We are very grateful for the love and support our generous contributors give this work. Through donations and prayers, we graduated our second class this year, and three new young men graduated on the 9th of December. Altogether, we have now graduated 46 young men from our Spanish program since its inception.

New Graduates

Jean-Paul Fallas

Brother Fallas came to us from San Jose, Costa Rica. He is now 30 years old and married his wife Katherine one year before they came to school. While at school, God blessed them with their first child, Milena, in 2022. Before coming to school, Jean-Paul had a degree/certificate in Business Management and supported his family through that, as he also attended a Theological Institute in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, the school shut down not long after he began his studies there, yet his desire for training did not. He applied to Brown Trail in December 2021, and within a few weeks, he had his Student Visa, and they were on their way here.

Jean-Paul is a wonderful young man. He is kind, loving, and very appreciative of all that God has blessed him with. He is not very large, but his personality gives him a significant presence no matter where he goes. Always smiling, laughing, hugging, and joking around with others are substantial pluses with him and will help him in his ministry.

He will leave the United States on the 10th of December to return home. The Lord’s church in Lewisville, Texas, wants to hire him to work with the church there, but due to his Student Visa restrictions, he must return home and try to come in on a Work Permit.

The Fallas Family

Jose Mata

Brother Mata is from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and is 35 years old. Before attending Brown Trail, he served in the engineering field there and was laboring with the local congregation. He is married to Eunice, and God blessed them with two young children, Hiram and Cesia.

Brother Mata came to us to increase his Bible knowledge and receive leadership training. His personality is almost the total opposite of Jean-Paul’s. He is quiet and strong and only speaks a little if he has something important to say. He and his family will return to Mexico to work with local San Luis Potosi congregations.

Oscar Alas

Oscar is the baby of the group. He is 22 years old and from Nuevo Cuscatlan, El Salvador. He was raised in the church and, after graduation, will be serving as the Associate Minister for the Iglesia de Cristo congregation. He is not married, yet somebody told me that he is “in the market.” Not only will he work with the congregation there, but he plans to continue his education and will be seeking a psychology degree.

Again, we appreciate your love and support for these three men. They are about to embark on a lifetime of ministry. We pray for them! As we lose these three, we will have nine more new students starting in January. They hail from California, Texas, Tennessee, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, and Mexico. We are trying to prepare Student Visas, airfare, and accommodations for them once they arrive. Unfortunately, some of the requirements from the southern embassies have changed. We have been applying and getting approvals for the past 20 years with no problems. However, the southern embassies have become much more stringent within the last year, making getting some of their Student Visas difficult. Lord willing, they will all get their Visas soon and start arriving.

Student Update: Davin Whatley

Occasionally, our students are blessed with an opportunity to fill pulpits for local congregations. Brother Whatley recently went to fill in on Sunday at the New York Avenue congregation in Arlington, Texas, and afterward, we received this letter.

Members at the New York Avenue church were pleased to have one of your students, Davin Whatley, as our guest speaker at both morning and evening worship services today. I wanted to express to you how much we enjoyed both sermons.

Davin has all the makings of a very fine preacher of the gospel. At age 21, he shows maturity beyond his years in the knowledge of the Scriptures, excellent choice of subjects and recall of his material, polished delivery of the lessons, and a depth of understanding of God’s will for Christians today.

His natural talent for preaching is evident, but there is no doubt he has benefitted from the excellent training he has already received from Brown Trail in his first year. I thank God for the fine work you and others are doing there to prepare men to preach the gospel. You are in my prayers.

In Christ, Dianne Chance

Budgets

We are grateful to all who helped financially to make 2023 a great success. The school here is approaching our 60th anniversary, and none of that could have happened without the love and support of faithful brethren for over a generation now. When Preacher Training Schools began in America, we were the second school established and perhaps the first English program based in the United States. Since then, dozens of schools of preaching have popped up all over the brotherhood in the United States and the World, and together, we started something great. Tens of thousands of men have graduated from our brotherhood preacher’s training programs since then, and we are grateful for the vision many had back in the mid-1960s to start these programs.

As 2024 begins, our needs never change. We would appreciate it if you continued to unite with us, and if you are not, consider doing so as we train young men for the pulpit for years to come. Please note that we need financial help for our General Fund and specific needs each year, and we would appreciate your help. We need to raise $2,200.00 for International Travel for trips that our Director, Kevin Rhodes, and our Spanish teachers often make to work with other schools, recruit, and preach. We need to raise $5,000.00 to help offset the cost of our students and staff as they attend the Polishing the Pulpit lectureship in August 2024. We need to raise about $5,000.00 a year for software and technology. We are upgrading our websites and constantly improving our technology to help in the classroom and spread the gospel to the world. We need an additional $3,000.00 for the school pantry, which will enable us to keep the pantry filled for our students and their families while attending school. So many of them live on shoestring budgets, and this pantry has been a considerable benefit over the years. We also appreciate those who helped donate to the Student Emergency Fund when it got low earlier this year. Still, we need to raise approximately $5,000.00 for 2024 to help students with unexpected expenses. Typically, these are automobile and health-related expenses, which are difficult to budget. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Conclusion

We just finished our Fall Quarter. Our English students will go home and visit friends and family over the holidays and begin their next quarter in the first week of 2024. We also have our nine new Spanish-speaking brethren who are in the process of moving here to start classes as well. I hope everyone has a beautiful holiday season.

Brotherly,

heath w stapleton