"Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain" (Psalm 127:1). Everything we are attempting this year at IPTT is beyond us. And yet the Lord keeps building.

Much of our work this season has been unglamorous but essential. We are overhauling the institutional framework that will carry IPTT for decades: updated bylaws, board policies, staff policies, and student policies. This will protect the ministry, clarify our governance, and move us closer to being ready to apply for accreditation.

We are laying stone by stone so that the men we train inherit an institution that is stable, accountable, and built to last. Our new website is nearly complete, and it is far more than a digital brochure.

It includes a full student area with genuine classroom capabilities: live video sessions, coursework submitted and returned online, and the tools our students need to learn well across the distances that separate rural Nigeria from sound theological instruction. For men who could never relocate to a seminary, this brings the seminary to them. We will also continue with on-campus learning and mandatory live attendance for all students.

Alongside the website, we are preparing to deploy a massive digital libraryDigital LibraryA centralized, digital repository of theological and academic resources curated for IPTT — giving students and faculty remote access to ebooks, academic journals, and pastoral resources., built specifically for our students, pairing a deep collection of Reformed and Puritan works with a student search engine — putting a research library into the hands of pastors who have never owned more than a handful of books.

I am also delighted to welcome a new member to our faculty, a full introduction of whom you will find elsewhere in this newsletter. See page 4 for the continuation of this letter, including our solar fundraising update.

We continue to be crushed by the cost of diesel. Our generator is charging our batteries and is the only thing keeping the lights on, the classrooms running, and the servers that host our online classroom and digital library alive.

Fuel prices in Nigeria have made this brutal. We have cut every process we can and trimmed our load everywhere possible, but there is a floor below which we cannot go without shutting down the power we need to make IPTT work.

The solution is solar. A permanent solar installation would save us a substantial amount every year — money that currently vanishes into a fuel tank and could instead train men for the ministry.

Solar is a one-time investment that pays for itself and keeps giving, freeing up meaningful resources annually for the seminary's actual work.

We have made meaningful progress toward our total solar funding goal. We are dividing the work into phases so we can benefit from some solar sooner rather than later, but we need to get all three phases completed as soon as possible.

My aim is to have solar installed and running before I return to Nigeria in October, when we will welcome a new class of students.

• For the solar fundraising to be met before October.
• For the accreditation process with ARTSARTSAssociation of Reformed Theological Seminaries — artseminaries.org.
• For our new faculty member and the incoming class.
• For our staff of fourteen who carry this work daily.
• For wisdom as we finalize policies, the website, and the libraries.

Online at ebcfl.org — choose Giving, then select IPTT at the bottom of the dropdown.

Or by check to Emmanuel Baptist Church, ATTN: IPTT, 5391 Johnson Rd, Coconut Creek, FL 33073. Write "IPTT" in the memo. All gifts are tax-deductible through EBC.

As a Nigerian who has observed our situation closely, I write with both sadness and hope, a sadness underpinned by the very gloomy picture of the unrelenting hardship imposed by the Nigerian economy on the populace, forcing the people to live in pure desperation as rampant inflation has severely eroded the value of the naira.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, quoted by Trading Economics, the headline inflation rate stood at 15.93 percent in May 2026. Food inflation reached 16.96 percent, while core inflation was 16.82 percent. Prices of essential goods such as food, fuel, transportation, and medicine have risen sharply, often doubling or tripling within short periods, while salaries for most workers remain unchanged and there are almost no meaningful cost of living adjustments.

Jobs are scarce, and as such so many able men and women remain either unemployed or underemployed, often surviving on irregular and low paying labor that barely meets daily needs. According to Nairametrics, the World Bank has reported that Nigeria's poverty rate rose to 63 percent in 2025, affecting about 140 million Nigerians. This means the majority of Nigerians live below the poverty line even as macroeconomic figures sometimes show slight improvements that do not reach ordinary households.

Then there is the issue of infrastructure failures which compound the crisis. Power supply in Nigeria is highly unreliable, the national grid suffers frequent collapses, and actual electricity generation often falls far short of installed capacity, leaving homes and businesses in darkness for days or weeks while firms and families spend heavily on generators and fuel just to keep basic operations running.

This reality is what has informed IPTT's decision to generate our own electricity through the purchase and installation of inverter batteries, solar panels and a diesel generator rather than rely on the unreliable power infrastructure. Roads are in poor condition in many areas which significantly raises transportation costs further, and clean water remains difficult to access in many communities. These systemic breakdowns are not occasional inconveniences but the daily realities that Nigerians are forced to endure.

When fuel prices surge or another wave of inflation hits, families that once seemed stable are plunged overnight into deeper poverty so that without meaningful savings, a stable income, or any reliable buffer they have little protection. Many suffer deeply not mainly because of personal mistakes but because the systems around them continue to fail.

In this environment, numerous Ponzi schemes that appear every other year find ready victims as desperation has forced people to be less circumspect. These schemes appear, promising quick relief but leave only ruin. The promoters of these schemes, often out of their own desperation, take advantage of the widespread hardship and limited options.

The Church in Nigeria is by no means spared from the economic realities the populace face. A called brother who spends his days searching for the next meal or worrying about rent cannot give himself fully to study so that many gifted and called men who could become faithful pastors and teachers remain untrained; Churches then suffer from shallow teaching and weak leadership, the flock goes underfed, and the Gospel advances more slowly in our land.

In spite of the gloomy picture, there is hope. A hope that is underpinned by the continued indispensability of the Gospel which remains primary even in these hard times. Regardless of the economic hardships, the Nigerian people still need the true hope that is found in Christ alone. They need ministers who can teach the Scriptures clearly, comfort the suffering, and point them to the sufficiency of Jesus Christ amid collapsing systems.

Given these realities, the generous support we seek from individuals, churches, and organizations committed to missionary work is very important to the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Nigeria. These resources provide essential help; they enable serious students to receive fully subsidized sound theological training, such as is available in Reformed Seminaries in the West that are faithful in seeking the glory of Christ in all things. For us, this support is not mere charity, but a strategic investment in the future of the Nigerian Church.

We envision a Church where well trained leaders can teach their congregations biblical truth as well as principles of wise stewardship, strengthening believers even when the economy shakes. At the Institute of Pastoral and Theological Training (IPTT) we understand these challenges well. We have therefore put careful systems in place to make sure every gift is used wisely.

We do not offer support lightly. We look for clear evidence of genuine calling, seriousness, commitment, and godly character before offering assistance. Our desire is to steward donations faithfully so they produce lasting fruit for the Kingdom of God. We examine each applicant thoroughly because we know such generosity comes from hearts that love the Lord and His Church.