Equip leaders to train MORE leaders!
2 Timothy 2:2

IVORY COAST CHRISTIAN MISSION
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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT



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TESTIMONIES

The following church leaders give you their testimony from personal experience in using this three-step method of leadership development.

Testimonies from the Philippines:

"I was really amazed by its very creative, step by step, fun and exciting way of learning the facts from the Bible, while developing a worthwhile and meaningful bond among its members." Dorothy Joy D. Bojos - La Carlota Church of Christ

"T.E.E. is a great challenge! It Develops skills for the leaders." Elma D. Bojos - La Carlota Church of Christ

"This method is a great help for us, and so our church will not be a dying church" Ianne Gellan B. Uy - Tanjay Church of Christ, Negros Oriental

"T.E.E. is different. Aside from the information that I've got from it, it's a life changing seminar. It motivated me to have more concern in the ministry." Arel Abobot - Baldoza Church of Christ, Iloilo

"It encouraged me to develop my skills in leadership." Burchik Marie Labasan - Kabankalan Church of Christ


Sunday Ude Obeten - Evangelist, Church Planter, and founder of Cross River Christian College in Nigeria

T.E.E. is one of the best things that has happened to us.  It is a turning point in the life and ministry of many leaders in Nigeria.  The programmed instruction materials are more than enough for the courses.  Graduates of T.E.E. are well versed in the Bible.  Knowledge gotten from T.E.E. has tremendously distinguished and increased their competence and relevance in ministry.  In the Christian Church in Nigeria, no one can be elected a leader without going through T.E.E. 


Kingsley Laryea - Church planter among the Konkomba in Ghana

     In 1986 I joined a few Ghanaians brothers who had stared a Christian fellowship because of a language barrier where we lived in the Ivory Coast.  Immature as we were, we tried to share programs among ourselves for worship services and other activities.  When Bob introduced the T.E.E. courses, we discussed the Bible and our practical Christian life.  Our meetings with Bob gave us the opportunity to understand what practical Christian life is all about.  We grew in maturity and the fellowship increased in number.
     T.E.E. is bringing hope to the hopeless and lifting up the humble.  T.E.E. is an elementary Bible school (as I call it) that shapes the gifts of God in the students for better use. 
(Brother Laryea went on to graduate from Ghana Christian College.  Today he is using T.E.E. to train leaders)


Afrifa Konadu - Church planter among the Konkomba in Ghana

     It was not easy to shape the lives of the people because of their world view and respect for their tradition.  T.E.E. was introduced into the churches.  The more the people grew in the Word, the less problems we had in the churches.  Lives have been transformed.
     One of the strategies that helped members who were illiterates to reason and think maturely was the discussion method of the class.  It guided them to think, reason and come out with their own ideas and plans.  Based on the foundation built by the T.E.E. courses, Frank Banyintea did further studies at Ghana Christian University College.  He was commissioned into service at his local church as a full-time minister.  Christian marriage is becoming one of the best models for marriage in the area due to the influence of the T.E.E. courses. 

Wayne Meece - Field Coordinator for Team Expansion International, former missionary working in Liberia and Ivory Coast.

To all Brothers in Christ,

     I have been associated with Bob Sheffler since 1977 when he and his family came to Liberia to work with us until they could get visas for Nigeria. In the years since then we have worked together in several ways, but when civil war forced us to leave Liberia in 1991, Greta and I moved to Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), and began working directly with the Shefflers again.
     During the years between, Bob and Connie had worked in Nigeria and had developed a program of church leadership training through Theological Education by Extension (T.E.E.). Bob had developed the program in Nigeria and had written several books of training materials to use in the program. He had moved to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire to lead a program of leadership training among English speakers, mostly from Ghana, leaving the Nigerian work in the hands of nationals he had trained. Greta and I moved to Dananê, Côte d'Ivoire to work with Liberian refugees who had fled the war and were living in the area. At Bob's encouragement, we began teaching TEE classes among the Liberian refugees. We were able to bring church leaders from Liberia out of the war zone to Dananê for the training. These church leaders from Liberia became the core of a church leadership training program that is still effective and growing in Liberia today.
     The TEE program proved so effective in the trying circumstances of a refugee camp and a seemingly endless civil war that Greta and I decided to move to Abidjan and work with the Shefflers. During the West African Missionary Conference in 1992, Bob and I were appointed to an ad-hoc committee to research ways of developing the churches of the region. We began meetings with African church leaders from Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Liberia with the goal of finding the most effective way to help develop strong churches in West Africa. This committee continued to meet for several years and the Christian Leadership Training Institute was conceived and birthed as a result of those meetings.
     Bob and I worked together for the next 10 years to develop, organize and promote this program. Bob wrote most of the books. I wrote one book and helped edit some of the others. Bob eventually moved to Ghana to organize the Institute and built the compound that is today the headquarters of the Institute. I worked as supervisor for the programs in Liberia and Ivory Coast. Training programs were soon developed in four West African countries: Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria and we saw the number of students grow to as many as 500.
     Both Bob and I have moved to the USA, and we are involved in other fields of mission work. Today one of our students, Stephen Ofori, is Director of the Institute. An African leader is in charge of the T.E.E. program in each of the four countries.  Plans are being made to expand into other nations. Church leaders trained by the Institute are now ministering to churches and planting new churches in all four of the countries involved in the Institute
     A wise man once said, "Find where God is working and join him." God is working through T.E.E.  I recommend that you consider joining HIM.

Wayne Meece
Field Coordinator - Europe and West Africa
Team Expansion
Louisville, KY








Feed my sheep!  (John 21:15-17)