Dearest in Christ,
Greetings from Wotutu here in Cameroon. We say happy new year to you, your family, and the entire congregation. We are thanking God He allowed us to see the dawn of a new year. We are aware that every beginning comes along with its challenges.
We are starting a new year with faith. Our theme for the year is “2015 My Year of Growth.” We are doing all on our part to help as many of our Christians to experience growth in their lives this year, that is why our lessons will be toward areas which will provoke growth.
We shall start reporting fully our work again weekly, by the grace of God, because the new students of the Gamma batch are safe in Wotutu, 22 in number, sounding well, ready and excited to study the word of God. Keep them in your prayers to keep growing daily, preparing themselves for ministry. They will be here two precious and meaningful years for the Lord’s glory.
Information getting to me shows that almost all the Beta graduates made it safe to their respective congregations to start full time ministry. A few of them who have long distances to cover from their village of origin to the village of service are still around because of lack of transport funds.
This 22 man group will start classes tomorrow without any waste of time. For this first quarter we shall transplant these courses to them: Christian Evidences, Old Testament 1, How We Got The Bible, Personal Evangelism 1, English, French, Church Music, and some vocational training in agriculture (animal rearing). Some of these courses will share the number of credit hours with some smaller courses, so that all is going on smoothly.
We ended the year 2014 in the Wotutu congregation coming together to pray and fast, seeking God’s face and thanking Him for all that He is doing in Cameroon.
We ended the prayer session by holding our hands to pray, which is a strong sign of our unity, keeping us closer to one another and to our God so that nothing will come between us to distract and to tear away the bond of our love.
Our Christians brought bananas, fruit soft drinks, biscuits and other fast food for us to enjoy fellowship with one another.
Today, the Wotutu congregation officially prayed for evangelist Vincent who will be the one to be coordinating the work in Buea central prison, as the Wotutu congregation is part of the work. We also prayed for evangelist Ngoue Thierry who graduated during the last graduation, but will be working with some villages around Wotutu where we have been reaching through our early morning program. He plans to investigate how we can start new congregations there. Keep both of them in your prayers as we expand the gospel of Christ to others through them. Brother Vincent will report now about the work in prison.
A cross section of the 22 students was introduced and prayed for today in the Wotutu congregation to welcome them to the CBIW family and the Wotutu congregation. It was great and was characterized with shouts for joy and laughter as members of our congregation could identify new students who come from the same village as them. Please keep them in your prayers as we shall be sharing their progress on a weekly basis with you, while Jesus tarries. This batch is dominated by married people. To God be the glory.
Plans
We welcome the students into CBIW and we point them straight to our motto, which is Evangelism is our Mission and our Mission is Evangelism. This weekend we shall join with the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma batch in the village of Mofako Bekondo to revive a dead congregation there. This will be the first mission work with this new students as they will start learning from the older graduates. We have a meeting with all our graduates also. Please keep our travels in your prayers and for success.
Appreciation
We shall not stop saying, “Thank you, and thank you for all that the Lord is using you to accomplish in His kingdom here in Cameroon.” God bless and keep you strong. He alone can reward your sacrifice and efforts toward this work. God bless you as you share this report with others. We shall love to read from you.
Elangwe and family
By His grace director CBIW