2. 250 people were trained in Hetauda region

3. 30 people were trained in partnership with SMM in Siliguri region

4. 195 people were trained in Darjeeling

5. 160 people were trained in Nagaland

6. 11 final year students of Nepal Ebenezer Bible College (NEBC)

7. 45 students of NBC ( Nepal Bible College)

Sonam’s wife, Rita, has trained hundreds of women this year alone in Nepal and India!  She also is the Principal of Elim Kids Academy, a Christian school of 300 children in Kathmandu, Nepal. 

Pictures below include Sonam’s bus into the jungle area, the pastor there, and other pictures of Sonam and Rita’s ministry. Click on picture to view larger: