Together on the Path to Biblical Education

For the last several weeks, participants of our India Regional Team at Global Outreach Developments International have been volunteering their time each Saturday by working youth basketball concessions to raise funds for biblical education scholarships. These scholarships enable our friends and cooperatives, Manohar Paul and Sneha Purti, to enroll as students in the Institute Online program at G.O.D.

My husband, Nick Sherrod, and I first met Manohar and Sneha on our Immersion to India in 2012. We didn’t know what the Lord had in store for our relationship at the time, but we did know that we’d immediately developed a long-lasting friendship. Today we feel so humbled and privileged that we get to serve the Lord together within the context of the mission of G.O.D. International!

Last week, when a parent of one of our India team members learned that the concessions were funding Manohar and Sneha’s biblical scholarships, he donated on the spot. I was touched by his generosity and his support of a cause that he believes in -- the biblical education of our friends in the third world.

This spring, Manohar and Sneha are beginning their second semester in the Institute’s online Associates of Biblical Foundations. As students of this program, they have been participating in weekly lectures, discussion forums, supplemental readings, and biblical inductive study. As they continue to acquire more tools to study the Bible, they experience the difference it is making in their lives and their ministry.

Manohar and Sneha both use their gifting to contribute to the ministerial efforts of our organization in India. Empowered as ministers through God’s word, they are an integral part of each of the projects and programs that we carry out in the neighborhoods that surround them.

The Pauls shared with us. “Biblical education in general impacts our lives. This education has helped us to understand and view things in a different perspective. I remember when we learned how to use the Inductive Bible study method in our first semester. As we were learning new things, we were also challenged by what we thought we knew about the Bible. We started to spend more time in God’s Word, slowed down as we read the scriptures, and made observations, observations, observations. We could talk together about the Bible in a different way, an informed way. We are excited to continue in the kind of education that is making a difference in how we understand God and how we live out God’s expectations in our lives and ministry.”

As leaders within the community of G.O.D. India, Manohar and Sneha are able to model what they’ve learned for others. Our volunteers have noticed that Manohar and Sneha approach God’s word with a hunger that motivates them to push through challenges of working full-time, serving ministerially, and taking college courses in a second language. Seeing their commitment and devotion to learning has inspired others to follow their example and enroll in Bible classes.

Manohar and Sneha are excited for another semester of biblical studies. They’ve experienced the blessing that comes from knowing God, feel responsible to be good stewards of the education that they’re receiving, and are ready to grow deeper in their understanding of the Lord.

Manohar and Sneha are with us on this path of learning who God is and how to follow him. Through their biblical education with the Institute Online, they’ve learned of how God designed the world as a place where his justice and righteousness reigns, and are able to recognize the freedom that brings to those who trust in him. Manohar and Sneha have found their treasure. They have said ‘yes’ to God’s call on their life, and their devoted study of God’s Word shows that they have laid it up in heaven (Matt. 6). They are eager to continue developing as ministers of the Lord and offer spiritual refreshment to the people and situations that surround them in India.

When asked how we can pray for them, they responded: “Hope for us that we may grow deeper in the Word of God and help people around us to understand and teach them what we are learning.” Whether it be donating our time at a concession stand or donating generously to the need, we believe that Manohar and Sneha’s biblical education is an endeavor we can all get behind.