Dear brethren Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. I hope this email finds you all doing well.

God blessed us with another visit by our beloved brother, Jerry Bates. This was an unexpected visit, however we are ready for any such visits. Because we consider such visits benefit our students so much. Certainly this is what happened when brother Jerry Bates visited Viaskha Valley Bible College. He was scheduled to visit us on the 24th but due to bad weather conditions his following visit to Orissa was cancelled and when he shared that with us, we welcomed him to come visit us and teach a short course. During their visit, Jerry’s wife, Paula, taught during the Ladies class for two days. They were really blessed with these classes. Much good was done during their one week visit, glory to God.

“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ”

New Birth: We are grateful to God for blessing us in producing effective evangelists of Christ. One of them is brother Prakash. We attended a gospel meeting where he invited us to preach about the ‘New Birth’ and ‘Blessings in Christ Jesus.’ One of the reasons he invited us to preach these subjects is, on this day four newly baptized brethren were present, also his daughter celebrating her first Spiritual Birth anniversary (she was baptized a year ago). We used this very good opportunity to preach about the mentioned subjects. Brother Samuel Raju, Director of the school preached about the “Blessings in Christ.” John Dean Preached about the “Uniqueness of Christianity” comparing with the other religions on this globe. He emphasized the uniqueness as the New Birth and New Life in Christ Jesus.

" Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. "

Evangelism: Local congregations, including some of the students of the current batch, have begun reaching the local community with the gospel. They took up a new program, that is the ladies in the congregation should gather on each Friday to do a door knocking campaign. Not all, but some of the ladies who are very interested have come forward to be a part of this program. The local preacher, along with another brother from the congregation, have been doing this program successfully. They are not getting a 100% welcome from every home they visit, but thankfully enough that most of the homes are being given gospel tracts. These have Biblical information about the Bible, Salvation, Church, etc. They are reaching several individuals through this print media. As a result two ladies have come forward to accept Christ as their Savior.

Gratitude: We are thankful to God first for His mercy being shown on the school through the charity of our beloved brethren from the Lake Houston and Strickland Church of Christ. We pray that the success of the Lord's work would be continued for the years to come, so that effective evangelists would be produced into the vast mission field of India to rescue the lost millions. We thank all the Churches, including Bear Valley, for their trust and confidence in the Lord's work that is going on here. We do appreciate them for sending instructors to teach both short courses to the under grads and also the master’s class students. We pray that our relationship would be strengthened through this joint effort and bring glory and honor to our mighty God by helping the Church to grow in India.

Description of Pictures attached:

1. Brother Jerry teaching 'Book of Acts' to the undergraduate students

2. Ladies attended for Paula Bates's class, Samuel distributing Hymn books to the ladies

3. Newly Baptized young men received New Bible and a Hymn Book

4. People gathered for a gospel meeting conducted by one of our graduate Prakash

5. Prakash being honored for his good work towards the extension Lord's kingdom.

6. Couple of ladies came forwarded to be added to the Church, we are praising God for the growth of the local congregation which gathers at the school premises. Local minister Bro. Kavitha baptizing one of the two ladies.