On May 13, Bethlehem College and Seminary’s extension site in Yaoundé, Cameroon, will graduate its first five students who have completed our four-year Master’s of Divinity Program. Yesterday Dieudonné, Vera Tando, administrative assistant, and I experienced the weight and significance of this coming event. We were invited to the home of the former prime minister of Cameroon to share our work with him. What we assumed would be a brief formal meeting in his palatial, heavily-guarded home turned into a two-hour, warm-hearted discussion of how beautifully the language-based, exegetically-focused, and small cohort-sized biblical and pastoral training championed in our M.Div. program fits with what he thinks is most needed for pastors in Cameroon. We were deeply encouraged by his interest and his sincere desire to attend the graduation ceremony.
In several days, Dr. Tim Tomlinson, President Emeritus, who caught the vision for a Cameroon extension site when we first mentioned it in 2017, will preside over the ceremony. Rick Segal, who serves as Vice President for Advancement and Lecturer of History and Political Philosophy and who is an adoptive father of Dieudonné and Dominique, will be the official welcomer at the ceremony. Jonny Weaver, professional videographer and storyteller, and Shane Wood, Associate Director of the Commission on Accreditation for the Association for Biblical Higher Education, will be joining the U.S. contingent as well.
But mostly the auditorium will be filled with the friends and family of our graduates. Graduation in Cameroon is a very important moment. Most people won’t be expecting it to be a worship, gospel-celebrating service! Please pray for our graduates and their next steps in ministry:
Fanka Haison Tata
Pursuing pastoral ministry, with an interest in church planting.
Ndingawanyui Nelson Tata
Pursuing pastoral ministry.
Elison Bongadzem Tango
2023 Alex Steddom Scholarship recipient to study in our Th.M. program in Minneapolis. He intends to return to Yaoundé to teach in Bethlehem Seminary and serve as worship pastor at Église Baptiste Bethléem.
Yong Daniel Yuh
Applying to Ph.D. programs in Europe and America to further theological education in Cameroon.
Edwin Tata Nfor
Aspiring to be the first church planter out of Église Baptiste Bethléem.
Thank you all for your prayers, financial support, and encouragement of us in our work in Cameroon!
Together with you in the Greatest Cause,
Dieudonne Tamfu, Ph.D.
Executive Director of the Cameroon Extension Site & Associate Professor of Biblical Theology
Tom Steller, M.Div.
Associate Professor of Biblical and Global Studies
Prayer Requests:
- Pray that God alone will be exalted during the ceremonies in Yaoundé and Minneapolis, and our students and their friends and family will be greatly encouraged.
- Pray that next year’s incoming cohorts will be finalized and ready to begin the MDiv program in August.
- Pray that Pastor Chuck Steddom and two of our Minneapolis students will be used greatly as they teach a Theology of Worship Class and also a Songwriters Workshop this summer.
- Pray that our need for a permanent home for the seminary, the church, and our printing ministry in Yaoundé will be met.
- Praise the Lord with us for his continued faithfulness and pray that he would provide the remaining funds for our On The Double match.