BIMI
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Resurrection Baptist Seminary by Ronnie Autrey After arriving in the Dominican Republic in August of 1993, we began to work with the national pastors and quickly realized that they had not been formally trained through a Bible school. A part of God's vision for the Dominican Republic has always been the necessity of preparing national pastors. Seeing this need first hand increased the burden that God had already placed in my heart. Shorty thereafter the Resurrection Baptist Seminary began in 1995 while I was pastoring Resurrection Baptist Church and has continued as a ministry of New Life Baptist Church under our leadership. The Bible school is a four-year school whose purpose is to prepare men for the ministry of preaching the Gospel and planting churches in the Dominican Republic and in other countries of the world, as well as preparing young men and women to aid their churches through obtaining a three-year Bible diploma in Biblical Studies. Each student is recommended by his local church pastor and takes an active part in soul winning, children's ministries and working with the youth efforts of his church each week. As the seminary monitors the progress of each student in academic areas, we also know that the work of God needs men and women of vast practical experience. Before graduating, all students will have taken part in planting at least one new church in the DR. Since 1995 we have been blessed by the Lord with 64 graduates from Resurrection Baptist Seminary with our last graduation in December of 2008. Out of the 31 national works that are currently working together for the furtherance of the Gospel, all are pastored by graduates of RBS and 15 of these 31 are new churches planted with national pastors from the Bible school. We currently have 55 students in attendance and hope to see more students with the September enrollment quickly approaching. Recently, the need of the Bible school rang through very loudly as one of our oldest nationals of 72 years of age had a stroke and went to be with our Lord. This pastor was responsible for three different churches in the area of La Romana. But working alongside him were two graduates and three young men currently attending RBS. They are all working closely together to ensure that God's work continues to grow till the Lord returns. We were all sad to see Pastor Wilfredo Alfonso passing away but we were also glad to see that even Pastor Wilfredo was able to see the need of preparing men for the work of God. Please pray with us that God might continue to bless our efforts through the training of national pastors in the Dominican Republic and that we might see many more new churches planted. 8 Islander – No 2, 2012