Celebrating Our Fifth Graduation: Expanding Global Ministries
On December 3, 2022, Clarkston Bible Institute celebrated its fifth graduation with 11 students from various U.S. cities. The adapted online and in-person classes proved effective in fostering discipleship despite pandemic challenges. Graduates are now serving in diverse global ministries, demonstra
On December 3, 2022, we had our fifth graduation celebration, and 11 students graduated. It was streamed, and the video is available at www.cibcfamily.com on the home page. This was a special and unique class! In March 2020, we were forced to teach our class online as a result of COVID. Through that experience, we were forced to learn much about Zoom. As a result, we learned how to teach the fourth class with in person students and online students simultaneously. For this past class, we had people from Milwaukee, WI Indianapolis, IN, Des Moines, IA, San Antonio, TX, Ft. Worth, TX, Kansas City, KS, and Warner Robins, GA in addition to those in the Atlanta area. This enabled people to be trained who had no classes available to them locally with the exception of the student from the Ft. Worth area. I doubted before this class that life-on-life discipleship could happen with remote training, but this class has shown me thst it can. As a testament to the bonding that took place between the students and our teachers, the graduates wanted a live grauation; graduates came from Des Moines, IA, Indianapolis, IN, Ft. Worth, TX, Warner Robins, GA because they wanted to meet our teachers in person.
I have been praying that God would enlarge our territory, but I had no idea how God was going to do it. Our goal would be for these graduates to begin classes in these cities as one way to enlarge our territory.
We have a graduate from our first class who is serving full-time with Africa Inland Mission in Chad, West Africa. From our third class, we have a woman and her husband serving full-time ministering to Somali Bantus in Nairobi, Kenya. Bantus don’t even have a written language. This couple is helping with others to develop a written language and to provide an illustrated dictionary for that language.
From that same class, a Burmese graduate, who was a pastor of a Karenni (dialect) church in Warner Robins, has decided to serve the lord full-time in Thailand ministering to Burmese fefugees. The plan is for he and his family to move to Thailand this summer. That means the current graduate from Warner Robins is to become the pastor of the Karenni church in his place.
A graduate from our fourth graduating class married a man who was ministering in Nepal. They left this week to serve the Lord full-time in Nepal.
We are now seeing that God is expanding our borders, and the ministry and influence of Clarkston Bible Institute is growing globally. To God be the glory!
