Work Report:
From December until this week of January we had over 38 people baptized into Christ. Several of them are young adults. We have witnessed 22 baptisms by ourselves. Below is the description of things happened during December until last week.
Addition to the Church: “And the Lord added to the church* daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47
It was an amazing start. We are so happy to see these young adults come forward to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. It is certainly a great beginning in the lives of these young people during this New Year. We baptized 16 on three different occasions.
Brotherly Reunion:
“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Eph 4:32 (pic. vvbc 8,9,10)
Operating a regular Bible school with students coming from different backgrounds is sometimes a little challenging. Challenging because it is difficult to get everybody on the same page every time, but that is how an organization works perfect.
Brother Chandar Rao, a working helper at VVBC, has been a member of the Church from a long time. Brother David is one of our students, who tries to be very particular about the things he does and says. Unfortunately, it happened one time there was a harsh exchange of words between them. From then onwards they weren’t talking to each other even though they both stay in the same facility. On the 22nd of Dec when we had the Christmas gifts distributed. Some of the students brought it up and wanted both of them to reconcile each other. Samuel, Director of the School, took control of the discussion so that it won’t turn out to be harsh. Their angriness has come down, then he explained the necessity of forgiving each other as Christian brothers and also to honor each other by not saying any harsh words. After hearing him, they both came forward to forgive each other, and then we had a prayer together thanking God for the peace He blessed us with and proceeded to dinner. We really enjoyed the reunion of those brethren. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” Ps 133:1
Students – Preachers & Teachers (pic. Vvbc2)
“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” 2 Tim 2:2-3
Brother DV Prasad is from Visakhapatnam City only. He is not a preacher by profession but he wants to be a preacher soon after he completes his 2 years course at VVBC. He is basically an aggressive student, wanting to do everything perfect. He is from a denominational background. That is one of the reasons for his aggressiveness. This motivates him to preach without any fear at any place. During the 18th we had the Preachers’ Fellowship meeting for the preachers working Vijayanagaram, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulum Districts. This gentle man did a good job of teaching about ‘rightly dividing the word of God’. It is truly encouraging to see our students coming forward to preach/teach whenever they had the opportunity.
Cell Phones in the Class the Room: (Pic. cell)
In this rapid developing/changing India community, the cell phone has become a necessity to each individual in the country. Out of the 1.3 Billion people, 78 million people own a cell phone. With this, one can understand how much we are tied up with this new technology, which probably is a must for every Indian. Well, all of our students have a cell phone. It is very inappropriate to let the students use their cell phones during the class. This pictures describes how we are handling this tough task. During the morning devotional John Dean has collected all the cell phones and placed them on the table, which won’t be returned until the class time is over.
Christmas Gifts:
Like we do every year, we had Christmas holidays for a week. Before the holidays we had the new clothing distributed to each of the students, faculty and staff of the VVBC. We were able to buy some clothing, sarees and blankets as Christmas presents.
Short Courses:
We shall have short courses taught from 24th January till 4th February. Garry Fallis and Jerry Bates will be coming on the 22nd. They will be teaching the both graduates and undergrads from 24th until 4th February. Please pray that these classes would be successful.
Future Plans of our student:
Our student D.V.S. Prakah is planning on holding gospel meetings at his town for three days during this summer. It is scheduled in the last week of April. We are all going to play a big role in making this convention a big success. Brother Prakash is originally from a Hindu family and later became a Christian believer. When Samuel got to know him, Samuel encouraged him to enroll in the School. He is one of the outstanding students. He is very evangelistic. Prakash has great plans to spread the word in his town. He was the reason for their congregation to accept the true church. Kindly pray that our team work would bring several lost souls to the Savior Jesus Christ.
Annual Work Report: (Jan-August 2010)
Gospel meetings conducted – 135
Bible studies conducted (students and staff) - 261
Preachers fellowships conducted – 8
Number of people baptized: 92
Bibles distributed – 165
Congregations established – 5
Gospel Campaigns conducted: 6
Doors knocked - 5731
Bible studies held During the Campaigns: 483
Gospel Tracts distributed: 52,000
Denominational preachers converted: 4 (Couple of the small congregations completely converted that make 26 members)
We thank you so much for your concern for the Lord's work in India. God bless
in Christian love
Samuel Raju & John Dean Muppidi