Tag: Richmond Wandera

My People Are Destroyed From Lack of Knowledge

The Pastors Discipleship Network (PDN) is an initiative begun by Leadership Development Program graduate and Moody Bible Institute scholar Richmond Wandera. It exists: “to train and equip local pastors in Africa with basic study tools for accurately interpreting God’s Word through monthly seminars, accountability relationships, and the provision of study resources.”

One Act To Overwhelm Hopelessness

When the darkness of abject poverty engulfs a place, the devil takes over. But in the middle of desperation, you can intervene.

One act, one decision in Jesus’ name, is all it takes to allow hope to overwhelm the darkness.

See for yourself.

Letter Writing Ideas From the Moody Bible Institute Scholars

Four Leadership Development Program graduates now attending Moody Bible Institute share some tips on what you should include in the letters you write to your sponsored children.

What’s It Like Growing Up in Poverty?

Another clip from our video interview with the Moody Bible Institute scholars.

After watching it, will you sponsor a Leadership Development Program student? You can do so by yourself, but you can also do it as a group, with family, friends, co-workers, your small group, etc.

Who’s in Charge?

So, an emperor, a chief and a queen are all in a room together. The emperor is from Uganda. The chief is from the Dominican Republic. And the queen is from the Philippines. Who’s in charge?

God’s Agents of Change: Unscripted

In late July we interviewed our Moody Bible Institute scholarship recipients using questions you submitted here. We filmed the interview and will be sharing clips from the session with you over the next few weeks.

In the first clip, which is just over 13 minutes long, you’ll get to see how Richmond, Tony, Michelle and Jimmy interact with one another.

You’ll get a taste of the strength of their relationships with one another and with God.

And you’ll get a little insight into what Jimmy probably asked his sponsor when they met at Catalyst 2009.

Beyond getting to know them a little better, by learning what these agents of change are studying at Moody and why they chose their fields of study, you’ll also hear, among other things:

• Tony speak about his call to serve teenagers
• Michelle and Richmond share about their desires to develop strong Christian leaders in the Philippines and Uganda
• Jimmy relate what life was like before he was sponsored

Enjoy.

Richmond Wandera: My Best Day in Ministry

Moody Bible Institute scholar Richmond Wandera shares how the telling of his story and one woman’s response to it reminded him that child sponsorship is a part of God’s work.

Tables Turned: Meeting the Moody Scholars

I don’t know how they do it, but the sponsored children always seem to turn the tables on us. We visit a country to be a blessing to the children, and end up getting blessed as well, maybe more.

I have a friend who wrote to her child that she was praying for the family, and the child wrote back that they were praying and fasting for her weekly.

Last month, I stopped in Colorado Springs on my way home to Wyoming from Phoenix. I had heard that the Moody Scholars were going to be participating in Compassion’s chapel, and I attended because I greatly wanted to meet them.

Jimmy Wambua, the newest Moody Scholar, was asked to pray during the service. Now, I’m used to praying for children all around the world, but he was praying for all the sponsors. That was really special for me to hear.

Following the service, I was invited to join Tony, Michelle, Richmond and Jimmy (from left to right) for lunch, which was more than I had hoped for.

I was excited to meet each of them because I practically had them on pedestals, like celebrities. Instead, they treated me like a celebrity!

And even though I had lots of questions for them, I ended up answering far more questions than they did.

• How long have you been a sponsor?
• How’d you find out about Compassion?
• Would you tell us about the children you sponsor?

Lunch was anything but a solemn time. These students were funny, joyful, hilarious — teasing each other, and “breaking in” the new member of their group. (more…)

Tony Beltran Preaching

About two weeks ago all the Moody scholars were in Colorado Springs, in advance of the new academic year at Moody Bible Institute. That was when we got to meet Jimmy Wambua, the newest Moody scholar, for the first time.

The four Moody scholars led worship during chapel, and afterward, Tony preached about the work God is doing in the world.

Now, here’s your opportunity to join us in chapel. The video is long, just short of 40 minutes, and Tony doesn’t begin preaching until the 8:30 mark, but if you have the time, we think you’ll enjoy getting to hear him speak.

Plus, those first eight minutes are good too. Jimmy, Michelle and Richmond share about what it means to be given an opportunity to study at Moody.

You can view the Tony Beltran video, and several more of our videos, on Vimeo.

The video does works, but there is about a 10 second delay between pressing play and then seeing anything happen.

Ask a Moody Scholar

We trust that as regular readers of our blog, you’re familiar with Michelle, Tony and Richmond — our first three Moody scholars. So we’ll forego the explanation of who they are and get right to the point.

Each one of them is going be in Colorado Springs very soon. And they’ll actually all be here at the same time, which is a rare occurrence.

What this means to you is that we’ve grabbed a sizable block of their time so we can serve as a proxy interviewer on your behalf, kind of like we did with the Ask Wess series of blog posts. But this is going to be captured on video.

Let us know what questions you have for them as former participants in Compassion’s sponsorship program and Leadership Development Program* graduates, students at Moody Bible Institute and emerging Christian leaders, and we’ll get you some answers.

We wanted to do this whole thing live, but the tool we are looking to use isn’t cooperating — at least for now.

We’ll choose the questions we ask from what you submit today and tomorrow.

P.S. If you’re new to the blog, you can learn a little bit about Michelle, Tony and Richmond by using the tags below “read these related posts.”

*This content honors our historical Leadership Development Program. To learn more about our current youth development opportunities, click here.