Adding To The Kingdom In Togo...

Another student baptized
I was glad when I got the news that another student – KpaKpabia has obeyed the gospel in baptism. This brings 13 the number of baptized students. We are left with two more to be baptized. I learnt they have promised to do so soon. Hopefully, all the students would be baptized before graduation in July, 2013. I am so grateful to God that this strategy of enrolling denominational church leaders and using the school as a tool to convert these men is working as we planned. Please remember the two remaining ones in your prayers. The baptism was conducted by Cephas, the principal.

CLASS IN SESSION AT CBS
During my recent visit, I was privileged to be there while Akalo arrived from Tsevie about 2 hour motor ride from Kpalime. He had come all the way to Kpalime to teach. I appreciate the commitment and the dedication exhibited by these men in their service to the Lord. Akalo preachers for a congregation in Tsevie.

FIVE (5) MEN APPLIED TO ATTEND CBS IN 2013-2015
I was informed that five men have already expressed the desire to enroll at CBS 2013-2015 academic year. We plan to take in 20 students again. I have instructed the teachers to set the entrance examination in preparation for the new enrollment.

FORMER CBS STUDENTS INVITED TO PREACH AT A CAMPAIGN.
Three former students; Selorm, Yaovi and Foli, were recently invited by the Dzodze church of Christ in Ghana to participate in a Campaign for Christ. God blessed their activities with two baptisms.

CHURCH ACTIVITIES: NYIVEME CHURCH OF CHRIST- KPALIME
Ruth’s father Ernest, was baptized about eight months and since then it has been his wish that his entire family will become members of the Church. A few weeks ago, Ruth was immersed intoChrist. Brethren are now studying with his wife and another daughter.

WHAT IS GOD DOING WITH OUR FORMER STUDENTS?
It is always a joy to mention what God is accomplishing through men whom we trained at CBS. In the month under review,

Preacher            Town        Baptisms

Selorm               Noepe            2

Kossi                  Sanguera       2

Yaovi                  Akepe            2

Foli                     Keve             3

Gabriel                Danyinu       1

Hodanu               EYO             2

Total baptisms                    12

EYO CHURCH GETS NEW PLACE OF WORSHIP    
At the time of enrolling at CBS, Hodanu was a leader in the Church of Pentecost in EYO near Kpalime. A few months later, he decided to start teaching his congregation lessons he was receiving from school. Hodanu was baptized and later he baptized a couple of his members. Some of the leaders frowned on this attempt to convert the entire church. As a result some left the church. Those who stayed have completely embraced the New Testament worship and experiencing numerical and spiritual growth. When I visited EYO last week, I met some of the ladies who protested by leaving,had returned. They have since been assisted with CFA 261.00 to construct a new meeting place with CBS also contributing CFA 26,000.00. EYO church has a membership of 19 adults.

Willie Gley

The Need In Burkina Faso And Growth In Ghana...

This will be a different Christmas for me this year. As I walk about the town there are no Christmas lights adorning any of the houses, no Christmas music is being played, and I have not seen a single Christmas tree. None of this is unexpected since the majority of the people who live around me are Muslim, but it still seems strange. Since the temperature on Christmas day will be in the mid-nineties there will not be any hope for a white Christmas, only an expectation of another dust filled day courtesy of the Harmattan winds. And rather than a big mug of hot cocoa the preferred drink of the day will be a Coca-Cola or Fanta. It just doesn’t seem very Christmas like at all!

Further south of here, in the predominately “Christian” part of the country there will be many Christmas celebrations happening throughout the month of December and into the first week of January. Many people will journey back to their tribal villages in order to spend the holiday with their family. On Christmas morning everyone will head off to church showing off their new ‘bronya’ (Christmas) outfits. For many of the children these new clothes will be the only new clothes they will receive until next Christmas. Once church services are finished the afternoon and evening is devoted to eating and partying. Roads will be blocked off as the parties spread out with dancing in the streets. Christmas day in Southern Ghana is traditionally a very lively, and very very noisy day!

As for me, I’ll be spending Christmas planning for a trip to Burkina Faso the following week. It is time for me to have to leave the country and re-enter again so I will be spending a couple of days in Burkina looking for potential towns to plant churches in. So far I have only heard of a total of four churches of Christ in the entire country so it should be pretty easy to find towns and villages that need a church. More difficult is finding men who are able to lead that are also willing to spend the time necessary to help a new church plant grow. Finding those men will be a critical part of my Christmas trip.

Christmas is different here, and my Christmas will be much different than I am used to. What I will miss most this Christmas is spending time with family and friends. Even though I will not see you this holiday season, know that you are all in my heart and I will be thinking of you. Have a wonderful Christmas, and a safe and prosperous New Year! And if you get a chance, drink a big mug of hot cocoa (with extra marshmallows) for me.

Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies
The eighth term for the current class at the Bible Institute will be coming to a close on December 21st. Classes will begin again on January 14th, with the students having only two terms remaining to complete the two year program.

This term I am teaching a double class (80 hours of classroom time instead of 40) covering the Hebrew and Galatian letters. Other classes being taught this quarter include A Preacher and His Work, Godhead, Old Testament 6 (Major Prophets), and Christian Morals. This has been a very full term for the students with lots out of class work being required and lots of in class tests to make sure they are understanding the information being taught. In my class alone the students have written a paper on the relationship between Melchizedek and Christ, created five sermon outlines from the books of Hebrews and Galatians, and will have taken 13 tests by the end of the class!

The biggest news for the school is that, Lord willing, we will be in our new building for the beginning of the next term. There is still a lot of work to do, but if the electricity hookup gets completed we will be able to move in and finish the work as we have the opportunity. The building project has been going on for a number of years and it will be a great day when we experience the benefit of so many people’s giving and labor.

We are also excited that we may have visitors coming during the next term. A small group from Tennessee consisting of Travis White, Tracy White, and Chris Winner are currently raising funds to be able to come over and help teach classes and work with the students during the February campaign week. We do not get many visitors here in the north so we are very thankful for these men and their desire to help with the work here.

We are also looking forward to a short visit by Richard Renfro who works with Mission Printing. Mission Printing sends a huge number of tracts all over the world, including many that are distributed here in Ghana and in neighboring Togo. With the additional room we will have in the new building we are hoping that Mission Printing will send us a large supply of tracts to be distributed throughout Northern Ghana, Northern Togo, and Southern Burkina Faso.

As you can see, we manage to keep busy here at the Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies!

Evangelism Update
Ten students from the Bible Institute recently completed a four day campaign in the Bimbila area as part of our school curriculum. At the same time two other students were following up with the church planted in Cinkasse Togo this past September. The Bimbila campaign resulted in 12 baptisms and a new church meeting in the town. Leaders from village churches in the surrounding area will be assisting the church with Bible class teachers and preaching until one of the current students graduates and returns to assist this new congregation.

During the month I also travelled to the Upper East Region along with one of the Institutes graduates to do a 1 day seminar on what the Bible teaches about Christians and drinking. Drinking is a big part of the pagan Christmas celebrations in that area and the local preacher asked for our help in proactively dealing with the subject. Once the seminar was concluded I was able to meet with other church leaders in the area to begin planning a leadership seminar for all the churches to be held during the spring of 2013.

Later this month I will be heading back to the north to work on logistics for February’s campaigns. We will once again be involved with two campaigns, with most of the students assisting the church in Walewale with door to door evangelism. A small group will also be going with me to the Ghana/Burkina Faso border to plant a new congregation.

Please pray for our efforts to spread the gospel here in Northern Ghana!

Contact Information

Mailing Address:
Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies P.O. Box TL 925
Tamale, Northern Region
Ghana

Ghana Phone - 011-233-0248216622 E-Mail - anthonyjohnson2010@gmail.com

Kingdom of Hope Update
This month’s trip to Kuka and the Kingdom of Hope Orphan’s school was highlighted by a meeting with the church leaders there to discuss the direction for the school. One of the problems that can arise with these type of projects is the expectation from the local people that the white man is going to be in charge and tell everyone what to do. I am working very hard to make sure that does not happen, while at the same time trying to make sure that they are making good decisions regarding the organization and running of the school. Sometimes it feels like trying to walk on a circus high wire! But we continue to make progress and I believe the church is very happy that this is “their school.”

Construction on the new classroom continues to go well. Between my personal contribution and donations made last month we now have the funds to complete the roof for the classroom. I will be going there later this month to buy the necessary materials and help oversee the work. All of the unskilled work on the building, such as hauling water and sand for the cement and digging the foundation has been done by members of the congregation volunteering their time and energy. At the current pace of work we should have a usable building by the end of January. The new building will be named the Enoch Elliott Learning Center, in memory of the son of Jason and Misti Elliott.

Other issues at the school continue to be addressed as possible. Thanks to a recent donation I will be able to buy a number of mattresses for the students who are currently sleeping on the ground. We have also been able to raise the money to catch up paying the teachers and to help the church with some of the expense of feeding the children. In doing all of this we have also challenged the church to become more involved with feeding the children, a task they have stepped up to through the increased giving of produce from their gardens and a number of chickens and guinea fowls. Working together we continue to meet the needs of a great number of children in Northern Ghana!

Thank You Supporters!
Overseeing Congregation Greenbrier church of Christ

Supporters (includes recent one time contributions) Greenbrier church of Christ
Colony church of Christ
Bobby and Jackie Sims
Sue Shumate
Aubrey and Donna Allensworth 
Mildred Priest
Virginia Hielen
Wilkie Family
Chris and Shirley Brill
Linda Ray
Ron and Joann Boatwright

I am very thankful to all those who are part of the work here in West Africa. I cannot adequately express my appreciation for all of you who make it possible for me to work here. If you are interested in supporting the work at the Tamale Institute of Biblical studies or in helping the Kingdom of Hope Orphan’s School we would certainly appreciate it and put your gift to a good work. Please send all contributions to:

Greenbrier church of Christ
Attn: African Missions
12 Wilson Farm Rd.
Greenbrier, AR 72058

If you desire your gift to be used for a specific purpose please indicate how it is to be used by placing a note with your gift or sending me an e- mail. Some of the current needs at Kingdom of Hope include:

Desks and Chairs - $20 each set
Text books - $4 each
Mattresses - $25 each
School lunches - $150 per month
Repairs for existing building - $1000

Current needs for the Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies include the expenses to send the students on evangelism campaigns in February. It costs $75 to send a student on a campaign.

All gifts are appreciated, large or small, and will be put toward a good work. Thank you for all of your help!

Tony Johnson

To see Tony’s report with several pictures, please click here.

One Last Campaign By The Alpha Class...

Dearest in Christ,

Calvary greetings from your brothers and sisters here. It was like a dream that two years of studies in CBIW was over as the last short course instructor, our coordinator, brother Josh Austin rounded up studies on Marriage and Family with our Alpha batch students.

The Lord was with us and saw our efforts to reach out His words to many in the Bonabery community in Douala. The Lord added 5 young and energetic souls into the congregation there. Keep them in your prayers as they continue to grow to impact and influence the community with their life styles for the Glory of God.

The week was a great one full with the blessings of God as brother Ewang Divine, one of our students who was sick, came back on campus much better. Wednesday last week we had the gospel call to travel to Douala for our very last campaign for the year as a school. Thanks for all your prayers, because as I write this mail, all the staff and students are back on campus safe and sound. Glory to our king.

Our students smiled as they sit on the hired van ready for the trip to Douala. God is blessing and maybe, by His grace, one day we shall have something like this on our campus and will enhance our movement to rob from the strong man’s house as we think souls daily. Evangelism is our mission and our mission is evangelism. This is our motto and we do all at our disposal to operate on it.

At the campaign, with very high temperatures, students slept on the floor to rest so that they can continue the work the next day. God was with us throughout as no one had any health problems.

The campaign was characterized by public preaching where the community will come out and ask questions concerning what they are hearing and to see how they can compare it with what they are already doing in their denominations.

House to house evangelism was also a serious point on the agenda. Our coordinator, brother Josh, was fully involved in showing from the scriptures what the Bible is saying about great examples in our leadership, as we don’t point the way, but we show the way for our students to follow. We pray they will continue with this great zeal that we see in them. Keep them in your prayers as they go into the field for full time ministry soon.

Brother Josh continued to share the gospel message to people that we can only meet them by His grace on the street. Building relations and establishing lasting relationships with the people in the community was great and may lead them to Christ someday.

We praise God for all His grace and love that we enjoyed with our students for two complete exciting years. We shall share more about those two years next week after their graduation.

Plans
1) All is almost set for the first graduation ceremony and second matriculation ceremony of CBIW students. The graduation will come up this week on Thursday beginning at 12 noon Cameroon time. Please keep the day and the activities of that day in your prayers as we are expecting above 700 people to witness it.

2) Students from CBIW, after their graduation, will start full time work in January. We have decided to stand with our students as they go into full time evangelistic work. They already formed an Alumni which will help us know their growth and see how we can also use the BETA batch of students to help them evangelize their respective communities. Please pray for us and come and stand with us to win Cameroon for Jesus.

Appreciations
Words, most of the time, cannot expressed what is in our hearts here in CBIW when it comes to appreciation and expressing our gratitude to God for His greatness in our ministries and also to you, your family and your congregation for all your fervent prayers and support to make dreams comes true in Cameroon. Next week we shall do it in a big way when all the statistics will be set as the students will be graduated already. Thank you. Again I say thank you and God bless you and all that you do. His blessings will be with you, your family and all your endeavors.

Elangwe and family
By His grace Director CBIW

No Exception To The Encouragement...

We start a new week with reports that are very encouraging. I look forward each week to receiving the information that is submitted, seeing just how God’s hand is working, and all that is being done around the world. I always hope the information that is being read by all of you is as encouraging to you as it is to me. This week should be no exception.

As we continue to focus on plans for the year ahead, it is important to keep in mind the changes we want to make to see the fulfillment of the purpose for which extension training exists. A part of those plans involves the beginning of a new school in Asunción, Paraguay. It is been encouraging to read about the progress being made in the development of a new school in this location. 

All of us enjoy reading about the development of the staff and administration of the mission team that is working in Paraguay. We look forward to the implementation of the curriculum and the new students that will come on board in March 2013. Presently, the plans are to begin class on Monday morning March 11, 2013. A few of us are planning to be there for the opening day of class, as well as, opening chapel. The very thought of a new school getting started is exciting.

As we continue to move forward and work on fulfilling our plans for the new year, we ask you to be praying for us and for the development of this new school in South America. We will provide information periodically to keep you informed as plans develop, and certainly provide pictures of the great event that takes place next year.

I do want to close quickly by thanking each of you for your prayers and your encouragement during the time of my surgery. I am now home and my hand is recovering slowly, but well. I am learning to type one-handed. However, a good friend of mine (thank you Michael Hite) has shown me how to use dictation and speech on my laptop. This allows me to talk and the machine types for me. It is taking me a little time to get used to it, but I do love this technology. :-)

Now on to the other reports...

Coordinator Updates
Reports from the coordinators are now located on the website, under Staff Reports. The address is /extension-schools/

Howell Ferguson’s report can be read by clicking here.

Extension Reports 

Nearing The End Of The Alpha Class: This week students take their last class in the two years that have been studying at the CBIW in Cameroon.

God Great Blessings In Ukraine: Looking at the work of the past, and the progress that has taken place, helps us see God’s great blessings on the work in Gorlovka, Ukraine.

Courage, Love, And Humility To Run A School: These qualities and more are needed to make difficult decisions and face the challenges in directing an extension school.

Struggles To A Faithful Christian Life In Cambodia: Numerous challenges face a faithful Christian life all over the world, but this report shares about them Cambodia.

100+ Baptisms In North India: The news is exciting about the work taking place with those who associated with the North India Bible College in Chandigarh, India.

ITL Visits Paraguay: I recent visit from students of ITL in Guatemala have encouraged the development of the new school to begin next year in Paraguay.

Cordylobia Anthropophaga?? One Mean Fly: There are some bugs in the mission field that are very challenging. The Gee family tells us about one such fly in Tanzania. 

Final Thoughts
I do want to finish out this week’s report with thanking you again. Thank you for who you are and for the work you contribute to in so many different ways. Without you this work is not possible. I look forward each week to sharing the news with you and concluding by thanking you for your part in this great work. You are a great blessing to all of us, and we thank God for you each day.

God bless
Bob

Cordylobia Anthropophaga?? One Mean Fly...

Dear Co-Workers:

WEEKLY QUOTE:  "The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; BUT they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing."

Isn't that Scripture so reassuring that the Lord takes care of His own? If we "seek the Kingdom first" our great God will provide for our needs.  

Our last report was short, so today more details will be given concerning some of the items mentioned last Sunday.

THANKSGIVING DAY! We hope you had a memorable one. In addition to the missionaries who gathered at the Stafford house to thank God for our blessings, several non-Christians friends joined us for the feast. Speaking of thanksgiving, we are very grateful for the extra funds received lately. Your sacrifice is commendable and your generosity much appreciated.  

GRADUATION. As you know, the ASCOP graduated 17 students (nine from the Master's program, six from the B.A. program and two--Lindsey and Abigail--with their Associate Degrees). Anita Hochdorf and long-term visitor, Allie from OK, along with several Tanzanian ladies, decorated the tables beautifully. An excerpt from the report of TZ 2000 Mission Work director, Cy Stafford states: 

"We were thankful for the presence of Gary Fallis who represented the Bear Valley Bible Institute. We are thankful for all the students, their dedication and the sacrifice they were willing to give that they might be better equipped for the work of the Kingdom. 

The school has now graduated 125 who are now serving the 150 church plants throughout East Africa. It has been an amazing journey since we began in 1998. From two very small congregations with less than 30 to 150 congregations. Wow, simply amazing the things God continues to do. 

We thank the Kensington Woods Elders for their vision...and the Bear Valley staff for their partnership in the Gospel. It was encouraging to see the Tanzania staff at the school take the lead and see this graduation through. All the missionaries did their part, the students theirs and through this cooperation, God was and is being glorified and souls are being saved, day by day. 

And, as if it could not have gotten any better, two men obeyed the Gospel after the graduation. One of our graduates (who hopes to plant a new congregation in his home village of Katish) had invited these fellows who he had studied with earlier to the graduation. They made the decision to obey and now the Kingdom is larger by two souls. Thanks be to God, He is good all the time." 

EVERYBODY KNOWS... that graduation means one has completed the requirements for a course of study. But graduation from a Bible Institute means much more than that! Dave Ramsey (financial guru) speaks of "changing one's family tree" through properly managing one's finances. This is certainly true (the influencing of generations of people) concerning the Faith being passed on from generation to generation. Even a small dam in a creek detours the water to flow in a different direction. 

"THICK SWARMS OF FLIES CAME INTO THE HOUSE..." (Exo. 8: 24) For several weeks, Kisongo has been "plagued" with flies. Almost every night my dining room ceiling has numerous flies seemingly stuck to it (think they were busy laying eggs). Many others are on walls and everywhere else. It's almost impossible to keep them off your plate and was very embarrassing when we had guests over. When looking at last week's report pictures, we noticed that a fly was on the graduation cake! 

(WARNING: The following is not for the "faint-hearted.") A "special" fly in East Africa is the Tumbu Fly (cordylobia anthropophaga...derived from the Greek and means "human eater.")  All clothes hung out on the line need to be ironed or put in the dryer for five minutes to kill any tiny eggs this fly may deposit on the damp clothes. If not, the eggs will hatch once they contact warm skin and the little maggot will burrow into your skin and eat the flesh. This happened to one of our children a couple of years ago. The Tumbu Fly also lays eggs in dirt. If dirt is thrown and ends up in a child's hair and stays awhile, again, the maggots burrow down into the skin and form a pimple-like place which eventually gets all red and inflamed. About two weeks ago, another young child of ours (name withheld to protect the embarrassed) had five places on his head and two on his upper arm. The way to get them out is to scratch off the top and squeeze the wiggling and "very-much-alive" larvae (maggot) out. Yes, squeezing out seven maggots was gross. The affected child developed a fever about a week later (not sure if it was related to the problem of the maggots) but he is now taking antibiotics and seems fine. Okay, someone pick up the grandmothers (Rita and Jackie) off the floor...really, everything is okay. 

GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN sometimes and other times focus on what's truly important. At the last spend-the-night party, during the devotional, five girls stated they did not own a Bible. It was great to just reach in a box and give them one (because the Union Grove congregation, in Cleveland, TN, donated more than $300 last year to purchase Swahili Bibles).  They were very thankful. 

ARUSHA EVANGELIST MEETING. Last week, several local evangelists met with Cy Stafford and Jimmy to further develop a plan for planting churches in different areas in Arusha. Traveling for local folks is a real problem because most people do not own a car and either walk or pay bus fare to go somewhere. Women traveling with small children face additional challenges when it comes to getting to the services. Having a congregation closer to their homes should help many to stay faithful.

STILL MORE TO WRITE...but it will have to wait until a little later. Future Preacher's Training Camp just finished and TCC begins tomorrow. Jimmy is making numerous airport runs with the help of African brethren. It's great to have visitors and we are looking forward to a wonderful week!

THANKS FOR ALL THAT YOU DO!  

With Love from Africa, 
The Jimmy Gee family

ITL Visits Paraguay...

Recent congregational developments and activities: 
The Special Committee for the Bible School has made some great progress this month! We now have the management structure decided, the faculty members have been chosen, and the course descriptions are taking shape. Perry Hardin was named the Academic Director and I was named Administrative and General Director of the school. We are very excited to announce that brother Jorge Vera, from the Cento congregation, has also joined the staff as one of our professors. Everything appears to be on target for beginning March 2013. Please keep this effort in your prayers as we continue to develop this school. 

Special activities: 

• Karen Bennett, who is a member at one of our supporting congregations, Central Avenue church of Christ in Valdosta, GA, came to Paraguay to work with us for several days! She was involved in many activities, from giving personal devotionals in the homes of many of our sisters, to visiting an area orphanage, to encouraging our mission team ladies, and serving as special guest speaker at the Annual Ladies Planning Retreat. It was a real pleasure to have Karen in Paraguay and we greatly appreciate her enthusiasm for mission work. We hope she comes back!
  
  
• Gabriel Gonzalez and Eliezer Pérez are students from the Institute of Theology of Latin-America (ITL) in Guatemala who have come to Paraguay to work with us for three weeks. They have been a great encouragement to the church and have done a fine job in every lesson, sermon, and study that they have given. They have served as a great example as to what we pray our Paraguayan Bible school will accomplish. 

• The Annual Ladies’ Planning Retreat was held this year in the home of Pituca Wingate with 23 ladies present. Karen Bennett brought a lesson involving a Christian’s Survival Kit. Andrea said, “It was so encouraging to see many of our ladies think so deeply about the growth and maturity of the congregation and their roles as women, workers, and servants in His Kingdom as we sat down together to set our goals for 2013.” 

• Annual Team Banquet, Team Workshop and Planning Session, and Team Retreat This time of year is always fun, busy, and exciting because there are so many activities going on. The mission team always takes this time to reflect back on what has happened in the past year, evaluate any changes necessary, and then make plans for the upcoming year. After having the Heiderich’s with us during our workshop, we spent a couple of days developing our plans for next year (it’s going to be a great one!) and then we took a couple of days off to have a retreat in Atyra at the hotel/resort of Casa del Monte. 

• Brother Donnie Bates was the first of our guest speakers (via Internet) for our Wednesday night “Summer Series” lessons. Modern technology allowed us to connect with him from Denver and his lesson was well received! Our upcoming speakers include Chris Fry, Willie Alvarenga, Andy Chavarilla, Enoch Rinks, and Douglas Alvarenga.
   
• Contacts / Bible Studies
   
• English Course Contacts: Our English studies continue to go well as we are advancing toward more serious Bible studies. Please keep Andrea, Guadalupe, Adriana, Blanca, Sergia, Antonio, and Graciela in your prayers that they may be touched by the word of God and respond to Christ’s invitation.

Evangelistic efforts:
We set up several evangelistic studies with the ITL students through one on one studies, and addressed the topic of salvation in our home Bible study groups where a visitor was attending. Please keep Elvira, Susanna, Javier, Miguel, and Vicente in your prayers.

Steps toward mission goals:
Jeremy Barrier and Roy Wilson from the Madison church of Christ in Huntsville, AL came to Paraguay to investigate the possibility of starting a Christian radio program for the area. Brother Ike Yegros accompanied them around Asunción and assisted in researching the local resources. We pray this program will come to fruition in the near future!

Upcoming plans:
Our Annual Congregational End of the Year Dinner is coming up this next month. It is always a fun event!

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND ACTIVITIES
Personal HIGHLIGHT(s) of the Month: So many great activities! There was the Annual Team Banquet and Retreat, the Annual Ladies Planning Retreat, visitors Karen Bennett, Jeremy Barrier, Roy Wilson, Eliezer Pérez, and Gabriel Gonzalez, along with the Marine Ball and Thanksgiving dinner! Whew!

Personal study:
I am currently reading / have read: Difficult Conversations and How to Discuss What Matters Most” by Douglas Stone and Bruce Patton, and “Preaching” by Fred B. Craddock 

Culture and language study: 
Andrea has enrolled in Berlitz Language School for advanced Spanish classes. She loves it! We are praying this will really help her skills in speaking Spanish. (BTW, she served as translator for Karen for more than a week!)

Family activities:

• U.S. Marine Ball - we celebrated the 237th birthday of the Marine Corp with several of
  our friends from the US Embassy at their Annual Marine Ball. It was a beautiful ceremony and a very fun night! I even had the opportunity to have a religious discussion with the US Ambassador, James Thessin. 
• Andrea helped head up the planning and execution of the Annual Thanksgiving Lunch by the Las Amigas Club. They use the event to raise funds for the nursing scholarships. There were some 140 people in attendance and the food was absolutely delicious! 
• We took the ITL students to a concert of traditional Paraguayan music and dance. Our sister, Natalia Mendoza, was participating in the event. 
• The mission team shared a nice Thanksgiving Dinner together on “Turkey Day” this year. 

Visitation:
Andrea and Karen Bennett made several home visits to bring a devotional to some of our ladies with theme of “The Joy of Being a Woman.”

Upcoming plans:
Andrea will be hosting the monthly Ladies Tea in our home in December. They plan on exchanging gifts and, of course, Andrea gets to cook!

We will also be having Christmas Dinner with the team and Brittnea’s parents, Kevin and Tammy Dye, next month!

We hope to start the first phase of construction next month on the building. We plan on removing one of the interior walls first so that we can enlarge the space we are using for worship assembly. We’re praying to find a solution to get started on building a new auditorium!

Troy and Andrea Spradlin

To see the report with pictures, please click here.

100+ Baptisms In North India...

As we have entered in the last month of the year, we wonder from where to start with the abundance of blessings we received this year from our good God.  

Sharing the Truth 
The students are asked to go by bus to the far places and visit the nearer places on foot. As an evangelistic tool, we started last year an open gospel meeting in a rented hall. We have fixed this meeting on every first Wednesday of the month. On this day the other preachers also join us and we have a great fellowship.  In addition to that the local preachers have had meetings in their respective areas and invited other preachers including me to preach there. It helps to introduce the Church to the new people as well as new areas.  

Areas of work
We have been working in Maloya, Daddu Majra Colony, PGI, Kharar (a suburb of adjoining City Mohali, Punjab), Baddi (Himachal Pradesh), Panchkula (Haryana). Students are sent as groups to evangelize and teach people. Each day our work is on.  

Bombay Trip
It could be called a successful one, though there was tension in the city at the rumor of a fundamental Hindu leader’s death (92). There was a fear that they could create chaos. But everything went well by the grace of God. After I reached home, I heard that he was dead. It was the same time I landed in Chandigarh. I trust the Lord had providential care in that. I had 3 days class there and taught on the plan of salvation. Many of the denominational people attended that study and appreciated. In fact they requested me to come again in March next year to teach them.   

Wedding Bells
Brother Muan and Mary were married last month. Muan is a member here and worships with us but Mary is in Ahmadabad, Gujarat. She is working in Military service and expects to move to Chandigarh.  

Preparing for the upcoming lectureship
The Chandigarh Church and the NIBC host their annual lectureship for the preachers in North India. This is the first and major initiative to bring brothers together on one platform. It helps the weak brethren to be in touch and do not lose the faith. 100 letters are being sent to the different locations of North India (Hindi speaking Belt) to invite preachers to attend NIPL-2013. This year the North India Preachers’ Lectureship comes on the 14th and 15th of February 2013. The study this year will be from 2 & 3 John and the Epistle of Jude. This year we have planned to gift a small Bible Bag to each preacher with the Bible College address printed on that. This way those preachers can tell about the NIBC, all the time they go for preaching or visiting people with their Bible. 

Literature Distribution 
We are helping preachers throughout North India by sending each month the complete Bibles, New Testaments, Song Books, Tracts and small leaflets. The Voice of Truth has been proven a real blessing for those who are in search of Truth. 

This year so far we have sent 385 Bible, 150 song books, 5,000 VOTI (Hindi), more that 20,000 Truth for today books, several NT’s, tracts and sent BIBLE KI BAAT (Bi-monthly) leaflet.   

The obedience to the Truth
It gives us a great joy when we hear of those who have obeyed the Lord. Not only here, we have heard of more than 100 baptisms that took place in different locations where our co-workers are working.  

New Students
We have been working to enroll the students for the next session. I have been getting requests from Punjab, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and other places. 

We give thanks to God for all the blessings he has bestowed on us this year and appreciate all the partners in prayer and encouraging us with their means. To God be the glory (1 Corinthians 3:6, 7).

These are just a few out of the countless blessings we received and it gives me joy to share with you all.   

Your fellow worker

Earnest

Struggles To A Faithful Christian Life In Cambodia...

Greeting from Siem Reap church of Christ.

Hopefully, this letter will find you in good health and blessed in His work.

The church in Siem reap is doing alright. We may have faced some small problems, but we can overcome only through the very word of God that we trust. 

It's about the harvest time in the whole country of Cambodia so most of our people are going to be busy to gather their crops in the next a few more weeks.

School is doing okay as I heard from Phanat. Also our orphanage is doing alright. Please keep us all in your prayers as we try to live a faithful Christian life and try to teach our members of the church, our orphans and students to grow spiritually. We never forget at all that, while we are trying to be growing, there are some struggling among us and I believe that, things like that happen to everyone and every church, it just may be less or more. 

The reason that we ask you to pray to our God on our behalf, we know that you may have faced more problems than us and you and your church are older and more mature than us. Also, as you know that, we are young both physically and spiritually and yet there are many more things ahead of us, either happiness in Christian family or problems that we are going to face.

Lastly, I am very grateful for your faithful supporting, praying and caring to us. I really want to express my feelings to you and the brethren who are involved supporting us and the work that we are doing, and I hope that through this letter you may understand my long way feeling. May God bless you.

Chann

Courage, Love, and Humility To Run A School…

Happy Holidays to all my friends and family back home in the USA. Hope you had a safe gathering and shared many wonderful memories with your loved ones. As for me and the work here, we are continually making wonderful memories for our Lord. We've gone through many ups and downs as a spiritual family, but we still keep on pressing on. We pray that it is like that with you all in the states as well. 

The school is doing well. We are finishing up our 1 quarter for our first year students. We now have a total of 10 students enrolled for the 2014 class. We ask that you keep them in your thoughts and prayers. We've also added a new staff member. Piseth, one of our 2010 graduates, came to me and asked if he could teach at the school. I was so proud at his decision knowing that he isn’t receiving a salary for it but still insist on being on the staff. 

It takes a lot of courage, love, and humility to be able to step up and make such a decision. As director, I have to be very careful who I bring on as staff. Piseth and Darat have those rare leadership qualities that are outlined in the Bible. Humility, Courage, Love, Sacrifice, willingness to learn, and trustworthiness describes these two and I am so proud to be able to work side by side with them. 

IBISR continues to get better and better as we progress into the years ahead. We are still learning from our mistakes and still trying to make it as profitable for souls in Cambodia as much as we can. Please continue to support the work here. Trust in God to provide. Trust in His Word to transform individuals to become proper stewards and trust in the brotherhood to carry out His mission across the globe!

Phanat

God's Great Blessings In Ukraine...

Every time I start writing reports about the work that was done, I come to understand how great God’s blessings are. Sometimes the “walls” might seem too high and almost impossible to overcome, but when looking at those difficulties after a while, you can see that God is Almighty. We used to pray for a building for the Institute, and now we have it. We wanted more faithful and committed students, and now we have them too. We can overcome any obstacle with God’s help, and we have to believe in that.

Classes at the Institute resumed on November 12 after a week of the Fall Break. This month first-year students had the following courses: Godhead, Satan and angels (Vitaliy Rodichev), Genesis (Victor Semikoz), and the second-year students studied Acts (Vladimir Paziy) and 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Dennis Sopelnik). All students are very active in learning God’s Word, and there are several of them who get the best grades. I hope that the sound doctrine, which they learn here, will help them in their work at the local congregations. 

Recently, one of our graduates, Dennis Petrov, started helping with the worship services at Dokuchayevsk Church of Christ (Donetsk region). We went there together, and it was obvious that the church needed sound and wise leadership. That’s another proof that tells us how important it is to train diligently a good minister to do the work for God. I urge you to pray for that congregation and ask God to provide for further ministry there. 

Several students and I also visited the Church of Christ in Dzerzhinsk. We came there at the time when their preacher wasn’t there so we had to lead the whole worship. Brethren from the US, who support this church, are doing a great job reaching out for the lost souls and having annual Christian camps. I think that we will continue helping this congregation, meanwhile providing our students with some experience in preaching and taking on a responsibility. 

In November, I was preaching in Gorlovka and Dzerzhisk. Churches in Ukraine are still in need of our prayers. Of course we want to see more baptisms and more faithful Christians, but we never know when God is going to give the increase. Two weeks ago, another soul was added to the Central Church of Christ in Gorlovka. Her name is Vera, and she is a step-mother of Veronika Zhuravlyova (a wife of the preacher Andrew Zhuravlyov). It’s a first baptism here in the last year and a half. The Lord keeps adding the saved people to the church. 

Talking about the church, we also often think about the future generations. The Word of God teaches us to prepare children and train them in having the faithfulness and love for the Lord. Recently my wife and I started visiting the orphanage for the children of the low social level, and their age is 9-10 years. Of course, we can’t help all the children, but we wanted to start working with this group. We’ve already had several Bible classes, and those kids are getting used to us. The state doesn’t provide them with enough support, and often they don’t have enough school accessories, clothes and personal hygiene items. We are thankful to our brothers from the US (Jeff Abrams, John Kachelman and others) who find finances to help these children. 

All students send you their greetings and express their gratitude for your faithfulness and support of this ministry.

My family also thanks every one of you personally for your participation in our common cause.

God bless you and your ministry for Him abundantly. 

Your brother and co-worker,
Dennis Sopelnik

To see Dennis’ report with pictures, please click here.

Nearing The End Of The Alpha Class...

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings from the brothers and sisters here in Wotutu. It is great for us to relate what made news in CBIW. We do hope this report finds you in good health and sound faith.

It was great in our worship today as we were surprised by the students of CBIW. Today was just the last Sunday for the current students to worship with us as they will leaving school to their different locations for full time permanent work in January 2013. They donated a new pulpit stand to the Wotutu congregation as a sign of their own appreciation for the care and love shown to them throughout these two years.

Our programs in CBIW went on well. Brother James Coker finished his course on the Pastoral Epistles and traveled back to the USA. He made it home safe, while brother Josh Austin, the coordinator, came and is doing fine with the course on Marriage and Family. After the class on Saturday, because we are taking the class down to Saturday to meet up with time, some students went to 4 locations to nurture and preach in our young congregations. All of them returned safe as of now we praise God for and we thank you for your continuous prayers. 

The picture on the left is brother Josh in Class, teaching the course Marriage and Family. It is a great course that will go a long way to strengthen families, because we have strong families then the church equally will be strong.

Brother Josh taught Bible class this morning, on Marriage and Family, to help those who were not in the normal school hours to also benefit from it. It was great as 141 people were in attendance. Our group continues to expand. Keep this work in your prayers.

The leaders of the Wotutu congregation, with the students of CBIW, met for their last meeting. The meeting was well planned to meet up with the coordinator so that they can give their advices to the students as they are ready to face the world.

Plans
1) This Wednesday, we shall all move to the last campaign for the year in Douala French speaking area for the annual lectureship. Keep us in your prayers that we shall travel safe and God will use us to make known His name to many.

2) Our first graduation ceremony will be next week on the 20th of December 2012. Please keep that in your prayers. The same day we shall also have the second matriculation of 25 new students who will start their studies for two years starting this January 2013. Keep us and this work in your prayers. Thanks for being part of the work. 

Appreciations
On behalf of the staff, students and members of the Wotutu congregation. We thank you for all that you have done to make our ministry get to this level. You are in our prayers and we pray God to be with you and help you in all that you do for His glorification. Do your best to share this with others.

Prayer Request
Please keep my wife in your prayers, for it is one week now since she delivered. She is sick. The baby is doing fine, but she is not sound.

Elangwe and family
By His grace director of CBIW

Planning For 2013...

With only a few weeks left in 2013, a number of us are looking to the year ahead and making plans connected to the specific goals we want to achieve. Within the Extension Program we are looking to achieve goals on an individual school basis and for the overall program. We are truly living in an exciting time as the year end report indicated last week. If you have not read through that report, I urge you to take a look at the information provide by Keith Kasarjian. 

Each week we want to share with you more of the plans we are working on to achieve the goals of the Bear Valley Bible Institute. These plans are only possible because of the dedicated Christians who are involved at every level in the extension work. We are thankful for the overseeing congregations we partner with to train God’s faithful to share the message of Jesus Christ around the world. We are also thankful for the privilege of working beside the administration at each extension location. Our desire is to align our plans with theirs as we move into the year(s) ahead.

 Our requests to you, as you read this report, involve the following: 

1) Continue to pray for the staff of the Extension Program, as well as, the overall work as we move forward. 

2) Share each week’s report with others who are interested in joining us in this effort. If you will send their e-mail address we will add them to the weekly list.

3) If you are working with a congregation that is involved in a specific mission point, and they might be ready to take a step toward training men to preach in that area, we would love an opportunity to visit with you about how we could work together in greater ways to reach their mission goals.

4) We also need financial partners who are willing to share in providing for the costs of preparing students to go into fields that are “white for the harvest” to preach the gospel message to their own people.

Please consider how you can partner with us in this noble effort of training the faithful of God to fulfill the Great Commission.

Now on to the other reports...

Coordinator Updates
Reports from the coordinators are now located on the website, under Staff Reports. The address is /extension-schools/

Extension Reports 

Lessons From The Pastoral Epistles: James Coker, a visiting instructor, is in Cameroon teaching 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus as the CBIW prepares for graduation.

Growing Prospects In Togo: The Center for Biblical Studies is looking to grow the program through several prospects.

Adjusting To Life On The Mission: The Wagner report this week shares day to day information of how their family is adjusting to the work at the Chimala Mission.

“Searching For Truth” In Ki-Swahili: The World Video Bible School has published Searching for Truth for the work in Tanzania in the Ki-Swahili language. 

Final Thoughts
Each report is such a joy to read and the blessings God continues to provide through the beautiful men and women of God around the world is exciting. The thrill of planting and watering the seed is heightened when seeing our God give the increase. Thank you for being a part of this work. Thank you for making it possible.

God bless
Bob

"Searching For Truth" In Ki-Swahili...

Greetings Fellow Workers:

It is with hearts of mixed emotions we write this report. We are hours away from leaving Tanzania to begin our furlough. We will miss the work, our coworkers, friends and family. We have much to be thankful for and you, our supporters, are at the top of that list. We thank God for His grace, mercy and love manifested in this work through the love of countless brothers and sisters.

The work continues to bring forth much spiritual fruit. The printed page and other means of media are multiplying our efforts on a grand scale. One example is the “Searching for Truth” evangelist book put out by World Video Bible School. We have been the recipients of so much sound biblical material from them. The recent translation of this SFT book will have a powerful impact on the lives of countless souls. We are expecting the arrival of over 5,000 copies in Ki-Swahili by the end of this month.

We have also received 1,000 copies of the DVD that goes with the SFT book. As I write this Short Report, Charles Heberth (the one who translated the book into Ki-Swahili), Isaac and Makunde, Anita Hochdorf,  and Sean’s parents are at a local Christmas fair manning a booth and giving away the DVD’s. We pray God will give the harvest! 

We strongly encourage you check out World Video and see all the sound material available at: WVBS.org - Thank you all who serve at WVBS and for the good you are doing around the world. Thank you all who participated and donated funds to bring this soul saving project to fruition.

We are also very thankful for all the efforts Stephanie, Anita and Trina do in the training of the Christian ladies in how to teach. Yesterday, Anita, Allie, Neema, Jane and others went to Manyire to teach the ladies how to teach. The turn out was good, the ladies were edified and the work continues. 

Next week our coworkers begin arriving for the “Future Preacher’s Training Camp” and the “Tanzania Youth Camp.” We are so very grateful for Ben Thompson, John Rice, Burt Fuller and others who help us help the Lord’s church here in TZ. Through these efforts many come to know God as their Savior, while others learn how to serve in the Kingdom. Thank you all and thank you to all who support them in their labors.

We close with hearts full of gratitude and joy. We are blessed beyond measure and through your continued prayers and God’s power, we have only just begun. 

We are sending out a “Thanksgiving Challenge” (see letter below). Much progress has been made toward our goal/need and we thank God and everyone who has helped make a difference. There is much to do, so, please consider the “Challenge” and pass it along to others who have a heart of service and for lost souls.

In Him, Cy, Stephanie, Granny & Allie 

Tanzania, East Africa Mission Effort
November 15, 2012

The Tanzania, East Africa Mission effort began on July, 1998 under the oversight of the Kensington Woods church of Christ in Hattiesburg, MS. A 20 year plan was developed which included:

1. Strengthening the existing congregations in Arusha and Moshi, Tanzania.
2. Establish Bible schools in Arusha and Moshi and conduct a Safari for Souls campaign each summer to help mature the two congregations as well as assist in evangelizing two cities with populations in excess of 2 million souls. 
3. Establish a school of preaching in Arusha to train Africans to become Gospel preachers.
4. Assist the newly trained Gospel preachers to return to their villages in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda & Democratic Republic of Congo in establishing churches of Christ.

After 15 years of faithful mission effort by countless individuals and congregations, so much has been accomplished. The Andrew Connally School of Preaching has graduated over 100 evangelists from four countries in the two-year in-resident program. These men are now serving congregations throughout East Africa. More than 150 new congregations have been established, hundreds of East Africans are obeying the Gospel each year and leadership training is taking place continuously. The young people have such a love for God; therefore, a Future Preacher Training camp was started six years ago and is now filled to capacity. We have just completed the translation of the entire Searching for Truth into the native tongue of Ki-Swahili through the efforts of World Video Bible School. We are also working on translating the New Testament. This will enable each of these groups to study and gain an understanding of Gods’ Word in his own language.

Much has been accomplished, but there remains much to be done. The recession in the U.S. has had a major impact on many of our financial supporters; however, despite the recession there still remains a pressing need to evangelize East Africa. Currently, there are approximately 50 congregations and 65 individuals supporting these mission efforts.

How can you help?

1. You can pray daily for the souls in East Africa to have the opportunity to hear and obey the Gospel as we have been charged in Matt 28:19.
2. You can contribute to the immediate need of $25,000 for operational and student expenses to complete the 2012 efforts.
3. You can commit to congregational, family or individual support through a one time and/or monthly contribution for 2013 and beyond so that this work may continue. 

Funds may be sent to:

Elders
Kensington Woods church of Christ
415 S. 40^th Ave
Hattiesburg, MS 39402

I ask that as your leadership, your families, and you, as individuals, sit down and pray about your decisions regarding charitable donations for the next year, you will consider this work and become a partner in our efforts to train preachers, bring souls to Christ and establish self-sustaining congregations throughout East Africa. 

Cy Stafford
TZ 2000 Missions Coordinator

Adjusting To Life On The Mission...

We are settling nicely into our lives here in Chimala. While life here does not have the bustle of going to rehearsals, practices, and meetings, we are all quite busy every day. We each have our own niche on the mission where we are all contributing to the mission and the surrounding community.

Rena is busy each day teaching the children in our home-school. She also helps out around the mission in various places each day. With her nursing background, she will often get a question about a medical issue when we travel to local congregations. She is going to start volunteering one day a week at the hospital in the OB ward. There is a large influx of patients due to the government health care laws and help is desperately needed.

Anna (17 years old) has been quite busy. As I write this report, she is busy with one of her Tanzanian friends preparing for teaching tomorrow. She and a friend go each week to a small Massai village to teach Primary School children. Also, she tutors a few of the mission workers on their English skills. When it comes to her, Anna is in her element! 

Laura (15 years old) often goes with Anna to the OB ward at the hospital to deliver baby blankets to new mothers. She enjoys being out and helping others.

We had some special visitors in the month of October. John and Linda Wagner (Chad's mom and dad) came over. They were quite glad to see the grand-kids and we were glad to see them. While here, they sure made themselves useful around the mission! 

Chimala Mission Notes
The Chimala Mission Hospital serves people in a 200 kilometer radius. We are offering OB services free of charge to the residents while the government is supposed to cover the costs of this service. They, however, have not been totally faithful in covering those costs. Also, we are assigning more nurses to the OB to cover the patient load. In fact, in April of this year, we delivered 111 babies in the whole month. In October, there were 287 babies delivered. We have almost tripled our patient load! The mission hospital is doing the best that it can to cover those costs, but it is putting the hospital in financial jeopardy. Also, we offer several services to HIV and TB patients. On a recent, normal day, I visited this section of the hospital.  As you can see, the hospital is quite busy.

There are several needs at the hospital, as you can imagine, and I would like to share a few of those with you. First, we need American medical professionals to come over on a short-term or long-term basis. Working and serving at the hospital and the mission is not as bad as one might think. There are houses available and plenty of work to do! Second, there are several capital improvements needed at the hospital - from a renovation of the records room to an update at the morgue. Third, we are in need of donations of medical equipment to be used at the hospital. If you would like to help with any of these, please let us know.  We are striving to show the love and compassion of Jesus to a sick and dying world while making a medical and spiritual difference. 

Preaching the Gospel
We visited several congregations over the last few weeks. Recently, I preached at the Isitu church of Christ. They were having a Gospel Seminar. They had our CBI students there all weekend and I was able to preach on that Sunday Morning. If you notice the gasoline generator behind Menard (my Estate Manager and Translator), it was purchased by the Tanzanian Christians to do their own seminars. That is evidence of the local Christians taking ownership of the evangelism in their own area!

I will be starting a class at the Igawa church of Christ each week on Friday. They would like to have more in-depth teaching. This congregation is doing a good job in evangelism and church growth and I am honored to be a part of their work. 

Special Appeal
We are still in need of support for our family. We came over to Chimala on faith that the LORD would provide. We pray that the LORD will work through you and your congregation to help us in our work. November and December are times when churches plan their budget for 2013. Also, individuals are looking for year-end opportunities for contributions. We are in need and await your support and assistance. Currently, our overseeing congregation fills in the need of $1,500/month in our support, but it is quite taxing to the mission work. If you can help us in our work, please let us know.

Chad Wagner and family

To see Chad’s report with pictures, please click here.

Growing Prospects In Togo...

TRACT DISTRIBUTION & ENROLLMENT EXERCISE

World Bible School and Mission Printing continue to complement each other in an effort to spread the saving message of Christ. Ever since we started receiving 20 footer sea containers from Mission Printing in the US, it has facilitated the world Bible School enrollment exercises. In the past, it was difficult getting people to write their names in order to enroll in the WBS, but now with the coming in of the tracts, they are more willing to give their names in exchange for a tract. This is so because most denominations sell their tracts and other religious literature that the Church of Christ is willing to hand out free of charge.

We recently organized a three day tract distribution exercise at ‘Obra Spot’ a very popular spot in the center of town. We gave out a couple of boxes of tracts and at the end of it all, we enrolled 200 plus names.

The Keve campaign was a joint effort between the Kpalime church and the Dzodze church in the Volta of region of Ghana. This church planting exercise started a couple of months ago when bro Riley brought a team of men from the US to work in the South Eastern part of Togo. As a result of this effort, five preachers trained at CBS in Kpalime have been hired to minister in the new congregations.

In a recent campaign at Keve, twenty souls were baptized thus marking the beginning of the Keve Church of Christ. Below you have pictures of some activities during the campaign.

The number of students at Center for Biblical Studies continues to be 15. Studies are going well and teachers are also committed to their duties. Students have continued in evangelism and as a result have planted one new congregation, distributed several tracts, have 32 prospects that they are studying with. Above all they are seriously anticipating their graduation by September 2013.

Willie Gley

Lessons From The Pastoral Epistles...

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings from this end. Your brothers and sisters are doing fine as the climax for our first graduation ceremony continues to come closer to us. The second matriculation ceremony is also coming up the same day.

We do hope you are doing fine and all that you do God is blessing. Brother James Coker from Colorado visited us and taught the Pastoral Epistles. He arrived safe and he is safe just for the fact that the power supply in Wotutu now is posing a problem to cool him down as we are in the dry season.

Thank you for your prayers as all that went out for weekend evangelism came back safe and sound. We went out to 4 locations after our lectures with the visiting instructor and the Lord added one soul in the congregation in Kombe. There was no camera there to share that happy moment with you.

Thanks for all your prayers. The Lord blessed my family again yesterday 1st of December 2012 with another baby boy. Keep the mother, son and father in your prayers and we take care of this precious gift from God.

This morning James taught and preached in the Wotutu congregation. His great lesson was so inspiring to the family of God and also to the entire community as our powerful PA system goes across our premises.

He had the privilege to speak out God’s word to a total of 104 worshippers in the Wotutu congregation this morning.

Brother James held in his hands God’s blessing of a child to the Eboli’s family. The Lord blessed them with a son two weeks ago and brother James was blessed to be with us today and we gave him the opportunity to pray for the baby.

 CBIW students smiled as brother James offered them a copy of a book on 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus by brother Denny Petrillo, a great book for the Pastoral Epistles. They know that knowledge is power so any opportunity for them to have it is always awesome.

CBIW rejoiced with another opportunity to received two ties each from brother James. Preaching is a noble job so they need stuff like this to look neat as they preach the gospel. Keep brother James in your prayers till he flies out of Cameroon this Thursday.

Plans
1) Please keep the plans of our very first graduation ceremony and second matriculation in your prayers. We are expecting above 700 people. This needs better preparation to make people feel just okay as they enjoy fellowship and celebration with us. Please you can be part of this?

2) Please keep brother Josh Austin in your prayers as he prepares to come over to Cameroon to teach Marriage and Family in the school, also to be part of the graduation ceremony.

Appreciation
We thank God for using you to accomplished whatsoever He is doing here and what He will continue to do. God bless you. Thanks for being there for us. Let us continue to work together.

Do your best to share this report with others. God bless and watch over you.

Elangwe and family
By His grace director CBIW

A Year End Report Worth Considering...

I trust everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break and was able to spend time with family in one way or another. As we are drawing near to the end of 2012 and looking into the face of 2013, there is much wonderful news to share. 

Keith Kasarjian has been a tremendous asset to the program since its beginning 15 years ago. He is one of several who are full time staff members on the Bear Valley team. Keith has been working to put together year end information for the entire program of Extension Training to give us all a perspective of where we are and where we are going. I am thankful to have such a capable right hand man to work with as we move ahead in the work of training men to preach. The information below was accumulated and written by Keith. 

Please take time to read through his report and consider what God has done with the cumulative efforts of all that is involved in this program.

It is hard to believe, but the end of 2012 is quickly approaching. At Bear Valley, we have had a banner year, unlike any other, and are even more excited about the prospects for next year and the future to come. This year has truly been unprecedented in the history of the Bear Valley Extension Program and we want to share some of the excitement with you - our friends, partners, and supporters.

There are currently 17 extensions, in 14 different countries around the world, with 277 full-time, preacher training students! This year has also witnessed 90 men graduate with their degree or certificate from Bear Valley. Just think of all the potential in those men and their families in the years to come, as the vast majority of them are serving in fertile parts of the world. This is truly exciting! This year has also seen the addition of four new extensions (the most ever in one year), new coordinators, directors, and partners.

However, at Bear Valley, we know that we are not doing this alone. We depend on partners and supporters to help in training preachers around the world. In addition to our all-important supporters, 91 different local teachers taught in Extensions where Bear Valley has been partnering with others in training men to preach. In addition to those local men, another 60 men made the journey to an extension to teach a “short course” to these students. This truly is a team effort at every level.

In addition to teaching these men how to preach and live, we want to instill in them a passion for soul-winning. This is borne out in the many studies, campaigns, and gospel meetings that they are involved in throughout the year. As a result of these efforts, we know of at least 664 baptisms, 13 new congregations, 130 restorations, and the conversion of several denominational preachers. To God be the glory!

This has truly been a remarkable year, but we are not resting on our laurels as we look to an exciting future. There are already 105 new students set to enter the program next year and we will be partnering with a new extension in Asunción, Paraguay. 2013 promises to be the most exciting year yet.

At Bear Valley, we thank all those who support us and those we partner with to carry out the mandate of 2 Timothy 2:2. What you are doing is making a difference and we literally could not do it without you. Thank you for the confidence you have placed in us and we look forward to continuing to serve together as long as the Lord allows.

Now on to the other reports...

Coordinator Updates
Reports from the coordinators are now located on the website, under Staff Reports. The address is /extension-schools/

Extension Reports 

Appreciation - A Noble Theme In Cameroon: The focus of chapel lessons in Cameroon helps students understand the need for Appreciation.

Graduation And Recruitment At The WCSOP: The West Coast School of Preaching graduates one class and prepares another in Takoradi, Ghana.

Classes Move Along Well In Kenya: The Kenya School of Preaching is on a short break between quarters, but the work of these men is proving to do well and the need is great.

Kingdom Of Hope In Ghana: The efforts of Tony Johnson in Tamale, Ghana, along with others, to train men to preach is also connected to a great outreach to help children.

125 Graduates, 150 Church Plants In Tanzania: If you have ever wondered about the difference made in training men to preach in their own countries, just read this article.

Short Courses And Graduation At The ACSOP: Another class has completed their studies in Arusha, Tanzania and the work continues to grow. 

Final Thoughts
We hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing time over the Thanksgiving holiday. The end of the year is approaching quickly and we are continually working to develop ways to improve our efforts of training faithful men to preach the gospel. As stated earlier, we cannot do this work without you. Our God is great to have provided such loyal and dedicated individuals and congregations to be actively involved in extension training. We love and appreciate all of you.

God bless
Bob

Short Courses And Graduation At The ACSOP...

Dear Co-Workers:

It has been a busy few days. Graduation at the ACSOP is always a big event, and if it were not for many people working together the event would never happen. We have enjoyed having our guests also. Gary Fallis has been here for more than a week, teaching The Scheme of Redemption. He leaves on Tuesday. The Chad Wagner family has also been here since Tuesday. They came up from Chimala, where Chad serves as the Administrator of the Chimala Mission and Hospital, to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and have some vacation time. It has been a joy to have them and our kids have enjoyed spending time with their kids. They will leave tomorrow to go back to Chimala. Also, Cy and Stephanie Stafford, along with Exel Aultman, Stephanie's mother, will be leaving later this week for their furlough and reporting tour. So, please keep Gary, the Wagners, the Stafford's, and Exel in your prayers as they travel.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we will fill the rest of the report with pictures from the week's events. The final picture is of Ibrahim, with Ahimidiwe. Ibrahim was baptized after services at Kisongo this morning. Please pray for him as he grows in Christ. We will try to be more detailed about all these events next week.

Gee family

In order to see all of the pictures included in Jimmy’s report about graduation, please click here.

125 Graduates, 150 Church Plants In Tanzania...

Greetings Fellow Workers;

We pray everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving and that God continues to bless your life of service in Him. Stephanie, Granny, Allie and I hosted 35 for a Thanksgiving meal in our home. We were thankful for the Wagner family being with us. Chad is currently the Administrator for the Chimala mission. It was truly a time of fellowship and fun. 

Speaking of being Thankful, yesterday (Nov. 24th) we graduated 17 souls from the Andrew Connally School of Preaching. We were thankful for the presence of Gary Fallis who represented the Bear Valley Bible Institute. We are thankful for all the students, their dedication and the sacrifice they were willing to give that they might be better equipped for the work of the Kingdom. 

The school has now graduated 125 who are now serving the 150 church plants through out East Africa. It has been an amazing journey since we began in 1998. From two very small congregations with less than 30 to 150 plus with over 2,000 souls. Wow, simply amazing the things God continues to do.

We thank the Kensington Woods Elders for their vision. We thank the Bear Valley staff for their partnership in the Gospel. We thank everyone who has played a part in this work, making it possible to “...entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others” (2 Tim. 2:2). It was encouraging to see the Tanzania staff at the school take the lead and see this graduation through. All the missionaries did their part, the students theirs and through this cooperation, God was and is being glorified and souls are be saved, day by day. 

And, as if it could not have gotten any better, two men obeyed the Gospel after the graduation. One of our graduates (who hopes to plant a new congregation in his home village of Katish) had invited these fellows who he had studied with earlier to the graduation. They made the decision to obey and now the Kingdom is larger by two souls. Thanks be to God. He is good all the time.

Stephanie and I want to personally thank everyone who has contributed toward our furlough expenses. We never take for granted your love and generosity. We are looking forward to seeing many of you and sharing with you the work of God here in Tanzania in the coming weeks. 

During the month of December I will be traveling and working on the “Thanksgiving Challenge.” God’s mission work here in Tanzania needs your prayers, continued support and additional funds to continue in our efforts to “seek and save” those lost in sin. If you would like to meet with me, allow me to present the work to your congregation or simply have a cup of coffee allowing me some time to share with you our needs, please let me know. I have just a few open days left in December.

May your week of service bring glory to the Father, salvation to others and joy into your life.

In Him, Cy, Stephanie, Granny & Allie

Kingdom Of Hope In Ghana...

One of the projects I wanted to become involved with while I was in West Africa was to help children learn more about Jesus by teaching them English. The thought was to begin a local reading program, using the Bible, to teach children how to read and write English, a much desired skill in the villages and towns of Northern Ghana. If things worked out well with this initial learning center we would then begin adding classes in order to form a church of Christ elementary school. It sounded like a good plan to start small and grow, but God had different plans!

While looking for the right way to get started I kept running into road blocks in Tamale. In order to build a structure for the learning center to meet in I needed to get building permits, which required finding a draftsman to draw up building plans to submit. The man we had used to draw up the plans for the Bible Institute had left the area and it became a major task to find another qualified draftsman that would provide the drawings for a reasonable price. At the same time the project was getting a lukewarm response from some of the local church leaders I was counting on to help with the program. I was beginning to wonder about the wisdom of moving forward when the Kingdom of Hope was brought to my attention.

The Kingdom of Hope is a church of Christ Self-help Group (similar to an American non-profit organization) that was operating in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The group was set up in order to help take care of orphans from a recent tribal war. Generally in Ghana when a child loses their parents they are taken care of by extended family, generally older siblings or uncles and aunts. Unfortuately that was not happening in the villages around Bawku. The war had left many of the children without extended family in the area. It also left the Basari tribe in such depressed financial condition that many would not take on the additional responsibility of these children. So the Kuka church of Christ stepped in to help. On August 1, 2011 the church formed the Kingdom of Hope Orphan’s School for the purpose of taking care of as many of these children as possible.

After taking a trip to visit with the church leaders who are operating Kingdom of Hope I decided that this would be a great place to move forward with the plans for building the learning center. What really impressed me was how much the church in Kuka had done on their own. They saw a problem and reached out to help, even though they did not have the resources. They reached out trusting in God to provide for them. In order to qualify as a Self-help Group and take charge of these children the church had to have a plan to provide an education for the children. Since Kuka has no school that presented a problem, and rather than just opening an orphan’s home it was decided to open it as an orphan’s home and school. This was a pretty big decision since they had no school building, no teachers, and no housing for the children! But they did it, building a mud brick building for the school to meet in, keeping the children in their own homes, and feeding them as part of their own families. They found a man who was willing to teach for a very small amount, and the Kingdom of Hope Orphan’s School was opened. It offered on grade, P1 (similar to America’s 1st Grade) and a pre-school class for the younger children. The school had no desks, a single textbook for each of the 5 subjects taught that the teacher uses, and none of the learning aides we generally associate with elementary school education. But they did it as best they could with what they had.

I found out about the school because they were outgrowing their ability to take care of the children and run the school. When school began in September of this year the school had 42 children living with members of the church! In addition, there were a number of other children living in the village whose parents wanted to be able to attend the school as well since it was the only one in the area. They needed to expand to offering P2 classes along with the P1 class, meaning a need for another teacher and another set of text books. The problem was they hadn’t been able to pay the first teacher for the past couple of months, let alone hire another one. They were looking for a little help with paying for their teachers when they approached me, just about the same time I was looking for a place to build a children’s learning center. It is amazing how things sometimes work out.

Over the past couple of months I have become more and more involved with the Kingdom of Hope. In addition to getting their teacher paid, and hiring two more, one for P2 and one for the pre-school children, we have started building a new learning center for the school on ground provided to the school by the village chief. This new building, to be called the Enoch Elliot Learning Center, is much bigger than I had originally intended to build, but after seeing the Kuka church’s faith that God will provide, I decided to take the same leap of faith and build what is needed rather than what I had planned. It is exciting to see what God is doing as we work together in Kuka!

I will be heading back to Kuka next weekend to visit with the children and check on the building progress. It is a long trip, taking almost five hours each way over rough roads, but it is always worth it to see the children’s faces when the “white man” shows up. The church in Kuka is making a difference in these children’s life, and I have been blessed to be able to have a small part in their work. I am thankful to be seeing James 1:27 in action! If you would like to help there is a list of some of Kingdom of Hope’s needs in the thank you section on page 2 of this newsletter.

Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies News
The eighth term has begun at the Bible Institute with 11 returning students. Two students are missing this term due to sickness, an ever present problem here in Ghana. This quarter I will be teaching two classes, Hebrews and Galatians. Other staff members will be teaching classes covering the Godhead, the Preacher and His Work, Old Testament 6, and Christian Morals. It should be a great term for all involved.

Work on the new building continues to move forward. The last major hurdle to overcome in order to move in is getting the electricity turned on. There has been a freeze on new service since September, but it appears that they are now allowing a few new connections to be hooked up. If we can get the electricity on this month we plan to move into the building during the month of December.

The schools evangelism campaign to Bimbila was very wet, but still a success. In total there were 12 baptisms and the worship service on the final day of the campaign had 35 in attendance. For a full report on the campaign, and other work being done by those associated with the school, check out my Bear Valley Extension School reports at /extension- news/tag/tamale.

Thank You Supporters!
Overseeing Congregation Greenbrier church of Christ

Supporters (includes recent one time contributions) Greenbrier church of Christ
Colony church of Christ
Bobby and Jackie Sims

Sue Shumate
Aubrey and Donna Allensworth Mildred Priest
Virginia Hielen
Wilkie Family
Chris and Shirley Brill
Linda Ray

I am very thankful to all those who are part of the work here in West Africa. Last month’s contributions were almost double the normal monthly contribution! This extra amount will be used to continue working on the living quarters at the new building as well as provide more textbooks for the Enoch Elliott Learning Center.

If you are interested in helping the Kingdom of Hope Orphan’s School, here is a list of ongoing needs. Please make sure you specify what you would like your gift to be used for if you have a particular area you want to assist with.

Teacher’s salaries - $150 per month (3 @ $50) Desks and Chairs - $20 each set
Text books - $4 each
Mattresses - $25 each
School lunches - $150 per month Repairs for existing building - $1000

Please send all contributions to:

Greenbrier church of Christ 
Attn: African Missions
12 Wilson Farm Rd.
Greenbrier, AR 72058

Contact Information

Mailing Address:
Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies P.O. Box TL 925
Tamale, Northern Region
Ghana

Ghana Phone - 011-233-0248216622
E-Mail - anthonyjohnson2010@gmail.com

Tony Johnson

To see Tony’s report with pictures, please click here.