More than 100 baptisms in Tanzania

ACSOP Faculty Report - End of July 2018

School Activities during break time!

“An Idle mind is a workshop of a devil” This is one of the old quote that has a lot practical application in our daily lives. We thank God here at the School because we can stay busy all the time, training men to be preachers and work herd top spread the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ and win more souls for the Kingdom.

A number of groups from USA have been visiting congregation around the Area of Arusha working hand to hand with local evangelist and church members. These campaign have given tremendous results this Year. More than 100 souls have obeyed the gospel both in Kisongo, Manyire, Ilkiurei, Arusha and Maji ya chai to name just few. Local preachers and members stay busy to maintain the maturity of these precious souls that have obeyed this time. We want to try our level best not to lose many, as we all know that the devil is not happy at all about this huge increase. Please keep your prayers up for all the new converts who faithful attend several series of classes on Now I am a Christian. 

I am glad to let you all know that we the faculty of ACSOP have safely returned from our trip. For the past two weeks we have been visiting all the congregations that work with our Second year Students for the purpose of building our relationship and encourage our students. Michael Losotwa and I were able to meet with several students who lives in Kenya and saw the good work they do in their local areas to spread the truth. More report on our graduate student will come to you later as you all aware that, the school has already graduated over 172 up to last year. We are expecting nine to graduate from the English class this year, and we continue to ask for your prayer as they come to finish two quarter of class.

 All this good things and many others cannot be accomplished if we don’t work as a team. Team working has been secret of any success including our. This great TEAM includes all the sponsors, coordinators, directors, our staff her at ACSOP whom I am always felling proud of them for their good work. Thanking you all who will read and never fell tired to support any good work of spreading the truth in the World.

Till all have heard!

Thank you,

Godfrey Mngoma

Dean of Students, Andrew Connally School of Preaching

A Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver extension school

Arusha, Tanzania

63 converted in Malawi!

BVBI –Malawi, Report for July!

It is always a blessing to receive visitors! We were glad to be visited by our beloved brother – Donnie Estep in the month of May. The students were encouraged by the lesson which Donnie taught – World Religions. His emphasis was on Islam as it is the major world religion which is deceiving many people in the world today! We are thankful to the president and all the staff of BVBI-International for sending us Brother Donnie to teach twice every year.  Donnie, is also our country Director. We always enjoy seeing him and feeling sad when he says bye to us. We really appreciate his commitment to training men to be preachers of the saving message to all the world!

Malawi – Good Soil!

When we read about the parable of the Sower, the good soil is explained to be the good heart. This good heart does hear the word of God and hid it. Many people in Malawi have the good heart, very receptive to the Word of God. BVBI –Malawi students, were involved in two campaigns end of May, where by about 63 Souls were saved! The winning of Souls to Christ, always bring joy to Angels in heaven and all of us rejoice together for our Father – God, is pleased! From the campaign students were sent home for one month holiday, (the month of June).

7th to 8th July

On the above dates, we were receiving our students back from their one month holiday of June. The classes have started and all students have arrived! The students have reported good news, that more Souls have been added to the church during their time on holiday. This means instead of resting they have been continuing doing the evangelistic work. Some students reported that they have been teaching in seminars and encouraging the congregations. About 20 souls have been reported to have been saved in different areas where our students are coming from during their holiday time. We thank and praise God for the Souls saved!

Brother Richard, one of the BV students was once a Muslim, and has also reported that he managed to preach to one of the influencing and prominent member of Islamic religion in his home village. The good news is that at the end of their discussion, the Muslim was baptized, him and his wife plus their two daughters. The Gospel is powerful – Romans 1:16!

Many thanks to all those who make this work possible. Your support and prayers for this work, is proving to us your willingness to work together as we are seeking to accomplish and fulfill the redemptive plan of God in saving Souls and training men to teach others (2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Timothy 4:2)! Eternity Is Forever, Think Souls!

In His Vine Yard!

Ephron Vincent Mbano,(Local Director). ephronmbano@gmail.com

Triumph over trouble in Cameroon

Dearest in the Lord, 

    It is a pleasure to have you as spiritual family. God created us and we are living in one home but from separate rooms. From this end in our room that is in Cameroon we bring to our greetings. We hope that all is well across the ocean. May our great Lord keep protecting you. It is regretful that our country is still living in great fear. A lot of people are moving from the English speaking (Anglophone) regions to the French speaking (Francophone) regions. People are still witnessing gun shots every day and people are losing their lives and property every day. We are praying for peace to reign again so that the displaced persons to get back to their homeland. 

In the midst of the crisis our schools are still operating and our students are growing to greater and greater heights. We are already exploiting the third week in the second quarter of the second year. Oh, how time flies. Soon and very soon, we shall be inviting you for another graduation and matriculation. 

The month of June was characterized by lot of activities that involved both the church and the school in particular. The sisters and children of the Mbanga congregation traveled to Wotutu for a vacation Bible school that lasted for one week. Our children greatly enjoyed the activities and I had the opportunity the spend the closing day there with brother Micah Crayton who preached during chapel. My regards to Karen Pond, Vicky Harris and daughter Savannah, Jonathan and daughter Makenzie, and to the men who helped also.

Meanwhile, the students were having two week long short courses with elder Todd Crayton from the Frisco church of Christ USA. His courses were on the book of 1 Corinthians and Leadership. The courses went on well. He also spent some time admonishing the congregation and God added one precious soul in the church who is now a great instrument to our congregation.

Still in the month of June, our students spend two weeks going to about seven (7) different communities for evangelism campaign. It was a great success. To begin with our field work analysis, during this field work they talked face to face with about 450 persons, about 250 received tracks in both in French and English, some were restored, and about 7 baptized. We are still doing serious follow up with those converts and some prospects as we still send some students out there on a weekly basis. The field is vast but the labourers are few. French Cameroun is really vast. 

 Upcoming events.

  A lectureship is coming up in Susan this Friday. Mbanga will be hosting the Fako Littoral lectureship in October. We have summer youth retreat next month and women are also preparing for the sisters’ seminar.

Let's us be praying for our country.

A report from Mbanga by his servant Ititi Benedict

Prayers requested for Cameroon

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings from this part of the globe, Cameroon central Africa. We are doing great even though most of our brethren still live in fear and are wondering what will happen next. I describe the situation of Cameroon to be bad. We need prayers from brethren to help solicit God to make haste a resolve as many of His children are in the forest and worship Him in very deplorable conditions. The socio–political situation of Cameroon has affected the churches of Christ a great deal. Many of our Christians cannot boast of balanced daily meals, water, and medications. Some of our sisters have had their babies in forest. Many have lost homes and basic belongings. Your fervent prayers are needed.

In Wotutu we are still enjoying peace as our worship and other socio-economic activities are still going on smoothly without any interruptions. Our Bible college is on and moving on well. Our students are doing well and classes as well as evangelism are working as normal. We are though, very cautious of where we put our legs for evangelism. Risky zones are avoided now for a while but souls in less risky zones are still being touched.

Our students are strong with the tradition of pointing the truth, the undiluted word, directly from the Bible. It is amazing as many can understand when they read our tracts along side their Bibles and those who cannot read can understand the truth when they hear readings and instruction from the Bible.

PLANS
I am going to Bamenda this week to be with the lovely family of a preacher who died this week to help comfort the widow and also arrange for the funeral. Keep minister Nicodemus’ family in your prayers. Evangelism continues in our newly established congregations.

APPRECIATIONS

Thanks very much for your fervent prayers, love, and support. We could move on without those
things. May God bless you and keep you to do more. Please share our report with others.

Elangwe and family
By His grace director BVBIC-Wotutu

Graduation upcoming in Takoradi

Dear Brethren,

We greet you all our beloved brethren. Your support, and prayers have seen us through another successful month of operation and we are glad to report to you our operations for the month of June, 2018.

CLASSROOM WORK

Thankfully we have had a month of successful classroom work for both the regular and part time students. Even though we are in the raining season, both instructors and students have been regular in class attendance, thus enhancing teaching and learning. As has been reported to you earlier, our next graduation is scheduled for Saturday August 25, 2018 to be followed immediately by the annual Seminar for Preachers and church Leaders which is organized by this school. The students have been able to combine their preparations towards these two major events on our calendar with classes

POULTRY PROJECT

Our suppliers of the day old chicks had problems in their hatchery, thus losing thousands of chicks from which we were going to have our next supply on July 19, 2018. We have been assured of supply on August 10, 2018.

EVANGELISM

The students continue with their evangelism efforts in the villages around the school. Both instructors and students’ effort resulted in the baptism of five souls in the month of June, 2018.

PRAYERS

We continue to ask for your prayers, particularly for the programs ahead of us – Graduation and Seminar. Thank you once again for we know that we have come this far through your prayers and financial support.

May God richly bless you all.

CHARLES

A good month in Guinea

Brethren, Here is the summary of activity operations for the month of June 2018.

Classroom: It was another month of hard work as 18 of the 19 students endeavored not only to cross the border line for a passing grade, but to improve their academic performance. In deed some of the students are of a very higher level while a few others still struggle to make up average.

Now that they have completed “Introduction to Sermon Preparation and Presentation”, our classroom daily schedule now requires one student to preach and be criticized during the 10 AM devotion. The overall average performance is about 73 percent.

Evangelism: During the period under review, 3 souls were converted plus a hand full of prospects added to our Sunday attendance list at the new congregation on the promises of the school. The attendance has increased up to about 36.

We have started to send out students 2x2 to the new village congregation and 2 older ones around the town. The radio broadcast of the gospel is ongoing and we receive calls every week.

Dining, Kitchen and Generator shelter Project Start

We have started the construction of a temporal students’ dining, kitchen for cooks and generator shelter. It will be completed in July. Petrol price here in Guinea increased from $.89cents to $1.11 as of 1st July. Therefore, almost all other commodities including transportation and building materials increased. This has affected our initial budget for this project. We are now nearly to complete the work, but details will be in our July report.

Personal Profile: Brother Balla Kamano, one of the staff at Gueckedou Bear Valley is the evangelist at town of Kissidougou some 80 kilometers from Gueckedou. Balla was converted in 1994 just about 2 months after he left Islam. By other profession, he is a mason

During the years of Balla’s conversion, many Guineans came in the faith, but soon left when they did not see material opportunity hoped for Balla whoever stayed and was the only Guinean available and qualified to benefit the scholarship for a Biblical training in neighboring Ivory Coast. He completed and returned to serve first at Gueckedou for some 5 years then later at his present location.

During the first quarter Balla came to teach “God’s Plan of Salvation” and now “The New Testament Church”. Beside one student who scored a 63%, all others made good passing marks in the latter ranging from 71% to 100%.

He had done a good job!   

Francis Sahr Musa, Director BVBI-G     

Campaign success in Liberia

Dear Brothers and sisters In Christ.

We bring you greetings from the students and staffs in Liberia- Bear Valley Bible Institute, hoping all is well with you and your families in the Lord's name.

CAMPAIGNS

To God be the glory.....the month of June has been very hard, but not only hard, also very challenging for our campaign team. We are currently in the rainy season here in Liberia and this year the rain is very heavy. This has resulted in to very bad road that vehicles have stop moving on the untied road.

Our students managed to carry out two very successful campaigns through a very bad road. This time, we did not go with car but motorbikes. We rented five (5) motorbikes and added our two bikes and went through the mud to and fro the campaign and saw 18 baptized.

THE STUDENTS

Our students are in very high zeal ,considering the fact that they are almost to the finishing line of their two years studies at the school. They are now very confident enough and are ready to go out winning souls for the Lord's kingdom. They have been involved in doing many practical works lately, including, teaching and preaching, research presentations, after class house to house personal work and piratical agriculture.

APPRECIATION

Many thanks and appreciation to you for all your sacrifices that are making it possible for the Lord's work in this part of the world to go on. May God richly bless you.

In Him,

Robert P. Dahn, Jr.

14 baptisms in Kenya

It is our pleasure to share with you brethren what goes on at the Kenya School of Preaching- East Africa. All the Bible students have come back from June holiday and this is now our second week with them in the school. We feel great and excited at the fact that we have come from far with them and  now we are nearing to finish up the two years course. 

While they were away, (June holiday) they helped serve their local  congregations in evangelism and  edification and as a result much good has been done, baptizing 14 into Christ and restoring 21 individuals who had backslid. One of the students conducted a gospel campaign at his  Baringo county and some of his fellow preachers joined him.

Phil Palmer, World Bible School East Africa representative also visited with us and helped evangelize the preaching school area with the students and  the teachers. Eighty (80) and over were registered as WBS students. 

Everything is going on well in our new campus as  we  endeavor to finish this last quarter / semester to graduation. Charles our director is teaching Greek 4 and the book of Jeremiah. David is taking with the students the Preacher and His Work, while Elias takes with them the book of Hebrews.

All eyes are now on August 25th, on which day we will graduate our third intake students since the school began. We invite as many guests as can come. We request that as one comes, he/she bring any good books to help us fill up the empty shelves in our new library. Continue to remember the school in your every day prayers, blessings.

The staff of KSOP

Help needed in Ukraine

Greetings, dear brothers and sisters!

I'd like to share with you the last month news from Bear Valley Bible Institute - Ukraine. The time period was full of events.

In June I made a few trips to some local congregations. I visited Vinogradar district Church of Christ in Kiyv and Ternopil Church of Christ and had some personal visits with preachers from our cities. My main goal was recruiting new students for the next school year and appealing to Ukrainian congregations for sponsorship of our Institute. As you know, Kramatorsk Church of Christ sends money on monthly basis to support our ministry. And now a few churches in Kiyv consider this matter as well. I want it so much for Ukrainian congregations to support Ukrainian Institute.

God blesses us with new recruits. For the next school year we have 5-6 potential students. Four male and two female young adults. Currently we are looking for some financial aid to support these servants of the Lord who desire to devote their lives to spreading the Gospel.

In the meanwhile our second year students continue working at summer Evangelical practice. Our students serve the local congregations in Konstantinovka, Kramatorsk, Kiyv and Pokrovsk. They teach lessons, visit with the church members who can't attend services due to their physical ailments. They practice street evangelism and give out Christian literature. According to our student Oleg Fofanov's report during last month he brought to church two people whom he had met in the streets.

During summer time we make a budget for the new school year. We are currently facing some difficulties. We need more funds for the first year students and we need to rent a place for the family of our brother Sergey Omelchenko. During the last school year he studied with us in Bila Tserkva while his family lived in Konstantinovka. The time proved it not healthy for the family to be apart for so long, so this year we need to correct the situation.

I ask you to help us. We are able to continue this ministry thanks to generosity of many congregations and individual families. We see some progress in this matter but we need to stay focused because Satan doesn't want the church in Ukraine to continue God's work.

Thank you all for your care and constant prayers. Our students and the local congregations send their greetings.

Your brother and co-worker,

Dennis Sopelnik.

Continued improvement in Tamale

The month of June is over; we continue to praise God for your life, that of the students and that of the School. We blessed Him for your consistent sacrifice and service in projecting the course of Christ in Northern Ghana.

STUDENTS ARE BACK TO SCHOOL. All students are back to school with the exception of two, who are expected to join us hopefully next week. School activities are ongoing effectively. Currently we are teaching Old Testament IV.

EVANGELISM AND VISITATION We have step up our visitation and evangelism activities in the view of making the local church in Kpalsi vibrant and effective. Saturdays are set aside purposely for door to door evangelism within Kpalsi neighborhood and other areas around the school. We are hopeful to make some baptisms so that, worship continues even when students are on holidays.

We have started working on new recruits for next academic year through visitations and anywhere we go. So far, seven people have shown interest in coming for the next school year.  We pray and hope to work hard to increase the number and the quality of students in the coming year. With the help of God and your efforts, we believe we can all work together to train many preachers for the work of Christ in Northern Ghana and the World globally. We are planning and praying of having the school calendar to starts in January so that the school year will end in December in two years.

A major Gospel Campaign is to take place in August in two villages in a week long program.

SCHOOL/CHURCH LANDS It has been a long and frustrating time for us working on getting the school and the church lands registered. Surveyors from the land commission have visited and surveyed both the school and the worship sites twice this month. It is at the final stage now and hopefully we will get the final documentation ‘soon’.

GOAT/SHEEP SUPPORT Brother George Talafor was our next beneficiary of the preachers goat/sheep support this month. Brother George is one of the first batch students, and a preacher of Sibi in the Volta Region. He was grateful and appreciative for the initiative and to the sponsors as well. He received the sum of four hundred Ghana Cedis (Gh¢ 400.00). This is to help support preachers as they labor for the Lord in the villages. Many of our past students are asking for this help and as this is $100 per preacher support, we pray that help will flow to help these village and poor preachers to make a living.

PILLAR/WALL Maintenance of the school buildings and properties are on-going as funds are available. The cracked wall on the staff quarters has been fixed. There are some works to be done on the car and also on the fence wall.

Thanks for your support and may the Good Lord richly bless you.

Albert and James.

Tamale-Ghana

Baptisms in Togo

Dear brethren in Christ,

I give thanks to God for all he does for us. In June was the month in which we prepared students for examinations in the following.

Each teacher did everything to be up to date with his course, exercises, brief memorization tests which could show us the level of each student. Thanks to the efforts of the teachers, the students are ready for exams in July. Second quarter courses come to end in July.

Evangelism: APEWOKE Kokou very dynamic in personal evangelism he led many to the church through baptism. He converted two couples and a girl during the month. He deserves our congratulations. 5 people are baptized. Evangelism is very important and it allows students to be familiar with people.

Needs: The holidays begin early August, so the need for computer training starts with the resumption of next class after the holidays.

May the peace and grace of our Jesus Christ fill all his blessings for the support you bring to the Institute.

Thanks

Your brother

NYEMANTA Essotena

10th Anniversary in India!

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ our savior.  By the grace of God I returned home safely completing my 2 months visit to USA. It was  pleasure visiting you all, must thank you all for your kind invitation and hospitality when I visited your place. I firmly believe that my visit helped to strengthen our relationship, I praise God for blessing me to visit you all.

Faculty meeting:

Right after my return from USA we held a faculty meeting in the second week of June, A meeting we usually hold once in every two months to discuss about how is everything going, where we at and how students are learning etc., normally It takes a combined effort to train up the young evangelists, in this process sharing of ideas and experience has  been always been a very useful thing. All our faculty was present for the meeting, it was more than three hours of discussion and sharing of things and doctrinal issues in the Church in this area. We all have made a firm decision to stick to the N.T truth of preaching Christ and His only Church.

Part of the meeting, I was glad to update them about my visit to Lake Houston & Strickland Church of Christ, meeting with the Elders and also about my reporting to the Church. All the faculty members were very happy with my visit and how you all felt about the school. Of course our faculty is being appreciated very much for their doctrinal stand and their cooperation in training the Men.

Student’s Schedule: 

Preachers Training program is going on well, present students are doing their best in learning and acting according to their learning.  Let me brief you about how our students spend their day. Actually, student’s time table starts at 5:30 in the morning. They began their day with a devotional first, then cleaning their dormitory etc., We are trying our best to instruct these future preachers to discipline their body by following the time table; also instructing them to use their time wisely.

We are very much concerned about our students memorizing the Bible verses, of course we encourage them to study/read the Bible every day; in addition to this they memorize one verse from the Bible every day. One of the faculty is always watch them doing this, after each of the student quote the scripture that is written on the black board they conclude that with a prayer then proceed for lunch.

10th Anniversary:

What a blessing, we rejoice in sharing this exciting news.  it has been 10 years since we started the Preaching school in Visakhapatnam. Of course we have to wait for another year to celebrate our 10th Anniversary association with Bear Valley. However, its time to celebrate. We are going to have a Preachers meeting on the eve of this 10th anniversary. We are inviting all the teachers and faculty members and old students for this special occasion. We praise God for this blessing of running a preaching school for 10 yrs at Visakhapatnam, where ours is the first full time preaching school, it is certainly blessing. It was a great history of 10 years preachers training at Vaisakha; a preaching school that is sending full time ministers to reach the unreached millions.

Evangelical News:

Brethren, We always feel very proud of our graduates who are working for the Church full time, even though their finances are not up to the mark, they have changeless enthusiasm which is giving some wonderful results; we appreciate their efforts so much. They share with us, their evangelical efforts  of preaching,  holding personal Bible studies, door knocking and  also the results which is the addition of souls to the Lord’s Church. Attached are the pictures that you may like to see, we are very happy to share these with you.

“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase. “ Acts 9:31

Voice of Truth International: We are so thankful to the brethren at World Evangelism, especially sister Betty Choate for sending their Magazine regularly. We receive them without any problem, we are distributing them with our students and preachers in this part of Andhra Pradesh. They have been a great literature, helping our students to understand God’s wisdom, also helping them to prepare to teach/reach others. Very helpful gospel tool, thankful to all the brethren who are behind this in several ways.

Thank you so much brethren for your prayers which is a great strength for us to work for the Lord. We do thank the brethren at Strickland for overseeing our work and for also sending brother Jerry Bates to teach & Check on the work.  Especially we thank the brethren at Lake Houston Church of Christ for their trust and confidence in the preaching School. We appreciate their continued support and encouragements. We also thank the brethren at Bear Valley for accepting our school as their extension school. Do thank all the brethren who made this possible. We are mindful of all the brethren, like Denny Petrillo, Bob Turner, Ralph Williams, Steve Wiseman, Garry Fallis, Keith Kasarjian, Mark Reynolds and sever other wonderful Men of God who made this possible. 

With all your prayers we continue to strive for His cause, we love you all so much in the Lord. God bless you all. All our students, faculty and staff members pray for you daily.

In Christian Love

M. Samuel Raju, Director

M. John Dean

For Visakha Valley Bible College

Visakhapatnam, India.

Tragedy in Tanzania

ACSOP Good will trip Jully 2018

“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw the city was given over to idols”  (Acts 17:16 NKJV). During this time of the year, We the faculty of Andrew Conally school of preaching gets an opportunity to visit our second year students before they graduate. Our purpose for the visit is to continue to encourage our students and building the relationship between the school and all the congregation that send their students to our school. Also we use this opportunity  to recruit new students. This time again, Michael Losotwa and me will be going to Kenya and get to see six students who lives on different location. Ahimidiwe and Charles will be going to Dar es alam, Dodoma and places within the mainland, where we get many of our students each year.  It will take us several weeks before we come back for the third quarter. This year we are expecting nine students to walk on the red carpet and get ready to go back to their home place and work in their community. 

As we begin our plans, I always recall some Paul missionary journey in the first century. I know and am sure this journey works as an experience for us preacher and Bible students as we visit different cities. It is not strange to meet people and some of the strange beliefs. It will also be an opportunity for us to meet and see our ACSOP graduates. It will be our responsibility to encourage them also for the good work they do in the Kingdom. More of these reports from our graduate students will come when we return.

I am very sorry to inform you that one of our first year student (Godfrey Msuya-43) from Dar es alam passed away last week by being beaten by bad guys as he was coming back home from his daily work. He has left behind a wife and three children. 

Above all things we will never stop to thank you all our sponsors and supporters for continuing love for our school and the Lords work is being done here at Arusha and East Africa beyond. As we always say here Till all have heard! See you next time. 

In Him,

Godfrey Mngoma

Dean of Students, Andrew Connally School of Preaching

A Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver extension school

Arusha, Tanzania

A bright future in Zimbabwe

The month of June has been a memorable one at BVBIZ. This is the month when the school had her first ever graduation ceremony. Besides this graduation, more things have been happening. Below is a report of what transpired in June. This report also contains a profile of each student.

GRADUATION

BVBIZ held her first ever graduation ceremony on the 2nd of June. The program was well attended and went beyond our expectation. Many church leaders and, besides relatives and friends of the graduates, came to witness the ceremony. Members of the church from far and wide were also present. We appreciate God for such sacrifices. The program took place at the Nashville church of Christ grounds. The theme of the day was “Developing new frontiers in the equipping of evangelists for ministry and church development.”

A total of 10 men and 2 women graduated on this day.

BVBIZ was blessed to have 2 guest speakers, that is, Donnie Estep and Dr Daniel Gwini. Dr. C.T Mugweni was also available to lead the ordination process. These succeeded in giving relevant messages to the students, faculty and those in attendance. We appreciate the sacrifice these two made to be with the school during this important day.

Students who do well should be recognized and rewarded for their efforts. There were 11 awards on offer. Almost all awards found sponsorship from individuals who have chosen to be associated with the school. Some of the awards have been named after their sponsors and some of these shall stand as a memorial for long in the school.

The graduation class set a record which is yet to be surpassed by the next classes. This is in terms of their practical which they did throughout the period as students. Among other accomplishments, they preached 359 sermons, taught 299 bible classes, and baptized 251 souls!

BVBIZ was blessed to have Brother John Dube, a representative from Healing Hands International, with us. He trained the new students in drip irrigation technology, crop and poultry production. BVBIZ aims to produce competent graduates who are multi skilled in several areas. It is expected that these students would then use these survival skills as they preach the word.

BVBIZ shall be embarking on poultry production. Our appreciation goes to Healing Hands International for providing $2200 for this project. The money is for the raising of 300 birds and other initial set up costs. The first batch of 150 chicks shall be arriving on the 3rd of July while the next one shall come on the 20th of July. After the training that was done, students shall start taking care of the broilers as part and parcel of their training.

Your brother,

Mathew Muchingam

Director, BVBI-Z

Student campaign to Samoa

SECOND TERM

Things are going well with the Bible Institute at Raiwaqa in Fiji.  This term we have 10 students in the program.  One of our students from the first term has taken a sabbatical to go to Tuvalu on a mission effort to help the church there.  He returns to Fiji on the 28 of this month.  

We are halfway through our second term.  This term has been challenging for our students.  They are in their second class in Greek and I just finished teaching a class on Bible Geography.  I am now teaching Acts of the Apostles for the last half of this term as Jason continues to teach them Greek.  Additionally, Jason is teaching Expository Preaching and the Minor Prophets, and  I am teaching 1 Corinthians.

The students really enjoyed the study on Bible Geography which was the first time any of them had studied this subject.  The students just had their 1st major exam in Jason's Greek class.  The good news is that most them are doing very well with the Greek language.  Interestingly, these two classes are the ones that the students say they have enjoyed the most and gotten the most out of.

GENEROUS DONATION

Terry Pafford, one of our short course teachers, sent each of our students two books: Forgiven, Forgiving, and Free by Dan Winkler, and Paul's Letters to Timothy and Titus: Before I Die, by Wayne Jackson.  One of our goals of the school is to put useful resources in the hands of our students to benefit them in their preaching and teaching.  We are thankful to brother Pafford and the brethren at Midland, Texas for contributing two excellent books to our students' personal libraries to help them in their studies.

SAMOA WORKSHOP

The students have been invited to conduct a workshop in Samoa on the book of Job.  We have ten students signed up to go on this trip.  The students and a few members from the Raiwaqa Church of Christ will be conducting this workshop for the brethren at Aleisa, Samoa.  This is a study that they just completed under Terry Pafford, so they will be able to use some of the things they have learned in school.  Lord willing, we will be flying from Fiji to Samoa on the 3rd of August and returning on the 11th.  There will be a total of 25 classes taught and the majority will be taught by our students.  This will serve as our evangelistic effort for this term. 

There are a total of 18 people traveling to Samoa for the workshop.  Jerry, a member at Raiwaqa, plans to leave on the 8th of July and stay for 3 months working with the Samoan brethren.  He will also help with the workshop.  We have five ladies from Raiwaqa planning to attend the workshop.  They include Debbie and Devan and one of our students, Va.  These five ladies will be conducting the children's and ladies' classes.  Also, two of my grandsons, Austin and Cory, will be attending the workshop.  They will be working with Jerry and helping to teach the youth classes during the workshop.

THANK YOU!

Please continue to keep us in your daily prayers as we strive to serve God in the Pacific Islands! 

We continue to thank God for you and your partnership in this work.  May God credit the fruits of our labors together to your account.

Evangelism in Cameroon

Dearest in Christ,

Calvary greetings to you and family over there. We are thankful to God for our lives here are spared and we have the opportunity to continue to serve Him.

I am sorry for the delay of this report. Two things keep delaying my reports now. They are poor internet service that does not even work again in my home and busy programs. During the month of June, missionaries were here to call upon different ministries in our communities, and at the end I was also in class to learn some more in my continuing education. God is faithful to all we do day and after day. We are also thanking God for all the missionaries that came and did marvelously in their different fields. The team left without any problem and arrived to their homes safe and sound. As I always say, “There is no place like home.”

Students went out for one week of intensive evangelism and they are all back safe and sound to start the third quarter in their second year of study. This means that these students are very close to graduation which is slated for the 11 and 12 of December 2018. Please mark your calendar if you would like to be with us so that we start arranging what you can possibly do during the event.

Brother David Ballard, our coordinator from the Pattonville congregation and his wife Nancy, go to Mission Printing to pick up tracts for the Pattonville congregation to collate and staple them and then take them back to Mission Printing. He was also here to see the tracts going to the final consumer. We were at the bus stop sending some cartons to Northwest region.

Statistics for the campaign: 

 Number of baptism =========================  15 souls 

 Number of Restored   ========================= 9 souls

 Number of congregation established ============== 0

 Number of congregation revived    ================ 1

 Number of tracts distributed          ================= thousands  

     PLANS

Evangelism continues as we plan to go to Nkambe  for mission work.

Thank you very much for your help, God bless you. Your prayers and kind gestures are the wheel that moves the mission on. Your reward will be great when the one that rewards people will come. Do your best to share our reports with others .

 Elangwe and family 

By His grace Director of BVBIC- Wotutu

Good work in Nigeria

Beloved in Christ Jesus.

Greetings from BVBIN and SWSE, Ibadan and fellow WBSFUW in South West States of Nigeria. Below is the summary of our activities for the month of June 2018.

OVERVIEW :All our students were busy serving the Lord and His Church through out the month of June. 

EVANGELISM : On June 6-10, we were busy in the restoration of the Lord 's church in Bachita town, Kwara State and the Lord crowned our efforts with the restoration of the brothers. 

 On June 9,the remaining students in the campus under the leadership of Bro. Kayode Solomon Eniafe and Bro. Abraham Idu Yeje were busy evangelizing Butubutu, Kuede,   and Akinwande villages of Ona Ara L. G and  Asejire town of Osun State. The Lord blessed their efforts with a conversion of a young girl .

On June 14, an internet student of Sister Janet Park named Adebisi Omisakin was baptized at Asejire river near Butubutu village. 

On June 15-17, we trooped out in two vehicles to evangelized Badeku town and edifying the brethren in this young congregation planted by the school on February this year. 

SPECIAL ACCOMPLISHMENT :The school were able to floor the outside part of Bro.Doug Event's Hall and that of the Director & Guest house .

Also, we have succeeded in getting Oyo State Government approval to run the Nursery and primary School for the children of the less privileged people in our community. 

OTHER COMMENTS :Brethren should please help us to send some Gospel literatures such as Good Bible, Commentaries, Bible concordance, etc. through Bro. Steven Ashcraft who is going to be one of our guest speakers during the 15th annual Bible Lectureship and graduation ceremony. 

WORLD BIBLE SCHOOL PROGRAM : With the help of Bro. Joel Coppinger and associates, we were able to print 10,000 WBS introduction lessons for the recruitment of new students for free WBS correspondence courses in Nigeria. Over 100 was returned early this week to the WBS OFFICE in Tulare County, California, USA .

CONCLUSION: We thank you all for your great contribution towards the growth of the Lord's church in Africa and the whole world. May the Lord continue to bless all our joint effort in Christ Jesus name, amen. Remain blessed  .

Your fellow labourer in Christ 's vineyard..... Bro. Makinde Ebenezer Olufemi (Director of Studies and Chairman and fellow WBSFUW) 

Continued success in Guinea

Dear brethren,

Here is the report of activity operations for the month of May 2018.

Classroom: There were 2 of the 19 students who did not fully end up their classes. This was due to illness on the part of one and family problems on the part of the other.

Student Justine, who had the family problem has returned and has taken extra classes to cover up. On the other hand, student Saa Nestor Millimouno is still sick and has not returned.

The rest of the students made additional progress in their class participation and academic performance.

Evangelism: Since this is a regular routine, we and our students are especially every week-end on the field in and around the town. Though there were no direct conversions under this activity (except the follow-up of our campaign week which added 3 more souls to that work), many of the prospects are visiting to participate in Sunday worship. The radio program is making some impact as we receive calls from some of the listeners. Some in 2 villages around Gueckedouare calling on us to visit and talk to them. One man said to Philippe, the host preacher, “it is for you people that I bought a radio”.

Campaigns: The first week in the month of May was our campaign week and it was fairly successful. All, but 2 of the students participated and we divided ourselves in 2 groups, but to evangelize in 3 communities – 2 villages and a quarter in town.

I was a leader in one of the groups along with Antoine and we were sent to revive one village congregation that had almost died. You will see photos of where they assembled as we teach. The restoration was successful and there were 5 additional conversions on the Sunday of May 6, but some of us had returned to town for worship in the new congregation at the school.

The other group, led by Philippe, the host preacher visited and revived the church in a nearby village, Bandalo-camp. Shortly, they returned to evangelize the Solondonin quarter where the host church has her worship hall. Motor bikes were chartered for the campaign and I managed to get a photo of the other team on the 2nd of May.

Finally, student Michel who upon his request was sent to his village at Bandalo-leh to prepare the way for his people to receive the gospel returned to campus on Sunday morning, the 6th of May so that our follow up on the 7th and 27th May resulted in 5 and 3 conversions respectively. Sunday worship in that village started on the 13th and the attendance is now between 16 and 18.

Personal Profile: Emile Millimouno is one of the security men on the school campus. Both Emil and his wife are members of the Lord’s church. He was converted around 1994 during the time when we preached the gospel in his village of Dawa. Though without formal education, E mile is a devoted Christian man who is very regular in worship with his family regardless of the 6 to 7 kilometers distance away from Gueckedou where they now worship. There is a stable congregation (about 20 years old) in his village which is some 32 kilometers away from Gueckedou and he was one of those who helped to strengthened it.

Emile is very humble and willing to serve not only the staff, but also to help the students in almost everything they need of which he is capable to do on campus.

He was the first to begin to discuss biblical truths with his fellow security man about the church before we could preach to him and his wife. Though not yet converted, the man and some of his children are now regular in worship.

Because of his dedication to the faith, Emile does his security works regular and faithful. He is liberal and has little or no concern to limit his services even if his work time is over and that is one of the reasons why his name is popular on campus especially with the cooks.

Thanks

Francis

Excitement in Zambia

The school has entered its sixth weeks since the studies begun and we will be changing the quarter in two weeks’ time. We continue to be very grateful to God for such an opportunity of teaching these men. Zambia is well represented by this intake, having six married and the rest single students.

Our last report we did not mention two more students who have since reported to bring our number to fifteen; Frederick and Simon.  Fredrick Mwansa is a native of Samfya District of the Luapula Province of Zambia. Brother Fredrick is married and has four children. He is one of the leaders at Munuchi church of Christ in Samfya. In spite of him being older than the rest of the students, he has proved to be a force to be reckoned with. He is much focused and understands what he needs to do as a student of the Bible and also as a preacher of the gospel of Christ. We are happy to have Brother Fredrick as part of the student body here at BVBI-Zambia.

Simon comes to us from the city of Kitwe, Copper Belt Province of Zambia. Brother Simon is a member of Wusakile church of Christ in Kitwe. He is single and very eager to learn. He came late because he was preparing to rewrite his GCE (General Certificate of Education). Simon’s interest in advancing his education is commendable and can be used to further the Lords Church. 

Students have easily adapted to all the programs of the school and they seem quite eager to learn. Such eagerness is what we need as a church in Zambia to mitigate for the lack the church has. We have noticed with concern that paucity of trained preachers in our nation. For a long time congregations have been planted and left alone at a time they were still in infancy and in need of guidance and spiritual support from Evangelists. BVBIZ – Zambia is here to take care of such a disparity.

BVBIZ – Zambia, in a bid to offer practical training to students, has embarked on weekly outreach programs. Through these efforts, we have help revive a congregation that was taken by Pentecostalism with a Membership of eighty six (86). This ambitious evangelism program is being spearhead by Brother Cephas Mwamba. All the students are expected to go for evangelism every Friday afternoon in neighbouring townships. Students have been teaching the Bible to people which has resulted into one Baptism at Mikomfwa Church of Christ. While doing evangelism, the students are accompanied by the instructors. In addition to evangelism, on the 22nd June, 2018 (Friday) the students visited Husitine Simuyemba’s family. Husitne is one of our students. Brother Husitine's father suffered a partial stroke. And the students felt duty bound to visit him and offer support as they sung and prayed together.

The first quarter will end in the second week of July.  Brother Kennedy Mukuka will be teaching in the second quarter “Personal Evangelism 1”. This course is indeed very important because it will equip the students with some skills on how to conduct Bible studies (one on one). This course will be given uttermost attention considering that we want to take our students even more in vineyard of our Father. 

Our students have so far taken the following courses:

Scheme of Redemption –Brother Donnie Estep

How we got the Bible – Brother Fred Kanangu

Old Testament 1 - Brother Cephas Mwamba

English 1 and Greek 1 – Brother Cephas Mwamba

Cost of Discipleship – Brother Cephas Mwamba

Christian Evidences – Brother Fred Kanangu

Personal Evangelism 1 – yet to be taken

The following courses will be taken in the second quarter:

-Biblical Interpretation 1 (Introduction to Hermeneutics)-Brother Kanangu

-Life of Christ 1 (Overview of Four-fold gospels) – Brother Cephas Mwamba

-Public speaking 1 (Intro. to sermon preparation and presentation) - Brother Fred Kanangu

-Acts- Brother Cephas Mwamba

Short Courses- the New Testament Church (One True Church) & Personal Evangelism 1 –Brother Kennedy Mukuka

We continue to give thanks to our God for the financial support and all the encouragement in this good work we have continued to receive. We will likewise pray that God will bless the works that you all are involved in as well.

In His Service,

Cephas and Fred

Prayers requested in Cambodia

IBISR REPORT

We are truly grateful to serve the living GOD, and we are also very happy to work with you in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here are some of the activities of the Siem Reap International Bible School and the Church for the month of May 2018.

School

We continue to discuss with our students the subjects (How to be a good student) and (How to preach the gospel) taught by Darat and Piseth.

The students of the IBISR have indeed had a great influence because of their Bible studies. Specifically, some of the students went to a village to share the gospel to the people there.    They have also learned a lot of things from their own experience. This is important in many ways including enriching the roots of young Christians and displaying God’s love to the     Cambodian nation. Between school work, part time jobs and church work - the students help many citizens and sister and brothers in need.

One more thing we always thanks our big brother Wes Autrey and his family. They always encouraged us and helped us to grow in God’s family.

Church

We are so glad that there is another soul included in God’s life-book!  Mical has been studying God’s word, worshipping regularly and made this eternal decision to be a citizen of God’s  kingdom. Mical is from the USA but lives here now.

We are so thankful for the members of the Church and families in Church of Christ in Siem Reap who continue to meet and strengthen one another.  We also also thanks for women’s classes each Sunday afternoon, as they are soul winners and good workers for the Lord.

Pray

Please remember us in your prayers for:

1. Women to be unified. - Unity is what will keep us strong and make us stronger.
2. Construction of the school building. - We are adding a classroom area on top of our current building.
3. The process for the next class. - Graduation is this July and we are currently searching for new students beginning in the fall.
4. The leaders in Siem Reap Church. - We are young in Christ, growing in numbers and strong in faith.

We are thanks you for your prayers and partnership.

LOVE YOU IN JESUS’ NAME.

PISETH