The renewed mercies of God Almighty have seen us through the month of August 2018 successfully. We are grateful to Him for your life. We continue to thank you for your sacrificial efforts in helping us “Bear Valley Tamale” run our activities effectively. We pray the blessings of our Lord Jesus be with you now and forever.
STUDENTS ON BREAK.
The sixth term has successfully come to an end. Students are currently on break. All things went perfectly as scheduled for the term. All courses have been treated. Students went on break on the 27th of August, 2018. They will be returning on 16th of September, 2018.
CAMPAIGN
Our termly Gospel campaign took place at Kparibontaabo, under Zabzugu-Tatali district after Yendi. We arrived there on the 14th August, 2018, around 2pm. On the first day as we needed to organize ourselves and report to the custodians of the land and the necessary authorities (Tindaana and the Chief).
Kpaibontaabo has a five year old congregation established by the congregation in Tatali. It was necessary for us to divert our campaign there in order to restore that congregation. Preacher Samuel Kolinba, who graduated from Bear Valley Tamale, who is a preacher for Bikpajab congregation, a community nearby, doubles to overseer that of Kaparibontaabo.
Kparibontaabo congregation almost collapsed when a claimed prophet, Emmanuel, popularly called, “Odiifuo Blackey” (Black prophet) opened a prayer camp at the community and is performing magic (claimed to be miracles), and drew away almost all the members including leaders of the Church. Our presence was a timely one, and a successful restoration of the congregation.
All students (18) were part of the campaign team, led by Preacher Ayini, Alex and James. Preachers from Zabzugu, Tatali and neighboring villages and some brethren also joint us. On the 15th, we did a house to house evangelism in the morning till afternoon, followed by the public preaching in the evening. Preacher Ayini of Accra Road congregation preached on sin and its consequences. We had no questions asked. Attendance was great. We however had no baptism in both first and second days.
Door to door evangelism continued on the 3rd day as usual, morning till noon (16th August, 2018). All praises to God, we had eight (8) Baptisms during the door to door studies. We equally ended our activities for the day in the evening with teachings on the plan of salvation, taught by Brother James of Bear Valley Tamale staff.
On the 5th day (17th August, 2018), our popularity had taken over the whole community as we continued the house to house studies, as many were confirming we came with the truth. However, many said we came late to them, and it was hard for them to denounce their denomination to join the true church. Odiifuo Blackey (Black prophet), came to our camp, and told us, we were baptizing his members, and at that point some three people were ready for baptism, which he forcedly stopped us from baptizing them. However, we had seven baptisms. We rounded up the day with the evening studies, which was led by preacher Ayeni. He taught worship of the church. The place almost turned upside down, as questions were thrown here and there. Women challenging why they can’t lead in church, others were fighting why instruments are not permitted to be used during worship. Countless questions were asked. Commendably, our leader (preacher Ayeni) did very well. Most questioned were asked with anger, but answers were properly given to calm them. At the end, the preacher for E.P Church came for the microphone and attested that, he believe all what we were teaching was the truth, and all should listen to us. Glory to God alone.
On the Sunday early in the morning, a young lady also came and requested for baptism, and was baptized. We ended our campaign that Sunday (18th August, 2018). Worship began at 8:30am with devotion (singing and prayers) till9:00am. At 9am, we divided ourselves into two classes, where we combined the visitors and the new converts in one class for basic teachings and the rest for the adult’s class. Preacher Thomas from the Tatali congregation taught the new converts and visitors class, whiles brother Samson Bisigma, the students leader for Bear valley Tamale taught the adults class. We all came together to continue worship around 10am. Eric Bintim (Student BVBIT) led songs, Vifa Benard read the Bible (BVBIT), Preaher Ayeni gave the sermon, and the Lord Supper was led by Samuel Saakuu, assisted by Shei Labueri David and Neina Alex (all students of BVBIT). Fifteen out of the sixteen baptized came for the Sunday worship. Attendance was 108. 46 of them were males, 32 females and 40 children.
Indeed, we had a very fruitful and successful campaign. The school was not forgotten, campaigning for new students was prioritized every day after the evening teachings. Preachers who desire to come to the school took some forms and their records are kept for follow up. The campaign was very committed and participatory as they were taken through a routine lectures every morning after devotion before field work. It was a nice and fantastic experience. The church had eleven members before our visit who were not worshipping every Sunday due to leadership challenges as well as Odiifuo Blackey’s deception and other denominations. A week after our visit (26th August, 2018), attendance was forty (40) from our follow up calls. There is certainly hope for this congregation.
Meeting with the few leaders of the congregation before we left, their major challenge was iron sheet and some woods to put up a meeting place. The congregation meets under a tree to worship due to some challenges they had with the Roma Catholic Church who was sharing a school block with them. We humbly appeal for your support in this line if possible to assist them get a meeting place, in order for your sacrifice and our efforts to be more fruitful. We as well believe, if possible, time to time visitations by the school to this congregation and many others, to strengthen them could also be a good idea of maintaining them. We as well wish and believe in the near future, our students should be in charge of most of these congregations if not all possibly. We appreciate for helping able to take the students into field to demonstrate what they have learned in class in pragmatic way. We pray God increase your source to increase our campaign support. We had some few challenges financially when we were in the field. We appreciate so much our able coordinator (Brother Kojo Aquah Beenyi) for his wise counsel, before, during and after the campaign. He was very instrumental. Preacher Ayeni, Alex and the team all were very sacrificial when things were turf in the field. All in All, God showed us mercy, and gave us the victory.
ADMINISTRATION ACTIVITIES
We remain committed in doing our best in the interest of the school and its growth. Now that school is on recession, much emphasis will be placed on advertising for new students, continues studies to build the local church, and the documents for the school land and that of the worship site.
SCHOOL/CHURCH LANDS
We have submitted the documents that the land commission requested, which you sent to us to them, remaining only the tax clearance certificate. Follow up visits have also been done, and we are still awaiting results from them.