Seminary Update From René Gonzaléz and Chying Chying
It has been a year since my family and I moved from El Salvador to Minnesota in order to pursue theological training, and I want to thank you for partnering with Bethlehem College & Seminary to make this possible. I want to personally thank you for your commitment and desire to see the supremacy of Christ being proclaimed among the nations, and I also want to thank you for your generosity and sacrificial giving for the sake of his Kingdom. Just as the apostle Paul writes in his second letter to the church in Corinth: “You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.” (2 Co 9:11-12 ESV), your generosity has supplied for my theological training at Bethlehem College & Seminary and has also produced much thanksgiving to our Lord Jesus Christ.
I would also like to ask you to continue to pray for my country and for cause of Christ in Central America. The latest news about the increasing violence in El Salvador and Honduras, the political and social breakdown in Nicaragua, and the increasing governmental corruption in Guatemala, seems to leave our countries with no hope. This is why I firmly believe that the church in El Salvador and the rest of Central America desperately needs to return to the Scriptures and a biblical understanding of a Christ-centered gospel. This can only happen by God’s intervention to bring people to repentance, to awake his church to prayer, and to establish solid theological training for pastors. It is my prayer that God will allow me to go back to my country and invest my life toward this end.
Coming from a country where more than 85% of the pastors lack formal theological training, I can only thank God for the excellent training that I received at Bethlehem College & Seminary during the last year. I thank God for the opportunity to learn Biblical Greek, being able to read the New Testament in its original language, and receiving the tools to interpret and teach the Bible more faithfully. I also thank God for my professors, their passion for Christ inside and outside the classroom, and their example of Christian life and love for their families. I am constantly challenged by their love for God’s Word and their passion for his glory.
Finally, I want to encourage you to continue to invest in Bethlehem College & Seminary, and continue to partner in spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
In Christ,
René Gonzaléz
2nd Year Seminarian
Dear brothers and sisters, I am humbled and overwhelmed by your willingness to extend God’s grace to me and my family. I would like to thank you for your prayers and scholarship donations. I understand that without generous and caring people like you a theological education would not be possible for students from a third-world nation like me. Your generosity has truly touched me. Because of your generosity, I can spend more time on my studies and ministry without worrying about my finances.
I have been teaching music and worship courses at Kachin Theological College & Seminary as a lecturer for 11 years and serving at Thida Baptist Church as a worship pastor. The Lord is calling me to transform worship in the Kachin churches. After I graduate, I will continue to train future pastors, music ministers, and worship leaders with Christ-centered Biblical theology at my seminary and in Kachin churches.
Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to grow so much in my faith through the exciting church ministry and very deep theological education at Bethlehem. Also, I have been involved in the worship ministry at Bethlehem’s South Campus.
Thank you very much for your prayers and support. Please continue to support Bethlehem College & Seminary, so that many more people may be able to serve the Lord.
Grace to you,
Chying Chying @ Zau Naw
2nd Year Seminarian
Prayer Requests:
- Pray for the filling of the Alex Steddom International Student Fund such that we can support René and Chying Chying for the coming school year and another international seminarian for the next school year.
- Pray for our students and faculty as they adjust back into the rhythms of a new school year.
- Pray for our college freshmen as they go on a retreat this weekend.
- Pray that many would come to and be blessed by our Fall Preview Day and Think: Revisited Conference.