Bear Valley Bible Institute Sierra Leone
18A Harding Street, Kenema, Eastern Province, Sierra Leone
ACTIVITY OPERATION REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 2025
Full Time and the Extended Programs
INTRODUCTION
As the rainy season and the year continue to wind down, the activities of the school keep climbing. The school administration continues to make significant inroads in many aspects and in impartation of the local congregations; the school is a vehicle to drive that change. All of the activities of the school are yielding positive results creating a good image and positioning it as the leading church of Christ Bible School in the country. For the month of September, the school’s indoor and outdoor activities continued, some souls were converted through our regular weekend evangelism, the alumni activities continued steadily and the evangelistic teams on the field succeeded in converting some souls and planting two congregations. We know that your partnership is playing a key role in all of this and we appreciate that so much. Please continue to read as we give you more details on the highlighted activities above.
STUDENTS AND ACADEMIC UPDATES
We want to let you know that in the month of September, our 20 first year and our 12 final year full time students remained intact. Academically, the first year students ended their first quarter after writing their final exams at the end of September. After this, they went on a break for 8 days and were expected to resume on October 9, 2025. Meanwhile, the final year students continued with their seventh quarter classes which are expected to end at the apex of October 2025. Moreover, our 10 part time students held on firmly with their academic and evangelistic activities. Nothing happened to any of them and gratefully, they are all intact. They started the final session of their studies (8th) in September which will run through February next year, after which their graduation comes up by March or April, 2026 Lord willing.
BRIEF HIGHLIGHTS OF SOME STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES
We know that you are aware of many of the activities that our students are involved in in the school, but we want to run a brief inventory of a few of them in a summary form so that you can continue to be acquainted with what we are doing here. Here is the list of activities with brief explanations:
A. Daily Chapel:
The school holds chapel for both full time and extended students for 45 minutes every day (for full time students) and every weekend (for part time students). It is held from 12: 00 pm daily for full time students and 1:00 pm for part time students. Though the daily chapel is purely for full time students, yet some part time students that reside in Kenema do sometimes come to join the full time students. The activities during the chapel include prayers, singing, preaching and announcements. A particular book is selected and a preaching schedule is made for both staff and students. It is a wonderful communion time with the Lord in the school.
B. Daily Devotion:
Apart from the daily chapel, the students conduct early morning and evening devotions in their hostel. For this, the students’ leadership prepares a regular schedule for officiators of singing, prayer, preaching etal. The times for these devotions are always 6: 00 am and 7:00 pm. Sometimes the staff attend the student’s evening devotions to see what is happening and what is not happening.
C. Fasting and Prayer:
Every two months, fasting and prayer sessions are conducted. During this period, every member of the school is encouraged to participate including all the staff. On this occasion, many prayers are offered for different personalities and different projects. This regular exercise helps to strengthen the students’ prayer lives and it trains them to become familiar with fasting, especially for those that do not stay away from food at any given time. Not only the students, but the staff also benefit greatly from this spiritual exercise.
D. Evangelism and Mission Work:
Our students and staff are scheduled to go out for evangelism every week. This evangelism entails internal (evangelism within the Kenema township) and external (evangelism outside the township of Kenema). The missionaries are sent to weak congregations in order to evangelize and strengthen them. Sometimes, during these external mission trips, we identify new areas that have the potentiality of being evangelized thereby establishing new congregations. Some other times we identify struggling congregations that require us to take campaigns there for strengthening. Any congregation that we take our campaigns to becomes our mission territories, and this has been helping to build up many local congregations in Moyamba, Kenema, Kono, Kailahun etc Districts. Successes have been registered in these mission fields as both numerical and spiritual growths are taking place. This exercise has created a great opportunity for students to be evangelistic and develop skills for soul winning that would outlive their time in training. Many of our graduates on the field today are very grateful for this exercise as it helped to ignite interest in them for the value of souls.
E. Research and the Use of Libraries:
With the blessing of having both a physical and E-libraries, the students (and staff alike) continue to make great progress in academic work. A schedule is prepared twice a week for students to spend some hours in the both libraries to gather information for their research papers in different courses. Since they are also always delivering biblical lessons on the evangelistic field, during local congregational worships, etc, they effectively utilize the libraries to help assemble their lessons to meet up with those expectations.
F. Preachers Evaluation Forum (PEF):
PEF, as we coined, is an occasion that we designated where we test our students’ homiletical and hermeneutical skills. The exercise is conducted on Thursdays wherein two students are scheduled and after their presentation, evaluations, observations, suggestions and corrections are made by the staff scheduled for the day. This enables the students to gain more preaching skills and helps them to gain more self-confidence. This is similar to what our coordinator, Steve Ashcraft had designed for the part time students who are also benefiting from this exercise greatly.
G. Agriculture:
Since almost all our students are peasant farmers, we embark on Agricultural practices to enable us to produce some food stuff for our consumption and to train students more in the Agricultural practice. We make sure that this does not interfere with their classes and other activities.
BRIEF ALUMNI UPDATES
Follow-ups: The graduates are more intentional and consistent in their follow-up process endeavor. They are maintaining regular visits and calls, ensuring that those who show interest in the gospel do not fall through the cracks. This has strengthened relationships and increased receptivity of the word. With deep concern, they are also following up to know how the school is progressing.
Evangelism: Our graduates are actively involved in personal and group evangelistic campaigns in various communities. Tracts, bible studies, open-air preaching and door-to-door outreaches are being effectively utilized in their various localities. The message of Christ is being clearly communicated, and more people are being reached every day. This has been yielding good fruits as can be seen through our reports.
Edification: The spiritual growth of new and old members is being prioritized. Congregations are holding regular bible classes, discipleship sessions, and leadership training. Sermons are more Bible-centered and application-driven, equipping members to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ are their priorities. The churches are becoming stronger doctrinally and more unified.
Nurturing congregations: The evidence of nurturing young congregations are clearly shown through the graduates’ efforts in mentoring, shepherding, and discipling. Church leaders are being trained to care for the flock, and new believers are not left alone. There is a growing culture of love, accountability, and service among members, holding unto long-term faithfulness and stability for Church growth.
EVANGELISTIC EFFORTS AND CONVERSION OF SOULS
Here is the summary of conversions and restorations for the month of September 2025:
A. The school had four conversions.
B. The alumni had thirteen conversions and three restorations.
C. The evangelistic teams had twelve conversions and ten restorations
D. The total conversions were 29.
E. The total restorations were 13.
STUDENT’S PROFILE: Michael Sahr Fomba
Michael Sahr Fomba, a fine and wonderful young man is one of our final year students in our full time program. He was born on the 10th July, 2002, in Kailahun town, Eastern region, Sierra Leone. Michael’s parents Mr. Sahr Fomba and Mrs. Bintu Fomba are from the Kissi tribe (the kissis are known in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia as “religious” people. They can be dedicated to anything or anyone that they want to worship). Brother Michael is the eldest son of the 7 children of his parents who are just peasant farmers.
His spiritual journey started in 2019 when he became converted as the result of the evangelistic efforts of the Massanta congregation in Kailahun town. Since he became converted, he became so zealous to know more about God and His word. He was greatly involved in evangelism, visitation of backslidden members, learning songs, etc. As the result of his dedication, his preacher, Alfred Tengbeh recommended him to come to seek Biblical knowledge at the KBVBI. And at the school, he has been an outstanding student. He takes some leadership roles and is being cherished by even his fellow students. We are confident of the impacts that Michael would make for the Lord upon his graduation!
CONCLUSION
Thank you for reading this report to this point. May the Lord provide more opportunities to continue to be useful in His service! Till we come your way again in our October report, tmay you stay blessed and loved by God.
Your brother,
Peter Sahr Makundu,
Director,
Sierra Leone Bear Valley Bible Institute