Message Magazine Online - Vol. 54, No. 04, Winter 2006

Other Online Features

• Ten Days of Casave
  Andrew Large, Nicaragua
• Something Unusual in France
  Frank and Marlea Pfeifer
• MKs Help in Outreach to Small Town Portugal
  Miriam Tyers, Portugal
• What is Language School Like?
  By a missionary in South Asia
• Dreaming Big: Church Ministries Institute Partners with Horizon International Schools
  John Taylor
• Nenagh-Gateway to Lough Derg
  Matt Tuttlebee, Baptist Missions Ireland
• Orthopedic Specialists Visit Togo
  Russ and Melody Ebersole
• History Week at the Greater Lisbon Christian Academy
  Mary Kay Smith
• Leader to Leader: Remembering Dr. Kempton
  William Amstutz
• Reaching Couples in Urban Spain
  Cindy Brown
• Phoebe Meets Jesus at English Camp
  Maylin Hartwick

Regular Baptist Seminary Celebrates Fifty Years

Bonita Yinger, Editorial Assistant

Over 500 alumni of Baptist Bible Institute and Seminary of São Paulo have a special reason to celebrate.

On March 4, 1957, the first classes were held of the Baptist Bible Institute and Seminary of São Paulo. Over the next forty-nine years, the school trained hundreds of pastors and Christian workers for churches throughout Brazil. Today, it is known as the Regular Baptist Seminary of São Paulo and will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary this month (March, 2007). A number of events have been planned to celebrate this occasion, and several former professors and many alumni are planning to participate, as well as some special guests that are traveling to Brazil to celebrate with them.

There will be a special chapel service on March 29, followed by a banquet on March 30 that alumni are invited to attend. Then at the Saturday graduation and awards ceremony, the special speaker will be G.C., ABWE vice president for International Operations.

Baptist Bible Institute and Seminary of São Paulo was started by ABWE missionary Don Hare in 1957, and ABWE still partners with this now Brazilian-run seminary. Currently, there are 160 students, sixty of whom are in bachelor’s degree programs, and fourteen who are in the master’s degree program. A few are even international students. The seminary also holds pastors’ conferences that are very well attended, and classes for laypersons on Saturdays.

Dave Southwell, ABWE administrator, remembers that in the 1970s in Brazil, the widely held opinion was “if you want to learn the Bible in Brazil, the Baptist Bible Institute of São Paulo [now Regular Baptist Seminary] is where you should go.” This is still true today. It is amazing that in a city of 22 million people with hundreds of Bible colleges, the Regular Baptist Seminary of São Paulo is considered one of the top five Bible seminaries in the city. Because the school is growing, it needs to relocate. The seminary’s leaders have been searching for a new building, and so far, God has provided approximately half of the funds needed to relocate. They continue to look around the city, but to date have not found the right location. They ask that we keep praying that they would find a suitable location for the move. They are confident that the Lord continues to hear their prayers and bless their fund-raising.