Dear Friends and Supporters
TEE is building the Kingdom of God!
The Three-Step Theological Education by Extension (TEE ) method of training church leaders is building the Kingdom of God around the world. The program multiplies the number of leaders and it multiplies the number of churches. Local congregations grow because they have mature leadership. More churches are planted because more leaders are challenged to serve the Lord full-time.
NIGERIA: Ivory Coast Christian Mission first used the three-step TEE method in Nigeria in 1985. I wrote the first TEE courses on a computer that had the program on one disk and the data on a second. It was powered by a solar panel and had no internal drive for saving data. It was not a windows program. I had to constantly type in codes for formatting, etc. I could not see how the formatting turned out until I printed it. Isn’t windows wonderful!
The Christian Churches in southeastern Nigeria are both stronger and multiplied in number because of the way in which Sunday Obeten has incorporated TEE into his strategy of mission work. Sunday enables the churches to use the TEE courses to train leaders for the local congregations. The TEE program prepares and recruits quality students for the Cross River Christian College where Sunday trains church planters and evangelists who plant more churches.
Christian Leadership Training Institute: The Institute was started in 1996 to enable TEE classes in four west African nations where we have Christian Churches. The program strengthened the churches in Ghana. It supplied many quality students to Ghana Christian College where they were trained and later recruited by other missions to become church planters. Several of the church planters working with Ghana Christian Mission and Training Tomorrows leaders had their start in a TEE class.
MEXICO: Jaime Castro restarted Mexico Christian University (UCM) four years ago. He requested that Grassroots Leadership Development, a branch of Ivory Coast Christian Mission, allow him to use our TEE courses to establish an extension program for training leaders. Only one TEE course was published in Spanish at the time.
Jaimie Castro, President of Mexico Christian University and
Bob Sheffler, Director of Grassroots Leadership Development
Mexico Christian University is translating every one of our TEE course into Spanish. Today they have a total of 803 active students enrolled in the following programs:
Christian Leadership Bachelor’s Degree: 20
Bachelor’s Degree in Theology: 11
Associates degree in Biblical Theology (TSU): 3
Certificate Theology High School: 3
Masters Certificate(UCM-HIU): 16
Theological Education by Extension (TEE): 750
Their 750 TEE students are in 49 extension classes in Mexico and the USA.
With the purpose of increasing their Academic Levels, two certification agreements were signed with Hope International University (HIU) from Fullerton California. The authorities who signed were: Dr. John Derry President, and Dr. Joe Grana Academic Administrator for HIU, and UCM President, Jaime Castro.
(Nov. 2014) Arrangements for a Master’s Degree. The curriculum for this degree is totally provided by Hope International University. UCM provides teachers, who have been previously authorized by HIU Academic Office, and recruits the students. When the program is completed, students will obtain the “Masters Certificate” from HIU-UCM.
(Oct. 2015) An agreement is signed to certify their Theological Education by Extension Program, keeping the studies curriculum provided by Bob Sheffler (Author and Director of Grassroots Leadership Development). The course “Theology of Ministry” was added by HIU. When the program is completed a student will obtain the “Certificate of Ministry” from HIU-UCM.
Bob will participate in UCM’s first graduation ceremony at Querertaro, Mexico on June 16, 2017.
Personal Note: I have seen what TEE did in Ghana. I am still seeing it make a great impact on the work in Nigeria. Now it is making an impact on the work in Mexico through Mexico Christian University (UCM). Missionaries in the Philippines, Haiti, Ethiopia and other parts of Africa are using our TEE courses to strengthen the churches and recruit full-time workers. I know the Three-Step TEE method works. However, in order for it to work, it requires an administrator or a supervisor with the vision, the passion, the energy and the skills to make it work. To learn more about the Three-Step method of TEE, visit our web site at grassrootsld.org.
Pray that we will soon have a new supervisor for the TEE work in Ghana. We have raised $27,000 for this project. After getting some quotes on the cost of a 4X4 crewcab pickup, I believe we could start this project with only an additional $5,000. We would still need funds to secure the new lot in Tamale by building a wall around it.
LIBERIA: Solomon Gargar, Supervisor for TEE in Liberia, reports that four classes are active. The class at Wayzohn is struggling due to the work schedules of its students. Two more classes will be started soon. Some training is being done through short-term workshops for potential leaders who cannot read and write sufficiently to do the home-study lessons.
PRAISE AND PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Thank God for the successful TEE program for Spanish speaking leaders through Mexico Christian University.
2. Thank God for the successful TEE program in Nigeria.
3. Thank God for the many church planters, evangelists and church leaders who have been trained and encouraged through the TEE program.
4. Pray for the success of TEE programs in the Philippines, Haiti, Ethiopia and other parts of Africa.
5. Pray for funds to establish a supervisor for TEE in northern Ghana.
6. Pray for funds to finish the Nursery School project in Nigeria.
7. Thanks God for his amazing grace and abundant blessings both here and for eternity.
web sites: grassrootsld.org and cltigh.org
