Student campaign in Nigeria

We have concluded the second semester exams. Before the semester exams the staff with the students embarked on a three day evangelism at Afikpo in Ebonyi state. It was an intensive outing but there was no immediate baptisms. Some prospects (three persons) attended the worship.

The 2023/2024 academic session will take off from next month - October. The board has approved that weekend programme be started in order to accommodate those who cannot  be involved in the regular programme because of their time. We hope that this arrangement will enable more people to enroll.

Bro Bernard Osita Akokwu for NIATS.

Kenya students do great work while on break

Dear brethren

This marks the beginning of first quarter of second year of the Kenya school of preaching sixth intake students. 

The number of students has decreased to 19 due to dismissal of one called Jared Odhiambo for having committed an infraction. So the report that we give now concerns the work done by the 19 who maintain their commitment to study the Bible.

Mark Reynolds from America, is the instructor who is now in class with the students, teaching Foundation of Missions as a short course. Other teachers in this quarter are Charles, Nixon and Elias. Other courses to be taught are: Greek 1, Wisdom Literature II, Romans and Galatians, church history, The book of James and the Intertestamental Period.

When we closed for September holiday, two students from bordering regions- (Richard from Eastern and Kadzitu from Coastal) had organized gospel campaigns and invited Francis from Mombasa to help them and as a result they baptized 4 and 6 respectively. Among the ones baptized by Richard were 2 denominational preachers and his own wife. Kadzitu on the other hand used the 6 he baptized to begin a new sound congregation since his former church which sent him to school has been liberal all the years and has refused to change her denominational worship.

Another two students from the western region of Kenya - Patrick and Jimmy, also conducted gospel campaigns in their area and baptized 7 souls into Christ and restored 2 back to Lukhuna congregation. Still others reached for lost people, edified and did restoration: Alex one baptisms, Jason three baptisms, Daniel one baptism, David 3 baptisms, Dominick one baptism and others. All the total number of baptisms conducted in the last holiday are 28 while those restored backsliders are 16. They did plant 2 new congregations.

We still hope and request that brethren will continue to pray and support the work at K.S.O.P which is for the Lord's glory. Thanks to each one of you and may the Lord Almighty bless you all.

Your brother and His servant,

Elias Omollo

Accra East staff and students plant new congregation

BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE INTERNATIONAL, ACCRA EAST

THIRD QUARTER REPORTS- 2023

Course taken

The third quarter started on the Saturday, 1st July 2023 and ends on Friday 30th September, 2023. The following are the courses studied within this quarter:

·        The Book of Acts (concluding part)

·        The Book of Romans

·        The Life of Jesus in the book of John

Report on the students

The attendance was stable in this second quarter and the average attendance was eight (8). One person was admitted as a student to the school within this quarter.

 House to House Evangelism  

The house to house evangelism took place at Gomoa Asebu and Awutu Breku.  As usual the students were sent to Gomoa Asebu on rotational bases to support the church both in their evangelism and worship. In the third quarter the major evangelism work took place at Awutu Breku, in the Central Region of Ghana because it was the community which Accra East chose to plant this year’s church.     

The New church planted at Awutu Breku on September 24, 2023 by Accra East

It was such a joyful moment when we met at Awutu Breku the first time to worship as a church which marked the beginning of Awutu Breku Twie-me church of Christ. All those who took part could not control their joy on that day. We sang songs of praises unto our God, we preached we gave and showed love to each other and had a group picture for future records. We thank God for His love and the opportunity given to us to unveil the church of Christ at Awutu Breku Twie-me which He established, a long time ago before the foundation of the world. We also thank him for given this great opportunity for the people of Awutu Breku Twie-me to know and receive Christ.  We thank the Co-ordinator, Ghana and his team, that is the Bear Valley Director and Coordinator in Ghana and our International Directors for this wonderful vision. May God bless all of them.

We set up the journey from Accra on Saturday 23rd September early in the morning. By 7.30-8.00 we reached the town. On the Saturday evening, five of the students left Breku to Accra. Three of them were as a result of lack of accommodation, because we all could not sleep at the hall of preacher Amo. (there was no money to go and lodge in a hotel). Two of them returned to Accra to go and respond to their congregation’s appointment. The rest (seven in number) stayed to see the inauguration of the church.  I handled the adult Bible class and preacher Isaac Amo did the sermon.

The attendance at the time of announcement was nineteen (19). Three children and sixteen adults. Five visitors came late when we were about to close, two adults and three children. (making the total number of twenty-four)  Nine (9) of the worshipers were from Accra (Bear Valley students & Kotobabi church) the rest of the members were from that community. We had two hundred and twelve Ghana cedis (Ghc212.00) as offering. 

The following are the things we carried them along to Awutu Breku

1.      Lord’s Supper Tray

2.      Lord’s Supper Plate

3.      Lord’s Supper Bread and Grapes

4.      Collections Sacks

5.      Hymnbooks

6.      Temporary pulpit (but do not use it because of lack space)

7.      Lord’s Supper Table 

8.      Signboards

9.      Plastic chairs  

The next action

I have planned that in every week two of the students will be sent to Awutu Breku for evangelism and worship to help the stationed preacher till the church is matured.

All the students of Accra East occasionally will also prepare to go there in our numbers to help in evangelism.

I have asked the students to go and ask their various congregations to help Awutu Breku financially to be able to put up the structure on the land.

We have discovered where we fall short and where we did well so we are going to correct that errors and as we will soon plan the next year church planting, that we may not face the same problem as we had this year.

Nsawam, Ghana school enjoys a good reputation

BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE, NSAWAM, GHANA

THIRD QUARTER REPORT, 2023

Introduction

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. The following were our activities for the third quarter of 2023.

Classroom Activities

There were three courses offered this quarter. First, How We Got the Bible, which was taught by Emmanuel Amoo-Gyimah. Second, Pastoral Epistles, which was taught by Emmanuel Aidoo and finally, ICT, which was taught by Samuel Sasu-Ntim. 

Evangelism

On the 16th of September, our students embarked on a door-to-door campaign in the Nsawam Adoagyiri area as part of their practical training requirements. We believe that God has been glorified and our students have picked up valuable experience in this regard.

Impact on Congregations

Most of our students preach and teach in their local congregations and what we hear of our current students is nothing but praise. Compared to others Bear Valley students are never mentioned when hands are being pointed at preachers and Bible teachers who are engendering the “change agenda” among Ghanaian congregations. This we believe is due to the quality and soundness of the instruction our students receive. Long may this continue.

New Students

This quarter we admitted three new students; Daniel Obeng, Stephen Yaw Nyarko and Joseph Oppong Danso. These admissions have taken our total tally of new students to six for the year.

Student Profile

Isaac Ahadzi is the student we are focusing on for this quarter. He was baptized on the 11th of January 2015 at the Lomnava church of Christ and is currently a member of the congregation that meets at Nsumia. His commitment to the cause of Christ is seen in the fact that he is a Bible teacher for a ministry that regularly visits the Nsawam Prisons to worship with the inmates. In addition to the work of ministry, he works as a quantity surveyor and an architect. He is one of the student leaders in the group. He had this to say about the school: “I am very happy to be a student in this school because the instructors take their time when teaching the Bible and allow the students to ask questions. One thing I love about the school is that all the courses are biblical and in line with what we see in the Bible.”

Conclusion

We are grateful for Bear Valley’s assistance during this quarter. We pray God’s blessings in this regard. And brethren, please continue to pray for us.

Evangelistic students in Mombasa

Dear brethren,

Greetings in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ. We believe that the Lord has been good to you and all the brethren. We are all fine and doing well in the Lord, He being our guidance in all things pertaining to His Glory.

The school is doing well, and the program is still running as scheduled on Saturday basis. the students have just concluded the Book of Job as part of Wisdom Literature which was a class taken by Pau and will begin the Class of Bible Geography in the month of October. we hope that the students are going to enjoy the October course as they have been doing to all the others. 

For the quarter that has just ended, the lessons that were taught included: Godhead, 1st and 2nd Corinthians and the Book of Job.

Francis has been helping two KSOP students do evangelism in Kilifi County as well as Makueni County. as a result, two new congregations have been planted. The Kilifi Church is located at Matanomanne and is called Matanomanne Church of Christ. The preacher at Matanomanne Church is brother John Karisa, who's also a student at KSOP. the area is ripe for the gospel of Christ and we will be helping to evangelize the area. Another church planted is in Makindu area in Makueni County. The preacher at Makindu Church of Christ is brother Richard Tumbo Kiema, whose area is also ripe for the gospel and for evangelism. Richard is also a student at KSOP. 

There has been a number of seven baptisms so far to the glory of God. we believe God is going to be with these young souls throughout their lives as they also grow in the Faith. Glory to God!

The Bear Valley Mombasa students are also doing personal evangelism and thus most are studying the Word of God with the prospects. Unfortunately, one of them, Edward, lost a prospect through death. We're really saddened by this, yet we're praying for more souls to be receptive to the saving Gospel of Christ. We thank God for the efforts everyone is making towards the spread of the Gospel of truth in Coast region as well as Makueni County. 

Moreover, together with like minded Churches of Christ, we're planning to evangelize Mombasa for Christ as well as teaching in liberal Churches that are willing to change for the Right Way. 

We thank you for every support and to everyone who supports the work here. May God bless them all. 

Thank you very much and God's blessings be upon you all.

Shalom.

Yours Faithfully, 

Francis and Paul

Classes forced to move online in Ukraine

Greetings, dear brothers and sisters,

News from the Bible Institute.

God has blessed us with the new academic year at the Bear Valley Bible institute -  Ukraine. This year there 5 students on the program. All of them and their families are from the territories where the active warfare is taking place. We are trying to provide some financial aid for them and pay their rent. By taking care of the physical needs we let the students study and devote themselves to the educational process without distractions. We are grateful to the brethren and congregations in the USA who provide the opportunity for our students to be get training and become the qualified preachers in Ukraine.

If you remember the history of our Institute in Ukraine it was founded in Kramatorsk and from 1997 to 2007 it rented a place from a private college and started training preachers. That was the time period of church growth in the Donetsk region. Almost every city would have a congregation and there were dozens of baptisms every month. Then the Institute moved to the city of Gorlovka and it started a new chapter in the history of the Bible Institute. And the building in Kramatorsk that we used for 10 years is now destroyed by missiles. Unfortunately Satan destroys what's dear to us and has value for us.

The first subject that our students had was Hermeneutics (taught by Dennis Sopelnik). Now Jim Sherman is teaching The Scheme of Redemption and Family Life. These are important courses necessary for the future ministers of the church.

We are also starting the Masters' program for our graduates.  We have 6 students as of right now and we are in the process of developing the schedule for them. This will be the first recruitment of the last 5 years. We are in constant need of Ukrainian Instructors and for this reason it's very important for us.

News from Bela Tserkva Church of Christ.

We are trying to spread the Gospel with the help of food packages distribution.  A lot of people are signing up for their turn and we are using the contacts as the opportunity. Also we ship the food packages to the terrorists that were reclaimed after the occupation. Mostly to the people we know personally and the people who are connected to our Christians. This is also a good way to demonstrate the Lord's love.

Last Saturday we had a seminar for our students and the church members on Apologetics. It was conducted by our American brother Michael Houts who works for the NASA. It was very interesting and educational.

Our government is preparing us for the hard winter. Most likely there will be shortages of natural gas, electricity and water because the Russians keep destroying the infrastructure of our cities with the missiles' strikes.

We ask you to keep praying for us and for our Instructor Valentin who is serving in the Military Forces of Ukraine. Please also pray for the speedy return of peace to our country.

Last month I had to have a knee surgery connected with meniscus tear. Please pray for me as the post surgery recovery is accompanied with some difficulties.

Thank you for your help and support. May God keep you.

Your brother, 

Dennis Sopelnik

Guest teacher in Malawi

Hello everyone!

It is amazing to see how days are ending so quickly. We have almost 3 months before the year ends. Many good things have happened this year and we wish they could continue and the year shouldn't end so soon. However, we respect the seasons given by our good God and Lord Jesus Christ to us.

During the past 2 months lots have happened and we sometimes fail where to start because we are so excited about good news we are receiving from our former students who are doing good work in their respective homes. Within these two months 35 souls have been added to Christ and 18 more restored! We always thank God who works in us all for this course of winning souls to Christ. We also had a short course teacher from our sister school in Gweru - Zimbabwe. It was a blessing to have him teach and he too was excited to receive a warm welcome in Malawi which is rightly nicknamed as "The warmheart of Africa"!

Teaching

As we all are aware that the purpose of our school is to train men become faithful preachers of the sound and health doctrine, we have covered a lot of course since we started our second semester in July, this year. Brother Ishmael Mutichu from Gweru taught the "Synoptic gospels" from the 18th through 22nd of September. This is a good thing as it does strengthen the relationship between the sister schools within central Africa and beyond.

Evangelism

We have had lot of preaching campaigns in August and September. The results of these campaigns is that 35 souls saved and 18 souls restored. We have brothers who are our graduates and are doing a good job of winning souls to Christ. Brothers Saliwa, Takesure, Mateyo, Shadreck just to mention but a few. The other campaign will be from the the 28th through 1st of October, 2023. This campaign will be in the district of chitipa near the boarder of Zambia and Tanzania. Our students are looking forward to going. We ask for your prayers . 

We are so thankful for the support we receive from the Bear Valley Bible Institute International and also from the Hillcrest Christian family. The bold between us is beyond our imagination. We pray that God continues blessings your families as we still need your involvement in this work of training men and winning souls to Christ. As far as we have souls still not saved, we have the responsibility of reaching out to them - 2 Timothy 2:2!

"Eternity Is Forever, Think Souls

In Christ,

Ephron and Clergynton

Lusaka, Zambia students preach to prisoners

The Courses Covered

 The courses covered in the third quarter of the year 2023 were 3 giving us a total 21 covered so far.

1.    The New Testament Church  

2.    Denominational Doctrines

3.    Church Leadership

Twelve students attended classes in the quarter under review.

Outreach programs

1.    Through the Bear Valley Bible Institute outreach program, one of the students (Michael Sitwala) continued preaching to the incarcerated at Lusaka Central and Kamwala Remand Correctional Facilities.

2.    Students were involved in the evangelism programs, teaching of the new converts, Bible classes and preaching in their respective congregations.

3.    In the quarter under review, students were sent in pairs to the new congregation planted in June 2023 every after a week.

We always thank you for your continued support and God bless.

Accra, Ghana students conduct campaign

Accra Monthly Report, August 2023

Glory be to God for another month ending in success. We are always grateful to our God that He began with us and ended in peace. Our Lord has done greater things in us as He provides with our needs in times of crisis yet in all things He encourages us to hold firmly to Him in the doctrine and our way of life. To report to you the challenge of health challenges as our brother Gyan-Mante is challenged with mild stroke, Kojo with consistent health challenges, and Sammy. We glorify God for how far He has brought us and we are praying for healing and good strength.

CLASS ACTIVITY

Regular class

All the instructors are endeavoring to complete their courses with their exams and quizzes followed by the school’s campaign program.

Master’s Program

As with their normal class, they met for two (2) weeks with Brother Jerry Bate on the course, World Religion. Eleven students participated in the program.

CAMPAIGN

Doryumu follow-up

As we reported in our previous report for our next campaign location, Duayedeng, Paanor, and its environs, we saw the need for another place in Doryumu to embark on follow-up evangelism to strengthen the church and to restore some of the fallen brethren which commenced on 14th to 20th August 2023. Our past student, Philip Abruquah is the Evangelist for this church. Our students both rescent and past students, the Legon University campus church, Nsawam Road congregation, and the host brethren together, did work on campaigning both day and night preaching for one week. The campaign was successfully completed and the Lord added to the church with six baptisms.

We thank God for this successful occasion in strengthening us throughout the week. We pray that the new members will be strong in the Lord until He comes.

Bear Valley Top Radio Program

We are always proud to be preachers of the gospel of Christ and  supporting the program with our funds. As we always report to you, the radio program keeps yielding fruit. Almost every week after preaching, we have numerous calls and private calls for further studies. As we reported in our previous reports, we are also invited to different places to help in teaching and counseling most listeners on some of the topics that were not clearly understood by them (listeners) and other social matters bothering them. This program has further sent messages on the advertisement of the school to brethren who are showing interest in attending the school. We have three prospects who are willing to pick forms to register for the academic year.

This month we had one baptism in addition which took place at Nsawam Road church.

Mode of funding the program

We are grateful to our Lord who has endowed us with understanding in the ministry. The staff of the school is doing well to sacrifice some amount from their monthly allowance, an amount of four hundred cedis each to pay the monthly installment of three thousand cedis for the ongoing preaching work.   

We are using this medium to inform you of the wonderful work the Lord is doing in this program.

We will be also grateful to receive your contribution to this programme.

We request that you pray with us.

Port Harcourt, Nigeria celebrates graduation

 ACCOMPLISHMENT REPORT ON THE FIRST GRADUATION CEREMONY OF BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE NIGERIA, WEST AFRICA

The Director, teachers and students of Bear Valley Bible Institute Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria are very grateful to the Almighty God and to our sponsors for the great success of our recently concluded first graduation ceremony which was held on July 29th 2023.

NUMBER OF THE GRADUATED STUDENTS

A total of 36 students from our two centers completed the mandatory 48 courses and participated in the graduation ceremony but only 34 of them received the diploma certificate, four of them did not get the  certificate due to their low scores in some of the courses and their inability  to score  the required  70%  total average. Those students have been asked to come back for the courses they failed.

PRE - GRADUATION DINNER HELD ON FRIDAY JULY, 28TH 2023.

The graduation ceremony started on Friday, 28th July, 2023 with a pre-graduation dinner to celebrate the success of Bear Valley Bible Institute in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. About 150 persons including the directors and teachers of Bear valley Bible Institute from various States in Nigeria were in attendance.   

Chad Wagner the Representative of Bear Valley Bible Institute International was the Chairman of the occasion. The dinner programme was a great one. It featured: - songs, prayers and speeches from the participants. The highlight was the presentations of a projector, teaching materials on hard disks and flash drive to our school by Chad Wagner.

MASSIVE TURNOUT FOR THE GRADUATION CEREMONY ON SATURDAY 29TH JULY, 2023

The graduation ceremony attracted a massive crowd of people from many states in Nigeria. Those who attended the ceremony included the bishops, deacons, preachers and very many members from various congregations in Rivers State and beyond.  Also in attendance were the directors and teachers of Bear Valley Bible Institute from other states in Nigeria. The chairman of the occasion was Engr. Gorge Chukuwlewa Okoroma and the special Guest of Honor was Chad Wagner who also represented Bear Valley Bible Institute International.  

Special graduation lecture was presented by Aniefiok J. Udoudo a Professor of Journalism and Media Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria. The topic of the lecture was “The 21st Century Challenges of the Church, the Preacher and possible Solutions”.

The ceremony which lasted for about 3 hours was very colorful, orderly and well organized.  The highlights of the ceremony included: – Presentations of Diploma certificates of Bear Valley Bible Institute to 34 students, Presentations of special awards to some students that merited such awards, Recognition and Appreciations of some brethren who provided support and encouragements to the school.

It is worthy to note in this report that one of the graduates by name Job Emperor Umeshem was the overall best academic graduate.  He graduated with a total average of 94.56% and GPA of 3.89. He was applauded by the crowd in the occasion. Beside the award by the school, he received a lot of monetary award from the audience.

THE AFTERMATH OF THE SUCCESSFUL GRADUATION CEREMONY

The success of the first graduation ceremony is good for the image of the school. Right now the way the churches of Christ in Rivers State was seeing the school has changed for the better. They now understand that the school is very important. Many brothers in Christ are coming to be admitted. We had done 8 new admissions after the graduation and more are requesting for the application form.  The students are now more committed to study and the director and the teachers are more determined to give their best.   Moreover, our normal Friday and Saturday lectures are going on without hitches.

CONCLUSION

The graduation ceremony of Bear Valley Bible Institute Port Harcourt Nigeria was successful. We are grateful to God who gave us the strength and we are also grateful to our sponsors in the United States of America for their financial support.

Reports from:

Anthony Ejike Oluria,

Togo students and staff evangelize

August 2023 Report from BVBI- TOGO

Glory and honor to our Lord Jesus Christ for ever and ever, who protected the divine institutions in Togo and gave success to our activities such as: churches, evangelism by students on Fridays, evangelism by zone, speakers and seminars to evangelists and their wives every three (3) months, spiritual education to youth and debates with pastors of denominations who accept debates around which often propose either live or WhatsApp groups.

BVBI

Classes continue with teachers every day. Every Monday, the students report on the difficulties encountered during their door-to-door evangelism outings. This time it's a plea on their part for the school to issue a card identifying them as students and also to provide them with Bible tracts. The few we have kept are totally exhausted.

They are always regular in class and follow the lessons carefully. The month of August is marked by heavy rains. At the moment, there are enough mosquitoes in the area because there is water everywhere, and most of them suffer from malaria and are treated in hospital.

Here are the lessons of the quarter:

1. Overview of the New Testament.................................ATTAH Komi Ekpé Pierre

2. The Gospels of Mark and Luke....................................ATTAH Komi Ekpé Pierre       

3. The Book of Acts............................................MENSAH Akovi Espérance

4. The ministry of the multiplication (evangelization)..........MENSAH Akovi Espérance

5. The book of Genesis.............................................NYEMANTA Cephas

6. Biblical Authority..............................................NYEMANTA Cephas

(An additional course is required, entitled "Bible and Tradition", taught by NYEMANTA Cephas, to answer the questions our students and evangelists encounter during evangelization campaigns). 

Before starting classes in the morning, they follow devotional and memorization exercises which they write down, or some of them recite the verses according to their choice and the instruction given by the teacher. Every weekend, they all take an exam in each course.

Evangelization:

With the evangelization of the areas instituted with the school's activity, the month of August was a real success, with a record 18 people baptized. The students and evangelists did a wonderful job preaching the Word of God. The evangelism on Fridays and the work of the zones will bear fruit, and already associated with Saturday's school, a village 10 km from NOTSE is already inviting us for a public evangelism that we plan to do until the end of September, when the rains will be a little scarce.        

Evangelistic campaign in Togo:        

With the course of denominations and daily evangelism a village 10 km from Notse (MAYIKPO) invites us for a public evangelism of which we wish to do two evangelistic campaigns in September if the rains become a little scarce and here are its locations:

1. LAVIE-APEDOME

2. NOTSE (MAYIKPO village, 10 km away, for church planting) and early October in

3. GBALAVE.

Visits to the churches:

Two by two with the center's motorcycles, they travel miles every Sunday to serve in local churches and especially. Churches visited in August include : ALIKPODJI, LAVIE-APEDOME, PRESIDENT-COPE, AVETONOU, AGOGOME, KATI, TCHABOM, TSAVIE, HANINGBA.

Cameroonian schools working together

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings from this beautiful Cameroon. We hope by His grace you and your entire family are doing great. I apologize again for not sending my report as frequently as in the past. The network connection in my community is getting worse but I will always take the time to send my reports when the means is there.

The work of the Lord here is moving on smoothly here in all that we are doing, from the congregational activities, to the BVBIC-Wotutu. We give Him all glory and honor as He deserves.

Students in the Bear Valley Bible Institute here in Wotutu were taking a Greek class that will lead up to a time of preparation to take the exams for the second quarter. Our brother, Minister Otia David, keeps doing a great job in teaching that course. Students are growing in that area thanks to his efforts.

Evangelism is our mission and our mission is evangelism. This statement is common in our speeches because we are not ready to trade the evangelistic efforts and desires of the school for anything. Anywhere with Jesus we can safely go, and we are going places because we think souls. We were in a French speaking area in a joint evangelism effort with French brethren from our French school in Mbanga. The BVBIC-Wotutu has taken on a new mission identity as, “A BIBLE SCHOOL WITHOUT BORDERS.”

PLANS

Students are now on mission work and I will be in different congregations to see how things are going there. Three students are in three virgin lands to preach, and to see how a new congregation can be established in those locations. Please pray for us.

 APPRECIATIONS

On behalf of many souls here, I say thank you for your prayers and your support. They are helping to keep this work going at this level. Please, we pray for you, and we ask that you pray for us as we do our best to keep the work of God going here. Please share our report with others.

May God make His face shine on you.

Elangwe and family

By His grace director BVBIC-Wotutu

Visakhapatnam, India students attend preacher's workshop

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ our savior. I bring greetings from the students, staff and faculty of Visakha Valley Bible College, a Bear Valley Bible School International. By the grace of God and your prayers we are doing good, hope this message finds you all good.

First, let me thank you for your prayers, our loving God is keeping us all safe and sound, we are so much thankful for your concern.

Our school continues its mission of Training Men locally. Right now our country needs some affective men who are matured enough to care for their community and drive them in the right direction, also educate their community in good morals for a ethical life. Under the materialistic lifestyle, certainly people are going far away from doing good to other and being selfless. So, training men locally for the benefit of their own community by teaching the morals from the Bible, which is the scripture given to man kind by our creator. Indeed, our joint efforts certainly helping us to fulfill our mission of Training our Men Locally. Thank you so much.

Last month, we had a great opportunity to attend the State wide Preachers fellowship meeting. Preachers working in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Telugu speaking states. There was an attendance of over 800 preachers, we took it as a previlage to attend along with our preaching students and faculty along with 60 other preachers that works along with us in AP and Telangana States. It was great time to fellowship and unity building. Our preaching students along with our staff have gotten opportunity to present our selves on the stage before this large number of preachers, we are grateful that we have gotten a very good reputation in Training Men for Lord’s effective ministry. During this program we took advantage of distributing some free books and other gospel literature.

We are thankful to the Team Voice of Truth International for sending their magazine regularly, our students get a copy every time we receive them from brother Philemon Rajah. We are so thankful to Jerry and Paula Bates also Betty Choate for keeping us in their mailing list. Indeed, it’s a wonderful literature to share with the fellow preachers, everyone received them in gladness, during this meeting we have distributed several copies of Voice of Truth International at our stalls. One exciting moment was, one of our faculty Brother Vamsee Bushanam given opportunity speak for 50 a lesson based on Looking unto Jesus, who is the author our faith, he did a tremendous job of presenting his lesson by encouraging all the preachers to look unto Jesus in mentoring the Next Generation Preachers. By the we had to hire a bus to travel from Bikkavolu to Vijayanagaram which is about 6 hrs drive to attend this program, where as from Visakhapatnam, brother Nageswara Rao our former student took the responsibility of driving the students to the venue on our Van, we are proud of this brother.

Brethren, we thank you so much for your prayers of encouragement, please convey our heartfelt salutations to the brethren you worship with. You are in our daily prayers. Kindly pray earnestly as the leaders are destined to make our country a religious country, they are doing so intensely. The recent attacks in the state of Manipur and several other Northerner states stands as a clear indication of changing things in very quicker way. Please pray that our country would elect a person who would rule our nation democratically. We shall be having our general elections in the year 2024. Besides all kinds of circumstance we continue to fulfill our mission, we want to take every opportunity that’s coming in our way, one of them is holding a week long Campaign Week. We have scheduled it to be held in the first week of October, we are excited about it. Kindly pray as we are getting ready for it. Our special thanks and appreciation to the brethren at Lake Houston, Strickland Church of Christ also Farmershill Church of Christ.

Thank you brethren once again, God bless you all.

Love from all of us at Vishak,

John Dean M

Edifying the saints and evangelizing the lost in Zambia

AUGUST 2023

REPORT

 INTRODUCTION

We send to you warm greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! We also take this opportunity to give honor and glory to God our heavenly Father who through His grace and the love fully shown in Christ has granted us the rare opportunity to work in His Kingdom!

Once again this report has been written in an effort to provide some insight into the work that BVBI-Zambia has continued to experience.  It is always a great pleasure to write and reflect on the happenings here at BVBI-Zambia during the month of August, 2023.

1.      Updates on individual students for the month of August 2023

Reuben Museka

From Mbala of Northern Province we have recorded a great progress in our Alumni there that has been strong and sound in the Lord. The church is still attending services in a class room and we have good representation of the word of God. Hopefully more laborers are going there to strengthen more of the work of God with Reuben

Winston Changala

In Luwingu of the Luapula province, we are planning as a school to help him in establishing broiler project there for sustainability. He is still preaching and making good progress, working with the Local Church there, they are planting a new congregation in a village there, whinstone’s effort is highly recommended for God.

Arnold Silangwa

Ever since Arnold lost his only daughter, he continues to face some challenges with his family. His wife has been constantly sick. And this has forced Arnold to travel back and forth between the Copperbelt Province and Luapula Province of Zambia. Last week he managed to take his wife to the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka to the see the specialists. We humbly ask you to continue remembering Arnold’s wife and his entire family in your prayers.

2.      Updates on evangelistic work in Luanshya- copper belt province

Our current students have really learned their responsibilities as preachers very quickly. We visited Mpongwe district, this district is in a rural place we met with two congregations from southern part and northern part of the district. Our idea is to help in working together to establish a new congregation on the west part of the district, we are working as a team with these two congregations and they are feeding our students as we do evangelism there. We have included the pictures of women who dedicated there time in working for preachers for two days we spent there.

The first meeting and evangelism was very successful they fed us more than we expected as we did the work there. Our students have committed themselves wholly to the saving of lives. We have seen them fully involved in evangelism around the school and in Luanshya as a whole.

We are planning to plant another new congregation in the next two months and from these efforts many men and women have come to know the Lord. The following are some vital signs of evangelism recorded during the month of August, 2023:

i.                 Baptisms

We have recorded three (3) baptism in central province and three (3) baptisms in Copperbelt province. We have also recorded two baptisms in southern province one (1) in the Luapula province and five (5) in eastern province of Zambia. together we have recorded fourteen (14) baptisms.

ii.                Restorations

We have recorded nine (9) restorations in Copperbelt, four (4) in the northern part of Zambia and seven (7) in Lusaka Mtendere through our Alumni Simon Nkhazi.  We had a total of twenty (20) restorations recorded

iii.              Total number of Bible studies conduct

We also recorded twenty I three (23) household visited for Bible studies during our work in the month of August

iv.              Total number of men and women spoken to and invited for Sunday service-

We have recorded seventy-eight (78) men and women who were invited to attend Sunday service with us, the total number include central and copperbelt provinces respectively. We recorded seventeen (17) on the copperbelt who attend the first Sunday when they were invited.

3.      Our gospel campaign meeting in Kabwe central province

We had a very successful evangelistic trip to Kabwe, Central Province of Zambia. We had the chance to interact with Men from all over Zambia during our meeting. About 43 congregation were at the meeting the meeting was hosted by the brethren from Central Province.  The meeting started on 24thAugust 2023 and ended on 27th August, 2023. We travelled as always with other members of different congregations of Luanshya district of the Copper belt province.

Our students participated immensely in the program for three days, we have included pictures of our students and teachers to that effect. We are happy that our students are getting both theory and practical work on the ground as we interact with the Church at large.

Conclusion

May our God bless the entire family of Bear Valley Bible Institute International and  our hearts are forever indebted to Woodland Oaks Church of Christ for financial support and all the encouragement in this noble mission. You are all always in our prayers!!

Brotherly,

Cephas and Fred

700 children attend kids camp in Cambodia

Glory to the Most High God and our Lord Jesus Christ for His mercies which abound on us.

The work in Siem Reap Cambodia is doing very good. We are very excited to share with you what we did in August 2023.

IBISR’s class:

Every Monday to Friday we begin with an hour long devotional at 6:30 in the morning. From 8:00 to 11:30 we have bible class study. After bible study, we have lunch together. In the afternoon all the students come to English class together.

In August 2023 IBISR’s school finished the books of Psalms and Denomination Doctrine. Now we are continuing in the books of Romans and Jeremiah.

Application week:

Every weekend, the students and staff of the IBISR’s school get to go out to preach the gospel to new people and encourage the church members who live out of town. We love sharing God’s words with three special villages: Ta Kamm, Sam Buor, and Kouk Khnang village. We have members of the church in each village and these have been especially good for recruiting new students.

Children’s camp:

Children’s camp in Siem Reap was attended by IBISR’s students, staff, and members of the church of Christ in Siem Reap. In that camp, we had 700 kids plus adults! The children are very joyful to study about Jesus Christ singing songs, playing games and eating together. Camp lasted 3 days over 3 different locations. All children immensely enjoyed being together in Jesus’ name.

Prayer:

Please remember us in your prayers. 

1) Remember our new brothers and sisters in Christ who just got baptized into Christ: Brother Khoeun, Brother Watana, and Sister Sophorn.

2) The plans to join in the regional seminar next month. 

3) Darat’s sister and Piseth’s nephew who are very sick.

Servants of Jesus Christ. 

Piseth Rin and Darat Run. 

Co-Directors IBISR. 

The Ashcrafts visit Guinea

Introduction

Lack of information creates confusion.

To avoid this confusion, we at Bear Valley of Gueckedou have a monthly obligation to report to our supporters on the completion of activities.

In a few words, you will find the following information in six points.

I-Teaching

In August, there was no theoretical teaching. However, the students did put the theory they had learned in class into practice during their time off. More on this later in the report.

Il-Evangelism.

During the three-week break, the students were not idle in God's vineyard.As mentioned above, they did door-to-door evangelism, according to the instructions they received before joining their respective congregations.

Three of them namely : Balla Frangadouno, Alain Mano and Lambert Kamano succeeded in convincing three lost souls to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Next, Justin Malaya Simbiano, a graduate of Bear Valley's first class, tells us with joy that he has finally succeeded in converting his own mother to the church of Christ after three years of exhortation.

III-Personal profile

It gives us great pleasure to introduce you to Balla Kamano, a teacher at Bear Valley of Gueckedou.

He was born in Gbangbadou in 1972. He converted on 5/1/1994.

After two years (1999-2001) of training at the Bouaké Bible School under Barry Baggott, he returned to Guinea to serve as a preacher. He began his ministry in Gueckedou in the Solondonin congregation, eventually moving to his hometown of Kissidougou to serve in the same function in the local church to the present day.

We present him as a humble and faithful servant of Jesus Christ. His gentle, patient character is a great asset to his preaching ministry.

IV-Training women in Kenema

In an effort to teach children the way of the Lord, Steven Ashcraft and Karen Ashcraft spent two days, training Sierra Leonean women in Kenema, and two Guinean women took part.

During this training workshop, our Coordinator Steven met us with some of the leaders of the Sierra Leone congregations to discuss the progress of the church in the three countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, especially starting in the Kissi area, namely Gueckedou, Koindou and Foya, which is very receptive to the gospel. A meeting of leaders from the said area is scheduled for 29/9/2023 in Foya to discuss and plan evangelism activities in the zone.

V-Bible Seminar in N'Zerekoré

We would like to inform you that the congregations of the Churches of Christ in Guinea are organizing a Bible seminar from September 20 to 23, 2023 in Mohomou, N'Zerekoré. On the following themes:

1- Church History

2-Importance of being a member of Church of Christ

3-Church Organization.

VI-Suggestions.

We ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to support us in prayer for the peace and social tranquility in Guinea and understanding between us brothers in Christ for the progress of the church.

We also ask for spiritual support for the success of the above-mentioned Bible seminar.

Conclusion.

In the image of what we have as a result of evangelism. We can believe that our students are obeying Bear Valley's mission.

We thank God for his protection during the 31 days of this month and for the various tasks he has enabled us to accomplish.

We are grateful to Bear Valley International for their gratitude in supporting the training of evangelists in Guinea.

We would also like to thank our Coordinator Steven Ashcraft for his personal efforts in the development of the Church of Christ in Guinea.

We also thank everyone who contributes in any way to the growth of the eternal kingdom in our country.

May God bless each one abundantly in the Lord.

Reaching souls in Peru

Greetings dear brothers from Lima - Peru to all who can read this brief report. 

We have finished two more courses, I mean Prison Epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon) and I - II of Peter, Judas. The first course has been This server (Juan Abanto) dictated and the second course was taught by Abraham Alata. 

The students who have been participating in the classes have been: Alejandro Manrique, Victor Quijandría, José Daniel, Bety Melo, Marta Nola, Mariela Ramirez, Carolin Chavez, Ethel Lapa and Jhonely. It has been once again a pleasant experience teaching this course and all the lessons related to the course through these last eight Saturdays. 

On the other hand, one of our teachers (Andrés Nuñez) is doing special work in a church in the south of Lima, every month he travels to give personalized instruction to some male members of the Church of Christ in Subtanjalla – Ica. They have certain technological limitations, so the best thing is the face-to-face class in their city, probably arrangements are made so that they can be added to the next courses virtually, but this work of Andrés is resulting in a great blessing for the brothers in said congregation.

Thanks to the invitation, we have also participated in an evangelistic campaign in the Iglesia de Cristo Los Rosales, a church north of Lima where brother Juan Nima (a brother that some of you may remember) preaches, along with brothers who came of the Church of Christ in Hyaleah – USA. The result of this campaign resulted in 12 baptisms to the glory of God.

We have also had a three-day event for preachers and leaders at the end of July, the 3 instructors from the Institute were invited to participate as speakers, taking advantage of the opportunity to communicate with other church leaders, but also to talk a little more about the benefits of the institute and to stimulate them to count on us as a resource to increase the knowledge of the brothers in their respective congregations, we hope in the Lord that this bears fruit.

We were also invited to support an evangelistic activity in the east of Lima, in the church of Christ in Santa Anita, where the brothers Moisés Quispe and Richard Gomez preach, they have gained many contacts with whom we hope the brothers are surely already working.

We are about to start the following two courses, in these two months the brothers in charge of teaching the courses will be: Marriage and Family (Andres Nuñez) and I Corinthians (Luis Camacho). The students are already waiting for this new beginning!!! 

Thank you to all the people directly or indirectly involved in keeping this project going, may the Lord continue to bless you!!!

Good things in Sierra Leone

Bear Valley - Kenema, Sierra Leone

ACTIVITY OPERATION REPORT FOR JULY, 2023

Full Time and the Extended Programs

INTRODUCTION                               

We are here again with the exciting news of the spread of the Gospel in Sierra Leone through the impact of the Kenema Bear Valley Bible Institute. As mentioned in our previous report, we are in a challenging period to share the Gospel as it rains almost every time. But the good news is that the good work of the Lord continues.  In the month of July, our full time and extended students continued their classes, souls were converted, and an evangelistic campaign was conducted. Below are the details of the highlighted activities.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

On July 1, our full time students resumed their classes and joined the extended students. All of them resumed and brought exciting reports from their various congregations. Please we continue to covet your prayers for our students as they will soon, by the special grace of God complete their studies here, so that they will continue to serve the Lord in many parts of Sierra Leone. Our staff are committed to their work so much that they give their very best in taking the students through the courses. Apart from being active in the classroom, they are so much engaged in our evangelistic vision. Please continue to pray for them.

EVANGELISTIC CAMPAIGN AT GIEHUN

The school directed her one week evangelistic campaign at Giehun town. Giehun is a town in Kailahun District that is occupied by mostly Muslims. It covers 92 miles away from Kenema where the school is. Our decision to direct the campaign to Giehun sprang up from the love of the many souls there who are perishing on a daily basis. Moreover, we have a small congregation there that needed to be strengthened, hence decided to go there. As stated above, in the midst of a bunch of unbelievers, especially fanatic Muslims, the Lord’s church was established in Giehun. This congregation was established by the brethren in Kailahun town (Kailahun is the District head quarter town) together with Brother Jonathan Joseph, a native of Bonthe Island, far in the northern part of the country. He migrated to the Kailahun District and settled in Giehun. He has been making requests to come over and help with the evangelistic efforts. We finally stormed the Giehun community from July 25 to July 30.  We were joined by brethren from the host congregation and also those from Kailahun, led by their evangelistic team leader, Alfred Tengbeh. For the 6 days we spent there, 6 souls were converted and 4 brethren were restored. We have included Giehun as part of our mission territory where our students and staff will be going to help nurture that young congregation and to continue to evangelize the area. We will not rest until, “All have heard.”

THE DIRECTOR’S VISIT TO BEAR VALLEY IN LIBERIA

In an effort to continue to enhance team work and fellowship, the Bear Valley Bible Institute in Ganta in Liberia sent an invitation for me to go and teach their students a course, The Book of Revelation. Through the prayers and support of our coordinator, Brother Steve Ashcraft, the staff in Ganta, and the Bear Valley family in Kenema here, I was able to make the trip there and returned back safely. It was a lovely and wonderful experience with our students in that country. Apart from the lecture which I was originally scheduled for, I was also involved administratively in some discussions for the smooth running of that school in Ganta. God indeed is to be glorified for everything!  

A STUDENT’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Jacob Jusu

Jacob James is one of our soon-to-graduate students who is doing very well academically and evangelistically. He was born on May 5, 1999 to Mr. and Mrs. Sahr James, in Dia Village, Kissi Kama Chiefdom, Kailahun District, Eastern Region of Sierra Leone.  Jacob comes from a polygamous home. Religiously, he grew up as a member of a denomination where he met his parents. But on one beautiful day in September of 2019, Brother Jacob was confronted with the true Gospel by one of our first graduates, Victor Sahr Moroe, who is now the preacher at the local congregation in Kangama town. Through the power of the Gospel, Brother Jacob was converted to the Lord’s church in Dia. Upon his conversion, he began to express zeal in the things of God, and soon he began to be taught on how to lead the Lord’s Supper, giving, etc. He showed good Christian qualities over time and finally in 2021, he immediately expressed a desire to be enrolled at the Bear Valley in Kenema. From his influence and through God’s favour, we already have two other prospective students from his congregation that shall be coming for our entrance examination soon, Lord willing. We are very hopeful that Jacob is going to be a vessel unto honour after his graduation as he continues to show that while with us here.

CONCLUSION

Thank you dear brethren for patiently going through this report. We continue to appreciate your partnership in all aspects. May the Lord keep us till we could meet to share the good news of another report!

An update from Ukraine

Dear brothers and sisters,

Thank you for your prayers and your unfailing participation in the work of God. Last month our family had an amazing news. God gifted us with the 3rd daughter. We named her Diana. Praise the Lord, the labor went safely even though there was an air raid alert and the medical staff suggested us to move to the basement for shelter. Unfortunately, our hospitals are not prepared for such dire conditions and our family was very scared.

There were also some changes implemented in the work of the Bible Institute. We had to let go one of Instructors as the disciplinary action and some others followed him. We understood that it had to be done and calculated the risks of negative consequences.  However, we keep moving forward and everything is ready for the new school year.  As I mentioned in the previous letter the air raids are constant all over Ukraine, there's always a danger of blackouts and lost of the central heating. For these reasons we will transfer to the online studies until there's no danger for our Instructors and students. We have got 5 students for the first year of the program.

There are all temporally dislocated individuals and we will have to seek additional funding for rent needs of every family. On average it's about $200-300 a month.

It's been 1.5 years since the beginning of the active warfare and, naturally, people are exhausted and longing for peace. They want to go to work, buy groceries and clothes, have some normal rest and stop worrying about their families every second. But, unfortunately, we have to live with the prolonged war with extensive bloodshed. Currently we have the 3rd stage of mobilization. Men younger than 60 are dealing with forceful encounters in the streets when they are being given the drafting paperwork and sent to the military commissaries for medical evaluation and dispatching to the military units. The  fatalities are numerous and the military units are in constant need of recruits. It's very stressful emotionally for those who are scared and not willing to join the military. For this reason it's not unusual that men prefer to stay at home and only women go to work. The humanitarian aid is the only means of surviving for some people. We are trying to use this avenue to share the word of God and introduce people to the church.

Last Sunday I went to preach to Brovary to support the local  congregation that works for the Lord a lot. During the following week Konstantin and I went to Kramatorsk to deliver the grocery care packages. People there are in such great need that the list of people asking for help numbers over 500 individuals. And they are willing to wait for months for their turn.

There were baptisms this month in Kiyv, Nikopol, Kremenchoog. God is adding people to His family. It encourages us and gives us strength to keep working. Thank you for your love and support for our ministry.

May God keep you all,

Your brother Dennis Sopelnik

Graduation in Nigeria!

Beloved in Christ Jesus.

Greetings and appreciation from the staff and students of the BVBIN & SWSE-IBADAN for your partnership and support that results in to the success of today's graduation of 20 servants of God.

We are very excited for your concern and love.

May the Lord continue to bless all our work together in Christ Jesus, amen.

Sincerely yours in His grace as a servant,

Makinde Ebens (The Chief Servant of BVBIN & SWSE-IBADAN)