Dear Brethren in Christ,
We bring greetings to you in the name of Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. This has been another busy year as the Lord’s work continues to increase. We went to several remote places and hill areas where our graduates recently began preaching. It is very encouraging to see most of our students working at various places preaching the word of God.
Preacher Training work is keeping us so busy...this is 9:42 pm and I just got to the school campus in Visakha after attending the Preacher’s Fellowship Meeting at one of our graduate’s village. His name is ‘Hebel.’ We were able to take him Bibles. He was a denominational pastor when he heard about the true church and being converted to the true doctrine faced a lot of problems in the community. However, with the help of our Lord he began to teach the truth to his villagers. They are about 20 people gathering every Sunday. So, our meeting today was to help the congregation understand the New Testament church and its pattern. Our time was well, spent around six preachers who preached from morning until evening. Three people came forward to obey the truth. We were uplifted by the encouragement of his batch of mates in holding this meeting and also helping him time to time in sharing the Gospel in this year. Through this meeting we had the opportunity not only to meet some denominational pastors, but also to teach them from the Bible about the New Testament church.
We thank the Bear Valley Bible Institute for the mission and vision of establishing extension schools across the world. We appreciate the elders at Bear Valley who make this possible. We are privileged to be called aa Bear Valley Bible Institute International school. Thank you for keeping our reports on the website up to date. We appreciate the concern.
Year 2015: It started with great enthusiasm and a plan to reach out more than usual. Through the blessing of God we were able to complete this year with great results. Results included the establishing of churches in the remotest places of our state. We were blessed to have new curriculum and printed material, a building expansion, campaign week program, gospel meetings, and preacher’s fellowship meetings.
We praise God who enabled us to spread the wings of His ministry through various programs such as gospel meetings, Bible classes, campaign week program, preacher’s fellowship meetings, and preacher’s seminars. Our students received hands-on experience about how to hold and organize the above programs. By attending these programs they are understanding the great need of doing such programs to carry out the gospel to the lost millions in our nation. An earlier batch of students learned the same evangelical concept and now they are implementing it, which has given us an opportunity to participate and encourage them.
Another blessing this year was that our faculty and students: Yeah, new curriculum that was introduced this year has brought a phenomenal change in our teaching system. Both students and faculty are enjoying the new material that was supplied to us on various subjects. It is also a great opportunity to enhance our biblical knowledge. So, this year can be said as a year of blessing.
New Projector: This has provided a great opportunity for our students to learn so many other subjects and topics that was provided by our brethren from World Video Bible School and Apologetics Press.
Air Conditioning Library Extension: This was another blessing to help preserve the books in the library and also to have more books in our library. Our guest room is ready with air condition for visiting brethren, this will help them relax in-between classes. They certainly need that break in a hot weather country like India.
Brethren, we are thoroughly blessed with the great encouragement we received from the Lake Houston Church of Christ and Strickland Church of Christ. We are grateful to God for their continued trust and confidence, which is a great blessing. Thank you brethren for being part of these results. We convey our heartfelt gratitude on behalf of our students, faculty, staff and preachers working in Visakhapatnam area. They were encouraged by our school program so much, we pray that our Lord will bless us to do more continually. As we continue to spread the word there are some results we witness, but some we may not. When we do hear about them we praise God for such results of saving souls.
Here are Some Results of our efforts:
Number of Graduates sent out this year - 12
Villages visited – 127
Bible Classes & Gospel Meetings conducted – 148
Preachers Seminars – 2
Leadership Workshop – 1
Preachers Fellowship Meetings Conducted – 28
People obeyed the Gospel – 452
New congregations Established – 8
Church Meeting Places Dedicated – 6
In Christ & His service,
Samuel Raju & John Dean Muppidi
Visakha Valley Bible College
Church of Christ
Andhra Pradesh, INDIA