Dear Brethren in Christ,
Greetings to you in Christ’s name. By the grace and mercy of our Almighty God we are all doing fine, and we do hope you are all doing fine too. We have been blessed with the Lord’s work that is going on through Visakha Valley Bible College in various parts of Andhra Pradesh. We are certainly thankful for your prayers and support
Master Class: Brother Jerry Bates spent two weeks teaching the Masters classes. He taught ‘Theology’ and ‘World Religions.’ He has done a marvelous job. Students indeed gained so much from these classes, especially through the material given by brother Jerry.
Ladies Class: Sister Paula always wants to spend her time very useful as she can. This was by taking care of Jerry, getting things organized and also teaching the women in the places she traveled with Jerry. This time also, she spent several hours teaching the woman that meets at the school and another place where our Graduate brother Satyanandam is working. He works on the out skirts of Visakhapatnam Industrial Park.
Yona Raju: Our School is certainly a shining light in this part of Andhra Pradesh. Like the shining light, it is attracting several from the darkness into the light that is everlasting. Brother Yona Raju who is from a Tribal (mountains) area heard about our school couple of years ago and he visited the school and wanted to sit in the classes for some time. When he started listening to the lessons taught in the school by the faculty, he was overwhelmed with the truthful teaching he heard in the classes and verified with what he believed so far. A few weeks after that he met with the faculty bringing some questions for discussion and when everything was clarified he realized that he needed to be baptized. He had a degree from a preaching school where he was baptized, but once all questions were answered he realized that was not a true baptism. So, he wanted to be baptized, he is now working in his community. Every time he attends the school he takes some Christian Literature with him. This time he took some ‘Voice of Truth International’ magazines with him. We thank brother Jerry Bates for bringing these magazines, we do thank sister Betty Choate for publishing them. Yona Raju says, that these are very useful for his personal study as well as to teach others. He remarks that these magazines are a knowledge Bank; the only thing we have to do is withdraw God’s wisdom from this. We believe that he is going to bring so many to the Light of the Lord.
God gives the increase: For Preachers, our primary job is to carry out the gospel to the unreached millions across the world. As the preachers are being produced from the school and they go out and proclaim The Good News, results are very obvious. These results bring glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In this process all of us are involved in various ways. We are striving in various capacities for the same cause and purpose and when we join hands for this process of rescuing souls, which is our common goal, our Lord gives the increase.
JY’s visit: We were truly blessed with the visit of brother J Y Brown, who is one of the elders at the Lake Houston Church of Christ, who supports the Visakha Valley Bible College. During his visit he preached at the local congregation on Sunday morning and traveled to Skinner’s Garden in the afternoon. Monday morning was a special day, for on this day we had a gathering of all the preachers who have graduated from the school so far. Also, the current batch of students both undergrad and graduates were present. It was a gathering of over 60 preachers on that day. All these preachers have introduced themselves and explained about the their mission work. We have located their places on a map and marked them and given to brother JY to share with the church. This would explain how the Churches are growing. He remarked that his visit was very special and a God given opportunity to see everything in person and get first hand information. We are very encouraged with the visit of brother JY. We have been longing for such a visit from the brethren at Lake Houston, since it would always be wonderful for supporting congregations to see every thing first hand and help make everything more understandable. Finally, the time came and our wish was fulfilled, hoping to see the relationship with the school and Lake Houston be bonded for a long time.
Elections: We have a New Prime Minister elected in the recent General Elections in our Country. He is from a Hindu Lead party. The Hindu Lead Party got elected where the secular party was defeated. We wonder how they are going to rule our country. The proposed person for being the Prime Minister is an active Hindu leader, but on the other side he is positive about the growth of the nation. We are concerned about the Religious Freedom as the associated Hindu lead groups would take advantage of this and start causing trouble to the Christians in the whole nation. The circumstances we may come across may be beyond the imagination, but they may not appear in a sudden way, but gradually. I believe this may be the time to test our faith and truthfulness. Kindly pray so that we would be bold enough to preach the good news out loud without any circumstances.
Gratitude: The Visakha Valley Bible College work is truly a team work. We really appreciate all those who are part of this team. In this team we have the faculty, visiting professors from BVBID, director, students and staff; when all this works together in a proper system, things go smooth and work is increased. We firmly believe this is what is happening at Visakha Valley Bible College. There are some unseen members of the team I should mention as they are the supporting and overseeing church, coordinator, elders of Bear Valley and director of the Extension Schools. We convey our thanks to all those who are doing their portion of the job for producing preachers at Visakha Valley Bible College. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.
In Christ
For Visakha Valley Bible College
John Dean