Clarkston Bible Institute End of Semester News and Events

We are pleased to announce that our sixth graduation is scheduled June 22 at 2:00 P.M. at the Clarkston International Bible Church Worship Center. We invite you to attend if you can. We will celebrate ten new graduates bringing our total to sixty.

Myanmar

Four of our students have been online from Myanmar. They already suffer under a 6:00 P.M. – 6:00 A.M. curfew. Unfortunately, the situation in Myanmar has continued to get worse and made continuing to train these students difficult or in a couple of cases brought the training to a halt. In March, the Myanmar military announced that they were conscripting anyone male or female ages 18 – 45 for military service. Soon after that announcement, 18-year-old Mai Hallelujah, who is the daughter of two of our other students, was no longer able to attend class. Apparently, she feared being seen even on a computer screen. let alone in public, because she might be taken into the military. Her 14-year-old brother, who looks older, can’t be seen in public either for fear of being taken into the military. There the military has controlled the country for many years and is the enemy. As you can imagine, this is a very trying situation for them, and their parents are very concerned for them and trying to protect them.

This decision to conscript by the military also affects the churches there. Parents, in an effort to protect their children, have fled to another country or gone to remote areas so church attendance is way down. In addition, the electricity is very unstable, and it has become increasingly difficult to continue consistent training. Pray for Myanmar, particularly for this family. In spite of all this, the father was trying to come to America for graduation and to visit his father who can’t return to Myanmar, but he could not get a visa. The fact that he was trying to come to graduation shows the impact the teachers had on him.

Youth Apologetics Conference

On April 1, Clarkston Bible Institute again partnered with Clarkston International Bible Church and other churches for our sixth Youth Apologetics Conference. It is a thrill seeing the room full of youth, especially on the first day of spring break, realizing all the other options available. They are very hungry for the truth. The theme of the conference was the “Witness of the Church,” instructing the youth on the importance of the church and how the church is to be a positive witness to those in the world around us. Session one was Salt and Light challenging the youth to be a positive influence in the world. The next session was Unity/Division in the Church challenging the youth about the importance of striving for unity. The last session dealt with Church Hurt and the need to work through it themselves or help others get through it.

Alumni Meeting

We recently had an alumni meeting via Zoom, our first one since COVID-19. We were all particularly blessed by one of our graduates from the 2019 – 2020 class. He went to Thailand with his family to minister to Burmese refugees and has been there for a year now. He updated us on his ministry, and God has opened some amazing doors for him. He meets with about 130 children in boarding houses on a regular basis. These are children who are either orphans or have been separated from their parents. That is a great opportunity since the children are captive. He is meeting with a group of men at Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. On Thursday nights, he goes there and spends the night, and on Sunday nights they come to him. He said that he meets people who have attended Bible School 6 – 8 years and are there for ministry, but in all that time they never had a course on Bible Study Methods. By contrast, they think he has a bachelor’s or master’s degree because of his knowledge of the Bible and ability to teach.

Another lady from that same class taught Bible in a Christian School and was confident in doing so because of her training at Clarkston Bible Institute. We learned that another of our graduates, who is a pastor, has made two trips to Myanmar to minister to the people there since his graduation in 2018. We praise God that Clarkston Bible Institute is making a difference!

Succession Planning

Thinking about the future and doing all we can to make sure that Clarkston Bible Institute continues to equip students, we have begun the process of succession planning. We have completed the first step of assessing our strengths and weaknesses in key areas, and our next step is to develop a strategic plan building on the strengths and shoring up our weaknesses.

I am happy to report that the assessment determined that the Board of Directors is highly committed to our mission and vision and has vast knowledge and experience in pastoral leadership, missions, Bible teaching and church planting.

I trust you see how your investment in Clarkston Bible Institute is bringing a great return. Please pray for Clarkston Bible Institute. We are recruiting new students for the next school year and need some new younger teachers. With this current class, we depleted our scholarship funds and need to build them up again for future students. We typically have provided scholarships up to half the tuition cost of $1,500 for needy students. However, this school year because of the hunger to be trained and the financial need, we provided full scholarships for the students from Myanmar. We don’t want money to get in the way of people being trained. We are also going to need additional funds as we grow. Prayerfully consider contributing to the ministry by making a tax deductible donation at our website, www.clarkstonbibleinstute.com, or you can mail a check to Clarkston Bible Institute, 1000 Rowland Street, Clarkston, GA 30021. Thank you for your partnership and your prayerful consideration of these requests.

Serving Jesus by equipping others,

Terry

Executive Director