Inaugural Member Nation Gathering 2018

From September 12th – 18th, LEI Ghana hosted the first ever Member Nation Gathering at the Church of Pentecost Convention Center in Ghana, West Africa. Nearly 40 people from different parts of the world came together to celebrate what God is doing through LEI and to pray and plan for how we can be even more effective and strategic as we move into the future.  

Rev. Bob Biederman, our Managing Director for N.A. and Europe, wrote an excellent blog post about this historic event.  CLICK HERE TO READ.

LIVELY worship at a Sunday morning service in Accra. 

We've been working with Seco & John to help start a new member nation in Guinea Bissau

"Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!" (Psalm 149:3)

Group Picture! LEI Ghana was an incredible host and even had special LEI shirts/dresses tailored for us.  

2018 International Literacy Training Institute - Tulsa, USA

This year the Lord sent us 17 students from/working in: Myanmar, South Korea, India, the Philippines, Ghana, Kenya, South Sudan, South Africa, Ukraine, Colombia, Poland, and the U.S.  Let's lift them up in prayer as they lead and develop literacy ministries in their respective countries....and pray for the non-readers who will encounter the power, love, and salvation of our living God through Jesus Christ!

Training with the Korean literacy primer

Everyone learns to write the new words for lesson 1 in Korean, supposedly one of the easiest languages in the world to learn how to read and write. 

A new group of leaders ready to go out and train others and help them develop their own literacy ministries. 

Emily and I had the privilege of co-teaching with Joseph Matheka, Director of Literacy & Evangelism Kenya

All of the participants have to lead a teacher training practicum where they model how to run a workshop.

Learning the difference between teaching adults and children.  

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Always fun to get the international men involved in domestic chores

The glue of the Institute is the Inductive Bible Study in the morning and the Chapel time every afternoon.

English Language Ministry Teacher Training Workshop - MIAMI

On Feb. 9th & 10th, I had the privilege of leading a teacher training workshop at La Nueva Cosecha church in Miami.  Connie and Steve are leading the ESL ministry there and did a great job organizing the training.  They also serve with COMHINA, a growing network of organizations and churches united to to mobilize Latinos into the mission field.   They have also organized several "Impact Nights" in Southern FL to mobilize latino churches to God's mission among the nations.  Let's pray for God to use this missionary couple and their church in a mighty way!

Iglesia La Nueva Cosecha, Miami, FL

English Ministry is fun! 

Teaching Vocabulary! (without the whiteboard!)

Teaching Conversations!

Teaching Conversations!

Teaching the Theme Picture!

Teaching Conversations!

Teaching Vocabulary using Total Physical Response!

Teaching the obligatory "He's got the whole world in His hands"
(grammar teachers look away or embrace the expanded use of "got" :)

Singing! Melodies make memorizing new words much easier.  

Ministry Directors Team Meetings - Tulsa, OK

From Jan 29th - Feb 2nd, we held our annual directors meeting.  This is always an inspiring time as we plan out the year(s) to come and re-evaluate what's going on in the world and in our organization.  Each year, we fine tune our strategic initiatives that help us better accomplish our mission and reach our vision. 

One day was spent in prayer and fasting and we celebrated the Lord's supper together.  I'm thankful to God for the great leadership we have that constantly focuses us back on our utter dependence on God, and the power of being united with Him and each other in prayer.  

FROM DEATH TO LIFE: The story of an HIV+ literacy student

Hi friends.  So much of my work is administrative these days and helping find support partners for our national teams and missionaries.  So I love to hear personal testimonies from the field that give a glimpse of how lives are being transformed through literacy ministry.  This is a story of Sunita Tiwari (alias), an illiterate and HIV positive woman in South Asia who was near death and rescued by a local church outreach.  This was sent to me by one of our full time national missionaries serving in that region:

Sunita's husband died of AIDS and left her alone with three small kids (all HIV negatives) and without any hope of survival. She herself was suffering from the HIV.  She was bedridden and waiting to die! In India, HIV/AIDS is still considered a stigma and curse! Sunita and her three kids were left alone with hopelessness! It was in such situation, that our local church's HIV/AIDS project team found them and started taking care of her. Our team guided her to get the proper medication, after which she regained her health! In late 2016 she joined one of our literacy classes. As of now, she has learned to read and write, defying the challenges such as negative stigma and discrimination of her society. She has joined the same HIV/AIDS project as staff and now earns a living through it! Her kids also go to school now. A great transformation has come to her life through literacy!

International ELM training in St. Louis

I love it when multiple worlds and cultures collide in a divinely-orchestrated way.

On Nov 17th & 18th, I drove to St. Louis and had the privilege of training a new group of English Language Ministry teachers using our Bible-content materials.  In this training, we had people from Africa, South Asia, America, and Central America.  The training was organized and hosted by a brother named Sam (not his real name) from South Asia who is finishing his doctorate degree at Concordia Seminary.  One of the couples at the training, Jason & Ana, are friends and long-time advocates for missions so it was great to get to connect with them again.

Here's an encouraging note I received from Sam after the workshop that highlights the beautiful multiplication effect of training and entrusting others with the work:

Dear Tedd,

Thank you very much for teaching us the ESL class. It was an awesome experience. It helped me a lot to understand various methods to teach the people as well as help them know Christ. And it opened a new way of thought to teach people in an effective way. I like your mode of teaching which is very apt to our people and will help the people read, write and speak with less effort. As we discussed in the class in our place education is an expensive thing and many of the kids are not able to get good education and your tools will help us to support these people and share the Gospel.I appreciate your help and kindness.

I will go back to India in December and will keep in touch with you. As I said my plan is to adopt 10 villages and will introduce this teaching method to them. I will let you know the further developments.

South Asia NIGHT - Fort Smith, AR - Oct. 17th

This Tuesday, October 17th, we are hosting a special promotional event in Fort Smith - South Asia NIGHT - where we'll be highlighting the work of LEI's national missionaries there and talk about how we as the American church can stand together with them.  It will be the first-ever showing of several mini documentaries about the work there, courtesy of 5 Star Productions. If you're local, we'd love to have you join us.  There's no cost for the event but space is limited so you must RSVP as soon as possible to secure your seat.