The new school year is about to start at the Chimala Bible Institute, in just three weeks. Already the excitement is building for our return to the campus. The faculty has been working hard at registering the new students and preparing for the return of the second year class. With numerous e-mail and phone calls, the class schedules and the teachers of those classes have been decided. We are, for the first time, having a day of orientation for all the students. Classes will start on Tuesday morning.
We will have 14 returning Swahili and English students from last year. These are men who have already shown themselves diligent students and powerful workers in evangelism. One of the many changes we made last year was using the whole student body in weekend evangelism. They have preached, conducted Bible studies, studied with the primary and secondary students and conducted services. Each student goes out every weekend with some of their teachers and is involved in evangelism.
Speaking of our hard working and dedicated teachers; every one of them is working on an advanced degree. Some are enrolled in our Bachelors program, if they are teaching in the Swahili department. Teachers who already have their bachelor’s degree are now working on their master’s. Because of this we are planning for the whole teaching department to teach both Swahili and English classes in the near future.
Besides their daily teaching and evangelism duties, all of our teachers have been given specific roles in the running of the school. We have them over student services, food, the dorms, the two departments of Swahili and English, enrolling the students, and student discipline. Without these hard and dedicated servants of Christ we could not have the school doing the work that it does. Please pray for Joseph, Remmy, Joshua, Boaz, Peter, Xavier, Lai, Ezekiel, and Frank as they continue to serve God in this capacity.
As for the new students we are enrolling, they are from Dar es Salaam, Kigoma, Dodoma, Mbeya and Kyela, Some have enrolled from Mabadaga, Sumbawanga, Mbozi and Njombe. What this means is that our teachers, students and former students have spread out all over Tanzania doing the good work of the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver extension school at Chimala. We have found many good dedicated, hardworking students that desire to prepare themselves to preach the gospel to their country.
What will I be doing when I return? As a Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver coordinator, I will be teaching the classes of Genesis, Jeremiah and Lamentations. Then we will be teaching the short courses on the Gospel of John and Christian Evidences. Then we will travel to Denver to attend the faculty meetings.
When I will return, I will teach Church History, Exodus and Leviticus. In the second short course section I will teach Joshua, Judges and Ruth and one of the graduate courses. In addition to this, as a Bear Valley Coordinator, I am responsible for the on-site day to day running of the school. This includes chairing the faculty meetings, seeing that the teachers are carrying out their various duties in teaching and working with the students. Every weekend we are at Chimala. We go out to the area churches and preach. We always have teachers and students go with us who are doing evangelism.
We then plan on returning for the third quarter and teaching Numbers, Deuteronomy and 1st and 2nd Kings and Chronicles. Then the fourth quarter we will be teaching Bible Geography Hebrews, 1st and 2nd Samuel, and World Religions. As the on-site extension coordinator we will see to it that our students get the best, Bible filled education they can receive as they prepare themselves to be better servants of Christ.
We ask you to keep us in your prayers as we return to Tanzania. We could not do this without the support and hard work of our fellow teachers and supporters. We pray fervently 2012 will be a great year of training and evangelism at the Chimala Bible Institute.
Garry L. Hill
Bear Valley Extension Coordinator