God’s Work: DTS around the World

Ninety years after our founding, across the United States, many DTS alumni serve as pastors and Christian workers. DTS graduates also serve in the US as educators in Bible colleges and seminaries, teaching the next generation of leaders committed to Christ. 

With the expansion of DTS’s extensions and programs abroad, the reach of God’s Word continues to shrink borders. More than six hundred international students graduated from DTS between 1983 and 2014. Consider this sampling of these alumni who daily, through the power of the Holy Spirit, weave the grace of God into the communities where they reside.

The Americas

Aurora Hernandez (MA/CM, 2008) works for the Cree First Nation of Quebec, Canada. Employed as an engineer, she works to protect the environment from mining exploitation and has made key contacts with Cree Nation leaders. She ministers to children through the Canoe of Hope, an evangelistic outreach.

Deborah (MA/BL, 2007) and Ramón (MA/BL, 2013) Padilla work with Wycliffe Bible Translators in southern Mexico. Their team is completing a translation of the New Testament and portions of the Old into the Zapotec language. Zapotec is among the approximately 2,100 languages that lack adequate Scriptures.   

Europe

Laci Kadar (ThM, 2011) has served almost twenty years with Word of Life (WOL) Hungary ministry. He is camp director and professor at the WOL Bible Institute. Each summer, hundreds of youth enjoy this camp. After twenty years, almost 20,000 Hungarian teenagers have heard the gospel.  

Four years ago, Ben (ThM, 2010) and Anda (MA/BC, 2009) Mogos planted Agape Church in Bucharest, Romania. Ben is also the Insight for Living pastor for Romania, having the privilege of being Dr. Charles Swindoll’s voice there. Anda has published several works and leads the counseling department of Agape Church.

Afrim Karoshi (MA[BS], 2009; MA/MC, 2013) uses his degree in media to write for the online contexts of Cru’s (formerly called Campus Crusade for Christ) ministry in Albania. As the team leader of Albanian Digital Strategies, he designs new means of pursuing evangelism through digital media.

Africa

Isaac Wheigar (MA/CM, 2011) is the general secretary of the Association of Evangelicals of Liberia (AEL). AEL is the largest network of Christian churches and agencies of evangelical persuasion in Liberia. It demonstrates uncompromising and holistic evangelism through spiritual guidance and practical response to human need.

In Nigeria, Sam Akeju (MA/CE, 2004) partners with SIM and Evangel Fellowship churches to implement discipleship programs. As project coordinator and regional coach of the Evangel Discipleship Coaching and Mentoring program, Sam—along with his colleagues—has recently led discipleship seminars in Ghana, Bolivia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Malawi, and Gambia.

Australasia

In North India, David Ranjit (ThM, 2010) serves as lead pastor of Delhi Bible Fellowship. He and several DTS grads partner with Asia Biblical Theological Seminary to offer a site for seminary coursework. They now have forty students enrolled.

Rowland Forman (MA[BS]/CE, 1991) is executive director of LivingStones Leadership Ministries, based in New Zealand. LivingStones partners with churches locally and globally to mentor leaders. A pastor to pastors, Rowland recently authored The Lost Art of Lingering: Mutual Mentoring for Life Transformation.

The faculty of Bible Baptist Theological Seminary in South Korea includes DTS graduates Dr. Samuel Kwak (PhD, 2003) and Dr. Cheol Choi (PhD, 2010). They labor to train the next generation of theological leaders. 

Serving at East Asia School of Theology in Singapore since his graduation, Toe Set (ThM, 2006) and his wife, Magdalene, take quarterly trips to Myanmar to mentor roughly thirty Christian workers there and to teach courses at Myanmar Institute of Christian Theology.

Yohan (ThM, 2011) and EJ (ThM, 2012) Lee, serve an unreached people group in Southeast Asia (country name withheld). They are facilitating the writing of God’s Word in their people group’s mother tongue and building an indigenous Christian community among them. 

This is just a sampling! See a visual picture of where DTS alumni serve across the world, and view some of our alumni telling their stories.

About the Contributors

Jenny McGill

A Fulbright recipient, Jenny McGill (PhD, King’s College London) has worked in international education and intercultural consulting with clients and students from over sixty nations, having directed the International Office at Dallas Seminary for ten years. She served as a regional dean for Indiana Wesleyan University and is an adjunct professor at both institutions. With interdisciplinary lenses, she researches the intersection of faith, culture, and identities. Travel for ministry, study, and research has taken her to thirty countries on six continents.