Almost back to normal in Accra

PROLOGUE

Truly, the Lord has made it once again. We are so grateful to Him; He has protected us throughout the month and usher us into the new month. May His name be praised and adored.

We shall also not forget our cheerful givers who in diverse means keep supporting in cash, kind and in prayer. Our appreciation to the Mountain Home Church, Jefferson City and our Ghanaian brethren, Doryumu Church, and other brethren whose donations have reached the school for her progress. The director, teaching and non-teaching staff and the students say God keeps blessing all and restores in abundance the collections sent to the school.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

Classes are in progress. As I reported in my previous reports, as a result of shutdown, we missed one full term which was spent in the house, classes have been restructured and more days have been added to enable us complete the undone courses. In this quarter, four different courses are currently under study instead of our normal two. After these courses, the school will vacate on 28 of August.

This month, three (3) short courses were done by the instructors Kojo Acquah who taught New Testament Church 1; Gyan Mante, Personal Evangelism 1; and E.O. Larbi, the Godhead.

INTERNAL ACTIVITIES

As part of the school’s activities, we organized evening evangelism (open air) where students had the opportunity to exhibit their homiletic ability in preaching according to topics scheduled for them at the school’s environs: Plan of Salvation, Baptism and the Church of the Bible.

Furthermore, they handled most of the activities at the church in the school. They participated in the songs leading, exhortation, officiating the Lord’s supper and handling the children class. With this improvement, we have confidence that our students will deliver to their best as they practice.

EXTERNAL ACTIVITIES

Evangelism

We also embarked on house-to-house evangelism at a nearby village called Djankama where we had the chance to meet more prospects in the study of the Bible.

Also, we were grateful to hear from our student, Samuel Joas Arhin, who is yet to graduate, working effectively in his area. Two (2) baptisms were obtained at Akenyaa in the Central Region.

In addition, we had two (2) baptism at Nsawam, where Sammy fellowships to the glory of God. We are much impressed as the Lord keeps adding believers to the church through our students in the season of COVID-19. It is our prayer that none is affect with this virus.

Congregational Visit

The school’s director, brother E. O. Larbi visited the Asuaba church which is handled by one of the past students, brother Affum Kwame Botwey. In his visit, he exhorted the church and her leadership to steadfast in the true doctrine of Christ for their salvation. Having exhorted them, they were very happy to have the director’s visit, to check on the progress of the church as his student preaches for. The church requested that he visits them again.

Visit to the School Land

We are all happy that school, in future, will have her own infrastructure. This is our daily prayer. The last time, as the staff and students arranged to spray weedicide and to check on the security of the land, we rearranged again to check on the weeds and respraying before vacation.

CONCLUSION

We thank the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for His providential care in all the above activities till vacation. We still pray that the Lord will guide us safely as students and staff go back to their homes and to return unaffected on 13th September, 2020 and to give us more strength to do more activities and win more souls to the church.

Our plea to you is that you keep praying with us. God bless you all.

Graduation in Nigeria

Dear fellow soldiers of Christ Jesus.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you all from God our Father and from Jesus Christ  our Redeemer. Below is the report of some of our activities for the month of August 2020.

OVERVIEW
1. Students one month teaching practice
2. 18th Annual Bible Lectureship and graduation
3. BVBID Degree program
4. FIRST Semester classes begins

STUDENTS' ONE MONTH TEACHING PRACTICE:
The one month students teaching practice of July 24 through August 23,2020 resulted into 66 conversion and 63 restorations. Bro.Olorunda Augustine that served in Ido -Ekiti and Ijebu-Jesa respectively recorded 20 conversions and 5 restoration, Bro. Odulaja Gospel that served in AUCHI,Edo state recorded 8 conversion , Bro.Silas Wayne that served in Aba ,Abia state reported 6 conversion and 15 restoration while Bro.Okpulor Baruch recorded highest restoration of 18 erring brethren during the one month teaching practice. To God be the glory!
The one month teaching practice started and end well, with our students putting to good use the leadership and ministerial skills acquired at the school in the various congregation they were sent to. There were also several reports of prospects !

18TH ANNUAL BIBLE SEMINARS & GRADUATION
This year annual Bible lectureship held in BVBIN & SWSE, Ibadan located at Butubutu village via Badeku/Jago, Ibadan was graced with about 250 brethren from 115 congregations from Oyo, Osun,Ondo,Ogun,Kwara,Kogi,Edo,Delta,Enugu, Cross River,Rivers and Lagos State plus Abuja in spite of the global pandemic - covid - 19.
Brethren started trooping into our school compound from the evening of Monday, August 24 in preparation for the 3 days lectureship and graduation ceremony of 47 Bible student (3 for certificate of attendance, 32 diploma and 12 Advance diploma in Bible studies). This year Bible lectureship centered on " The prayer of the righteous people " (James 5 : 13- 18)
The much awaited graduation ceremony came up in the noon of August 28, 2020 .Bro Timothy Iwe served as our guest speaker. Seventeen special awards/ gifts were giving out to seventeen best students in Evangelism, academic,  humility,  God's fearing, wise woman and leadership. Work tools and boxes of books from Mission Printing International were freely distributed to the 47 graduating students while packages of VOTI vol. 105  and 106 and BVBIN & SWSE 2021 calendar were freely distributed to all the participants from  14 states of the republic of Nigeria.

BVBID DEGREE PROGRAM:
Second to the last session of our BVBID Degree program came up from August 17 through 27, 2020 at Butubutu village. Bro. Isaac Olaniyan concluded his teaching on Advanced Hermeneutics while I, Bro Makinde also brought my teaching on Advanced Homiletics to an end. Classes were taught from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm and 8.00 pm to 9.30 pm daily with three hours break between 12.00 noon to 3.00 pm. Ten students were in attendance.

FIRST SEMESTER CLASSES BEINGS
This session 2020 / 2021 first semester classes began on August 17 , 2020 and will come to an end Lord's willing on Oct. 17 2020. Ten students presently for year - 1 program and thirteen  for year 2 program.
The instructors for the first semester classes are : Bro. Isaac Olaniyan, Bro Emmanuel Godwin, Bro Guda Mazi, Bro kayode S. Eniafe, Bro. Andrew Adeolu, Bro Abiola  J.Olusoji ( if he is physically fit) and myself (Bro.Makinde Ebens).

ABOUT A STUDENT.
Bro Wayne Chisom Silas is one of our present year 2 students. He was born on March 14 ,1988 in Okpuala Umuoguru community in Abia state. A graduate of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture and finished with a BSC in Microbiology. He was converted to the Lord's church at the age of 15. His mission is to become a preacher after the two years training and if he become equipped financially through self establishment to become a missionary.  He also wish to further his education in BVBIN to obtained Master of Biblical Studies in the nearest future.

SPECIAL ACCOMPLISHMENT
With the help of the Almighty God coupled with the help of the Brethren within and outside the Republic of Nigeria , we were able to pay the sum of #450,000 = out of our #1,315,000 being money loaned on September 2019 for the upgrading of the school building plan.

CONCLUSION
We deeply appreciate you all for your moral and financial supports. May the Lord of blessing keep on blessing our work together in Christ Jesus name  (amen )
I remain yours in this grace as a servant. .... Makinde  E.Olufemi (The chief servant of BVBIN & SWSE, Ibadan and a WBSFUW)

Online classes continue in Lima, Peru

It is a pleasure for us to greet you dear brothers,

Things continue to get more difficult in our country in relation to the pandemic, while in other countries things are somehow being brought under control, in our country things are getting worse, the latest international report has put our country in the first place in the world with the highest mortality rate with 28,124 victims, while another 10,000 are being investigated.

The scenario we are in is unfortunate, however, we remain confident in the Lord and in the power of his strength and that everything will improve. Almost a month ago one of our students suffered the death of his mother due to COVID, I mean Moisés Guevara, it was a hard time for him, for the family and for the church, God have her in his glory.

Since our last report we have continued with our study program, although due to circumstances we continue to do so virtually. Our last two courses have been Leadership and Job (the latter is still being taught). Leadership was presented by me (Juan Abanto), the course on the Book of Job (A.T. IIIA) is being taught by brother Andrés Núñez. It is still a great challenge for us to present these courses in the midst of all these difficulties and limitations that we have, but both teachers and students are always trying to do our best to continue our program.

On the other hand, we started a virtual program focused on youth, in this program we are involving different young ministers to expose the word of God. In recent months, both I and Abraham Alata have been involved in many opportunities to share the word of God, it is not a program exclusively sponsored by the Institute, but thank God we had the vision to implement it with the help of many other ministers and it is working be a great help to the youth of the church of Christ in the country. One of the objectives is to take advantage of the program to awaken interest among the young people in the institute and in the training program that we offer, we hope in God many awaken their interest in the institute through this.

Thank you for always being aware of the extension here in our country and for the support that is constantly provided to continue with the program. Please keep us in your prayers!

Evangelism in Malawi

Bear Valley Bible Institute – Ekwendeni

Malawi – August Report 2020.

There is God in heaven and still is on His throne! Even in the midst of the pandemic those who obey the gospel are being saved. It doesn’t matter how bad the situation is, God is in control and will always save the obedient heart. If someone can ask you a question; “what have you done during this time when people are living in fear of the pandemic? Have you been praying and reading your Bible daily?”- What would be your response to the questions? We need to put our faith and trust in God.

Preaching and Teaching

Bear Valley Bible Institute – Ekwendeni Malawi have been busy teaching and preaching. Our students are also preaching in their home village congregations waiting for the proposed dates by the government to reopen the schools. Despite the seriousness of the pandemic, we have been thinking about Souls! From March to August, about 23 souls have been saved. Six Lectureships conducted along with one preaching campaign resulting into establishment of the new congregation in 7 months period.

Editing and Translation of articles

We are also blessed with the work of translating and editing some articles from our brothers and sisters in America. The articles are all in English, but we put them in our local language of Chichewa and Tumbuka. We are thankful to Brother Dale and his wife Leann for coming up with the idea and involved us in the translation and editing (Chichewa version) work of the articles. Brother Dale and Sister Leann send out at least one article every Sunday to the contacts on the mailing list. We were happy to help translate one article written by our President Denny Petrillo – the article is titled “God Provided Peace “Yes! Even in the times of this pandemic, God is still saying – “Peace be still”!

School land

We have been involving the government officials from the lands department on the school site; now I am confirming that the school land lease is in process. We are told to be patient as it takes time for the lease and the deed to be issued after the minister signs it. However, we have been given permission to start developing the place. Renting is expensive, now the plans to build will save us rental costs in the near future. We hope that God will open doors of opportunities to find funds to help us start the construction work before this year ends. The land is big, even enough for having some vocational skills especially Farming (vegetable gardens), poultry, pig farming and beekeeping.

Bear Valley Bible institute – Ekwendeni Malawi, continues thanking Bear Valley Bible Institute International for supporting us every month. We always continue to pray for your families as this work still needs your involvement. We see you preaching and teaching with us through your support. Eternity Is Forever, Think Souls!

Your fellow workmen in the Lord’s Vineyard,

Ephron and Clergynton

Continual growth in Mbanga

Greetings again from this part of the world.

We extend our hand of fellowship to our lovely ones as you read this report from the extension school of preaching from Mbanga Cameroon. May the power of God accompany you all in your hard work and grant you success in this life. I hope we all met again in good health and strong hope of our glory.

It is raining in Cameroon and the climate is really too hard for us to be on mission but God is still helping us to continue on. The congregation in Banjock sends special words of appreciation for the numerous help that all of us have been offering to them. Their distance is really too far but our students are still trying to make it there each weekend which is a great sacrifice.

This assembly also needs our prayers. It is made up of some IDP's from the Anglophone regions who are planning to get back to their regions of origins. It is time for us to think about how the church can be stable and can carry out serious evangelism so as to establish a.permanent assembly over there and not just have displaced persons as members who may return home one day. The congregation needs to have some permanent Christians in it also. 

After our powerful exhortation yesterday, God added one soul into his kingdom. We preached on the topic " Hear Him," and after worship, she decided to obey the gospel and listen to the call of God. She had been following our preaching on air and at times she would come to worship with us. God has finally added her to the church. We praise the Lord almighty.

We are also praying for our graduates as they are putting forth their all in the field. We are praying for brother Sylvanus and brother Benjamin who graduated with the first batch and are doing great work in the field in Chad republic. Brother Desire and brother Nicanor are from the second batch. They are moving from home congregations to established new congregations in neighboring villages. At times they have to walk long distances so as to meet up with this big task. The scenario here in this picture shows brother Desire who has managed to get a bicycle to ride on to visit the new congregation that he has established. Brethren, the Bible says, “The soul is willing but the body is weak.” In this case, I see that the mind is willing and zealous but the means is not there. I think if it was a motorcycle, it could have helped a lot to manage this kind of situation. We pray God should provide to his servants, these various needs and necessities for the work.

People of God, we keep on praying for your good heart and for your concern for the work in French Cameroon and in Mbanga in particular.

Remain blessed! From your humble slave. 

Ititi Benedict and wife

Let's think about 2 Timothy 2:2.

Agriculture progress in Wotutu

Dearest in Christ,

Calvary greetings from this end. We do hope you are all doing okay over there in your home and congregation. On our side, we are doing better and we praise the name of God for our condition. Many others are sick, many are in need of basics, and many struggling to see how they can cultivate their farms. It is farming season now, and anyone who does not till the ground now, will continue to suffer and be without during time of harvest. Keep us in your prayers as we are also praying for you as well.

Last week, we continued studies and revision in the school as our students in the BVBIC-Wotutu will start exams this week. Please pray for them not only to perform well but also to keep what they have studied in their hearts so as to teach others as they develop their ministries. Their ministries will begin very soon as their graduation is on the 10th of December 2020.

Torrential downpours of rain never stop our staff from leaving their homes to come to Wotutu to teach and to prepare these men for full time ministry. It is exciting to see great faith and sacrifice from the brothers here.

Crisis or no crisis, pandemic or not, the gospel is the greatest weapon and needs to be in the hands of God’s children all the time. As early as 5 AM Cameroon time, we are on our PA system speaking the word in love to the entire community. We can sing words of praises, we can greet people by name, and we can preach the word loud and sound and many souls. They can hear us, search for us, and ask questions about the preaching they have heard. It is awesome that the church of Christ is gaining popularity among visitors who are coming to Wotutu. They can listen to us and many will find the teaching new as the truth has been hidden from many in the denominational world.

We are doing all that is in our power to help our students to be able to become self-sustaining as they preach the gospel full time. It is not easy to preach full time in small congregations and other poor congregations here in Cameroon. That is why we are trying to help by teaching them some practicals in gardening, farming, and animal husbandry. Please, our dream is to make sure that these men have food on their own table and enough to share with those around them who don’t have it. It is tomato season so we are bent to grow our own farm as well. AGRICULTURE IS THE BEDROCK OF THE CAMEROONIAN ECONOMY, SO TO SURVIVE, WE MUST TILL THE SOIL IF WE ARE TO MOVE AHEAD. PLEASE PRAY FOR US.

PLANS

Top on our plans is evangelism, which is our mission and our mission is evangelism. We are entering places but we are minding the measures we must keep to stop the spread of COVID-19 in our country. Even though we have not had a case in Wotutu, we are being careful to keep safe.

APPRECIATIONS

Thank you for your prayers. Thank you very much for all your thoughts and financial help that help to keep this work going. God is watching and will reward you in due season. Keep up the good work. Do your best to share with others our report.

God bless you and keep you.

Elangwe and family

By His grace director BVBIC-Wotutu

Souls saved in Liberia

Greetings from your fellow laborer in the vineyard of God. We thank you so much for making it possible through your sacrifices for the sake of the Lord's kingdom here to continue even in this difficult Time (Coronavirus).

JUNE & JULY

These two months were very challenging because of the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic and Government mandate to have all schools closed, we designed another way to keep us teaching and have our students come on campus in four smaller different groups to pick up some lessons, assignments and research work to be done at their homes and brought back for another lesson. Within a week, we (Teachers) set aside two some times three days to meet with those that are able to come on campus with questions from the take home lessons, assignments and research papers. Students who were unable to come because of their far distances, we took their lessons to them and spend some times with them going through what they needed to do. We were able to covered some of our lessons during this period especially courses that was almost finishing before the virus came. Though this method was very challenging, it was also very rewarding.

EVANGELISM

Our students were actively involved into evangelism during this virus period and the result is just so beautiful. At their various congregations out side the bigger towns, they continued to meet together for worship and many people continued to show up for worship because of the uncertainty of their lives. Lots of people show up for worship because they wanted to get closer to God during this period fearing the virus and hoping that if anything happen to them, then they can be save. It was also easy to talk to many people during these times and present the gospel of our Lord to them. The students took serious advantage of the time and got involved actively in evangelism and visitation. Their efforts in totality resulted in the beginning of one congregation and 36 baptisms. When I learned about this, I was moved to tears and great joy. Lots of good news from their congregations continued to reached us. They were also involved in recruiting many new students for the next batch. I am so proud of my students.

SAD NEWS FOR PRAYERS

Student Gonkewon Yeaney lost his three years old daughter during this period and also felt very sick. He is recovering and needs your prayers for strength. Student Julous Nowon also had a motorbike accident on his way to the school to pick us his lesson. This resulted in a very deep cut on his leg. Please pray for him. I am also asking for your prayers. My children are all down with malaria.

APPRECIATION

Many thanks and appreciation to you for all your sacrifices that are making it possible for the Lord's work in this part of the world to go on. May God richly bless you.

In Him,

Robert P. Dahn, Jr.

Director- BVBI-L

West Africa Happenings

We pray that all of you are doing well as we maneuver through the many restrictions implemented due to the pandemic.  COVID has limited our ability to hold public gatherings for graduations, seminars, evangelistic campaigns, and even worship in many areas.  However, we thank God that all of our schools in West Africa are now once again in full operation.  We are blessed with the modern technology of video conferencing and email, which allows us to stay in continual contact with our staff and students.  As a result, we are training preachers during this difficult time.  We are also able to preach on the radio, do personal evangelism, and continue the Lord's work in many other areas where social distancing is possible.  We are bringing many souls to Christ, and the Lord's kingdom is growing!

Thankfully, it appears that the borders and airports in West Africa are beginning to open after being closed for months.  Unless things change once again, I will be able to return sometime very soon.  We are already rescheduling times for me to teach classes in both the certificate and degree programs at various schools.  It is our prayer that we can also resume many of our planned graduations, seminars, campaigns, and workshops by early next year.  

Karen has been busy writing, printing, and laminating Bible study materials for her Sunday school workshops.  She is ready to continue training women to teach their children to love the Lord and His word.

With Christian Love,

Steven and Karen Ashcraft

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

Harvesting in Tamale

BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE, TAMALE

TAMALE, GHANA

JULY REPORT 2020

The everlasting graceful grace of our Lord continues to be the source of our livelihood in all things. We appreciate Him for all He has done, and continues to do for all the saints in His kingdom. His faithfulness remains certain to us all. We bless Him for all He is doing through you.

SCHOOL GARDEN / FARM

First batch of harvest for the school garden have been done with. Groundnut has been successfully harvested. Maize is doing well. The rain continues to be promising, and we are sure if it continues this way, we could have a good harvest. We have sowed some maize on the land where the groundnut has been harvested. They are also doing well.

STUDENTS IN SCHOOL

AS reported in June, thirteen students have reported and the classes are in progress. The following courses had been treated respectively: Kojo Acquah Beenyi, Preacher and his work; Roger Akumse Ayillah Minor prophets; Albert Malir Tamanja 1,2 peter & Jude and James Legend Bisoing the Book of James. Students were tested and they performed much better than ever. They are left with one course, 1 & 2 Thessalonians to finish and go on break for three weeks.

ADMINISTRATION

The school activities are on course as a result of the collaborative effort of the administration team. Although the Corona virus has impeded the calendar for the year, it is our pledge and hope that with your prayers and support we shall run the school to catch up all the losses within the year. From our point of observation, it was assumed when coordinator Kojo Beenyi met with us to deliberate on how to diligently deal with the curriculum with the students' consent. The prudent decision taken with students’ compliance will help us achieve our goals this year. We pray the borders opened soonest to enable our beloved Brother Steven Ashcraft come to teach the course Bible geography.

STOOL LAND

The stool Land office called on us to pay for rent dues for school and Church premises. An amount of three hundred Ghana cedis {GH¢300.00} was paid for 2019 – 2020 rent.

May God’s name be praised for His continues mercy.

God bless us all,

Albert and James

Continued progress in Nigeria

Beloved in Christ Jesus.

Greetings from Nigeria. Report reaching me today from BVBIN Agege shows that 24 students attended this Saturday class and 23 in Ikorodu while 14 students were in Lagos Island.

As for those of us in the full time program, we concluded our three days Open Air Bible Lectureship yesterday evening at Egbeda town. Bro.Andrew Adeolu and Bro. Kayode Eniafe served as the speakers of yesterday lectureship in Fasade/Egbeda saw mill market while I moderated the program and Bro .Dele Shotola as the song leader.

Today, I went out with the students serving in Egbeda to visit our prospects, Bro.Kayode Eniafe also travelled to work with the students serving in Ekiti and Ondo State immediately we finished yesterday outreach and Bro. Andrew Adeolu and Bro.Dele Shotola worked with the students serving in Ajia town and Butubutu respectively.

Beloved, our degree students will continue their classes on coming Monday August 17 through 27,2020 Lord's willing. We deeply are appreciative of your support,love and encouragement.
I will be speaking on "Using Every Available Opportunity To Win Souls For Christ " in Egbeda congregation Lord's willing on Sunday morning Bible Class.

I remain yours in His Grace as a servant.....Makinde                

Zooming in Cambodia

Cambodia Update

Even the COVID-19 Pandemic can not stop us from studying God’s word. Colleges, Universities, schools and institutions have closed down, but not our International Bible Institute at Siem Reap. We are extremely appreciative of how our brethren have shown us love and support.

Our staff and students are still very curious about the words of God and want to keep on learning! One of our Co- Directors Piseth is teaching the Wisdom Literature (Psalm - Ecclesiastes). Our other Co-Director, Darat, is teaching the 2 Part of the Minor Prophets. As you know from the last report we have 3 new students who are full time now.

It is an encouragement to all of us to share with them God’s word. We stay in touch with our sister churches in the area and do as much as we can to help them. However, they need your prayers as they struggle with many issues and temptations of the world. One of our students had her motorbike stolen and we have helped her with those payments for almost a year. She has been very grateful and she has been working part time to make those payments, even though she doesn’t have a motorbike.

Wednesday Morning Zoom Meetings

We are using Zoom to stay in contact with Brother Wes and the church in Battambang, about 3 hours away. Battambang has many people that were once graduates of IBISR so they are our brothers and sisters that we love dearly. Our meetings are with another bible school in Battambang. There are about 40 total online as we sing, pray and study together. Sister Teri teaches the ladies in a break-out room on Women of the Bible. Brother Wes and the men rotate teaching on various subjects.

Friday Morning Zoom Meetings.

On Friday mornings Brother Wes is teaching just IBISR. Right now he is teaching about the Holy Spirit. We want to continue to learn about the Godhead. After this we have submitted various questions that we want to study.

Friday Evenings

Brother Wes and the staff from IBISR and Brother Phanat have a Bible study and talk about many personal things to help us become more accountable and better leaders in the family, school and church. Please pray for brother Chann, our preacher who is struggling with some personal issues and decisions. We could do nothing without your concern and support, especially from the Lord who strengthens us.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Servants of Christ,

Piseth Rin - Co-Director

Darat Run - Co-Director

Pros Rok - Staff

Back to business in Accra

End of July Report, Accra

We shall be always grateful to the Lord for His lovingkindness in our living. Peacefully, July has ended and there has not been any record of our students, teaching and non-teaching staff testing positive for Covid. Praise be to the Lord GOD.

Gradually, classes are ongoing and the students are participating effectively.

Just recently we visited the school land with some of the students and instructors to spray weedicide. The place is highly secured as our caretaker is concern. The land registration is in progress. We have given some amount of money, 200.00 being sent for the processing.

We are also grateful to the Lord for admitting one new student by name Emmanuel Agyeapong Arhin Oheneba. Currently, the total number is ten (10) and out of this number, seven (7) has reported.

Keep praying with us.  

Summer activities in Ukraine

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, 

In this letter I'd like to share with you some news of the events that took place in July and the beginning of August. 

The warm summer weather has remained in Ukraine for a while now and it's the time for summer vacations. However, this year so many people are afraid to leave the security of their homes and there are still some places where churches congregate with reduced attendance. The quarantine is still recommended and the government divided the territory of Ukraine into a few zones. If the number of cases is still very high in a certain place it's declared a red zone, and the whole city infrastructure is shut down except for the grocery stores. The government decided that the school year will start as usual but if the number of infected students grows the schooling will return to the online mode. For this reason, the classes for the second year students will resume in Bela Tserkva as usual and I hope the students will arrive safely. But we won't have the first year students this time. First of all, our recruitment efforts were very limited, and, secondly, people don't feel safe moving to a different place fearing COVID 19. 

I will also share with you the news about our students ' summer practice.  

Ilya Zhuravlev work in Brovary alongside his father who is the local minister as well as our graduate and the Instructor.  They organized a summer retreat for their congregation in one of the neighboring villages called Pukhovka, and two women were baptized as a result. Ilya teaches youth group and takes part in worship services. 

Nazar Semikoz had his summer practice in Brovary and Slovyansk. His dad is a minister in Poltava and also our Instructor. He also often helps his grandfather who is a minister in Liman by teaching the Bible classes on-line. They Skype him and he teaches the class. He takes part in worship services in Brovary.  

Bogdan Antipenko has his summer practice in Bela Tserkva. He taught a few Bible classes and helps with maintenance and routine chores. We attempted street evangelism as well by distributing Christian pamphlets and invitations.  

Marianna Medvid is our student from Ternopol where she teaches women and children. The congregation baptized Irina and Marianna spends a lot of time with her, doing follow up teaching. 

We are thankful to all congregations who support the work of the Bible Institute. We are thankful for your work and your trust in our Ministry during this most uncertain times. May God bless you and keep you safe. 

Your brother and co-worker, 

Dennis Sopelnik 

Mass evangelism in Cameroon

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings to you and your family. It is a good day in Cameroon. Rainfall fell after worship today but all is good. We give glory to God for His grace and love over our people here.

We do hope this report meets you all doing great in this period of uncertainty. The world is not treating people well. The Covid19 is a harmful insect as I can describe it because of the havoc it has caused to the people of in the world. God is faithful as our ministries are going on well. The BVBIC-Wotutu is on and the students are doing well.

We all wear face masks in public places. Many thanks for the provision of thousands of masks to our students. If you don’t have a face mask, you are not allowed into the examination halls, banks, and in other places.

The washing of hands and wearing of face masks are a daily routine now in the Wotutu congregation. We follow the WHO rules to help keep us safe from the harmful insect as I call it, the COVID-19, that is ravaging the world. You are in our prayers. Please keep us in your prayers as well.

Last weekend we had a mass evangelism in Idenau. It was great as we are penetrating the west coast of Cameroon. The west coast is very vast land, and the church is really dotted there, so we are doing all we can with our lives and resources to spread the good news to the lost there.

House to house evangelism was great as the students returned with good reports. The told of how the people were so receptive to the gospel, and, because of that, it has open a lot of doors for us to study with many. We met business men who are trading within the beach to Nigeria. We need to add more effort and more resources to this work. The west coast will be very fruitful!

 PLANS

 We shall continue with the Idenau mission.

 I will be visiting the SUPE congregation this week which is along the Kumba-Mamfe road. The congregation there has some differences among themselves so please keep me in your prayers that God will go ahead of me, to help them.

APPRECIATIONS

Thank you for your time and prayers towards the work here! Thank you for the bread you help put on our tables! God bless you! He is watching keenly what you are doing for His name sake. Please share our reports with others. I am praying for a four-wheel drive car. Please help me pray for open door.

God bless you.

Elangwe and family

By His grace director BVBIC-Wotutu

Another school has resumed in Ghana

END OF SECOND QUARTER (April, May, June) REPORT

We ushered into April and May when parts of Ghana, including Kasoa was under lockdown. It was lifted in May ending.

In June, our school reopened, being the first week end school, among the Bear Valley Schools in Ghana. The students were happy to be back to school and they were all praised and ready to observe all the protocols. We where glad we had all the needed items supplied. The reopening was attended by Kojo Acquah Beenyi, Samuel Ntim and Roger Solomon Asante who is the instructor for the course God Head.

The school in Kasoa is currently having 21 students and all are active in class as well as being regular.

The students work in the three months resulted in 12 baptisms. Most of the students are leading members and others are the preachers in the congregations they are members of. Mass evangelism is not permitted now so the students are doing preaching on public address system mounted by the villages to send out messages to the village folks.

Cost of things are higher because of the mess the covid-19 has caused. The lunch provided by the school is helping much and we are very grateful.

May the God continue to bless you. Amen.

The gospel is not masked in Guinea!

Gueckedou, Guinea Bear Valley Bible Institute Activity Report for June and July 2020

It has been quite a difficult time during the lockdown to fully achieve our desires and plans here at the Gueckedou Bible Institute. Nevertheless we were able to make some significant progress in the areas of congregational visit and evangelism. Under Government authorization we were also able to resume classes even though there were obstacles hindering the return of some of the students. Public worship services have also begun and there is a high turn up of the congregation at the school premises thereby demanding a wider space / hall. Here below are the details of the activities highlighted above.

School Resumption: After almost 4 months of lockdown due to the pandemic Government had with strict health measures finally authorize the reopening of schools and religious centers in rural areas. Due to that long period of health crises coupled with the farming season we at the Gueckedou School encountered difficulties in getting back some of the students. By the grace of God a good number did return, but normal classes did not start till  1 week after the official reopening. On the other hand, there is a high turn up of the congregations’ members who meet at the school premises. Before the lockdown our average attendance was 60, but now we are within 80 to 85.

Now in accordance with government health restrictions especially for distancing, we are considering putting up a temporary, but durable shelter in the wide space before the main building. This will serve not only for the congregation and the school session, but for other gatherings or ceremonies such as seminars and graduations.

We have already made sanitizers available for the school and the church community and masques for the students.

Classroom: After the March – June health crises lockdown normal classes at the Gueckedou School resumed on July 6th with 17 of the initial 20 students on roll.  A few days later 1 of the 17 students had to leave due to illness and was encouraged to ensure proper treatment before returning if necessary to wait for the next batch. This means that there are at present 16 students on roll to continue for this academic year. A new paper binder has been purchased to replace the spoiled one. Courses completed so far include Hermeneutics 1 and the Godhead.  This quarter’s course materials are scheduled to be completed by the 22nd of September. 

Congregational Visit / Evangelism: Just before and especially after the lifting of the lockdown band we started making regular weekend visits to encourage and strengthen the new congregations. During these visits, we were able to convert a total of 13 souls in 3 locations – Gueckedou town plus 2 new villages where we also extended our evangelical visits.

Drilled Well on Agriculture Land: With the help of Healing Hands International, we were able to drill the well in the month of May which was the lockdown period. The water is good, abundant and needed by the community and we are ready to serve, but due to the well’s present location – being a bit distant for town not many are able to walk the 300 meters compared to other sources around. Until the buildings of the town which are progressing towards the direction get closer, we have but a few persons who come to fetch the water. Perhaps the need will increase during the dry season.

Conclusion:  Gueckedou, Guinea Bear Valley Bible Institute has resumed normal classes after some 4 months of lockdown due to the health crises. Sixteen of the 17 students who returned are continuing the course study. Congregational visits and evangelism are strengthening the churches and there were 13 souls added to the body of Christ. We are doing our best to satisfy the Government requirement for health measures. It is our prayer that God will continue to protect and bless the Bear Valley Overseas partners whose support has kept us going. May God eradicate the deadly virus so that we can continue his service. We also thank Healing Hands and all of you for your prayers and support as we look up to moving forward.

Photos attached

Your servant

Francis

Finding new ways to spread the gospel in Ghana

OPERATIONAL REPORT FOR JULY, 2020

Dear Brethren,

We greet you all, our fellow workers in the Lord’s kingdom. By God’s grace another month has ended and we are very thankful to the Lord for His guidance and direction and grateful to you all our brethren for your continuous prayer and support to us at West Coast School of Preaching here in Takoradi, Ghana.

We give below, the report of activities by the school during the month of July, 2020.

1.      CLASSROOM WORK

Classes for both the regular and part-time students continued very successfully. However, we have two regular students who have failed to report to school since the school resumed classes from Covid-19 break. We have tried talking to them on the phone, but they failed to tell us why they are not coming. And even when we speak to them, they promise to come but all their promises have failed. We later sent them a warning letter giving them a deadline, yet, we have not heard from them, and therefore, we have reached the conclusion that they are no longer coming. And so, that brings the number of the regular students to nine (9) and eighteen (18) part-time students. God willing, we are expecting these nine (9) regular students and eleven (11) part-time to complete their courses by December this year, of which their graduation date is going to be scheduled somewhere next year.

2 .      EVANGELISM

As we all know, Covid-19 has brought a lot of activities to a halt, especially, things that involve social contacts. And this has so much affected evangelism. However, we are trying to do the best that we can to reach people with the gospel. Because it is such a time as this that the world needs Jesus Christ. Therefore, instructor Nathaniel and some students have been using the school’s motorbike to go to some of the nearby villages to do personal evangelism, also, on each Lord’s Day, they use it (the motorbike) to visit the new congregation that was planted in our last campaign for Christ.

I too have been busy preaching on the Facebook and Youtube (3 times each week—Sunday, Monday, and Thursday). Thank God, my videos on Facebook has about between 8,000 and 12, 000 viewership each week. I also continued with my radio preaching.

Also, some of our past students who have formed an evangelism team decided to organize a 5-day gospel campaign for Christ at one of the villages around Takoradi here. And thank God they were able to bring it to an end successfully.

3.      BAPTISMS - God blessed our efforts with three (3) baptisms.

Thank you for your assistance.

Yours for the Master’s service.

Joshua Aidoo.

Souls saved in Nigeria

Beloved in Christ.
Greetings from BVBIN & SWSE ,Ibadan.
The Lord adds two souls (a widow named Mrs Funmilayo Janet Adetunji and a young woman named Mrs.Dasola Idowu )into His body yesterday,Friday. As a result of our last week three days Open- Air Bible Lectureship and the follow-up by two of our students who are doing their one month teaching practice in Ajia town.

As scheduled,our teaching staffs worked this week with the students serving in Butubutu in early morning campaign and in three days Open-Air Bible Lectureship in Jago town from Thursday through Saturday evening. Bro. Peter Ortserga served as the Songs leader and the moderator of the three days lectureship. I was graced to speak on "Sin and its consequences" on Thursday evening ,Bro. Dele Shotola spoke on "God's way of Redeeming man" on Friday evening and Bro.Andrew Adeolu on "Identifications of The New Testament Church'. The program in Jago town was well attended from August 6-8,2020. About twenty five people sat each days to listened to the words of God with many hanging around to hear the undiluted gospel.

Concerning the BVBIN -WEEKEND SCHOOLS in Lagos State, report reaching  me shows that 24 students were in class today in Agege, 22 in Ikorodu, and 13 in Lagos Island.
Also, report reaching us so far from some of our students in a month teaching practice shows thirty one conversions and eighteen restoration.  Bro.Kayode S.Eniafe continue working with students serving in some part of Lagos and Ogun States.
Lord's willing, we shall be working next week with the students serving in Egbeda from Wednesday through Friday evening in three days Open-Air Bible  Lectureship.

School hasn't stopped in Sierra Leone

BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE KENEMA SIERRA LEONE

OPERATION REPORT FOR JUNE AND JULY 2020

Almighty God has been merciful to us and families for His guardians and love towards us all.

However, life was very challenging with the Corona Virus Pandemic that affects almost the entire World. So many people have lost their loved ones in this COVID 19 fighting. By God’s infinite mercies we are still alive despite the solution to the Pandemic has not been effective. Nevertheless we continue to put our trust to our God for a final solution with the Corona Virus. With God all things are possible. Beloved, let us keep praying for one another for good health and long life.

We will continue to serve in the training and empowering Men for the services of God for the fulfillment of the Gospel call. We sincerely appreciate all those that are contributing one way or the other to make it a success. May God continue to bless us all in all that we do.

CLASS ROOM ACTIVITIES

We are coming from a three weeks’ vacation and classes have commence for the Second Year level of studies. In June students were courageous to complete the Second Year First Semester even though there was an inter district lockdown due to COVID 19, yet our campus was safe for learning. We maintain classes until the end of the semester. District lockdown was lifted few days after we released our students for vacation.

We are please to let you know that classes for the Second Semester of the 2nd Year has commenced. Keep us in your prayers as we do for all. 

ACHIEVEMENTS

Despite the invasion of the Corona pandemic in our lands yet we do not cease taking classes. We stood by our students giving some encouragement to them to complete the 1st Semester of the Second Year. We were grateful to our lecturers for their commitments in doing what was to be done, may God continue to bless them and their families.

Outdoor activities are curtail as social distant is been monitored by officers in every city and towns. Evangelism is presently on one to one. The raining season does not permit much of outdoor activities. We do what we can in sharing Jesus.

CONCLUSION

To this end, we continue to pray for each other for God’s final intervention on the planet earth with the solution of Corona Virus Pandemic. This year has been a trial period for many. I just lost my dear Aunt who has been like a rear Mum to see me succeed in life. May her soul rest in peace.

May God see us all throughout this trying period of life.

Yours in Him

Jacob Sesay

Admin /Director – Bear Valley Bible Institute Kenema

Sierra Leone