West Africa Happenings...

Greetings from all of your brothers and sisters throughout West Africa. The gospel light is shining bright as the workers continue to labor in the vineyard of our Lord. In this report, we will outline some of the happenings over the period. 

The Church Expands in Togo
I love the song “Soldiers of Christ Arise!” Whether we realize it or not, Christians are at war throughout the world. We are fighting this war in West Africa where Satan is attempting to prevail through Islam, idolatry, and false teachers. A battle was recently waged in the town of Basaar in northern Togo. Ghanaian and Togolese evangelists came together to preach the gospel publicly and house to house. We preached over the radio airwaves, as the call to prayers echoed from the mosques throughout this predominantly Islamic city. We sat down and studied with the residents as others attempted to divert their attentions away from the truth. We showed Bible films and preached publicly in the evenings as many gathered to hear more about the true doctrine of Christ. Before we left, five souls were baptized into Christ, others had promised to study, and a new congregation was worshiping in Spirit and in Truth. A battle has been won, but the war wages on. Islam is pressing down from the north, false teachers are sprouting up everywhere you look, and many are becoming so confused that they look towards the animistic religion of their fathers to satisfy their spiritual needs. We must continue to preach the Good News if the war will be won in West Africa. We are ready for the fight! Many are hearing the words of truth that can save their souls. We thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, and support!

Tidbits from the Schools
With your help, the gospel is being proclaimed throughout West Africa, and dozens of leaders are being trained at the Bible schools to prepare them to build up the church in this part of the world. We want to tell you a little about each location in this Newsletter. The best place to get complete up-to- date information for the schools is on the Bear Valley website at this address: http://www.wetrainpreachers.com/why-extension- schools/

The work is moving forward at the Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies in Tamale, Ghana. The building construction is continuing with windows, doors, plastering, water, and electricity moving towards completion in anticipation of a move from the rented premises during the month of December. The school in Tamale has realized a wonderful addition to their staff with the arrival of brother Tony Johnson from the USA. He will be teaching at the school and helping coordinate the work with Bear Valley Bible Institute in Denver. He is already making a positive impact on the work!

The Southwest School of Evangelism in Ibadan Nigeria continues a wonderful work in their training of faithful preachers in the cities of Ibadan and Lagos. Recently, the staff and students’ evangelistic efforts resulted in sixty baptisms, forty restorations, and the establishment of a new congregation! Twenty-eight students graduated during the SWSE’s ninth graduation ceremony in August. The 2012/2013 year then began with thirty-eight students studying at the two SWSE campuses. A great work is taking place in Nigeria!

The Center for Biblical Studies in Kpalime Togo is continuing their labors to train preachers in French speaking West Africa. Twenty souls were recently baptized into Christ and a new congregation was planted in Keve Togo. Four graduates are now working with new congregations that have been planted during the year. We were able to purchase Thompson Chain Reference Bibles for all the present and past students to help them with their studies, teaching, and preaching. We were also able to acquire a new copier to provide handouts for the students. CBS is truly making an impact on the strength of the church in this area!

During July and August, the Liberia Bible College in Monrovia Liberia moved forward towards their desire to train preachers in this war torn country. Brother Glen Addison from Texas and I took the time to visit Monrovia in August and assist in their building renovations, acquisition of furniture and equipment, and the planning necessary to put this training program in place. Twenty students were scheduled to begin classes at the end of August. Bear Valley is also in the process of beginning a Master’s program at this school to train the instructors. We thank God for all those faithful men who are sacrificing to make this work possible!

Brothers Bill Dillon from Arkansas, and Mike Kiser from Alabama traveled to the West Coast School of Preaching in Takoradi Ghana to teach short courses during the month of August. Max Robertson from the overseeing congregation in Howe, Texas also visited during August to discuss the renovation of the building, revision of the budget, and plans for an increase in the student body for the upcoming enrollment in September. Precious souls are being brought to Christ through the evangelistic efforts of the staff and students at this school!

The Cameroon Bible Institute of Wotutu is another Bear Valley Bible school in West Africa that I have not mentioned in my previous newsletters. I hope you will take the time to review their reports on the Bear Valley website. Many great things are taking place in Cameroon, and I hope to be able to visit this school in early 2013.

Year End Reporting
I will be scheduling time over the next couple of months to visit many of you and report on the work in West Africa. The primary objective of this ministry is to fulfill the Great Commission through empowering the indigenous Christians to fulfill their complete potential. With your help, we are achieving this goal by equipping the local brethren with Bible knowledge and providing them with evangelistic assistance. Together, we can do even more in the future than we have accomplished in the past. Let us continue to labor together is this fruitful field!

Financial Support
We want to thank all of the supporters for their contributions to this exciting work in West Africa. Without you, this effort would not be possible.

Contributions by check need to be made payable to: Mountain Home church of Christ
For: West Africa Mission

Mailed to: Mountain Home church of Christ 380 North College Street Mountain Home, AR 72653

Any questions can be directed to the church office at 870-425-4330.

Or you can contact Steven at:
Email: samtnhome@yahoo.com

USA Phone: 971-270-8535
Please email Steven if you would like to receive this newsletter by email.

Thanks So Much, With Christian Love
Steven Ashcraft

To see Steven’s report with pictures of the work throughout West Africa, click here.

Three Precious Souls Added...

Greetings from Tamale! Here is the latest news from the Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies. 

School Update
Students will be returning on Monday, September 10th, to begin their seventh term (out of ten) classes. The schedule at the Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies (TIBS) is designed to allow the students time to return home after each of the six week terms in order to plant, harvest, and take care of their families. In order to take the extra time off the students spend seven and a half hours per day in classes during the term.

This term the students will be receiving instruction from the entire staff of TIBS as well as from guest instructor Daniel Ampadu Asiamah from the West Coast School of preaching. The schedule for this term includes World Religions, focusing on Islam and Animism, Old Testament 5, Denominational Doctrines, Gospel of John, and Marriage and the Home. There will also be a short course on the great commission and an evangelistic campaign at the end of the quarter.

We are praying that all students will be able to return for this term. During the previous term two students were unable to attend because of serious illnesses. Please join us in praying for the students and the success of this term.  

Evangelism Update
During the period of August 22nd through September 2nd, an evangelistic campaign was held in Cinkasse, Togo. This campaign was a combined effort of TIBS, the church in Bawku, Ghana, and preachers from Dapaong, Togo. The purpose of the campaign was to plant a congregation of the church in Cinkasse, assure that the necessary support for the church to grow during the next year was in place, and encourage the Ghanaian and Togolese Christians in working together to grow the kingdom in the northern regions of both countries.

Cinkasse, which has an estimated population of around 30,000 people, is located in the northwest corner of the country, where Togo, Ghana, and Burkina Faso all meet. Because of its location it is a major trade area, with people from all three countries coming for the Thursday and Sunday market days. The city is primarily Muslim, as is the case with most of the northern regions of both Ghana and Togo, but is also heavily influenced by traditional African religions.

The campaign began with a week of preparation by current TIBS students Joseph Molsak and Nichema Jacob, along with Fidel, one of the Togolese preachers. Joseph and Nichema brought a number of members from their home congregations in Bawku to assist them as they went out visiting in the residential and business areas of Cinkasse to invite the community to attend the showing of Bible films during the last three days of the campaign. Joining the group later in the first week were two TIBS graduates, Stephen Abugbilla and Avoka John Mbilla, who are currently working as preachers in northern Ghana. Finally, Steven Ashcraft and I showed up on the 29th with the equipment to show the Bible films to complete the campaign team.

For the final three days of the campaign we spent the mornings going out in teams of two to visit the community and do street preaching and teaching. After resting in the afternoon, we would begin setting up the video equipment at the local park to show a different movie each night. The first night we showed The Jesus Story, an account of Jesus’ life based on the gospel of Luke, with an estimated 300 in attendance. The second night the movie was The Passion of Christ, and the final night’s movie was the story of Abraham. While it was impossible to get an accurate count of how many attended, I would give a conservative estimate of over 400 for each of the final two nights, with many, many more coming and going throughout the evening. Each movie was paused about halfway through in order for one of the preachers to offer a message, and then again just before the end for another message. The end result of the campaign was three precious souls baptized. There were four additional prospects who expressed a strong interest in being baptized who are being followed up with by the team who is providing support for the church as it grows.

One of the more interesting challenges during the movies was explaining The Passion of the Christ for the audience. Those familiar with the movie know that the dialogue it is in Aramaic with English subtitles. Since the audience did not speak/read English it was necessary for me to explain what was going on to one of our students, who then explained it to the audience in one of the local dialects. The challenge was in keeping up with the film as we went through the multiple translations! 

Closing Thoughts
In closing we continue to thank all of those who are supporting the Institute through your prayers and with your financial support. You are a blessing to us and to the church in Northern Ghana and the surrounding countries. There are still many needs, both here in Ghana and in the surrounding countries. If you are interested in knowing more about the work being done, or are interested in helping support a student ($100 per month takes care of one student during their time in school) or an evangelistic campaign (each campaign costs between $750 and $1000) please send me an e-mail at anthonyjohnson2010@gmail.com. There is much work that can be done with your help! 

In His service,
Tony Johnson

To see Tony’s report with pictures, please click here.

Challenges...

2011 will bring challenges to the work of Extension Training, just as previous years. Challenges present both a positive and a negative side to the work.

One of the challenges for 2011 is to ensure each school reaches their full capacity of students. Considering all 15 extension locations, we are operating around 55-60% of overall capacity. The major factor is funds. Therefore, with incoming classes for 2011 we are striving to raise the necessary funds to move closer to 75-80% capacity.

Another challenge will be finalizing the standardized curriculum format in each extension. We are working diligently to make sure the material used in each location is the same consistent quality as taught in Denver. The challenge in several locations involves getting the material translated into the language of the students.

The challenge of finding qualified short-course teachers is an area we are working to improve this year. Short-courses involve 30 hours of teaching in a number of Biblical books and related subjects. There are also some academic qualifications needed. If you would like to be involved in training men to preach the gospel, please drop me an e-mail and I will be glad to give you all of the necessary information. My e-mail address is bturner@bvbid.org. 

There is also a challenge of aiding students who deal with the religious practices in their culture. Obvious denominational challenges are faced. However, struggles exist in the areas of Islam, Buddha, and Hinduism. In some locations, i.e. Nigeria, these struggles increase. We want to find ways to strengthen these men who are teaching the gospel in adverse circumstances and the congregations diligently holding up the light of Christ.

As well, there will constantly be challenges to ensure funds for students, administration in each extension, travel costs for coordinators and instructors, as well as, personal support for each staff member. 

While there will be other challenges throughout 2011, we will be faithful in addressing and overcoming these challenges. We ask for your prayers regarding all of these areas.

Coordinator Updates

Reports from the coordinators are now located on the website, under Staff Reports. The address is http://www.wetrainpreachers.com/extension-schools/

Gary Fallis and Jerry Bates are now in Nepal and next week travel to Visakhapatnam, India to work with the extension schools in each location. Please remember them in their travels.

Mission 2011: Jerry and Paula Bates provide a report for 2010 and look to the future in 2011. Read their report here.

Extension Reports

Powerful News In Arusha, Tanzania: Cy Stafford's report brings great news from Africa.

Profitable Cambodian Work: The news in Cambodia continues to be exciting as the church grows.

Final Thoughts

The year ahead will open many doors of opportunity for training men to preach the gospel. I look forward to strengthening the brethren we are working with and establishing new schools.

Thank you for your support in every way. This work continues to grow stronger because of your assistance. It excites me to share with you the growth of the Lord’s kingdom around the world. Please continue to pray with us for the Lord’s blessings on our efforts.

God bless

Bob

Mission 2011

Happy New Year!

I hope all of you had a happy holiday season. Another year has come and gone, and it is now time to begin another year. 2010 was another good year for the World Evangelism team as we try to evangelize the world, particularly Southeast Asia. The work actually expanded significantly in 2010. Let us recap what was accomplished. We made three mission trips overseas. In May, Jerry made one trip to Takoradi, Ghana in Africa to help a Bear Valley school. Later, we both traveled to Tamale, Ghana to teach in the Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies, which was combined with our fall trip to India.

Three trips are currently planned in 2011, but we will tell more about that later. The two Bear Valley schools in India continue to do well. The one in Chandigarh has been having facility issues. They actually had to move to a different place. Hopefully that will soon be settled so that they will have a permanent home. The school in Vishak will have their first graduation in April of this year.  

Literature distribution has also expanded significantly. Seventy-six different tracts were printed and are currently in our warehouse, in addition to printing several new books in 2010. Thousands of copies have already been shipped to various countries in addition to some that were ordered for use in the U.S. We made some contacts with groups that are sending containers to various countries. Since shipping by containers is much cheaper than current mailing rates, this allowed us to ship many more books, magazines, tracts, and old Bible class literature than we normally would. In August we shipped about 2,000 pounds of books in a container shipped by Mission Printing to Ghana. About the same amount went to the Philippines in November. Betty took several boxes of French books to the Crieve Hall church in the Nashville area to be loaded on a container bound for Benin in Africa. The same weekend she also carried some French books to Judsonia, Arkansas to be sent to Haiti. Plans are being made to do even more of this in 2011. This is great for the church wherever the books are sent, but it requires much work on our part to get these shipments ready.  

Book Distribution

November started with a bang with four volunteers from Middle Tennessee coming to help us organize and pack books to be sent to Nigeria and other foreign schools. One of the ladies was Ruth Orr. Some of you may be familiar with her. She makes several trips a year to other countries herself, working with World Bible School contacts. She has been to Nigeria many times, thus she personally knows many of the preachers in that country. These volunteers helped us pack many boxes of books to be sent to preachers. We are also shipping one copy of all our books to various Bible school libraries in various countries. This is a tremendous undertaking, considering we have over 110 books currently in print, not counting our mission books, which are not usually sent overseas. These have to be packed in three different boxes. Many of you would be amazed at the number of libraries in other countries. When volunteers come, they help greatly, but of course, that makes us work even harder. All of our other work nearly ceases, then we have to work to catch up.   

On November 18-19^th, we made a quick trip to Dallas, Texas to deliver some books which were sent to the Philippines on a container. We had about 2,000 pounds of books and Bible class literature. This Bible class literature was collected from several congregations, and we are glad to be able to help reuse leftover literature. 

We did not take too much of a break even during the Christmas and New Year holidays. On December 29^th, some of Betty’s family visited, and they gladly consented to help us pack books. Ed Mosby from Searcy, Arkansas made several trips to Nigeria, and he sent us nearly 350 names of preachers to whom he wanted books to be sent. Thus, Betty’s family helped us pack a small box of books to be sent to them on the next container. We had our youngest member ever to help us, Betty’s six year-old granddaughter. We take any help that we can get. She really enjoyed the work. They did not hardly complete the process, since we included one more book on the Holy Spirit, which was being reprinted. That book arrived January 5th, and a large group from Strickland and Plain View, near Henderson, TN, came down to help us finish the job. 

Mission Printing in Texas is sending a container to Nigeria the first part of February. For this reason we are making such a diligent effort to get so many boxes ready to be sent to Nigeria. We do not want to miss such an excellent opportunity to ship literature to that country. On this container we will probably send about 8,000 pounds of books.

We print four issues of the Voice of Truth International each year, and we always work in the shipping and receiving of those in between our mission trips.  The last issue arrived December 21st,  and on that same truck, we shipped out about 75 boxes of books bound for New York, which would then be shipped to various countries.  

Other Activities

These two months have also been very busy with other activities. We have been very busy as usual visiting congregations that support us. We are continually visiting with other missionaries whom we can assist by sending literature or other ways. Some of the missionaries with whom we regularly correspond are Robert Martin in the Pacific Islands, Loy Mitchell in Zimbabwe, Ed Mosby in Nigeria, Barry Baggott in the French work, Gordon Hogan in Singapore, Rod Kyle in New Zealand and James Jones in Kenya. One day, we and Wayne Barrier, visited with Steve Worley in Savannah, TN. He works in four different countries in Africa, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Uganda. He helps schools in all those countries. After being very ill this last summer, he wanted to visit with us about helping out in the future in case he was not able to continue. That was an interesting meeting. Due to our very busy schedule, we will not be able to get as involved in that work as he would like, but we might be able to help in case he is not able to continue. This simply illustrates how far-reaching our work is and one never knows what future opportunities may come our way.

Future Plans

The next four months promises to be very busy as well. Jerry leaves on January 13th for one week in Nepal and two weeks in India. He will be teaching in a Bear Valley Extension all three weeks. In some ways, it is a relief to travel overseas. When we are here we are busy with books, visiting churches, getting lessons ready, etc., and so it is nice to have a change of pace. Jerry has also been very busy this last month getting his lessons prepared for his next trip. He hopes to be able to meet with a brother from Nepal who wants to translate the Voice of Truth into the Nepali language. Many times, we can accomplish multiple goals on our trips, which, of course, allows us to do more, with little more effort. Paula will not travel on this trip. She will stay here and do all the end of the year activities that has to be done in the World Evangelism office.

About mid-March we will embark on our normal spring trip. We will spend two weeks in Myanmar teaching in a school there, teach a week-end seminar in Sri-Lanka, and then wind up with about three weeks in India. We will arrive back in the states about the end of April. We always look forward to these trips with anticipation, but we are also always glad to return home. We thank God for the opportunity to serve Him as we do, and we constantly are mindful of all of you who make it possible for us to do this work. Keep us in your prayers, and may God bless you with a happy and prosperous 2011.

Jerry & Paula Bates

The Work Speaks For Itself...

2011 is getting off to a great start. Today, the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver begins working with the 15th Extension School. The Cameroon Bible Institute of Wotutu opened its doors to 20 men who began their training to preach the gospel.

As you have probably already noticed, the weekly report is LOADED with reports from the various works we are involved with around the world. I will not take time to write much more. The work speaks for itself. Please read each part of the weekly report. It is worth your time. Thank you!

Coordinator Updates

Reports from the coordinators are now located on the website, under Staff Reports. The address is http://www.wetrainpreachers.com/extension-schools/

Read Donnie Bates report at the following address: http://www.wetrainpreachers.com/donnie-bates-reports/

Gary Fallis and Fred Cabler recently returned from Ghana. This was Fred's first trip to teach in the extension program of the West Coast School of Preaching. Please read their report on Reflections in Ghana.

Extension Reports

A New Dawn in Cameroon The beginning of a new school is exciting and the perspective of the men on the ground is one of a New Dawn.

International Bible Institute of Siem Reap

The work is maturing in several ways in Cambodia. The following report from Phanat Ouch, director of the International Bible Institute of Siem Reap, shows how the challenges of the work can make the work stronger. Read more at the following address: http://siemreapchurchofchrist.webs.com/apps/blog/

First Year Success in Nepal  As hard as it is to believe, the end of the first full year of studies in Nepal is completed. Read this report from Jerry Golphenee.

2010 Nigeria in Reflection  The work in Nigeria has made a powerful impact in a number of areas, including a prison ministry. Read more in Reuben's report.

Uganda Lectureship The work is exciting in Uganda. 2010 finished with the first annual Uganda School of Evangelism Lectureship. 

The Good and Unexpected No matter where a school is located, there is always good events taking place, but also some unexpected. The work in Ukraine is no exception. Read more here.

A Stand For Truth... Persecution in Togo It is amazing the strength of faith on the part of many around the world. Click here to read more about this situation.

Final Thoughts

We are just beginning. Wow! What a great start to the new year. The reports abound with the great working of our God to help this program grow.

Thank you for being a partner in this effort. Your support and encouragement keeps us going in doing the work our God has called us to do. I look forward to reporting more and more as the weeks unfold the progress of Extension Training in 2011.

Thank you

God bless

Bob