An incredible update from Zimbabwe

INTRODUCTION

August 2016 has been a blessed month for Bear Valley Bible Institute, Zimbabwe. The month was filled with activities that added value to the school. We look back and see the hand of God in all these. In this report, we highlight these activities with gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ in whose cause BVBIZ exists to fulfil. 

STUDENTS PERFOMANCE

BVBIZ finished the term on a high note. In general, we noted great development in the moral and spiritual development of students. Academically, there was a great improvement. With the results out, we congratulate the students and staff for a job well done.  Students also passed their practicals, that is, in Personal Work and Public Speaking (these two subjects also had written examinations). 

THE VISIT

This month Bear Valley Bible Institute was blessed by the coming of Donnie Estep, the regional coordinator of Bear Valley Bible Institute International’s extension schools in Southern Africa. He taught the New Testament Church, one of our short courses. Donnie was joined four days after by Darren Rainesand his son from Woodlands Oaks church of Christ. It was indeed a blessing to meet this team. They interacted both with the staff and students. Donnie Estep had an opportunity of preaching in one of the rural congregation where students had gone to carry out their evangelism and also during one of the midweek services. 

BVBIZ CONGREGATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMS

BVBIZ’s core business is to train faithful men to become preachers and workers in the vineyard of God. In her effort to contribute to the growth of the church, BVBIZ trains congregations in important issues geared towards the same. This is done during weekends and or during holidays. These programs are expected to fund themselves. In August, the school was privileged to launch this program with the youths at Dzivarasekwa church of Christ in Harare. It ran for 5 days from the 18th to the 22th of August .  The objective is to produce youths who will be effective for the Lord. BVBIZ hopes to do the same for the adults and leaders with unique subjects geared for each group. The following subjects were taught; 

• New Testament Church
• Youths in Ministry
• Introduction to Denominational Doctrines
• Career Guidance
• Christian Ethics and Moral Development

HEALING HANDS TRAINING

A product of BVBIZ should leave the school with survival skills that may help him as he preaches the word. These skills are intended to help the preacher supplement his income as he preaches. From the 8th-9th of August, students were trained in small garden skills and the use of drip irrigation. The training was done by John Dube, the local facilitator of Healing Hands International.

ADVERTISING OF BVBIZ

With BVBIZ being new in Zimbabwe, it is always necessary that people and congregations are made aware of its presence. This month we had an opportunity of advertising the school at 2 major events. The first was the national youths lectureship which took place at Nhowe Mission. The director and 4 students made it to the lectureship. The director delivered 2 lessons. Over 11 people were baptized at this lectureship. Charles Jokonya, the provincial ambassador of the school for Mashonaland East professionally advertised the school. About 700 youths attended the event. 

Thank you for your continued prayers and support,

In His service,

Mathew Muchingam

Director, BVBI-Z

Classes have resumed in Arusha

I hope that you are doing well in the kingdom of our Lord. Our God is so good to us here at ACSOP. On August 8, we started our third quarter for all students. There are 16 students in the First Year class, 11 in the Second Year class, and 10 in the Master's Program. 

Since then, the first year class has learned World Religions as short course taught by Bernard Kulanga. As for the longer courses they started by studying the book of Acts taught by Josephat Massawe; the Life of Christ taught by Godfrey Mngoma; writing skills taught by Michael Mitalami; Old Testament 2; also taught by Michael Mitalami, and Old Testament 3 taught by Bernad Kulanga.

The second year class has studied Greek III taught by Mason Norman; Galatians taught by Todd Storks; Life of Christ 4 taught by Godfrey Mngoma; OT 5a - Minor Prophets taught by Wesley Storks; and Foundation of Missions also taught by Wesley Storks. The Masters class has learned the Introduction to the Masters program in their first week taught by Jerry Bates, and in their second week they continued to learn the same course on Introduction to the Masters program with Jerry Bates.  

The rotating spiritual disciplines program is still going well here. As a part of it, a few weeks ago I went to Ilkiurei to teach in the Bible class service. The topic was “We Will Make it Work” – God and Family. I was really encouraged to see about 35 men and women plus children in worship there listening to me teaching that topic.

Most of the time whenever I read 2 Cor. 8:1-5 it reminds me of you, our supporters. If you don't know it by heart, look it up and read about saints who sacrificed for the cause of Christ. Please accept our deep gratitude for all you have done to help us in this great effort in the kingdom. When committed people work together toward a common goal, great things happen and success is inevitable. We continue to be thankful for the privilege of working in the kingdom of God; teaching people who really desire to know and obey the Truth.

Your fellow worker in the Kingdom,

Losotwa Michael,
Dean of Academics, Andrew Connally School of Preaching 

A Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver extension school

Arusha, TZ

News from French speaking Cameroon

Greetings from this part of the globe,

   I hope this mail meets you all in very saved condition. We are doing pretty good in Cameroon and the work of God is progressing. We are done with the short courses and students have gone out on Campaign already which makes the end of the second quarter in the second year. You can't imagine how time flies, but all of our students are in good health before going on evangelism campaign.

Our congregation experienced a lot of visitors today and the children are growing in their numbers and the Sunday school class is improving.

While preparing to graduate the Alpha batch come March 2017, we are also preparing to recruit the Beta batch and we have the first phase of the entrance exams in Garoua on the 28th of October 2016. We are planning to travel there with one other instructor by His grace. The journey will begin on the 21st because we shall travel for two days to get there and use two days in Garoua then another days to return interview material and exams material will carried along side. It will not be a simple task to us, but we prefer it that way instead of them coming down to us because they cannot afford the cost. 

 My beloved I am happy to let you know that our green house is doing well as we continue to harvest our vegetable every two weeks and some of our neighbors who took part during the seminar are also having a share of our product. Also, a very large quantity was taken to Wotutu last Wednesday to the students and others. Certificates were also handed over to participants and every body was really happy about it.

          Keep on praying for the work in french Cameroon most especiallyas we plan to visit Some Congregations around Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.     

In Him, 

Ititi benedict Nimending

BVBI-Mbanga

Growth and hardships in Ukraine

Hello, dear brothers and sisters.

The summer has come to the end – for many people it was the time of vacations, rest and resorts. One can see much more people in the streets in Bila Tserkva now than it was in summer. The coming of the fall is associated with studies or more intensive activities for many people. For us it means the end of summer vacation for the Bear Valley staff and the continuation of the work with familiar students as well as new ones, who begin their studies in the first course.

1. Ministry in Gorlovka.

As I wrote in the previous report, on August 5 I went to occupied Gorlovka to support, strengthen and encourage Christians who live there. During two weeks I conducted two worship services, several Bible classes, many visits in the homes, in the hospital and individual Bible classes. I was encouraged by the fact that during my stay in Gorlovka, Oksana, the mother of our brother in Christ Bogdan Chigvintsev came to the worship services and all Bible classes. She showed much interest in study of the Word of God, and I did my best to give maximum attention to studying with her. I pray that her desire for God and thirst for His Word would not grow cold. Previously Oksana showed no interest to God and His church, but present sufferings and daily dangers because of the war caused her to reconsider her view of life.

During this trip the battles around the city were very severe. Almost every night was accompanied by artillery duels during which one could hardly fall asleep. I recorded the sounds of the shelling on August 17, the battle that day lasted for five hours. The recording was done in the apartment; in the open air the sounds of the cannonade are much louder and scary. Every such shelling causes destruction of the houses and other administrative buildings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld8rNU5fTGY

There are casualties also. These are the pictures of the results of the shelling of the city during my stay there.

Without a doubt, the most dangerous thing in the trip to Gorlovka is the crossing of the front line. On coming to the occupied territory I escaped the shelling simply because the bus on which I was travelling was delayed for several hours...

Recently the media informed us that the authorities of the DPR plan to turn off all the Ukrainian mobile operators on the territory under their control. This means that all the people who live there will be totally cut off from their relatives and loved ones and all other people who do not live on that territory. I thought that time had already come on August 17th when all the city was left without mobile connection. I had no possibility to communicate with my family and all my brothers and sisters on both sides of the front line. But it turned out that the connection was lost because of the shelling and some time later it was restored.

2. Ministry in the Kiev region.

Every other Sunday I come to Kiev to help in the Shevchenko district Church of Christ. There I preach and conduct Bible classes on the Book of Ecclesiastes. Also together with brothers we preach the gospel in the streets.

Right after returning from Gorlovka our family participated in the organization and conduction of the VBS in Bila Tserkva on August 22-25. We had Bible classes, prepared games and quizzes, helped smaller kids with crafts, Veronica participated in the puppet show. The children liked VBS very much, and they gladly invited their friends. And the number of kids who participated in the work of VBS the first day (17 kids) increased to 34 within several days. We thank God that we were able to form a strong and friendly team out of the local Christians and those who came from other cities of Ukraine. The result of this VBS was that not only children learned about the church and her work but also their parents with whom we tried to make contacts and maintain good relations. Our expectations were fulfilled, and the number of the kids who come to our Bible classes has increased greatly. Summarizing the results of the VBS we must point out that working with kids in Bila Tserkva may be the best way of evangelism.

In order to reach the people of the city with the gospel we try various methods. In July we placed the contact information about the church on the billboard in the central street in Bila Tserkva. At the last worship service I met a guest who came to the assembly because he read that information.

3. Bear Valley Bible Institute.

On September 5 a new school year begins in the institute. In the building where we have classes there were no repairs for many years. Besides, the roof was leaking in many places. In order for the students to begin their studies in a comfortable setting, the roof, all the rooms used for the education process, and the assembly hall were repaired. Much of this work we did ourselves.

Dennis offered me to teach Minor Prophets from September 15th. This will be a new course for me, and so I spend much time in preparation for it.

I thank God for all my brothers and sisters in Christ who prayed for my safe trip to Gorlovka, my work there and safe trip back to Bila Tserkva. I am very grateful to those who support my work for the Lord in Ukraine financially. May the Lord richly bless you, your families and your work in His vineyard!

In His service,

Andrew

To see the pictures that accompanied this report, click HERE

Graduation in Kenya

Brethren, 

Greetings to you all, it's our prayer that our awesome God keeps you sound and healthy. At KSOP we are doing well and so thankful to have you as brethren and friends working together with God. 

Time really flies very fast, just a few years ago the idea of having preachers' training school in Kenya was born and it's amazing that we are just one week away from seeing our second graduation. 19 men will be graduating God willing and going to serve in the Kingdom. 

We dismissed one student for conducts not worthy of a christian after following the mandated procedure and we pray he will walk the talk as he promised to be faithful to God. 

The 19 have spent two worthy years in class and in the field being trained to be sound soul seekers and we have confidence they are up to the task ahead. 

During this year alone, these men have directly and indirectly been involved in 78 baptisms, 36 restorations, 3 churches planted. We are proud of their abilities and know they will better the first class to graduate. 

We are happy to also report that our first class graduates are actively involved in the Lord's work and have been taking part in gospel campaigns, you camps and training other future preachers. 

We still have room to improve and better the good that we are now. The school appreciate the brethren that have sacrificed their library books for the training school. Cy Stafford, thanks for giving KSOP all your Arusha home library. We are always lifting your name to God for complete healing. 

The library is still hungry for more books and we request all to consider being part of this school. We would be glad to even have bible software and install in some school computers. 

We are also not ceasing to pray for generous brethren to come to our rescue and help us buy land and build the school in an environment conducive for training of preachers and evangelism. 

It's a great honor for us to be workers together with God, reward awaits us above. We are happy to be working together with you to furthering the Kingdom of God, therefore do "grow weary". 

Keep us in prayers as we look forward to our second graduation on August 27.

His servant and yours, 

Charles Ogutu

#extensions #kenya

30 graduates in Nigeria!

Beloved in Christ,

Greetings in Jesus name from Bear Valley Bible Institute of Nigeria & Southwest School of Evangelism, Ibadan,Oyo State.

ANNUAL BIBLE LECTURESHIP & GRADUATION: This year 14th annual Bible Lectureship & 13th Graduation at the premises of BVBI-N & SWSE, Butubutu, Ibadan was held in Doug Wheeler's events hall, August 24-26. In attendance wereBro.Steven Ashcraft, Bro.Timothy Iwe, Bro.God'spower Ossai, Bro. Makinde, Bro.Ayobami Akanji and others .

This year lectureship focused our attention on ACTIVE CHURCH. Over 300 brethren, friends, and well wishers graced the occasion from 73 congregations of the federation .

The remaining VOTI (Voice of Truth International) volume 88 was shared to all the participants plus a pack of 30 pieces of VOTI volume 88 to the 73 congregations represented from Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Ondo, Osun, Kwara Kogi, Edo, Delta, Imo, Tabara, and Osun states.

GRADUATION: 14 students graduated with SWSE Diploma in Theology and 16 students with Advance BVBI certificate which equivalent to Bachelor of Bible Studies(BBS).

THIS FINAL PRACTICUM: This year, the one month Practicum (Teaching Practice) was blessed with 31 conversions and 38 restorations . We thank Bro. Doug's associates which provides us with 60 Bibles for some of this converts .

SPECIAL AWARD: The three sisters who was part of the recent graduates went home with The Wise Women award (Prov.14:1). Bro.Emmanuel Okpauchi (SWSE) and Bro.James Yaya Osen(BVBI) won the best academic students award, while Sister Olajumoke Akerele won Pricilla award and Bro. Isaac Adeyiwolu and Bro.Godwin Ede won Leadership award .

APPRECIATION: Thanks be unto Almighty God for granting us success in this year lectureship and graduation.

Please permit me to mention some brethren that their moral or financial help contributed beyond measures to the success of this program. We appreciate Bro.Joel Coppinger & associates, Bro.Doug Wheeler & associates, Bro.Steven Ashcraft & associates, Bro.Jerry Bates & VOTI crew, Bro.Eddie Cloer & Truth for The World Bible Mission, Bro.Richard Renfro & Mission Printing group, and you all for your prayer supports .  

May The Lord of blessing continue to bless all our joint effort in Christ name,amen.

I remain your co-soldier of Christ ,

Makinde Ebenezer Olufemi (Director of Studies)

BVBIN & SWSE,Ibadan,Oyo State

ACSOP graduates excelling in the field

It's my hope that every one is doing great with the Lord’s work. We thank God for another experience to witness the lost souls hearing the gospel, as the Bible define that , “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. 2Peter 3:9. 

       By the help of God we ware able to attend the East Africa Gospel Meeting with great desire that people at Siyaya count at Bar Ober in Kenya may hear the Gospel. The East Africa gospel meeting is rotating in three countries, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. And the purpose of the meeting is to reach East Africa. And it is hosted by the East African Churches of Christ. But ACSOP is using this opportunity to recruit students, reach graduates in their field, and to advertise her seminars like Tanzania Leadership Conference. 

    The most amazing thing was meeting with brother Boniface Imong’or who graduated at Andrew Connally School Of Preaching many years ago. This is my first time meeting him since he graduated, in my thinking this brother is back to the world and may even be meeting with denominations groups. But I was surprised by because he is ministering a congregation of over twenty five members at Malaba Kenya in the border of Kenya and Uganda, he came with almost ten members in the Gospel meeting. He challenged me when he asked us one day to visit the congregation of over twenty fivemembers which is preaching at Malaba. 

  This is exactly how God works when His children plants seeds regardless the circumstances. Our great task is to remind them all things of Christ as Paul told young Timothy that, “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained”. 1Timotthy 4:6

    Also we were able to meet with many other graduates like brother Obadiah Omutele who taught amazing lesson on miracles and Emanuel Mawa who graduated from master class. God is glorified through the hands of those support and prays for the ACSOP.

 Please continue with this good work of Christ, and our Lord sees your heart.

In His service,

Ahimidiwe Kimaro

 Director, Andrew Connally School of Preaching

A Bear Valley Bible Institute International extension school

Arusha, Tanzania

16 more baptisms near Chimala!

Chimala Bible Institute Evangelism Campaign results in 16 baptisms!

The Chimala Bible Institute Evangelism team continues to be busy with their annual Gospel Chariot campaigns. The Gospel Chariot is a large, red truck which travels all over eastern Africa doing evangelism outreach. CBI has arranged its schedule to utilize the students during the campaigns so that they can learn how to do effective house-to-house evangelism as well as having more capable evangelism workers in the field.  At the first campaign, there were 40 baptisms and now the team has been busy in three more villages.  

The location of the 2nd campaign was Vwawa, a village close to the border with Zambia.  This area is well-known for growing coffee.  After a week of campaigning with students and evangelists, the team had 7 baptisms.  The third village was called Ikonya.  At this village, our evangelism teams had 6 baptisms.  

The fourth village is called Inyala.  This is a town where the local church of Christ building will be demolished due to new government regulations and the building’s proximity to the railroad.  This congregation is struggling to find funds to purchase land and erect a building quickly.  At Inyala, there were 3 baptisms and 1 restoration.

The next location for the CBI students and evangelism team will be Tukuyu where a church of Christ was planted there only a couple of months ago. Let us pray for their continued success in preaching the Gospel as well as for the new converts in Tanzania.

Because of the Cross,

CHAD WAGNER

#extensions #tanzania #chimala

The Maynards are feeding stomachs and souls in Tanzania

Maynard Mission Report August 2016

Farming:

This month we have been busy trying to finish up projects before we leave to head back to the States to raise funds. We were able to finish the cow stalls and move the cows into their new home. We also integrated our new chickens in with our older ones, and if all goes well should have 500 chickens laying in a week or two.

Our corn crop has been harvested and bagged. We were able to get 25 bags of corn, despite the lack of rain this year. The corn will be used to feed the school for an entire year. Most will be ground into a powder and cooked into ugaili, one of the main foods in Africa. The rest will be used to make macande, one of my personal favorite African Dishes which is beans and corn.

Evangelism:

Anna taught her last lesson (until we return from furlough) to the preacher’s wives class. Her lesson was on “Who are you in the Church?” They studied the end of Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy and talked about different roles first century Christians had and what their roles in the
Church are today.

This past Saturday we had our August children’s seminar in a rural village called Kingori. The Church building had no roof and was in the middle of a field. 20 children came and as many or more adults. Anna and Susan taught the children while the men split the adults up into groups. As a result, we have a new brother in Christ!

As most of you know, we return to the States August 26th to fund-raise. We ask for your prayers for our journey home, and for the work here in Africa. Also, if anyone is interested in hearing a presentation on the work please email us and we would love to come and visit. Jamaynard717@aol.com

In him,

Justin and Anna Maynard

If you would like to see the pictures that accompany the ext, please click HERE

Exciting report from the country of Togo

Willie Gley, the Director of the school in Kpalime, Togo, has filed an excellent report! It is best viewed in the PDF format in which it was submitted and can be seen by clicking HERE. 

The school in Wotutu has a guest teacher

Dearest in Christ,

        Greetings from your brothers and sisters here in Wotutu - we do hope you are doing fine. God is faithful and is helping us meet up with what is entrusted in our hands. The students are doing well as they will continue with their 3 quarter exams this week. They will rest for one week and welcome Randy Martin and his wife to Wotutu to teach a short course on pastoral letters; a course that will help prepare our brothers to go out and prepare men to take up the offices of elders.

    Even though exams are up and students spend more hours studying during exams period than other periods, they never stop their weekend evangelism. They all return safe, but dirty and wet because of the nature of the roads this time of year.

PIC 1 - The Tancha congregation is making progress, from 13 last week to 14 this week. We are happy that we can see growth.

PIC 2 - This man is call Pa Motina. He is more than 100 years old and lives in Mbu village. Our students share the message of Christ with him and he said he is already ready to go to Heaven because if he was doing evil things he would not have getting to this ripe old age. To him the gospel was for those who are sinful,but he was interested to know about the church of Christ. Keep our mission efforts in your prayers .      

Pic 3 - Randy Martin is always friendly with members of our congregation. They spend time listening to people on one on one and sharing stories about home and life. 

PLANS

       After the short course, students will go to 21 different locations for mission weeks, on the field moving from one house to another spreading the bread of life. Keep our plans in your prayers.    

APPRECIATIONS

Thank you very much for all your help towards to this work. Please keep me in your prayers as I plan to travel .    

Elangwe and family

By His grace director BVBIC-Wotutu

#extensions #cameroon #wotutu

An update from northern Ghana

Greetings from Tamale to all servants of the Lord in His vineyard. It has been our prayer that the Lord endows each one of us with the needed strength, knowledge and enthusiasm to accomplish the task of extending the boundaries of His Kingdom.

The entire staff and students of Bear Valley Bible Institute, Tamale – Ghana wish to express our profound gratitude to our dear sponsors for the financial sponsorship of reconstruction of the structures in the Institute. Our heartfelt thanks go to the Coordinator, Steven Ashcraft for his prompt response to call when the storm caused the disaster in the Institute.

All the students are healthy and doing well. We were privileged to have Brother Jerry Bates- a renowned teacher and preacher of the Bible to assist when his wife, Sister Paula Bates was in Tamale to lecture at a 5-Day Workshop organized by the Institute. While the women were being taught by Sister Paula, Brother Jerry taught the student- preachers a course on the Book Of Revelation.

We want to thank our Brother and Sister for their remarkable service they rendered to God and Man when they were in Tamale. We pray that God would continue to guide and protect them as they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord. We shall be glad if others who have been gifted with knowledge, money and skills would avail their God-given talents to assist in Tamale.  

BAAH JOSEPH OKYERE

Director

Encouragement from Arusha

Greetings, 

Another week has come and gone so quickly. We have definitely had a blessed week. There a lot of great things to look forward to in the coming weeks and months and a lot of preparation to do. We are constantly humbled and grateful to be here. Sometimes, we are overwhelmed (in a good way) with the amount of work there is to be done and all of the fantastic opportunities we are blessed with.

After having been here for going on five months, we can already look back at so many incredible times that have really changed our lives. I wouldn't have thought that Africa could change people so much, but here we are with new outlooks on things and different perspectives in general. I wish I could bottle up some of the innocence, generosity, and authenticity of the people here. Every day, when talking with Africans, we can't help but be joy-filled and walk away with a smile. Their joyful spirits are contagious and we could certainly learn a lot from them. It makes me think, where do we find our joy?

I have had a certain scripture on my mind, so I will share it with you all. 

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 15:58

I hope this encourages you as much as it has me. I often reflect on Paul's journeys, and even our "bad days" are not near as bad as some of the trials he went through. It is a good reminder that the work we do for the Lord is valuable. When we feel like no matter how much we do for the Lord, it's not enough, this verse is a good reminder that as long as we are abounding in His work and laboring in His kingdom, our efforts are not in vain. How awesome it is to be a child of God and exhaust ourselves in His service!  

May you all be blessed and have a great week! 

In Him, 

Mason and Haley

To see the full report, with pictures, click HERE. 

To see the most recent full report, click HERE. 

The first report from New Zealand!

We have been about a year in the planning, and I am happy to report that classes have officially begun for Bear Valley Bible Institute-New Zealand. We currently have four full-time students and seven part-time students. The full-time students will complete the programme in two years, and the fully-committed part-time students should complete it in four. We are also blessed to have seven instructors from around the country. 

Two Learning Centres

BVBINZ is unique in a few ways. There are over twenty Bear Valley extensions throughout the world, but most of them are not in first-world countries. Because of the resources and technology available to us, we are the first extension school to provide two learning centres for our students. What this means is students are able to live in either the Auckland or Wellington regions during their studies. When a Wellington instructor is teaching, Auckland students will join by conference, and vice-versa.

We are very thankful to the brethren around the world who pray and contribute toward the work of all Bear Valley students. We could not do this without you! 

Commencement Sunday

On the 31st of July, the Wellington Church of Christ themed our worship and lesson around preaching and receiving the word (Romans 10:11-18). There was a family that drove four hours from Napier just to shake the hands of the students and congratulate them.

Keep serving Him,
Lance Mosher, Director

#extensions #new zealand

More good news from Wotutu, Cameroon

Greetings and love from your brothers and sisters here in Wotutu, Cameroon. We do hope this report meets you all in good health. Life in BVBIC-Wotutu and the entire Wotutu congregation is going on well.

     Last week was a busy one in our campus as students wrote some end of course exams and they will finish the rest of the other courses this week and by Friday. They will be done and start getting set and ready to start a short course Pastoral letters with elder Randy, while his wife will continue teaching student’s wives with great lessons that will prepare them to be of help in the ministry alongside their husbands. Keep their travels in your prayers as they will be in Cameroon on the 26 of August God willing.

Let me share some pictures with you.

    PIC 1 - You can see our students taking the course, THE LIFE AND WORK OF A GOSPEL PREACHER. What a great and practical class, thought by me to make sure students upon their graduation will go into the field we call it here (wilderness) because we know the tons of challenges that awaits them there, to be practical, committed, zealous, visionary, and passionate for the work here in Cameroon. We are making them to do all it takes for them to live by the message they preached .

PIC 2 - The 13 children in Brightland Christian orphanage are eating well, putting on clean clothes, and are learning about God every day.

PIC 3 - Many congregations and individuals continue to benefit from mission printing tracts. Bomaka congregation around Buea came down to Wotutu and carried boxes of tracts as they prepare for evangelism in their congregation.  

APPRECIATIONS

       God bless you. Please accept deep appreciation from us all here for your selfless sacrifice and love towards the work here. God alone will reward you.

Pray for the annual Bible lectureship, Graduation ceremony of the GAMMA batch and matriculation of the delta batch come this November 23-27.  We are expecting above 6,000 people in Wotutu for 5 days on evangelism, house to house and also indoor lectures to nurture Christians.        

Elangwe and family

By His grace director BVBIC-Wotutu

#extensions #cameroon #wotutu

Exciting numbers from Arusha!

New Quarter just begin at ACSOP

After a long and busy holiday, the Students at Andrew Connally School of preaching are back in class. As I was reading some of their reports while they were home, I found it necessary to share with you just in summary what the Lord has done through them. As you read and think about these numbers, remember as to this time we have 18 students from first year and 10 students in the second year. These students come from 25 different congregations in East Africa. The following is a statistical average result from our students’ effort during the past two months that were at home visiting their family and work with their home congregation. 

1. Number of Bible classes conducted – 256
2. Number of Baptism – 102
3. Number of Bible correspondence course – 1012
4. Number of Bible tracts - 2180 
5. Number of restoration – 87

I would like to give thanks to all the School workers; instructors both local and foreign missionaries for their great love and dedication, to enable these faithful men to receive necessary training to become good preacher. Let me assure you that your labor is not vain knowing what Paul wrote “For we are God’s fellow workers…” [1 Corinthians 3:10 NASB].  

We have started receiving the application for the class that will begin February 2017. Five applications have been turned in and more preachers are calling for more application forms, please continue with your prayer and we prepare to receive a faithful men who desire to work for God in their lives. 

Goodwill tour: At the end of Jully 2016, I and brother Michael had an opportunity to visit three of our students who come from Kenya. Second year students, brother Nathan, Philip and Harrison are doing great job in the kingdom of God. As we were in their villages had an opportunity to fellowship with several Christian family, conducted bible classes and share with them many literature materials that we brought from the school. In our visit to Kenya we were able to meet with several graduate, encourage them and invite them to attend leadership conference which will be on October 2016.

Thank you again for your support and prayer as we all continue working for Him and the Kingdom.

In Him

Godfrey Mngoma

Dean of Students, Andrew Connally School of Preaching

A Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver extension school

Arusha, Tanzania.

Weekly happenings in Mbanga, Cameroon

Beloved in the Lord, we sent our sincere salutation from this part of the Universe. We pray this week end report will meet you in good health and your family including the Big family of the most high God. As for us,we are doing great both with the school activities and the work of the Church.

The climate in Cameroon is still at the peak of the rainy season and we have even experienced flooding in some areas in our cities. Some congregations could not worship today in their usual worship house due heavy rains.    

We praise God for the week that passed on successfully with, even though with some hindrances as normal on like the 3 kids of bro Abraham who all were sick and hospitalized. We praise God that they were discharged last night and attended worship today. Some of the students have passed through the same situation.

The preacher and wife attended the summer youth retreat and returned home yesterday. So have all the students who went out for field work have come back home with grace.

We thank you so much for your support and prayers God bless us this week as westarted with a new work in Njombe. The church in this locality closed her doors some years ago, but in every situation there are always some remnants. Bro Solo and family started worshiping last week in their home through the help of the Director who has gone there with some students on several occasion to encourage the remnants in that locality.

My beloved in the Lord,we miss our pictures this week but I will retrieve them with in the week.

Thanks for your great concern.

Your brother,

Ititi Benedict Nimending

#extensions #cameroon #mbanga

Major project at ACSOP

Over the next few weeks, our reports will be much different. Lots of time is spent in preparation and also in teaching. However, we want to continue to send out reports informing you about what’s going on. Unfortunately, many only see a week full of baptisms as successful. However, I want to remind you that by supporting the work in TZ, you are helping train preachers who can in return teach and baptize more people than I could ever reach by myself. Our evangelism efforts will still continue--they are vitally important. However, please remember the importance of training men to preach the Gospel (cf. 2 Timothy 2:2).

I have been working on two major projects. First and foremost, I have formulated a resource guide to Galatians. This guide is 40 pages and includes a general outline to the book, detailed handouts regarding its structure, etc. This is meant to serve as a resource for the students at ACSOP. Some of you may find it useful in the States as well. I will attach the first lesson of five with the report this week. If you would like a copy of the rest of the lessons, let us know and I will get it out to you by email.

Secondly, I have been spending significant time in final Greek translations for Greek III and IV at ACSOP. Many do not see the importance of learning or teaching Greek. However, we are using these classes as a means of translating the text of the Bible and primarily teaching these students how to exegete the scriptures. In essence this will help serve as a safeguard to help them avoid being swayed by false doctrine in the future. Any tool that we can provide the students is obviously a step in the right direction. Projects in the future include formulating a similar guide to the book of Revelation. Misinterpretations of the book of Revelation are likely more responsible for false doctrine than any other book in the NT. Thus, a guide for the book is needed.

Preacher’s Wives Meeting:

Haley has been preparing to teach on Joseph at the next meeting. She will first teach the ladies and then teach them how to teach the children the story of Joseph. 

In Him,

Mason and Haley Norman

West Africa Report

Steven Ashcraft is heavily involved in our schools in West Africa and he has a comprehensive report that can be seen by clicking HERE. 

Changes and prayer requests in Cambodia

Greetings fellow servants from Siem Reap, Cambodia via Denver, Colorado.

It is our prayer that God continues to watch over all mission work whether it be in Cambodia or the U.S. or other parts of the world.

IBISR (International Bible Institute of Siem Reap)

• The class of 10 has grown to a class of 11 as another soul desired to commit to studying and living God’s word until graduation!
• We are almost finished with our first year of classes and things are going very well. The past graduating class has helped tremendously in aiding the incoming students regarding studies, family issues of leaving, forming new Christian bonds, etc.
• Last month Denny Petrillo (President of BVBI) traveled over to IBISR and taught Hermeneutics for a week solid and then presented a mini course on animism and spirits.  It was such a blessing for the students to gain from his knowledge in these area.  They are now equipped to study the Bible with accuracy and discuss the spiritual realm to Buddhists who are very curios about such matters.
• In November Bruce Ligon will be teaching short courses on Homiletics and Leadership planing.
• Our staff of 4 continues to teach through the bible in a fashion that allows for young Christian growth while sustaining maturing as they proceed.

Phanat Ouch (Director of IBISR)

• Just this week Phanat and his wife Iya have decided to take on another challenge in God’s mission fields.  This new work will require them to move to the U.S. in the summer of 2018.  Phanat will remain director in this time frame.
• Phanat and I had already implemented a plan some time back in anticipation of any kind of transition needed at the director level.  The most updated plan has been submitted to the Elders at Bear Valley and we will meet in early Sept. to further discuss this transition.
• I believe we already have the correct men in place to fill the role(s) that will be left by Phanat in an administrative capacity.  Darat Run and Piseth Rin have previously been training to step up their leadership and are very capable men to do so.  They have exemplified great faith in becoming Bible teachers, leaders, caretakers of money, caretakers of souls and concern for the well-being of the church in Sieam Reap.
• We want to encourage Phanat and his wife Iya in every way possible as they begin a huge change in life, but never changing in God’s biblical ministry.
• I strongly believe the trip to Arusha, Tanzania that Phanat I took and spoke at together, had a great impact on how we can handle this transition moving forward.  The Andrew Connelly School of Preaching is now being run by native dual directors and, after interviewing them and many of the staff, we gained so much useful information from their experience in this process.
• Prayers are needed for everyone involved, but we forge on with great confidence.
•  
• Wes Autrey (Coordinator of IBISR)
• I have been in constant contact with Phanat and the staff on many items and will continue to do so.
• I will be traveling to Myanmar (hopefully) and then on to Cambodia in early September.
• Myanmar to teach a group of Christians there who study intensely for one week (twice a year).  I will be teaching the book of Esther and Phanat has been asked back (he taught there last year) to teach on Ezra & Nehemiah.
• Cambodia to to meet with the staff for a lengthy period of time so that we cover as many items from every possible angle.  We want to have a complete understanding as to what is expected of us by God, Elders, students and one another to continue to make this an even better school than we already take pride in.
• I have made a few personal reports to supporting congregations and will continue to do that this fall.  I would appreciate your prayers in all my travels and that I continue to work for the Lord with a good heart.

Churches

The Siem Reap congregation now fully supports two of our recent graduates as a full time couple of ministry near their local village.  This is a very strong showing of giving from a very low income area of the world.  The dependency on God and one another is obvious with this group.

We are experiencing some new difficulties within the church and ask that you pray for the men and women involved.  Generally speaking, souls who are saved then choose to look elsewhere for earthly comforts and then return to the church, etc.  These are things common to us in the U.S. but for these young Christians and leaders it is all a new experience and not always easy or pleasant to enforce God’s will.  But we strive on in love knowing that God’s plan is the priority.

Prayers For:

Please pray for these brothers and sisters in Christ in Cambodia and a few others:

• Phanat (Pa-not) & Iya (I-uh) that they are encouraged and gain wisdom in their decision
• Darat (Der-ott) and his wife Sarai as they will take on more responsibility in the school
• Piseth (Pih-set) and his wife Ratana (Rah-ta-nah) as they also will be learning the English language and taking on new roles at the school.
• Vannak (Va-nock) as he becomes a staff teacher along with his current role as Dean of Students.
• Chann (the preacher at SR and also local evangelizer in the outlying areas).  He is man of great skills in this area and has been with us from the beginning.
• The students at IBISR that they have a very close relationship to God and bond together as a family that is and will continue to undergo great scrutiny by their own relatives.
• Hout (Who-it) Heng, who is one of our brothers and struggles (like the rest of us do from time to time) with discouragement.  Hout and his wife Sopen (So-pen) are the wonderful couple that I have mentioned to many of you in presentations about choosing God over family.
• A special prayer for our brother and friend Cy Stafford (Andrew Connelly School of Preaching) who is battling cancer with the strength of our prayers.  A wonderful man an example of long term missionary dedication.

Thanks

Never do the words “thank you” seem adequate as I type.  So many people have prayed and so many have sent support.  I do not mention names or congregations for multiple reasons, but you all have a special place in my heart as my family and I have reaped benefits that will last into eternity because of you.

Special Thanks:

At this point I must make a special mention to the 3rd and 4th graders at the Pea Ridge church of Christ who have been consistent in their support!  Their example of working to support missions is to be lifted up.  For many of you don’t know this little group of children has sent me money, school products, hand written encouraging notes to myself and also to the children at Hannah’s Hope Orphanage in Siem Reap and many other gifts of encouragement.  They literally have jobs of cleaning up the church building at the Pea Ridge, Arkansas church building an then give that money to the cause of saving souls in Cambodia!  What an example of unselfish giving and spreading the message of Christ!  So many of us as adult Christians can learn from you! You guys are awesome!

Wes Autrey

Cambodia Coordinator

BVBI

#extensions #cambodia