Why Foreign Extension Centers?

In short, it is the best way to reach these countries with the Gospel. In the past we have attempted to do mission work by sending one or a few families into a location with the monumental task of doing all the evangelism themselves. Many of those works flourished for a time, but failed when the families returned home. Our belief is that these works failed because there was nothing left in place to perpetuate that work. Then, we sought to bring men here to train them in our schools of preaching in the United States. That was a feasible plan, but we lost several of them deciding to remain in this country and preach.

We believe the extension program solves such problems by putting a program in place to perpetuate the work of preaching the gospel. We believe that time will show this to be one of the most successful works among many good works in the brotherhood.

The wisdom of Extension Center concept is this:

We are able to train more men, since they do not have to raise expenses to come to the US.
We are able to train them more inexpensively. Frequently we are able to fully support a man and his family for less than $100/month.
These men are being trained in an environment conducive to learning. They are surrounded by their countrymen who have the same cultural background, same problems, etc. The bonding between these men is astounding. They help each other and work in each other’s congregations. When a man leaves Bear Valley to go into a mission field, he is virtually alone. This solves that problem.
In our 40 years of training men, we have frequently trained men from foreign countries. Sadly, two results regularly occurred: (1) The men married an American and stayed here – never entering the ministry; (2) The men became ‘spoiled’ by American life/wealth and wanted to maintain that level when they returned home. This resulted in envy and strife among the very people they were trying to win to Christ. Now these men receive the full program offered here at Bear Valley, and never get accustomed to another way of life.
We are able to develop a curriculum that specifically identifies their ministry needs. For example, in the Ukraine and in Africa, our students will often be starting new churches. They need training and guidance on how to do this. Therefore we have included several classes that address these needs.
We are able to provide the same quality of education our students receive here in Denver. The teachers in these extension schools are men who have advanced degrees and are Biblically sound.

You can help us
If you would like to know more about this exciting facet of our work, please contact David Hamrick, our Director of Extension Center Studies at (817) 656-4929 or e-mail him at dhamrick@bvbid.org .

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AUDIO FILE:
David Hamrick, Director of Extension Center Studies.

David presents the concepts behind our Extension Center efforts to our student body in chapel. This audio will give you a great overview of what this work is about and how it is working.

Length: 50 minutes
This audio file requires Quicktime.

"Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation... "

Mark 16:15