Classes Begin Monday At WCSOP...

Dear Brethren,

I bring you greetings from Takoradi, Ghana. It is my hope and prayer that this report finds you all well and prospering in the Lord. May the Lord continue to use us on both sides of the Atlantic to accomplish His purpose in Christ. 

As of April 20, 2013, the school has been on recess. Students will report this weekend for classes to begin May 13, 2013. This will be the final school term for the seniors and the term that completes the first year for the juniors. We do not plan to enroll new students this term. We will therefore have one stream to run for the next academic year. There will be no graduation this year. There will be next year and it will combine the juniors and seniors together. Posted below are the calendar and courses for the new school term.

One of the men who graduated last year is Jerome Torh, from Liberia. For the past several months his wife Louise had been ill. It got worse early last month when he sent word to many of us that his wife was dying and we intensified our prayers for her. When he sent us the SOS, she had not been eating nor speaking for some days. The doctors had called for a number of tests to be conducted to determine what line of treatment to give her. Jerome did not have the money, but brother Steven Ashcraft who was going from Liberia to Togo through Accra, met him at the hospital and paid for the tests and left Jerome with some money to take care of his wife. Two days later she passed away. Louise was 31 years old and was survived by her husband and three children – two girls and a boy. Her funeral was held on Saturday, April 27, 2013, at the Buduburam Camp where she lived with her family. A delegation of four was sent to represent West Coast. It was made up of two instructors, Charles King Arthur and Daniel Ampadu-Asiamah, and our two cooks, Charity Fordjour and Monica Andoh. Jerome has been shattered by the passing away of Louise and needs our prayers and support.

2012/2013 Academic Year   ---   Third Term

***School Reopens for 2013/2014 Academic Year   September 6, 2013

Seminar for Preachers and Leaders – September 16-19, 2013 

TEACHERS & COURSES

Junior Class

Matthew Ackah
Book of Romans

Joshua Aidoo
Life of Christ – 2 (Teaching: Sermon on the Mount, Parables, Judgment)
Church History

Charles K Arthur
Old Testament – 3b (Study of Wisdom Literature: Psalms – Song of Solomon)

Daniel Ampadu-Asiamah
Personal Evangelism – 2 (Church Planting)
Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage

Charles Mensah
Prison Epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon) 

SHORT COURSES
1 and 2 Corinthians Matthew Ackah
Epistle of James Matthew Ackah 

Senior Class

Joshua Aidoo
World Religions

Charles K Arthur
Public Speaking – 3 (Advanced Homiletics)
Preacher’s Work

Daniel Ampadu-Asiamah
Book of Revelation
Current Issues in The Church

Charles Mensah
Christian Ethics 

SHORT COURSES
Preacher Epistles (1and 2 Timothy and Titus)  Charles Mensah

The Godhead Daniel Ampadu-Asiamah

Brethren, as we face a new school term we solicit your prayers, and much so, as we consider the fact that health was a major problem for instructors and students alike in the last term. 

Thank you, brethren for your continued support both spiritually and physically.

Your servant for Jesus’ sake,
Daniel K Ampadu-Asiamah

Campaign In Ghana Brings Souls To Christ...

The Campaign for Christ at Ampenyi is one of two campaigns on our school calendar for this year.  One campaign is to establish the Lord’s church in a town where there is none. And the second is to work with an existing church in personal evangelism, visitation, and Gospel meetings.

Ampenyi, is a coastal town between Komenda and Elimina in The Central Region of Ghana. The main denominational churches in town are Catholic, Methodist, Church of Christ –Spiritual Movement (SM), The Twelve Apostle Church, and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The team was made up of four instructors -- Charles Mensah, Charles Arthur, Joshua Aidoo and Daniel Ampadu-Asiamah. Matthew Ackah, an instructor, who could not be on the team, was saddled with the care of a severely ill aged mother. Also on the team were sixteen of our students. Two were ill and could not go with us; one was called home to take care of his wife who was very ill and their young children, and a fourth student had been called up north to his father who is bed-ridden with illness. Additionally, we had our two cooks, a leading brother (Tandoh) from Effiakuma church in Takoradi, and Philip Nyan, a former student now preaching at Tarkwa. Philip provided chauffeur services for the campaign –transporting people, and equipment and taking the cooks to shop for groceries. The wives of Charles Mensah and Tandoh came a couple of days to assist the cooks.

We arrived at Ampenyi Monday evening, March 18. There was power outage ( a regular happening in Ghana today) and so we could not preach that night. We arranged for a standby generator the next day which became handy for the rest of the days at Ampenyi.

Work began in earnest Tuesday morning and from then till Saturday we did personal evangelism in the mornings and afternoons and open-air preaching at night. By Sunday night we have baptized 19 precious souls with whom to start the church at Amenyi. On Saturday afternoon and evening two instructors and five of the students left to fulfill various obligations they had in their congregations.

On The Lord’s Day morning, our worship attendance consisted of 25 men, 8 women, 4 children totaling 37. Eight of our new brethren were in attendance; two were ill and could not attend; four had travelled out before Sunday and three worshipped in nearby towns where they resided. Our giving was GHC 108.50 (USD 57.0)

All the baptisms were done in the ocean.

After church on Sunday, we gathered with the new Christians at our place of lodging and shared our lunch with them and used the opportunity to exhort them further to faithfully and fervently serve the Lord.

We are thankful to God for the opportunity and for the precious souls that were won for Christ, and for our faith strengthened in God and His Word. Also we are thankful to The Effiakuma church contributed GHC 1,000 (USD 526) to the campaign, and to all of you who constantly pray for us.

After the campaign, we allowed a recess of one week which included the Easter holidays. Classes began this week with the short courses taught by Charles Mensah and Joshua Aidoo. Next week God willing, Matthew and I will be teaching our assigned short courses. Thereafter, school will be over for the second term.

I have enjoyed some good health for the past couple of weeks. I am able to walk without much pain. My daughters have sent me a pair of forearm crutches and a walking stick (cane) from London. The cane will do for now and I will visit the rehab center to have it reduced to fit.  

Just about when I am getting better, a great brother and colleague of mine, Kingsley Adu, an elder of the Bomso church in Kumasi was rushed to the hospital Wednesday with a stroke. I solicit your prayers for him. We need him healthy and strong in the church in times like these.

Yes, Brethren pray for us... The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. –1Thes. 5:25, 28.

Your servant for Jesus’ sake,
Daniel Ampadu-Asiamah

If you would like to see Daniel's report with pictures, please click here.

Health And Raising Prices Create Difficulties At WCSOP...

HEALTH
The heat this time of the year brings with it many health problems: malaria and boils leading betimes. Two of our students have had to spend a week each at home for boils and a third left last Wednesday with a dislocated elbow bone. Two others have had malaria for over a week, and one other has had to go home for some ten days now because his wife has been seriously ill. Matthew, our academic dean, could not make it to school last week; he had malaria and diarrhea. I am limping along with a swollen leg and painful back. The teachers held a meeting and decided to relieve me of my teaching for the rest of the term so that I can attend to my treatment and get the needed bed rest. I was able to spend some days at my son’s in Accra at the weekend. I teach only one class a week – the mid-week Bible class on campus, and attend to office duties and supervision. If am better by the first week of April, I shall teach my assigned short courses.

CAMPAIGN
We have had to postpone our Campaign for Christ to March 18-24, 2013 to allow for the recovery of our students.  This will be a first for them and so we want to take along all our students, if possible. Also with the change of date, alternative arrangements must be made for lodging and other logistics.

NEEDS
We have three working computers at the school. With a student population of 20 men, this is woefully inadequate. Since many are now replacing their PCs with laptops and notebooks there is the possibility that you may know of a PC that has been packed and not in use. Please, send them to West Coast. Or you may help us buy some refurbished used-in-Europe computers for 250-300 cedis ($132-158 US) a set. With our energy problems and the fluctuating power we shall need UPS for all computers. A laser printer has been in our need list for several years now. We pray someone can get one for us.

On February 17, 2013, the government increased fuel prices in Ghana between 15-20%. A gallon of Petrol went up from 7.00 cedis ($3.68) to 9.22 cedis ($4.85). Diesel now sells at 9.31 cedis ($4.90) per gallon. LPG was increased by 50% and now sells at 24.36 cedis ($12.82) per 12.5 kg cylinder.

These fuel price hikes have affected everything –food, services, utilities, transportation, medicals, etc., and will surely increase our operational costs. We are going to talk to individuals and congregations to raise some additional local support to help the West Coast Budget.

FOOD SERVICE
West Coast is located on a hill and far from the nearest place one could buy something to eat. Used to, students provided their own meals and we allowed 45 minutes lunch break. It took more than 45 minutes to go downhill to the nearest food joint and back. That affected our scheduled classes for the afternoons. There were times one would go down and find what he could afford was finished and must wait for what was on the fire. And there were those who did not have the means to buy any food. The food service, which provides two meals a day, a mid-morning brunch and supper, has really been a blessing on top of the hill. Teachers and students, the main beneficiaries of the service, are grateful to our sponsors for the great relief. This comes with our love and sincere best wishes to you all who pray for us and sponsor the school, individual teachers, and students.

BRETHREN, PRAY FOR US- these are hard times.

Your servant for Jesus’ sake,
Daniel K Ampadu-Asiamah

Click here to see brother Asiamah’s report with pictures.

New Term, New Students, New Roof, More Space...

I am happy to be able to send this report today. I pray all is well with you and all the brethren at Bear Valley. 

We are three weeks into our second term which began January 14, 2013. The calendar and details of academic work have been posted.

The new class now totals fifteen students. They have come from Northern Region (1), Volta Region (2), Eastern Region (3), Greater Accra Region (1) and Central Region (1); the remaining seven students are all from the Western region. With the five in the Senior Class we now have twenty students total in attendance at West Coast.

The new roof that was put on our classroom / administration block during vacation has given it a new look – very pretty. Inside the building, the merging of rooms and reinforcements that have been done have given us one large classroom that can take sixteen students. Our library is now twice its size – more room for shelves and books and for our students to sit and study. We are looking at the possibility of moving our computers (only three working) and copier and a printer (when we can afford one) into the library so that hard copies of materials students access could be made. I have a Canon flatbed scanner which I have sent to the school to be placed in the library. Gradually we shall get the ideal library we have been dreaming about – pray with us.

I have been down with pain in my back and hip and have been home most of three weeks of school. The pain is not all gone but mobility is better now and I hope to be able to resume teaching next week. I have only taught the introduction to my assigned courses for the term.  

We are in the harmattan season and the weather is dry and hazy throughout the country. We have had a couple of rains since beginning of the year but that has not helped to bring down the dust blowing all around us.

Brethren, pray for us and our country

Daniel K Ampadu-Asiamah

Graduation And Recruitment At The WCSOP...

Greeting from the West Coast School of Preaching. I am thankful to God to be able to sit and write the report today. The past couple of weeks has not been easy for me. I thank God for His mercies and kindness. 

Recruitment At West Coast
We now have 12 students for the first year class. In view of the fact that we shall not enroll students next year, we are encouraging some who have shown interest to enroll now. We shall keep our doors open until the end of this term. All those who enroll after the fourth week of the term will be required to take the first term course after they complete the two year program. 

Graduation
The graduation this year had the largest attendance in the history of the school with brethren and friends coming from seven of the ten Regions of Ghana: Western, Eastern Central, Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo, Northern and Upper East Regions. Six men who had completed the two-year program of study at West Coast were presented with certificates from the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver; two who had fulfilled the requirements for the bachelor’s degree of Bear Valley were also honored; and six men received the Bear Valley master’s degrees.

Various individuals supported the graduation with food and drinks and there was much to go round for all our guests to enjoy the day. The next day was a thanksgiving service at the campus church at which the service was conducted by the graduates. This year’s service was not as fully attended as last year’s.

We are grateful to all who helped and prayed for us to be able to do what we did on the 12th graduation of the West Coast School. 

Seminar
The Annual Seminar for Preachers and Church Leaders which had not been held for well over five years was held on November 12-15. This was done against many odds. The venue for the seminar was in a run-down state. It took much cleaning and fixing of nets and broken down electrical fittings to get sleeping places, kitchen and classrooms for the use of seminar participants. There were about 100 in attendance as compared to 300 plus formerly. Some had given up on the seminar because of the long break. Many who normally took their annual leave at seminar time to be able to attend had already taken their vacation and some already had other events scheduled for the time of the seminar. 

Speakers and subjects were as follows:

Toby Soechting – Elderships And The Lord’s Church In Ghana

Mike Dickison – The Church

Scott Ellis -  Deacons

Brandon Johnson -- Preaching

Daniel Ampadu-Asiamah – Ensuring Cohesiveness Among Brethren

Each speaker presented seven lessons on his subject. 

Final Weeks of School Term          
After the hectic two-week events, we have a recess from November 19-24. After that we shall have two weeks of classes to complete the first term of school. This will be followed by two weeks of short courses in Personal Evangelism and Geography of the Bible for the Junior Class, and How We Got The Bible and Marriage and the Family for the Senior Class.  The term ends December 21, 2012. 

Personal
I have been sick lately with a hip and muscle problem in both thighs and legs. Sitting down increases the pain, and standing after sitting makes walking a painful ordeal. All through the graduation and the seminar I was limping and in pain as I tried to move from place to place. As of Saturday, I became a bit better but I still walk with some pain in the hip. As if that was not enough, Ruth and I returned from church Sunday morning to find that our house had been broken into and items like my Compaq laptop, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, mobile phones (including an iPhone 4G my daughter sent to me from the UK recently), NOW BIBLE (an electronic Bible that looks like a mobile phone) a SONY digital camera (on which I have pictures of recent school events), and $400 given by brother Toby on their departure had all been taken away. The main door was damaged and three rooms that were locked were broken into, damaging the locks.  We have had the main door replaced and new  locks fixed. The theft took place while most of our neighbors were out to church. The style of entry and operation was similar to what happened four years ago, only they used a different door. We are grateful this did not occur while our American brethren were staying at our house. Thankfully, we have overcome our shock and with the broken door fixed, and new locks mounted, we are able to go on with life. Ruth has been very supportive through all these and I thank God for her. Pray for us.

In about the time you read from me again, Ghana may have elected a new president and parliamentarians. Tension in the country grows as December 7, 2012, when voting takes place, draws nearer. Political party leaders call for peace daily. There is an uneasy peace. Whatever the outcome, brethren, pray for us.

Daniel K Ampadu-Asiamah