About Us
 

Sometimes life presents us with opportunities for which it seems we have been preparing all of our lives. And when those opportunities come you say, "This is it." For Nancy and I Zaporozhye Bible College has been such an opportunity.

Nancy was raised in a working class home in Joplin, MO. She and her family, which included a younger sister, Judy, and two older brothers, Don and Walter Gene, attended the Church of God (Holiness) at 9^th and Murphy from the time Nancy was five years old. Nancy's father, like the Apostle Paul, was a tentmaker, and her mother a homemaker. The family was very active in their area church community. Nancy graduated from Joplin High School in 1963, and from Jasper County Junior College in 1965, after which she went to work for the Social Security Administration. She worked for SSA until 1971 when she moved to Kansas City to become the accountant for Kansas City College and Bible School.

Gordon was raised in a Wesleyan Methodist Church parsonage in Indiana. At the age of ten he and his family, which included his older brother William, moved to Tennessee. There they were actively involved in the Bible Methodist Church. Gordon received his first license to preach when he was 16 years old, and served as associate pastor of Scarbrough Memorial Bible Methodist Church in Harriman, TN until he graduated from Rule High School in Knoxville and moved to Overland Park, Kansas to attend KCCBS, from which he graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

After their marriage on June 17, 1972 (incidentally, while the Watergate break-in was in progress) they embarked on a life of ministry, serving pastorates in California, Missouri, Iowa, and Colorado. Along the way Nancy served in various secretarial positions, and Gordon worked in the hardware and construction businesses.  In 1976 Gordon enrolled at Ozark Bible College in Joplin, MO where he earned his bachelor of theology degree in Preaching Ministry. While serving as home missionaries in Ft Worth, TX in the early 80’s both Nancy and Gordon earned their Texas real estate licenses, and received numerous awards for excellence in real estate sales.

In 1986 their lives took a different turn as they moved to Glen Islay, Jamaica to serve the Church of God (Holiness) as missionaries. Their work there included leadership roles at Venture High School and Bible College, and as an evangelist among the churches of the island. This two year experience confirmed their call to mission work, and put them on a   course that ultimately led them to Zaporozhye, Ukraine.

While serving as pastors of the Church of God (Holiness) in Lamar, CO from 1988-1993 Gordon began taking extension courses from Columbia Bible College and Seminary in Columbia, SC with a goal of earning a master's degree in Old Testament to further prepare him to teach at the Bible college level overseas. In 1993 they resigned the church in Lamar and moved to South Carolina where Gordon completed both his MA in Old Testament and an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. While in Columbia they were privileged to attend Covenant Community Fellowship, where Amos Hann pastors, and be actively involved in the ministry there.

It was while attending Columbia Bible College and Seminary, which became Columbia International University while they were there, that the door opened for ministry at Zaporozhye Bible College. And in September, 1996, they departed from Columbia Airport to begin their new life in Ukraine.