Introduction
“I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4) said our Master. We give honor and glory to God who has given us this rare opportunity to work in His Kingdom as we send Warm greetings to you all brothers and sisters.
This is a good time to report what is happening at BVBI-Zambia during the month of July, 2024.
Moving steadily to the “finishing-line”
It is great to see that in the next couple of months, our students will finally complete their two years of study here at Bear Valley Bible Institute Zambia.
They are really excited to finish and eager to go back to their congregations and preach. In the past thirty two days our lives at BVBI- Zambia has greatly impacted the church on the Copperbelt province positively. Indeed our relationship with members of the Lord’s church here on the Copperbelt has greatly matured in the Lord and we expect a great turn out for our graduation this year.
Vital Signs (Restorations)
We have been evangelizing in six districts on the Copperbelt province namely Mufulira, Chingola , Kitwe, Ndola , Luanshya and Mpongwe. And our labor in the Lord has produced good results. Firstly we have witnessed the restoration of twenty two members which has been a great encouragement to the body of Christ here in Zambia.
All the weekends and midweek services have been used to deepen our interactions with members of the Lord’s church and communities at large. We have experienced how important and necessary Bible studies are needed. People have a desire to know God’s word better and they have kept us in touch with them. Indeed for us to be a strong family we need to be spending time together.
Baptisms
We have recorded seven additions to the body of Christ through Baptisms. Evaryn ndjovu, chinyama Phillip, Dominic Bwalya, James Loti, Mary Mundenda,Jane Kaonga and Naomi Mulenga. We pray that these souls walk with Jesus forever. They are wonderful additions to the family of God.
Recruitment of new students in high-gear.
Recruitment is going on well and so far we have twenty prospective of which we only need to choose fifteen for our new intake of 2025-26. We believe 2025 intake will be very balanced. We expected some to come as far as Angola and D.R. Congo but we failed to travel to interview them in their respective countries due to limited funds.
We expect the new intake to begin classes after the current student body’s graduation in October this year.
The effect of drought in Zambia
There is severe effect of drought caused by EL Nino in all the Provinces of Zambia. And as a result we are experiencing a High cost of pricing in all commodities. Our head of State is asking for immediate help from the international community in order to mitigate the devastating effects of the drought which has destroyed nearly half of the country’s corn crop, living millions in need of food aid.
In order to effectively implement life saving and sustaining skills for our students, we are involved in vegetable growing. And, our students were taught on growing soya-beans and other requirements in order to have the good production and healthy appearance of soya-beans. We had a good Harvest for 2024 and we need to do more as students graduate this year to begin their new life. We hereby appeal to you our partners to support our plan financially and materially in mitigating the devastating effects of the drought.
Updates on our Alumni
We have news from our former students working in different provinces here in Zambia; some have gone as far as Eastern, Northern, North-western and Luapula province of Zambia. We have Simon Nkhazi who to Eastern province and had stayed for seven days preaching, though no baptisms where recorded we only recorded the increase in attendance. Simon is in his second year studying registered medicine in Lusaka.
Boyd Kalaba working on the copper-belt at our newly established Church, is doing a great work for the month of July we have seen the increase in attendance from 20 -27 to 30-55 just within a month. Gershom Chansa now studying as a male Nurse has continued to show his dedication for the Church in Southern province Kalomo we have recorded five baptisms and eleven restorations from him. Nicholas Mulubwa and Reuben Museka working as small scale farmers have continued to do well in the ministry. We have recorded seventeen restorations for the past two months from Nicholas and one baptism from Reuben in Northern and Luapula respectively.
We also have another hard working preacher from southern province now residing in Lusaka at our newly established congregation Aclay Kabbaya. Aclay has set multiple home Bible studies and has continued to preach, we continue to pray that Aclay’s work may bear more fruit.
Conclusion
Thank you kindly to all who have helped in any way to prepare these men for the deep and meaningful task of preaching the Gospel. Special thanks go to Woodland Oaks Church of Christ for their continued financial support, Bear Valley Bible Institute International, Instructors, Donnie our Country Coordinator and indeed everyone involved in this work.
Thank you all once again!
Brotherly,
Cephas and Fred