April 2008 Ministry Update

EBI Strategic Planning
Last week EBI met for an intense three-day session of strategic planning. Our goal was to clearly articulate the nature of EBI’s mission, to prayerfully consider our vision for the future, and to determine strategic objectives which will allow us to most effectively accomplish our God-given task. The ten participants (drawn from EBI staff, the EBI board of directors, and the BMM home office) were unanimous in their conviction concerning the escalating importance of EBI ministry and resources for future missionary efforts in Latin America. We reaffirmed the following statement of mission, “EBI exists to assist the Hispanic church in the fulfillment of the Great Commission by creating, publishing, and distributing biblically based literature.”

As the Hispanic church continues to grow both in Latin America and here in the United States there is a mounting need for quality Bible based materials to aid the national church in the accomplishment of this task. EBI is in a great position to meet these ever-expanding needs. Please pray with us that God would continue to provide the necessary personnel and resources.

New medium for prayer letter
Modern technology has dramatically simplified missionary communication. Past communication mediums were slow, sporadic, and one-sided; however, the internet has opened up new vistas of communication that promote an immediate, continuous, and much more personal flow of information. It is for this reason that we propose a change in the method of prayer letter delivery. While we will continue to provide a “hard copy” sent through the US postal service for all who would request it, starting with the next prayer letter (June 2008) our preferred means of delivery will be a digital (PDF) copy via email. It is here that we need your help. We are asking that each church and/or individual supporter contact us at brburk@yahoo.com either expressing your desire to receive the prayer letter via traditional means or providing us with your preferred email address.

I am also glad to announce another technological jump. Our bimonthly updates as well as additional reports, personal reflections, pictures, and ministry links will soon be available on our new ministry blog titled Faithful Men. It can be found at http://bruceburkholder.blogspot.com/. It is our desire to provide a more accessible and interactive communication with each of you. So we invite you to join the conversation.

Praises & Prayer
1. Our oldest son, Jared, was married to Janelle Halladay on March 29th at Faith Baptist Church in Peckville, PA. It was a beautiful wedding with many family and friends attending from all over the country. While Pastor Michael Cantando delivered the charge to the couple it was my privilege to officiate the actual ceremony including the official pronouncement (“I now pronounce you…”) and the introduction of the couple (Mr. & Mrs. Jared Burkholder). What fun! It was a great weekend. God was glorified through each aspect of the wedding. We are especially grateful that Janelle is part of our family and for the relationship which we have with her parents Jim and Grace Halladay. Thank you to each one who prayed for the event!
2. We thank the Lord for the great weekend of EBI strategic planning mentioned above. We are also grateful for the godly leadership and team of workers which God has brought to EBI. Please pray for EBI as we look to the future. We appreciate your prayers as we seek to provide additional resources to aid the Hispanic church.
3. The Hispanic On-line M.A.B.S. offered by Piedmont Baptist College to promote the development of theological leaders through Latin American is a “go.” Details are falling into place and promotional materials are set to be released. Please pray that God would raise up a significant number of men to study with us in the program. A cohort is a group of students that enter the program together, study together, and ideally who complete the program together. We are praying for a group of 15-25 to fill the cohort.
4. The formal announcement of our Theological Curriculum Program is ready for distribution. This eight page glossy spread is being sent out to Bible Schools, missionaries, and national pastors throughout Latin America explaining the benefit of this curriculum to their pastoral training programs. I have included to the right a glimpse of a few pages from the brochure. These two pages illustrate a few of the educational components in the courses which we are developing. While the text is in Spanish it should give you a better understanding of what our materials look like.
5. The Old Testament Survey I course is written and is now in the hands of a content editor. This course was written in English so after the editing process is complete it will be passed to a professional translator and then on to formatting. We are projecting a June 15 availability so please pray with us for each step of the process. These other courses are still under development: Bible Doctrines I, III, IV, Family, Evangelism and Discipleship, A Christian View of Science. Please pray with us for the different authors and individuals involved in the process.