BEAR VALLEY INSTITUTE OF BIBLICAL STUDIES, TAMALE - GHANA
POST OFFICE BOX TL 925
OCTOBER 2023 OPERATING REPORT
We are marching forward by the special grace of God in Bear Valley Tamale in all areas. We thank the Lord for His gracious blessings upon us all.
EVANGELISM AT NYOJODO
We had a very successful missionary journey to the Zabzugu Tatale district in the Northern Region. It was an effective evangelistic journey put together by the Zabzugu evangelistic team and the Bear Valley Action Evangelistic teams for the first time. The program brought together 36 valiant men with a few women in addition.
We were at Nyojodo to revive a dead congregation. The community is a great mission field with the majority of its inhabitants being youth. The community is dominated by Paganism, Islam, and two denominational bodies (Roman Catholic and Church of Pentecost). We had a great time there and hope to build a good leadership in this congregation to help us grow the congregation. The community has a population of about 1400 people.
We had both public and door-to-door preaching at Nyojodo. A great conversion was also made. We had 23 souls added to the Lord’s church, with 7 souls restored also. A beautiful evangelistic journey it was. You could see great love playing among the entire group of evangelists who took part in this missionary journey. It is very possible if things are well handled with this congregation, we could get some workers for the Lord’s church.
There were some natural challenges we encountered which were normal. The rains didn't give us enough time to preach. Some of our days were disturbed by the rains, notwithstanding, we still had some success. It is our hope that this congregation will grow to become a self-supporting and existing one. Oh yes, it is possible and we will work hard to achieve that with the help of God.
VISITATION AND SEMINAR
In the month of October 2023, Brother James Bisong Legend embarked on four days visitation journey to the Zabzugu Tatale District again in an effort to strengthen some of the congregations. He hosted a two day seminar with the Jomoni congregation to deal with the issue of paganism. Haven received a message of some mysterious deaths and sickness of some indigenes of the community that has brought fear on many of the believers. it was necessary to go and educate them on the power of God. Many of the members were living in fear, as the deaths and sickness was linked to one sorcerer in the community. The situation left many of the saints in the Jomoni congregation living in fear, which warranted the seminar. Many were empowered to depend on our Lord Jesus Christ for protection and guidance in every situation. The preacher of the congregation, Brother Shei-Laboir David, encouraged himself, as he was also battling with snake bites. We praise the Lord that after the program, many confessed to being liberated from going back to the dark world. Praise the Lord.
Brother James also took the opportunity to visit and to address another issue at Nagbindo congregation under the Sanguli area of the Zabzugu Tatale District. The issue relates to Christians living with women who are not their legitimate wives. In some of the tribes and traditions in Ghana, it is allowed for one to stay with a woman and have children before performing the marriage rites. These traditions were moving into the church, becoming a normal thing. We had to go sit with the leadership of the congregation to address those issues. Christ won at the end of the day, as many admitted after us reasoning with them from the scriptures that they needed repentance, and did produce the fruits of repentance by sending their women away until the marriage rites were performed. We give God the glory for His grace and guidance.
ANNUAL WOMEN SEMINAR
The annual seminar hosted every year on the campus of the Bear Valley Tamale by the women across the Northern Region took place successfully in the month of October 2023. Women of several congregations took part in it. On the final day of the event, which was the first day of week, all the congregations within Tamale came together at the Kpalsi South Congregation to worship. Brother James Legend taught the adult Bible class on the Topic: Youth and Substance Abuse. Brother George Dassah gave the sermon on the topic: Holding Firm the Doctrine of Christ.
The event and the worship was a successful one.
ACADEMIC AND CAMPUS ACTIVITIES
Students resumed back to campus to continue with their academic activities in the month of October after spending a good number of days with their families. Brother Albert Tamanja Malir took them through Old Testament 2. All of them were back to campus on the scheduled reopening day. We give God the glory for their commitment.
SCHOOL GARDEN
We harvested the last batch of our crops from the garden. We are hoping to get not less than two bags of maize from what we harvested to support the feeding of our students. As we have finished the harvest, we are moving forward to continue preparation for the dry season farming. We are determined to put things in place to deal with some aspect of feeding our students. Yes, and yes, we are determined to do so. We know it’s a matter of time and we will successfully handle it.
We give thanks to the Lord for His blessings. Amen.
Thank you,
Bear Valley Tamale.