Samuel's PTEE story
Samuel Jock started leading PTEE classes in 2000 in Sudan, and was appointed PTEE's Dean for Sudan in 2001. In addition to his PTEE responsibilities, Samuel is a father of 2 boys, a pastor, and a part-time teacher at the Upper Nile University in Sudan. Initially he got involved with PTEE in Jordan in 1997, while studying in Jordan for his MA at the Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary (JETS).
In the following interview, Samuel tells his experience of God’s grace and goodness to him, his family, and the people he teaches in Sudan; it’s his journey with PTEE:
“To fulfill part of my academic and ministry requirements at JETS, I was sent to learn about the PTEE. I fell in love with the program and voluntarily started tutoring some classes. When I returned to Sudan in 2000, I wanted to continue in this ministry and I introduced the program to people there. Then I was asked to start a PTEE office in 2001.
“Since then, the courses I teach have been so influential and useful both to me personally and to the people I minister to. It causes continuous growth, as you can't teach something that you don't have. When I first taught Christian Stewardship & Christian Family, I wasn't married at the time. But when I got married it became very practical to me and my family. PTEE books provided and equipped me with a full range of Biblical truths and learning, and now are like reference manuals in many areas of the Christian walk for me, my family and congregation.
"Being a part of the PTEE I have witnessed God’s love, grace and goodness in my life and around me. Many of the people I had taught became my colleagues. Many of them were looking to obtain Christian education to improve their ministry skills, but because of their families, ministries, and expensive costs they couldn't travel to study. However, with PTEE, we came to them instead and supported them in various ways. It was nice to see that Christian leadership education was able to reach people in hard places and that they felt they were not forgotten. God’s goodness and grace reached them right in their own communities."
"Although it was hard in the beginning, when I had to travel and talk to a lot of friends and church leaders in Sudan about the program, God always provided places and people who wanted to learn and join in the ministry. People who wanted to learn and were determined to study made time for it, and now people can see positive results in the leaders’ lives in terms of leadership skills and personal development."
"Now, by God’s grace and with growing demands for PTEE courses, we have a plan to build a PTEE Center in Sudan. It’s been difficult to find land and register it, but our amazing God and His perfect plan amaze us always. At the beginning, the government required many things, which where beyond our abilities, like fulltime teaching staff, continuous income and that didn't work for PTEE. So I had to work with them, and as a part time lecturer myself, I introduced the PTEE curriculum at the Upper Nile University. The government liked the program and the university now is adapting this curriculum for teaching Christian Theology. The government actually gave us about 3200 square meters of land near the University and considered us as an educational institute. They are happy about the program. Now, once we're able to build the PTEE Center next to the University, we'll be able to facilitate more training and provide classes to members of the University and community too. Our God is so good.
“We have drawn up a building plan for the PTEE Center in Sudan. It's our dream. People tell me that it's a big dream and can't be done, but I choose to believe otherwise. We will have a training center, guest house, classrooms and offices. It's going to be a multi-program center, mainly for PTEE. It will cost us a lot of money – in fact we need to raise about $1,310,434 for the whole center. People keep telling me that it’s impossible, but I think everything is possible with our mighty God. We have made a small start, and we will now be raising money to build the center.
"More than 200 students have now studied with PTEE. Of them, two received a Bachelor’s degree two years ago, 12 obtained a Certificate of Theology, and about 7 gained the Diploma award. We are looking to see God being glorified through this project and for many to see Christ through PTEE’s ministry in Sudan.”