Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Grace Snavely. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Grace, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

In 2011, we founded a non-profit that would take college/seminary level training to indigenous pastors and church leaders who had no access to education and no ability to pay for it. One such pastor was a young man in Rwanda named Fidele Shinga. Fidele pastored a small church and served as our translator for about eight years. He caught a vision for how serving these indigenous leaders could change the face of his nation and continent through the use of intentional multiplication. Fidele now works for us full-time as a trainer. He travels all over East Africa opening up new nations to the training provided by Global Baptist Training Foundation.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Bruce and Grace had been in ministry for 20 years before pursuing a path to education. Bruce went on to earn a PhD in historical theology and church history. Grace has a master’s degree in education. We both taught in a small college for about 10 years. It was during those years that a dream began to grow of taking education.to those in developing nations with no access to good theological training. We incorporated a 501(c)3 in 2011 and began to develop a theological curriculum and a business plan to find contacts in developing nations and move forward. Soon, contacts in developing began finding us – through our website, social media, and word of mouth. We are now in fifteen nations in Africa alone plus classes in Myanmar, Haiti, Mexico. Our future plan is focused mainly on Africa where we have plans to have 100 or more indigenous trainers who take our mission into all 54 African nations within the next ten years. One of things we are most proud of is watching the nationals we train blossom into trainers themselves. That is exactly our long-term mission to have nationals training nationals. We have also seen an unbelievable number of new churches placed in villages and towns through the efforts of Global Baptist Training Foundation (GBTF graduates). To date, nearly 450 new churches serve in places where none previously existed.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Our vision was too small. When we began, we had no idea what opportunities existed in the process of training the indigenous. We were forced to pivot and realize that intentional multiplication is possible when those you train are energized, equipped, and mobilized. We are now reaching thousands a year and seeing many of them become trainers. The indigenous trainers are much more effective because they know the language, understand the culture. and care deeply for the people they serve.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Operating a faith-based non-profit is not for the faint of heart. We began, as many do, with bare minimum resources. It was then our job to share our vision with enough people who could help finance the education of indigenous church leaders. We have always been amazed at the kind of energy (and donations) that are created by sharing a vision. You lead with your vision, and people gravitate to that vision. Many times, the funds seemed to be lacking for the vision we had. Simply sharing that vision through our social media, speaking opportunities, interviews, and email contacts has always resulted in growth as people see what is possible around the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.globaltrain.org
• Instagram: trainthenationals
• Facebook: Global Baptist Training Foundation
• Linkedin: Global Baptist Training Foundation, Inc.
• Youtube: @globalbaptisttrainingfoundation