Summer outreach in Ukraine

Dear brothers and sisters, as well as the churches,

Currently our Bible Institute has summer evangelical practice for students. Many of them take part in the VBSs as teachers, volunteers and helpers.  It is a big blessing that many congregations of the Church of Christ can host their VBS utilizing local resources. 

There were 7 VBSs during last month: in Poltava, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Vorokhta, Dnipro, Brovary, etc. In the middle of this month our congregation in Bela Tserkva is having the VBS as well. The preparation is under way in full force. It's always an exciting time for our congregation.

As for the next school year we have recruited 5 new students. They filled out the applications and submitted all necessary documents. And there was also a couple who refused to finalize the application process at the very last minute because the college they were currently attending extended the time of studies for another 6 months, and they were under the contract to complete those studies.

Two weeks ago my family went to a sea side for a vacation. My family really enjoyed the week off. They deserved to get some rest. On the way back we stopped at the city of Nikolaev to see a Christian family. The population of the city is 600,000 people and as of right now there is only a handful of Christians who congregate in private houses. We tried to encourage them and spend a few days together.

We had a group of American Christians in Bela Tserkva for 6 weeks. They were doing the LST program. The idea is to teach English using the Bible. Thanks to the effort we've got a lot of new contacts. In the beginning of August, they returned to the States and we are following up with the students. Of course, there are many opportunities to study English these days. In Kiyv, the capital of Ukraine, a lot of people understand English. But in little cities people are excited about the opportunity.

The Bible Institute classes will start in the first week of September. We have 7 second year students. I sure hope all of them are coming back. Unfortunately, in the previous years we had some sad instances where a student wouldn't return after the summer break. We need to continue praying for our students.

As always we are very appreciative of your involvement and support of the Bible Institute. We are going to start training new students and it means the Institute will need funds. If you are interested in supporting the program, please contact Bear Valley Bible Institute Ukrainian extension coordinator Terry Harmon.

Your brother and co-worker in the Lord's Vineyard, Dennis Sopelnik.

Campaign planned in Fiji

Bula Vinaka from Fiji!

Things are going well at the Bible Institute at Raiwaqa. We just finished up our short courses. My son, Josh, came out and taught a class on Youth and Family Ministry. Josh has been a youth minister for about 24 years and did a great job. The interest level was high and we had three to sit in on the class in addition to our regular students. We also had Paul Meredith, who taught a class on Church History and did great as well. This is Paul's second time to teach and he relates well to the students and does a good job of presenting difficult material in a way that it can be easily understood.

We are currently on school break. Lord willing, Emosi (one of our instructors), his wife Nancy, and I will be traveling to the north to spend a little time with the congregations at Labasa and Buca. We plan to make an audio and video recording of their singing to produce a CD and DVD to be distributed to other congregations to encourage them and to help them learn new songs. We will be working with Atu (whom I hope to persuade to enroll in the school at a future date) who is an excellent song leader. He has singing practice every Saturday and he has several that come regularly to learn new songs and practice old songs. This will be the second time I have recorded them. This has been a real encouragment to the brethren in Fiji.

I have also purchased my airfare to Denver to attend the annual fall staff retreat. Lord willing, I will leave Denver on Sunday afternoon and arrive back in Fiji on September 2. Jason and Emosi are teaching the classes in my absence. When I arrive back in Fiji I will work on finalizing preparation for the upcoming campaign to Nadi, Fiji.

Two weeks ago Jason and I spent a weekend in Nadi so that we could meet with Jone Qoro, the preacher there. We were able to finalize plans for the student led campaign which is scheduled to take place September 9 through the 15. We plan to knock doors during the day. The students will be divided into two teams. One will focus on visiting wayward members and the other on inviting people of the community to the lectureship on the family, which will be Friday night and all day Saturday. The students will be teaching in the program as well. Please keep the campaign effort in your prayers and also the brethren in Nadi.

Following the campaign, classes resume on Tuesday, September 17. I am excited about teaching the Scheme of Redemption. This will be the second time I have taught this at the Bible Institute at Raiwaqa and I have spent a good deal of time updating and reediting my textbook for this class. I will teach this course for three weeks and then I am scheduled to teach Paul's Prison Epistles for two weeks. Jason will be teaching Old Testament History II, Hebrews, and Ethics this term. Emosi will be teaching Denonominational Doctrines.

May God bless you with a wonderful day!

Rocco

Incredible student practicum results in Zimbabwe!

                                 JULY 2019 NARRATIVE REPORT

INTRODUCTION

The great commission continues to be obeyed and disobeyed in many circles. At BVBIZ students are trained so that they be able to obey and fulfil this commission. Despite the various challenges that the nation is facing, BVBIZ continued to do her part in fulfilling this commission in the month of July. The major activity in the month was the field practicum currently underway. This is reported hereunder.

1.0 FIELD PRACTICUM

The field program that started on the 22nd of June progressed well  in the month of July. The program will end on the 8th of September.  During this year’s program, students have had their fair share of joyous moments and challenging incidents and situations. All these are vital in building a highly competent servant of God who will be able to transform communities. Great appreciation goes to the congregations and individuals who are sponsoring this work in terms of food and accommodation. Teachers followed up on the students many times during the month. Their task was to evaluate students, observe challenges and other notable issues.  The visits will continue in the month of August. The month of July saw 35 souls being baptized and 37 being restored to the Lord.

Students based at Igava Mission have been dealing mainly with the Primary and Secondary Schools there. Their work included devotions at assemblies and in classes. As schools go on break in early August, the word shall now be taken to communities. On the other hand a new congregation has now been established at the town of Redcliff. Students. From the many pictures that were send from the field, we have included some at the end of this report.

2.0 SITE DEVELOPMENT

After constructing two rooms measuring 6mx4m each, a house (hostel) to accommodate students is the next building project. The plan for this building was submitted to Vungu Rural District Council and was finally approved on the 23rd of July.  A plan for pit latrine (toilet) was also approved. Gathering of materials for the construction of a foundation for the student house started on the 30th of July and will continue into early August. Currently all bricks, pit sand and river sand needed for the foundation are now at site. Construction of the foundation will start during the month of August. More resources will be needed to move to another stage.

CONCLUSION

Great appreciation goes to God for taking us this far and for guiding students who are currently in the field doing their practicum. Please continue to pray for them as they put theory into practice and in their in obedience to  the Great Commission. We also appreciate our partners for their many sacrifices being made towards this work. To God be the glory!

Upcoming lectureship in Nepal

Nepal Center for Biblical Study

July  2019

Respected brothers in Christ,

Greetings to you all in the precious name of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. May grace of God, love and peace always be with you.

Our regular teaching at classes

We have almost finished our curriculum. This month brother Jerry review classed from different topics: (1) Lesson and sermon preparation & presentation (2) How to interpret the scriptures rightly (3) How to teach the Bible to the Hindu and denomination people? (4) How to mature individual and local congregation.  I was repeating New Testament books on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, 1, 2 and 3 John. Arun was reviewing books of Pentateuch. This month sister Sunita came to the school and gave lessons of series to only our lady students. All of her lessons were based on "Fundamental truths of Christianity".

Campaign

We were thinking to do one more campaign before our graduation. But, due to heavy rain fall, mud slide, land slide, and damages of the road, we planned not to do any campaign till graduation. We are locally visiting different congregations within Kathmandu valley. We will do one campaign after graduation.

Local evangelism

Every week we take our current students in two different local congregations beside school building worship service. Two of the current male students are given opportunity to give sermon and lessons on the local congregations every Sunday worship. While there are women's classes most of our female students are giving classes and lessons. Twice in a month we had women's Bible study and men and Women combined Bible study. We studied book of Ephesians in our combined groups of study in July. Four of teachers presented their short lessons from Ephesians and we had discussions. Women had chosen their study book from book 1, 2 & 3 John. Six of the ladies prepared and presented their 20 minutes of lessons and had final groups' discussions conclusion.

Preparation

We are beginning our preparation work for lectureship and graduation on the month of September 24th-26th September 2019. Beside of this preparation we are translating Voice of Truth International into the Nepali language.

Thank you all of your prayer, love, suggestions and guidance.

Brother in Christ,

Gajendra Deshar

Student practicals underway in Nigeria

Dear fellow ministers of God.

Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Sustainer Jesus Christ and from students and staff in BVBIN & SWSE, Ibadan located in Butubutu village of Ona-Ara Local Government Area, Oyo State.

FOURTH SEMESTER CLASSES CONCLUDED  : All subjects and tests for this last semester came to an end on Friday, July 19,2019 While the last week was used in preparing students for a month teaching practice. I taught on Three ways of Evangelism at the Wednesday chapel and on Ready to serve( Neh. 4:6) during the Friday sent forth .

STUDENTS NOW IN A MONTH'S TEACHING PRACTICE: All our students were sent forth on Friday afternoon, July 26 for a month teaching practice to eleven States of Nigeria and they are expected back into the school campus on August 26,Lord's willing. Five hundred(500) VOTI Volume 100 and 1,000 of VOTI Volume 101,30 cartons of Mission Printing International booklets and 10,000 copies of 5 of our local tracts were distributed to students to aid them in their one month teaching practice.

VOTI VOLUME 100 AID IN CONVERTING SOULS INTO CHRIST'S BODY AND......: Report reaching me from some of the recipient of VOTI Volume 100 shows that VOTI booklets aid them in converting many souls into Christ and many edified.

Bro.M.B. Archibong inform me of the conversion of three souls  Afaha Obio Eno on June 18 and another three souls at Mbiakpan Atan Ibiono and another two souls on July 21 at Ekim Ebebit town of Akwa-Ibom State while many others inform me of how the materials has been of great assistance in their evangelistic campaign and In-door Lectureship. Also, Bro.Lawrence Peter Abiodun just inform me of how the material help them in converting a lady evangelist into Christ at Owode-Yewa in Ogun State last week.

OVER 1,000 STUDENTS RECRUITED BY OUR WBSFUW : Our WBSFUW in Oyo,Osun,Ogun, Ondo and Ekiti State recruited over 1,000 students for WBS correspondence courses.

ABOUT A STUDENT: Bro. Mojana Nte Darius is one of our present year -2 students that will be graduating on August 30,2019 Lord's willing.
He is a member of The Church of Christ, #3, Creek Road ,Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Born in 1975 at Dema town in Rivers State and became a member of the Lord's Church in year 2001.
Through his efforts, the Lord's Church was planted late last year at Rivers State Civil Servant Housing Estate, Port Harcourt. His mission is to be one of the season ministers of God in and around Rivers State.

SPECIAL ACCOMPLISHMENT: With the help of the Lord, we(myself, Bro.Kayode Eniafe and Bro.Dele Shotola) were able to help the Church of Christ, Ido-Ekiti, Ekiti State to solve the problem caused by a corper- brother who have divided that congregation with his teaching that only  evening Communion is Scriptural .
I taught on Establishing New Testament Authority on Time of Communion, Bro.Kayode Eniafe taught on History of the Lord's Supper While Bro.Dele Shotola admonished the Church on Careful Observation of the Lord's Command.

COMING EVENTS: The BVBI Sandwich degree program will come up on August 19-30,2019. Bro. Isaac Olaniyan will be teaching on HERMENEUTICS-1 and Bro.Steven Ashcraft on Greeks-1.
Also,our 17th annual Bible Lectureship and Graduation of successful 29 students is coming up from August 28-30,2019 at our Small -London, Butubutu village, Ibadan, Oyo State Lord's willing.

CONCLUSION: We thank Bro.Joel Coppinger and associates, Bro.Steven Ashcraft and associates, Bro.Chad Wagner and associates, Bro. & Sister Doug Wheeler, Bro.John Branard,The Lough family and you all for your partnership and support for the continuation of this good work in Nigeria.  

May you all be blessed today and forever in Jesus Christ name, amen.
I remain your fellow labourer in Christ's vineyard......

MAKINDE Ebenezer Olufemi 
(The Chief Servant of BVBIN & SWSE, Ibadan and WBSFUW)

A lot of good in Cambodia

IBISR
The third trimester of IBISR's academic year ended on the 28th of July, 2019. Our institution has been starting the last trimester of the first academic year. This trimester has four courses which had already taught two courses by our two instructors (Run Darat and Rin Piseth). We still have two courses left for this trimester. Brother Yeng Vannak our Dean of Students will be teaching in the future quarter.

SHORT COURSE
We were exceedingly delighted with brother Wes Autrey and Tyler King who had spent their time with us in order to provide us with the Bible knowledge about :
1 Spiritual Development.
2 Bible Leadership.
It was a great privilege to enjoy studying with you both, and it was very helpful lessons for the local preachers, the staff, and our new Bible students as well.

LADY BUG CAMP
We have heard from all of the ladies who had been participating in this camp, they said that they really appreciated the new experience and couldn't wait to join this camp again. This shows how much they were willing to participate and how much advantage they got from this special occasion. We hope that we will make it possible to happen again and again. And if it is possible to invite some of the church members at the villages to join this camp, it will be great to build a relationship and gaining the Bible knowledge.

We really appreciate your help with the all the work in Cambodia. Especially, your long journey to visit us in Cambodia, and did a great job in teaching and spending time with us. Thanks for supporting our institution, we could do all things through Christ who strengthens us. God is amazing and made all these things happen.

Servants of Christ,
Piseth Rin - Co Director
Pros Rok - Staff

Graduation upcoming in Haiti

What a great week it has been in Haiti! A bit warm, daily temperatures from 98-102 but a cool 75 at night.

The new class schedule is almost finished, the student handbook will be finished soon. The graduating students are excited and the new students are nervous. We will have the first graduation on our campus on August 10th. This is an exciting and major step in our development. This also means, more people will be visiting our campus, speaking with our students and seeing that God's word and His are the focus of our teaching.

As of today, we have 12-15 new students who will be attending. It is also exciting to announce our first two female students. The church in Haiti and around the world need more ladies who are able to share God's message with lost souls. More information and pictures will come soon.

We are also adding a three year Saturday program! This will allow those who have full-time jobs to attend IST. I have been meeting with students, the directors and some of the teachers as we approach the new year. On the 30th, we will have an all-day seminar with all of our teachers. To have well-trained students, it is important to have well-trained teachers. Therefore, a continuing education program is being implemented to help our, already great teachers to become even greater.

This week we had a youth retreat at IST. We had between 40 and 50 youth, spending three nights at IST. The singing was great, the classes uplifting and challenging and they spent one-morning knocking doors in the community. Someone made the stated, "maybe next year some of the American youth can join us." Maybe!!!!

My birthday was the 29th and Brother Viciere and our directors Brother Felix and Beaubrun gave me a surprise birthday party. I am so thankful for my Christian family in Haiti.

Keep the work in Haiti in your prayers. "God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:7

Larry Waymire

Even more success in Guinea!

Gueckedou Bear Valley Bible Institute Activity Operations Report for June 2019

Greetings to you all, our readers and supporters of the gospel work in Guinea. As usual we are writing to give you an update of what transpired at the Gueckedou, Guinea Bear Valley Bible Institute during the month of June which falls in the wet season of the year in this part of West Africa. Also, our activities were limited by the second quarter break which was a week off the month of June. Notwithstanding, the grace of God continues to be manifested in our gospel preaching as souls are being converted.  While it is true that many of our outdoor activities have reduce, there was little or no effect on our indoor activities as classes continued in their normal order. On the over all, the results were good and I am glad to report the following details:

Classroom: As per our course schedule, we were able to go through 2 major courses – the “Major Prophets and Biblical Interpretation 2” just before the campaign week followed by the second quarter break. We are still with all the 17 students on roll with everyone doing his best in his category of study.

Evangelism: News of our preaching during the month of May drew one elderly man some 3 kilometers from his village of Yaladou to be a member of the church when he met us in the village of Damas. In response to the question “how did he know about us and why did he want to be a member of the church”, Mr. Lambert explained “we are hearing about you and people are saying that that church has so much truth”. After the worship service that Sunday, the 1st of June the man was baptized after a brief Bible discussion. We have unfortunately lost his conversion photo. Then on the 16th of the Month, 1 old age woman obeyed the gospel in the village of Foidou. Finally, the conversion of 3 other souls – 1 in Gueckedou and 2 in another village of Yabehma on June 30th was the close of our evangelism for the month. In all, we baptized 5 souls!

Campaign: We had 6 days of public preaching – 18th to the 23rd June and we surveyed 2 main areas. First, we all spread out – house to house in a quarter of Gueckedou town until the 21st. Then on the 22nd, a portion of us left to visit Yaladou, the village of Mr. Lambert, the first convert mentioned above during our evangelism. Although we met him very sick of a swelling foot, brother Lamber had informed the local authority and had invited many who came out in a public square to listen that Saturday night. Unfortunately, the rains interrupted and the people scattered with only a few entering in an unprepared hall. Nevertheless, 1 soul was baptized the following day plus 4 others in Gueckedou town on the same Sunday of June 23rd. In total, 5 souls were drawn to the Lord during our June campaign.

Transportation means: Our request for an additional motorbike to facilitate transportation especially for evangelism and congregational visit was granted by the Bear Valley authorities through the effort of our West Africa Coordinator, Steven Ashcraft who advocated for us. From the funds provided for that purpose, we were able to purchase 1 more motorbike of the same quality (but of a different color – Red) as the first. The funds were enough to provide for all documentation including 1 year of complete insurance.

Conclusion: The month of June, though a rainy period in our area with some inconveniences was nevertheless successful. Our indoor, classroom activities went well. Also our evangelism and gospel campaign efforts resulted to a total of 10 souls converted to Christ.

In our next report, we will give you details of Niceville, Florida church’s positive response to our May request for evangelism equipment.

Thanks and appreciations to you all.

Francis

Special lectureship in Liberia

Dear fellow Workers of Christ,

Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ from your fellow servants of God, hoping all is well with you and your families. We truly appreciate God for your partnership with us in this great work we have to do here in Liberia, West Africa. Below are the happenings in June 2019. Please accept our gratitude for your encouragement and support for the school.

REGULAR CLASSES
We are so grateful to God that classes here in the school are going on very well without any major problems. All the students and instructors are in very good health and sound mind toward the second quarter Curriculum.

MINISTER'S AND LEADERS FELLOWSHIP / LECTURESHIP

Twice every year, the Ministers and Leaders of the Lord's church across Liberia gathered at two different local congregations to encourage and strengthen ourselves in the faith. In these meetings, lessons are taught to help ministers and leaders to stay with the one truth gospel no matter what come their way. House to house evangelism is also done to strengthen the host congregation. The first fellowship or Lectureship for this year was held by the Corn Farm Church of Christ in Buchannan City, Grand Bassa County from June 25-30. Lessons taught included the following:

Church Discipline & Growth

True Worship of the Lord's Church

Church Organization

Evangelism and the Personal workers

Preachers Support

In view of the above, the Bear Valley Bible Institute Liberia saw this as another opportunity to expose our students ministers and get them acquainted with other congregations and their leadership. This truly was a great experience and blessing for my students

APPRECIATION AND CONCLUSION

We want to thank all of you so much for standing by us financially and prayerfully supporting the work in Liberia. Without you, this effort would not be possible. May God richly bless you.

Report By: Robert P. Dahn, Jr.

Updates from Arusha

Grace and Peace to you friends.

I would like to begin by noting that they Maynard family's term in Tanzania has come to an end for now, and they have safely returned home. Justin and Anna worked energetically over the past three years, and have made a significant impact on the work. I want to express my appreciation for their efforts and sacrifices. They are in the process of moving to south Alabama to work with the Spanish Fort congregation. We wish them the very best in their ministry moving forward.

Also the Duncan family has returned to the US for a well-earned furlough. We wish them safe travels, and look forward to their return to Tanzania later this year.

Now I would like to share the following report from Charles Mwanga regarding this year's Safari for Souls campaigns:

"Safari for Souls (Journey for Souls) the evangelistic effort done by the Churches of Christ in East Africa mainly hosted by The Church of Christ Tanzania Missions. This program brings people from all over East Africa and the United States of America for one goal, TO REACH THE LOST SOULS WITH THE TRUTH. Hundreds of Souls will one day be in heaven because of this program. This program has been in existence for over 19 years now. The main purpose was to establish and grow the Arusha and Kilimanjaro congregations to become self- sustaining in their evangelistic efforts. As to what our late brother Cy used to say, “What God control, grows!” this effort has grown beyond measures. Hundreds of congregations has been established through this evangelistic effort.

"Through out years many groups have been coming from USA to help furthering the cause of Christ, for these past two years our focus have been the Kisongo Church of Christ. This year we have had groups from Central Church of Christ which is located in Augustus, Georgia, Hoover Church of Christ which is located at Birmingham, Alabama and Kensington Woods Church of Christ which is located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (this group had two teams, the first one came early May and worked in Dodoma region and the second one came in the midst of June to the end of the month and worked at Kisongo area). Both these groups brought a total number of 32 workers who did a great job in the Kingdom.

"Through God’s help, we were able to conduct 105 bible studies, 35 Souls were added in His Kingdom, the local team is doing a great job on follow up, making sure that those who have obeyed the gospel remain faithful and also following up on those who are still interested on learning more. We have 30 active bible studies which are carefully followed. The church here has classes for new converts to make sure that they are grounded in the Truth.

"We would like to that all those who makes these efforts possible, we know it requires money to run this program but furthermore it requires manpower. Thank you so much to brethren from both America and the Churches of Christ all over East Africa especially Tanzania for being part of this year. May the Lord of peace be with you all as you continue to serve Him. Glory be to His Name both now and forever."

Till all have heard,

Daniel Gaines
Director
Tanzania Missions

A new group of students in Sierra Leone

To Our Beloved Brethren in Christ Jesus, May the grace and Peace of God be with us all. Greetings from me together with those that labor with me in the Lord; The management, staffs, and students of the above noble Institution sends their greetings. I wish above all things that you are in good health.

Know that you are sincerely appreciated for your joint efforts in bringing the Gospel into our doorsteps.

Bear Valley Bible Institute in Kenema team of Management went around towns and villages recruiting new students for the next Academic School Year. 20 students in number were officially recorded for 2019 – 2020 school years. These students are from Freetown; Magburoka; Kailahun; Koindu and Kenema.

Immediately after the recruitment 11 students were interviewed and classes commence the next day. An able Brother from our neighboring country Liberia in the person of Brother Robert P. Dahn Jr. was in preparation to handle Personal Evangelism, one of the courses in the curriculum for a week. The eleven students who were on campus benefitted the lectures as grades were displayed on the school notice board.

During this same period the graduation fever of 16 students who have successfully meet with the requirements of Bear Valley Bible Institute for the awarding of Diplomas in Biblical Studies was a showcase in the minds of many.

April 13th the long awaiting day was here and to the glory of God Almighty, these gallant men were colorfully robed and rewarded for their devotion and completion of their course studies. I was blessed among the living to witness the ceremony and graduation. This has been my dream like many others to see Churches of Christ conducting a full-time Bible Institute in Sierra Leone. We pray and look forward to the extension of Bear Valley in other parts of Sierra Leone. 

SUMMARY OF MAY 2019 ACTIVITIES

The Management of Bear Valley Bible Institute Kenema Sierra Leone together with the West Africa Coordinator for Bear Valley Bible Institutes Brother Steven Ashcraft has consultative meetings for the furtherance of the Institute. The needs of the Institute and welfare of students were top of the discussion. The following were prioritized

(a)   Refurbishment of Student’s dormitories

(b)  Relocation of  School Kitchen extension

(c)   Provision of clean and pure water

(d)  Renting of two-bedroom apartment for Lecturers coming from far distances

(e)  Purchasing of Kitchen utensils 

As God would have it done, 90% of these needs were practically made available as showed in the pictures above.

In addition to all of these needs, a final settlement for the piece of land owned by Bear Valley Bible Institute situated off Dama Road Kenema became successful and sole ownership is placed to the Institution. In conclusion to these, on behalf of our local management, we express our sincere thanks and appreciations to our sponsors/donors for making these needs available for the effectiveness of the Institution. May the good God continue to bless their families Amen.

CONCLUSION

In final summary, we wish to let you know that we have Sixteen (16) students on roll who are ongoing classes for the pursuance of Diploma Certificate in Biblical Studies for 2019 to 2021. We need your continuous support and prayers for our students as well as management and staffs. Kindly remember us in your prayers as we do the same for all.

Presented by your humble Servant in the Lord

Jacob Osman Sesay

Admin/Director

Church plants in Malawi

Bear Valley Bible Institute – Ekwendeni (Malawi)

July 2019 Report

Introduction

Time flies so quickly! We are just one month after the middle of the year! The questions are; what have we done so far? Are we doing what we planned to achieve this year? Well, in this report we will just quickly give an update of what we have done. We have done a lot in teaching, evangelism and looking into the future of the school. We have had visiting teachers who came to teach the students and some just came to encourage us. In February we had Brothers Donnie Estep and Jim Kerns, in March we had Brother Navie Theu and in June we had Brother Richard Rogers and his wife Carol. Just in two weeks ago we had Brother Matthew Muchingami the Director of the Bear Valley School in Zimbabwe and also we were visited by Chad and his wife Rena. Chad visited lot of places, but he thought it good to come and say hello to the students and the teachers, this has been a year of visitors – what a blessing!

Teaching

We are almost about to finish our curriculum and looking forward to the graduation in September. The time table has really been followed perfectly. The coming in of the visiting teachers has helped us move very quickly. We are thankful to all the brothers who came to help us teach.

Congregations established

Since February this year, we have been involved in establishing three congregations. One of our students, Brother Chisamba Tembo organised the two campaigns during the holiday time and end up establishing 2 churches namely; Kalema and chiporwa all in Ntchisi District. This is very encouraging to us as teachers and to those who support this work when we see the fruits of our goal in training faithful preachers – 2 Timothy 2:2! The time the students were on their holiday, the teachers and one former student organised a preaching campaign in the western side of Mpherembe and establish Emandhloveni church. We hope it will be a very fruitful year both in class and in the field. The total number of souls baptized in these three congregations started since February, 2019 is 61 and in addition to these baptisms, 21 more souls restored!

Campaigns

We are having two more campaigns before the student’s graduation in September. The major challenge we are facing so far is transport to take us to where we want to preach. This time we are thankful that the Lord has provided us with funds to hire the vehicle to take us where we are going this month end the Lord willing. 

We always appreciate Bear Valley International for the support. Your prayers and kindness mean a lot to us. We always pray that God continues blessing your families. Think Souls!

Yours fellow servants in the Lord,

Ephron and Clergynton

Student Evangelism in Togo

June 2019 report:

May the peace and grace of the Lord be with each of us. Thank you, Lord, for your great blessings especially as a new congregation is established in the region of Bassar thanks to the evangelists of Kpalime.

BVBI-Kpalime:

Every Wednesday evening two students either APEWOKE Kokou and SABOUTEY Koffi go to Avetonou to study and invite people to church on Sundays, or SEGLA Joli and TOSSOU FOFO go by motorcycle to AGOU-ADZA where they study with the population to establish a new congregation because it is a large village located on the road to Lomé. Sometimes to allow a large number of people to participate in the study, a motorcycle takes 3 to 4 people.

Some students see their evangelistic work and their zeal to convert denominations; we have hope for a better future. Among the 14 students, 7 lead the assemblies on Sundays, and the rest help the evangelists on the churches.

Agriculture and livestock:

The students started their first experience on the agriculture project and visited the pigs. They have taken to sowing soybeans, and in the coming days, they will receive instructions in each area.

Saturday's classes:

Currently, as you see in the photos, we can already count on the students in Kpalime and Lomé as a hope for the next class of the Bear Valley Institute. So next year when we will have two more classes in different parts of Togo, then each city or village will have a candidate trained to work as an evangelist at home.

Evangelization:

Togo for Christ is our slogan every Friday as we set off for the village where we go to preach the gospel. Every student knows that the work to save souls is in the power to preach (evangelize) the gospel to lost souls. For it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. We also need, once or twice a year when students travel for three days of evangelization, to set up or grow an assembly.   This would give them experience for ministry.

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

Improvements made in Takoradi

OPERATING REPORT FOR JUNE 2019

Dear Brethren,

We thank God for another successful month of operation and I am glad to present to you our operating report for the month of June, 2019.

CLASSROOM WORK

Again, we thank God for successful month of teaching and learning. Students for both the regular and part-time were regular and present in class activities which helped enhance our classroom work.

EVANGELISM / BAPTISMS

We are currently in the rainy season and as such not much evangelism work took place. However, bits of efforts by instructors, students and some past students resulted in the baptism of five (5) souls. These, in addition to the 10 from last month.

SCHOOL COMPUTERS

We are grateful to inform you that we were able to buy five (5) computers for the students to use in their computer class. Ten (10) were needed, and we are happy to get some of them to manage with the eleven students.

REPAIRS / MAINTENANCE

Occasional strong winds accompanying the rains ripped some sheets off the roof of our building and also caused damage to the school’s television set and other electrical connections. This also caused some black-out for some days to the school. A new generator was purchased to enable us have lights until we were re-connected. (We are yet to obtain a new TV set for the students). Termites have also eaten up a door flame and trap door whose repair, maintenance and cleaning raised our expenditure.

We still need to undertake some repairs and maintenance work to the classroom block. We have desired an estimate so we could know how to resolve them as well.

Thank you and may God bless us all.

Joshua Aidoo.

24 baptisms in Mbanga

I greet you all in Jesus name. We praise the almighty God for giving us another opportunity like such. Our God is good and is blessing the church richly. Most of our youth have gone out for holidays and some might further their studies in other places.

We therefore thank the almighty God for giving us that spirit to transform minds. Just as our theme for 2019 goes," My Year of Uncommon Transformation." Subsequently, the church in Mbanga and my home have been common ground for transformation. This is a blessing from God.

Special greetings from the staff of the Bear Valley Bible Institute Cameroon -Mbanga, with a smile on our faces, and from the students who all returned from their first campaign safe and sound. The students of our institution had left for a two weeks mission work to various congregations across the country. We are blessed this time in our campus to have about 15 students in our campus which is a very large number and helpful for evangelism and missions. 

15 students left for mission work to 11 different assemblies across our country. One person went up to the north due to a call by a dying congregation that needed some serious work. It was done perfectly with the help of two of our graduates already in the field. The great God keeps on blessing His work In French Cameroon. The first mission work and campaign were successful as we can get feedback and reports from the local assemblies.

God blessed our first mission work with 24 baptisms, 17 restorations, and one restored congregation in the northern part of Cameroon which gave a total of 44 souls all together. Hundreds of others were opportune to listen to the word of God by way of the students. Some will surely be baptized later after follow-up by the local preacher. Hundreds of tracks were distributed along-side the work. May God continue to bless this batch of students and may they continue to be dedicated to the work.

Also, we are pleased to inform you that all the students came back to the campus and have started classes successfully. May the good Lord lead them through this quarter also in Jesus name. We are pleased to tell you that everybody is okay for now after some series of sicknesses took most of the students unaware. They have gone to the hospital and are taking their treatment. Just one or two persons have some severe problems of health and will have to go to a specialist.

 Upcoming events:

 We are planning to carry out massive evangelism in a new site called Ayos in the central region. We shall be going out for another evangelism in Susa next week. In August we shall be attending the youth retreat with some students.

Calvary greetings from my wife sister Mary who is pressing hard to see that the work in the Bear Valley school keeps on growing.

Ititi Benedict

The students are back in northern Ghana

JUNE REPORT

We are very grateful to God for the absolute protection, peace, joy and grace bestowed on us through His son, we pray that many who have not had the opportunity to benefit from this scheme come to the knowledge of God’ s manifold wisdom through the Church. In that we remained committed to appreciate you for the might work you are doing in Ghana and West Africa as a whole. We also congratulate you for your consistency in making sure that the operational demand of Bear Valley Bible Institute in Tamale is always met.

STUDENTS ARE BACK TO SCHOOL.

As reported last month, students have come back to school to continue their academic work. Thirteen of the fourteen students have reported leaving one who promised to come next week, due to family clashes he could not report on the reopening day. We shall continue to pray for those who also made decision and are not able to come this term.

LECTURESHIP

The classes are ongoing successfully, Christian evidence is in progress with Brother Adjei Mensah Daniel and next course will be The New Testament Church 1{one true Church}, Brother Acquah Beenyi Kojo will teach in that class. There is a campaign planned this term as the students and staff will be going to Upper East for campaign. We are hoping to see the successful end of the term with full of activities.

ADMINISTRATIVE WORK

We are working closely towards the impending programs being hosted in the school. They are Sunday school workshop, seminar for preachers and graduation. Letters have been sent to various churches in the three Northern Regions and positive responses are received. We have also been able to work out  the graduating students transcripts to enable the Bear Valley award the students who have successfully completed the courses of Bear Valley curriculum and worthy of Diploma certificate. Coordinator Kojo Beenyi as usual visited the school to teach and also ensure that things are in order regarding impending programs.

Brother Caleb a visiting America young man worshiped with us for about two months and had gone back to America. We attended his get together party with my family and it was a nice party time, many regards to him.

Please continue to pray with us. May the peace and joy of God rest upon you all now and forever Amen! 

Special seminar in Zambia

June 2019

REPORT

Warm greetings to you all brothers and sisters! We always give honor and glory to God who gives us the rare opportunity of working in His Vine Yard. We also thank Him for this privilege of sharing what is happening here at BVBI-Zambia.

The institute had a joyful month and the 4th quarter came to a close with students having a short course on “Leadership” that was taught by Brother Kennedy Mukuka. This course started on 24th June 2019 and ended on 28th June 2019. A week prior to their short course they had final examinations in their normal courses. Besides our busy schedule in class we always finds time to do practical in Evangelism and this intake has also proved that they do love to preach as we went on weekends at Roan township here in Luanshya. This was a good preparation to our major gospel meeting of June.

Our Copper Belt Province gospel campaign in Ndola of all the Churches of Christ for this year was a success, the meeting became one of the school’s highlights of their activities. This meeting stated on 27th June 2019 and ended on 1st July, 2019. We had a good participation of our students in all the activities. Brother Cephas Mwamba was one of the main speakers during meeting. The theme of the meeting was “Christian Living in the 21st Century”. He did a tremendous job and encouraged many to run away from sin. Brother Fred Kanangu coordinated with leadership to make sure that a four (4) days meeting was a success. There were also other lessons that were taught by other Brothers from the copper belt and beyond.

And at the end of the Gospel meeting the following statistics were recorded: 445 were in attendance, 19 baptisms and 167 restorations. We had a number of good confessions during this time as people were restored and we give God the glory for this!

It was a very sweet surprise to see Brother Keith Kasarjian visit us on 21st June, 2019. In spite of his short visit we were very happy and blessed that he came our way. Indeed he really made our day!!

At the time of writing this report, our students are engaged in a workshop with Brother John Dube from Zimbabwe. As our next report will show.

Our hearts are truly grateful to Bear Valley Bible Institute International and to Woodland Oaks Church of Christ for the financial support and all the encouragement in this good work. We will continue likewise to pray that God will bless the works that you all are involved in as well.

In His Service,

Cephas and Fred

Good news in Cameroon

Hello people of the Most-High God,

We bring you warm greetings from the church in Mbanga, from the school of preaching, and from my family as well. It is a pleasure to relate and to communicate to you all about the work in French Cameroon.  Our country has still been in serious tension with the crisis in the English-speaking part and also in the northern part where Boko Haram is also terrorizing the people in that locality. We urge you people to keep our nation in your prayers.

Time waits for nobody. This has been a common saying in Cameroon. We are advancing with the training of preachers and before it is time, we shall be having another set of preachers in the field. What a glorious moment in life it is to do the work of an evangelist.

We had our first short course with the third batch of students and our first students’ wife’s class that lasted for one week. “It was awesome to have this,” the sisters testified after I taught them the course on “General Bible Knowledge” while analyzing one book after the other. At the end, many were able to site the 66 books of the bible and could also give out the names of the apostles of Jesus Christ along with many other things. At the same time, the men were taking the short course, “Discipleship,” taught by evangelist Beasem Julien. It all went well as the brethren gained more knowledge in the Bible before going out for field work.

Mission work and campaign.

Immediately after the short course, the students embarked on a very critical mission, that of preaching the gospel and winning souls. Some were so excited to go out and become fishers of men while a few others were still in traumas they began to imagine how they would be going out for the ever first time. The command was given and the teaching that no one puts his hand on the plow and looks behind. Go and preach the gospel and the Lord shall be with you till the end of the age.

The field is vast as demand for students was really high. We sent our 15 students to 10 congregations around French Cameroon. We are still waiting for their return. We pray, “may the Lord be with you all till you return to the campus.”

Brother David Ballard, on his part, was doing personal evangelism both in people’s homes and at the church campus. It was another fruitful time as God added 4 souls with in this period of 2 days of evangelism and all are doing great in the Lord. Some others were distributing some food items to the patients, kids waiting with their parents, and sick one. It was all another sweet moment of fellowship. The water in the campus was able to satisfy and quench the taste of all those who were present. Brother Ballard also handed over a Bible to a new convert.

Our next quarter shall begin on the first of July 2019. We pray for the safe return of the students. Some have traveled as far as to the north of Cameroon.

May our Savior, Jesus Christ continue to be with us.

 From the slave in the Mbanga assembly and the school of preaching in Mbanga,

Ititi Benedict

A new group of incoming students in India

Dear Brethren in Christ,  

I bring greetings from Visakha Valley Bible College. By the grace of God we are doing well.  We thank you so much for your prayers and timely encouragements for successfully training the men to become effective evangelists in fertile lands of India.  Certainly it is a blessing to train up evangelists for His cause. With the rapid changing over in our society both culturally and materially people are becoming more materialistic. Even the generation following will not get a good knowledge on God and Its creation unless this generation is being taught about the Truth. We are very thankful to God for blessing us with this great opportunity to light up several souls with the word of God, it is being possible only through sending of well equipped men of God.

Summer effect:

This summer had been the worst of all;  recently monsoon season has begun, not quite rains but a shower here and there, however weather continues to be very very humid. Visakhapatnam has experienced worst ever record breaking temperature this year. Since it is an industrial area weather is usually pretty warm, in summers it add up to terrible degree. Looks like global warming is true….want to visit  Vice President Algore to appreciate his argument about global warming years ago.

New Bore Well:

While this has been the case we are struggling with,  We had some worst time of the year since the end of April at our school, that is lack of water. Of course We were able to buy drinking water, due to downfall of the ground water level in our water well, it was needed to dig a new bore well at the  same place where we have dogged the well before. It has severed for several years, from last few year water has become scarce almost to the point its dried out, see the pictures 3,4. With the help of the brethren from Lake Houston we are able to  dug a new well. We are thankful the process went well and good ground water was found, it took 4 days to get the installation of submersible pump and also new motor. It is definitely the providence of God that we had those funds to meet our desperate need. We praise God for His mercy.

New Academic Year:

Our new academic year has begun, we have 10 students enrolled for the batch of 2019-21; more to join with this group in a week or two. We are going to have our faculty meeting on the 8th Monday to discuss several things about upcoming academic year. The first two pictures show the newly enrolled students filling the application form and taking the Entrance exam.

The newly enrolled students, would  usually filled up the application form and will take an entrance exam. This entrance exam will help the faculty members to understand the standard of the student.  This batch students have helped so much while the new bore well being dug. We are excited to see these young men becoming part of our Visakha Valley family. Hoping that they would continue their enthusiasm in learning the word of God to become effective evangelists of Christ.

Kindly pray for this new academic year, may God bless us with some more good students who would love to be trained and learned. Brother Jerry Bates will be visiting with us in the middle September to teach a short course. Always love to have Bates, looking forward for their visit. We always welcome any new visiting faculty that would be interested to teach a short course or two.

Gratitude:  

We are always grateful to God for His mercy and providence. We do appreciate our loving brethren at Lake Houston Church of Christ and Strickland Church of Christ. Thankful to God for brethren at Strickland who are overseeing the Preaching School, we work as diligently as possible to keep up the trust and confidence.

Kindly continue your prayers as we also pray for you daily. Give our greetings to the Church you worship with and also to your families. May God bless you all.  We with best salutations from all of us at Visakh.

In Christ,

Samuel Raju Muppidi

John Dean M

Vocational training in Nigeria

Dear fellow soldiers of Christ,

Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ from your fellow servants of God in BVBIN & SWSE, Ibadan.

Below are report of some of our activities in the Lord for this month of June 2019.

OVERVIEW:

REPORT OF A MONTH STUDENTS’ VOCATIONAL STUDIES & BREAK : All our students are now back from a month Vocational Studies & Break which ended on June 2, 2019. The students during the one month vocational training participates in different trade such as Electrification, Fashion Designing, Barbering, Agriculture, Motor Mechanic, Block & Concrete, NAPPMED and Computer. They also involved in daily morning and evening prayers, weekend evangelism, gospel campaign and some of them that are already a congregational preacher taught the mid-weeks Bible classes and Sunday morning Bible classes throughout the one month .

Nineteen souls were added to the body of Christ as the result of their activities and six erring brethren restored and three congregations planted in Uli,Egbomma and Oguta of Imo State and Aroro village / Salako ,Igbo-Oloyin Road, Ibadan. To God Be The Glory & Honour.

FOURTH SEMESTER CLASSES BEGINS ON JUNE 3:

Our last semester for this session begins Lord’s willing on June 3 and will be concluded on July 26 follow by a month student teaching practice between July 27 through August 25, 2019. We are planning to send the 35 students to four out of the six geographical zones in Nigeria. This will cost us between $600 to $700 for transportation and reprinting of tracts for this one-month spiritual exercise.

SPECIAL ACCOMPLISHMENT:

We appreciates Bro. Keith Kasarjian and the BVBID for assisting us to upgrade our electricity gadget from 2.9 KVA to 8.8 KVA generator plant that supplies electricity to our school community

CONCLUSION : We thank you for your moral and financial supports toward the growth of the Lord’s church in Africa most especially in Nigeria. May the Lord of blessing continue to bless all our work together in Jesus Christ Name, amen.

I remain yours in His grace as a servant,

Makinde Ebenezer Olufemi

BVBIN&SWSE, Ibadan