Moses Alagbe

• President - Amsterdam Bible Academy
• European Coordinator - GATE (Gift From Africa To Europe)
• Pastor - Maranatha English Fellowship (small immigrant church)
• (Nigerian Immigrant - Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Moses Alagbe, an African missionary, works in Amsterdam among the African diaspora (13% of the population – 800,000). Moses and others believe God has given secular Europe the gift of African missionaries to revive the faith and Church. As President of the Amsterdam Bible Academy, he coordinates theological, mission and ministry training that equips Africans to minister in a Western culture. Amsterdam Bible Academy is the only school in Europe that provides such training to Africans by Africans familiar with both African and European cultures. For the academic year 2008-09 22 students are enrolled for the certificate courses and 12 students are enrolled for B.A. degree courses. 80 people have graduated since 1996. For his dissertation Moses rewrote the school curriculum to make courses practically relevant in meeting the challenges of the Amsterdam context. Toward that end Amsterdam Bible Academy will begin teaching the Theology of Work – a signature BGU program - in February 2009.

For the academic year 2008/2009 we have 22 students on enrollment for the certificate courses in Bible and Theology and 12 students for B.A Degree courses.

We are planning to begin to teach TOW as from February 2009.

“ BGU has turned my ministry upside down. I will be forever be grateful for all I have been exposed to at BGU. I am now slow to speak but quick to listen. I have developed the habit of leading by asking questions. As a leader I do realize that I will be more effective through relationships. Relationships open the door for effective ministry. It really works! ”

Andy Bales

• CEO (Union Rescue Mission – Los Angeles, CA)

As Andy Bales puts it, he has worked alongside his homeless friends for 22 years. Along the way and in various capacities he has helped serve millions of meals, including nearly 1 million per year in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, where he now serves as CEO of the largest mission of its kind and the oldest in Los Angeles – 116 years. Urban Rescue Mission houses 850 men, women and children in its downtown facility, up to another 225 women and children in transitional housing at their Hope Gardens Family Center just 25 miles north east of Los Angeles in the foothills And they have three additional winter sites in local armories to serve another 450 folks, keeping them safe and out of the rain and overnight cold. They serve a total of 2500 meals per day at the downtown facility alone. Andy is completing his Doctor of Ministry degree with BGU. It was a friend and BGU graduate who encouraged him to apply. It was his friendship and respect for Dr. Ray Bakke that sealed the deal. Andy has found co-laborers in his fellow students and among the BGU faculty – people who know how to survive and thrive in the trenches of urban ministry.

“ Through God’s grace I am making a significant contribution to insure there are no women and children on the mean streets of Skid Row, and hopefully the time will come when there are no human beings at all living on the streets of Skid Row. I was not quite prepared nor did I have everything I needed to take this great challenge on until I came to BGU. BGU has helped me better understand my role as a transformational servant leader, and I am not only confident in taking on the task ahead of me, but I have a group of fellow students in my cohort providing friendship and encouragement along the way. ”

Noel Castellanos

• CEO – Christian Community Development Association (CCDA)

In 2005, after serving many years on the board, Noel Castellanos joined the staff of the Chicago-based Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) to establish their new training institute. In October 2007 he became the CEO of CCDA. CCDA’s mission is to inspire and train Christians who seek to bear witness to the Kingdom of God by reclaiming and restoring under-resourced communities. Its vision is to see holistically restored communities, with Christians fully engaged in the process of transformation. CCDA has influenced over 8000 individual members in its 20-year history and has been a major support and inspiration to the thousands of churches and grassroots organizations working to transform lives and communities around our world. With his new leadership role, Noel became convinced he needed to pursue additional graduate education to round out the 25 years of urban ministry experience he had acquired. That need led him to BGU, where he is completing his Master’s in Theology as he obtains a Doctor of Ministry, with a special emphasis on ministry in difficult contexts.

“ The international, global perspective that I am receiving through interaction with leaders and professors from around the globe, and the prospect of traveling to Africa, Latin America, and China are essential preparation for leading a national/international ministry like CCDA. ”

Earnestine Cellestine

• Administrator & Co-academic Dean ( North Portland Bible College)

For most of her life Earnestine Cellestine has known herself as God’s Servant in the world. The journey has taken her from the United States to Mexico, the West Indies, and to Africa as God’s preacher, teacher, and administrator. She is pursuing her BGU Doctor of Ministry Degree to complete what she believes will be the next level of maturity in her ministry development. Earnestine had a successful career in banking and finance before joining the non-profit world where she has found her business skills both welcome and fully utilized. North Portland Bible College (NPBC) has met the biblical educational needs of North/Northeast Portland for over twenty-five years, but the targeted culture is changing rapidly. The community is flourishing with middle class families, entrepreneurship and greater cultural diversity, which present opportunities for NPBC to serve local churches in new ways as they respond to the physical and spiritual needs of the new residents. Earnestine intends to be a catalyst for envisioning a new future for NPBC, and her doctoral studies are providing encouragement and equipping toward that end.

“ BGU offers a theology of work concept that brings together my spiritual gifting and business knowledge into an operating framework making it more user-friendly. ”

Dr. Nancy Murphy

• Executive Director (Northwest Family Life – Seattle, WA)

Nancy Murphy has served as the Executive Director of Northwest Family Life (NWFL) for over fifteen years. NWFL is a not-for-profit ministry with a mission to ‘serve individuals and families, finding hope and healing when facing the pain of domestic violence and related issues’. Since its inception in 1989, NWFL has offered advocacy for adult and child victims, state certified batterers intervention groups, counseling and work on all fronts for education and prevention. Nancy’s work has often been ground breaking, and it continues to require much dedication and diligence. Opportunities for Northwest Family Life have grown to include teaching at a wide range of universities and seminaries, countless speaking and writing requests and requests to replicate the work beyond the walls of the agency. In her DMin studies Nancy found the rare space to reflect on the “doing” and to contextualize her work in the larger frameworks of globalization, corporate culture, faith constructs and mission. She says the experience continues to completely transform her life.

“ As a student I found at Bakke Graduate University a demonstration of a theology of women as co-heirs, co-leaders and co-laborers, of servant leadership and of shared power. This has not changed since I have graduated. The school intentionally engages evangelical tradition, yet pushes beyond it, offering glimpses of a hope… the kind my heart longs for. I heartily recommend BGU to all who would dare be fully engaged for the Kingdom. ”

Dr. Jonathan Nambu

• Founder & Executive Director, Samaritana Transformation Ministries (Manila, Philippines)

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recognized the significance of Jonathan Nambu’s work when she said, “Our administration recognizes your important role as an active contributor to the spiritual and moral transformation of our society.” Since Jonathan Nambu founded Samaritana in 1992 with his wife Thelma, its staff and volunteers have reached out to the growing number of women (100,000+) caught in prostitution in Manila, the world’s 6th largest city (10,500,000 population). Samaritana also fills an important gap in the Philippines, serving as a bridge for communication and understanding between secular feminists and the Church, Catholics and Evangelicals, and activists and contemplatives.

“ The BGU program's unique shape and style have reinforced a global outlook, intentionality, and creativity on my part. I believe God's hopes and plans for Samaritana in the next 5 years include a greater emphasis on training for similar ministries around cities in the Philippines and Asia, perhaps even the broader world. ”

Dr. Kurt Risley

• Associate Minister, Crossroads Church (Portland, Oregon)

Kurt Risley’s ministry experience has been focused on church planting in the Midwest. But currently he is a “transitioning minister” in the process of becoming the Senior Minister of Crossroads Church in Portland, OR. Portland is the third largest city in the Pacific Northwest with 1.9 million people in the metropolitan area. The church has a 95-year history, and the current Senior Minister has been there for 35 years. It is in a prime location in NE Portland, situated in a “transitioning” community, which is in the city plan to become the second urban district in Portland. Kurt says he is a preacher’s kid from the Midwest who has been on a journey for a faith that is real for the entire week and not just on Sunday. He found that at BGU.

"BGU came at a crucial time in my life and spiritual development. God was working on my heart to reveal there were key components missing in my faith, teaching and everyday life. I was dissatisfied with how I was 'doing church and Christianity' and was ready for God to reveal His way to me. I had no idea that it would come in the form of BGU. The process was at times painfully convicting, entertaining, adventurous and controversial…but in all things visionary and full of hope. BGU helped me find God in a new and refreshing way – a God that is vibrant and crosses so many boundaries I had erected. For me BGU embodies empowering and educating anyone who wants to be 'Jesus with skin on' to those who need Him. "

“ One of the concepts that I remembered latching on to was the idea that our faith is not to be just an American faith, but a God faith, and He is God of all creation, in all countries. BGU is so much more than a school or para-church ministry. For me it embodies empowering and educating anyone who wants to be “Jesus with skin on” to those who need Him. ”

Dr. Arloa Sutter

• Founder & Executive Director, Breakthrough Ministries (Chicago, IL)

Arloa Sutter established Breakthrough Ministries out of a church storefront in 1992. She wanted to understand what the homeless people in Chicago’s Edgewater and Uptown neighborhoods really needed in addition to money and food. Breakthrough now operates programs on the city's north and west sides. These include Bridges of Hope (an outreach to women in prostitution), the Joshua Center (emergency overnight shelter & other support for women in crises) and North Side Day Center (support for homeless men) In addition, through the youth center programs nearly 300 youth have opportunities that nurture and encourage personal development and academic enrichment. Arloa developed Breakthrough’s latest program, BUILD (Breakthrough Urban Institute of Leadership Development) in conjunction with her D.Min. studies. She expects BUILD to be a model for people working cross culturally throughout the world.

“ At Breakthrough we are practicing what was central to my learning at BGU - listening to the people of the community in which we serve, seeking to learn from them how to live among them and joining them in their struggle. One of the sub points under our 'collaboration' values is actually a quote that Ray Bakke has often used in our BGU classes, 'We believe that people of good faith can work with people of good will for the good of the community.' ”

Dr. Randy White

• InterVarsity National Coordinator for Urban Projects

Randy’s training programs impact some 26 cities and 54 projects. They train more than 1,200 students per year to work in high-crime, high-poverty neighborhoods. Randy is also the director of the 2006 Urbana Mission Conference which will be attended by 25,000+ college students. Randy wrote Journey to the Center of the City: Making a Difference in an Urban Neighborhood (1996, IVP) and Encountering God in the City: Onramps to Personal and Community Transformation, scheduled for release in August, 2006.

“ My education at BGU, my experiences with Ray Bakke in various cities, and the research that has emerged is directly influencing the way we do urban project training in InterVarsity across the country. Because of my BGU education InterVarsity is better equipped to produce the next generation of transformational leaders. ”