ACTIVITY OPERATION REPORT FOR AUGUST 2025
Full Time and the Extended (2) Programs
INTRODUCTION
We are here again with exciting updates for August 2025. These updates range from classroom activities, congregational strengthening lectureships, and evangelistic activities. It is encouraging to report that God continues to be our strong foundation in all the successes that we record as a Christian school family. And we continue to be reminded that your prayers, partnership and financial aid have been so helpful in our work here too; we can only all hope that our God accepts our works and be joined with Him to live in eternity when the time comes!
In August, we conducted a 4-day training seminar for Church leaders across Sierra Leone, some souls were converted, our students continued to be committed to all our activities within the school, our graduates and other evangelistic teams’ members continued to press on in their efforts to win souls for Christ and grow the congregations. For more information and all these, please keep on reading as we begin by first looking at the students and academic updates.
STUDENTS AND ACADEMIC UPDATES
In our July report, we informed you that our final year full time students wrote their final exams for their sixth quarter and went on a two weeks break and were expected to resume classes by August 1, 2025. By the grace of God, all of them resumed except one (David Jabaty). They were thirteen in all but they are now twelve who will be graduating by early next year Lord willing. As for David who did not resume with his colleagues after successfully completing 6 quarters, he was distracted by one of his brothers who stayed in Mali to go in search of a greener pasture and a better economic life. He went without even telling us; all we received from him was a message through our Dean of Students that he was sorry for what he did and that it was his brother that convinced him to go. Meanwhile, our 20 year one students continued to get themselves familiar with the new learning environment and all its activities. They are expected to complete their first quarter by the end of September, Lord willing. 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 rounded off their seventh quarter at the end of August and were to begin their eighth quarter by September. Lord willing, they will be graduating together with our full time final year students by early next year.
A SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP LECTURESHIP
The administration held a grand lectureship for preachers and church leaders across the country from August 7-10, 2025. We had different categories of brethren (though the lectureship was meant for church leaders and preachers exclusively but since others came, we could not drive them away. It was even better that they came from different parts of Sierra Leone including church leaders, congregational preachers and their wives, youths, women leaders, alumni, and the current students of both our school and the Sunset school in Koindu. The theme for the lectureship was: Contemporary Challenges of the Church in Sierra Leone. There were three challenges that were discussed: a. The Challenge of Over-reliance on External Financial Support, b. The Challenge of Spiritual Apathy (Lukewarmness) among Members in the Church in Sierra Leone, c. The Challenge of Weak Leadership in the Sierra Leonean Churches of Christ. We had three brethren (Peter Sahr Makundu-the Bear Valley School Director, Mustapha Sahr Nouwah- one of the committed leaders at the Church in Bo and a regular visiting brother and intending instructor at the Bear Valley School, and Anthony Joseph Yillia- the Sunset School Director and instructor at Bear Valley) that handled the three topics presented above. The theme of the lectureship was analyzed by our Dean of Academics, Michael Sahr Triyoh. The activities of the lectureship included indoor lectures, field evangelism (even though we were affected by rains since it is the period of rainy season in Sierra Leone), symposium and group discussions, and fellowship. By the grace of God, the program ended successfully and some brethren who came from Freetown and some other parts of Sierra Leone requested that there be frequent such programs in the future. We bade farewell to one another and everyone left. May God be glorified for His work!
EVANGELISTIC EFFORTS AND CONVERSION OF SOULS
Apart from the academic aspect of our existence, our regular evangelistic and field schedules are also what form the bases for our existence. Therefore, in August 2025, we continued to strengthen the weak congregations at Benduma, Mano Junction, Panguma, Daru, and Hangha. Also, as you know, our graduates are also not relenting in their involvement with their congregations and evangelism. The evangelistic teams also pressed in with their efforts. Here is the summary of conversions and restorations for the month of August 2025:
A. The school had five conversions and two restorations.
B. The alumni had ten conversions and five restorations.
C. The evangelistic teams had five conversions.
D. The total conversions were ten.
E. The total restorations were seven.
AGRICULTURAL CONTRIBUTION
Every year at a certain period, we get involved in Agricultural practices like growing cassava, rice and groundnut. These activities help us to achieve two things: getting the proceeds from our farms and training the students with some farming skills to add to their biblical skills. In August, we went into farming our rice and everything went successful.
STUDENT’S PROFILE: Abdul Osman Kargbo
Abdul Osman Kargbo is one of our final year students in our full time program. He was born on the 29th August, 2002 at Maikonko, Magburaka, Tonkolili District northern Sierra Leone. He is the second child of his parents. His parents are Osman Kargbo and Mamusu Kargbo. Abdul is a Temne by tribe. In Sierra Leone, the Temnes, one of the largest tribes, are predominantly Muslims. This explains why Brother Abdul comes from a Muslim home and his conversion to Christianity was not an easy one (he still faces persecution from his family members for choosing to follow Christ). His parents and some of his siblings did all they could to stop him from being a Christian.
Eventually, in 2022, one of our graduates and a preacher at Ampiti congregation at Magburaka, Michael Fornah who died early this year, preached the Gospel to Abdul. The young man was convinced of the truth of the Gospel but was afraid of his parents, so he kept on postponing his conversion. He told his parents about his desire to be a Christian and was told that he would suffer great consequences like being disowned, being rejected, etc if he became a Christian. He became afraid and shared the information with Brother Michael. Brother Michael also became afraid especially when he was not financially buoyant to take the financial responsibilities of Abdul. The boy then kept on coming to Michael that he wanted to be baptized. So on one occasion, Brother Michael took the step to baptize him. Well he was not disowned at the end of the day but some support was withdrawn. After his conversion, Abdul was encouraged to come to study at Bear Valley, and we can say confidently that Brother Abdul is one of our very committed students that we have currently. He is so humble and hardworking that among his colleagues here, he is seen as a role model. He is the student president and the evangelistic coordinator for the students. We are very glad to have him with us. This is what Brother Abdul himself says:
I want to be a good evangelist of the word of God, establish congregations and be a professional teacher in the future. I also hope to marry a virtuous woman, and give birth to four kids, two boys and two girls.
With the need in the northern part of Sierra Leone currently for the spread of the Gospel, Abdul promises to be a great vessel for the Lord upon graduation. We can only continue to pray for his steadfastness as a young man.
CONCLUSION
For reading this report to this point, we greatly appreciate you; for praying for us always, we continue to recognize and acknowledge your generosity. We are full of hope that the work we are doing now will be sustained and will stand the test of time. We are even more hopeful for much work to be done in the future. May the Lord keep us for Himself alone so we could meet again in September, 2025.
Your brother,
Peter Sahr Makundu,
Director,
Sierra Leone Bear Valley Bible Institute