From Student to Teacher

In our last post, we told you about Covenant Leadership Training Institute and Reach the Nations' partnership with CLTI in training Pakistani men for ministry in their country. Gary Finkbeiner, president of RTN, is a regular teacher at CLTI, and you read about that in his post last week.

The picture above shows the most recent graduating class from CLTI's Karachi campus. Seated on the left is Shakeel, a RTN pastor, evangelist, and leader. He is in this photo not as a student, but as a teacher. Shakeel was a CLTI student himself when there was no Karachi campus, and he had to go to Zambia for several months of training, leaving his new wife at home in Hyderabad.

Now Shakeel, in addition to his pastoral and church planting responsibilities in Sindh, teaches regularly at CLTI.

A couple of weeks ago, Gary was scheduled to teach a class, but, because of the wars in the Mideast, was not able to travel to Karachi to teach the class in person. So, he taught each day from his home in the U.S. and Shakeel served as his translator.

Unfortunately for Gary, he had to teach from midnight to 4 a.m. (EDT) in order to fit the time frame of the courses in Pakistan! But Shakeel stood in for Gary, translating the teaching and interacting with the students.

And here is Shakeel (on the far left) with the graduates at their celebration at Hawksbay Sea Side near Karachi.

Shakeel is a good example of the goal of RTN to train future leaders. He underwent his training years ago and now is a capable leader of the RTN ministry in Sindh as well as carrying many responsibilities at his home church and in CLTI.

Please pray for Shakeel, his family, and his various roles in spreading the Gospel message in Pakistan and in training future church leaders.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20

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