Gueckedou Bear Valley Bible Institute Activity Operations Report for May 2019
We have come to the close of activities for the month of May at the Gueckedou, Guinea Bear Valley Bible Institute. Although several things occurred during the period, this report will be a summary of the major events and of those which attracted our attention and therefore our time. On the overall, we have graded the indoor activities as “good” and the outdoor activities especially because of the comparably high number of conversions as “excellent”. For this reason, it is for me more of a pleasure than a duty to submit this report which is outlined under the below subheadings.
Classroom: The month of May falls in the second quarter of our course study for the second year which requires a lot of credit hours. Compared to that of the “Major prophets” 3 shorter courses including Homiletics 2 and Romans were completed just before the close of May so that we could start “Old Testament 4”, the Major Prophets scheduled for 12 days of 7 hours each day. This is our second to the last course for this quarter. It is therefore likely that to complete the last course for the quarter (Biblical Interpretation 2) there will be an extension of 2 or 3 days in our gospel campaign week scheduled to begin on the 17th of June.
Evaluations for such voluminous courses have included home assignments compelling the students to do much reading and research. So far, the results are good and all 17 students are still on roll.
Evangelism: As highlighted in our April report, the month of May has been one of great success in terms of evangelism. As it was the role of John the Baptist before the coming of the Lord, the men in the new congregation at Foidou had advanced our preaching in many of the villages around them in April while we were on break. In deed the challenge was ours to get ready for an outdoor preaching in the village call Damas (which is the English Damascus of Acts chapter 9) on the evening of Saturday May the 4th.Seven men and women confessed the Lord as a result of the word, but because it was late to get to the river side we agreed to return the next day for the baptism. By His grace it was another opportunity of Bible discussion during the study class of the worship and it resulted to a total of 11 conversions!
Before returning to that village (Damas) for another Saturday preaching which also resulted to 5 conversions among those who attended the following Sunday of May 12th worship from the 2 villages (Damas and Foidou), 1 lady was baptized in Gueckedou on Friday, the 10th of May. Interestingly, another 5 men and women were baptized on the same Sunday in the congregation at the school premises. That means by His grace 10 persons were converted on that Sunday, the 12th of May.
The weekend of 18th to 19th May was another of pressing need for us to reach another village. Now the men of Foidou assisted by some from Damas extended the message to Milliandou, another village where we were encouraged to go and preach that Saturday evening. Again, 7 men and women accepted the gospel call and were baptized the following day, Sunday the 19th of May along with 4 other women from the village of Damas. That is true, Sunday, the 19th of May another 11 conversions took place as were on the 5thof May. Let me mention in passing that at each area of our public preaching we would close up with the exercise of tract distribution!
Furthermore, there were 3 additional convertions on 20th and 26th of the month – 2 in Gueckedou and 1 in the village of Milliandou.
In all we have converted 36 souls to Christ during the month of May.
Worship Services of the Brethren in the 3 New Villages of Foidou, Damas and Milliandou:
It should be of concern how and where the Sunday worship services of the brethren of these new villages are being held when at the same time conversions were taking place in either 2 or all 3 of them. Indeed on every Sunday of May – the 5th, the 12th, the 19thand the 26th Gueckedou Bear Valley was converting people in at least 2 of the 3 new villages. Here is how it was done. Worship was held in just 2 of the 3 villages for all 4 Sundays of the Month. Encouraged by their friends who first announced the message before our Saturday preaching, the prospects would walk to come to worship and to be baptized the following Sunday at the host village/congregation. That was really impressing!
At the moment the desire and agreement is for all of them to remain as one congregation worshiping in one village this Sunday and in another the other Sunday. This might change in the future as the converts in each village increase with other necessities such as for children, the old age and the disable. The average attendance so far is 50 including the 2 workers from the institute.
Material Need for Evangelism and Gospel Campaigns: During those Saturday public preaching we saw and or felt the need for loud speaker and amplifier materials. In all previous campaigns we had only done house to house and door to door evangelism. We did reap some fruit, but have lately experienced that the general public proclamation of the word will result to more fruits. Hence, we are here appealing to any well-wishers to support us with amplifiers and other public preaching materials. This is especially needed for the city (Gueckedou town) preaching. Support the volume of our voices please!
Conclusion: Gueckedou Bear Valley had had much to do in the classroom during the month under review. We were challenged by courses which required more than 35 or 48 credit hours, but we did go through successfully. More than that, we were somehow pressed, but glad to go out on every Saturday to preach in one village while at the same time making efforts to build the town congregation. Constrained by limited transportation means and repairs of the old vehicle on hand we struggled, but the efforts were blessed and therefore the month of May has carried the highest score of conversions (36 souls) than any other since we established in March 2018!
Tract distribution has been and is still an active role in all our personal and public preaching. We are grateful to the “French World Outreach”/ bro Barry Baggott for responding to our call.
Thanks and appreciations to you all who support this honorable work.
May the Lord be praised because “we are unprofitable servants: We have done that which was our duty to do”- Luke 17:10.
Francis