Be Praying: May Ministries Schedule.

See where the New York students are headed this spring, and pray along.

May 1-4
Spanish Ministry Team 1 to Brooklyn, New York

May 2
Travel team to Paul Smith’s College

May 2-4
Intersect event in Springfield, Massachusetts
Ministry team to Word of Life Inn & Family Lodge for Women’s Retreat
Ministry team to Lighthouse Mission in Long Island, New York

May 3
Students to help with Whitewater Derby in North Creek, New York

May 5
Basketball clinic at Mountainside Christian Academy, Schroon Lake, New York
Ministry teams to Sacandaga Bible Conference (Broadalbin, New York) for a work day
Ministry team to Schroon Lake Historical Society for a work day

May 7
Ministry team to Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany, New York

May 8-11
Spanish Ministry Team 2 to Perth, New York

May 9-11
Intersect event in Newburgh, New York

May 14-17
Soccer team to Brooklyn, New York

May 16-18
Intersect event in Waldwick, New Jersey
Ministry team to Word of Life Inn & Family Lodge for Women’s Retreat
Springfield ministry

May 17-18
Collegians to New Durham Chapel, Piscataway, New Jersey
Drama team to Woodlawn Baptist Church (Pawtucket, Rhode Island) and Ellington Baptist Church (Ellington, Connecticut)

May 19
Ministry teams to Sacandaga Bible Conference for a work day
Ministry team to Schroon Lake Historical Society for a work day

May 20
Ministry team to Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany, New York

In addition, most Mondays a team helps the Open Door Soup Kitchen in Glens Falls, New York, and most Wednesdays, a team works with Washington Correctional Facility near Fort Ann, New York.

Click here to read what's behind some of the Bible Institute's newer ministries, including GenReal, Redemption, Student Fusion, and Camp Intersect.

Be Praying: April Ministries Schedule.

Pray along with us during this season of ministry.

April 2-6
Open Air Evangelism trip to New York City
GenReal in Akron, Ohio

April 4-6
Student Fusion at New Hope Bible Church, Irasburg, Vermont
Springfield ministry

April 4-13
Voice of Victory tour (churches visited: First Baptist, Goshen, Indiana; Calvary Baptist Church, Kalamazoo, Michigan; Mayfair Baptist Church, Flushing, Michigan; Fish Lake Bible Church, Sturgis, Michigan; Calvary Baptist Church, Ypsilanti, Michigan; Alfred Almond Bible Church, Almond, New York; alumni events in Getzville, New York, and McMurray, Pennsylvania)

April 5-7
Drama team at Lowville Mennonite Church, Lowville, New York

April 5-13
Collegian tour (churches visited: Seneca Gospel Mission, Buffalo, New York; Centerpointe Community Church, Lancaster, New York; Bailey Road Baptist Church, North Jackson, Ohio; Delaware Bible Church, Delaware, Ohio; Delaware Christian School, Delaware, Ohio; Olmsted Performing Arts Center, Olmsted Falls, Ohio; First Baptist Church-Glen Este, Batavia, Ohio; Bethel Baptist Temple, Cincinnati, Ohio; Colonial Baptist Church, Wintersville, Ohio)

April 6-9
Open Air Evangelism trip to New York City

April 9
Ministry team to Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany, New York

April 9-13
Open Air Evangelism trip to New York City

April 11-13
Student Fusion at North Pownal Congregational Church, North Pownal, Vermont
Praise team and travel team at Syracuse Teens Involved

April 21
Ministry team to Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany, New York

April 25-27
Intersect event in Albany, New York
Ministry team at Word of Life Inn & Family Lodge for Mother-Daughter Retreat
Ministry team to Lighthouse Mission in Long Island, New York

Click here to read what's behind some of the Bible Institute's newer ministries, including GenReal, Redemption, Student Fusion, and Camp Intersect.

Be Praying: March Ministries Schedule.

Spring is coming, and new ministries along with it. Pray with us this month.

Snow Camp
March 7-9: Snow Camp Weekend 8

Spring Break Trip
March 14-23: Panama Missions Trip

Other Ministries
March 28-29: Praise Team 2, Travel Team, Volunteer Team to Perth Bible Church in Amsterdam, N.Y., for lock-in
March 28-30: Ministry Team to Word of Life Inn & Family Lodge for Law Enforcement and Military Retreat
March 28-30: Springfield Ministry Team to Lion’s Den Outreach in Springfield, Mass.
March 29-31: Collegian Group 1 to Life Source Church in Cherry Valley, Mass., and Twin City Christian School in Lunenburg, Mass.
March 29-30: Drama Team to Calvary Baptist Church in Norwich, N.Y.
March 29-30: Praise Team 1 to Lake Champlain Bible Fellowship in Port Henry, N.Y.

All the Church Support Ministries have started for the spring. About 30 students go to 13 churches on a weekly basis.

On a mission with Andrew Day.

Andrew Day’s bags are packed. It’s a routine the 2008 Bible Institute alumnus has down pat — he’s been traveling nonstop for the past year. With everything ready for his big trip tomorrow, he adjusts his hat and sits down to catch up through Skype. Sitting in his temporary bedroom in London, it’s the last time he’ll have a reliable Internet connection for the next several months.

He’s leaving tomorrow for Africa, where he’ll work to share the Word of God in the northwestern countries of Senegal, Mali, Niger, and Chad. It’s the concluding trip of a year spent traveling around the world spreading the Word with the esteemed George Verwer, founder of the Christian missions organization Operation Mobilization.

Andrew realized he wanted to be a missionary at the age of 5, the same year he trusted Christ as His Savior. More than a decade later, as he sat down to write an admissions essay on what his plans were after graduation, his answer was easy: missions. Young Andrew wrote that he’d love to spend a year learning from a veteran missionary.

Two years later, God dropped that very opportunity in his lap. A Word of Life Bible Institute graduate and student at Moody Bible Institute, Andrew sat awestruck listening to Verwer as he spoke at Moody’s annual Missions Conference. The missionary seemed to Andrew to be “the most transparent, real guy I’d ever seen.” He was just the kind of man Andrew had always wanted as a mentor.

Andrew’s intuition that Verwer was a powerful presence in missions was correct. Verwer started the work of Operation Mobilisation (OM) with a goal of inspiring young people around the world to live and share the Gospel of Jesus. The organization today has more than 6,100 people working in more than 110 countries. Each year, Verwer selects one recent graduate to travel country-to-country with him, visiting different OM sites. It’s an assistant role known affectionately as a “gofer.” It’s a competitive position — and one Andrew knew he had to have.

“I feel that in order to be successful in ministry — to lead well — you must follow well. I saw this “gofer” role as the perfect opportunity to do that, so I could be a servant for George. Then, hopefully, that would shape me into the leader that I want to be,” Andrew says.

The recent graduate felt like he’d been lifted from a crowd when he was selected for the position. Now, after a year spent as Verwer’s gofer, the Bible Institute alumnus says the night at the Missions Conference when he first heard Verwer speak feels like ages ago. The past 12 months have been spent reaching others for Christ, in the furthest corners of the world — from England, Ireland, and Africa to India and Thailand — alongside a mentor Andrew calls “incredibly wise.” Drawing a familiar analogy, he says traveling with Verwer is like “walking in the dust of the rabbi.”

“There’s definitely no ‘normal schedule’ as a George ‘gofer,’” Andrew says. A typical day could include anything from spreading the Word of God with a small village in India to church planting in North Africa.

Although each trip has brought new perspective to Andrew’s journey with God, he points to his time in India as the most transformative.

“George is like the Billy Graham of India, I like to say,” Andrew says, laughing. “It was really challenging to see the need in India. It’s a paradoxical place because God is working there, and you can see that in the fact that [Christianity] is growing. But there’s still a great need — especially among Muslim groups.”

Andrew emphasizes that Christians need to have love for Muslim people. These are people for whom Christ died, and it’s the responsibility of Christians to spread that good news.

Through it all, Andrew says he is so thankful for the solid biblical training he received at the Bible Institute, including lessons that prepared him well for some of the world’s darkest places.

The passion for evangelism he developed at the Bible Institute became especially important. He says in his first year, in Florida (he spent one year at each U.S. campus), the focus was mainly on evangelism. He smiles as he remembers the days he and his friends would take out what they called the “evange-van” and witness.

Last year, with so much time spent on buses, airplanes, and trains traveling from city to city, Andrew put to use what he’d practiced in Florida.

“I try to share Christ with every person I sit beside,” he says.

He remembers the first chance he got to share his testimony on the journey, with a young German woman named Tina. She said she knew the Lord as her Savior but admitted she’d strayed from the Word. Andrew shared one of Verwer’s books with her, and she promised it would keep her company during her three-hour layover.

Aside from giving him the opportunity to witness, the gofer program has compounded Andrew’s biblical training.

“I’ve definitely gained a bigger perspective of what the Lord is doing around the world. I’ve learned about humility, repentance — just so much,” he says. “It’s incredible to see God’s work firsthand.”

Andrew says he’s often thought back to Joe Jordan’s discipleship class as he works with Verwer around the world.

He says, “That’s my heart — church planting, and training future Christian leaders.”

Andrew’s journey to Africa will be the start of his new role as a “gofer” graduate. His time with Verwer was so impactful that he’s decided to extend it for another year. During this time he’ll work with different missions organizations to take the Word to new populations, research where help is needed, raise money for special projects, and more.

Although Verwer won’t be physically present to guide Andrew through his time in Africa, the former “gofer” knows Verwer is still there to disciple him.

“We’ll be lifelong friends,” he says. “George is more than just a mentor — he’s a close friend for eternity.”

Andrew is right — Verwer still keeps in touch with all of his former “gofers,” a number that now reaches more than 60 people. After a year spent spreading the Word in such extreme situations, a powerful bond is formed between Verwer and his “gofers.” For Andrew, it’s a bond so strong that he would like to do more traveling with his mentor sometime again.

“George loves trains,” he says. “I’d love to visit him and go on a train trip somewhere together — I think that’d be pretty neat.”

Andrew doesn’t know what he’ll do after he completes his year as a “gofer” graduate, but he figures he’ll find out in Africa. Until then, he’s set on doing his part to spread the Word.

“We talk of the second coming,” he says, pausing, “but half of the world has never heard of the first.”

Treating bodies, spreading the Word: Dr. Dick Stagg.

When God called Dr. Richard Stagg and his family from their small Midwestern town to the crowded streets of southern Bangladesh, he knew he’d need as much spiritual training as he could get. He and his wife prepared their hearts for the journey at the Bible Institute in New York, graduating with the second-ever class in 1972.

“Leave your country and your people,” God said, “and go to the land I will show you.”
(Acts 7:3)

“Very seldom have I had a verse grab me by the throat like that,” Dr. Richard “Dick” Stagg says.

He came across the Scripture during his Quiet Time, just two days after finding out he’d have to leave the office where he practiced family medicine. It was the final push he needed to accept God’s call to enter the mission field.

Stagg first considered medical missions four years prior when Dr. Viggo Olsen of the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) visited his town of Paulding, Ohio. When Dr. Olsen visited again just two months before that life-changing quiet time, Stagg asked him to speak at his church and invited him to stay with his family. The doctor once again challenged Stagg to talk with God about serving overseas.

“He asked me to pray about it, but I knew I was where the Lord wanted me to be (then),” Stagg recalls.

However, the verse in Acts — on top of a notice to vacate his office and the visit from Dr. Olsen — soon convinced him otherwise. Stagg and his family were headed to Bangladesh.

He was excited to follow the Lord to Bangladesh, but to be a successful teacher, counselor, and missionary, Stagg knew he needed the depth of Scripture immersion that few places can provide. He and his wife, Carol, enrolled in the Bible Institute and moved their family to Schroon Lake, excited to delve into God’s Word.

At the Bible Institute, Stagg could practice Word of Life’s discipleship, ministry, and personal growth approach without distraction.

“I had nothing to do but study God’s Word,” he recalls. “It was very enjoyable and satisfying — something I never thought I’d be able to do.”

The Stagg family also helped with Snow Camp and spent the following summer on staff at the Inn. Then it was time to load a plane to the Middle East.

Stagg, his wife, Carol, and daughters Kathy, Karen, and Kristen were thrilled to begin their new lives as missionaries. The girls — ages 11, 10, and 7 at the time of the move — had been included in the prayerful decision-making process of entering the mission field and were excited for the adventure of a new home thousands of miles away.

The country, about the size of Wisconsin, was home to approximately 75 million people when they arrived. “It was one of the poorest countries in the world and the most crowded,” Stagg notes.

He, Carol, and the girls adjusted to a new culture, different customs, and not having a mall or grocery store nearby. They spent 15 years abroad with a furlough only every four years, during which they’d stock up on everything from birthday cards and anniversary gifts to clothes and shoes for their growing daughters.

Though the cultural difference was significant, Stagg says adjusting to his role as a missionary doctor was his greatest challenge.

“Once, six men came in from a machete fight in which they’d crushed one another’s skulls,” he recalls. “I was in surgery from nine that evening until noon the next day. Five of the six lived.” Considering the injuries, he adds, “I thought that was pretty good.”

The country’s turbulent nature challenged Stagg’s evangelistic efforts as well. Many of his patients were antagonistic to the Gospel. But he connected with Bangladeshis through the common Bengali language and, starting with a doctor-patient relationship, was able to open hearts to God’s truth.

“People knew their physical need, and by addressing it in a kind, loving, and competent way, they were then more willing to listen about the spiritual need they hadn’t been aware of,” he says.

Stagg deems this outreach the most satisfying aspect of his time in Bangladesh. The doctors, nurses, and physical therapists he worked with shared this commitment to ministry, and the group helped one another stay focused on their goal of shining Christ’s light in the predominantly Muslim area.

“Being so oppressive, it drew us all together,” Stagg says. “We were forced to depend on God and each other, which strengthened our spiritual resolve.”

Realizing the need for biblical training of Bangladeshi Christians, Stagg took a leave of six weeks from his medical responsibilities to help establish an institute for biblical learning. He began by teaching the book of Romans at both Memorial Christian and at ABWE’s headquarters in Chittagong. Today, the school is known as the Baptist Bible College of Bangladesh and has campuses in both Chittagong and Malumghat.

Stagg recalls a young student named Provanjan, who came to know the Lord through a nurse who worked at Memorial Christian. Provanjan had grown up in a Hindu family but fervently embraced the hope of the Gospel. He was handpicked to attend the Bible college, and in addition to studying, working full time, and caring for his family, he traveled to a nearby village at least once each week to witness. He eventually started teaching Bible classes and helped establish a church in the village. Stagg says he’s never met anyone more committed to serving God — and Provanjan was the first person he met who tithed his time as well as money.

The Stagg family returned to the U.S. in 1988 when Carol’s failing health became worse, and Stagg began working as an emergency room doctor at a hospital in Ohio. Within five years, ABWE was in his life once again. The international ministry had moved its headquarters from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and its president offered Stagg the part-time, unpaid position of medical director.

“Of course I said yes,” Stagg says, chuckling.

He worked at a local hospital and was ABWE’s medical director for 17 years, retiring in 2010 at age 72. He now lives in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, with his second wife, Linda, whom he married four years after Carol passed away.

Upon his retirement, Stagg returned to Bangladesh for the first time in more than 20 years. He and Linda were thrilled to find Bangladeshi Christians further spreading the good news to a community in great need.

“It was so satisfying to see nationals running the school and teaching the classes,” Stagg says. “I never thought I’d see spiritual fruit in Bangladesh in my lifetime.”

After such a clear sign to pick up his family, work through intense Bible study, and go to the mission field, Stagg has also seen the obvious proof that God was ready to bring a harvest.

Editor’s Note: Word of Life is aware of allegations concerning ABWE. Dr. Stagg’s ministry is not a part of any of these allegations.

Missions Conference: Florida.

Thanks to all of you who came to New York last week for the Bible Institute Missions Conference. More than 100 alumni showed up and had a great time connecting with each other as well as hearing about what God is doing around the world.

For those of you who couldn’t make it to snowy New York, you have another chance this week in Hudson, Florida. The Missions Conference there begins this Friday, with the theme “Outspoken,” following Acts 4:20: “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

If you can't be with us in person at the Harry Bollback Performing Arts Center, follow a live stream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/word-of-life-bible-institute---florida-campus.

Here’s the schedule for the weekend:

Friday, January 11:
7 p.m.: “Breath of Life” with Rev. Calvin Varlack
9:15 p.m.: Missionary Mixer, Conference Center lobby

Saturday, January 12:
10 a.m.: “Ancient Words” with Rev. Calvin Varlack
7 p.m.: “Never Silent” with Dr. Harry Bollback
9:15 p.m.: Missionary Mixer, Conference Center, with T.T. McGhee

Sunday, January 13:
10 a.m.: “With One Voice” with Rev. Calvin Varlack
7 p.m.: “Outspoken” with Don Lough, Jr.
9:15 p.m.: Prayer Time

The Bible Institute in Jeju, South Korea: Asia comes within reach.

The Bible Institute’s latest satellite is Word of Life’s most distinctive stretch into the lost countries of Asia. See what we wrote when the campus first opened in 2011.

China censors its media and restricts its citizens, hanging a black cloak over society even as it preaches growth and builds new bridges and homes with promises of a bright future.

Japan boasts some of the finest technology in the world, with innovation a second nature, but the island nation also has the highest suicide rate worldwide, with young people having everything to live for but deciding it’s not worth a try.

Russia lives under the grasp of narrow ambition, its leader playing societal roulette with a vision that works to grip only the moment with violence, restrictions, and silence.

Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and the islands lay in the squalor of want, the heat of the day baking hungry bodies, the rags of need covering lives searching for meaning.

Campfires began on the shore of Schroon Lake 65 years ago and then lit up the world, country by country. But of all the nations filled with campfire glow on a given summer evening, one place has stayed very dark: Asia.

Until now.