Preaching the gospel in French-speaking Togo

April 2022 Report

I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for having accompanied us throughout the month. May the Almighty grant us all his blessings. Especially that the lord our prayers for the students are doing well as well as the teachers. Most of them are suffering from malaria. Please remember the school in your daily prayer.

 Evangelization on Fridays:

"Bringing salvation to the nations" is a word of Christ to the apostle Paul and for future Christian generations: so it is imperative that all villages and cities, campanes and can hear the message of salvation by the students of BVBI. On Fridays we will go to the villages, houses and workplaces for the spreading of the gospel. For the Friday of the month the evangelization was in the village of YOH at 6 km with 3 baptized young boys.

 Public evangelization:

The Togolese authorities have authorized public gatherings as before the pandemic. It is the first public evangelization campaign with projection of Jesus' films in the public place authorized by the local authorities, on April 14, 15, 16 and 17 in AMOUSSOUKOPE, 3 days of evangelization from house to house and each evening a projection of Jesus' film (the passion of Christ) and the 4th day it is the worship. During the evangelization campaign, 5 people were baptized, including a woman converted from the Assembly of God church. She is a mother of 3 children and her husband works in a company in Lomé.

 Seminar:

Every first Monday of the month, area evangelists meet for 6 hours of study from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm. The topics that are covered are problems that evangelists most often encounter either in evangelism or in the church. The theme is chosen to help evangelists know the will of Christ on the subject: denominations accept and baptize polygamists, and this influences our churches and during house to house evangelism. There are polygamists who want to stay with several wives but are baptized without repentance of the sin of polygamy. To solve this problem, this is the topic we deal with in the seminars every first of the month until all students and evangelists have a detailed knowledge of the subject. The wives of the evangelists are involved in this seminar.

Theme: "The Law of Moses, Jesus, and marriage, divorce and remarriage

Text: Mark 10:3

 Baptisms :

8 souls that the Lord added to the church of Christ in April.

Planting of a church:

A team of students and some evangelists are studying with a group of 4 families in KPELE-KONDA. A couple is baptized and they worship with this family every Sunday.

 Needs:

With the rainy season it is difficult in some places to do the service when it rains. For the new church planted in TEMEDJA, there is a place and also the woods. We need 400.000f (four hundred thousand francs) to make a shed, the assembly counts more than 25 baptized and 10 visitors every Sunday.

BVBI:

1- History of the Church: Cephas

2- Doctrine of Denominations: Cephas

3- Jeremiah and Lamentations: Rodrigue

4- 1 Samuel to 2 Kings : AKALO Komlan

5- Proverbs to Songs of Songs: AKLI

6- Isaiah: ATTAH

7- Logic: ATTAH

8- Homiletics II. AKOVI Esperance

This course will be completed by the end of April and the next term's courses will start in May.

 Registration for the 8th promotion (2023-2025)

Our brothers from NIGER, Mali and CONGO, want to join the BVBI School for training. According to the information for which they wish to come to Togo, it is the Doctrine of Christ which is taught and the faithfulness to the respect of the biblical principles.

Zambia evangelism

May, 2022

Introduction

 In the past month of May our lives have been over warmed with activities of reaching to our neighbors, different districts, provinces with the gospel of Christ. We are motivated by the language “work for the Night is coming” and especially if you have “a lot of tired” from laboring for our master as he said “ I must work the works  of him  who sent me while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4). So we bring greetings to you Brothers and Sisters from Luanshya, Zambia! We are very Grateful to God for according us another time of reporting about the activities of Bear Valley Bible Institute-Zambia.

I.                Major Activities

A.    The current students

We continue to be thankful to our God that the current students are only remaining with less than six months to complete their training at BVBI-Zambia. The current students have not only impressed us in their academics but they have also overwhelmed their local congregations with their improved work in preaching and evangelism. They are indeed excellent students and we have no doubts that they are very exceptional Preachers.

B.    Four days in Luapula district

With Nichorus Mulubwa leading the group, we find out that the church at Chipoka were very divided due to strange doctrine which landed into leaders personal attacks on their fellow Christians. These issues made the congregation to stop assembling for three months, after we received a call we wasted no time and the work in this area was marvelous. We continue to praise Yahweh for the work in Samfya district of Luapula province the church has been revived to worshipping God in spirit and truth.

We also recorded new conversion and restorations as reported under, the work is still ongoing and we are still in touch with the three congregations in that district though we still have a challenge of transportation as seen in the picture we had to ride about 87 kilometers off main road to reach to this village.

C.    Work in Northern province

In Luwingu district of northern Zambia the work is spearheaded by three of our current students evangelism went on well, we are so fortunate to have brothers and sisters in that area who are more than willing to help us do evangelism more effective, the institute don’t have bicycles but they gave us theirs to use as we do the work and this makes up for any difficulties we may encounter while walking, these are farm areas.  

The receptions by residents in these areas are encouraging as seen in the pictures by our students teaching in the village. The zeal for preaching and teaching had impacted the community in a huge way; we want you to know that we appreciate these moments when we become practical of what we learn in class. The church is not that strong in this area but, we are balancing the outward vision of the church by strengthening the inward vision of the already existing members of the Church. We recorded six new converts and three restorations.

D.    Work at Zimba Secondary School in Southern province

The work was spearheaded by Daniel Kapata our current student, the church in this area have not made a great impact on residents and it was a great opportunity for us to have been accorded  time to preach and the harvest was great, four souls responded and nine restorations.

Daniel is a qualified secondary school teacher and we have no doubt that he is going to make a great preacher and teacher after graduation this year. We have attached pictures to this report below.

E.    Revival at church of Christ in Shamabande central province

The evangelism at shamabande was led by Lackson our current student after seven days of doing the work in this area we recorded six baptisms and we continue to pray that we will return some day to do more work in this area by His grace.

Additions to the lord’s church

Janas muwindwa (baptized by his young brother Lackson muwindwa),alex chilufya, Chibwe chilufya, Rodgers Mwila, Kasongo Dickson, Emanuel Ng’andwe ( was converted from Jehovah’s witnesses and had a strong belief in their theology), lewis Bupe. Together we had fourteen (14) who are added and we have just mentioned the few.

May these souls continue to walk with Jesus forever they are wonderful additions to the family of God may you pray for these souls.

Restorations

We have recorded twelve restorations in the month of May. We continue to pray that these souls remain true to our Christian principles.

F.     Recruitment for the New Intake

Time really flies and it is that time again of starting recruiting for 2022-2024. And we have so far started interviewing and vetting some of the prospects students for the next intake. This process is quite laborious and arduous. Many times we are demanded to travel intensively to go and interview these prospective students. And there are places that we need to go and talk to their respective church leaders in person. Other places have very poor communication network and it is extremely difficult to speak to them on the phone. And hence, traveling from one place to another becomes very necessary.

G.    Invitations/Gospel meeting

i.              Lubuto Church of Christ in Ndola district of the Copper belt Province is in the process of replacing one of the shepherds who has shifted to Southern Province of Zambia. Brothers Cephas Mwamba and Fred Kanangu have been invited to go and help in this process. Lessons on Biblical qualifications and duties of elders started on 22nd May, 2022 at Lubuto, Ndola and will continue for the whole month of June.

ii.               We are organizing a gospel meeting to be held in Ndola for four days; this will begin on 1st July to 4th July all our students will be there to participate in this meeting. All the twenty three congregations on the Copperbelt are invited and we believe this is going to be a great gathering. Brother Cephas Mwamba will be preaching on the topic “Acts of denominationalism in the Church”  we had the last meeting with leadership on the Copperbelt and all is set for this meeting.

H.    Condolences

On a sad note- we would like to report that Mike  Kanyangala lost his grandfather, Reuben Museka lost his father and Lacks on Muwindwa (Reuben, Lackson and Reuben are our current students) our hearts are filled with love and sympathy for these brothers and Brother Cephas Mwamba lost his father in Mungwi district of Northern Province of Zambia. He passed away on Saturday, 21st May, 2022.  

Our deepest sympathy goes out to Brother Cephas Mwamba and his family. And we hope and pray that our Brother and the family find peace and comfort during this time of grief.

I.      Conclusion

We continue to be grateful to God for the privilege of helping these men prepare for the wonderful work of preaching. We cannot fulfill this commitment and task without the support of all our partners. 

We are sincerely grateful to all of you and to Woodland Oaks Church of Christ for the financial support you graciously send to the school each month!

God bless you all!

Brotherly,

Cephas and Fred

Lots of activity in Cambodia

A pleasant greeting from Cambodia.

IBISR’s Academy

Piseth Rin, our co-director, has finished his class in the book ‘’LEVITICUS’’. Our co-director, Darat Run, has completed the class ‘’Fundamental of the church II’’.

Joining a Wedding Party

Since early March, most church members went to join Sean and Synam's wedding party, which was celebrated in Srey Snorm District, Siem Reap, Cambodia.  Both Sean (pronounced see-un) and Synam (pronounced see-nime) are graduates of IBISR. The ceremony was performed in a Christian way and the traditional way. Please keep this new Christian couple in your prayers as they will face many difficulties with families to remain faithful, but they continue to worship with our family at Siem Reap.

A Seminar in Phnom Penh

On the 08th of March, which is International Women’s Day, most of us when to join a seminar in Phnom Penh city which was organized by the Best Center. We gained a lot of knowledge from the words of God, especially since we have built an amazing friendship as brethren in Christ.

A Substitute Teaching

Earlier in March, since brother Phanat has a significant task to complete, he asked our teacher named Piseth Rin to replace him in teaching the book of Hebrew through a virtual class (Zoom Cloud Meetings) for E412 Center which is in Battambang province.

This is how we help teach one another, grow in spirit and keep in touch with other Christians as we encourage each other.

Public Holiday (Khmer New Year)

Since Cambodians haven’t celebrated the Khmer New Year for the last two years, and all the students cannot visit their families during this public holiday, the government allowed us to celebrate again this year. We allowed our students to visit their families and relatives during this special occasion. 

Bible Chapel Class

We are so grateful to our coordinator named Wes Autrey and his wife named Teri Autrey for sharing valuable God's words in both female and male classes through virtual meetings every Tuesday and Friday. 

We also have another meeting every Wednesday with our brethren from Phnom Penh, Battambang, and Siem Reap. We rotate each teacher each week. We continue to understand God’s will for all of us through God’s Word presented by different members of the church.  You can see bong Wes’ father Roger Autrey from Garfield, teaching one of these chapels.

Bible Short Course

After Khmer New Year, all of our students and staff went straight to the Bible school to join a class with our coordinator (Wes). Typically, during Khmer New Year we have a two-week break, yet we couldn’t wait to meet and study with him, so we had only one week's break.

In the class, we had a wonderful time and gained knowledge from him regarding our relationship with God.. We all thank and appreciate his visit. Bong Wes also coordinated a series of 4 chapel  lessons from different teachers in the U.S. Each lesson had something to do with our personal relationship with God.  We would then discuss these lessons with bong Wes.  We appreciate;ciate all the men who led us in each study.

Service Work

We continue to help our brothers and sisters in any way we can physically - so that we can also help them in spiritual matters and encouragement.

Asking Prayers

Without your prayers and support, we can't do all of this. Please keep our work and plan in your prayers, especially for our new mothers and newborn babies.

Servant of God,

Darat Run - co-director

Piseth Rin - co-director

Pros Rok - Staff

Students show appreciation for the school in Lesotho

JANUARY-APRIL REPORT 2022

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The school is still in the right direction of training competent preachers who have the zeal and energy to share Jesus with others. Therefore, as the school marks 36 months of its existence in Lesotho, so far, 3 congregations were established, 38 souls were restored to Christ and 40 souls have obeyed the gospel through baptism. In this reporting period, BVBI Lesotho was fortunate to have two visitors. 4 courses have been taught and one restoration was recorded.

In February the school was fortunate to receive Brother Keith Kasarjian. He met with all the students, and instructors and he motivated and encouraged them with the Word. Indeed, it was a great time for both the students and the instructors. In March, Brother Donnie visited the school and he had an opportunity to go for evangelism in Sekamaneng village. The school is thankful for the impact the visitors had on us and our community. May you visit again brothers.  

The school is glad to inform you that a soul was restored to the church of Christ. The instructors are happy with the progress observed in the students. The following statements are what the students had to say concerning the impact of BVBIL on them:

Moses Tsoene, ‘I am grateful for the positive impact the school has on me, I have been teaching the Zionist church the gospel for a long time, if it was not because of the knowledge I am getting from school I could have quit. The school is preparing me to be a determined and committed servant of God’

Paballo Ramokhele, ‘The school has helped me in such a way that I can be able to teach others the gospel. Many people want to share the gospel but they lack Biblical knowledge. I thank the school’

Thankiso Rahlao, ‘I am a better person than I was before BVBI came to Lesotho. The school has made a great impact on me’

The school is thankful to Brother Donnie Estep who donated money to buy the t-shirts for the students and the instructors. Thank you for the monthly financial support you give us.

Evaneglism and Seminar in Guinea

Introduction

We begin this report with a proverb that says: After the rain comes the weather becomes good. Satan's plan is always to destroy God's work in many ways, but we are also always more than victorious. We are expidient that the information below which make up this report will please you with the good news that enriches in its content.

I-Teaching / Classroom

According to the program schedule, only six (6) days - from the first to the 6th of May 2022 were devoted to the teaching of Bible Geography finished with the evaluation of the students to determine their levels. The results were satisfactory.

II-Evangelism:

The value or importance of this report lies in the result of the evangelism exercise. It is to be known in the activities that follow.

Apart from the door-to-door, personal evangelism and radio gospel broadcast which has now resumed after some technical issues, a special period of seven (7) days was allocated to an evangelistic campaign. That is from May 7 to 13, 2022 in three (3) different prospective areas namely Dakadou, Bandainin, and Koindou. The latter is a new zone, but favorable for our gospel mission.

The combined result of all these evangelistic activities came up to twenty (20) baptisms of which a local assembly was planted through the great contribution of brother Saa Many Koundouno, one of our current students at the Bear Valley school in Gueckedou. The new congregation was established in the sub-préfecture of Koundou Lengo Bengou located some 44 km from the school. Indeed the zone is favorable and we want to mobilize brethren and apply all our efforts to accompany brother Koundouno as he is motivated for the blossoming of the church of Christ to save souls in this new zone.

The following evangelists also participated in the above discussed evangelistic campaign: Saa Robert Kamano, Tamba Emmanuel Kamano, and Antoine Iffono.

III- Bible Seminar

Another important activity that took place during this period of our report was a Bible teaching Seminar that took place at the congregation of Bandalo Bengou. This has been planned as part the framework of the spiritual edification and the fellowship of the members of the Churches of Christ in the Gueckedou area.

Three (3) topics listed below were taught by three (3) evangelists according to the times allocated:

1. The Autonomy of local assemblies: by

Tamba Emmanuel Kamano

2. How to support the church: by

Francis S. Musa

3. The Christian home: by

Niouma 2 Kamano.

The local congregations in the Gueckedou area were invited and the people massively participated in this teaching.

Each session was concluded with pertinent questions and answers and it was such an interesting gathering.

Indeed the program was successful to the glory of God.

IV-Suggestions and Recommendations

Beloved in Christ, brethren of the United States, Australia and other parts of the world, we want you to know once again that the harvest is great in Guinea, but there are few workers. Therefore we ask you in the name of our Lord Jesus to help us spiritually - in prayers for more laborers.

V-Thanks / Appreciations

We, first of all, thank God for his grace which makes us live, and his Spirit which allows us to realize all our projects in Christ.

We also thank the administration of the Bear Valley Bible Institute for their unfailing love to continue God's work in Gueckedou under the coordination of our kind and tireless brother in Christ, Steven Ashcraft.

Amongst others not named here, we wish to thank our beloved brothers in Christ, Ken Stanley and Barry Baggott for their spiritual and moral support in every way in the Lord's work in Guinea.

We also thank Brother Francis Musa for his unwavering love and passion to support God's work in Guinea to the best of his ability.

Finally, we thank all those who contribute in one way or the other to the flourishing of the Lord's church in Guinea.

May God grant us longevity in health and peace in order to do His work.

Amen!

Classes continue in Lagos Island, Nigeria

LAGOS ISLAND/SABO ONIBA CENTER REPORT February - May 2022.

INTRODUCTION: Great is the faithfulness of God to all in His kingdom. The work in Lagos Island is going on well as we have less than two years to graduate the first set of students from this center. 31 courses have been taken and 17 courses remain.

Lagos's new and great development is the successful take-off of the new Study Center in Sabo Oniba covering Mile 2 Badagry areas of Lagos state. This study center will be helping more than 33 congregations to develop Ministers and Bible Teachers. We had our orientation on the 28th of May, 2022. 19 brethren have collected the form while 12 were present during the orientation. Classes will start on the 4th of June with Tim Iwe teaching Research Methodology.  Joseph Okota and Akanimoh Archibong have joined the teaching crew of the work in Lagos. 

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES: In Lagos Island, the month of May was partly a break and partly a campaign. We worked in Ikota congregation in the Lekki-Aja area. It is a new congregation that some of our students were part of starting in February this year. We also worked with Oluwafemi Adewuyi in his congregation in Shomolu in central Lagos. A soul was brought into the kingdom in these efforts.  

The Discipleship Training Program is impacting many congregations in Nigeria positively. I was involved in the training of ministers and church leaders in WNCC in the month of April. I have also started training members of Ijanikan congregation in Badagry area. Their class will be coming up two times a month. We need your prayers for the success of this work.    

WBS ONLINE STUDY HELPER:

More time was given to online study in WBS program in the passing weeks. 

Active Students: 260

Under Follow Up: 1

Competed Lessons: 4853

Certificates Awarded: 1218

Baptism:  1

CONCLUSION: I want to thank Bro Ebens Makinde, Chad Wagner, and Keith Kasarjian for their encouragement and support in starting the new center in Sabo Oniba. We need your prayers for the success of these works. 

Thanks and God bless you all. 

TIM IWE

Lagos Island/Sabo Oniba Center Director

Ibadan, Nigeria conducts seminar

Grace, peace, and mercy of the Lord be unto you all in Christ’s name.

Here is the report of some of our activities in the Lord in this month of May 2022.

WEEKEND EVANGELISM/ OUTREACH:

The staff and students of BVBIN & SWSE IBADAN participated actively in weekend evangelism and outreach throughout the month of May in Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Lagos, Ekiti, Ondo and Edo States of Nigeria at the congregations the Lord planted through our joint efforts with fellow WBSFUW within and outside the Western States of Nigeria.

The Lord crowned our joint efforts with six conversions and fourteen restorations.

FOURTH SEMESTER CLASSES OF 2021/2022 BEGIN

As scheduled, The BVBIN & SWSE-IBADAN begin her 4th Semester Classes on May 2 and will come to an end on June 24, 2022.

The following brethren are the staff for this Semester : Bro. Isaac Olaniyan, Bro. Kayode Eniafe, Bro. Makinde John, Bro. Andrew Adeolu, Bro. Oladokun Samuel, Bro. Israel Tajomavwo, my self (Bro. Makinde Ebens) and our secretary, Sister Oyenuga Esther.

LEADERSHIP SEMINAR IN WNCC ABEOKUTA, OGUN STATE

The BVBIN & SWSE IBADAN was represented by myself and two of our foundation members at this year’s Annual Leadership Seminar in WNCC & SBS ABEOKUTA (West Nigeria Christian College & School of Biblical Studies), Ogun State from May 3 through 6 which centered on Discipleship Training.

REPORT FROM VOTI RECIPIENTS & WBSFUW

Report reaching our office from VOTI recIpients and WBSFUW across the country Nigeria shows how the VOTI booklets aid in the conversions of twelve souls during this month WBS Seminars in Kano, Ondo and Afaha village in Akwa-Ibom State.

ABOUT A STUDENT

Bro. Haliru Danjuma Iliya is one of our second year Students admitted in our ministerial department on January 2021. He is from Kebbi State. Born on April 1999 at Julga Village of Birnin- Kebbi located in Northern part of Nigeria. Once a Pentecost pastor (Assemblies of God Church) before his conversion on January 2021, which led to his decision to be trained as one of the New Testament Evangelists.

CONCLUSION:

We are very grateful to you all for your moral and financial supports toward the growth of the Lord's Church in this part of the world. May the Lord continue to bless our work together in Jesus Christ name, amen.

Sincerely His & yours,

Makinde Ebens Olufemi (The Chief servant of BVBIN & SWSE-IBADAN and WBSFUW)

Graduation in Accra

Accra Report

End of April 2022

Class Activities

Classes are ongoing according to our schedule: brother Amoo-Gyimah taught Christian Evidence and Life of Christ 1, Gyan-Mante taught Homiletics 1, and E.O Larbi taught Godhead. Two short courses, New Testament Church 1 and Godhead will be taught by Kojo and E.O. Larbi.

All the 12 students were present for the class. 

Campaign

The students have been visiting the local churches every week to evangelize in the area and visiting the members and encouraging them. Just recently, they had some baptisms during their evangelical activities.

Graduation and Matriculation

Glory be to God for a successful program where we had 11 men (6 from regular and 4 weekends, and 1 master’s) graduate and about 50 matriculants. About 400 were present, our staff, and the entire invited guests were in attendance.

Karen and Steven Visit

We were grateful to God that the Lord brought Steven and Karen safely to Ghana for the purpose to visit the school to conduct the campaign and the teaching women’s program. As part of Karen’s program for the women, she visited Koforidua, the Eastern part of Ghana, and other regions to educate the teachers for children's classes on Sunday school activities.

Laptops for students

We also appreciate the services Steven has been providing. We had received some laptops for our studies. Few students can use it, however, we will need additional 7 laptops to make it comfortable for the teaching.

Registrations

We hope to meet the Lands Registry’s requirements for the final and full presentation of documents to the school.

Students’ Profile

We present to our cherished brethren one of our effective students. Brother Ebenezer Amoasi, a member of the church and teaches driving. He is 24yrs and single. He left his work and enrolled as a student in our school. He has been very hardworking in all the activities and in the congregational services. He is in his first year. Currently, Ebenezer has been offered an appointment to preach for one of the local churches at Doboro. He participates well in personal evangelism, visitation, and exhorting the members all day. The local church is growing in number from 6 to 10. 

We are thankful to God for such a serious and hardworking student. We wish you remember him in your prayers.

Report by E. O. Larbi

Tamale school students and staff visit and encourage congregations

OPERATING REPORT FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL 2022

There were a series of successful events that took place at the Bear Valley Bible Institute, Tamale campus in the month of April, 2022. These events were successful by the direction and guidance of the Almighty God, who made both the heavens and the earth. We praise His name forever.

ACADEMIC WORK

The doors for the Kpalsi South congregation building were fixed and painted in the month of April by the support and help of God’s servant Steven Ashcraft, who made the funds available. We continue to pray that the good Lord bless him and his family and all the people who consistently make things possible sacrificially for the body of Christ across the world especially, Northern Ghana. We in the Kpalsi South Congregation are grateful for all the kind gestures shown to us.

We are currently working on ways to do the outside and inside plastering of the building. For now, we are able to move in and start worshiping as we work on the other things that are left to be done. We give God the glory for how far He has brought us. We continue to do our door to door Evangelism as we schedule to do some mini public preaching and events with the view of persuading people with the Gospel of Christ.

 SCHOOL GARDEN

We have successfully harvested our corn from the garden we did. It produced very well and the ground-nuts are almost ready for harvest. It has worked successfully and we are ready for a garden takeoff. 

The rains have also started and we have cultivated ground-nut and some vegetables on the school land. We are hoping to harvest them in a few months’ time and cultivate maize again. We are determined to do all year-round farming on the school land in an effort to leverage some of the feeding expenses if possible. We believe the Lord blesses the steps of a good man and He will bless our efforts. 

PERSONALITY PROFILE

Samuel Saakuu Baaru, born on the 4th of March 1978 in a traditional home in the Lawra municipality in the Upper West Region is the person we profiled for the month of April, 2022. 

He is the first born boy of his parents. Being a traditional home, he was to inherit all the idols and properties of the family. To the dismay of his parents, he disappointed Mr. Baaru and the family in 1991 when he got baptized into the church. Three months after his baptism, the leader, Anthony Ferah left for the Bible school in Accra, and at that time all faithful Christians were women with a few casual male members.

Brother Saakuu was taken through some leadership training by nearby congregations like the Wa and the Tumu congregations and was asked to lead the congregation in the absence of the preacher till he completed his program. 

When the preacher returned, Samual Saakuu enrolled for project Timothy. He was an SHS graduate at that time, which was the year 1998.  After completing project Timothy, the District Assembly sponsored him from 2001 to 2004 to go and do an NVTI grade one and two courses. He also completed and graduated from Methodist University College in the year 2011. He went further to do his National service with MOFA (Ministry of Food and Agriculture). He applied again for voluntary service with MOFA after his national service, where he was sent to Ullo (A city in the Upper West Region)

While he was on voluntary service, he had a job appointment with OLAM Ghana LTD (A Cotton and Food Processing Company) as a cotton production officer.  Through that work together with his desire to serve the Lord, which he did, he went around and helped establish the Kogri Congregation, the Ullo, and Genvuori congregations around the Lawra area. He is currently working with the Kogri Congregation as well as working with the Ghana Culture. 

VISITATION AND CAMPAIGN FOR STUDENTS

 Sogon 1 and 2: Brother Albert Tamanja embarked on a visitation journey to Sogon number 1 and 2. He took the opportunity to encourage these congregations to work hard to serve the Lord and to also encourage the youth to take up their responsibility by enrolling into the Bible school to help with the work of our Lord. He stressed the importance of working for the Lord. He spent quality time with both congregations to strengthen them. They appreciated his presence and expressed the importance of the school having a good relationship with them by visiting them consistently.  

Lawara: Brother James B. Legend in the month of April made a visitation journey to the Upper West Region in the effort to create opportunity for the recruitment process of our next batch of students. On this journey, he visited the Lawra town congregation as well as the Tovuori area where Brother Samuel Saakuu lives. There were discussions on the need to establish a new congregation at Tovouri. He further went to the Nadoli and Busie congregations as well as the Jirapa area where he met with Brother Donzie Thomas. 

Yua: On a similar purpose in the month of April, Brother James B. Legend made a visitation journey to the Yua congregation in the Pormoligu Segrigu municipality in the Upper East Region. The Yua Congregation has a membership of 21, out of which only three are men. They have no trained preacher, as they struggle to worship our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ with the help of Baaba Akolgo James. Baaba James is in his 70s and has no formal education and cannot read, nor write, and yet is the one that leads the Congregation. He is very zealous and enthusiastic about serving the Lord.  Baaba James is the Father of Baaba Elijah who graduated from Bear Valley Tamale Campus some years ago and also benefited from one of the two motorcycles that were bought to aid some of the preachers in Northern Ghana. By the grace of God and with the help of Brother James Legend of (BVBI Tamale) and Baaba Elijah, Brother Baaba James is able to successfully lead this congregation for two years now. Baaba James Appealed for help from the school to come and assist them to evangelize the community and also help them with a trained preacher to make the work more effective in the area. He appreciated the school coming to encourage them through Brother James Legend.

Indeed, visitation is very essential for the future and the growth of our schools, especially in Northern Ghana.

We thank the Lord and all brethren who are making these activities possible by sacrificially making the funds available to support. 

 God Bless everyone.

Bear Valley, Tamale.

You need to read this from Sierra Leone!

ACTIVITY OPERATION REPORT FOR APRIL, 2022

Full Time and the Extended Programs

 INTRODUCTION

Greetings to you our dear brethren and co-workers in the Lord’s vineyard. It is with great joy that we write to share with you our fruitful and exciting report for the month of April 2022.  Moreover, we are very hopeful that you are doing well in the Lord and that this report will also interest you as you read through. Thank you for your support and for praying for us; may the Lord bless you all. As the month of April ended, the Lord enabled us to resume our third quarter academic activities (for the full-time program, though the extended program continued without break), carry on a successful campaign where souls were converted and some brethren were restored, hold our first formal alumni meeting, embark on fasting and prayer for our sponsors and all brethren, complete the planting of our crops on the farm. However, we had sad news about the death of the father of the director, Brother Peter Sahr Makundu. But in all, God was favorable to us in the past month of April, hence, may you read further for the details of the report. 

RESUMPTION OF 3RD QUARTER CLASSES

In the March report, we informed you that our second quarter for the full-time came to a close on the 5th of March 2022 and that the students were to resume on the 1st of April 2022 for their third-quarter year one, which would end on June 30, 2022. To the glory of God, all our 20 students in the full-time program resumed and the academic activities continued. 

3RD EVANGELISTIC CAMPAIGN AND CONVERSION OF MORE SOULS

The administration of Kenema Bear Valley Bible Institute acknowledges the dire need for the Gospel to be preached to the dying souls, hence her effort is always directed to evangelistic campaigns. The month of April was not an exception. Our evangelism was directed at the southern part of Sierra Leone, specifically, Taiama Town. Taiama is 110 miles away from Kenema and it is one of the historical towns in Sierra Leone where “Christianity” began. From 1810-to 1898, some denominational missionaries, especially the Anglican and the Roman Catholic penetrated the town and subsequently established their denominations there. As time went on, in the 1960s-80s, some early missionaries for the church of Christ who were based in Freetown capital also found their way in Taiama, and with great effort, some locals were converted and the church of Christ was also established. The church was flourishing very well until sometime later, it died completely as a result of the withdrawal of the missionary activities and the lack of a dedicated and a committed preacher who could encourage and motivate other members to continue steadfastly with the work of the Lord. However, in 2016, when some of the early members (3 of them) who are still living in Taiama who never joined any denomination though were not worshipping as church of Christ brethren, heard about the coming of Bear Valley Bible Institute which they learned is associated with churches of Christ, decided to send one of their children, Pessima Sheku to enroll in the school. Pessima was accepted and enrolled and in fact, it was at Bear Valley here that he was converted and became a serious-minded preacher, who upon graduation in 2019, returned to his hometown at Taiama and restored the congregation back. It was upon the request of Brother Pessima that the campaign be held at Taiama in the past month of April. The campaign was so fruitful that twenty-three (23) souls were converted, and twelve (12) people that Brother Pessima had preached to but were no longer attending were also restored. As we write this report, since the day after our campaign, we have been sending our students to Taiama every week to worship and fellowship with the brethren. God is indeed glorified for His wondrous works! Please brethren, may we pray for this restored congregation, and may we pray for Brother Pessima to continue with the good work he is doing. Apart from the conversions from our campaign, five (5) souls were as well converted during our regular weekend evangelism. 

FIRST FORMAL ALUMNI MEETING

In some of our reports, we have informed you that we plan to work with our graduates closely so that all of us can combine our efforts for the growth of the work of God in Sierra Leone and the KBVBI. It was on this note that we called for an Alumni meeting, which was held on the 29th April 2022 at the school campus. Thirteen (13) graduates who are actively preaching attended the meeting, together with five teaching staff. Many important things were discussed: the activeness of the graduates in the preaching field, maintaining communication with the administration, challenges that are being faced, what can be done for more evangelistic work to be carried out, etc. The leadership of the Alumni was also formed on that day. 

DECLARATION OF FASTING AND PRAYER

Our students and staff embarked on our regular fasting and prayer on April 15, for our sponsors, the Ukraine-Russia war, our coordinator, our International Director, our directors of Bear Valley schools in the world, and the brethren worldwide. 

COMPLETION OF FARMING PLANTATION

In order to complement the great effort that has been made by Bear Valley, we embarked on agricultural activities. We planted cassava so that our students can eat it when it is ready. 

BEREAVEMENT NEWS

It is with deep sorrow that we write to inform you that on April 20, 2022, Peter Sahr Makundu lost his father, Steven Makundu. He died from high blood pressure and was buried. Our very compassionate coordinator, beloved Brother Steve responded to us when we needed some financial assistance. He did so through the provision of Bear Valley Bible Institute, thus we are very grateful to you all for your assistance. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you also, especially to beloved Brother Keith who sent some comforting words when he heard about the demise. Moreover, we appreciate brothers Francis Musa and Robert Dahn who showed great concern at the time of our bereavement. The family members of Makundu are so grateful to you. 

A GRADUATE’ S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Sheku Pessima

Brother Sheku Pessima is one of our first graduates who graduated from the Kenema Bear Valley Bible Institute in 2019. He was born in 1987 in Taiama town to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Pessima. Brother Pessima, prior to his conversion was a Muslim. In 2016-2017, after enrolling for a Diploma course at the KBVBI, was converted through the efforts of his coursemates. Since his graduation, he has been actively involved in ministry work. He presently serves as the preacher of the Taiama Church of Christ and was among the alumni that attended our April 29 meeting. 

CONCLUSION

Brethren, we remain grateful to you. Thank you for loving the Lord. Thank you for your kindness. The lives you are changing in Sierra Leone here through your prayers, financial support, guidance, and direction, are all duly acknowledged, and may the Lord bless you richly. 

Thank you so much for reading through.

Peter Sahr Makundu,

Director,

Liberian school conducts successful gospel meeting

BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE-LIBERIA

Tokay Hill Community, Ganta City, Nimba County

Operations Report For The Month Of April, 2022

PROLOGUE / INTRODUCTION

We will continue to thank God first and also you for all your support toward the Lord's work here in this part of the world. I count myself so much blessed for this great privileged and blessings to be part of His workforce in teaching the truth in His kingdom. We are delighted for this opportunity to work with you. Many thanks to all those making it possible through their sacrifices for the sake of Jesus Christ. So far, all has been moving very well in Liberia.

SUCCESSFUL GOSPEL CAMPAIGNS

In our last report, we requested your prayers for our upcoming gospel meeting for the month of April. We are glad to inform you that your prayers worked. On the 14th of April we embarked a campaign away from Ganta with the students and some other church leaders to two different towns and the result was wonderful. 56 souls surrendered themselves to Christ saving authority (His word) through water baptism. The church was restore in Blamine and all other confusion was settled. Thanks so much for your prayers.

FACULTY MEETING

Another Staff meeting was held in April to encourage and show appreciation our teachers and support staff for all their sacrifices for the school and this again was very successful for the future of the school. This meeting brought together all of our staff members to evaluate our progress and plan on how we can do more for the betterment of school. In this meeting, all our staff members who are preachers were also encouraged to speak with their congregations to please help the school with whatever they can to encourage our American brethren who are supporting the school. We encouraged each of us to see this extension school as ours to help train our own for the work of the local churches. High on our agenda also was the need to make follow-up on our past students and encourage them to take the work seriously. 

WEEKEND EVANGELISM OUTREACH

Our goal is to give our students more practical work experience in both the churches in the cities and congregations in the villages and other personal work like house-to-house visitation, public preaching, seminars, lectureships, teaching and preaching in congregations etc. With this in mind, a program has been instituted to send our students out every weekend to get involved in any of the work listed above. This effort is really helping our students have first-hand knowledge on the work expected of them in the future after their graduation from the school. 

Meanwhile, we request for your prayers for them as they go out to serve during the weekends. Especially now that our roads are very bad because of the rain.

CLASS ROOM ACTIVITIES

Our class room activities continued with the following:

1. Daily Teachings

2. Daily Memory work 

3. Daily Quizzes

4. Assignments

5. Research work 

6. Presentations

7. Daily Chapel

8. Group work 

FARMING

One of our last year end resolution for the school was to cultivate a huge farm land this year for the school. By His grace, someone loaned us seven plots of land and agreed for us to farm on it till they get ready for it. As we speak, the whole land has been covered with cassava and other crops completely. And guess what, the sight is wonderful seeing the cassava and all other crops planted growing so fast. We are happy for the farm and thank God for the thoughts to help in such direction.

PROFILE OF A STUDENT

Boimah Falleh is one of the young man we have in the school that is very passionate about studying the word of God and his willingness to help with smaller congregations outside the cities. Boimah was born on Saturday December 25, 1999 in Bhah town, Bomi county. He graduated from High School in 2018 and was working with the local congregation in His home town. He became a christian four years ago since 2017. His love for God and for the truth brought him to attend the Bear Valley Bible Institute. When asked of his future plans and dreams, he said firstly, He wants to be an Evangelist of the Lord's church and he also want to become a medical doctor.

APPRECIATION AND CONCLUSION

We want to thank all of you so much for supporting the work in Liberia. Without you, this effort would not be possible. May God richly bless you.

In Him,

Robert P. Dahn, Jr.

Director- BVBI-L

Uganda students encourage local church

Brethren, the beloved in God our lord, grace to you and peace from God our father and our lord Jesus Christ  who has blessed us with every spiritual blessings. It has been a blessed day with us here today at Wamala  and the church that meets here at in Entebbe. 

The worship was conducted by our students who took the lead did a wonderful job. The men of the congregation were very much moved by the students who have committed their lives to the Lord’s work.

These men are a great encouragement not only while in school during regular hours, but also for the work they are doing evangelizing the area around the school.

Last week one soul was added to the Lord’s church here at Wamala church of Christ that meets in the school premises.   We thank God for the increase. The only challenge with the people being converted here is that they are often workers working in  the city who come from different places. Oftentimes when their contract is finished they move to other places. We only pray they take the gospel with them as they go.

We are only a few days away from the close of the fifth quarter of study. The determination in these students is more than extraordinary.  They have no time to waste . Please remember them in prayers as they will be heading home soon for a break and then will come back in the near future.

We have not had much challenges like sicknesses which have been troubling us time and again.  Only  few of them have been hospitalized. Please remember our cook, Sam who is sick. With prayers, he will be fine.

Another challenge is water, this has pushed us very much on the wall whereby we are forced to buy water from the trucks. We pray that God grant us the opportunity to have our own place where we can have a provision of having a well to supply the school  with enough water.

May the almighty God bless you and keep you. Pray for us as we are soon sending applications form all over the country to begin the enrollment of the second intake come 2023.

Until all have heard 

Raymond. 

Wotutu school heavily involved in evangelism outreach

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We do hope this report meets you well. God is still on the throne and He has given us life. We are doing our best to serve Him in our own corner.

The training of preachers in Wotutu is on and very effective as we make sure that those entrusted in our care become servants of God who are fully prepared and ready for every good work. Students continue to dig deep into the Bible as they study diligently. In 6 months, the Zeta batch will be going to the wilderness as the 8th of December 2022 is the day that is slated for their graduation. Please, if you are interested in being our guest, we will be grateful to welcome you here.

Last week in Bear Valley Bible Institute - Wotutu and other ministries here moved forward with normal challenges. However, in all of our challenges we trust God to see us through.

The motto of the school stands tall, which is “EVANGELISM IS OUR MISSION AND OUR MISSION IS EVANGELISM.” After a busy day in class, students jumped into the school van, made available for us to move for weekend evangelism. We think souls and we do all that is in our power to make sure souls are reached with the undiluted word of God.

Now that the rainy season is approaching, we use different vehicles for different locations of work. It is true the work is growing daily and the demand to reach out to souls is ever increasing.

In the mission fields our traditions are, “OPEN THE WORD TO ANYONE WHO IS A CONTACT, BECAUSE IT IS ONLY THROUGH OPENING OF THE BIBLE, THAT THE CONTACT WILL BECOME A PROSPECT, AND BY HIS GRACE BECOME A CONVERT.” Our students love to open the scriptures, and we are happy to share pictures of those who will allow them to take pictures.

There is always power in the gospel. You can’t imagine that someone busy with online stuff can suspend his online affairs just to listen to our students as they open up pages of the Bible to show hope in Christ for those who live in this hopeless world. God is so good! Keep these students in your prayers .

Our chapel times are special moments in Brightland Christian schools. There are days though, that the sun is too intense because we don’t have a hall or a shade. Students will hide themselves beside the walls while the student preacher of that day stays under the sun to speak out the word. The students receive great lessons as they also benefit from seeing the speaker’s zeal. Intense sun is a big challenge and at times rainfall is also a big challenge to us. We are trying all we can to promote Christian education here but it is not easy with us.

The promotion of Christian education in the Wotutu community exposes the truth to many young minds. These young people you see in the picture are all from Brightland schools. They are doing serious follow-up about the truth. The 30-minute chapel time many times is not enough for them as immediately after chapel is lunch break, so they decided to come for worship with the Wotutu congregation so that they could see how the New Testament church worships. This also gives them time to dig deep into the word with questions and answers, along with the reading of more Bible passages and to have their questions that have arisen from reading Mission printing tracts answered.

This lady in the attached photo is a good prospect. She is an internally displaced person, IDP, because of the crisis in Cameroon. She was pregnant and we donated baby clothes to her for the baby. We bring the gospel of hope to hopeless and dying situations. Our heart falls out for many, but our hands are always too short to reach out to many we meet on our path. Please pray for us.

God blessed sister Irine with a baby in the Wotutu congregation. Keep the newborn in your prayers as the father, mother, and child are all doing great. God added sister Litricia into His church in the Wotutu congregation. Keep her in your prayers. We have studied with her for the past 2 years and today was a day of joy in their home when she accepted to put Christ on in baptism. Her husband has been our brother for many years.

We had another baptism during this weekend’s evangelism. God is good and will always bless our efforts with many opportunities to share the bread of life to many who are hungry. It is just as I told my students in class, “A PREACHER IS A BEGGAR OF BREAD, SHOWING OTHER BEGGARS WHERE THEY CAN FIND BREAD.”

PLANS

We are on with our agenda for the week. We reach out and nurture. That is top on our agenda.

APPRECIATION

God bless you daily for all you do for His work. We want to thank you for availing yourself to God as he is using you to accomplish many works on earth. Please, as we cry for more help and openings to doors, do your best to share our reports with others who may want to help.

Elangwe and family

By His grace, director BVBIC-Wotutu.

Evangelism campaign results in 39 baptisms in Takoradi

1.     CLASSROOM WORK

The first term of the second year has ended successfully. The term began on 17th January 2022 and ended on 29th April, 2022 for the full-time students. Studies are still ongoing for the part-time students. The full-time students will be on vacation for a month. They will return to school on 30th May, 2022.  On the day of vacation, the whole school met together, had a prayer session and reflected on the term which was led by the Principal.

2.     PERSONAL EVANGELISM AND BAPTISM

Preaching the gospel to the lost and winning souls for the Lord is very important to us. We are always joyed to share the gospel with others and teach them about the Lord and His church. In the month of April, the work of the Lord continued for both present and past students of the school. And the Lord blessed our work so much that thirty-nine (39) souls were baptized into Christ.

3.     WEST COAST MOTIVATIONAL LECTURESHIP

In the month of April, the Principal organized a 1-day youth motivational lectureship. He began this program in the year 2019, which was attended by about 250 brethren from congregations in and around the city of Takoradi. But due to the Covid-19, it was not continued until April this year. It was very successful this year too. Many brethren attended, others watched it live on Facebook, while some others also listened to the presentation on live radio broadcast. 

The Principal’s main objective for such a program was twofold: (1) to help empower brethren in the Lord’s church to be innovative and creative in order to develop entrepreneurial skills, and (2) to use that platform to draw brethren’s attention to the West Coast School of Preaching, especially for its enrollment purposes.

And this program was funded by the Principal himself, and two other brethren (one from Fijai COC—Bro. Emmanuel Justice Ofori and another from Mpintsin COC—Bro. Alexander Otabil) who joined him in organizing the program.

Thank you.

Joshua.

Students help to revive a congregation in Kenya

We have this day of May 20th, 2022 closed the school for a two week holiday till July 6th this year when we will resume classes for the third quarter of second year of fifth intake students at Kenya School of Preaching, Kisumu Kenya. We have fifteen students in this intake. Instructors have been four- three local Africans (Charles David Elias) and one American, Dr Michael Reese.

Apart from class work, the students have participated in evangelistic efforts conducted by two local congregations namely Tieng're and Ragengni. While at Tieng're, the local church near the school, the preacher assigned the students to be team leaders to direct members and guest preachers to villages around the school. This resulted in baptizing (8) souls in Christ. At Ragengni, the students also helped knock doors and two souls were restored.

Four students together with a local preacher Michael Boy, have also directed their evangelistic efforts toward an almost dead congregation by the name Ogwedhi Kambare in order to revive her. This they have done within the last four consecutive Sundays during which period they have managed to assemble with 6 and baptized two into Christ. Now that we have closed the school for a break, Ronald, who has been among the four, will continue to edify them till we open again. The number of baptisms are ten. Four backsliders have been restored.

I have attached some pictures of students in their school uniform, the local teachers with them and of some baptisms performed at Tieng're and Ogwedhi congregations.

Thanks for your continued prayers on behalf of K.S.O.P and more so for the students as they near their graduation day. Thanks again for your continued support towards the Lord's work here. Whatever you do only eternity will reveal. May the Lord bless all abundantly in spiritual and physical matters.

In his service, Elias Omollo

Terry Harmon visits Ukraine

Hello, dear brothers and sisters, and congregations,  

We are in middle of May, and here in Ukraine we still hear air raid alert sirens while Russian missiles continue flying over the heads of our peaceful citizens. Unfortunately, the all-out war carries on, the fatalities among civilians and military personnel increase daily. These days the theater of war shifted towards the East and the South of the country. The enemy wants to cut Ukraine from the sea access and control as much territory as possible. The Ukrainian Army resists, and every day we get more and more heavy weapons thanks to the USA and European countries. It looks like we still have a lot of military conflict ahead of us and only God knows when and how this war ends. We ask you to pray for us, for the Lord's Church and for the people who are now homeless and jobless.  

The Bible Institute is working in the city of Chernivtsy now. It's the most distant from Russia part of Ukraine and as of right now the safest one. It borders Romania and I think they don't have a lot of military infrastructure which can be the reason for not getting as many air strikes as other parts of the territory.  

During the last month brother Viktor Semikoz taught Wisdom Literature, brother Terry Harmon came to teach the book of Luke, I taught Ezekiel and these days Vitaly Rodichev is teaching Isaiah. We are grateful to Terry Harmon for this courage to come to Ukraine and encourage many brethren. There was also a joyful event, our students Sasha and Victoria got married. Brother Terry Harmon led the wedding ceremony. 

We continue our humanitarian efforts with the refugees who arrived to Bila Tserkva. We support them in their needs of food, medicines and personal hygiene products that we have ready for them. We are trying to make them feel that God loves them and takes care of them.  

Two refugee families from Konstantinivka started attending the services regularly. The church building is at the final stages of renovation to adjust to the needs of refugees. Currently we are finishing up the bathroom. Beds, washer and dryer are purchased. Now we have to get everything in order and start the refugee assistance program next week. People will be able to stay here for some time while we will be helping them to find some rentals.  

Since the military conflict shifted to the Eastern and Southern regions some citizens are returning to their home in safer places if their house are not destroyed. The infrastructure of the liberated cities is being restored. The store shelves look better and a lot of familiar brands are replaced with the goods from our European neighbors. The biggest problem is the gas and diesel supply, they are constantly in catastrophic shortages. The lines to the pumps stretch for a few miles. Since so many tank farms were destroyed by missiles all fuel is stored in gasoline tankers and trucks and it takes much longer to service the chains of gas stations. Consequently, the gas prices are very high. These are our daily struggles but God was, is and will be merciful to us.  

We rejoice in seeing His work of salvation. Yesterday two young men in Chernivtsy obeyed the Lord. They are from the Eastern Ukraine where the military activities are in full force. The Lord's church grows in spite of all persecution.  

I'm very grateful to all brothers and sisters who financially help us in our ministry in Ukraine. It's truly an enormous blessing to use the tools for spreading the Word. We constantly pray for the people to be able to see the hand of God in their lives.  

In Christian love, 

Your brother Dennis Sopelnik

Exciting times in Malawi!

Bear Valley Bible Institute

APRIL, 2021 - REPORT 

Introduction

Hello!

Hope this find everyone in good health. It is always a happy thing when you come to the finishing line of your race in every completion. Covid 19 has been a great challenge in our work of teaching men be faithful preachers. As we all are aware that it takes 2 years to graduate, but this time it has taken 3years because of Covid 19 challenge. But now we are happy that we are almost there. All courses have been taught and these remaining 3 weeks of May, we are finishing the remaining 2 courses of general epistles. We are thankful to God that we have managed to reach this far. This semester we were blessed to have our students hostels completed, healing hands international representative came to train our students in new technologies of agriculture and many more ways how we can harvest using composite manure. We are feeling to have been favoured and blessed by God! God has been faithful to us.

We are also thankful to mission printing team for sending us books and now our library will look great! The students have also received their carton full of books each. They are thrilled with joy as they will go home fully equipped with all kinds of weapons to defeat Satan. Again, we have good news from our former students that souls are being added to Christ, this time 11 souls have been reported saved! We praise God for the good job these men are doing. More detailed information in the paragraphs below.

Preaching and Teaching

We are excited at the moment as all the teaching work is almost done. We have had brother Blessings who came to teach short course on Minor Phrophet2 and also Brother Navie Theu who taught on poetry books. The students have grown in their understanding greatly and hope the congregations where they are going will benefit a lot as they fill up the pulpits and fulfil our brand – 2 Timothy 2:2.

As the school, we are always proud of our former students when we hear of them making a difference where they work as preachers. In the month in the month of April, we have received reports about the evangelism outcomes from our three former students who had preaching of door to door. We have received the news that 11 souls have been added to Christ and also 4 souls restored summing up to 15 souls! We praise God for this.

Construction work

The student’s hostel construction work is at the advanced stage of the finishing stage. We have everything completed only painting is to be done in few days to come. Having said this, without toilets, kitchen and shower rooms, we cannot be able to shift to this place. Therefore it is our prayer that God will keep our door to having funds open that we do the shower rooms, toilets and kitchen constructed. Renting has been expensive for a long time. The money we spend on rentals would have been used in other works of bringing souls to Christ.

Agricultural training

As school, our purpose is not only training preachers in Bible only, knowing that a person grows both physically and spiritually, we thought to invite the Healing Hands International to train our preachers how to keep their lives independent as the preach the gospel without support. Nowadays preachers support from without is no longer there, therefore, preachers need to work hard with their own hands as Paul, Peter left us with good examples. The Healing Hands have helped us with water and agricultural trainings. We thank Brother Mbwenu Chirwa who came to teach the students and the community also benefited from the studies to the point that one villager offered his one acre of land that next time the healing hands international come can go and help the whole village with the training. This training has preached a lot in the area where the school is allocated.

Mission Printing – Brings Joy to school and students!

Time passed and we were not even dreaming about this. We have been asking for library books since the school started in 2015, without know that BV International is working on that. We have been surprised with the coming of the books, not only for the library, but also for the students as a gift to each a carton. This is the joy the students and us all are in at the moment. God bless you all who took part in putting the books in cartons and shipping them to us. You have done us good. We are also thankful to Brother Donnie who offered the transport of books from Zimbabwe where they were shipped through. We really thank him for his kindness and love and so is our sister school in Gweru – Zimbabwe helped a lot putting the books in a bus to Malawi from Harare.

We are also thankful for the partnership between BV international and the Hillcrest church of Christ for the great support given to us to make the construction work accomplished. Without your stretched hand in this work we would have not made it on our own. Let this heart continues as the work still needs your involvement. Eternity Is Forever, Think Souls!

In Christ!

Ephron and Clergynton

A new school in Ghana

FIRST QUARTER REPORT, 2022

ASH TOWN – KASOA, GHANA

Introduction

The end of the first quarter is a blessing from God. For this time, praise be to God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

The establishment of the School

The above – mentioned school is a newly established extension school, established on 19th February, 2022 at Kasoa in Ghana. Brother Steven Ashcraft and Brother Kojo Acquah Beenyi were there to give orientation to students. Fourteen students were present. The administration of the school was handed over to Brother Larbi Emmanuel to work as the Director of the school. The school runs on a weekend basis, Fridays and Saturdays.

Classroom Activities

Two courses were taught this quarter. The courses were How We Got the Bible and Old Testament Part 1(Pentateuch). Fourteen students were present for these courses. Brother Larbi, the director was the instructor for both courses.

Admission of new students

 Letters have been sent to the churches within Kasoa community with the aim of admitting new students in the coming quarter.

We have had full students’ classes since the school was established and we pray that that will continue. Right now all assignments are done and we are seeing progress.

Start Up Materials

The School was blessed with startup materials soon after the official opening and we are grateful. Printer, among the materials,, will be a great help to the School as the making of copies of materials is one of the great cost to us. Even though we are yet to get the two in one table and chairs, we are managing with what we have.

Conclusion

We thank God for His care throughout this quarter in all our activities.

Reported by Emmanuel

Good works in Kasoa

KASOA 1, Papaase

 1ST QUARTER REPORT

JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH 2022.

Thank God we are alive in the midst of all the mess of the Covid. Now the wearing of the nose mask is not mandatory, observing healthy living is being done by many as you can see some still wearing the mask in certain places. We pray God continues to keep us safe.

Schooling

Emmanuel Amo Gyimah is now the director for this campus, hence the regular instructor. He just finished teaching The Church of Christ II, being the Worship of the Church. Currently, the class is on The Life of Christ III and is being taught by Nana Yaw Aidoo.

These students are working on their jobs from Monday to Friday and attended classes on Friday evening and the whole of Saturday for four years. Many of the students are preachers in their congregations, while others lead various committees in the church.

Some of the students are anxious to finish this program and continue with their bachelor's.  They have finished their assignments up to date as well as working hard to do their secular work to support themselves.

Students Activities

There was no combined campaign during the quarter, however, various activities were done by the students to win others for God and to grow the Kingdom of Christ. House to house evangelism, dawn preaching in house mounted loudspeakers, and sharing of tracts were made and the Lord blessed their works with many hearing the Gospel of Christ, restoring one brother and twenty baptisms.

Students Profile

 Brother Charles Ayensu is our student of the quarter. He was baptized some 28 years ago in a village nearer to Agona Swedru called Gomoa Afransi. He is 43 years and works with a loan company as a Credit Officer.

He has been a leader in the Papaase, Kasoa congregation for several years having served in various committees over the years because of his selflessness and commitment to duty. Currently, he leads the Church Administration and Planning Committee of Papaase congregation.

He is married with five children, two girls, and three boys.

Charles is full of praise for the sponsors and Bear Valley Bible School for this great work which he sees as a blessing to him and others.

Conclusion

Praying that the Good Lord will continue to bless us as we continue to serve Him in the School to train more workers for the Lord so as to work to expand the Kingdom of Christ.

More students in Nsawam

Nsawam Extension Schools 1 and 2

First Quarter Report, 2022

Report on activities held for the first quarter at the Nsawam Extension School.

Current Number of Students

Currently, there are two extension schools in Nsawam, thus Nsawam 1(old) and Nsawam 2(new). Nsawam 1 has 18 students. Four (4) of them are not attending class. These are the reasons: Emmanuel Ampoh has joined Kasoa 1 due to proximity; Mark Sintim, due to his work as a policeman, is unable to come to class. He has requested the administration to reschedule his course online. Emmanuel Otoo-Wood is unable to come to class due to his traveling work. Arnold Dabo had an accident and has been admitted. He is currently receiving treatment.

On our records on enrolment, Nsawam 1 is originally left with 14 students offering the Diploma program.

Nsawam - 2 has 7 students. Additional 2 students have submitted their forms and are yet to be reported.

Classes

Concerning the class activities, both schools are pursuing the same courses for this quarter. These are Old Testament 1, Life of Christ 1, and Personal Evangelism 1. For this matter, both schools have been joined together and pursuing the courses.

In our next quarter course schedule (April, May, and June), the schools would be having a joint class to offer Life of Christ 2 through to Life of Christ 4. These would be taught by brother Emmanuel Amoo-Gyimah.

Start-up Items Received for Nsawam 2

We were grateful to God for the items sent to Nsawam Extension School 2. These include mattresses, an instructor’s desk and chair, a water dispenser, and some start-up funds. We thank God and appreciate you all for the kind support. The chairs are not yet in due to a shortage on the market.

Next Campaign Schedule

Both schools would be joining the regular school to partake in the campaign which would be held from 6th to 12th June 2022 at one of the villages in Nsawam, thus Akwamu. Due to this, there would be no class this weekend.

All the students have been instructed to take part in this activity as part of the academic exercise.

Baptism Records

In this quarter, we have recorded three (3) baptisms during our personal evangelism. We are hoping that the prospect would understand and come to Christ.

These are the activities carried out for the quarter.

Keep remembering us in your prayers.

Reported by Sammy