It was early September of 1996, and the fall semester at Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe was just about start. I was on a flight from Los Angeles, California, to Munich, Germany, flipping through a phrase book trying to learn how to say, “yes,” “no,” “please,” and “thank you” in German (my two years of high school Spanish were of zero help at this point.) I had no idea that I was just starting the ride of my life. I would stay at CCBCE (then at Schloss Heroldeck in Millstatt, Austria) for my final three semesters of Bible college and be in CCBCE’s first graduating class.

As a student of CCBCE, one of my favorite aspects of the program was the opportunity to get to know so many missionaries and church leaders in Europe.

—Servant leaders who have been out on the front lines doing hard work for years upon years upon years. I was also able to visit many different countries and see God working across Europe, to see Him move in various cultural contexts. I visited cities which had never seen a single protestant church—let alone a Bible-teaching one—in their history. This was true in hundreds if not thousands of cities across the continent.

After graduating, the staff asked me to stay on board and teach an elective class. (In retrospect, I’ve always felt bad for the students who took that class, but those who survived were hopefully no worse for the year.) After returning to the states, my wife and I spent some years ministering at Calvary Chapel Vineland, New Jersey, before heading back to CCBCE in 2004.

Upon returning to the college (now as an ordained pastor), I was given the great privilege of working with some of the most amazing men and women of God in the world.

The teaching staff of CCBCE has shared God’s Word with students who come from all across the States. We’ve had students from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Australia, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Japan and China; students from Brazil, Russia, Cuba, a great many European countries, and even from Canada, to name a few places. While living in Europe from 2004 to 2013, I was able to share God’s Word in 12 different countries. Needless to say, I’m spoiled.

Fast forward to today. I’m sitting at my desk in Rogers, Arkansas, where I pastor a fantastic little church. I’ve just returned from another trip to CCBCE, and I was—not surprisingly—thoroughly blessed by my time with the students and staff at the college’s current location in Budapest, Hungary. I’ve had the pleasure of being either a student, teacher, pastor or guest lecturer for more than 20 different semesters of Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe. I’ve been given a unique perspective to see so much of God’s work through CCBCE from the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.

Over the years, literally hundreds of CCBCE’s students have taken their own missionary adventures to serve our great Savior across the planet.

Others have returned to their native countries—that much more prepared and equipped to do the work of the ministry—where they’re now teaching others about the love of God. It’s amazing to see how our college has impacted and is impacting so many lives and eternities in so many different places. Former “CCBCEer’s” have spent time ministering on every continent (except—to my knowledge—Antarctica). CCBCE’s reach includes the fact that we have former students dealing with Russian immigration and the polar vortex as they declare Jesus in—no kidding—Siberia.

It was Dr. Robert Moffat, who, in the early 1800s shared with Dr. David Livingstone what he often saw in Africa: “the smoke of a thousand villages,” where no message of the gospel, no missionary or no mention of Jesus had ever reached. What’s staggering is that there are seemingly thousands of cities across the continent of Europe where the same can be said still today.

There is much need, and CCBCE has continued to be a constant bridge for the gospel over the years.

Every semester of CCBCE’s history has included a variety of outreaches where students serve at various Calvary Chapels, meet some wonderful saints and share the good news of Jesus with the world. These students are given what I was given all those years ago: an opportunity to see God at work in ways that they’d never be able to see without first taking a step of faith, getting on an airplane and frantically flipping through a foreign language phrase book. I hope these students have stories of their own, and that they become just like me: super spoiled as they are given opportunities to be part of God’s great work through His people across the planet.

Legendary actress Sophia Loren was quoted as saying, “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” I’m not going to say that I owe everything to my time with CCBCE; that would be silly. I will say that God used all those semesters in so many ways to help shape me into who I am today. For that, I’m spoiled, and because of that, I’m grateful.

Have you been praying about joining a Bible college to deepen your relationship with God? Are you looking to grow in your faith in a cross-cultural setting? At Calvary Chapel Bible College Ireland (CCBCI), we aim to disciple believers into a deeper relationship with Jesus, while equipping them for ministry.

Our heart for the school is summarized well by Ephesians 3:17-19, “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

As a smaller campus, the pastors and Bible college staff are able to get to know the students in a way that really captures the heart of this verse.

We get the privilege of discipling, praying, teaching, serving, laughing and walking alongside each student. Each term we see God move and work in unique and specific ways within each student as they experience the love of Christ at work.

It’s our sincere hope that those who spend time at our campus will go on to use the discipleship and training they have received to fulfill the call of Christ in their lives to serve Him and His people, and to reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ in whatever form or capacity He desires.

In Ireland attending Bible college is not a common thing to do, and for this reason, we open our classes for the local believers to come, attend and audit classes, free of charge. This means that many local people come and take a class or two alongside our full-time students, creating a fantastic mix of students of all ages and people at all different stages of life.

Waterford itself is the oldest city in Ireland with a lot of history attached to it, a country historically steeped in Christianity, but today, only 0.05% of the population profess to be evangelical Christians.

Our anchoring church, Calvary Waterford, is an extremely diverse church with over 20 nationalities represented. One of the unique aspects of CCBCI is our “adopt-a-student” program. Each student is assigned to a Calvary Waterford family who will be a point of contact for the student for their whole semester. Host families will be actively involved in students’ lives in a variety of ways – praying for them, bringing students to their homes for dinner, going out for coffee or bringing students out on adventures. This helps battle any feelings of homesickness, and many students keep in touch with their host families long after they’ve left Ireland.

Discipleship is an important and central part of what we do here at CCBC Ireland.

So much so that we shape our courses each term around what each student might need. With our term capacity set around 10 students, we are able to spend more time pouring into and praying for the needs of each individual student. Our staff is honored to be a part our students’ spiritual development.

Whether through our weekly prayer and worship nights, serving in the church, sitting under incredible teaching in the classes or meeting up for coffee and a chat, our hope is that each student would be filled with the fullness of God’s love, and from that place, would seek to share the gospel with the world.

We would love to have you join us this or any term.

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