My name is Patrick Thompson, I'm married and we live in Kingston, Jamaica. I am currently a national youth director for the Christian Brethren Assemblies of Jamaica. As a national youth director, for my denomination, we have approximately 80 churches. My main core function is to see how we can engage, equip, and empower our youth leaders as they serve their youth within their churches.

When I first started Bakke, I was at a place where I was called to do leadership, but did not necessarily understand how to do it. I knew I needed to get training. I knew I needed to better understand how I am wired, and what the gifts are that God has given me to hold and how He wanted me to use these gifts. Bakke Graduate University has helped me to find and to fuel that flame that I had as I wanted to see others grow and to develop. BGU has really opened my heart, my mind, my hands, and developed my skills to better understand how God has wired me and how He has called me to help leaders to develop and thrive.

BGU is not just any other university. BGU will be most helpful if you want transformation, if  you want to pivot and to move to that stage in life where you are walking in God's purpose.

One of the ways that I plan to use all of these knowledge and these experiences is to develop content and resources to help persons to actually become better leaders and to strive. So that is really where my heart is right now.

Part of the beauty about studying with BGU in the MATL (Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership) is the opportunity to network all over the world.  This way you get to hear different stories and you get to hear how persons are doing ministry in such various contexts. We also just  encourage each other. I have also acquired a discernment that God would have given me at such a time like this, just to see exponential growth taking place and to help my generation to become the leaders that God has called us to be.