This summer I was able to travel to two very different parts of the world, one Buddhist and one Muslim. In the Buddhist dominated area in Asia, one of our current seminary students, his wife, and I had the opportunity to teach a course on hermeneutics to an emerging group of pastors and leaders from an unreached people group among whom another of our graduates has been living and working for several years. The student and I taught the principles of Bible study, using Philippians as the laboratory. On four nights of the class the seminarian’s wife quoted from memory a chapter of Philippians. God used it all to deepen love for the Word of God and to fuel the desire of these young leaders to teach and shepherd the growing number of churches that are emerging from within this people group.
A couple weeks after this ministry trip was completed, I traveled to a Muslim country in Africa to visit a recent graduate and his family laboring in a city with only two known believers. Already they have made an impact, developing significant relationships as they learn and boldly practice the language of the people. The gospel is being freely shared with many hungry people. While I was there, our graduate and I had the opportunity to share the gospel significantly with a local doctor and with a language teacher. The language teacher had heard the gospel a number of times and asked me to pray for him as he wrestled with the implications of embracing Christ. I heard that he put his faith in Christ a few weeks later. Please pray for him, as he will face much opposition.
This fall, I will be traveling to South Carolina to speak at the inauguration service for a new church plant. It is being pastored by one of our earliest apprentices who has been serving as an associate pastor in a church Bethlehem planted 16 years ago. Later in the fall, I have the opportunity to preach at the ordination service for another graduate who is serving in Iowa.
All this reflects one of the hats I am wearing as Dean of Global and Alumni Outreach. What a privilege! I love being able to see with my own eyes the results of your investment of prayer and finances – the long-term fruit God is bearing through our alumni, students, faculty, staff, church and all the friends of Bethlehem as they serve, pray and give.
Together with you in the Greatest Cause,
Tom Steller
Dean of Alumni and Global Outreach, Senior Advisor to the President, and Associate Professor of New Testament
Prayer Requests
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Please pray for the prospective students are prepping their applications. Pray that the Lord would guide them in making this most important decision—about where to attend school. We would love it if many of them would choose Bethlehem College & Seminary, but we want them to go where the Lord wants them to go. Pray for wisdom, discernment, and courage for them.
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Pray for our faculty as they plan the new Master of Arts degree (in Exegesis and Theology). It represents a lot of work in development and potential, and a positive impact on the church that we pray will carry over for generations to come.
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Join me in giving thanks to the Lord for his goodness and mercy toward us as a school. We have so many things to be thankful for—including our current financial position. Pray with us now, that the Lord would begin to lay up for us a growing surplus that could function as an endowment. Pray that more and more people would choose to put us in their estate plans as well as continue giving to us currently.
- Praise the Lord with us for a wonderful fall preview day, including the Eureka seminars.