The school has officially closed. With our school duties completed, we are free to work on our next project:

New Wineskins Training and Travel

Our new project is a discipleship training program that has two aspects: training and ministry trips. The name, New Wineskins, comes from Jesus' parable, a response to the Pharisees who questioned Jesus and His disciples' behavior (Luke 5:33-39). They didn't recognize Jesus and couldn't receive His teachings. We want to see Him in all His glory, and we want to be the kind of people who can receive all He teaches. As we are helped by Him to understand Him better, we want to help others also grow more in His likeness and ways—that's the training part of this project.  The travel begins in coming to Bosnia to learn with us, but goes beyond that as we explore places where we can put our learning into practice and strengthen the faith of others by walking in the archaeological remains of the Bible record.

Discipleship Training

Our year-long discipleship training program will begin this September. This first year will be an experiment, pulling together all we’ve learned over the years and imparting it to our coworkers and a couple of other students. We’ll spend several hours a day in God’s Word, discussing what is recorded, what it teaches us about God and what He wants us to do about it. We’ll also be learning various ministry tools, including succinct ways to explain the Gospel, as well as multiple Bible study techniques. There will be regular times of prayer and worship, and lots of accountability and relationship-adjustment as we live side-by-side in one of the former dorm buildings. We will experience intensely what Proverbs 27:17 calls “iron sharpens iron.”

Welcoming Students

We welcome anyone who would like to spend a year intensely studying and practicing God’s Word. Our language of instruction will be English, but we have the ability to support Chinese-speakers. We hope to build a scholarship fund to enable anyone to come and learn regardless of financial ability, but we’re not there yet, so students need to cover their own tuition, living and ministry trip expenses.

As we start out, we prefer students to be single, but we can accommodate a married couple or two.

If you know of anyone who might be interested (or if you are!), please share our project website with them: https://newwineskins.guide/projects/discipleship-training

What about Travel?

As part of our training program, we plan to travel to other countries to practice what we’re learning in a variety of contexts. We will connect with other ministries and partner with them in their work. We pray our disciples will see how they can expand their field of ministry beyond their home countries. But we trust all our graduates will be equipped to make a spiritual impact wherever they go and in whatever capacity they serve.

In addition, we are preparing to lead faith-encouraging tours to experience first-hand the historical artifacts that confirm and affirm the true history of the Bible. Our first two destinations will be Egypt and Turkey.

If you or someone you know would be interested in one of these trips, drop us a line or have them contact us, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated. As we clarify details, we’ll post them here: https://newwineskins.guide/projects/topic/36/tour

Visit New Wineskins to Learn More

Family News

We will be in the US this summer from May 11th to July 6th, primarily in Iowa. We’d love to visit with you and catch up. We’d also be glad to share face-to-face about our new endeavors.

We praise God for you and for your support in prayer and gifts. The Lord “will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them” (Hebrews 6:10, NIV84).