Dr. Jonathan Burnham conducted an in-depth mentorship multiplication training event on March 15-18, 2023, for a group of pastors and Christian leaders from SE Asian countries. This group was meeting together for the third time to discuss how mentorship could work in their settings, to encourage one another, and to learn the Christocentric overview of the Bible. Let’s pray for this great team, as they are working on way to advance their mentorship multiplication movements.
A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM DR. VITALIY SOROKUN
At 5 a.m. sharp on February 24 we woke up to the new reality – the sound of exploding rockets, destruction, and loss. Our lives were uprooted in a moment, and we have not been able to return to the old “normal.” Perhaps, we never will. After a week in the church basement and making sure all our international students left the country safe, Anna and I made a decision to move to western Ukraine. A month later, we moved Anna to the USA; I followed her in the middle of the summer. Even though we are grateful for the provision of safety and generosity of people in the USA, our hearts are longing to return home. Yet, in the midst of tragedy, we have experienced God like never before. It is privilege to serve the omnipotent Savior!
The picture below is New Hope Church, where he pastors. Thankfully, only minimal damage as of Dec. 22, 2022.
BMI – Served as a BRIDGE OF HOPE During this War
With the war raging in Ukraine, many churches and individuals in the USA have responded by sending relief support to churches in Ukraine through BMI. Their generous support allowed churches in Kharkiv and its surrounding region to provide humanitarian relief, food packages, medical supplies as well as to host people in basements as they sought shelter from bombs. During the most difficult months of the war their unprecedented generosity provided for meals and aid for hundreds of hurting people on a daily basis. (BMI is not primarily a humanitarian ministry, but with our over 30 years of connections into Ukraine, coupled with Dr. Vitaliy’s broad influence in the region, we have served as such to help the pastors feed their flocks.)
MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS: Moving full speed to make a difference in Africa
The war gave a new incentive to ministry. When the window of opportunity to be involved in mentorship closed in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, Vitaliy focused his efforts on developing BMI mentorship movements in Africa. He began to mentor four African Christian leaders to prepare them for a responsible role as BMI Africa Ministry Partners. Vitaliy has been intentionally
investing his time and experience in Kioko Mwangangi, Lincoln Chirochierwa, Pascal Ndagijimana, and Joshua Magwesela. These wonderful men are now ready to launch and lead sustainable national mentorship multiplication movements in 8 countries of the continent: Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Congo. Together we are
ready for the exciting task ahead! (Pictured here, Dr. Sorokun with Dr. Lincoln and Dr. Stephen Mwatha.)
Vitaliy has also continued to oversee the ministry taking place in Belarus and Russia. Even though for security reasons communication is not as easy as before the war, we are still actively involved in leadership development there.
Vitaliy has also been helping BMI Women’s Ministry Director Nadya Morokhvets in leading the training and discipleship of women. Nadya, herself a refugee, has been used by the Lord in ways never seen before. Our Father in Heaven has been opening amazing doors of opportunity for Nadya to mentor, train and serve women far beyond Ukraine – Hungary, Albania, and
Uzbekistan among many others.
SEVEN STEPS TRAINING and ENCOUNTERING CHRIST conferences
Even though the war prevented Vitaliy from actively teaching Seven Steps of Christian Living and Encountering Christ in Ukraine, we still use them extensively in Russia and Belarus. Our Russia Director Sergey Naboichenko and Belarus Ministry Partner Sergey Drozd have been traveling extensively, training numerous Christian leaders in conferences and in Minsk Theological Seminary, where these courses have become core courses for pastoral preparation.
Vitaliy has also released our new African ministry partners to train these courses in their regions. What a joy it was to receive their updates and see God open new opportunities for them! BTMP still taught in Ukraine!
For five consecutive years Vitaliy taught BTMP in Irpin Bible Seminary, a leading pastor training school in the Baptist Union of Ukraine. Even though the building of the seminary was dramatically damaged during the war, the brave staff has not given up hope. All the major programs have been resumed in the online format, including BTMP! Indeed, we are grateful for the gift of technology to be able to teach and learn from all over the world.
Irpin Biblical Seminary pictured above – same steps (present and past)
NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Even though the war is still raging in Ukraine, Vitaliy looks forward to the future with great anticipation. BMI is developing sustainable national mentorship movements in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Vietnam, Nepal, in South East Asia, in Africa, and Latin America. We have over 30 countries where we are currently serving leaders of have a door of opportunity to serve. It is a joy to oversee our ministry and to partner with wonderful talented leaders who share the vision of multiplying mentors!
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NEPAL AND THE NEPALI DIASPORA 2022
Rev. Sonam Kabo – BMI Regional Director for Nepal and the Nepali Diaspora
Rita Kabo – BMI Women’s Director for Nepal and the Nepali Diaspora
We are so thankful for the over 25 year relationship we have with Rev. Sonam and Rita Kabo. They are warm-hearted, faithful servants of the Lord! All attention is on Ukraine in the world today, but Nepal continues to face many challenges. There is ongoing recovery from the 2015 massive earthquake which killed upward of 9000 people. Nepal has a continuous struggle with poverty and challenges the government poses to the spread of Christianity. In fact, Sonam and Rita actively meet with government officials, including the Vice President of Nepal, to remind them that Christians are good Nepali citizens and need to retain their rights of worship. Sonam and Rita not only minister all over Nepal, but the also minister to Nepali people living in the countries of India, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Bhutan and Malaysia. See below for additional updates:
ELIM WORSHIP CENTER AND SCHOOL
After the Covid-19 subsided into normality, church services resumed running physically, with more than 100 believers participating. The Elim Christian Academy also resumed physically and has more than 200 students from primary to tenth grade and 28 full time staff. Rita Kabo is the principal of the school.
SEVEN STEPS TRAINING and ENCOUNTERING CHRIST CONFERENCES
Dr. Jonathan Burnham has visited Nepal twice in 2022. He taught Seven Steps of Christian Living and Encountering Christ to key Nepali Christian leaders, selected by Rev. Sonam Kabo.
In addition, Sonam has taught these courses in Eastern Nepal, Far West Nepal, and in the Pokhara region. All the training events have been done in partnership with local Bible schools and seminaries.
MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS: multiplying national leaders for sustainable national mentorship movements
Sonam is currently developing mentoring relationships with eight leaders. Each relationship is unique. Some are new, some are long term. Some are in person, and some on Zoom. Sonam makes it a ministry priority to develop and to partner with key leaders. These relationships are already bringing fruit not only in Nepal, but also in Bhutan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and United Arab Emirates!
WOMEN’S MINISTRIES
Rita Kabo has been highly involved in developing women’s ministries in Nepal. She is one of the top, Christian women’s leaders in the entire country and is a very effective trainer in women’s Bible studies, training events, even national days of prayer, educator conferences, and leadership gatherings in both Nepal and India.
The Global Nepali Speaking Christian Fellowship, which took place in November in India, was a unique event: for the first time in their history GNCF had a woman speaker, and it was Rita! Rita powerfully spoke on the role of women in global ministry!
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RUSSIA AND BELARUS 2022
Sergey Naboychenko – BMI Regional Director for Russia
Sergey Drozd – BMI Belarus Ministry Partner
Ivan Kozorezov – BMI Russia Ministry Partner
MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS: a key priority
BMI has been involved in Russia and Belarus for many years; Russia for over 30 years! In both Russia and Belarus our partners make it a priority to intentionally and personally disciple other Christian leaders. For example, Ivan is building the ministry of his entire church around the ministry of mentorship. Twice a year he leads special training workshops for the leaders of his church. They in turn invest into the members of their congregation. Sergey Naboychenko is mentoring a group of local pastors and church leaders as well as a young businessmen. The goal of these mentoring relationships is for each Christian to mentor others and so on, and so on.
SEVEN STEPS TRAINING: in high demand and keeps growing
Training conferences on the Seven Steps of Christian Living remain in high demand in Russia and Belarus, and is a top ministry priority for our partners. Sergey Naboychenko is a true leader in this effort. He personally travels all over Russia bringing the training to remote areas of Siberia, North and Far East. An important focus area of this training ministry is follow up on the leaders who have been trained. Sergey hand picks the most talented among them and continues to invest in their leadership formation.
BTMP: an example of partnership with seminaries
Sergey Drozd is the vice president of Minsk Theological Seminary. We have partnered with him since 2012. Sergey integrated Seven Steps of Christian Living and Encountering Christ to the curriculum of the seminary. Now, Seven Steps is a core course for all seminary students. To be effective in the training, the seminary even hired a young professor who is dedicated specifically
to training on mentorship. Not only the students listen to lectures, they are required to work with a personal mentor between the sessions, and they also have specialized workshops. Encountering Christ has become a special 2 credit hour course on Christology. It is taught by recognized Byelorussian pastors who had earlier been trained by Dr. Burnham.
WOMEN’S MINISTRIES
Recently BMI has been focusing on developing women ministries training on discipleship in Russia. Sergey Naboychenko’s wife, Dianna, has been very effective in leading it. She personally trains women leaders in her regional Baptist association. She is also modeling it by personally mentoring young women. Dianna, in turn, is being mentored by BMI Women’s Ministries
Director for Eastern Europe, Nadia Morokhovets.
TECHNOLOGY AND YOUR FAMILY: in high demand
Technology and Your Family is a rather unique course for BMI. We wrote it to help young Christian families make wise decisions on the use of technology in their families and with their children. This course quickly became one of our most popular ones internationally. Sergey Naboychenko, who himself has an impressive background in technology and aerospace engineering, leads the training all over Russia. He is a frequent speaker on the subject at multiple conferences and workshops.
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VIETNAM, THAILAND, CAMBODIA, MYANMAR, LAOS, INDONESIA, PHILIPPINES 2022 UPDATE
Dr. Joshua Nguyễn – Regional Director for SE Asia
Dr. Joshua had the opportunity to see Dr. Minh Dang, a long-time friend of the Burnham family!
BTMP/MBMP is taught in Bible schools in 4 SE Asia countries
Dr. Joshua Nguyen together with his ministry partners have incorporated BTMP/MBMP in Bible schools in four SE Asia countries: Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. This year also marks the seventh MBMP graduation of marketplace leaders in Vietnam: 22 students have graduated this unique program, with the plans for over 20 new qualified students to graduate the class of 2023 in early March.
SEVEN STEPS TRAINING has taken place in 5 countries
In addition to BTMP/MBMP, BMI’s flagship course Seven Steps of Christian Living remains in high demand all over SE Asia. This year Dr. Nguyen has taught the course in Cambodia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar. Most times, the training takes place in partnership with leading Bible schools or seminaries.
Jonathan Burnham traveled to Vietnam and Thailand this year for Encountering Christ Part 1: Click to view short video on Facebook:
MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS: multiplying national leaders for sustainable national mentorship movements
BMI believes in mentorship – intentional personal investment of life in growing Christian leaders. Our Regional Directors and Ministry Partners model mentorship relationships as their ministry priority. Dr. Nguyen is focusing on building up key Christian leaders who in turn will mentor others in Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia.
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