“Great Are the Promises of the Lord”

December 2024

Thank you for supporting BYU-Pathway Worldwide. Your donations help us extend the blessings of an affordable, faith-based education to more of God’s children.

As president of BYU-Pathway, I often have the wonderful opportunity to travel internationally and visit with current and prospective students. Their circumstances and life experiences are diverse, but two things they have in common are hope and gratitude. They are hopeful for a brighter future, and they are grateful for BYU-Pathway and for your support.

One of the places I visited in 2024 was Kiribati, a small island nation in the central Pacific. It is very common for young adults in Kiribati to leave the country to seek higher education and then stay abroad to find good jobs.

In a devotional with more than 500 adults and young adults, I was happy to share how, through BYU-Pathway, they don’t have to leave the home they love to secure their future. They can stay in Kiribati and receive a quality education. They can stay and support their families with online jobs. They can stay and build up the Church in their part of the Lord’s vineyard.

I also visited Papua New Guinea, an island nation north of Australia. There too I met with hundreds of prospective students to talk about the blessings of BYU-Pathway. One of those blessings is the low cost of tuition that is scaled to local economies—in Papua New Guinea, $8 per credit—and the additional affordability that comes from donor-funded tuition discounts.

One prospective student, who has a husband and three children and wants to contribute more to her family, said, “[BYU-Pathway] can help me achieve my dreams for my family and for myself. I am so thankful for it.”

BYU-Pathway is a great blessing to the people of Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, and beyond. It is part of the fulfillment of 2 Nephi 10:21, which states, “Great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea.” It is wonderful to see how the Lord is using BYU-Pathway as an instrument to bring both temporal welfare and spiritual salvation to His children. Thank you for being a part of this great work.