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Our Brief History and Identity
Webster defines "Diaspora" in three major categories. The first one relates to the dispersion of the Jewish people from Palestine after the Babylonian captivity, which set the present understanding for any Jew who lives outside Palestine or modern Israel. The second category relates to any 
person or group of persons who either flew "from a country or region," or live "outside [their] traditional homeland." The third category relates to "any religious group living as a minority among people of the prevailing religion." I want to add yet another category, although related to the previous one, which is found in the New Testament. It relates to the Church of Jesus Christ spread around the world, in their dispersion (Cf. James 1:1 and 1 Peter 1:1, where the Greek word Diasporá is used for the Church). In fact we are all pilgrims walking by faith and expecting the day we will enter the New Jerusalem, our promised Home. Diaspora means "Dispersion." Therefore, the Church of Jesus Christ is dispersed among the nations and is involved in an amazing adventure of faith as it takes the Glory of the Lord from one nation to the other (Isaiah 66:17-19).
The idea behind DIA started in 1995, when Ehud was a doctoral student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He initially planned to have a network of ministries that would serve primarily Brazilians living in the Diaspora around the world. There are thousands of Brazilians in North America, Europe and Japan. His idea was to provide a hub for networking them by supplying the Brazilian Church around the world with literature, words of encouragement, leadership training, and so on. However, his move to Canada to serve as a professor of Intercultural Studies and Community Ministries at Prairie Graduate School in Calgary, Alberta, did not allow him to continue with his dream. Ehud returned to the US in June 2000 to serve as pastor among Native Americans in Idaho and since then he slowly matured his 
commitment to the Diaspora dream again. After his time among the Native Americans, he and his wife decided to implement the idea in a broader way, making his dream a new reality that will serve the Church as the Diaspora, be it among Brazilians, Native Americans, or any other people group. Diaspora Intercultural Academy is concerned with the needs and challenges of the Church of Jesus Christ as a whole and is committed to providing intercultural biblical and theological research, training, literature and missionary involvement.
DIA seeks to offer missiological training that is anchored in the Word of God. Its focal point is to bring forth a Theology of Mission which instructs and implements four crucial points of the Evangelical global mission: the motivation for mission, its message to the world, a strategy that will be adaptable and adapted to the missional context where the servant of God is, and purpose of determining what God's missionary goals are. DIA is concerned with the Mission of God, Missio Dei, around the world. This agenda is in accordance with a simple, but powerful definition of Mission Theology, as posed by some students from the School of Mission at Selly Oak College in England. They defined Theology of Mission as being "concerned with the basic presuppositions and underlying principles which determine, from the standpoint of Christian faith, the motives, message, strategy and goals of the Christian world mission."
DIA emphasizes these four important areas of ministry from its very first day. These areas work together toward an integrated whole. This wholistic approach will make Evangelical mission theory effective not only in Word but also in Deed. The praxis of DIA is integral, and will educate and motivate the missionary work of the Christian Church to minister to the whole person. These four areas complement each other in the missiological and missionary praxis of Diaspora Intercultural Academy.
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