INSTE Graduation

Last Friday and Saturday was the 2007 INSTE Banquet and graduation. There were 52 graduates from Level II this year with each one receiving either a diploma or a degree. Not all of them were able to make it to the graduation, but there were about 38 graduates from across the country present.

Mike was the MC for the event while Nancy helped in the kitchen and with anything else that needed done. The main speaker for the event was Roy Oksnevad, the director of Muslim Ministries for the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. His message Friday evening was entitled: Islam- Threat or Opportunity. He challenged us with looking at the influx of Muslims immigrating to the United States not as a threat to our society, but rather as an opportunity to evangelize. Most of the countries these people are coming from are closed to evangelism so instead God is bringing them to our door.


On Saturday Roy spoke on Using Good Theology In Witnessing To A Muslim. Here he showed us the importance of understanding the world view of the people we are ministering to and presenting the gospel through that grid so they can understand it better. The third session Roy presented was entitled: Developing A Theology Of Suffering. He discussed the fact that the church in the U.S. dislikes the idea of suffering and we try to avoid it at all costs. For this reason, Roy contends, the church in America is weak and not effective in evangelism. We don't evangelize because we are "afraid people won't like us." And, yet, suffering is mentioned in the New Testament as a natural outcome of our relationship with Christ (see John 15:18-25; I Peter 4:12-19) and is experienced by most Christians throughout the world.

Dr. Leona Venditti gave the commencement address speaking on the parables of Matthew 13 and applying them to ministry.

It was a long and tiring weekend with all the preparation, setting up and tearing down. But it was well worth the effort as we had a very successful graduation.