Brethren,
I bring you greetings from Takoradi and hope and pray that you and all of yours are faring well. I am feeling better and that has been the case for the past couple of weeks though I am not as strong as I used to be. Thank you all for your prayers.
We have one more week of school to end the academic year. The seniors will not be returning when school reopens in September and we shall only have one class (the juniors). We have five men who want to come to school now. We are considering the possibility of giving them foundation courses to see if they can join the class. Most of the courses are self-contained they can take and make up for what will be lacking in the first year when a new class begins one year hence. We have four students who will lack the first term’s work after next school year. There are two alternatives to consider for the five men; send them to the school at Tamale or let them wait to enroll in 2014. The problem with the first is students come from congregations they are working with which they visit at the weekends. This will not be possible when they go to Tamale. We may lose them like we have on a number of occasions if we ask them to wait one more year. Besides we have space to replace the five who complete their courses next week.
One of the seniors completing next week is Solomon Kweku Paintsil, 63 years old. He has set up a church at a village called Obra Ye Bona some three kilometers from Mporhor the district capital of the Wassa Mpohor district of the Western Region. Brethren from Dominasi and Adum Banso assisted him with the initial preaching and teaching. He plans to work with this new church after school. The immediate needs of this new work according to Solomon is some support for the preacher and money to purchase land for a structure for worship. People take churches seriously and choose to belong when they have a meeting place of some sort constructed. Solomon does not have a postal address at Obra Ye Bona. He uses the school address for his mails (P O Box AX 1501, Takoradi) and can be reached on 233206410028.
Last month we had two former students of the BVBID masters class at the school. They came to Takoradi to visit me July 7 and stayed till the morning of July 11 when they left. They spent Monday to Wednesday at the school visiting students and the teachers who were their course mates in the masters’ program. Gyan Mante preaches for the Ada Road Church in Koforidua, and Maxwell Ansah preaches for the Suhum church all in the Eastern Region. They really lifted my spirit with their great sense of humor and helped Ruth care for me during their stay.
We want to use the men who took the master’s program to help teach at the school. We shall begin by inviting them to teach some of the short courses scheduled for the next school year. We want to help prepare them to teach full time when we need them. And this is in the light of some teachers who have indicated they would want to retire in the next couple of years.
We are managing the use of our access road. The students did some mending and that has made brother Charles and I able to drive up to the school all week. It has been cloudy with occasional light showers this week and that is what has made the student’s repair work last. The previous week when it rained a lot, none of us could drive up. Brother Charles was able to walk up the hill, but I could not, and so I missed three days of classes.
The local weather has been cloudy with intermittent rain falls and very cold for most of us used to the relatively sunny weather. It makes going to bed easy but getting up in the morning difficult. Many report sick in such weather, but we thank God for cooling our land and watering our crops.
May I take this opportunity to remind you of the needs of our Liberian brother, Jerome Torh which was posted in my June report. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for him yet. He yearns to go home. Please, pray for him and his children and help him as you are able.
Thank you, for your partnership with us and bye for now.
Your servant for Jesus’ sake.
Daniel K Ampadu-Asiamah