Graduation nears in Visakhapatnam, India

Dear brethren in Christ, 

Greetings to you all from Visakhapatnam. We are all doing good by the mercies of our God and His son Jesus in Christ. We pray that everything is going well at your end. We appreciate your prayers towards us. Preaching school at Visakhapatam is continuing to do well as it has been since the beginning. We are grateful to God for blessing us to continue the same mission with the vision to establish the New Testament churches in Southern India by producing some affective evangelists. 

In regard to our common mission, we tend to have the same spirit among our faculty members. Every year, faculty and staff members meet for a one full day meeting. A meeting proposed to discuss several things regarding the school year as well as the upcoming events. First of all, we all had discussed about the present burning doctrinal issues around. We all agreed that New Testament is the ultimate authority in any matters of faith and doctrine. So our discussion on this topic has concluded with a sole agreement on strictly following the New Testament pattern for any issues. 

Also the discussion about the remaining subjects to be taught, students record to be kept, electronic teaching system and training classes have been discussed. We have also discussed about the upcoming Graduation ceremony as well as the Leadership workshop at Bikkavolu Bible College; this is scheduled for 17.18th of April. We have purchased a couple of Interactive Touch Screen Televisions to use for the teaching purpose, in fact i have brought two Laptops given by Bear Valley to use them for Library purposes. We have had a network established where we are keeping the laptop server and the interactive touch screen TV in the same network to drag the information on the screen while teaching. We had a training session to help the teaching staff about the mechanics of this setup, I will share more in the next report. I want to thank brother Keith as well as Mark for making this possible. 

The importance of a full-time school and required improvements have been discussed. Also at the end of the meeting, Current religious difficulties in our country were also mentioned in the prayer.

Prayer request: one of our Graduates brother Rajesh had paralysis stroke and is undergoing treatment, kindly pray. He is a great Christian, bold enough to straighten their biblical errors. We sure need your prayers for their family as well. The first picture shows him laying on the bed when brother Nageswarao and other faculty members visited. 

Dear brethren, we appreciate your prayers, we do thank you very much for your help and support, please convey our gratitude to the Elders at Bear Valley Church of Christ. We do thank the brethren at Lake Houston, Strickland Church of Christ as well as Farmersville. we are always mindful of our dear beloved brethren, Jerry and Paula Bates. 

In Christ, 

John Dean Muppidi

Visakha Valley Bible College

New students arrive in Visakhapatnam, India

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. I Hope this email finds you all good. By the grace of God we are all doing good. We thank you so much for your prayers. 

We are blessed to be able to start a new batch of preaching students at Visakha Valley Bible College. After the summer break, slowly new students have been enrolled. Currently, we have  13 students enrolled. We are expecting to have 4 more students by the end of this month and are so excited to see the students being enrolled in the school even with difficulties both socially and religiously. We are thankful.

We had our faculty meeting to discuss the beginning of the new academic year, how to go about with the new students etc.,  We are thankful to have a new teacher who is none other than Raju Babu who has been our student 6 years ago. He successfully completed the two year course and gained experience as a preacher and now he will be used to teach in the School. We are proud of him. You can see Raju babu in the group picture, he is wearing a maroon color Shirt. 

Our services in the society are being extended: We are grateful for the opportunities that come our way to meet the society with our activities. Our Tailoring Institute is a great blessing, helping us to be known and respected, because every 3 months 15-20 women are being trained in sewing education. Of course our students get the same opportunity. Recently our facility has been used to conduct Blood donation program by Rotary International. We are blessed to be part of this work., Our faculty along with some students donated their blood to help those who are in life struggle. As it was mentioned in Gal 6:10 always making use of the opportunity that's coming in our way to serve our brethren as well as the community around  to show that we care, thankful to God for this opportunity. 

Our school has become a place providing education, doing social service and also a hub for Christian brotherhood. We welcome several preachers in the city to attend special classes and also they come for discussing with our teachers about some doctrinal matters. During this situation we are able to provide some useful literature, that is great material we receive from World Evangelism. We are so thankful to Jerry and Paula Bates for keeping us in the list. We receive regularly and share it with our preachers and preachers who visit our school. We are thankful that we are able to spread out the good news through this channel. 

We are so much thankful to all the brethren at Lake Houston, Farmersville and Strickland for their charity. At the same time we are not ignorant of Bates for their continued support and encouragement. At this time I would like to take a moment to appreciate the Elders at Strickland for considering to help the Graduates with New Bicycles. They are so happy and using them in the ministry. We are so much thankful for your kindness in helping so. God bless you all. 

Our note of thanks to Brother Mark Reynolds, who is the coordinator of our Bear Valley School International and Director brother Keith Kasarjian for their great leadership and encouragement. Our thanks must be extended to the Elders of Bear Valley Church of Christ too for their great desire and commitment in producing wonderful preachers in over 60 nations across the world. Our Lord is so proud of you all. You are truly doing the very best in fulfilling the Great Commission given by our Lord. 

Best wishes to you all from our Staff, Students and Faculty of Visakha Valley Bible College.  By the way, I am getting ready to come to USA in the first week of August and will be visiting all the supporting congregations, l am looking forward to seeing and talking to you. 

God Bless you all. 

In Christ, 

John Dean M

Graduation in India

Dear Brethren in Christ, 

I am very happy to bring warm greetings and update on the Preachers Training School work in Visakhapatnam. It's always wonderful to hear that you and your family are doing well by the grace of God. Congratulations to the 10th graders at Skinner's garden on completing their exams, and I join you in eagerly awaiting their results. It's always a joy to celebrate the achievements of students and to see their hard work come to fruition.

Dear Brethren, It's truly inspiring to hear about the dedication and success of your evangelism efforts in India, despite the challenges faced. Sending out another 11 graduates into real-world ministry is a testament to the passion and commitment instilled in them through their education and practical training. The jealousy to preach the word that these graduates develop speaks volumes about the transformative power of biblical education and hands-on experience in evangelism. Providing them with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills equips them to effectively spread the Good News in diverse settings and contexts.

The support and partnership of the Lake Houston church of Christ, as well as the Elders and brethren at Strickland, have been invaluable in the success of your ministry over the past 14 years. Their continued support, including providing bicycles and megaphones for the graduates, demonstrates a deep commitment to advancing the Kingdom of God and empowering these young men for ministry. The partnership with the Farmersville church of Christ, and the support of individuals like Jerry and Paula Bates, further strengthens the ministry and expands its reach. Together, these collaborative efforts are making a significant impact, evidenced by the growth and strength of the church in India.

As we continue to celebrate the achievements of our graduates and the growth of the church, may you be encouraged and blessed by the fruits of their  labor. Your dedication to spreading the Gospel and nurturing young leaders is making a lasting difference in the lives of many, and your ministry serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration.

It's truly inspiring to hear Brother Keith Kasarjian and his valuable contributions to the preachers gathered. His willingness to teach about essential leadership in the Church and share insights on successful evangelistic approaches from the first century demonstrates his commitment to nurturing and equipping leaders for Lord's ministry.

Visiting congregations in Visakhapatnam and worshiping with them further strengthens the bonds within the broader Christian community and provides opportunities for mutual learning and encouragement. It's evident that Brother Keith's regular visits to India have had a significant impact on your ministry and the lives of those he interacts with.

I join you in expressing gratitude to Brother Keith for his dedication and support, as well as to the Elders of Bear Valley for their mission-mindedness and commitment to spreading the Gospel. May God continue to bless and guide all those involved in ministry, both locally and internationally, and may their efforts bear much fruit for the Kingdom. 

Attached pictures showing the wonderful event of the Graduation Ceremony of the Class of 2024, blessed to be able to bless these graduates with a Bicycle, Mega Phone, Study Bible English/Telugu, other Christian Literature along with Voice of Truth International, great day of celebration. May God continue to bless you all richly for the sake of His Kingdom. 

With prayers and blessings,

in Christ,

John Dean Muppidi

Visakha Valley Bible College

India schools conduct evangelistic campaigns

Dear brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ  our Savior. Our mission of training men to be evangelists have been successful with all your prayers and encouragement.

Brethren, We are blessed to be able to continue our mission of Education, Evangelism and Edification. This year has been very productive. We have been able to reach out several places with the Lord’s message. Thousands of people have heard the good news, hundreds have been added to the Church. One week Gospel Campaign program given a great opportunity to restore several souls and stand by the newly established congregations.  As part of it, we have successfully completed this one-week gospel campaign. We held this program in three villages, first two days in the village Gonada, in East Godavari District and later in West Godavari in three villages. Even though we held 40 Bible studies on an average, we had a wonderful opportunity to distribute gospel tracts in all the four villages we visited. Gospel tracts with titles such as, About Salvation, The True Church, Truth about the Bible, Biblical Truth, etc., so, great opportunity to distribute gospel tracts and introduce the local preacher and inviting them for the gospel meeting. Truly, God has blessed our efforts, these villages have gotten the good news received, hoping that more fruit will be yielded by the later efforts of the local preacher.  We are proud of our preaching students who are very enthusiastic in the mission work.  Distribution of gospel tracts, conducting personal/group studies and public gospel meetings were successfully conducted during this one week time. 

We thank you brethren for your prayers. The Lord has blessed us in a mighty way to train these men to be effective evangelists of Christ. Providing on hand experience has been our chief objective in this preacher training program. We are very confident that these preachers are going to be very active evangelists because of this practical education and training. Indeed, present religious  situation and opposition certainly requires not only an educated preacher but also one who can approach the strangers with the word of God, react positively to the opposition, being successful holding a personal/group study. We are very thankful that our Lord is leading us and guiding through this Gospel Campaign fulfilling our objective of providing practical education to the preachers. 

We are grateful for your kindness, appreciation, for your trust and confidence. We would continue our mission of training men and making them affective evangelists and send them for real world ministry.  We appreciate the elders of Lake Houston and Strickland  church of Christ and also Farmersville Church of Christ for their kind support. We do appreciate Jerry and Paula Bates for their love too. Kindly convey our gratitude with all the brethren you worship with. We pray that the economic situation in our country would get better soon, inflation has affected our economy here by affecting our daily, monthly expenses. Fuel, Electricity, cooking oil and cost of rice are just terrible, life has become expensive. Kindly pray for the economic situation, thank you. 

God bless you all. 

in Christ, 

John Dean M

Visakhapatnam, India students attend preacher's workshop

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ our savior. I bring greetings from the students, staff and faculty of Visakha Valley Bible College, a Bear Valley Bible School International. By the grace of God and your prayers we are doing good, hope this message finds you all good.

First, let me thank you for your prayers, our loving God is keeping us all safe and sound, we are so much thankful for your concern.

Our school continues its mission of Training Men locally. Right now our country needs some affective men who are matured enough to care for their community and drive them in the right direction, also educate their community in good morals for a ethical life. Under the materialistic lifestyle, certainly people are going far away from doing good to other and being selfless. So, training men locally for the benefit of their own community by teaching the morals from the Bible, which is the scripture given to man kind by our creator. Indeed, our joint efforts certainly helping us to fulfill our mission of Training our Men Locally. Thank you so much.

Last month, we had a great opportunity to attend the State wide Preachers fellowship meeting. Preachers working in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Telugu speaking states. There was an attendance of over 800 preachers, we took it as a previlage to attend along with our preaching students and faculty along with 60 other preachers that works along with us in AP and Telangana States. It was great time to fellowship and unity building. Our preaching students along with our staff have gotten opportunity to present our selves on the stage before this large number of preachers, we are grateful that we have gotten a very good reputation in Training Men for Lord’s effective ministry. During this program we took advantage of distributing some free books and other gospel literature.

We are thankful to the Team Voice of Truth International for sending their magazine regularly, our students get a copy every time we receive them from brother Philemon Rajah. We are so thankful to Jerry and Paula Bates also Betty Choate for keeping us in their mailing list. Indeed, it’s a wonderful literature to share with the fellow preachers, everyone received them in gladness, during this meeting we have distributed several copies of Voice of Truth International at our stalls. One exciting moment was, one of our faculty Brother Vamsee Bushanam given opportunity speak for 50 a lesson based on Looking unto Jesus, who is the author our faith, he did a tremendous job of presenting his lesson by encouraging all the preachers to look unto Jesus in mentoring the Next Generation Preachers. By the we had to hire a bus to travel from Bikkavolu to Vijayanagaram which is about 6 hrs drive to attend this program, where as from Visakhapatnam, brother Nageswara Rao our former student took the responsibility of driving the students to the venue on our Van, we are proud of this brother.

Brethren, we thank you so much for your prayers of encouragement, please convey our heartfelt salutations to the brethren you worship with. You are in our daily prayers. Kindly pray earnestly as the leaders are destined to make our country a religious country, they are doing so intensely. The recent attacks in the state of Manipur and several other Northerner states stands as a clear indication of changing things in very quicker way. Please pray that our country would elect a person who would rule our nation democratically. We shall be having our general elections in the year 2024. Besides all kinds of circumstance we continue to fulfill our mission, we want to take every opportunity that’s coming in our way, one of them is holding a week long Campaign Week. We have scheduled it to be held in the first week of October, we are excited about it. Kindly pray as we are getting ready for it. Our special thanks and appreciation to the brethren at Lake Houston, Strickland Church of Christ also Farmershill Church of Christ.

Thank you brethren once again, God bless you all.

Love from all of us at Vishak,

John Dean M

A History of the Visakhapatnam school

Dear brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in Christ name. India has been very fertile land for cultivating Christianity. Over 50 yrs of mission efforts has helped the church to be established in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The great effort of evangelism has given wide open opportunity to establish congregations in the state it all started in Urban areas, gradually spread to villages, and later it took a very high speed in going into the most remote areas like villages that do not have water or electric facility. Further into villages/hamlets where there are no roads, where one can only reach by walking for hours. Efforts of missionaries have given wonderful results of acquiring more souls to Christ and churches began to grow in number, spirituality, and Leadership.

As the years go by, the older dedicated men who were the reason for the first phase of evangelism and  acquired wonderful results through their dedicated efforts, now needed someone to carry forward the responsibility of Evangelism and Leadership. Since the Evangelism opportunities were wide open, missionaries have looked into some other avenues like translating and publishing  Christian literature as well as FM Radio Broadcasting. This increased the need for more, Bible educated preachers and leaders to reach the lost. This has given opportunity to start full-time preacher training schools in India.

The establishment of the church in the City of Visakhapatnam has a history of over 50 years; however there was no full-time preaching school established. Brother Muppidi Samuel Raju, who was the founder and director of Visakha Valley Bible College had noticed this opportunity of establishing a full-time school in Visakhapatnam, which is a big industrial area where people from surrounding districts and states like Odissa, Bihar and Chattheesgaudh often travel. The Elders who are overseeing the Bear Valley Bible Institute were looking for a place to establish a school in India. So, after a thorough examination and discussion done by the brethren who represent BVBID, the Elders gave permission to start the School at Vishakhapatnam with the monthly support from Lake Houston Church of Christ, Houston, TX under the oversight of the Elders of Strickland Church of Christ who have known brother Samuel Raju since the year 1999.

In the year 2008, the school began with great excitement in the City of Visakhaptanam. Everyone in the church rejoiced with this new establishment. Several men and  untrained preachers showed great interest to join in the school, and rushed to get admission into the new full-time school. God had given a great opportunity to brother Samuel along with two preachers from the Visakha area along with his son, Muppidi John Dean who is a graduate of HCU, AL. This new school got everybody’s attention in the city and around, which lead to teamwork in reaching out to some weaker congregations and remotest place where there is need of evangelism. It resulted the preachers getting together every month starting from Visakhaptnam reaching to the neighboring districts such as Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam. The program called ‘Preachers Fellowship Meeting’ furthered the opportunity of providing education to the local men who would carry out the gospel to their own communities and also working preachers being edified.

As the years went by there was need for providing space to more students along with the congregation that had been established in the school premises. The school premises were owned by Samuel Raju and his wife, who both willingly dedicated it for the mission purpose, which had been a long-time dream of brother Samuel Raju. With the help of the brethren, the school started to expand it wings of training men to preach. Gradually, the school facility has been able to have a space for the students to live, study, learn, worship, eat, cook, store and also to host guests. We are very thankful to the brethren who made this possible, especially the Elders at Strickland and brother Jerry Bates. We were encouraged through Jerry and Paula’s regular visits and listening and understanding the mission field information. They have always responded so positively which enable us to publish thousands of Gospel Tracts, Hymn Books in Telugu Language and distribute hundreds of Bibles to graduates of our school. We are very thankful to Jerry and Paula for their great encouragement to the school as well as to the students.

Our school is known for not only a full-time school but also provides practical education to the students. This is an essential program that has to be in the training program, it makes the students to be more practical in learning to preach. The great model our Lord presented through training His disciples for three and-a-half years motivates us to conduct a program called ‘Gospel Campaign’ . it’s a program gives a great opportunity to reach out to strangers with a gospel tract, opens up an opportunity for a Bible Study, and to recommend the local congregation in that area. Every time we conduct this, it provides our students a practical education, at the same time it helps the local congregation and the minister in reaching out, getting to know the people around.  Also annual programs such as Seminars and Lectureships give the students to learn and organize the programs and also to serve in their capacity. Moreover, youth program like VBS/Youth Rally/ Future Preacher Training Program gives more understanding of the avenues to work in the mission field to help establish a congregation and to edify them.

So far 6 batches of successful students have been sent into the real world ministry after their graduation. So far 100 graduates have bee sent out to the mission field. We heard there are 106 congregations that are in operation to date. So the 15 years of efforts under the leadership of Brother Samuel Raju has given these encouraging results.  We humbly praise God for all the short course teachers who have made all this possible, to God be the glory and to the leadership of Bear Valley International.

Love from all the students, faculty and staff at Visakha Valley Bible College .

In Christ,

John Dean M

Visakha Valley Bible College

Visakaha Valley India school prepares for their campaign

Dear brethren in Christ, 

Greetings to you in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ our savior. I hope this email finds you well.

By the grace of God, I am doing well as I am currently visiting some congregations in southwest Tennessee. I have checked with my family and heard they are all doing good. They had some severe rainfall during the last two weeks. It damaged a lot of vegetable plants, but I am very glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I praise God for keeping all the students, staff, and faculty at Visakhapatnam safe. Thank you all so much for your prayers. I wanted to update everyone on our preaching school in Visakhapatnam.

Quarter End Exams: During this week, our students are scheduled to take their quarter-end tests. According to what I heard today, they are all performing very well in their exams.  After these exams, they will break for a week. We are thankful to our faculty members for their dedicated efforts in doing their very best in providing efficient Biblical education. It is not only the experience they have that is making this possible but their commitment and dedication. We continue to strive for producing some excellent Bible students in this world.

Campaign Week:  We are excited about our upcoming Campaign Week; it certainly gives a wonderful opportunity for our preaching students to get hands-on experience in the outreach ministry. We are preparing ourselves to help with the local congregation in the village Medapadu and also a nearby village. We are thankful to brother Jerry Bates who helps us in printing Gospel Tracts. These tracts in Telugu are titled 1. About the Bible 2. Salvation in Christ  3. The True Church 4. NT Worship 5. New & Old Covenant 6. What must I do to be saved 7. The things you should be mindful of and others. Of course, we not only distribute but also share with several preachers, that is why we try to print as many as possible every year. 

Mission Travels:  Last month, our preaching students & faculty along with some preachers from Visakhapatnam traveled to attend the Statewide preacher’s fellowship Meeting. From the school, we have provided the transportation for this trip and also the related expenses. It was exciting to see that our faculty were given an opportunity to lead the morning devotion. Attached are some pictures showing our students leading the singing.  Preachers fellowship meeting is a program we conduct once every month in different regions to help the preachers who are products of Visakha Valley Bible College. The attached pictures also show the meeting held in one of the suburbs of Visakhapatnam. Brother Vijay Kumar has been preaching here for over 6 yrs. 

Gratitude: We are very much thankful to God for His mercy, which is beyond my expression. Congregations like Lake Houston & Strickland Church of Christ are behind this wonderful program of training our men to carry out Gospel to our community. We are mindful of Jerry & Paula for their regular encouragement.

God bless you all, 

In Christ,

John Dean M

Visak students campaign in remote village

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ our savior.  Bear Valley school at Visakhapatnam continues to send Evangelists to the Rural, Urban and of course to the very remote places too.

We were certainly blessed to be able to go and visit the congregations they have established. Bathar is the remote village on the other side of the river that divides the states of  Andhra Pradesh and Orrissa. We are certainly blessed to be able to go there, even though it was raining. We have scheduled to go to attend the inauguration of the church meeting place, where one of our graduates brother Narayana is working as minister. We walked for few miles to get to our destination and on the way we had to cross the river. It was very fast flowing. In fact, I slipped once and dropped my shoes, but thankfully one of the brothers caught it at the bank of the stream. The small house/church meeting place can hold up to 80 people since they sit on the floor in an organized fashion. We are thankful our Lord is leading them to reach into the very remotest areas with the good news and rescuing souls from eternal destruction. With this gathering we were able to have a good number of students enrolled in the preaching school. We started with 11 students, currently with the addition of two, we have total of 13 students. Please continue your prayers for us.

In Christ,

John Dean M

Visakha Valley Bible College,

A Bear Valley International School

Graduation in Visakhapatnam, India

Dear Brethren in Christ, 

I bring greetings from the students, staff and faculty of Visakha Valley Bible College.  By the grace of God we are doing good. First of all we thank you so much for your prayers, certainly the offered prayers are of great encouragement  not only to keep moving forward in training men but also to send out evangelists into the real world ministry.

Brethren, it is so delightful to talk about the great victory that God has blessed us with in continuing the school even in the cruel pandemic which has taken away several of our faithful brethren including our Director Brother M. Samuel Raju. 

The graduation ceremony of the Class of 2022, was a wonderful time of celebration and fellowship. We praise God for blessing us with the presence of our brother Keith Kasarjian, Director of International schools. We appreciate him so much for wanting to be with us, certainly his presence made all the difference.  Our graduates have invited their family members to join in this event of celebration. During this time we have invited local leaders as guests of honor. While they were present we have awarded a certificate of completion to the ladies who finished their course of study of 3 months in the Tailoring Institute that we are running through Visakha Valley Bible School. Those leaders who are not Christians have applauded the charity work we are doing. 

Our special thanks go to Jerry & Paula Bates for their loving contribution to purchase megaphones and bicycles for the graduates. The students were thrilled to receive these gifts of encouragement. Certainly, these gospel tools are going to be of great help to travel and proclaim the word of God. 

Brethren, we shall be breaking for the summer for a month, from the th30 of April. Classes will be resumed from 1st of June with a new Batch of Students for the year 2022-24. As of now we have 11 students enrolled and more have shown interest to come and join for the upcoming batch. Lord willing we shall be having more than 15 students for the upcoming batch.

Once again, we thank you the brethren at Lake Houston Church of Christ, Strickland Church of Christ for their continued trust and confidence in the preaching school work we have committed to do. We are thankful to the Elders of Bear Valley for recognizing our school as one of their international schools. We praise God for their wonderful leadership.

Please convey our greetings to all the brethren whom you worship with. Our special thanks to brother Mark Reynolds, Denny Petrillo, and Keith. God bless you all.

In Christ 

John Dean M

Visakha Valley Bible College.

Pray for the teachers in Visak, India

Dear Brethren in Christ,  

I bring greetings from all the students, faculty and staff from Visakha Valley Bible College. God has been so merciful to us, rescued all the three faculty members from their health complications and giving me energy/strength to do all what I am responsible to be doing.

One of the blessing is visit of brother Mark Reynolds, who is the coordinator of the School. We are so pleased with his visit during this very difficult time, he knew that he has to go through lot of screening & testing, but he has chosen to come see us, certainly God has been with him for his successful visit. Certainly we were thrilled with his visit.

Let me update on the faculty members who were sick and recovering:

Bro. P. Mallesara Rao fell from his motor cycle while travelling with his wife, he had injuries on his face and shoulder, so as his wife had some wounds too. Because he hurt his brain when fell on the ground, he was unconscious for three days, after medication and prayer, he gradually becoming normal; couple of days ago he attended the Youth Program we held at Skinner’s Garden.

Brother D. Rama Raju, he had high blood pressure and taken to the hospital, took couple of days to find out the problem and also to find the right hospital, changed three different doctors, finally found the right one who can resolve the bleeding problem in brain caused due to High Blood pressure, it cost a lot of money to get the treatment done. He mortgaged his house to pay the hospital bills. Kindly pray for him as he is recovering, we is feeling perfectly alright because he is doing things on his own, however we do not know when he will be back in his full strength to get back to his responsibility.

 Bro. G. Vamsee Bushanam, he is having problems because of high creatine, as he is having problems with his Kidney. He had very difficult time on the 3rd of this month, after medication for one week, he started feeling better, on the 13th he attended the Youth Program and taught couple of classes to the young men attended. He is going to start teaching from this week onwards.

Unfortunately something has happed just today, my brother James Paul who is learning to take charge of the School, after rapid test for Cvoid-19, he found positive. Kindly pray that he would recover from it as he has begun taking medicine. Do pray for me as I will be trying to run everything smooth. Also pray as the number Covid cases keep raising every hour & every day, it is alarming something what we are not ready for, kindly pray for us as we pray for your safety as well.

Dear brethren, we really had a great visit or brother Mark Reynolds, also looking forward for the visit of Brother Keith Kasarjian in the third week of March. During the visit of Mark Reynolds, he taught our students one day and graduates on the second day. We are so happy that over 60 graduates are working full time in the mission field, thank you all so much for being part of that.

Tailoring Institute: This has been very productive and also giving us a great opportunity to show how much we care. Also, our students are getting stitching classes as part of Trade Education.

We appreciate you so much for help run the school, do appreciate the Elders of Lake Houston & Strickland church of Christ also Jerry & Paula Bates for their continue trust and confidence in the work. We are grateful to the brethren at Lake Houston for helping with some special needs, you have been so kind to us, God bless you all.

Thank you so much for your prayers, please continue as the Corona situation is kind of scary….greet your family and church family for us, we thank you so much for everything. We do thank brother Mark Reynolds to visit with us.

Thanking you,

In Christ,

John Dean M

Classes resume in India

Dear Brethren in Christ,

I bring greetings from Vishakha Valley Bible College, India. First of all, i thank you all for your kind prayers which is keeping us safe and protected from Covid-19. Even though there were several people that were dead, including several preachers, we are thankful to God for keeping us protected to carry out His mission of spreading the Word and Training Men.

We thank the brethren at Lake Houston & Strickland for helping us to held the graduates and other preachers who are in desperate financial struggle due to the corona Pandemic. From last two months congregational worship has been banned so as public or group meetings, it has affected the financial situation of our preachers. Few congregations has come forward toto help, we have helped over 100 preachers in this area, below picture showing the wife of Brother Appa Rao who was killed by Covid-19, so we helped this widow by sending Rice and essential goods. Our prayers of thanksgiving to our God for your love.

We are thankful to God for making us able to resume the classes at Vishakha Valley Bible College, we shall have all the students by next week, some have not been able to come due to transportation and local Corona restrictions. However, we have begun the classes and trying to keep everything straight since we lost lot of time due to corona since spring 2020.

Well, I will remain for now, thanking God for His mercy and thanking you all for your prayers of encouragement. Please continue your prayers as Corona third wave is what’s been discussed here so much, we are very much intimidated by the stories we hear in the News channels, our government is not able to keep the country vaccinated, it is very true that 1 billion people is what keeping us behind, since its a huge number providing vaccination to all is just a impossible task, however we need your prayers so that God would continue protecting our nation, thank you.

We love you brethren,

In Christ,

John Dean M

Vishakha Valley Bible College

Off to a great start in India

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ our savior. By the grace of God and your prayers we are all doing good, hope this email finds you all good. We thank you so much for your prayers, our Lord continues to bless our efforts in training Men to carryout the gospel to the lost millions.

Faculty meeting:

We had our first meeting faculty meeting for this year, also a meeting without our Director of the School Bro. Samuel Raju, we missed him so badly. The 12 yrs of his legendary work in establishing the Bear Valley School and sending over 60 preachers into the real world ministry has been a great encouragement for us. With the same spirit we have discussed about the future of the school, especially about ending the school year by next March and hold the graduation ceremony by the end of March or early April. We have finalized our school calendar to finish the classes which we were behind due to the effect of Corona last year.  

Our graduates in Training & Preaching:  our students Brother Nageswara Rao & M. Prasad has been doing outstanding job in reaching out several families in the area they are ministering. Nageswarao has been very helpful person in carrying our students to various places on our Van. By the way, we owe Rs. 72,000/- for the repair of the Van due to the accident in the month of December. Brother Nageswara Rao is a convert from a Baptist Church, our Director Bro Samuel taught him the truth; so during one of the memorial meeting held by the preachers in Vijayanagarm & Srikakulam District, brother Nageswara Rao spoke very highly of brother Samuel and Viskha Valley Bible College. He encouraged several preachers to send more students to our Bear Valley school.

Brethren, one of the attached pictures showing a night meeting held at the place where brother M. Prasad is preaching, he left the denominational doctrine after he entered into our school, he was baptized and helped the congregation to obey the truth. As a result some of the congregation left him, so the remaining were baptized and they are meeting every Sunday. They invited me to speak, it was my pleasure speaking to the church over there encouraged them to stay in the True Faith. The preachers living in this big city of Visakhaptnam are planning to hold regular meetings to reach many souls.

Need for Bibles & Gospel Tracts: Brethren we are in need of Bibles and Gospel Tracts. We not only distribute them during the Gospel campaigns but also several of our graduates take from us to distribute in their mission fields. We have printed distributed over 100 thousand with the help of Jerry & Paula,  those gospel tracts are about , God’s plan of salvation, Baptism, One Faith, Church, Worship, Bible etc., over 12 different kinds of gospel tracts are in need of print, kindly pray for this need. Attached is a picture showing how the tracts are put for distribution at a night meeting by one of the graduate. Its every time need for Bibles, as several people are being baptized into Christ, its not only being reported but also we have been witnessing them.

Tailoring Institute: By the grace of God our school has become a service point in helping the people around to learn Tailoring education, while our preaching students learning in the morning hours, women from out side are learning classes at our Tailoring institute. This social service is being appreciated by several people around, this have given us a base to explain how Christianity benefits the society or community around us. Recently one Rotary Director visited and distributed course completion certificates to the students that have received free training at our school.

Gratitude: we would always love to extended our love and appreciation towards the brethren at Lake Houston & Strickland for their trust and confidence in the Lord’s work here, at the same time we wont forget the help of Jerry & Paula in running the preaching school, we look forward to working together for many years to come. Brethren please continue your prayers as the Lord’s work of Training Men continues to grow besides sever circumstances, please be mindful of the needs as well, thank you.

Our faculty and Students are sending their greetings to you all and seeking your prayers for their safety during the Corona Second wave, which is spreading so rapidly and death rate continues to increase. Please give our greetings to your family and to the Church family you worship with. God be with you.

In Christ,

John Dean M

For Visakha Valley Bible College

Memorial service for Samuel Raju

Dear brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. By the grace of God we are doing good, we are experiencing a great loss due to the loss of my father, who directed all of us during last 12 years in Visakhapatnam. It was great loss, very hard to find someone to fill up that gap. We sure need your prayers to keep up the work going.

We pray that all of you are doing good, hope all of you have gotten the Vaccine, hope it keeps you all protected. We haven’t gotten that opportunity yet because we are large number in our country, based on the availability it is being offered to the serious patients first, then medical staff. We may have to wait for another 3 months to get the vaccine available in the market.

Classes & Trade Education:

At present Classes are going on as usual, it has been very expensive to travel between long distance places, because of hike of fuel prices as well as Covid Charges. We request you to be mindful of this hike of prices. To give an example, Diesel is now crossed $5 per gallon, the propane gas which we used to buy for $6 is now $12 , including delivery. Obviously the relative effect is on prices of Cooking oil, Daal, Rice and other items.

Trade education classes are going on good, our students are very excited about this program, 6 of them are very talented and learning like anything, we are proud of them. May be next month we shall be starting computer education classes every week, kind pray for the success. At the same time Free tailoring institute which we are operating at our school premises also giving some wonderful results in reaching out several families through this program. Several ladies, mainly from Hindu back ground are getting free classes from our institute.

Memorial Meeting: Memorial meeting was held in Memory of my father at Visakha Valley Bible College campus on 26th of Jan, it was done in great honor of our Director M Samuel Raju for all his wonderful work throughout the last 40 years of Lord’s ministry.  He really set a great model to follow, we miss so badly, your prayers are appreciated.

We send our love from all the students and faculty members , we are praying for you all daily. Our students memorize an English verse every day, before that in a daily devotional they offer a prayer for you. It is such a joy to uplift each other in prayer, especially during this difficult time. However we believe in the mighty power of God which would enable to keep on keeping on.

On the 3rd March faculty will be meeting to discuss several things, especially to finalize the year end date and other important things. Please pray that our Lord will bless us with knowledge, wisdom and courage to continue the mission.

Thank you very much for your prayers of encouragement, please greet all the Church family for us. We especially thank the brethren at Lake Houston, Strickland Church of Christ. Our special thanks to brother Jerry Bates for his part of encouragement in running the Bear Valley International Preaching School in Visakhapatnam. God bless you all

In Christ

John Dean M

For Visakha Valley Bible College

A big loss in Visakhapatanam

***Less than a day after receiving this report, our beloved Samuel Raju passed from this life and into eternity. He was a kind and gentle man, whose company I always enjoyed. I have many fond (and sometimes funny) memories of my friend and brother. He made the most of his 72 years on this earth and Heaven will be fuller for it. He will be missed greatly by all who knew him, especially by his Bear Valley family. Please remember his family in your prayers. [KK}

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Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings in Christ name. By the grace of God we are doing good. We thank you so much for your prayers and emails all this year which made us all be protected and able to continue the mission of Christ in India. This year has been a challenging personally and spiritually too. We praise God for all those who lifted up prayers on our behalf during the corona pandemic, except the loss of few preachers and members of the Church, every one else is safe. Death rate has come done, however the government is kept warning the public about the chance of second wave of Covid-19. If it actually happens not doubt that our government will call for a lock down, we pray things would stay normal. Everything is possible with God.

School Update:

School work is going on good, we are in the last week of this quarter. We shall be breaking for Christmas from this Saturday. Classes will be resumed from 4th of Jan 2021. Attached are the pictures showing the work in Visakhapatnam and this part of Andhra Pradesh, also a picture showing my father. We heard about several baptisms, and witnessed too. Recently visited a group of Graduates who are working together and  we distributed Bibles and Literature to them also financial help provided to those graduates. Tailoring classes also going on to our students, which we show to the government that we are providing trade education or vocational education. People are being added to the Church daily, even though corona situation is still active, churches are still able to meet every Sunday. Of course we were not able to hold lot of gospel meetings and preacher meetings this time, however gospel is being spread every where despite the difficulties, people are embracing Christ every where as a result of our graduates working in several parts of Andhra Pradesh and Orrissa.

Gratitude:

We thank the brethren at Lake Houston Church of Christ and Strickland Church of Christ for their charity in helping the Bear Valley school in Visakhapatnam. We are indeed blessed to have a wonderful relationship of working together for over 10 years, we pray that your leadership would continue to help the preaching school for producing effective ministers of the gospel. We really pray that some day you would visit us to see the Preaching school and also visit the graduates working in this part of Andhra Pradesh. We must thank Jerry & Paula Bates for their portion of encouragement in running the preaching school, we really miss working with them, it is a big loss, hope some of the brethren from the supporting church visit us to teach short courses. We look forward for the mercy of our Lord to continue working together for the years to come.

In Christ,

John Dean M

Caring for graduates in India

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ our saviour. Hope this email finds you all good. We are so uplifted by the grace of God that has been bestowed upon us during this pandemic. We are so grateful to our mighty God for being so kind and watching over and protecting us during the life threatening situation in India. We are so thankful to you all for lifting up your prayers on our behalf. Our God is so kind and respond to our prayers being offered for each other and for the brethren across the world.

Brethren, God has blessed us with wonderful Christ minded leader, our Director Samuel Raju; we have been encouraged by his commitment towards the lost and dedication in training Men and great desire to reach the unreached with Gospel of Christ. During the this Corona Pandemic traveling has become an issue for the purpose of safety. It has totally restricted us to go anywhere and even to find out the whereabout of our brethren. Sadly it has restricted us to visit some of the brethren who were sick and some who have lost their loved ones.

However, Brother Samuel wanted to visit those brethren who are living the hill areas, who lives 3 hrs away from Visakhapatnam. It is totally in the hill area surrounded by green hills and flowing streams. He was so concerned about those brethren, because for them naturally living water, supplies and medical care is very much scarce. Also communication is only being done in certain places and by certain people only, it is  very difficult to find cell phone service, there are only two Cell companies has the network, which is totally under the control of the government, because some extremists made that hill area to run their anti government activities. In some areas they even run parallel government where our preachers have to be very careful how they act and react in certain circumstances. Because going against them could cause problem to the preachers’ lives. We can describe it all, would take lot of space in this email.

Well, continuing the story, Samuel was so concerned about the 21 graduates who are working in that area; out of the 21 two has been attracted by the denominational group as they pay a monthly salary to them. With the great desire when Samuel proposed the visit, I wanted to join with him as well. And contacted one our graduate who stays in touch with all the graduates seeking help to visit all of them, in reply we heard that all those brethren wanted to meet at Bro. Singa Raju’s place. We really don’t know the surprise behind this meeting, after all we wanted to visit them to tell that we are thinking of them.  So our drive for 3 hrs went really well, to our surprise we got there before 1hrs of our scheduled time, may be miscalculated.  Any ways, as our journey went half way, we found out it was raining there, later we learned that it has been raining from over a week in that area. So our guide preacher met at the spot, he drove on a motor cycle while its raining to get to the spot. We were glad that he got into our vehicle to protect him from the rain.

Then we begun our journey to brother’ Singa Raju’s place, our Guide preacher brother Satyanarayana guided us to the destination. Journey went in the narrow, very narrow, steep, very steep roads. It is normal to face the ditches on the Indian roads, there is no doubt to face certain bumpy roads in a very rural and hilly areas. It was sort of dangerous to drive in such roads when it was raining constantly. Our mission of meeting the brethren is becoming true which excited us so much. that motivated us to keep going, ups and downs, valleys and streams, we took some moments of our time to praise God for HIS marvellous creation. While we were nearing the destination, we have seen some very narrow roads yielding in to the road we are travelling, then we noticed some of our graduates riding on motor cycles in two and three numbers. We were truly excited about seeing them coming to the place with the same excitement as we were.

We have finally arrived at the destination, it was a small hamlet, may be 15 houses. The villagers all farmers, they have cattle and chicken as well. We noticed children whom we figured they do not go to school regularly, for them its not a big thing to go to school at the early age.  By the time we got there to the preacher’s newly built house, built with mud walls and metal roof, we noticed three young ladies cooking meal for a gathering of 30 people, we were surprised and asked brother Singa Raju what’s happening, he replied that all the graduates are assembling here today, we were excited about it. The were coming to attend and would like to spend time listening to the word and have fellowship. We were thrilled with their great desire to use the opportunity and also about making use of time, even though weather is not cooperative and threat of Corona remains.

In about an hour, all the expected graduates arrived there, we were so glad to see each other, great time to exchange our warmth on each other. After everyone settle down, we assembled at Singa Raju’s house and Raju Babu has lead the prayer and three of them stood up and lead the singing. We praised God by seeing the wonderful nature around us, we sang ‘How great Thou Art’. I was asked to speak for few minutes, my lesson was from Acts 14:21-28 “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said.” Acts 14:22  a To help these brethren know that we have to remain in the same faith and be strong besides all kinds of temptations, struggles and circumstances. Encouraging them to be strong during the present Corona pandemic which is hurting the church  life and Preachers so badly. After my message Bro. Samuel was asked to speak, before he preaches, sung couple of songs to encourage the gathering. We had 36 men gathered for this meeting out of them 21 are graduates of our school. Samuel encouraged them to be strong to face the Devil which is destroying the church. This is another time of fellowship we had after long long time during this corona pandemic season. We were excited about the news of people being added to the Church through their Team effort.

We had a meal cooked in their pattern which is little different than what we used to, however it was delicious and lovely meal, should not degrade the effort those ladies put into to cook for us all. After the meeting is over, Samuel distributed monetary help to those 21 preachers who are struggling during this pandemic. Brother Singa Raju shown us a metal roof hut which was built with the help of the local preachers, we have provided a help fo Rs 10,000/- to take care of other needs towards the church meeting place.  Also, we have met three young men who are interested to join in our School for getting the Biblical education, after discussion with them, that our school always welcome those who wants to learn the word of God and become evangelists and Bible Teachers. We had three young men introduced themselves showing how much interested they are to become preachers. We invited them to come and visit us at Visakhapatnam.

All in all it was a great time of fellowship with those brethren working so hard in the hill areas of the state of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa as well. Some of the preachers live next to border line, in our travel we have travelled across some fo the roads that takes us to the Border of the state of Orissa.  Finally we had prayer and dispersed to our destinations.

Dear Brethren, Jesus said in Acts 1:8 “and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Truly these men, which are Graduates of Bear Valley International school are witnessing the Death, Burial and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ our saviour in the uttermost parts of this world. They are planting the seed and reaping the harvest, churches are growing, Lord’s church is becoming stronger everyday. We praise God for blessing us all to be a part of this, we sure appreciate you all for your kindness in help running the Preaching school at Visakhapatnam. May God continue to bless our combined efforts in rescuing the souls and establishing congregations and producing effective communicators of the Gospel.

We are so grateful to God such a Director who has been striving for His cause for over 40years, with a great commitment to serve the Lord in expanding the boarders of His Kingdom. We are working along as Team with the same commitment and enthusiasm. Kindly remembers us in your prayers daily, we shall be praying for you too.

Thanks so much for reading this story of the mission work being done by Visakha Valley Bible College, let me hear from you what you think of this, love you ...God bless you all...!!!

In Christ,

John Dean M

Benefiting from technology in India

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Salutations from the students and faculty of the Visakha Valley Bible College, Visakhapatnam. By the grace of God we are all doing good, except little sickness of some of our present students every on else is doing good. Lord Blessed us by protecting us under His loving and merciful arms. We request you to kindly pray for the corona victims.

Online Classes: Finally we were able to begin a new chapter in our Visakha Valley Bible College. It is not just a chapter but a new development to have the classes running even in the physical absence of the instructor in the class. Due to corona travel has become a difficult thing. Rail road or road travel has become a cause for rapid spread of the Virus. Couple of our instructors are far away from the Visakhapatnam, they have to travel some hours to get here, in this conditions its not advisable to travel on public transport, at the same time our faculty cannot drive or ride that far.  So, after thorough discussion we have decided to establish a setup to execute our plan of setting up online classes. Brother Vamsee and Malleswar Rao and John Dean had a discussion on installing Zoom App in one of our Desktop computer. However it needs upgrade, so after the needful upgrade and installation of new OS, we have successfully installed Zoom app and made a trial run. We bought a router, switch, loud speakers, mouth piece and other required items for this setup. We were very happy to see everything came to a successful ending.

After everything set up, our director Bro. Samuel Raju offered a prayer of thanksgiving and introduced the online class room to the students. Bro Vamsee has taught the first class and spoke for an hour. Before that he actually explained the process of how the online class will be done/operated, how to interact with the instructor, how to raise questions etc., well, after couple of days buying things and techies working everything fall in place and students overwhelmingly joined in the class room enjoyed in this new establishment.

Heavy Rains & Corona Crisis: cases raising like anything: on a average everyday in our state 6000 is the number patients being diagnosed with Corona positive. Hospitals are being packed up with such increasing number of patients, doctors are almost giving up on their non stop services, looks like the future is going to terrible, health wise, economically and in the field of education as well.  We have been hearing from the preachers how difficult it is to survive during this time. The situation in rural India is threatening to common man’s life. Monsoon season has brought additional to those who survive on house farming. Some of our preachers, especially those in the hill areas live on house farming. Due to heavy rains from last two weeks, their chance of getting produce from the farm is quite difficult, hope by the grace of God things would turn in a positive side and bless them with good out come of their farming.

Evangelism: Our Graduates have been effectively trained for two years, also time to time they used attend the Lectureship/seminars conducted to learn more and increase more in their teaching & skills. As the materialism and love for technology is increasing in our country gospel is needed to taught more intensely. The establishment of the preaching school has been very helpful in producing some effective communicators of the gospel. In this time of corona pandemic we still hear from our graduates that people hearing gospel and being baptized into Christ for the remission of sins. It is nothing but our preachers constant working besides all circumstances. We are so glad to hear that people who are getting to be materialistic are realizing that this world is not permanent. Impressive thing is that they are wanting to be with God in heaven permanently. We are able to provide Bibles to our graduates for free distribution to those who are studying the Bible.

Dear brethren, we always praise God for keeping us safe and sound, especially during this time of Corona Pandemic, we sure need your prayers , our country, preachers need your prayers of encouragement.  We are able to help some families who are suffering lack of food due to no work, since the industry they are working has shut down during this lock down time. We appreciate your encouragement so far, we would love to see that we would do more as we see the need. We pray that Lord provides.

Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement, we look forward to keep you posted more in my next email. Please give our greetings to your family and also to the Church family you worship with.

In Christ,

John Dean M

Visakha Valley Bible College

Big challenges in India

Dear brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ our saviour. Hope this message finds you all good.  We appreciate your prayers which is keeping us safe and sound.

As the number of Corona cases are raising like anything in our country, especially in the state of Andhra Pradesh,  we request your fervent prayers on behalf of us. So many thousands are being infected, death rate is comparatively little but some young people are dying too. We right now under the fear of Corona.

Faculty Meeting:

Our Team work has made the Preaching school to run successfully and been able to complete a decade of training Men to be effective evangelists of the Gospel of Christ. With the same enthusiasm during this Corona situation we met at the Visakha Valley College Campus to discuss the future of the School. Except Bro. Vamsee everyone else attended the meeting. Since lack of public transportation Bro. Vamase was unable to attend the meeting.  Our primary agenda was to see the possibility of restarting the school. As we begun the meeting with a prayer, several things were came into discussion. We rejoiced as we learned that all our graduates are being kept safe from Corona.

During our meeting we discussed about the present situation in India.

How badly this Corona affected us:

• The preachers cannot visit the members of the Church for any reason, even if they are in a difficult situation.

• Fellowship is missing so badly, totally have to stay away from all church activities, like Bible Class, Gospel meetings, Youth Class, Sunday school for children etc., were concerned about the future.

• Income of the congregation, which is affecting the preachers survival and also those that are dependent on the local congregation.

• Its become habit for some one to skip worshiping At the same time 90% of the church is anxiously waiting for the day to assemble like they used to Godliness has increased, church grew up in faith.

• Proclamation of the Gospel has been totally down under restrictions (Physical Distance).  No out reach programs except some visit the local families

Well, In addition to corona we are having continues rains from last two weeks. This is going to cause several to suffer from variety of Fevers, like Typhoid, Malayria, ChickenGunya, Viral fever etc.,

So, after the serious discussion about restarting of the classes, we have decided to begun teaching the students. The students who are available and willing to attend were present in the first day of the Class.

Here we have come up with a problem of brother Vamsee’s classes, since public transportation (Railway) is totally suspended Vamsee cannot attend the classes. During the meeting he was present across video calling. We have discussed about teaching classes through online media, Vamsee agreed to do that. So, we will be buying a laptop, mini speakers, Mic piece and WebCam to establish online video classes for the students. This indeed helps the students to communicate like they are in the regular class. We have made a trial run last week, it went well. In the future we would be able to use the available projector for the same purpose as well. We believe it is a very good option available for time being to keep up with the students, also to attract some new students as well. It might offer a great opportunity for some who would love to do online classes because of their situation.  At the end of the meeting we had a prayer, pleading our loving God to have mercy on us.

Gratitude: Once again, we praise God for blessing us with wonderful congregations which are helping us to run this preaching school. While we are running the preaching school, we are also helping our graduates to establish congregations by conducting Gospel Campaigns, gospel meetings and Preachers Fellowship meetings. Also, during the times of natural disasters we have been able to help them in several ways, this time during Corona Pandemic we were able to help about 100 preachers families in this area of AP by providing Rice & essential goods for their survival. We are grateful to God for His mercy and also for blessing you all with kind hearts to do all this good works. We thank the brethren at Strickland and Lake Houston, also Jerry and Paula for their contribution as well. Attached are some pictures showing the preachers in hill area receiving the Corona Relief.

Local Congregation: Bro. Kavitha who is one of our faculty is preaching at the local congregation that meets at our visakha Valley Bible college facility. All of our students attend worship service here. Time to time bro. Samuel Raju, director of the college preachers here too. The local congregation has come forward to help some of the poor families in the church, where we were privileged to present those items to the brethren who are poor also some who are not members of the Church. Local congregation is growing spiritually and in number due to their remarkable fellowship.

Please convey our heartfelt greetings to the brethren you worship with, our best wishes to your family members as well. Kindly continue your prayers as we do for you daily, God bless you.

In Christ,

John Dean M

A BV preachers seminar in India

Preachers’ Seminar:  We were pleased with the visit of our Brother Keith Kasarjian, Director of Bear Valley International school. He made it possible to visit besides several difficulties in here and internationally. We certainly appreciate his courage and  leadership in directing the Bear Valley International Schools across the world. Our students, graduates and preachers gathered have been encouraged by his teaching on that Day. It was a great time of fellowship and learning. God has been blessing this part of India through the efforts of Visakha valley Bible College, in Visakhapatnam. Our graduates or doing amazing job of saving souls and establishing local congregations and edifying them. “We are one, we are strongest working together in unity” 1cor. 12:14

 Visakha Valley Bible College: Our Faith is being proclaimed; during the visit of Bro. Keith, we were invited by one of our graduates to speak at a public gospel meeting. He is recently starting up a new congregation in this area with the help the Bible College faculty.  Several have gathered under a tent for the meeting.  We have arrived late  they have been waiting for us; so without waste of time Keith begun to preach, after few minutes cloudy sky begun showering, increased so much where crowed scattered, but half of them remained in the tent and started singing, by the time song is over the rain was gone, we were uplifted by God’s grace, it stopped raining and the preaching was begun which touched several hearts, lead to Truth. This congregation continues to grow by bringing several to Christ. The word of faith being proclaimed.

John Dean Mapuddi

A preachers seminar in Visakhapatnam, India

It was my honor and pleasure to be able to present a preaching seminar to 86 students, alumni, and area preachers at the Bear Valley school in Visakhapatnam, India. It was such an enjoyable and encouraging time for all of us. Many times preachers need some fellowship from their brethren to remain zealous and encouraged and that was available in great quantities.

John Dean and Samuel Raju, along with the other instructors, are doing an excellent job there. I was impressed by what I witnessed and by the interactions I had with the students. And, of course, I was treated to outstanding hospitality in the true Indian way.

Click HERE to see a short video from the event.

The government has made things difficult for our brethren, but they remain steadfast and unmovable. Continue to pray for them.

Keith Kasarjian

A new group of incoming students in India

Dear Brethren in Christ,  

I bring greetings from Visakha Valley Bible College. By the grace of God we are doing well.  We thank you so much for your prayers and timely encouragements for successfully training the men to become effective evangelists in fertile lands of India.  Certainly it is a blessing to train up evangelists for His cause. With the rapid changing over in our society both culturally and materially people are becoming more materialistic. Even the generation following will not get a good knowledge on God and Its creation unless this generation is being taught about the Truth. We are very thankful to God for blessing us with this great opportunity to light up several souls with the word of God, it is being possible only through sending of well equipped men of God.

Summer effect:

This summer had been the worst of all;  recently monsoon season has begun, not quite rains but a shower here and there, however weather continues to be very very humid. Visakhapatnam has experienced worst ever record breaking temperature this year. Since it is an industrial area weather is usually pretty warm, in summers it add up to terrible degree. Looks like global warming is true….want to visit  Vice President Algore to appreciate his argument about global warming years ago.

New Bore Well:

While this has been the case we are struggling with,  We had some worst time of the year since the end of April at our school, that is lack of water. Of course We were able to buy drinking water, due to downfall of the ground water level in our water well, it was needed to dig a new bore well at the  same place where we have dogged the well before. It has severed for several years, from last few year water has become scarce almost to the point its dried out, see the pictures 3,4. With the help of the brethren from Lake Houston we are able to  dug a new well. We are thankful the process went well and good ground water was found, it took 4 days to get the installation of submersible pump and also new motor. It is definitely the providence of God that we had those funds to meet our desperate need. We praise God for His mercy.

New Academic Year:

Our new academic year has begun, we have 10 students enrolled for the batch of 2019-21; more to join with this group in a week or two. We are going to have our faculty meeting on the 8th Monday to discuss several things about upcoming academic year. The first two pictures show the newly enrolled students filling the application form and taking the Entrance exam.

The newly enrolled students, would  usually filled up the application form and will take an entrance exam. This entrance exam will help the faculty members to understand the standard of the student.  This batch students have helped so much while the new bore well being dug. We are excited to see these young men becoming part of our Visakha Valley family. Hoping that they would continue their enthusiasm in learning the word of God to become effective evangelists of Christ.

Kindly pray for this new academic year, may God bless us with some more good students who would love to be trained and learned. Brother Jerry Bates will be visiting with us in the middle September to teach a short course. Always love to have Bates, looking forward for their visit. We always welcome any new visiting faculty that would be interested to teach a short course or two.

Gratitude:  

We are always grateful to God for His mercy and providence. We do appreciate our loving brethren at Lake Houston Church of Christ and Strickland Church of Christ. Thankful to God for brethren at Strickland who are overseeing the Preaching School, we work as diligently as possible to keep up the trust and confidence.

Kindly continue your prayers as we also pray for you daily. Give our greetings to the Church you worship with and also to your families. May God bless you all.  We with best salutations from all of us at Visakh.

In Christ,

Samuel Raju Muppidi

John Dean M