From London to Palestine

Organizing and facilitating the Online Biblical Studies Program in Arabic at Bethlehem Bible College, Anton “Tony” Deik and Daniel Bannoura share more than an office. These Palestinian Christians from the Bethlehem area are each alumni of the London School of Theology. Bannoura completed his Master’s in Transformation: Scripture, Church and World in 2010, and Deik completed the same program a few years later (2013-2014).

Having never met one another while in Bethlehem or in London, the two have now come on staff at Bethlehem Bible College. Deik began the pilot program and started laying the necessary foundation for online courses at the start of 2015. Bannoura was hired on in the summer of 2016 to help facilitate and teach alongside Deik. The program officially began in September of 2016.

Each having a passion for teaching and making the study of Scripture more accessible, they have united in their endeavors in creating the Online Biblical Studies Program taught in Arabic for those around the Arab-speaking world. Their hope is to create a means by which people living in predominately Muslim contexts, those suffering from the refugee crisis, or those who simply need a more flexible avenue for study can easily access an education centered around studying the Bible. At its start, the program had forty-five students enrolled. By Spring Semester 2017, enrollment was up to fifty-one students.

Deik and Bannoura’s education at LST played a crucial role in their endeavors locally in Palestine, but it has allowed them to expand their vision to the point of influencing the lives of those stretched across the Arab-speaking world. Further, Grace Arteen, Head of the BA Department at BBC, also graduated from LST in 2010. We are grateful for the impact that LST had in training and educating our faculty and staff here at BBC. Skills, principles and lifestyles that were imparted to them during their time at LST are now bearing fruit across the globe.