EBC exists to ‘equip the saints’; to give Christian men and women the training and tools they need to grow in their likeness to Christ and their knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures, so that they can become effective workers in the Kingdom, wherever the Lord of the harvest would have them serve. Quite often we get enquiries from believers who live in far less affluent countries than the UK but who are keen to get good biblical training and we want to do what we can to help them, when that is appropriate.

Let me give you a current example. Joel is a Nigerian missionary, married to a Philipino lady and serving the Lord in Thailand!  However, as some of you will be aware, the Nigerian currency is in crisis at the moment.  The New York Times writes, “Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with skyrocketing inflation, a national currency in free-fall and millions of people struggling to buy food. Only two years ago Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria is projected to drop to fourth place this year. The pain is widespread. Unions strike to protest salaries of around $20 a month. People die in stampedes, desperate for free sacks of rice. Hospitals are overrun with women wracked by spasms from calcium deficiencies.”

This situation has seriously impacted Nigerian missionaries living abroad and whose financial support comes from home.  Joel describes his predicament in this way – “As an active missionary serving on the field, I have been dealing with a serious financial crisis for a while now, primarily due to the economic recession/depression going on back in my home country of Nigeria. I live on financial support donated by friends out of goodwill, but the economic crisis at home has had two kinds of effects on me:

1. Many of those who have been supporting are no longer able to do so (more than 60% of my support has been lost this way)
2. The few who are still able to give, the free fall of the local currency which has gone from $1 = ₦185 to currently around $1 = ₦1,300 and still dropping in value. So the value of what little support I still have has become unsustainable. I have lost another significant financial support as a result of this drop in foreign exchange value of my support.

These two have combined to devastating effect. While I have been managing to keep going, it has left me no room at all to be able to pay for anything extra like the already cheap costs of studying at EBC, something I really really want to do.”

We have been corresponding with Joel for some time now and want to help him get the training he needs.  We have assured him that we will underwrite his tuition costs and if, at some time, he is able to make a contribution towards those costs, well so be it.

Would you, or perhaps even your church, be willing to help us shoulder those costs?  Could you make a one-off or regular donation to contribute towards Joel’s student fees?

We would greatly value your partnership in this and would welcome any gifts you are able to send us; just designate them for Joel in particular or for overseas saints in general as the need arises.