In March of 1994 the College of Business Administration at Harding University was invited by Partners in Progress, an outreach missions group out of Little Rock, Arkansas, to go to Bucharest, Romania.  The purpose of this visit was to conduct business seminars as a vehicle for reaching out to the young in the city.  Work was done through a local congregation of the Church of Christ.  This work continued each year through 1997. 

Then in 2003 Mr. Richard Baggett of EEM and Dr. Igor Kozlovsky, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Religion at Donetsk State Institute of Artificial Intelligence (DSIAI) agreed to a pilot seminar at DSIAI. Natasha Tsvyashchenko, Administrator of the Ukraine Mission Outreach Center Blagovest, a missions program under the direction of the Broken Arrow Church of Christ in Oklahoma, acted as the intermediary between Ukraine and U.S. personnel. Dr. Hebert was asked to develop a curriculum and to present it in the spring of 2003 at DSIAI. Over 60 students participated in and successfully completed the first seminar held during Spring Break (March) of 2003.

Since that first visit Dr. Hebert has led a small group of dedicated Harding students back to Donetsk each Spring Break.  The year 2007 will be the fifth trip.

As an aside, Dr Kozlovsky, when he was Deputy Minister of Philosophy and Religion for the Ukrainian Government, in Kiev, made it possible for hundreds of members of the churches of Christ throughout the US to come into Donetsk and start the church in the area. He primarily was responsible for this group getting a letter of invitation from the National Government and for obtaining visas that enabled them to come into the country. He later moved to DSIAI and founded the Faculty of Philosophy and Religion. The purpose of this new program was to put more of a “spiritual” touch on an otherwise theoretical, mathematical and mechanical program (robotics). He saw the need to integrate “soul” into the students of the robotics program at the university. Igor was baptized into the church of Christ. 

In addition to the work being done in the Ukraine, the College of Business Administration, through the International Business Program, has also initiated character seminars at a small Christian University in San Salvador in El Salvador.  This work was initiated in 1996 in a visit by Dr. Hebert to both El Salvador and Guatemala.  A subsequent visit was made to San Salvador in 2005 and contact was initiated with the Evangelical University of San Salvador.  An introductory presentation on the importance of personal character in business was made to a small group of students.  Then in 2006 a one week character seminar was presented to a select group of students.  In addition, a seminar was also presented on how to start your own business.  This work will be continued in 2007 with support from Harding Walton Scholars.