Sheldon and Elaine Dwyer were called to mission work in 1971. They attended International Bible College in San Antonio, Texas.
         They left their home in Wisconsin for the Philippines arriving May 1, 1972. They began their ministry in a fellowship with several hundred ministers. The problem with these ministers was that they were all evangelists, and were able to start churches, but they were crying for help in teaching so they could keep their churches going. So the Dwyers began to travel out and teach in Short Term Bible Schools on several islands in Mindanao, Bohol, Masbate, and Luzon.
        Later the pastors wanted a regular type of Bible school so in 1977 the Dwyers started Gospel Ventures Institute. Since then, many of the students from the Bible school have started churches in Luzon, Visayas (middle islands), and Mindanao. The Dwyers wrote most of the curricula of the Bible school which later became the basis of the discipleship books that they began to publish.
        The Dwyers have printed 20 books up to this time (2022). “Building on the Rock” has also been translated into Vietnamese, Hindi, Tagalog, and Cebuano. Doors of ministry have opened up in other foreign countries such as Vietnam, India, Qatar, Romania, Moldova, Transnistria, Bulgaria, and also in Haiti and Argentina. The Dwyers are presently working on getting more of these books translated into Filipino dialects. Short Term Bible schools continue to be needed in the Philippines as there are so many youth being added to the churches who have great potential for leadership. Short term Bible schools are much less expensive to operate, are mobile, and fulfill a great need of discipling new workers for the Great Commission. The Dwyers continue to support Filipino pastors, and will focusing on training future church leaders, as the Lord leads.