We found a friend in Jesus and He is everything to us. He is the lily of the valley and the bright and morning star. It is a great thing to have God almighty as our father.
I bring greetings from Mbanga Balong. My wife and household send you greetings. The church of Christ salutes you. The staff and all part time short course teachers also send greetings. And finally, the new set of students from all over the national territory and the foreign students from Chad send special salutations to the missionaries and all the entire crewmembers that make the work in Mbanga to be a success.
I know it has been quite some time since my last report and a lot has happened within this frame time. We are bringing you our report covering time from before graduations and after graduation. God bless all for your long patient.
The first short course was on, " I Choose My Spouse Again.” This course was taught by brother Jean Claude who is the preacher with the church in Cite De La Paix in Douala. He is well experienced in married life. He is a father of about 5 kids and the profile continues. He used the 10 major bridges in communication. It was a time for all to smile with the numerous practical examples he used during this one week with all the students and their spouses.
After a week in class, we passed on to the court signing of their legal marriage certificates and to that of the church. It was a great moment. We prepare our graduates to go into the field well-armed, even in their homes, so that they will be able to do marital counseling which was also a part of their course on pastoral counseling. This was a great event that took place in the presence of the government authorities.
We left from this short course to a week of oral presentations of their term papers in what we usually call defenses. It is a time that they come to defend their research work on the theme that has been allocated to them.
This is our end of course exercise that we, the school in Mbanga, always carry out before graduation. All of the instructors were present and appreciated the students for their bravery and work. God blessed this section also.
Soon we will be getting to the day of graduation. But, before getting there, we had the validatory night which was on the 10th of March. We had a message from one of our graduates in the person of minister Ngula Evaristus. All of the coordination of the event was done by the graduates from Mbanga and Wotutu.
The 11th of March was the day for graduation. We witnessed 14 students graduating in the presence of about 700 persons who are all present for the graduation of our 3rd batch of students. We want to thank all who have made this day a success. The coordinator’s speech, presented by Elangwe in his absence, was of great encouragement. Another difficult moment in the life of these young preachers as they enter the field of preaching is for them to settle down in their new areas of work with little or nothing to start with. Some just went with tears in their eyes and even wanted to leave with a school mattress as a gift to go and begin a new life. All the same, let's put them in our prayers. Their work has started already and some are already being spoken of in their community as people talk about their good work and their presence in their new places of work.
The men in black are the new batch of students. 20 of them started this new batch and we pray that all of them shall go through successfully.
Classes have commenced already and they are all still in the process of becoming familiar with the new-life style of being away from family for a while. The young are trying to cope without active life in their former community and so on. Let us keep them in our prayers for the next two years.
We have been blessed lately with a series of baptism, in the church, and out of the church in Mbanga. From February to last Sunday March 4, the church in Mbanga has baptized about 13 souls and all are worshiping on a regular basis. They are made up of 4 mature persons who are living permanently in Mbanga and 9 youths who came to school this way. The church in Mbanga is growing in number and in spirit.
The church has been blessed this year with a piece of land. We had the opportunity to buy a piece of land just closed to our campus. It will be another big advantage for us if we have these facilities around us to host a lot of persons in case of great occasions. The house on the land, the director's residence, the church campus and the school campus can all host visitors. God is faithful.
As we were planning to begin school with the fourth batch of students, we have a fire incident that took part of our school building. One dorm room went on fire completely, as well as part of our library, a part of the next dorm room, and the corridor close to these areas. We have finally replaced about 55 sheets of zinc, the 3-meter type, and some ridge caps to stop the rains from destroying the other part of the building. A lot of other things are to be arranged including the electrical wiring repair which was the major course of the incident. We must also replace the beds and mattresses, cloths, food, books, a laptop, ceilings, doors, and ceiling fans just to name a few. We want to also thank God that there was no human lost. One brother had pretty severe injuries but the school nurse did some follow up and he Is now doing great and is in class already.
Our first mission work will be at this month’s end in Bekoko. Evangelism is our mission and our mission is evangelism. God bless you all for being a part of this great work.
From the office of the director of BVBIC-Mbanga. Stay blessed