SEM 2012

SEM 2012 finished over 18 hours ago but the impact it has left on all those involved will last much longer.

Saturday ended with a Q&A Session with all of the missionaries and a general session with Charlie McCordic. Sunday morning began with another workshop led by Frank Roe (ABWE), and Brian Seeley (HCJB), discussing trends in missions. Students were able to grasp what was happening in the world of missions today whether it is negative or positive. Charlie McCordic had one last session encouraging students to use what God has given them in missions today. The weekend finished with a prayer of dedication from Brian Kent (NCEM).

This conference has been an eye-opener for many involved. Learning about missions is paramount for all believers, and whether going into missions full-time, part-time or not at all. Believers need to be supporting missions through finances and through prayer. Most importantly, believers need to be willing to follow the Lord wherever He leads.

...also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”

then I said...

- Isaiah 6:8

Want to learn more about where God is leading you? 

A year at the Word of Life Bible Institute is an amazing place to start! Check out Campus Days in May!

Happening Now: SEM 2012

This morning started off with a session, taught by Charlie McCordic, challenging students with what to look for in a missions agency. Afterwards the students had a chance to sit down one-on-one with the missionaries from each organization represented, and discuss the organization and how the student could possibly fit. This discussion time was followed by brunch. After brunch, Mr. McCordic taught on Being Single in Missions and the students had the opportunity to hear testimonies from missionaries who are single or had been single for a large part of their ministry. Following this workshop, Kevin Simkins, from Rock Mills Fellowship Baptist Church, gave a session on the role of the local church in missions. The students were able to discuss in a board-room setting the issues facing the local church and missions today.

Right now, students are meeting  individually with a couple missionaries for about thirty minutes to discuss where they are and what steps they should consider taking in the future in regards to missions.

What's Happening: SEM 2012

Today was a great start to the Students Exploring Missions Conference 2012! First Dean's Chapel in the morning and then incredible, eye-opening sessions in the evening.

Missionaries began arriving right after lunch and were able to set up a table representing their missions organization. After supper, the first workshop took place with the topic of how missions agencies choos missionaries. The speaker for this session did not only speak for tonight but is also the keynote speaker for the entire weekend: Mr. Charlie McCordic. After the workshop, there was a general session with worship, special music and a skit put on by DECLARE, the BI's drama team. In this session, Mr. McCordic talked about how this world has amazing opportunities for missions.

Remember to come back often to read more about SEM 2012!

Happening Now: Students Exploring Missions Conference

This weekend Word of Life Bible Institute has the privilege of  hosting eight missions organizations for the Students Exploring Missions Conference (SEM). The theme this year is Informers: People Need to Hear. This conference shows students the extent of missions across the globe and the importance of everyone involved. Another aspect of SEM is that each student is able to discover how to get to where God is leading them.

Already this morning, students have had a preview of the weekend in Dean's Chapel. Jonathan Ward, Dean of Students, took students through a very practical session on the process of getting a missionary to the mission field.

Please pray for the students; that God will use this Conference in a powerful way in their lives.
Also, keep checking back here for  more updates on what's happening and what the students are learning.

Word of Life Missions Conference

The Great Commission

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name
of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you:

and, lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world.

Amen.

- Matthew 28:19-20

Known to Christians as the last command from the Saviour in Matthew's gospel account, these verses have become the call for believers to dedicate their lives to missions.

Every year, the Word of Life Bible Institute in Schroon Lake NY hosts a missions conference in early January for the BI campuses in Ontario, Quebec and New York. The conference is not only attended by students and staff, but many others as well come for the weekend from across the continent.

The students were very excited to attend the conference which took place January 6-8. They arrived in Schroon Lake on the fifth and were able to attend some of the second year classes the next morning. Friday evening the Missions conference began and so did the conviction of the Word of God in the lives of those attending.

The theme for the weekend was Momentum: the Gospel in Motion. The students had the priviledge of hearing from some inspiring individuals including Dr. Chris Gnanakan, Dmin., PhD., Director of Training for Outreach to Asia Nationals, Mr. Nardi Pugyao, Mr. Harry Bollback, Co-founder of Word of Life and Mr. Don Lough, Executive Director of Word of Life. These speakers preached the Word of God over five sessions, teaching on how the gospel has potential, but it needs to ignite and accelerate (John 13:17, Luke 24:32, Mark 6:34) . However, it cannot do that unless it breaks through opposition at which point it will become unstoppable (1 Cor. 16:9, 2 Cor. 5:9-11). Yet, it cannot be the gospel doing this work, although it is powerful (Romans 1:16). Mr. Lough said the following statement: "It is not God who does not call, it is man who does not respond." The momentum of the gospel can only be fully tapped if the  believer is fully sold out for God. On Sunday night, Mr. Lough petitioned those gathered to completely dedicate their lives to Christ. Many came forward in answer to God's calling in their lives.

The stage was crowded with individuals dedicating themselves to their Saviour.

The conference impacted the lives of many people. Here are just a few thoughts about the weekend:

"At Missions Conference it was cool to see the passions for missions. Each meeting challenged me to think more about how I could reach others for Christ."
- Sarah, Alberta

"Missions Conference was an incredible time to understand what it takes to follow Christ."
- Ryan, Wyoming

"C`était une incroyable experience qui m`a vraiment poussé à réviser ma vue sur la mission en général. J`ai réaliser qu`entant que chrétien nous devons agir activement pour répondre le message du salut dans le monde entier."
"It was an incredible experience that really pushed me to review my way of thinking about missions in general. I realize that as Christians we need to be actively acting for the propagation of the gospel in the entire world."
 - Micael, New Brunswick

"It was awesome to hear from missionaries from all over the world and in different lines of work. It was really encouraging to hear the stories and see how they are all regular people... just like me."
- Cameron, Mount Forest


The Missions Conference is a highlight of the year at the BI. It gives students the opportunity to investigate different missions organizations and to contemplate whether they would be willing to be a part of missions work globally. Actually, the whole year at the BI gives a multitude of opportunities to explore different ministry options and how each person can be involved in the work of God. WOLBI wants to give you those same opportunities.

  Imagine one year at the Word of Life Bible Institute! 

Why not check out campus days? Click here for more information.

Also, if you need to find out if WOLBI is right for you,

 you can always email our admissions coordinator, Cassandra, at cassandrao@wol.ca.

Remember to check out Facebook and Twitter!

MIA: Ministry in Action

Look for these posts to learn more about the awesome ministries that the students will be taking part in this year at the BI.

This time of the year involves the start up of all the ministries here at WOLBI.

Already in motion are plans to form the various ministry teams that the students will be a part of this year at the BI. These are the various teams and their purpose:

        Testify: This is a group of students that travel to various churches and perform special music and also lead worship services.

 Testify performs at Word of Life Missions Conference in Schroon Lake, NY.

        Edify: This is the children's ministry team. Several students take time to plan and prepare for a special kids night and then host it in various churches. This year they plan to travel to Olympian groups in Ontario.

Edify 2010-2011 (left to right) Lindsay, Evan, Kevin, Jonathan, Benjamin

       CEO: This team plans out and organizes events for the student body to participate in that would involve oppurtunities to witness.

        Declare: Drama becomes ministry for the students on this team. They prepare skits for events on campus, such as chapels and snow camps.

        Praise Team: This team leads worship in Director's Chapels and Sunday morning services and is involved with Snow Camp praise team as well.
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Praise Team 2010-2011
(left to right) Jaramie, Carmen, Magalie, Bethany, Jamie, Lynae

 

     













        Local Church Ministries: Many of the students will have a weekly ministry in one of the surrounding churches in Owen Sound and Meaford.

       Missions: The Missions team promotes missions to the students, maintaining communication with missionaries and hosts prayer meetings for missions globally as well as locally.

        Missions Trips: Members of our student body will have the opportunity to participate in two mission trips during March Break. One trip takes them to the island country of Jamaica where they minister to the people their in various ways. The other missions trip will actually take place locally. The students will take part in a Vacation Bible School at the Saugeen Native Reserve. For both of these trips the students are required to raise support in order to fund for the expense of either opportunity. Prayerfully consider becoming part of this ministry and donating towards either trip.

Contact Info:
Phone: 519.376.3516     Owen Sound Bible Institute
             800.461.3503     Toll-free number

Fax: 519.376.9893 Owen Sound Bible Institute

Please be in prayer for these teams as they have the chance to not only encourage other believers but also be a witness for Christ. If you would like to be a part of these ministries by having one of the travel teams come to your church please call 519.376.9516 ext. 214.

BW

                                                                           

Students Exploring Missions 2011

From WOLBRANOS

Students Exploring Missions (SEM) is a conference where students can attend seminars and talk with missionaries about what it is like to be in missions and what it takes to get there.  God calls all Christians to be missionaries, some to other countries.  What does it take to be a cross-cultural missionary?  Seven mission organizations sent representatives to WOLBI for April 8 – 10 as a wealth of experience in serving Christ around the world to interact with our students.  This year the theme was Serving God in the Adventure of a Lifetime.  Our keynote speaker was Wally Stephenson from ABWE.  Friday night we explored how we can prepare for the Adventure of Missions.  We had sessions on world religions and how to reach them (THUMB).  Saturday we started out on the adventure with sessions on single hearted missions, how a mission board chooses a missionary, missions and finance, and missions and the local church.   The students also had opportunity Saturday afternoon to dialogue with the missionaries and tap into their wealth of experience and knowledge and set their own path of service.  Sunday morning we explored Living the Adventure with sessions on how a missionary should pick a mission board and the tragedy of misused short term missions.  Thanks to all the missionaries and students that participated in the weekend to make it a weekend of adventure!

Special Thanks to:

Wally & Jeannie Stephenson, ABWE  

Brian & Rosalie Kent, Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (NCEM) 

Charlie & Cindy McCordic, TEAM  

Nelson Bezanson, retired from TEAM

Brian Seeley, HCJB World Radio  

Rick Bradford, Serving In Mission (SIM) 

Murray & Diana Schmidt, Africa Inland Mission (AIM) 

Elissa Hawley, New Tribes Mission (NTM)  

As well as Word of Life missionaries:  

Jonathan Ward 

Bea Hart 

John Hopper 

Charlie Lyons 

Sue Reider (click here)

and our conference facilitator Richard Heppner.

       

From WOLBRANOS

Life-Change: Missions Conference

We recently got back from missions conference in Schroon Lake, New York at the Word of Life Bible Institute.  It was an amazing weekend of great speakers and awesome fellowship with other believers!
After a ten hour bus ride we finally arrived and were shown to our dorms; the girls stayed in Korea and the guys stayed in Spain and Japan.  Each dorm is named after a different country where there is some kind of WOL ministry.  We had a great time meeting students from the other BI's and showing our hosts our great enthusiasm for Canada.

From WOLBRANOS

  The missions conference kicked off on Friday evening with an opening ceremony and message.  Students of Schroon Lake marched down the aisles to epic music carrying different flags as people cheered for their favorite countries.  Some of the speakers were Harry Bollback, Dr. Joe Jordan, Tom Mahairas, Chris Stout, and Don Lough, Jr.

Intern Travel Team "Resonate" ministering in music

From WOLBRANOS

During the afternoons there were presentations by missionaries talking about their individual ministries.  Many of our hearts were opened and softened to everything we were hearing, and God even led a few individuals to consider taking part in the ministries we were hearing about.

From WOLBRANOS

Many of our eyes were opened to the needs around the world and what God can do with us if we surrender our lives to Him and His will for us.  At the dedication service many of the students went up front to dedicate their lives to how God would use them in the world.  It was a great opportunity to see WOLBI main campus especially for students considering Second Year some time in the future.  It was unique from the previous years because we made many friends from the students from Sherbrooke, Quebec.  Sunday evening both our class and the students from Parole De Vie had a time in the lounge where we all shared with each other on the things God was teaching us over the weekend.
  Here's what some of the students had to say about their experience:

"It is encouraging to know that God has a special plan for each of us no matter where we come from or our background He still has an individual plan for our lives."

"It was a great opportunity to meet with other believers who are passionate about sharing God's Word.  And seeing the large campus in New York makes me really appreciate our small campus!"

To Schroon Lake we go!

We are all stoked to be back on campus after celebrating the Festive Season over Christmas break for the past three weeks!  There were so many amazing things that happened to us over break and lots of ministry opportunities!  It was a great time to rest and take a step back to meditate on what we have been learning over the past few months. We have been able to see what God has been doing in our lives and how He is growing us.  It has also been exciting to stay in touch with everyone over break to see what God is teaching them in quiet time and in their time at home. We have been avidly encouraging each other on Facebook and Skype while we are all away from each other!
This week is flying by with class on Monday (usually we have Mondays off) because on Thursday we leave for the WOLBI campus in Schroon Lake, New York for the annual Missions Conference.  It is going to be exciting to see what it is like on a larger campus of 500 students compared to our 40.  Everyone is pumped!  We leave after class and take a 10 hour bus ride with sing-a-longs and a noisy 'fellowship' the whole way.  It will be an intense weekend with speakers from all over the world and right here in our North American home. We are also looking forward to performing the song we've been practicing as a school choir for the annual International Worship Concert. Pray for us as we hear from Word of Life missionaries (and many other missionary organizations too) from around the globe and sit in on presentations about what God is doing all over the planet!  Some of us will even dedicate our lives to serving Christ in missions.
Waiting to see what God will do...