October 2026

A widespread challenge in South Asia and Myanmar is a lack of adequate theological and pastoral training for pastors, missionaries, and church leaders.

Many leaders from poor backgrounds cannot afford much formal education, and their communities tend to have immense needs, both spiritually and otherwise. As a result, they are often very busy faithfully serving their congregations and communities, but do it with significant gaps in their knowledge and preparation.

To help redress this, pastor and ministry training programs have been at the heart of HB’s work from very early in our history. As with our other programs, we don’t use a particular curriculum or structure; rather, our country leaders recognize the need for more training and education in their networks and let us know the sort of resources they want access to. They lead in terms of how they can best address these needs, and we come alongside them where and as we can. These are a few examples of ministry training just in 2026:

In Bangladesh, as this letter goes out, our leaders are preparing to hold a training for 150 new church leaders and their pastors. Pastor Darpan*, our country coordinator, has a real heart for new believers who face persecution due to their faith. He wants them to be prepared early on in their faith journey for the challenges they will face.

“Our vision and mission is to serve the large number of new believers and their communities. We want to make them strong in every day faith—21st century believers, living daily with the obstacles and persecutions. We want to keep the new believers steady in faith by developing their Christian ethics living in the Bangladesh context. And for the pastors, by this training we want to make all of them more effective in their commitment to the Lord and renew them in faith, providing practical instruction in the following topics: A. Bible study in the New Testament | B. Fundamental beliefs and theology of mission | C. Christian ethics | D. Church administration and leadership principles | E. Pastoral ethics and counselling | F. Church planting strategies and holistic mission | G. Contextual evangelism | H. Prayer | I. Meditation and knowing His voice | J. Education in the context of Sunday worship and field visits.”

In the Andaman Islands, our coordinator, Pastor Ram*, has had a vision for years to train lay leaders in ministry. This year, we were able to support him in launching his program:

“Still now, in many places around the world there is no church and many people are yet to know Christ. So, to preach the gospel to the unreached people, we need trained disciples. Therefore, we have to train all the believers to become disciples and fulfill His Mission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. The existing laborers (pastors) will not be sufficient. Hence, the Church needs to take this as an urgent call and raise/train the believers—lay leaders—for the ministry. This is not for full-time ministry training, but to challenge all the believers to become the Disciple of Christ. This training’s aim is to encourage and edify the believers to do ministry along with their churches and fulfill God’s Mission.

Myself and my wife will be teaching. We are devising the curriculum to suit our purpose to promote the believers and encourage the existing leaders to do the ministry more effectively. This is a one year course. 10 Biblical subjects will be taught. Classes will be in Tamil, Hindi, and English. Classes will be two days each month, on holidays or Sunday evenings, 4-7 pm. Tea & food will be served.”

Along with the monthly classes, Ram wants to create a small library that can be accessed by the students in the program. So, in addition to funding the first year of this Bible course, we have also helped connect him to several Christian publishing companies to get books in various Indian languages donated. We love being able to come alongside our leaders’ vision in both financial and non-financial ways.

In April of this year, our leaders in Bhutan held an event for 150 young adult church leaders. Pastor Jagan*, our country coordinator, explained:

“In Bhutan, many believers are often driven by fear and lack adequate training. Amidst the ongoing persecution, it is essential to equip and empower leaders with the Word of God to fortify the body of Christ in the country. Developing strong leadership is crucial for outreach efforts, as spiritually grounded leaders can make a significant impact. We aim to teach and train Christian values based on Scripture, enabling them to grow in their faith. This empowerment will equip them to uplift their friends and family members within the Church and society at large. We want all the leaders who attend the meeting to feel empowered by the Word and the Holy Spirit, enabling them to carry the Gospel forward throughout the nation.”

Your support and prayer make these types of trainings possible for people who otherwise would struggle to access theological learning in their own language and/or not be able to afford to attend.

These trainings also allow for Christians who are often isolated in their communities to come together and have fellowship and receive encouragement from one another. Thank you for making it possible!