PROGRESS REPORT FROM BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE PORT HARCOURT AND AHOADA IN RIVERS STATE NIGERIA WEST AFRICA
PREAMBLE
Permit me to begin this report with a profound appreciation to Bear Valley Bible Institute founders and management for their foresight and efforts made to sustain the institution over the years.
The idea of the part - time extension program is a great idea. The extension program had made preachers training possible in the areas like Port Harcourt Rivers state Nigeria. In our area, men and women had been desiring to be trained and equipped to preach the gospel for a long time, due to the absent of a Bible college, congregations in our area resulted to appointing people among them to become preachers without any form of training. This method brought some men and young men who are not properly trained into the pulpit. Untrained preachers had caused a lot of problems to many local congregations in the state due to ignorance of the scriptures and ignorance of preaching ethics.
A DREAM THAT CAME TRUE
Our dream of having a Bible college came true when we met Bro. Chad Wagner and Bro. Keith Kasarjian. The connection to these men came to us through Brother Mike Udam. Our discussion with the mention people led to the approval of our centre on the month of October 2019. When we wanted to start, we had a large number of applicants who wanted to be trained, due to the large number of applicants we were advised to have two centres in Rivers State which we did. And on November 2019, we started at the two centres. One of the centres is located at the Port Harcourt metropolis and the Rumuokwuta Church of Christ in Port Harcourt is our host. The other centre is located in Ahoada which is about 65km from Port Harcourt town. The church of Christ Ahoada is our host in the Ahoada centre.
NUMBER OF THE STUDENTS AND COURSES TAUGHT IN EACH OF THE CENTRES
In Port Harcourt centre, we started with 33 students but after the Corona Virus 3 month’s lockdown some of our students dropped. Currently, we are having 30 active students in this centre. We had successfully taught and written exams on the following courses:
1. Life of Christ
2. How we got our Bible
3. Christian Evidences
4. Acts of the Apostles
5. Homiletics
6. Personal Evangelism
7. Hermeneutics
8. Old Testament (Book of the law)
9. New Testament Church
In Ahoada centre, we started with 28 students but after the corona virus lock down, we lost one of our students and few others dropped. Presently, we are having 24 active students in Ahoada centre. We had successfully taught and written exams on the following courses
1. Life of Christ
2. Acts of the Apostles
3. Christian Evidences
4. How we got our bible
5. Hermeneutics
6. Homiletics
7. Old Testament (Book of the law)
8. New Testament Church
EVANGELISM OUTREACH
Our students are very active in Evangelism in Rivers State. We have participated in various Evangelism programs organized by the local congregations. On the month of March 2020, we located a large community where there is no existing congregation; we mobilized all our students from the two centres and went to the community for two days Evangelism outreach. After the intensive house to house and open air Evangelism, we discovered some members of the church who are living in the community without any congregation to attend and so we started a congregation in the community which is presently growing. After establishing the new congregation, we encouraged one of our students who is living in the community to work as a minister of the new congregation. The young man is doing his best to sustain the congregation. We are appealing to anyone who cares or group of brethren to take up the support of the student preacher who has been working hard without any support. The new congregation need a support also.
On the month of October 2020, our attention was drawn to a large community known as Ogbogu in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni local government area in Rivers State Nigeria. We were informed that the community is very large and have a new congregation which was planted late last year. We were also informed that one of our students in Ahoada centre is struggling to keep the congregation going. On Saturday 31st October 2020 we mobilized all our students from the two centres and some members of nearby congregations in the area to the community for a mega Evangelism outreach. The mandate given to our students by the director before sending them to house to house Evangelism was “go and come back with souls for Christ”. The students went out to houses, streets and market squares, fishing for Christ. After an intensive Evangelism in the community, our students came back with 3 souls, 2 male and 1 female who gave their lives to Christ and they were baptized and added to the church.
As at the time of this report, our students are still rejoicing and celebrating the success of this Evangelism outreach on 31st October 2020.
Bear valley bible institute in Rivers State is marching on unto greatness. We thank all the supporters of the institute for all their support.
This Report is from Anthony Ejike Oluria (Director of studies - BVBI Port Harcourt and Ahoada centres)