Another new school doing well

SABO ONIBA/LAGOS ISLAND CENTERS REPORT June - August 2022.

INTRODUCTION: In life, there are stages and processes for those who understand, which the recent events in the Bear Valley Schools in Lagos have taught me in an interesting manner. There has been the existence of Firm Foundation Bible Institute affiliated with the South West School of Evangelism in the past. The school could not flourish due to a lack of support. At the right timing by God, the same project came back to life now in a higher and better way. Thanks to the Bear Valley family. The last three months were filled with events. Starting with the beginning of classes in Sabo Oniba, the Campaign in both schools, the graduation ceremony in Butubutu, Ibadan, and the Great WBS Workshop that took place in Orodu-Apapa, Lagos. The visit of Keith and Chad to Lagos was the most exciting part of the last month.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES IN SABO-ONIBA/LAGOS ISLAND: Sabo started class in the month of June with Tim Iwe teaching Research Methodology, Joseph Okonta took the book of Luke while Chinyere Okoro just concluded the Book of Mark. The class had 19 students in attendance while 22 students indicated interest to run the program. Nigerian Director in the person of Ebens Makinde visited Sabo Oniba in the month of July while Chad Waggner also visited the students in August. Thanks to you all. 

In Lagos Island: Tim Iwe took Research Methodology 2, while Olufemi Adewuyi taught 1$ 2 Thessalonians and Akanimoh Archibong who is a new Instructor just concluded the Major Prophets 1.

CAMPAIGN PROGRAM/MARKET EVANGELISM: Sabo Oniba for the first time as a school went to encourage the young Etegbin congregation. Etegbin is a new congregation planted two years ago with the effort of Lagos Preachers and Sabo Oniba church. A Muslim man who is housing the church has made three times move to help the church get land but the lack of funds had made the church lose those opportunities. We are looking forward to God helping us to meet the need of this local church.

Lagos Island school also spent the same weekend with Ikota church in the new Lagos (Lekki) area. We hope to work more with these young congregations. A soul was baptized in this effort.

LAGOS WBS WORK:

Active Students: 63

Under Follow Up: 2

Competed Lessons: 4947

Certificates Awarded: 1247

Baptism:  2

The most interesting news in this passing month is the Great Workshop that took place in Orodu church here in Lagos. Discipleship Development and Church Expansion Strategy was the theme. About 400 ministers and church leaders were in attendance. The main highlight was the breakthrough of giving Lagos a new WBS office and address approval. I will be using my office in Satellite Town as a contact point. This will help the WBS work in Lagos. Lagos has gathered capable hands and is ready to work. We are waiting for the mail addresses of teachers who will be receiving our forms and lessons.

SCOCI ACADEMY WORK: We also thank God for the work going on in the Satellite Church of Christ. In demonstrating the mind of Christ in our community which is the mission of Satellite church, we have been running a mission school to help young minds in the community get good education mixed with Christian values. We have 46 children presently in all Primary levels and 5 teachers. We will be starting the 6th year come September this year.

CONCLUSION: The visit of Keith and Chad has been in many ways a source of encouragement to both students and staff of the schools. We hope to do more for the Lord as we have the opportunity while on earth. Thanks once again to all for supporting the work in one way or the other.

Thanks and God bless you all.

TIM IWE (Self-Made Slave for Christ)

Sabo Oniba/Lagos Island Center Director

Remaining strong in Ukraine

Hello, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and the congregations,  

The situation in Ukraine. 

I'd like the share with you the latest events that happened to us during the last month. Sadly, the warfare on the territory of Ukraine continues. The world's population got used to the news about it but hundreds of killed and wounded people daily don't let us forget and accept as normal what is happening to our country.  We are used to go to bed and get up hearing air raid alerts and our children still beg us to stay with them in their beds so they can go to sleep. These horrors go on. Thousands of people still evacuate from their homes running away from the war. And we keep trying to help them out with everything we have in our possessions. We are very grateful to all the brethren who sacrifice for this ministry. Together we helped a lot of people and gave them a chance to adapt to the new place. 

The Lord's Church in Ukraine.  

On the one hand we deal with destruction, pain and woe but, on the other hand, there are a lot of baptisms in Ukraine these days. Every week we witness how in different congregations people are being baptized in water. While accepting the humanitarian aid, people hear the word of God and obey the Gospel. It encourages us to continue in the Lord's work spreading the Gospel. During the last month I personally got news of more than 20 baptisms. And I'm proud to share my personal joyful news that my older daughter Polina also entered into the covenant with the Lord. She made the most important decision about her salvation and now we are assured that she will never be alone in this world. 

One more exciting and joyful event for the Church was the Christian camp Amerikraine. This year it took place in Lviv. It was such a wonderful time when the Christians from all over the country were able to unite and pray, have lessons and fellowship. It was such a breath of the fresh air during this challenging time. We thank our American brethren and Jeff Abrams for this opportunity and help for the church of Ukraine.  

Bear Valley Bible Institute.  

During these months our students were involved with the kids in different VBSs. They learned to teach children, preach publicly, have Bible studies and spread the Gospel. For the next school year we will add 4 more students. Thus, the total number of the student body is 8. And they start the classes in the beginning of September. One more student is still serving in the Ukrainian Military.  

We are grateful to everyone who help our Institute and the Ukrainian Church. We will face these difficult times together.  

May the Lord keep His church and Ukraine. 

In Christian love,  

Dennis Sopelnik 

Doing good in Peru

Greetings dear brothers:
The institute continues with its class program, in the month of June brother Andrés Núñez was in charge of the course "Personal Evangelism 1" here I share with you the words of Andrés' own experience when teaching the course:

“In the month of July 2022 I had the privilege again of being able to be part of the professors to teach this Personal Evangelism course, very essential for every Christian, especially for our student brothers who are preparing to work in the vineyard of the Lord. and that it is better that our future servants of God prepare themselves in the institute. It was a special experience because I used new study material focused first on the first century church as an example of Personal Evangelism, then the numerical growth of the church, the example of our Lord, the apostles, Paul, Peter, Andrew, Philip etc. Give each student the Study Material. The classes were virtual and face-to-face, and the truth is that the brothers had great enthusiasm to know, learn and learn more about how to evangelize, the different Methods of Evangelism, they taught about some denominations such as the Catholic, Evangelical, and Adventist Church. They learned about his teachings and how to biblically refute each of his arguments, with a biblical basis. Personally, I really enjoyed teaching our brothers, they also showed great interest, a desire to know and learn more about the course. It was a good, positive experience and I know that the brothers feel more motivated, with great expectations, of the courses that they have each month. I thank God for giving me this opportunity to teach our brothers the word of God, and to Juan Abanto for giving me the confidence to continue in this ministry that the Lord has entrusted to us” (Andrés Núñez).

In the current month of August, I (Juan Abanto) am in charge of the course "The Plan of Redemption" we are halfway through the course and the experience with the new students is being very edifying, they have been assigned the preparation of an evangelistic sermon and a group research paper on which they are working, which will be presented before the end of the course. It is a new group of students and I am hoping that, through this experience, they will come to recognize the importance of teamwork, after all, it is what is needed in ministry. If we're going to search for the lost, then we're going to do it together.

At the moment in this new journey we have four students (Humberto Gonzales, Mariela Ramírez, Alejandro Manrique and Daniel Chiuyare). It is important that you know that from our previous group we have two students who are close to completing their instruction program, they have a couple of pending courses, but they will have to wait until these are delivered according to their schedule. This is because they started the first round somewhat late.

As part of our work plan, at the beginning of June we started a visitation program to different churches in Lima with the intention of awakening the spirit of the brotherhood in person to enroll in the institute, we hope that this can bear some fruit within little and we can count on a greater number of students. Abraham has been visiting the churches of San Martin, América and Las Flores for the time being.

We have also updated our website and we are including more study materials in our digital library in Spanish, it is clear that it is much more efficient to have printed material but our resources are limited and we trust that this can be of use to our brothers.

Thank you for taking the time to read this report. The Lord bless you.

Liberian students conduct weekend campaigns

BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE-LIBERIA

Tokay hill community, Ganta City

Nimba county, Republic of Liberia

OPERATIONS REPORT FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE 2022

Greetings Brethren

God has been very good to us here in Liberia and we continue to be thankful to Him for His providential support through you and all those involved in supporting our work here in this part of the world. We are so very grateful for this great opportunity to be part of Christ's working force in teaching the undiluted truth to the world. So far, our work here in this part of the world continues to grow with more souls being won to Christ. 

PROGRESS IN FARMING

A few months ago, we informed you that due to the high cost of living in my country and the prices of commodities on the market that is a great challenge we are faced with in staying on our budget, especially because of the inflation rate here. We decided to give some time to farming so that we can help support our budget. Ever since we started, things are going very well with the growth of our crops. We have also started chicken poultry to enable us to raise some chickens for both feeding and selling in the near future. We are very sure of contributing to the feeding of our students very soon.

BAPTISM

Our students continued to engage the communities, towns, and villages during the weekends. On June, 26 a baptism was recorded from all their efforts from the different congregations they worked with. This is so good because it is truly helping them to practice what they are learning in the classroom on the field. We are also very grateful to Brother Greg Grounds for supporting these weekend evangelism programs in towns and villages outside Ganta.

VISIT TO FORMER STUDENT

As part of our efforts to keep in touch with the past students and especially to encourage them, this time brother Lee and I visited Morris Gaye in his hometown (Toweh town) where he preaches the gospel. Brother Gaye and all the brethren there were very happy to see us and they welcomed us very well. The church is a small church that needs our prayers and support.

Brother Morris also requested prayer for his wife who is suffering. Life is very difficult for him but he continues to be faithful to the work of our Lord. He truly needs our prayers and support.

APPRECIATION AND CONCLUSION

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

Please continue to pray for us as we all work for our Maker.

In Him,

Robert P. Dahn, Jr.

Director- BVBI-L

Gueckedou, Guinea school holds graduation and begins new year

Report of Activities for July 2022

Introduction 

According to the apostle Paul, we have the obligation to preach the word, to be ready in season and out of season. To convince, rebuke, exhort with all gentleness and instructing. This, we have done even though the months of July, August, and September are rainy months are difficult. Nevertheless, we are happy with what has been done as you will see in the content of this report.

Teaching / Classroom 

The month of July had fewer classroom activities than the previous, because there was only 1 course, the book of Revelation left to end the training of the second batch. Brother Emmanuel Kamano took 10 days to teach and complete the material. The outcome was successful with all the students. 

Evangelism

Just after the classroom session, the team of evangelists accompanied students in two different areas for the evangelistic campaign for the month under review. This evangelistic campaign has two beneficial results, especially for the students. The first one is the practical application of theoretical training. The second is equal and seems even more important for this month because 7 persons accepted Jesus as their Savior and were baptized in Christ. In addition and even before the evangelistic campaign, we also do door-to-door evangelism and radio broadcasting which is also to defend the holy doctrine of Jesus.

Construction of worship halls

It is important to point out that the need for worship halls has been a paramount issue, a problem that has affected many congregations. Now with this help rendered there is a positive impact in the Lord's church in the Gueckedou area, strengthening those who are like the apostle Thomas.

Because this construction program started here at the beginning of the rainy season when brethren were active on their farm work, only two congregations, Damas and Bandainin, were able to reach roof level which is the requirement before BearValley will be involved to assist.

However, several other congregations are in the process of gathering all the necessary materials (sand, gravel, stone blocks) to begin construction after the period of heavy rain (July to September).

Recruitment / lntake of New Students

With the completion of the course study of the second batch, the need to recruit new men for the Lord's army is evident and the Gueckedou Bear Valley school administration had been on the search. There were some 23 candidates who applied, but when it was time for the written evaluation or test and interview which was conducted on 20th July 2022, 17 candidates responded present. Others were prevented by some social or cultural reason, but some wish to follow soon for the training. By the grace of God, classes started with this new batch on August 4, 2022.

Thanks / Appreciation

We thank God for his mercy in accepting us in our weaknesses and forgiving us our transgressions through Jesus our advocate.

Thanks to the Bear Valley Bible Institute International for their moral, spiritual, material and financial support to the church of Christ in Guinea.

We sincerely thank our coordinator Steven Ashcraft for his willingness to seek resources to boost the work of God in Guinea for church growth.

We thank brother Ken Stanley and the Niceville church. 

Finally, we thank our brother in Christ who through our Coordinator financed the covering of worship halls.

We also thank our donors who are joyfully supporting the work of God.

May God bless everyone abundantly in the Lord.

Gweru, Zimbabwe school prepares for graduation

INTRODUCTION

Some time ago we wrote, “The training of preachers is a critical component in the growth of the church.  A lot of diligence goes into it. Soldiers going into real combat are never trained in a day. Such is the case for a soldier of Christ. Ours is a spiritual battle. The task of winning souls to Christ is ever present in our minds.” This is exemplified by the activities that took place in the month of July. The school continued to put one block on top of another in its effort of providing the church with highly skilled and competent manpower. Both teachers, students, the board and various converge in this endeavor. The view is to produce a well-trained soldier for Christ through various activities. The following are some of the few things that we can report on.

CURRICULUM PROGRESS

The 2022 -2024 intake covered a lot of ground its first term of learning at BVBIZ. The following subjects were done and completed successfully; Godhead, Life of Christ, Public Speaking, How We Got the Bible, Personal Work I, New Testament Church, Scheme of Redemption, English Writing Skills and Horticulture I & II.

PROJECTS

BVBIZ continue to lay the foundation in its drive towards having some viable projects on ground. Broilers have been doing well though less were raised during the winter season.The free-range chickens (road runners) are also doing well. The goat project is also doing well. The goats now stand at 17. The tuck shop project, though very small has faced challenges of price fluctuations and lack of a proper room to run the project.

HORTICULTURE

The school’s horticulture project which had started at a low pace accelerated towards the end of the month. The first crop to be sold is lettuce. Sales are expected to rise as in the next few months. Capacitating the project has been a challenge but God answers prayers in many ways. For some time the school had been wishing to advance its horticulture program. The focus of this development has always been to advance life survival skills in students and also provide some income to the school.

GRADUATION AND PREACHER’S RETREAT

This year’s graduation shall take place on the 29th of October. This ceremony will be preceded by a 2 day preachers retreat (26-28 October). On the 28th, there shall be a graduation lecture code named the Isaiah Suwari memorial lecture.

WBS WORKSHOP

On the 27th of July, BVBIZ hosted a WBS workshop which was attended by preachers from in and around Gweru. Students benefited as well. The guest facilitators were Brothers Phil Parmer (the WBS envoy for East and Southern Africa) and his wife, Machona Monyamane (a WBS board member) and Terrence Muza from the WBS office in Harare. BVBIZ greatly appreciates this team and the attendees who made the day a success.

CONCLUSION

Several activities took place as highlighted in the above report. We remain grateful to God for making this possible. To our various partners locally and abroad, may God continue to bless you abundantly? It is through your efforts and sacrifices that BVBIZ has gotten this far. To God be the glory!

West Coast School conduct campaigns

West Coast School of Preaching

OPERATIONAL REPORT FOR JULY, 2022

CLASSROOM WORK

Academic work continued smoothly throughout the month of July. Instructors and students were all effective in the teaching and learning process. All ten full-time students were present. Courses were taught by all four instructors – Joshua Aidoo, Nathaniel Brobbey, Douglas Armah, and Samuel Owusu-Afari. 

Courses that were taught to full-time students include: 

a.      Marriage and the family

b.      Congregational development

c.       Logic and the Bible

d.      Hebrews and Galatians

e.       Gospel of John

Learning is ongoing for the part-time students and attendance is very encouraging. Courses taught in the month included: the Intertestamental period handled by Joshua Aidoo, Wisdom Literature handled by Nathaniel Brobbey, and the Book of Romans taught by Samuel Owusu-Afari. 

PERSONAL EVANGELISM AND BAPTISM

The command of the Lord is very important to us and we inculcate it into our students to be very evangelistic. They are always taught that we were saved to save others and that has been one of the missions of the school. Our past and current students have a deep concern for lost souls and are constantly proclaiming the words of salvation. The month of July was no exception in our quest to win souls for our Maker. Many prospects have been created and trust that in due time the Lord will fulfill his purpose.

 Six souls were baptized. Four out of the six were souls studied with and converted in the congregation where brother Joshua Aidoo (the Principal) preaches (Mpintsin church of Christ). Below are some of the pictures showing their baptisms, whilst the other two are as a result of some of our past students.

Accra schools continue their intense study

Accra Report

End of July 2022

This is to report on various activities of the school in Accra, the full-time class, and extension schools.

The Lord has been kind to us throughout this month. We have been healthy in life so far. It is our prayer that the Lord will see others too, our brethren in Ukraine, Russia, and other countries that there may be peace among these countries to relieve our brethren and the people.

Resuming, Classes, and Lessons

To begin with, the school resumed on 3rd July 2022. All the students reported except two (2) who were ill and admitted to the hospital. Lessons for the commencement of this quarter were Hermeneutics II, Prison Epistles, Gospel of John, Books of Acts, Communication Skills, and Computer studies. The following instructors handled the courses; Amoo-Gyimah, Kojo, Gyan-Mante, E.O. Larbi, George, and Sammy. Amoo-Gyimah will teach the two short courses on I Corinthians and Life of Christ II in August.

Currently, classes are ongoing and are effective with their research and writing.

New Students Admitted and Others completing Courses

We had two new students interviewed and admitted for the quarter to do the two-year diploma at Doboro and a weekend student from Nsawam Extension School to offer an uncompleted course.

Also, two students have completed their two-year course for the diploma program this month, and are waiting for the next graduation which will be held next year, 2023.

Currently, our number is Twelve who are pursuing the program at Bear Valley Institute Doboro Accra.

New Study Chairs Bought

50 new study tables have been bought and distributed to three schools, Accra East, Nsawam, and Ashtown.

Study Bibles

We were grateful for receiving many books including seven Study Bibles. These books have been given out to the seven new students who were admitted. See the pictures, smiling faces showing their appreciation and happiness for the books. These will be helpful in their studies and research work. May God bless you.  

As reported by E.O. Larbi

Sunyani, Ghana school holds graduation

BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE INTERNATIONAL

SUNYANI CAMPUS – BRONG AHAFO COLLEGE OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

REPORT ON 3RD GRADUATION CEREMONY

Thanks and glory be to God for His protection, guidance, and direction in the preparation, organization, and conducting of this historic event on Sunday, July 31, 2022.

1.    HOSTING OF A PRE-GRADUATION DINNER FOR STAFF AND STUDENTS OF SUNYANI CAMPUS

A pre-graduation dinner was hosted on Saturday 29th July at 5:30 – 7:00 pm for instructors and students of this college: Daniel Kyereh-Mensah, Kojo Acquah-Benyi, Daniel Adjei Mensah, Thomas Gyabaa, and Rexford Agyare Minta were present during this occasion. All 24 students of Sunyani Campus were present. The menu for the evening was a typical Ghanaian food called Fufu and Minierals.

2.    THE GRADUATION CEREMONY

The ceremony started at about 8:00 am at the forecourt of the Sunyani Central Church of Christ. 14 graduands were presented with provisional results of a Diploma in Biblical Studies, they were made to respond to the charge of ministration and a prayer of ordination. The guest speaker of the occasion was Mr. Kojo Acquah-Benyi. He delivered a motivational talk and charged the students to be focused and resolute in the work of the Lord.

3.    PRESENTATION OF AWARDS

Seven special awards were presented to the graduating class

a.     The award for the overall best student went to Samuel Effah

b.     Best academic award went to Appiah Samuel

c.     Leadership award went to Emmanuel Kannor

d.     Others were attendance, punctuality and two others.

4.    PRESENTATION OF BIBLES

Through the sponsorship of Mr. Ken Djan Kesseh copies of the “Defending the Faith, study bible were presented to each graduating student.

5.    EXPRESSION OF APPRECIATION

In a very short address, Daniel Kyereh Mensah (Director of Sunyani Campus) expressed his greater sense of appreciation to the Bear Valley Bible Institute International for their commitment to world missions and the greater assistance to the Sunyani Campus since 2019.

The same expression was made by the student’s president as he also expressed on behalf of the students their greater sense of gratitude to Bear Valley for the support offered them since 2019 and promised that they will work assiduously to reciprocate the sacrifices made for their training.

Visak students campaign in remote village

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ our savior.  Bear Valley school at Visakhapatnam continues to send Evangelists to the Rural, Urban and of course to the very remote places too.

We were certainly blessed to be able to go and visit the congregations they have established. Bathar is the remote village on the other side of the river that divides the states of  Andhra Pradesh and Orrissa. We are certainly blessed to be able to go there, even though it was raining. We have scheduled to go to attend the inauguration of the church meeting place, where one of our graduates brother Narayana is working as minister. We walked for few miles to get to our destination and on the way we had to cross the river. It was very fast flowing. In fact, I slipped once and dropped my shoes, but thankfully one of the brothers caught it at the bank of the stream. The small house/church meeting place can hold up to 80 people since they sit on the floor in an organized fashion. We are thankful our Lord is leading them to reach into the very remotest areas with the good news and rescuing souls from eternal destruction. With this gathering we were able to have a good number of students enrolled in the preaching school. We started with 11 students, currently with the addition of two, we have total of 13 students. Please continue your prayers for us.

In Christ,

John Dean M

Visakha Valley Bible College,

A Bear Valley International School

Uganda schools holds open-air meeting

Dear brethren: I Hope this finds you well along with your families. We thank the almighty God for His great love toward us, having given us the breath that some are paying for in hospitals to breathe again. But freely He has supplied it to us.

I Am happy to report to you brothers and sisters that the school is going on well. Students have not had sickness challenges except for one student named Chris who is facing some challenges. The students are taking their classes very well. I also take this opportunity to thank the teachers for their zeal and through this difficult time when the country is in crisis, for having stood strong with us, transporting themselves though the hike to get to the school. On a special note, I thank our evangelism department that is headed by brother Christopher who has assisted our dean of students brother Emmanuel. Together with the students and our administrator who took the responsibility of informing the government about our open air campaign and door to door evangelism which was so great. The word was preached to the community and open air made it possible to reach father then we even imagined. People heard the gospel for the first time! It was a challenge to the religious community and through this, denominations have started evangelism too. Through this open air and door to door one soul was baptized into Christ. It is our prayer that this congregation remains strong.

We have planned to make it a routine of using the resources available to carry out an open air campaign on a regular basis. We noticed that people can listen from a distance hence it was through their commendations that we had to know the impact.

We thank you so much for the support you are giving to help these men train. Pray for us. Our application forms have been sent out for the second intake. We pray that God answers our prayers. All in all thank you so much may the almighty God bless you so much.

Until have heard,

Raymond.

Nairobi students assist local congregations

We pray this report finds you all doing well. We thank God for this opportunity to write to you again. We are doing well, and the students and their families are also well.

We are happy and glad for your continual support both financially and spiritually as we carry on this noble task.

Our classes continue to be held each Saturday and evangelism efforts by students and instructors is always ongoing. Academically, we are in the second quarter of our second year.Brother Fred just concluded Life of Christ from the book of Luke and I (Kennedy) just began the book of Isaiah.

We have a new congregation in Thika town and one of the students (Hiram Njeru) is preaching there. We also have a program of rotating students and instructors to the nearby congregations to help preach and assist with the evangelism work. The program has really helped the local congregations and many give thanks are given to the school for the changes they have seen.

Thanks a lot brethren and we humbly request for your prayers as the country is headed to general elections on 9th August 2022. Please pray so that peace may prevail.

Yours in His service

Samson omutele and

Kennedy munubi

Cameroon school evangelism campaign

We send blessings from Mbanga Balong. May the blessings of the Lord be upon you. May the will of God accompany the big Bear Valley family. The staff and students extend their gratitude to you. The month of June was a fruitful one even though we are in the heart of the rainy season here in the equatorial rain forest. Evangelism was fruitful both in and out of Mbanga. We praise God for the many journeys made by both the director, instructors, students, the members of the church who accompanied us to some destinations.

Evangelism is our mission and our mission is evangelism, door to door evangelism, public preaching at night and one on one talks with backsliding brethren. The campaign was rich as we use our precious God given time and talent to do His will. And the Lord added to the church daily as they were safe.

Our students also went out for a two week campaign to 15 different villages and towns in the given francophone zones with most of them being newly planted congregations. The work for two weeks was a great success. About 1000 French evangelistic tracts were handed out and about 300 persons could listen to the gospel for this period. Six souls were restored and fifteen souls were added to the church through baptism. Eight of those souls came from Sangmelema which is the stronghold and home of our head of state. We praise God for the great increase and we put them into our prayers.

The school has also been visiting other places and carrying out mission work to places such in Bekoko where they join the alumni in serious evangelism. Souls were also added in Susan at our monthly lectureship. We also cannot forget to mention the friendly congregation in Kotto mission where we assisted last month even though there were heavy rains. This is one of the successful work of planting work in French Cameroon.

Brother Ititi, the director of the school, carried out the preaching himself in the midst of graduates and students from both Bear Valley schools. It was during the funeral of the lady who had opened her doors to the church to worship in there for 6 months before she rented her own place. This is a fruitful ground for evangelism.

We feel so blessed by God to be able to do his work here in Cameroon and pray that He will continue to bless us through His Son Jesus Christ.

Luanshya, Zambia school closing in on graduation

Zambia July 2022

Report

 Introduction

Nowadays not all Christians leave the comfort of home to work in the vineyard of our master. Many times the pandemic has led some to become lazy and not do what we are exptected to do as Christians. One thing can be said with certainty – it takes a special kind of breed of Christian to leave the comforts of home and security to face an uncertain future so that our fellow man can hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many congregations in the world would not exist today without such Christian men and women. We keep on thanking God for missionaries and evangelists who are doing the work for our master with all courage and confidence. We send greetings to you all brothers and sisters! We give honor and glory to God who has given us this rare chance of working in His Kingdom.

The month July 2022 continued to be jammed packed with activities of evangelism and other related events. Hence we would like to share with you some of these in this report.

NEW CONGREGATION

Once again we are so excited to report on a new congregation in Mpongwe Kamitondo, born with thirteen members and making good progress. Mpongwe is sixty-one (61) kilometers south of Luanshya district. We still have challenges in terms of transportation in getting to rural places like Mpongwe and there is a great demand to be worshipping with this congregation if we are to contribute much to maturing this congregation spiritually.

As an outreach program, BVBI-Zambia has been requested by many congregations here in the Copperbelt province to be involved in their evangelism program. Most of these congregations have an outreach program that runs every fortnightly. These programs have so far yielded good results. We have also realized that whatever time we spend together helps us encourage each other. After all, strong families do the same – they spend a lot of time together and we are a family

New Babes in Christ

Bruce Munachunga, Bob Mundia, Ignitius kabalata, Angel Mukuka, Bruno, Siampindu, Memory Mwenya, Grace Chanda and Josphine Lumayi were baptized into Christ in the month of July, we pray for God’s continued blessings on their lives. 

Northwestern Gospel Campaign 2022

The school is scheduled to be in the northwestern province for a gospel campaign which will commence on 25th August, 2022 and ends on 28th August, 2022 in Solwezi of Zambia. This meeting was supposed to be held two years ago but due to the advent of Covid-19 the meeting did not take place 

Brother Cephas Mwamba is tasked to do the recap on the theme and indeed on every lesson of the meeting. We pray that our students also will interact and be fully involved with whatever will be happening at the meeting.

A call to help in selecting elders/deacons

The right words to use are joy and happiness because it was evidently seen in all the members of Chiwempala church in Chingola district as elders and a deacon were installed. Brother Cobbert Mundia and Brother Simon Muchonkwa were installed to serve as elders on 17th July 2022 at the church of Christ in Chingola district. And at the same event Brother Moses Mandandi was installed to serve as one of the deacons. We give God the glory!! 

The pictures below shows our students who were evangelizing in Chingola. Though when we returned home five of our students were hospitalized with the flu. Maybe it was due to the fact that we had to use four different buses for us to reach there to and from Chingola. They recovered and we are back in class.

We also had time to preach in the Baluba district, which is twenty-seven (27) kilometers west of Luanshya. We have one church in this district which is surrounded by many denominations. Hopefully, we are planting a new congression

Avenue of blessings

Bvbi-Zambia venue is becoming a center for marriage blessings. We have witnessed a colorful marriage blessing at our Institute in the month of July. The marriage blessing which was done by Brother Cephas Mwamba has been good practical learning for our students and the church at large. We are also eagerly waiting for the wedding ceremony of Vincent Kawala Simwanza to take place at the same venue soon. Vincent is one of our former students whose wedding is being spearheaded by members of the church of Christ here in Luanshya.

For the purpose of learning how to conduct a wedding ceremony, all our students were in attendance for the ceremony.

Shaba province in D.R.C

Through our former student Joseph Ilunga who came from D.R.C in Lubumbashi, we have reached Kamisa and Kalemie districts in D.R.C. (Democratic Republic of Congo). Joseph is doing commendable work and needs to be supported. 

More blessings

We are so glad to report also on one of our current students by the name Daniel Kapata, who has been offered a job in Government as a teacher. He has done all the paperwork and after graduation, he will be preaching while teaching at a government school in October. We have no doubt Daniel is going to make a good preacher.

On the same development, a church in Chingola district has offered to hire two evangelists from our institute upon graduation in October. Actually, they said “we will come on the day of graduation to take them with us “This has come as a result of the good outreach program the school is running. The students’ conduct impressed the leaders of the church in Chingola district ( Chingola district is 104 kilometers southwest of Luanshya district where our Institute is located). We pray that these students’ relationship with our master will improve even more. 

Recruitments for 2022 to 2024

The recruitment process has entered an advanced stage with more men to come and be trained as Preachers.

Martin Lengwe is one of the members of the church that meets at Kamiyanga Primary school in Mbala district of the Northern Province of Zambia. Brother Lengwe is also the deputy headmaster at this school. He has expressed interest to enroll at BVBI-Zambia for the next intake.

At the end of the Copper belt Church of Christ Gospel meeting, a number of men from Copper Belt Province expressed interest in attending Bear Valley Bible Institute–Zambia. All the applications we have so far received for enrollment in the next intake indicate that six (6) Provinces of Zambia will be fully represented. We have applications from the following Provinces: Southern, Northern, Central, Luapula, Copperbelt, and Northwestern. We are in high spirits as we look forward to a new intake at Bear Valley Bible Institute- Zambia. We are also very eager and anxious to meet these new students. We know they will make another very exciting student body. 

BVBI-Z 2022 Graduation

The students have finally entered their final quarter of studying at BVBI-Zambia. After completing all the prescribed courses, the eleven students will be awarded an advanced diploma in Biblical Studies from Bear Valley Bible Institute International. We look forward in anticipation to having a graduation ceremony in October 2022. As we mentioned in our previous correspondence, this will be our third graduation ceremony since the beginning of school here in Zambia, Africa. The students are very excited to graduate and go back and work with their respective congregations. We have confidence that these students have been very hard working and diligent in their work and conduct during the period of their studies here at BVBI-Z.       

Conclusion

We are always grateful to all our partners in this noble work of training faithful men. Special appreciation goes to Woodland Oaks Church of Christ for financially supporting this work.

Brotherly,

Cephas and Fred

Tamale school encouraged by Steven Ashcraft's visit

OPERATING REPORT FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE, 2022 

It is a great joy and blessing being productive and rendering services to mankind and to God our maker. This was how we felt in the month of June, 2022 being a month that brought a lot of promising futures for us in Bear Valley Tamale in our line of work as servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise His wonderful name now and forever.

ACADEMIC WORK

Students were back in full school in the month of June, 2022 and we were active with our academic work as we tried to finish strong. This batch of students have nearly finished their two years Diploma course successfully. We give the Lord glory for their lives and for what God has so far done with them. These are the courses that were taught in the month of June; Christian Ethics (Daniel Adjei Mensah), Research Work and Writing with basic grammar work (James B. Legend), 1, 2 and 3 John and Jude (Daniel Adjei Mensah) and the Book of Romans (James B. Legend). These courses were successfully taught to the glory of God.   

SCHOOL FARMS

As we did last year with the help of Brother Steven Ashcraft to help the school in Tamale find ways to complement the feeding expenses of our students now and in the future, we have reinvested the funds of what we made from last year’s farming produce into cultivating another farm, hoping for a much better return. Last year, we made a farm of five acres of maize and five acres of soybeans with a sum of five thousand Ghana cedis. The maize couldn’t produce well due to where we farmed it and the raining pattern at that area. However, the soybeans were able to complement the maize to help us make some profit. After sales of all the produce, we had a total sum of seven thousand five hundred cedis. This year, we have expanded the farm a bit. We have made nine acres of soybeans and two and half acres for maize respectively. We are hoping and praying the Lord adds His blessings for it to bring some good rewards. 

 SCHOOL GARDEN

We have harvested the groundnut successfully and the land is being prepared to sow some maize, beans, and also use part of it for our irrigation project. We thank Brother Keith, Kojo and Steven for working with other people to help us gradually deal with some of the major challenges we have in Bear Valley Tamale.

KPALSI SOUTH CONGREGATION

The Kpalsi South Congregation continues to stand firm in worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ with sound doctrine as well as working hard to continually grow numerically, spiritually and physically.  

Thanks be to God, Brother Steven Ashcraft, our Brother, friend and father in the faith was with us in the month of June to strengthen us. He taught us on our Wednesday teaching service, which was on the 22nd of June, 2022. He gave us a wonderful and a very persuasive, inspiring lesson on our mission as Christ followers. He spoke extensively on Discipleship and the need for us as a church to make efforts and to go out and disciple others by studying with them in order to get them converted into the church. We bless the Lord for His life and all the sacrifices he is making for Africa and the world. 

EVANGELISM AND CAMPAIGNS

The visit of Brother Steven to Bear Valley Tamale brought a lot of encouragement and some ideas that look very promising to revive the strength of the churches and the school in Northern Ghana on our strategies in evangelizing our communities and the unsaved in Northern Ghana. We had some great discussions and ideas that we can work with in making our preachers across Northern Ghana who are into evangelistic work be more productive. And that is to assist them to form evangelism teams to evangelize their communities by strengthening existing congregations and also establishing new ones when possible. And the second work of these evangelism teams is also to teach these congregations to be fully involved in planting new congregations or evangelistic work continually. We believe this will also be an avenue for us to make some good recruitment of students for the school. 

Furthermore, the visit of Brother Steven also saw him give us some guidance on how we can keep better records and also some more effective ways of running things in the school to help us as individuals and as a team. We very much appreciate him for his efforts and concern for us and the school in Northern Ghana. God bless you sir.

EVANGELISTIC TEAMS

We have by the grace of God in the tail end of June after the visit of Steven been able to start the process of organizing the evangelistic teams proposed by him. We were able to meet with some preachers in the Zabzugu, Tatale and Sanguli area to share the idea of the evangelistic team to them. They quickly embraced the idea. We are therefore hoping the Lord guides them in all that they will be doing towards this topic.  

All thanks to God who made the heavens and the earth for all His mercies and blessings upon us. Amen!

 Thank you,

Bear Valley Tamale.

BV team member now FHU Missionary in Residence

Grace and Peace to you friends.

I hope this report finds you doing well. Things have been VERY busy since my last report, so I'm looking forward to catching you up. In fact, I might should call this one a "Not Quite So Short Report", haha! I've just recently returned from spending much of the summer in Tanzania, so let me begin by sharing with you some highlights of that trip.

The major agenda of this trip is what we call the "Good Will Tour". We try to visit the home congregations of each of our students during their two years of training at ACSOP. This helps us to maintain good relationships with those congregations and better understand the circumstances from which our students are coming. It also is a chance to recruit more students as well as identify ways that the mission can be a resource to help these congregations. This trip also provided an opportunity to check on congregations that have received help in the past to see how they are progressing. As a liaison between many of these congregations and their supporters, it is vital that I get around to make personal visits with them.

It is exciting to see how the church is spreading and thriving in all corners of the country! World Video Bible School was generous enough to donate a projector and three hard drives loaded down with biblical materials.

The Andrew Connally School of Preaching was very privileged to have the opportunity to host Dr. Jim Gardner of Freed-Hardeman University. Dr. Gardner gave us a preview of his upcoming book, sharing some of the material in a seminar on the foundations of the Christian faith. The seminar was well attended and well reviewed by the Tanzanians who were present. He also stayed over to share more material with the Kisongo congregation during their regular Sunday services.

Speaking of Freed-Hardeman University, they are giving us an exciting opportunity this school year. FHU has invited me to spend time on campus this school year promoting missions among the student body. This will allow me the chance to encourage young people to consider entering the mission field in East Africa or elsewhere. This also grants me time to help train these mission-minded students with lessons that I have learned in service to the Lord's kingdom. The best part is that I'll still be free on weekends to visit with churches in America about what's happening in Tanzania. Reach out to me if you would like to schedule a visit. I would love to make that happen!

Till all have heard,

Daniel Gaines
Mission Coordinator
Tanzania Missions

Vocational training for preaching students in Tirupati, India

Reporting Letter for the month of July-2022.

We are ever grateful to the elders and deacons of Bear Valley Church of Christ for their love and commitment to establishing this educational project in India under the leadership of Mr.Keith Kasarjian and Mr.Mark Reynolds. We continually work hard and try our level best in educating the young people in India.

Classroom work:- In the month of July we were able to complete Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, and Life of Jesus Christ in the gospels. We are happy to inform you that all the teachers and students worked hard. All the students were able to receive the subject. They did the work for examinations and completed their assignments on time.

Vocational Training for the previous batch students: We invited the previous batch students and conducted a one-day vocational training class on July 8th. We invited two officers who were able to visit our Bear Valley Bible Institute to give training. They have explained several self-employment plans and also provided awareness of several government plans which are available for the unemployed youth in India.

Campaign:- on July 2nd we conducted a campaign at Vidyanagar. That evening more than 75 people were able to gather for the meeting. We organized the meeting at sister Chittemma’s house. Her husband passed away one month ago. This meeting helped comfort them and other people were able to receive good encouragement.

Thanking you.

Your brother in Christ,

Vijay

Lectureship in Nigeria

Dear fellow soldiers of Christ.

Greeting from BVBIN & SWSE-IBADAN and co-WBSFUW in the Western States of Nigeria. Below is the summary of our activities for the month of July 2022.

OVERVIEW

1. Students' five weeks practicum

2. 20th Annual Bible Lectureship & Graduation

STUDENTS' FIVE WEEKS PRACTICUM:

The last Students' Practicum, that is, teaching practice for 2021/2022 session commenced on June 25 and will come to an end on August 7 Lord's willing.

Report reaching us at the time of filling this report shows the conversions of twenty souls and restoration of thirty-one erring brethen through the joint efforts of our students and the Lord's Church where they are serving.

20TH ANNUAL BIBLE LECTURESHIP & GRADUATION:

The 20th Annual Bible Lectureship and Graduation of forty successful Students from Ibadan and Lagos is slated for August 10 through 13,2022 at the permanent site of BVBIN & SWSE-IBADAN in Butubutu village via Badeku/ Jago ,Ona-Ara Local Government Area of Oyo State.

This year 20th Annual Bible Lectureship will center on " Marriage and The Home". Seventeen able ministers of God across the country, Nigeria will do justice to the topics assigned to them with two sisters speaking at the Sisters' Class.

This year program will features Football matches, Acapella Songs and Youth rally. We are expecting over 300 brethren and friends of the Lord's Church to witness this great occasion.

Bro. Keith Kasarjian, International Director of BVBID-EXTENSION program will serve Lord's willing as our guest speaker during the graduation ceremony on August 13,2022.

ABOUT A STUDENT:

Bro. Idowu Jonathan is one of our year-2-Students. Born on 11th September 2003 at Owode-Titun in Ogun State. He gain admission to the BVBIN & SWSE-IBADAN in 2019 after his secondary School education. He was added to the Lord's Church in the year 2017 at Owode-Titun congregation. His mission in life is to become a missionary after his tertiary education.

CONCLUSION:

We deeply appreciate your great commitment to serving the Lord and humanity. May the Lord continue to bless all our work together in Jesus Christ name, amen.

Sincerely His & yours,

Makinde Ebenezer Olufemi

(The Chief servant of BVBIN SWSE-IBADAN and WBSFUW)

Reaching out in Cameroon

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings from this part of the world. We are doing good with all that is entrusted in our hands and we are appreciating God for His help. Things are going good even though we are all faced with the global crisis that is doing all things possible to dismantle our programs. It is more difficult now to meet up with many expenses as the prices of many of our things in the market have risen to very high levels. We are left with no choice but to continue the best we can. We are bound to manage what we have, as there is just no way for us to jump out of the ever-changing world.

We are thanking God for whom we put our trust. We are looking up to Him, the maker of the heavens and the earth. God is watching, and we know He will always make a way when there seems to be no way.

PLANS

Our out-reach efforts to souls in different communities is at the top of our daily and weekly agenda. Our young congregations and newly revived congregations need our weekly presence to keep the young Christians learning and growing. Please help us to keep this out-reach going.

 APPRECIATIONS

 God bless you, as we sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the gestures you are making to keep this work going ahead. God alone will repay each one. Please share our news with others.

God bless you as you make a great day.

Elangwe and family

By His grace, director BVBIC -Wotutu

Great work in Sierra Leone

ACTIVITY OPERATION REPORT FOR JUNE, 2022

Full Time and the Extended Programs 

INTRODUCTION                    

After sending our May report, we were hopeful that we will meet again to continue to share with you the news of the work that you are supporting here at Kenema Bear Valley Bible Institute. And at this point, we are grateful to God for keeping us till now so we could continue to work in His vineyard. In the midst of intense and high inflation in the whole world, you continue to support the work here, hence you deserve to be appreciated and commended, our dear brethren.  As we share this June, 2022 report with you, we pray that it finds you doing well. This report will cover the following subheadings: weekend evangelism and conversion of a soul, end of third quarter academic activities, alumni update, student’s sickness, and a graduate’s profile. Below are the details of the report:

WEEKEND EVANGELISM AND CONVERSION OF A SOUL

As we informed you before, our students (full time), some members of the churches of Christ in Kenema and some staff go for evangelism every weekend and the month of June was not an exception. Now in Sierra Leone it is rainy season therefore sometimes it rains on our students and some staff while on the field, but the Gospel must be shared. The month of June was not so fruitful for us in respect to conversions because we recorded only one (1) baptism. However, we are grateful to the Lord for the soul He added to His Church.

END OF THIRD QUARTER

Our full time students successfully ended their first year third quarter academic activities on June 30, 2022. In that quarter, eight (8) courses were covered: Life of Christ 2 (Mark), The Book of Acts, Hermeneutics 2, 1 Corinthians, Prison Epistles, How We Got the Bible, Computer Studies 3, and Basic English Grammar 3. We taught the classes to the best of our abilities and all our 20 students took the courses and ended the quarter. We appreciate Bear Valley continually for the opportunity to serve.  

AN ALUMNI UPDATE

In our April report, we informed you that we want to closely work with our graduates. Therefore, in this attempt, an alumni meeting was held at the school campus. Based on the conclusions (like the activeness of the graduates on the preaching field, maintaining communication with the administration, challenges that are being faced, what can be done for more evangelistic work to be carried out, etc) arrived at during the meeting, the school administration has been in constant contact with many of the graduates. Many of them are actively working in their respective congregations and are involved in the evangelistic work. One of those actively working is Brother Emmanuel Focko. The profile of Emmanuel will be given under the “Graduate’s Autobiography” section. However, upon his graduation from KBVBI in 2019, he returned to his home town, Koindu. After a while, Emmanuel thought of extending his evangelistic activities to a village called Weima, located around the environs of Koindu Town. He, together with some brethren at his congregation, Kpuya Church of Christ, Koindu, decided to go to Weima and evangelize. Their efforts led to the birth of Weima Church of Christ, which was established in 2019. Weima congregation currently has an attendance of 50-60 members weekly. More information about this congregation will be stated under the profile of Emmanuel. Like Emmanuel, other graduates are also working as stated above. We would have involved some pictorial evidence regarding some of their works but the challenge many of them are facing as they always tell us is that, many of them do not have android phones or cameras to take pictures.

A STUDENTS’ SICKNESS

Health challenges are those things one cannot avoid in life, and this is also true of one of our full time students: Godfrey Bawoh. Brother Godfrey is one of our students from the republic of Liberia. He has been suffering from a stomach problem for so long. This sickness however started before he was even admitted at the KBVBI. The administration has done her best to take him to the hospital but he still complains of the same issue. His family members requested that he go home and try local herbs again. Therefore, as the quarter came to an end, he also went for a break. We are trusting God that Godfrey recovers and resumes back with his colleagues. Please remember your brother in your prayers as you have always done.

A GRADUATE’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Emmanuel Focko

Emmanuel Fayia Fock is one of our first graduates and one of the current staff. He graduated as the best student during his time. Brother Emmanuel was born to Sullo Fayia and Finda Fayia, Christian parents who were baptized in Guinea by Brother Francis Musa. He was born on the 10th February, 1993. Emmanuel grew with his parents and was later baptized in 2007. Since his baptism, Brother Emmanuel has been actively involved in the church activities at Kpuya Church of Christ, his home congregation then. He had been officiating collections, Lord’s Supper, and reading scriptures at Kpuya congregation. The coming of Bear Valley Bible Institute was a great blessing to Emmanuel. Upon hearing the emergence of this Bible school, Emmanuel expressed the desire to be enrolled so he could learn more and be better equipped in the ministry. He was eventually enrolled and pursued his studies. While at Bear Valley, he stood distinguished among his mates; his behavior and commitment to his studies were noticeable. He served as the student president while here. Finally, Emmanuel graduated as the best student. He was maintained by the school and till now, he is one of our committed staff. What is even more interesting about Emmanuel is that, upon his graduation in 2019, he returned home and established a local congregation at Weima. His convictions about evangelism and his full involvement in it has led to a tremendous growth of the Weima congregation. Currently, 50-60 congregants meet every Sunday. Moreover, Emmanuel did not sit to wait for some outside support to come and build a worship hall for the Weima congregation. He motivated the brethren (all are peasant farmers) to put their attention to raising a worship hall. As we write, they are on the painting and casting the floor. Such effort is worth commending and supporting! He presently preaches at the congregation. Brother Emmanuel’s photograph and the Weima congregation shall appear in the pecking order at the end of this report.

CONCLUSION

As we conclude this report, we say a big “Thank you” for reading through to the end.. Thank you for your kindness. The lives you are changing in Sierra Leone here through your prayers, financial support, guidance and direction, are all duly acknowledged, and may the Lord bless you richly.