May Report
Campus Church Re-Locates
Hitherto, the church here met on the school campus, Dobro. Since this place is a suburb and quite isolated from the main township, efforts were made over the period to move the church into the main town. Following an earlier campaign last year, a week’s follow-up was organized this time as a sequel to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus
On this mission, a team comprising some older preachers and students at [SIBS] was raised for the work. Although we experienced some disruption by the rains, we remained defiant since of course, we are in the rainy season. The campaign mainly involved distributing large quantities of tracts, conducting personal evangelism in people’s private homes, work places and on the streets. While the majority of the people gave a good listening, they were rather hesitant in taking immediate decision to completely respond in baptism. Most of those studied with postponed the decision to be baptized. At the close of the campaign, there were three who came forward to be baptized. One main objective of this campaign is that, we were able to have the church start meeting in the centre of town, where the meeting place would be accessible to both people from the suburbs and the main town Dobro.
ICT Training
The issue of students’ life after school was recently discussed among directors of the five Bear Valley extension schools in West Africa, in Accra-Ghana, among other issues concerning progress of the various institutions. The directors are: Willie Gley – Togo; Matthew Ackah, West Coast – Ghana; Baah Okyere, TIBS - Ghana; Seth Osae-Larbi, SIBS – Ghana; Eben Makinde – Nigeria. The meeting was hosted by Steve Ashcraft, West Africa regional co-ordinator of Bear Valley extension programs. While all agreed that the issue was a laudable one, we also thought of what possibly could be done in each school respectively, to alleviate new preachers’ support problems, after their graduation. With a couple of laptops at our disposal, [SIBS] has engaged the services of an IT person to offer basic training in computer skills to our students. This means, besides the students acquiring knowledge of computer to helping with their academic work, they could also possibly avail themselves of the economic potential of the training. In that regard, it would be a great help to receive a couple more of such used laptops. Continue to keep us always in your thoughts and prayers.
June Report
[SIBS] Making Steady Impact
As we struggle to make our presence felt in the brotherhood, and in the midst of already existing training programs, we admit it’s going to take much effort and dedication to keep our head above the waters.
Our students continue with the weekly campaign visits to area congregations which are yielding very positive results.
People in the neighborhood of where [SIBS] is currently located are gradually learning of the school and its mission. The school’s location is in the neighborhood of retired military officers and civil servants. One retired naval officer and his wife were recently baptized.
The good news this time is, we have a retired lady civil servant, who is also a strong Methodist member, who after hearing of [SIBS] developed such absorbing interest in the school that she requested to join the classes. Maureen Simpson, who is 61 years old, has since participated ardently to study the word of God. We also think turning her away would definitely close the door for our reaching her with the gospel. Besides her class studies, we are gradually preaching the gospel to her, praying that she would eventually come to the knowledge of the truth and embrace it.
Master’s Program
Besides the regular Preacher training program, is the Master’s program which is also on-going here. The recent class held in April was a tremendous success. There were eighteen students in attendance, but just two who attended on non-scoring basis. In the end, both students and the instructor had a very good and interesting learning experience, with the students in particular benefiting greatly with good exposure and great insight of the scriptures.
SIBS Registration
It’s also a great pleasure to note that [SIBS] has officially been registered with the Registrar General’s Department to operate as a religious institution in the country with the liberty to pursue our objectives of Preacher and Leadership training. Please, continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
In Christ’s service,
Seth Osae-Larbi
Southern Institute of Biblical Studies