Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - March 2024

Dr. Samuel Rozfy visited with numerous partners during his most recent trip to the United States, January 26-February 6. He began his visit with a stop in Hendersonville, Tennessee, visiting the Community Church of Hendersonville. Community Church is a new ministry partner, currently funding a MAT scholarship. Don and Ann Crittenden joined him as he attended the ECO National Gathering in Greenville, South Carolina. His host for the event was the Eastminister Church in Marrietta, Georgia.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - February 2022 Update

My name is Mofreh Abdelmasieh (pictured on the left). I’m from a village called Dashloot. I grew up in an evangelical family. My father is an elder in our village church, which was founded by American missionaries in 1886. My father loves the church, and I was raised hearing about the important role of the church in people’s lives. When I was young, my father talked to me about becoming a pastor, but I rejected that idea until I went to university. I started serving with a ministry helping students develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ then leading them on the journey of discipleship. I continued for three years until I graduated and began my military service. While serving in the military, I heard God call me to pastoral ministry, so I made the decision to attend ETSC.

Presbyterian Education Board and Pakistan Christian Recording Ministries Update

The church in Pakistan holds a precious place in the heart of The Outreach Foundation. Out of all the countries where we show up, our Christian friends experience the greatest amount of persecution in Pakistan. Yet, they remain resilient and courageous and the witness of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior sings loudly. We are privileged to stand with them!

The Outreach Foundation is pleased to bring word from two of our dear friends in Pakistan, the Presbyterian Education Board, and Pakistan Christian Recording Ministries.

Gujranwala Theological Seminary - January 2022 Update

Gujranwala Theological Seminary (GTS) has been training and equipping pastors to lead churches since 1877. Originally a Presbyterian seminary, at one point it was the only seminary in South Asia. It now serves as a united (inter-denominational) seminary. There are currently 78 students studying at GTS on all three levels. Although there were many challenges and difficulties during the last year, we are thankful to God for providing wisdom and strength to achieve much. Here are two of the highlights:

Near East School of Theology - December 2021 Update

A timeline of history from a Beirut seminary

PAST
On The Outreach Foundation’s October visit to Lebanon (and on into Syria), we stopped by to visit our beloved partner, N.E.S.T. As always, President George Sabra made time for us, and we got caught up over the little cups of Arabic coffee which seem to be perpetually “on tap” in the faculty lounge. As no one in our group was making their first visit, we did not need to tour the facilities. But I did have a special request, mindful that most of our team was unaware of a “treasure” tucked away in the library here: the translation papers of Dr. Cornelius Van Dyke (1818-1895), a Presbyterian missionary who completed the translation of the Bible into Arabic (from the Hebrew and Greek). That translation is still the most used and beloved one throughout the Middle East.

Bethlehem Bible College - December 2021 Update

Graduates Making a Difference in Christ’s Kingdom

Baseel and Ghaida Daibes are Bethlehem Bible College (BBC) graduates. Baseel graduated in 2016 and Ghaida in 2017, both from the Biblical Studies program. They met at the college, fell in love, and got married in 2015. They now have a beautiful boy named Iyad, and they live in a small town north of Palestine called Zababdeh. They shared:

Bethlehem Bible College had a huge effect on our lives; we learned incredible things about the Bible, and we grew in our faith. But mostly we loved the atmosphere and the relationships between the students, faculty, and staff!

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - December 2021 Update

In an October ceremony overflowing with gratitude, after two decades of service, Dr. Atef Gendy passed the baton of leadership, to his friend and colleague, Dr. Hani Hanna. Numerous dignitaries including members of the Egyptian Senate and House of Representatives attended the event which was hosted by the Heliopolis Evangelical Presbyterian Church. After welcoming comments by ETSC Board President Dr. Youssef Samir, a video collage illustrated the seminary’s remarkable growth over the past twenty years. It noted Dr. Gendy’s gifted leadership, including his work in building partnerships across the world, strengthening the faculty, renovations of the campus, and recent accreditation by the European Council of Theological Education.

Gujranwala Theological Seminary Update

Gujranwala Theological Seminary (GTS) has been serving congregations, parachurch ministries, theological institutions, and their leaders throughout Pakistan for 145 years. As we prepare to celebrate with them, we want to highlight three of their recent graduates. God is doing great things in this very difficult part of the Christian world.

Khashia completed her MDiv in 2018. She serves as a youth coordinator at Open Theological Seminary in Lahore. She was one of only a few women to earn an MDiv but reports that she sees more women receiving advanced theological education. Women play an integral, if not formal, role in building up God’s church in this part of the world. She writes, “I am grateful to my Lord and GTS for enabling me to strengthen women’s groups in Pakistani churches.”

Pakistan Bible Correspondence School - October 2021 Update

God is on the move! As Adeel Samuel, director of the Pakistan Bible Correspondence School (PBCS), reminds us, “Our God is a God of nations, all nations will bow before the Lord (Psalm 86:9). In the recent political change in Afghanistan, many people have fled to Pakistan; some are Christian.

People like Abdul. He was a driver for an American officer who showed him movies about Jesus. The concept that Jesus “took away all his sins" was new. And as so often happens among Muslims, he wanted to know more and read the Bible in secret. That reading led him to believe in Jesus. Abdul fled to where Adeel Samuel, lives and is now being nurtured there through the PBCS.

San Pablo Presbyterian Theological Seminary - August 2021 Update

Despite the COVID-19, pandemic, we continue training leaders and pastors to fulfill the Great Commission.

We Were Impacted as a Seminary by COVID-19

· Although just three members of our personnel were affected by the coronavirus and are now well, some friends and pastors around us died.

· We had to change some things about the way we train our students. The most important change was to establish online courses. We will continue providing courses online until the COVID situation improves.

· In the midst of this situation, in October 2020, we suffered the onslaught of a tropical storm. There was extensive damage to our facilities. So far, we have repaired six classrooms and two bedrooms. Unfortunately, we have not been able to repaint the buildings of our facility due to high humidity levels.

Presbyterian Education Board - August 2021 Update

Zerafshan Yousaf: Bearing Christ’s light in Pakistan

Recently we heard from Zerafshan Yousaf. She is the Principal of Presbyterian Education Board’s Higher Secondary Girls’ School in Pasrur and is a great example of PEB’s vision to provide high-quality education that equips girls and boys to become leaders in Pakistan who are guided by Christian values.

Zerafshan’s journey as a student at the girls’ school in Pasrur began in 1997. It was there that she learned to face with courage the many challenges that meet every Christian girl and boy in Pakistan. She recalls how inspirational and meaningful her Christian teachers were and that because of her experience she was able to attend university, earning a degree in psychology and a master’s in political science. Now she is following her heart’s desire to give back to the Christian community by inspiring young girls just as her teachers inspired her.

Asia, Partnership, Projects, Theological EducationThe Outreach FoundationAugust 30, 2021Pakistan

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET) - August 2021 Update

Below are excerpts from a recent letter sent to us from one of our strategic partners in Cuba:

Dear sisters and brothers:

We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and at the same time, we thank you for your prayers and your expressions of concern related to the current situation in our country. We are living in an acute economic crisis and a crisis of values since the “special period” (decade of the 1990s) when the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc collapsed; we have not yet recovered from those times. The crisis has become worse …

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought negative consequences: the sad death of loved ones, which has produced a great emotional impact on the people. Furthermore, the State lost millions of dollars due to the fall of tourism. Despite that, it invested millions of dollars to try to heal and save the people.

Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo - July 2021 Update

Although the world is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) celebrated the graduation of its 149th class. The graduation was supposed to happen last summer, but because of COVID, the celebration took place in April at the Presbyterian Church in Heliopolis. The number of graduates this year was historical – 75!!! Fourteen graduates received an M.Div. and will be pastors in the Presbyterian Church of Egypt (most of them had already started their ministry in village churches, church planting, and other fields of ministry). The graduates included laypeople who came to ETSC to be better equipped for ministry – they are key leaders in local churches, Christian non-profits, and other Protestant denominations. Many of them are working in the marketplace but are demonstrating God's love in their circles. Some of the graduates are focused on leadership and church management. Through these capacities, they will serve their churches and organizations through strategic planning, biblical leadership, and management to achieve more goals for God's Kingdom.

Near East School of Theology (NEST) - July 2021 Update

After a difficult year, N.E.S.T. joyfully held a Commencement Service on June 12. The last hymn sung, “Here I am, Lord,” is a hymn that became very popular at the seminary, especially after they acquired the Presbyterian hymnal for their Chapel services in the early 1990s. The words are based on Isaiah 6 where the prophet receives his call. The Lord asks, “Whom shall I send; who will go for us?”, and Isaiah responds, “Here I am Lord, send me.” The four M. Div. graduates asked that this hymn be sung. During the service, they presented a gift to the seminary in remembrance of their time at N.E.S.T. – a plaque on which is written those very words of Isaiah 6:8.

Dr. George Sabra, N.E.S.T.’s president, reflected:

I was deeply moved by their choice of the hymn and those verses from Isaiah. Here are fresh Middle Eastern graduates from a theological seminary who are declaring, “We are ready to serve you, Lord. Send us where you will.”

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cuba News

News has reached me that our seminary partner in Matanzas, Cuba, has been asked by the government to open one of their facilities (students are not yet allowed back on campus) to receive children (and their caregivers) who are suspected of having COVID-19. This comes as the local pediatric hospital is overwhelmed with cases. They have agreed to do this—an extraordinary act of service, as you can imagine. Please join me in prayer for this, that Christ may be glorified and that the seminary community is kept safe…

Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary - April 2021 Update

Dear friends,

My name is Francelia. I am married to Christopher McReynolds. We live in Del Rio, Texas located five minutes from the border city of Cd. Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico. I was born in Mexico City in 1977 but moved to Villahermosa, Tabasco in 1985. There, at age 21 while I was still in college, the Lord saved me at an evangelistic campaign on March 28, 1998. I then started my walk in the Presbyterian Church.

I am amazed by God’s grace, thankful for where I am, and thankful for The Outreach Foundation for playing such an important part in the story – God’s story. Here is how I was called to do what I am doing today, thanks to sponsors like The Outreach Foundation.

Forman Christian College - March 2021 Update

Education is very important because it has made me a better person in all areas – I have gained consciousness of the world. It has made me learn to take care of not only myself but the world around me, my family, and the people who depend on me. To me, education is not something just for me, I want to use it to give it back and help people in the context of my specialization, which is psychology.

Pakistan Bible Correspondence School - March 2021 Update

Pakistan Bible Correspondence School (PBCS) was started in 1957 with a vision to reach out to people all over Pakistan with the message of God’s love for mankind through Bible correspondence courses, and a variety of other holistic programs and projects.

We are pleased to share an update that we recently received from Adeel Samuel, PBCS Principal:

Greetings in the Lord who is our refuge, strength, and very present help in trouble!

I am thankful to God that he sustained us in 2020. Though it was challenging, his mighty hand surrounded us with his grace and mercy.

We were able to visit several different churches and schools for promotions. We distributed our Urdu and English correspondence courses to the new students. I was able to meet with pastors, key leaders, and young emerging leaders. We discussed how to reach out to people by using new and effective methodologies. In 2020, we sent 63 Torahs to non-Christians in the Urdu language; 112 Urdu Bibles, and 562 New Testaments, certificates, and other books for gifts.

Partner Updates