Today we celebrate Memorial Day, it is a day for remembrance.  We remember and honor our roots…even Vision’s roots. We remember the many miracles, the people God has connected, the divine provisions that have enabled us to get to where we are today; all so that God could bring to pass the Vision of Vision. Even as we honor and respect where we came from, we also embrace where God has brought us, taking full stock of where we are in this season.  Perhaps even more exciting, we look forward with expectancy to where God is taking us tomorrow.

Now, from Dr. Stan…..

Dear Friends and Family of Vision,

It was suggested to me that I write something about Memorial Day in the United States and tie it in to Vision’s history. I was a bit reluctant to do so, not that I am not proud of where we have come from, but I am so focused on where I believe the Lord is taking us. Of course, we are building on a strong foundation….and our focus remains, and always will be to taking the “whole word to the whole world”…Spirit and Word, the Great Commission motivated by the Great Commandment, until the earth is covered with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Memorial Day is a time to reflect on those who have paid the ultimate price for freedom. We remember, partially because we dare not forget, the sacrifices made so we might be free to worship as we choose, to travel as we will, etc. I am grateful for the freedom that is a part of the American experience, but even more grateful for the freedom we have in Christ due to his once and for all complete sacrifice for sin and salvation. It is good to remember…and be grateful.

With that in mind, I have pulled out some excerpts from the book Vision and VITEN History, compiled by Dr. Alison Chant, co-founder of Vision with her hubby Dr. Ken Chant. I hope you will enjoy the reading…which is not available for publication yet, as we are adding more to the content and bringing it up to date…with a hope of releasing it in the Fall.  I hope you take time to read a few of the excerpts to follow, along with the announcement of the re-release of Supernatural Architecture in its second edition.

Blessings, and Happy Memorial Day.

Excerpts from Vision and VITEN History

Compiled by Alison Chant

Vision remembers–  Bishop G.R. Gurley:

Today, 17^th February 2008, Bishop Gurley and his wife, Dr. Manon Gurley, have just returned from a sweep through India, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where they have been preaching, teaching and, establishing Vision classes.  They graciously agreed to describe his conversion, his accomplishments, and the early days of the Bible Schools which Dr. Gurley, as he was then, helped to establish from ‘83-’89 before the affiliation with Vision which came about in 1990.

How did it all begin? Gerald Kaufmann and Luciano Padilla and other inner-city pastors in New York City became tired of sending their best young men and women away to Bible School only to find that they either did not return at all.  If they did return, they found they had lost touch with the vision of the church and the people of the inner city.

For this reason, the pastors decided to set up classes in 1983 in urban and inner-city schools. The idea was to keep the Bible students in their own church while they studied and so keep the local vision alive in their hearts.

This was a remarkably similar vision to the one given Dr. Ken and Alison Chant in Australia in 1974 as their church too had lost young people to a Bible College, who did not then return after graduating. They determined to help other pastors in a similar position to train their own people and so Dr. Chant began writing the necessary curriculum.

About this time, the Logos Bible College moved its head office to California where Dr. DeKoven had a successful Family Counseling Center and Dr. DeKoven began developing the graduate program for the college.

When the original Logos Bible School President, David Mendez, resigned in 1987, he offered the position to Dr. Gurley who, because he was travelling as a minister, nationally and internationally, and because he did not want to relocate to California, where the head office was now situated, in turn offered the Presidency to Dr. Stan DeKoven. Dr. DeKoven was already living in Ramona, California and was able, with his wife Karen, to set up and maintain an office to handle the students. Dr. Gurley then took the position of Vice President.

Now that Dr. DeKoven and Dr. Gurley were President and Vice President of Logos Bible College, they continued opening campuses across the US and around the world. During this time, Dr. Gurley also opened the first campuses in Nigeria, India, and Puerto Rico.

In 1990 just before Dr. Ken and Alison Chant moved back to Australia, Dr. Gurley, Dr. DeKoven and Dr. Chant met in California and Dr. Gurley and Dr. DeKoven decided to officially join with Dr. Chant in his Vision Bible College and to change the name of Logos Bible College to Vision Bible College. Part of the reason for this merger was because Dr Chant had a similar vision and a strong original curriculum through the books he had written. These added to the Logos curriculum would make Vision unique in that it would be suited to third world countries as well as to the first world. Now the two Bible Colleges have grown and developed into what is known as Vision International University.

Alison Chant writes:

“The phone rang. It was after midnight and Ken dragged himself reluctantly out of bed. An excited voice came over the wire. It was our good friend Pastor Peter Vacca, calling from 600 miles away. He had been praying and had seen a vision of a map of the world with a light glowing in our city of Launceston. As he watched, the light spread all over Australia, then across to New Zealand, and then around the world.

Peter was so impressed and stirred by his vision that he had to ring us and let us know. Could we explain what it meant? Ken and I weren’t sure, but we said we would certainly pray about it.

Around this same time, one of the ladies from our church traveled across to Perth, and while there she heard a prophecy that a tree would grow out of Launceston, and its branches would spread over Australia, then across to New Zealand, and on around the world. A remarkably similar prophecy! But some months would pass before we could understand what God was saying to us.

For twelve years, we had labored in Tasmania, and through this period God had blessed us with great miracles, some of which are mentioned in my book, Divine Healing, The Wonder, and the Mystery. Many people had found healing in Jesus’ name, our own congregation was growing, and we had helped establish four other churches. They had been years of laughter and tears, sunshine and sadness, happiness, and frustration. There had been both defeats and triumphs. Much had been done, but Ken was troubled by a feeling that he had not fulfilled the full purpose of God.

I believe the Lord himself caused this, for it made Ken seek God earnestly about what his future should be. God denied him complete satisfaction in local church ministry, because he wanted to draw him into a special path, a hard path, and one that would take great sacrifice.

Ken became sure that God wanted to speak to him, to direct him in some way, and that he would find the answer in the USA. I was not fully aware of all that my husband was going through, but I knew he was struggling and needed encouragement. When he mentioned that he wanted to go to America, I knew at once that this was from God.  Ken booked himself in to a School of Ministry in Melodyland Church, California, and into one on church growth at Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral in Orange County.  He was accompanied on the trip by other pastors who wanted to go to the same conferences.

For both of us this was unusual. It was a dramatic departure from our normal way of understanding God’s will. Why go to the USA? Couldn’t the Lord speak in Australia? Yet we both knew this decision came from God. My experience and Ken’s in guidance had been uniform until now.  When we needed to know God’s will, we spent some time reviewing the situation and writing down the facts. Then we would make a reasonable decision based on those facts, using scripture and the wisdom God had planted in us over the years.

Even then, it was only by a series of miracles Ken ever got to America. Perhaps Satan was standing against him, sensing that this was a turning point in our lives. Perhaps the enemy knew that something would come from this trip that would help in building God’s kingdom. So, we had to contend with opposition from some people, a lost visa that turned up at the last moment on a plane that was not scheduled to fly, a pilot’s strike, and many other irritations from the enemy. Or perhaps they were from God, once more testing our faith?

Dr. Stan remembers…

Since I first became involved with Vision, my personal journey has been rocky at best, and the roller coaster in many ways continues today. Vision International University and VITEN (Vision International Teaching and Education Network) of which I joyfully give leadership, continues to grow, change, and mature, and at the same time our challenges continue. Now we are facing challenges of growth, and strategic changes must be made for everyone’s vested future.

Each year we have a Vision and Leadership Conference, or what we call our World Zone Leaders conference. We have divided the world into regions and have developed leaders in each area who are dedicated to seeing the Whole Word taken to the Whole World. This is the motto of VITEN/Vision since its inception in 1974.  In 2007, we met in Athens, Greece, with our Mediterranean and European World Zone leadership, and leaders from around the world.

After a time of fellowship and renewing friendships, we settled into our meetings on the World Zone system and accreditation. Who would have thought that we would have such an extensive outreach, with such quality leaders from around the world?

From Eastern Europe, Dr. Ernie Campe and his wife Linda reported that the Vision schools are growing in their region. As of today, they are working with over 1500 students in five nations and working with fifty-five local churches.

In the Middle East, Dr. Jerry Zandstra (of course, now with the Lord) and Yvette D’Sousa, along with Dr. Tim and Laurie Dailey report that the outreach is making a real impact. In partnership with the International School of Ministry, hundreds of students are being trained, and we are expanding into Jordan and other Middle Eastern nations.

In Western Europe we have added five new schools. Those are in Switzerland, Italy, and the UK. Denis Plant is heading to the UK in May to solidify arrangements for more schools in England, which is a real answer to prayer.

Africa continues to grow, under Dr. Steve Mills, our recipient of the annual Excellence in Leadership Award, and we are getting ready for greater launches in India and China, along with Farsi language programs in partnership with the Iranian Christian Church.

Overall our meetings were highly productive, a true blessing to all who could attend.

In the Steps of Paul

The second half of our time in Greece was a tour, following the Footsteps of Paul. At each stop, we heard dynamic teaching from Dr. Chant, Dr. Gurley (also with Jesus), Dr. West, Dr. Zandstra, and Dr. Brian van Deventer and Dr. Gail Stathis. Drs. Brian and Gail, along with their staff in Greece, made this a most memorable time for all.

Reflections

When I wrote this, I was still in Greece, teaching 20+ students about leadership. Our staff was home preparing for our Readiness Visit (February 28) from the Distance Education and Training Council, the next step in our march towards accreditation (which we are still focused on, with a better chance to achieve it now that we have a real headquarters). As always, I am grateful to the Lord for the privilege of serving in this ministry. God is so good and merciful. We have much work to complete before we can move to the next level in excellence, but the Lord is our helper, and we will indeed make it by His grace. We must always stay focused on taking the Whole Word to the Whole World, as God gives us strength. One key to doing this is to never forget where we have come from.  The reason for this book is to document the first 30 plus years of a remarkable and unlikely work for the Lord; the Vision International University/VITEN story begins here.

Dr. Stan DeKoven

President

Intrigued by our history so far? So many others have a portion of our history to tell.  People who have connected with us along the way.   Stay tuned for the whole book, to be released later this year.

April Showers! We are almost there!

“And He was also saying to the crowds, When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out.” Luke 12:54

Dear Friend of Vision;

April showers bring May flowers….in most of the United States, but not so much in Southern California…here, you just never know, as we get only so much rain, and this year our numbers are way down. Thankfully, we have a large snowpack, so drought is a long way off. Of course, though I do care about the weather, and our natural circumstances, I am most interested in what seems to be happening with Vision spiritually.

Last month I mentioned that we should ask for rain in the time of rain…for when it is already blessing time, you should go for more. In this passage, the sign of rain, the clouds, let you know that something special is coming…that the shower is coming, that the blessings are still on their way. That is where my faith is right now. For we have received (more below) incredible blessings over the past couple of months, I am convinced that this is just the beginning of the blessing of “rain” the Lord is sending to me and Vision.

For example:

• I’m getting married…to beautiful Joan (see pictures to follow) April 28…then off to Spain. If that is not the blessing of God, I don’t know what is.
• As of today, we have raised $130,000 of the $150,000 needed for the down payment. Really, it is coming down to crunch time, and we are standing in faith for the additional 22K+ that we need. Thanks for standing with us, and if you have been waiting until the end of our push to sow your seed…well…now would be good….and thanks.
• We have added a new Brazilian Director to Vision and one for the Caribbean, who are passionate about planting colleges and finding distance students to mentor…this is most exciting, as both areas have great need and potential for Kingdom expansion.
• Before the wedding, I will be in Colorado Springs meeting with two major ministries, and if we can partner together, this could have incredible long term impact on Vision for the future….all happening in the time of rain…God’s blessings…and there is more to come.

So, please continue to stand with me in prayer…for at least the additional $20,000 for the down payment, and more beyond…. for favor, for wisdom regarding our office move, and for my wedding…I am excited and blessed.

Continued Reminder for Prayer

We continue to need help.  We need to add new Gideon 300 members so that we can continue in our mission. Remember:

Vision International
Vision: The Whole Word to the Whole World
Preparing Leaders in the 21st Century

Mission: Equip and Educate as many Kingdom leaders as possible in the Nations of the World

Programs to accomplish the mission:

• VIU Distance Education
• VITEN to Equip the Saints
• Vision Publishing to provide quality Christian Training materials in Multiple languages.

Goals:

• Increase Church based training program Worldwide via BCIB (100 New)
• Recruit and Educate Degree level leaders Worldwide by 50% in 2018
• Distribute and Publish more books for the body of Christ
• Launch our new Marketing Plan

In this month’s Vision Update, we will be featuring….the World Zones of Vision.  What are world zones and what is their purpose?  More on this and on our two new zone leaders in this update.

Yours in Christ,

Dr. Stan
“The Whole Word to the Whole World”