Bates Newsletter - March 31, 2013

March 31, 2013

Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!  I hope this newsletter finds you well.  It has been a busy month for us here.  

The third quarter of the school year ended on March 1, with a final exam in the Advanced Homiletics class.  All the students did well on their finals and their overall grades.  I must say I thoroughly enjoyed teaching that class and hope to have opportunity to teach it again.

On March 8, Bob Turner, Director of Extensions, and I left for Asunción, Paraguay, arriving Saturday evening, March 9.  On Sunday afternoon, after a great worship service with a capacity crowd and a delicious meal together, we got to participate in the exciting inauguration ceremony of the Asunción Bible Academy.  There are two sister congregations in Asunción (the only two in the country), and both were represented at the worship and ceremony.  Also students and faculty come from both congregations.  Bob and I began our journey home on Tuesday, March 12, around midday arriving in Denver Wednesday afternoon, March 13.

On Wednesday, March 20 Bob and I again headed to the airport, this time bound for Guatemala for the graduation of the Beta Class at ITL, as well as, the 4th Annual ITL Lectureship.  In addition, ITL celebrated its 5th anniversary.  There was a lot of ceremony, good fellowship and outstanding gospel preaching!  Approximately 450-500 people came together on Sunday morning for worship.  The logistical problems of finding room for so many people were great, but what a great problem to have!  Our hats are off to missionaries Hawatthia Jones and Byron Benitez, as well as, the rest of the ITL staff (Aníbal Ramirez and Darvin Alvarez) and the members of the Linda Vista congregation who hosted the event.  Bob and I returned home late Monday night, March 25.  

April will begin with a rapid pace, as well.  Beginning today and through tomorrow morning, the extension staff from all over the world will begin arriving for our annual extension meeting Monday and Tuesday.  It will be a good meeting as we make plans to improve our efforts to train preachers all over the world.

Thank you all so much for your interest, participation and support of this work.  The following paragraph is a partial repeat from last month.

I want to thank our supporters, first of all, for the ability you give us to do the work we do.  Secondly, I want to thank you for making the change to send your support to the school here.  When we announced this change, we expected there would be an adjustment period, but most have adjusted just fine.  Just by way of reminder, please send your checks to the Institute here at the address listed below and please make your checks out to BVBID, not to me.  Thank you!

School Contact Information: My Contact Information:

Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver 
2707 S. Lamar
Denver, CO 80227 
(303) 986-5800 
(800) 766-4641
Fax:  (303) 986-8003
Email:  info@bvbid.org 
Web:  www.WeTrainPreachers.com

Donnie Bates
4801 S. Wadsworth #3-105
Littleton, CO 80123 
(303) 718-7040 
Email:  dbates@bvbid.org 

May God bless you richly!

Donnie Bates

Great Opportunity for ITL!

The following is a letter from Hawatthia Jones and Byron Benitez concerning a great opportunity to purchase property for the Latin American Theological Institute.  Please read and give prayerful consideration to helping this great work!  I could not open the attachment with pictures of the property, but if you are interested, please contact me and I will get pictures to you.

djb

Greetings Family, Friends and Supporter of Mission Guatemala!

It is our hope and prayer that you are enjoying this holiday season with your family and loved ones. It is also our prayer that God will bless each of you a prosperous 2013.

Many of you have told us to notify you when we have specific special needs. Well, at this time, there is a very important need for your assistance and we pray that you will be able to participate. Please excuse the general e-mail, but this is the quickest way to contact many of you at the same time. 

We have been blessed with a special opportunity to buy both the house we are renting and the house where ITL, our preaching training school, is located. The owner of our house is the son of the lady who owns the property where ITL meets. Due to circumstances beyond their control they need to sell both properties and have given us first option to buy both of them before they place them on the market. We believe that it is a great opportunity for our work and want to take advantage of it. 

Please allow us to give you some details about the properties. First, the owner of our house plans to ask $95,000 for his house but is willing to sell it to us for $70,000. It is a four-bedroom, 4 1/2 bath house, with two additional rooms that can be converted into bedrooms. We have priced property in our neighborhood and have found that the $95,000 that he wants is reasonable since property in the Guatemala City area is quite expensive, especially in neighborhoods that are still deemed safe. We have lived in this neighborhood since we arrived to Guatemala in March of 2000.

The second property, which joins our house, is what we presently use for ITL. It includes a three-bedroom, 3-½ bath house, a two-bedroom, one bath apartment, and a studio apartment. Presently, our students live there and all of our classes for the school take place there. Remember that we have both a full-time program and a Saturday program. This property belongs to our landlord’s mother. She is willing to sell us her property for $80,000.

So, the total for both properties will be $150,000 and we presently have approximately $80,000 that we have raised to purchase property for ITL. We say approximately due to the exchange conversion rate. We will need to only raise $70,000 to purchase both properties.

We believe in using the monies we are entrusted the best way that we can and we believe this is a good way. The following are only some of the advantages for this purchase:

1. The price for both properties is good for the area where they are located.
2. We will no longer be paying rent and that money can be used in other areas of the ministry.
3. Since the properties are next to one another, this provides an opportunity for the expansion of ITL as it grows.
4. We are already in the facilities. We have lived in our house since 2000 and have rented the other property for ITL since 2009.
5. The properties are centrally located for both the full-time students and for those who study on Saturday. Our full-time students are close to shopping and the other things they need for daily living. It is a fairly easy commute for our Saturday students to come where we are presently located.
6. The properties are located in a safe area. Since we also have teachers who come from the U.S. to teach, this is very important.
7. By purchasing the property, we will avoid the additional costs entailed in having to move our residence and the location of the school, and having to rent another house and another facility for ITL, which would likely be much more expensive than what we are currently paying for both.

We are calling on you to help us purchase these properties. If you can help us, we assure you that you donation will be put to its greatest use. We are also asking to inform as many people as you know about the great opportunity with which we have been blessed. We need to say “yes” to the sellers very soon. So, we need to hear from you as soon as you can to let us know if you can help. You have more than one option to get your donation to us. You can go to our secured website and donate online by clicking here. You can also send your tax-deductible donation to our overseeing congregation at the following address:

Kingsley Terrace Church of Christ 
c/o Dwaine Himes/Guatemala Mission
2031 E. 30^th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46218

Please note on your form of payment “Guatemala Property Fund.”

We are attaching pictures of the properties. We are also attaching an electronic “Property Donation Intent Form” to this message. Whether you donate online or through regular mail, please, send us this form through e-mail so that we can know more precisely the funds that have been raised for this purchase. We will keep everyone posted as we raise funds.

THANK YOU so much for the love and concern that you have for the Lord’s work in Guatemala. Thank you also for helping us to achieve this milestone in our work. Again, please help us get the word out to as many as possible about the opportunity we have with the purchase of these two properties.  Please remember to keep the work in Guatemala and us in your daily prayers.

May God continue to bless. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

We love you! Happy New Year!!!

Hawatthia
Byron

“Teaching the CENTRAL MESSAGE in CENTRAL AMERICA!”

Bates Newsletter - December 10, 2012

Greetings, brethren.  It’s hard to believe we are so close to the end of a very eventful 2012.  And it certainly has been eventful.  2012 has seen the decision to begin a new school in Paraguay.  Classes for the Academy of Theology in Paraguay are set to begin classes on March 11, 2013.  This year also saw my wife and me moving to Denver.  Last month I asked that our supporters begin sending their funds to the Institute here in Denver beginning January 1, 2013 (more on that below).  In this newsletter, I have a couple more items of very important news to cover.

New Developments in Honduras

After a great deal of discussion, prayer and consultation with all parties involved, the decision has been made to consolidate our Central American institutes into one.  This is a development that has been several months in the making.  On Saturday, December 1, brother Rick Hyder, representing the eldership of the Hillcrest church of Christ in Neosho, MO, and I met with brother Nery Irías, director of the Bible Institute of Honduras (IBH), to discuss the future of that institute and the overall work in the area of Danlí, Honduras.  Later, we all met with a group of about 15 preachers in the area to inform them of the changes and give contact information for the Latin American Theological Institute (ITL) in Guatemala City, as well as, answer questions about the change and future of the work of training preachers in Latin America.  The ultimate result of this change is that after the current class of students at IBH graduates around June 1, 2013, classes will no longer be conducted on that campus.  We are currently encouraging all new potential students in Honduras to apply to ITL which will begin classes sometime in May, 2013.  This year we began offering graduate level courses in Danlí twice a year.  Those courses will continue as before.

In our meetings with our Honduran brethren, I wanted very much that they understand (and I want you to understand) that this change has nothing to do with any lack of confidence or dissatisfaction with the efforts of our Honduran team.  I am very proud of the work our teachers have done in the four years we have worked to train preachers in Danlí.  The decision was made as a matter of stewardship.  All of us know that there is only a limited amount of resources available to us in doing this work.  We must be good stewards in order to be faithful to God.  By consolidating these two schools we simplify the process of fund raising, coordination of teachers for our short courses, and a number of other issues.  

I am viewing this as an exciting development that will hopefully result in a more efficient effort on our part, but I admit a certain bittersweet aspect of it.  I made my first trip to Danlí almost five years ago (February, 2008) and feel a special relationship with the brethren there.  I know that the brethren of the El Zarzal congregation, which has housed and encouraged the students of IBH, are saddened and will miss the help and encouragement of the students.  I tried to assure them that our relationship was not ending and that, Lord willing, I will return from time to time on campaigns with ITL and also with the brethren of the Hillcrest congregation.  Our focus in Danlí is still to train preachers for that area.  This change just means that the training itself will take place somewhere else.

Other Developments

As I noted last month, beginning January 1, 2013 our personal support funds will be routed through the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver.  So, please send your checks made out to the institute (or BVBID) with my name on the memo line.  The address is:  2707 S. Lamar, Denver, CO 80227.  If you live in Hugo , OK and have been making your contribution to this work by personally giving it to the church office, you may continue to do that and your support will be added to the that which will be sent on behalf of the congregation.

Another new development is that my contact information has changed just slightly.  Our mailing address is the same, but just recently I have changed my phone number to a local Denver number.  So, my contact information is:

Donnie Bates
4801 S. Wadsworth Blvd. #3-105
Littleton, CO 80123
(303) 718-7040
Email:  dnbates1@gmail.com
Email: dbates@bvbid.org
Web:  www.wetrainpreachers.com

I want to conclude by thanking all of you very sincerely for your interest in and support of this work.  Without brethren like you, who are concerned about the need for preachers around the world, we could not do what we do.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart and may God bless you richly!  

From Noma and me to you and yours:  Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Year!

God bless,

Donnie Bates

Bates Newsletter - October 15, 2012

October 15, 2012

Greetings, brethren!  My prayer is that this edition of the Bates Newsletter finds you well and faithfully engaged in the labor of the Lord.  

The last month has seen the annual Bear Valley Homecoming Lectures and it was a fantastic weekend of great Gospel sermons from many faithful brethren.  It was a great blessing for all those who were present.  

Two masters classes were taught in Danlí, Honduras in September.  We were not able to teach the two scheduled short courses this month, so we will reschedule those to be taught later.  

Just this morning I received a report from Guatemala of five baptisms in the last month there.  We are excited to hear that news!  Short courses are scheduled to begin there on October 22.  Please pray for those classes and those who are traveling to teach them and, let’s not forget our translators!

I’ll be traveling over the next couple of weeks to give reports to some of our supporters.  I will be in Hugo, OK Sunday morning, October 21 and in Idabel, OK to give a report to the Lynn Lane congregation that evening.  Sunday morning, October 28 I’ll be with the brethren in Slim, OK and that evening in Redland, OK.  On Sunday afternoon, November 4 I will be meeting with the elders of the Hillcrest congregation in Neosho, MO to give a report about the school in Honduras.

I want to thank each of you for your interest and support of this work.  We could not do it without faithful brethren like you who are interested in training men to preach the Gospel in their own country and culture.  Yes, I know, God it is from Whom all blessings flow, but I am convinced that you are part of those blessings from Him!

If I can answer any questions, or if you know of others who might be interested in this work, please contact me at:  

4801 S. Wadsworth Blvd. #3-105
Littleton, CO 80123
(580) 326-1914

dnbates1@gmail.com 
dbates@bvbid.org 

God bless, 

Donnie Bates

Bates Newsletter - September 13, 2012

Greetings in the precious Name of our Lord!  I hope this newsletter finds you all well.  We are well and enjoying somewhat cooler temperatures. 

The last month has been a busy one.  I traveled to Guatemala to teach a class during the week of August 20-24.  There was a lot of material to cover, but the students did very well and I’m very proud of the job they did.  

The weekend after my return, the Bear Valley staff assembled at the Eternal Purpose Retreat Center for our annual staff retreat.  Over 50 people assembled for an inspiring weekend, where we heard reports of work going on literally all over the world.  Within the next few months the number of extension schools in the program will reach eighteen and we will be training over 300 men to preach the Gospel.  These are exciting times, indeed!

At the retreat, Dr. Denny Petrillo, president of Bear Valley, announced the most aggressive fund raising campaign in Bear Valley’s history.  Our goal is to raise $500,000.00 by the end of this year.  A good start has been made on reaching this goal, but we have a long way to go.  I encourage you to visit our website (http://www.wetrainpreachers.com) and prayerfully consider how you might help.  If you do not have internet access, please contact me and I will be happy to give you further information about this campaign.

I am still planning on visiting some of our supporters in Oklahoma next month and will be giving more information about that soon.  I want to thank all of you, once again, for your support and interest in this work.

My contact information is:

4801 S. Wadsworth Blvd. #3-105
Littleton, CO 80123
(580) 326-1914
dnbates1@gmail.com
dbates@bvbid.org

Until next time, may God richly bless each one of you. 

Donnie Bates