Pastor Ron van der Spoel, founder of the Foundation Foundation: “Jethro was founded fifteen years ago. We follow God’s calling and do our work in complete dependence on Him. Our concept is simple: basic training for pastors who do not have access to official pastor training due to poverty or persecution. Through Bible-based practical courses, we teach our participants to discover who they are as a pastor and how they can serve their congregation in a Biblical way.
This all started on a small scale, with one pastor teaching the courses to others so they could share their newly acquired skills and knowledge with those around them. Over the years, this concept has grown into a movement in which passionate local trainers from more than 25 different countries organize annual courses based on the same concept. We are so grateful to our God for that. He leads us, and we follow Him.
From 2022, we will work more closely with strategically located theological seminaries on the African continent. Their institutions often allow students from the area but also from surrounding countries to attend these seminars. We strive to ensure that students are introduced to our course material through these theological courses. When they return to their country, they can pass on the skills and knowledge they have learned to other pastors. The Jethro Foundation currently focuses on delivering courses across the African continent. This is done by training and deploying ‘regional coordinators’ who work in one or more countries. The NET Foundation runs Jethro courses in various countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.
The Jethro Foundation alone organizes an average of fifty courses every year in more than twenty-five different countries. Sometimes a course attracts 50 participants. Other times we have 500 participants. We can never really say how many pastors we will train. But we trust and recognize that those who need it will find their way to our training, led there by God Himself.”
