March 1, 2011
I was recently asked to describe my first contact with World English Institute. As I recalled the story from 20 years ago, I reflected on God’s ever-present personal involvement in our lives. Angie and I see more clearly now how God was working powerfully in our lives by opening a door of opportunity in 1992 to serve him through WEI.
While Angie and I were missionaries in Romania shortly after their violent revolution, we wrote a Bible course to study with our daily students. The course began with Genesis and took students systematically through the Bible using the kingdom concept as the principle theme.
Later, Angie had a student who was studying WEI, and he asked her if he could bring his WEI correspondence materials to class for her to help him. She discovered that the WEI course was similar to the course we had written. We were both impressed. That student was a devout atheist, and a very contentious young student.
One day, just before Angie was about to give up on him, he came to class after having read the final WEI lesson. With a big smile on his face, he announced that he was no longer an atheist. He had come to believe through the WEI study that Jesus was the Son of God and Savior of mankind. He asked to be baptized into Christ so he could become a member of God’s kingdom. He remains a faithful Christian husband and father today.
WEI became the principle tool that we used to make contacts and attract students for Bible study in Romania for the next 15 years. So many precious souls in Romania have come to know God and commit their lives to Him as a result of WEI. To God be the glory.
Many of our short-term mission efforts this summer are on schedule, but we are still lacking teachers in several sites. Honduras, Ukraine, Romania, Nicaragua, and Albania could all use more teachers. If you are interested, it’s not too late. Please contact me for more details. It’s very likely you will have a student just like the student I described above.
We always want to express our deepest gratitude for the supporters of the Maryville office. We covet your partnership. Thank you! We love you. —Tom and Angie
