Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. ~Psalm 67:4
Here in the Upper Midwest it’s not unusual for one last blast of warm weather to present itself after Fall has begun, but before Winter emerges. We’re praying that at least one more blast of generosity pours over The Alex Steddom International Student Fund before we must turn to the business of calling generosity toward The Serious Joy Scholarship benefitting all of our students.
Our annual Summer fund drive in support of the Steddom Fund is coming to its end. If you’ve not yet done so, we ask that you might pray whether God is calling you to bless this ministry with a financial gift, large or small.
The fund has been re-focused on in-country Seminary education, seeking to supply efforts already underway to extend Bethlehem Seminary’s church-based, Bible-saturated, academically rigorous, remarkably affordable model of education to theologically famished regions of the world.
Our proof-of-concept program in Yaoundé, Cameroon has already produced 10 graduates, with another 10 in-process. Edison DSouza, Class of ‘25, is planning to leave Minneapolis in July to return to his home and church in Mysore, India, with dreams of replicating the Cameroon extension site to be fruitful in the world’s most populous country.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. ~Matthew 28:19–20
With a gift to the Steddom Fund this year, you will:
* Fund full tuition and living expenses for Edison DSouza, Class ‘25, and Boaz Prince, Class of ‘26, two seminary students from India completing their M.Div. degrees here in Minneapolis.
* Provide support to Dr. Dieudonné Tamfu, Director of Bethlehem Seminary, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
* Support the Th.M. program of Hernan Wu, M.Div. ‘24 as he provides academic administrative support to the seminary in Cameroon.
* Fund tuition for Richard Ngebe, a Th.M. student and Teaching Assistant in Yaoundé.
* Provide Work Study assignments for 10 seminary students in Cameroon.
* Provide the the first Steddom grant to an international seminary student from Africa, who will study in Africa.
A larger portion of your generous gifts will now go directly the instruction of more students—on the ground where they live. While the overall funding request is smaller than previous years, it will support four times as many students this year.
But we remain shy of our modest $138,700 goal as Summer comes to an end. So, would you please consider making a gift to the Alex Steddom International Student Fund such that this fruitful gospel work may continue to abound?
Rick Segal
Vice President of Advancement & Lecturer of History and Political Philosophy