Rebekah Davis

Who gets to dance on a hip-hop team with their History of Christianity instructor? Take a math class with a missiological perspective? Be moved to tears in a class on Leviticus, or wake up at 5:30 a.m. for roommate prayer every morning? Okay, that last one might not sound so enticing at first, but all of these scenarios are reflective of life here at G.O.D. Int’l, and I love it!

The Institute for G.O.D. Int’l sets itself apart from my past educational experiences by placing a strong emphasis on the holistic growth of all of its participants.  Learning is never limited to an activity done solely in the classroom. Teachers and students live life side-by-side. They cook, eat, pray, worship, work, and study together. This kind of lifestyle creates the ideal atmosphere to build organic, trustworthy relationships; the kind of relationships that are imperative to an effective learning environment. What my instructors teach in the classroom comes to life when I watch them interact with their families and serve their students. I am able to be vulnerable when sharing with my classmates, knowing that they are more than just classmates, but a prominent part of my life.  I know that the time I spend with them today is an investment for the future.

A few years ago I swore to myself that I would never study just for the sake of learning something; I wanted what I studied to be a focused preparation for a purposeful life. Here, my education, which begins every day when I open my eyes, is entirely focused on learning the Lord through His Word so that I might effectively serve a hurting world. The program is unapologetically demanding, and yet we find joy in all of our work because it is love of God that spurs us on to give everything we are, every day. Every single day I am stretched, challenged, and encouraged to seek the Lord, depend on His Spirit, and live my life as Jesus lived his.  What better education could you ask for?

Written by Rebekah Davis

Joshua Barnett studies in the library

I have experienced a vast array of challenges along my educational journey. I was not able to read or write until I was ten years of age, which put me at a severe disadvantage to my peers in regards to education. The inability to learn to read and write until such a late age hindered my performance in the classroom, which ultimately climaxed my senior year of high school when I graduated with less than a 2.0 grade point average.

I was accepted into the Institute for G.O.D. Int’l when I was 17 years old. I remember the emotions of feeling incapable of doing well in school and the insecurities that plagued my confidence in being able to learn in general. I am now able to confidently say that over the past few years at G.O.D Int’l, I have been educated in multiple disciplines, and am constantly learning and developing academically. I think that the most impactful thing I have learned is how to read and think critically about the Bible. I have been empowered to study the word of God and utilize resources available to me in order to interpret Scripture well.

Since coming to the Institute, I have committed myself to studying the Bible and am now beginning to receive the fruit of that labor. My eyes have been opened by the Word of God, which is allowing me to see the world around me, and myself, with much more clarity than ever before. The Institute for G.O.D. Int’l has blessed me with a gift of inestimable worth. I have been given an education that teaches me how to read and think about God’s word, and appropriate it to my life.

Written by Joshua Barnett

Corey Streeter

I have had an interesting array of jobs. I’ve been a rock climbing instructor, riverboat captain, hotel banquet manager, banquet server, golf course maintenance worker, and line cook – in that order. I learned something from all these jobs, but my real education began when I moved from a banquet manager to a banquet server.

When I decided to “step down” into the position of a banquet server, most people were confused. “Why would you give up that job?! The pay is great and you’re moving up the ladder!” They didn’t understand when I told them I hardly knew my wife anymore or even that I was losing myself in all the work. I may have stayed in that position if I hadn’t met a few people from the community of G.O.D. International. These people were different. They were smiling, laughing, encouraging, and full of life. I saw people who genuinely cared for others and demonstrated God’s love for everyone. They demonstrated love for me when they encouraged me to give up my high paying job and focus on my relationship with my wife.

Over time I became more acquainted with the value the community placed on education. I recognized my own need for education in the Word of God and soon my wife and I decided to join the movement. Within the community we found the education we had always needed. I sat in classes and cried because I finally learned who God was – a loving, patient, merciful God who wants people to live in right relationship with each other. That relationship was exemplified in the way the community treated each other, solved issues together, and just spent time together. I also realized that education doesn’t just happen in the classroom, but is found in how we conduct our relationships and serve others. That is the real image of God – service. I have learned that Jesus chose to serve and not be served. He was the perfect representation of God to the world and we can follow his example.

Because of our continuing education, we are moving closer to becoming whole and complete people who can correctly image God to the world. That image is not demonstrated just in our individual educational experiences, but in our relationships with others. Through my experience in this community, I have learned not only how to study the Bible, but how to be a better husband, a better friend, and a better servant.

Written by Corey Streeter

Megan Fleeman teaching the Bible in Kenya.

When I joined the G.O.D. Int’l community in 2006, I was nineteen years old, determined to serve God, and looking for a group of people to do that with. Drawn by an example of love, service, sacrifice, and generosity I’d seen in community participants, I came seeking education and holistic development. What I received inside and outside the classroom facilitated nothing short of that. Education in the Word of God has the potential to mature a person into the likeness of Christ, who, in imitation of God, lived a life of sacrifice and love. Along with the accountability of and demonstration by a community, there is much opportunity for personal and collective development.

An example of the holistic change that I have experienced can be found in a personal story of healing. At the age of 5, I was diagnosed with what was said to be an incurable skin disease. For fifteen years, I frequented doctors, receiving the latest treatments—none of which could heal me. Eventually, the treatments that were offered could have long-term adverse affects on my health, so I refused them—trusting that God would help and heal me.

That healing did come—through prayer, education, and the support of my community. The education I received in the Institute’s Primary Healthcare classes at the Institute began to change my mind about my own healthcare, causing me to take a more active role. Because of this, I was healed of my skin disease through nutrition—an endeavor that involved not only my own personal initiative, but the support of my community. My friends helped me prepare special meals, provided accountability, and ultimately, prayed and encouraged me towards healing.

The change that has occurred in my mind and body has driven me to educate others on how to care for their health as well. I am now training to be a health worker, specifically in women’s health, to empower other women to experience the health that I have come to know. Teaching women how to care for their own health and the health of their families has the power to change entire communities as people learn to care for one another in the way that creates whole people who can image God.

Written by Megan Fleeman

Lavinia Fernandez with a young girl in El Salvador

When I moved to Nashville over two years ago to attend school, I had no idea the kind of education I would be receiving. I knew I would be taking classes on the bible and on community development in the third world. However, I didn’t know that my education would be present and ongoing in every moment and aspect of my life here in the community.

For example, I realized that overcoming nerves before giving my first sermon in Preaching class could be practiced at work, when I had the chance to speak into my coworker’s lives’ in an encouraging manner. I still remember the day I realized that eating meals together could serve as a forum to share and dialogue with others about things I am learning in class, at bible study, and work.

After five semesters of  education, I am able to see how the idea of education has been redefined for me. I have learned so much about the word of God, but this has not just happened in the classroom. I have been able to learn about what it looks like to live out the word of God at home, work, and trips abroad.  The kind of education I am receiving has allowed me to communicate my need for help, my ability to help others, and through this I have grown and matured. My education has benefited me in more ways than just knowledge; my education makes me want to be a better student in every aspect of my life. I am excited to keep learning more, more about the bible, God, people, and how to help others. My journey has just begun, but I am already seeing the fruit of being loved enough to be taught in whatever setting we may be.

Written by Lavinia Fernandez

Matthew Parker

God’s word is best understood within a community of people.  The ‘Lone Ranger’ saving the day all alone has become an acceptable role model for guys.  I expected my commitment to God to produce success regarding my ‘personal’ walk with Him.  Yet in the past three years I have learned that people are not created to learn or live alone.  God’s revelation is meant for communities of people; God and Moses educate a mass of liberated slaves in the wilderness, the prophets seek to educate the tribes of Israel, Jesus images the way for the kingdom to be manifest on earth, Paul works to build up the body of Christ.  God hopes for a community of people able to obey his voice and keep his covenant so that they can become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex. 19:5-6).

I graduated College with a desire to be surrounded by people committed to living like Jesus.  I loved God’s word but was hard pressed to find a group of peopled committed to fulfilling Jesus’ expectations for his followers.  When I moved to Antioch I was a new husband with the desire to learn the bible in order to bring life into a suffering world.  The problem was I did not know what that would look like or require.  Initially, this confident college graduate was humbled by the biblical expectations God has for people who want to fulfill his covenant and follow the ‘way’ of Jesus.  Together, as a community, we must become a whole and healed people.  Insecurities, fears, doubt, wounds from the past all had to be brought into the light of God’s love, which is the love of my friends and family around me, so that I could begin to see and hear the scripture correctly.

During our first international trip with G.O.D., my wife and I were exposed to the real needs of people in Guatemala and the Philippines.  I looked around at the hungry children, youth without education, mothers working tirelessly to feed their children with their husbands working in a far away city uncertain of a solution.  One day in a village outside a city dump I held a sick, malnourished child in my arms not sure of what to do or say to the family unable to provide for its needs.  My college education and life experience had not prepared me for such a moment.  In Matthew 11, Jesus looks to his followers and invites them to take on his yoke and learn from him; he encourages them that he is gentle and humble.  The yoke is easy and the burden is light because we carry it together.  One person cannot save the world.  But a community of people educated in the word of God and prepared to sacrifice for the needs of their neighbor can turn the world upside down.

Written by Matthew Parker

Deborah Nava

I was one of those kids that had a sense of what I believed was a calling on my life to become a missionary to Asia. Throughout my middle and high school years I went on short-term mission trips that eventually led to a six-month stay in China when I was just twenty years old. Upon my return to the States, I realized that as much as my heart wanted to go back, I was underprepared for full time ministry. While attending a college group at a church in my hometown in New Mexico, I met some of the educators from the G.O.D community. I was encouraged to become a community participant and within the next few months I found myself preparing to move to Antioch, Tennessee.

When I first came to the community in 2005, I was a young woman, eager to serve the people of the world but with very little direction, education or experience. I honestly thought I would be here for no more than two years, as I found this to be the average length of training for missionaries in several organizations. Throughout my first few years here, I discovered this was not only an unrealistic expectation for me, but it was also not following the instruction God gave his people to collectively image him to the nations. I could not do it alone.

Most recently, I became a student of the Institute’s Childbirth Education Program. I had five years of biblical education as well as missiological education to precede this, which has enabled me to participate in dialogue and work hard to become the kind of educator that is valuable in the developing world. This program is unique as it offers everything from the history of childbirth, to prenatal care & nutrition as well as birthing methods and post partum care. I am fully confident that as I enter the remaining courses, I will be well prepared in the skills I need to serve women.

One of my favorite parts about living in community is that I have relationships with my educators outside the classroom. I am able to learn from them and with them as we have traveled to India and other regions and have spent countless hours serving alongside one another. I am confident that I can come to any of the educators at the Institute and receive caring and loving instruction that is rooted in God’s word. None of them are strangers, and I count this is as a privilege. I know that we share a desire to live well and to be a blessing to the nations, and that I believe, we already are.

Written by Deborah Nava

A campus visit will allow you to find out what the community of G.O.D. Int’l is all about.  During a weekend visit, you will stay in the residence housing facilities, participate in a local event, talk to instructors, sit in on a class, and much more!

Fall Visition Weekend:
November 11-13, 2010