Red River Training School
“True education is to know and to do the will of God. This education is as lasting as eternity.” {YI August 31, 1899, par. 1}
Red River as a concept centers on missionary home apprenticeship. Jesus came as the unwearied servant of man’s necessities, and He taught men how to live. Following this example, we see that the disciples of Christ learned to be ‘fishers of men’, not through abstract theoretical lectures, but by practical, real-life experience.
In the same way, Red River endeavors to establish a home for workers, where missionary focused individuals are able to come and gain practical exposure to a life of ministry. This will not run as a regular training program, or a set course or study. Our aim is not to supply certifications or qualifications on paper, but rather to encourage a settling into of evangelism as a lifestyle, as opposed to an event.
Red River will offer three main tracts of ministry emphasis: Bible Work, Medical Missionary Work, and Canvassing. Each student will select one tract in which to be apprenticed and specialize in. However, each student will become familiar with aspects of all three, and will also be trained into a practical line of manual labor, which will operate as their means of self-support in the future.
As agriculture is the ABC of all educational endeavors, each student will gain much exposure and experience in gardening of various types, including larger scale market farming, and smaller gardening efforts to provide for the institution. The heartbeat of Red River is to see homes produced, where The Lord is once again the Teacher, and the family of workers follow His lead.
“For three years and a half, the disciples were under the instruction of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known. By personal contact and association, Christ trained them for His service… He did not command the disciples to do this or that, but said, “Follow Me.” {AA 17.2}