Who We Are

In 1962 the Presbyterian Church in Guatemala discovered that after training over 200 students in their seminary over a period of 25 years, only 10 of those students were still in the pastorate. In addition, they discovered that many men who came from the small villages to attend the seminary in the city never went back to the villages. Even more important was the fact that the vast majority of the church's existing leaders had never been able to go to seminary at all because they were older, had families and were already established in their home towns. The solution was to take the seminary to the students.

The Guatemala experiment was so successful that it was imitated in other countries. By 1974 there were 182 biblical extension programs in 57 countries ministering to 16,475 students!

Would such a strategy work in other parts of the world? In the summer of 1979, 20 different missions working in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union met in Vienna, Austria to consider that question. Several nationals from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia and Romania attended. After three days of deliberations led by Dr. Fred Holland of the Wheaton Graduate School, these men felt led of God to form a new organization called Biblical Education by Extension (BEE). Twelve missions agreed to cooperate in developing a comprehensive training program for men who desired to become church leaders in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Through the 80's these men and women risked their freedom and saftey to travel behind the Iron Curtain, smuggling not Bibles, but vital ministry training to Christians meeting in secret. Code names were common, and the KGB was often just a step behind. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall, a whole new horizon of possibilities arrived for the missions involved.

Out of this strong background of seasoned experience, proven materials, and multi-cultural background, emerged a new ministry based on the same concepts. Church-based Leadership Training (CBLT) was started in Ukriane by Abraham Bible, one of the early BEE missionaries. It's goal was to quickly increase the number of Christian leaders in the nation, providing a backbone for the rapid church growth brought about by the new spiritual freedoms.

The ministry in Ukraine trained thousands of church leaders, and today is run entirely by nationals. Since then the training has spread to Russia where the process of handing over resposibility to the nationals is nearly complete. Since 2006 CBLT has been known as Wildfire, a name which reflects both the passion and the success of this method. Today, Wildfire is spreading to India and Africa.