Vocational training in Nigeria

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings from students and staff of Bear Valley Bible Institute of Nigeria & Southwest School of Evangelism, Ibadan, Oyo State. We closed all first semester classes and tests on Friday afternoon, October 14, 2016.

VOCATIONAL WEEKS:Twelve students are now with me for their vocational training in Electrician, Tailoring, Welding, Computing, Aluminum work, and Video Coverage & Editing. Ten are with Bro. Kayode Solomon Eniafe for Agric and NAPPMED while five are also in the campus for Agric (Fisheries ,etc)  and the remain aged students return to their congregations to help in evangelism.

ONIKOKORO /GBONGUDU CONGREGATION : Bro. Emmanuel Okpachui led in songs at yesterday open-air Bible lectureship and Bro. Lawrence Dada taught on "Save yourselves from this. crooked generation" while Bro. Iyiola Segun served as the interpreter. On Sunday, October 16, 2016, Bro.Emmanuel Okpachui taught the woman on Preacher's responsibilities to the church while Bro. Makinde Emmanuel taught the men class and Bro.  Godwin Ofem handled the children class . We are 56 in attendance with a total collection of N4,470.

AT ASEJIRE IN OSUN STATE: Bro.Kayode Solomon Eniafe reported the conversion of a soul at Asejire congregation as the result of our studentsoutreach of Saturday.

We thank you all for your love and cares. May The Lord continue to bless our work together in Jesus Christ name, amen.

I remain your fellow soldier of Master Jesus ,
Makinde Ebenezer Olufemi (Director of Studies)
BVBIN & SWSE,Ibadan,Oyo State.

The latest from the Normans

Mason and Haley Norman have been busy in Arusha, Tanzania, as well as preparing for their upcoming furlough. You can read their latest report HERE. 

Campaign success in Cameroon

Greetings from Cameroon,

     It is great to be on line this weekend with the report from the school and the Church. Our week was a great one with the students and the staff with whom we are doing our best to depopulate hell and to populate the kingdom of heaven which is a very noble job and pleasant to do.

     Five of our students went out for weekend evangelism and all of them have come back successfully. We give thanks to God for His doing. The almighty is great and added three precious souls this week including sis Mary the wife of Philip one of our student in Mbanga and we salute that decision of her part.We keep on praying for these souls.

God bless,

Ititi Benedict Nimending

BVBI-Mbanga, Cameroon

New servants in Chimala

We arrived in Chimala, Tanzania just over a week ago. This is our first time to be in Tanzania and we will be here for the next year working with the Chimala Mission and the Chimala Bible School in particular.

I hit the ground running as I have already spoken in Chapel four times.  Last Friday, October 14, I started teaching a short course on the book of Revelation to the second year English speaking students.  This class will meet for three Fridays and has 3 students. The students will be graduating on November 3 and going back to their respective communities.

We (my wife Carol and I ) are excited to have the opportunity to work with the church here in southern Tanzania. For anyone who wants to follow our work we have set us a blog at rogersafricanmission.wordpress.com. We are trying to keep it up to date, but with the intermittent internet at times we are slow in updating it.

Richard Rogers

rrogers33@hotmail.com

Annual Leadership Conference is a success

    I am happy for the privilege God is providing me to share with you the happiest and most encouraging moment we had at Andrew Conally School Of Preaching.  God is blessing this school richly by giving us opportunity to teach and serve Him. Tanzania Leadership Conference (TLC) is an event, which is hosted by Andrew Connally School Of preaching to teach Christian community.  This is first conference done without our beloved brother Cy. I believe that prayers works as God promised. We have great hope and expectation to have our brother back, but all things will be done in the will of our almighty God.  (Faithful is the saying, If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work).

 This year theme was “seeking the office”. Over one hundred and thirty participants from sixty different congregations around East Africa attended the conference. Many churches were only able to send one or two representatives because of distance but it was amazing conference.  On Sunday service (which we did together with Kisongo Church, the congregation close to school) two hundred and fifty people attended that worship. 

One of the topics highly debated among the brotherhood especially in East Africa is seeking for a position in the church especially electing elders in the church. The Andrew Connally School Of preaching acknowledged that the only way it can help and serve to the Christian community is arranging seminar which may help to solve the current leadership problem in the church. 

  Moreover this time we had amazing and an experience teachers on the subject, who helped participants to have great desire to be leaders in the church. This seminar also intended to help our students to be more active in the churches are coming from. Apart from that, students are well trained practically to serve Lord wherever they go through this conference.  This year also we were able to get people from Kigoma region, which is at the border of Democratic Of Congo, this place may be far than those who are coming from Uganda. This is to show how the gospel is penetrating to the interior.

   Thank you everyone who is working with school and the church in general. Also I would like to thank all teachers of TLC who taught in this conference, always you are in our prayer support on any thing.  To our supporters this cannot be done without you, always God is pleased with those who are thinking about Him first. We thank you also for your prayers and the encouragement we receive from you always.  

In His service,

Ahimidiwe Kimaro

 Director, Andrew Connally School of Preaching

A Bear Valley Bible Institute International extension school

Arusha, Tanzania

My visit to Tanzania

I have just returned from a visit to Tanzania. The visit had three purposes: visit with the staff and students in Chimala at the Chimala Bible Institute; visit with the staff and students at the Andrew Connally School of Preaching in Arusha; and to speak twice on the Tanzanian Leadership Conference. 

As is always the case, I was blessed for having been with the brethren in both locations. In Chimala there are currently 26 students and the next graduation is rapidly approaching. This year they have ramped up their evangelism efforts and the Kingdom has already grown as a result!

From Chimala I travelled north to Arusha; a place I first visited and taught in 2003. This school currently has 27 students and has been dear to me for many years. The highlight of the visit was to see so many former students! These men are serving God in mighty ways (3 are now Directors of Bear Valley extensions) and they make their old teacher proud!

God bless our brethren in Tanzania,

Keith

New Zealand and Fiji swap teachers

The two newest schools in the Bear Valley family have been able to arrange a teacher swap, which will greatly benefit both schools. Read about it HERE. 

Sister School Teacher Trade

Bear Valley Bible Institute in Fiji is just starting out, and I was blessed to be one of the first short course teachers. I taught on The New Testament Church in October. Their director, Rocco Pierce, and I will be in communication about how he and/or his son, Jason, will be able to return the favour.

Studies have continued well. Two more courses are behind us!

We have been planning our first campaign, which is to take place in January (our summer). If the Lord wills, we will work in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, to conduct a gospel meeting and invite the community to join in Bible study.

Please continue to pray for the school–both the instructors and students. We appreciate everyone who supports Bear Valley worldwide. We love you all. God bless you.

Keep serving Him,
Lance Mosher, BVBINZ Director

The French-speaking students in Cameroon

Greetings from this part of the globe, 

Hope all is well with the servants of God and the chosen generation.

We are so great full to be among those who think souls because it it a vocation that most precious in the sight of God thus says the writer of the book of Romans 10:15. It is really a beautiful thought.

Our week was characterized with a lot of evangelism at down beach Limbe with the ALUMNI EVANGELISTIC MISSION TEAM combined with the students of WOTUTU and MBANGA respectively. 

The team spent four good days in knocking the doors of the population of Limbe composed of both French speaking and English speaking people.They were divided into the morning and afternoon periods in other to do effective work and reach all of our demarcated area of work. Also attached to this, the open air preaching at night which was really encouraging. 

The team is gradually becoming bilingual with coming of the french speaking brothers and we experienced their work in that mixed community made up of French and English speaking people. Our mission in down ended on Sunday after worship with a fellowship meal with the souls that added to the Church. A sister was restored and three precious souls were added into the body of Christ.

The dry season in Cameroon is the period where a lot of preaching activities have been organized and the month of October is a transitional period where by we do have heavy rains and good climate.

There was a seminar with only sisters of all congregations in the french speaking part of Cameroon and the Mbanga congregation represented and they spent three days. They had as part of their activity distribution of tracks along the streets of Douala and inviting people to come attend worship with the local congregation.

Thank God every body return home safely. OUR MISSION IS EVANGELISM AND EVANGELISM IS OUR MISSION. Go preach the word to every creature every where anywhere.

In Him,

Ititi

Campaign report from Cameroon

Dearest in Christ,

       Greetings from this end. We do hope this report finds you in good health. We are doing our best and we have just returned from mission work in different locations; preaching and teaching the truth with all amount of boldness and zeal.

     As I write this report, all of us that went out are back. I was in two locations half a day each to meet up with some pressing issues. Thanks for your prayers for safety as we travel across difficult roads and fast running rivers.

  Over the weekend all the graduates of our school and the current students and students from the French school met in Down beach congregation where one of our graduates, Evang Ebage Micheal, is serving the Lord. It was great and we thank God as the lessons were good, not only to win souls into the family of God, but also to nurture the souls who are already in Christ.

       More plans for evangelism will be done in Bonjongo, a virgin land and Mile four where we have a young congregation. The evangelism in Wotutu will be mild , because we are already doing more daily through our early morning preaching and our Saturday evangelism house to house.

      God bless you. We thank you for all that you are doing for the work here.

      Please pray for the Brightland Christian comprehensive college as we are still face lots of challenges to meet up with the government requirements and to make the dirt floor have cements on them.

Elangwe and family

By His grace Director BVBIC-Wotutu

The first report from Fiji

Jason Pierce has filed the first report from the new school in Fiji and you will want to read it. Simply click HERE to see his report. 

The Normans report from Arusha

Mason and Haley Norman report, among other things, about the Leadership Conference in Arusha. Click HERE to read the report. 

A seminar and upcoming graduation in Ghana

Dear Brethren,

    We happy to send to you reports for the month of August and September, 2016. In the month of August, our students who were due to be graduated wrote their final examinations. They then joined in this year’s seminar for preachers and church leaders held from Monday, 12 – Thursday, 15th September, 2016.

GRADUATION

    Our next graduation is on the 29th of October 2016. Sixteen students who had gone through the two-year course would be recognized and awarded their certificates.

NEW ADMISSIONS

    Twenty-one new students have been offered admission to do the two-year course. Classes have already begun. Below are some pictures showing some of the current students.

COPIER MACHINE

    As stated in our recent reports, our copier machine has been inoperational for about three months now. Copying handouts for our new students has been a problem. We would want to appeal once again if you can assist us to purchase a new machine.

PS: Brother Max we are please working on the figures for the coming graduation. We will inform you immediately all is settled. Thank you.

We would again ask for your continuous prayers for the work here and for our new students for God to give us the needed strength to be able to go through the next two years of study.

We also would want to say “thank you” and may God richly bless you all for keeping your support coming all these years. May He richly bless you all.

CHARLES

16 students begin the new year in Ukraine

Dear brothers and sisters,

   In my monthly report for September I'd like to share the last news of the Bible Institute Bear Valley - Ukraine as well as our plans and our victories in the Lord's vineyard.

  The school year started on September 5th. This year we have 16 students in the program. The students from all parts of Ukraine came to study in Bela Tserkva. One of them whose name is Alexander was able to leave the occupied territories and join us to study in the program. We have big plans for this group of students. Some churches have sent their own representatives to study so that upon graduation they can return to their home congregations and serve as ministers. Being a part of church life in Ukraine, I am able to closely observe the progress in the ministry of our local congregations. Our churches used to wait for the arrival of the missionaries who would advise them with strategies and they wouldn't make any plans of their own. But now I am able to see the work of the congregations who run men's meetings and make plans for the congregational growth. They realize by now that they'll need additional ministers, preachers, Sunday school and ladies' class teachers. When they send off their Christians to be our students, they pray for the person and hope to receive a prepared servant in the end.

   In September the first year students had the following courses: How did we get the Bible? (taught by Dennis Sopelnik), Homiletics I (by Stanislav Kuropyatnikov), The Plan of Salvation (Jim Sherman). The second year students had Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Denton Landon), Minor Prophets II (Andrew Zhuravlev), The Period between the Testaments (Dennis Sopelnik). We are very thankful to God and all the brethren who help us in our work. Thus, Jim Sherman tries and comes to Ukraine twice a year to teach in our Institute. He's started this ministry from the first year of our program when the Instituted was first opened. Next year we will reach 20th year of our cooperation. His work in Ukraine is an encouraging example for us.

    In the middle of September two of our students Yuri Romanov and Alexey Mitskutis took part in an evangelical campaign in Kharkov. Almost the whole week they've been giving out booklets, visiting schools, hospitals and other public places. As the result of this effort some new visitors attended a seminar on "Non-denominational Christianity". Currently a similar evangelical effort is taking place in the city of Chernivtsi and Alexey went there with his family.

   I am very happy to share with you that one of our graduates Sergei Pavlenkov is doing internship with Poltava Church of Christ at present. This congregation had a difficult past and a few months ago they lost their last preacher. They decided to contact us and ask for help. We recommended our 2016 graduate Sergei and his wife Lyudmila. They moved there and placed membership with that congregation where Sergei is hoping to preach the Word of God. His ministry is in need of financial aid and if you have any suggestions or ideas please contact me.

 Also at the time being the establishment of a new congregation in the city of Kremenchug is under discussion.  Our graduate and my right hand Alexey Mitskutis would like to take an active part in this work.  His family is ready to move to that city and start the work there.  Right now they are making all the necessary preparations and are working on creating a team for this ministry. So as you can see the Lord still gives us grace despite of all the difficulties. With His blessings we are trying to move forward and spread the Gospel all over Ukraine.

Everything is well with Bela Tserkva Church of Christ. Our students are the wonderful addition to the local congregation and it looks like we will have to buy another set of chairs to be able to accommodate everybody. A few Sundays ago after the services we all had an outdoor picnic with our spiritual family. 

The Sunday school is growing as well. Every Sunday we have 10+ children. And we hope the numbers will increase. It's such a joy to see that children come specifically to study the Bible (not English and not to be entertained).

All students and instructors send you their greetings and thanks for your help and support. We still need your prayers for our country that is still at war.

Your brother,

Dennis Sopelnik, the Director of the Bible Institute.

To see the pictures that accompany this report, please click HERE 

KSOP begins a new batch with a full class!

Dear brethren, 

Greetings to you from the Kenya School of Preaching, Kisumu. 

The long awaited gamma class is has arrived and all 20 students are in school and settling to new environment, food, and life. 

The classes began well on October 3rd, Elias is teaching Genesis and Synoptic gospel. Bernard Kagaga will teach the New Testament Church while I am teaching the book of Acts, Homiletics 1 and English 1.

We have made changes in the school to create room for the library which is growing steadily. The changes have seen the dean and the secretary pushed to smaller space, but all is in the interest of giving quality training first priority. 

During the four years, 37 men have been sent into the Lord's field. Every class has been in the fore front of helping us effect good changes that keep making the school better. 

We trust this class will be better than the previous ones in class and evangelism. 

We also pray that this group will be involved in one gospel campaign at least once a year and help evangelize the local congregations every quarter to learn and gain experience. 

John Kimani who graduated this year August is already showing why the preaching is worth the sacrifices being made by generous brethren. Two weeks ago he planted a new church in Nyahururu town with 6 souls obeying the gospel. 

Paul Karisa sent me a text message thanking the school for the training which has enabled him to have bible studies with Muslims in Mombasa. 

Jeremiah Bor and two other former students Sammy and Kiplangat who also graduated in August helped to restore three churches to true worship. They are still pursuing other liberal churches in the hilly region of Rift Valley. 

Joseph Omondi, who graduated in the first class led a gospel campaign and reported five baptisms in the congregation where he is the preacher. 

Such exciting reports helps to add me gas to keep on keeping on. 

Lastly I thank the leadership of Tanzania Leadership Conference for the honor to speak at the conference on two assigned topics. 

It was great being with Keith Karsajian and having a chat with the very man who helped establish KSOP. 

It's an honor and great working with you. Keep my family in your prayers 

Brotherly Love, 

Charles Ogutu

The latest from Ukraine

The school in Ukraine continues to do its best, despite trying circumstances. The latest progress report (with pictures) can be seen HERE. 

Students prepare for a campaign in Cameroon

Dearest in Christ,

       Greetings from Cameroon, especially Wotutu, which is the seat of wisdom for Bear Valley Bible institute of Wotutu. I am sure this report will find you doing great in health and the work entrusted in your hands.

      As I write this report all students and staff of BVBIC-Wotutu are back on campus ready for the last but one quarter to graduation. The students who were in 21 different locations doing house to house evangelism, nurturing, and reviving congregations. They came back from those places with good reports from congregations, even though some came back with ailments. Keep praying for our students to be fine as they are rounding up their stay in school and as congregations are eager to get them all for themselves after graduation.

PLANS

       We are planning to meet up with all the graduates of our Bible college as they will congregate in Limbe congregation for evangelism - we shall be part of it with our current students. Pray for the work and safe travels.

APPRECIATIONS

      We continue to use our mouth to say thank you. Thank you very much for the love shown to us and also for your prayers and support for the work going here. If not of you we doubt how possible the work would have been.God bless you and keep you strong.

God bless you.

Elangwe and family

By His grace BVBIC-Wotutu

"The students went to the hinter lands..."

Greetings my Beloved,

        It is by the Grace of God that we are joyful to extend our warm salutation this weekend from Mbanga in the Littoral region of our peaceful country, Cameroon, found in Central Africa.

      To begin this weekly journal,it is great to say that our week was blessed with a lot of physical and spiritual blessings.

    We resumed classes last Monday, which was the 26th of September and all the students were present in class and everything went on hitch-free.The students were happy to meet with each other after a separation of about 3 weeks and were able to share their reports with the Director.

      The students went so far to the hinter lands were there was little or no network communication, but we thank God that the people in that area could hear the Word in these last days. God blessed some congregations were souls were recorded like in NSanke,Tiem and Mujuka Peage. All these assemblies are found in the Littoral. We could not have the pictures because they don't have phones with cameras but we pray for these souls to grow in Christianity.

            This week also had some evangelism campaign in a village call Ngongo Bakundu and I was there for two days due to my tied schedule. God already blessed with 4 SOULS.

              The Church in Mbanga is growing in membership and we are doing our best to train the sisters, most especially the wives of the students, so as to be able to help their husbands in field after their training.

            Up Coming events:  The will be the BVBIC ALUMNI EVANGELISTIC MISSION TEAM come Thursday 6-9 of September at Limbe and all our students are going to be there because evangelism is our Mission and our Mission is evangelism.

     The sisters will be traveling to Douala for another evangelism mission trip which concerns only the sisters. Evangelism has no Geographical boundaries.

We still be brethren. My regards to that big family of God.

Your brother,

Ititi

Classes resume in northern Ghana

Bear Valley Bible Institute, Ghana, Tamale

Monthly Report September

Thank God, so soon we are one month old in office of duty at Bear Valley Bible Institute, Tamale, Ghana. Kojo Acquah Beenyi, Ambassador, Francis Ayeni, Co-ordinator and Alex Jabado, Administrative Assistant.

School Resumes: The school was re-opened on September 19, 2016 and all the seven (7) students have reported. They are doing Homiletics II and is being taught by Alex Jabado.

General Cleaning: As the school vacated for four weeks, the compound became bushy and untidy so we organized a clean-up exercise to clear and clean the weeds and the compound. That is now planned to be a weekly affair to keep the environment clean.

Follow-up on past students: Francis and Alex visited two past students, Timothy at Yendi and Samuel at Tatali. We planned to visit Philip at Sabzugu but the river was full and we could not cross over. We also visited Ishmael who is a preacher at Kontobiyeli nearer to Sabzugu. Ishmael is not a past student but we plan to get all preachers involved in the ‘sweet fellowship’. We also did some campaigns to get new students for the school and we were assured of two.

Letter: A letter was received from the ladies requesting for the use of the school facility for lectureship from October 27 to 30, 2016. The school will be on vacation at that time and we have given them the go ahead to use the place which according to them, it will help them both spiritually and physically.

Self Help: Two trees are fallen at the compound, one was sold as firewood and the money was used to buy two coal pots of which the students can use for several months and also two bags of charcoal. 

First Meeting: The three new administrators met on the following needs and concerns of the school became known.

1. The school needs 3 more cutlasses and 10 hoes
2. There is leakage in the administration building and it is coming from the roofing.
3. In the kitchen, rain water comes into the room because there are no louvers.
4. Also the students’ beds need repairs and that some cannot by themselves stand while others can now house only one person instead of two.
5. The Cupboards or the wardrobes has the lockers not working, some also has the doors detached. 
6. Some of the windows also need ‘stoppers’ so that the rain do not flow in as it being the case when it rains.
7. The bathroom walls need tiles or the walls and the foundation will be weakened.
8. One of the toilets is out of use and the others need repairs. Right now Alex has bought items so they can be fixed. The total amount is 475 cedis, 50 pesewas. This is being done right now because it borders on health. 
9. Wall coming down. Portion of the wall at the north side of the property is coming down as a result of the strong storm that took part of the roof off. Surely it will fall off someday, which mean it needs attention. 

May the Good Lord continue to bless us all.

Studies and restorations in Nigeria

Beloved in Christ ,

Greetings from staff and students of Bear Valley Bible Institute of Nigeria & Southwest School of Evangelism, Ibadan.

WEEKEND EVANGELISM AT ASEJIRE, OSUN STATE: Three of our students continue working with Bro.Kayode Eniafe in Asejire,Osun state since the beginning of this session. This weekend of September 23 through 25,they continue their Bible Discussion with some group of denominational pastors and teachers in Ikoyi area of Osun state.

On Sunday, September 25, Bro. Akilapa Timilehin led the church in songs and also admonished them from Romans 8 while Bro.Samuel Effiong taught on Abiding in Christ's Doctrine. Bro.Kayode Solomon and Bro.Johnson Godwin joined them in the middle of sermon because of their engagement with a denominational church in Asejire that requested from them to be teaching their Sunday school class on every Sunday .

ONIKOKORO /GBONGUDU CONGREGATION: Bro.Makinde Emmanuel led the church in songs on Sunday of September 25. I taught the women, Bro.Lawrence Dada taught the men class while Bro.Godwin Ofem taught the young converts/visitors class on OUR RESPONSIBILITIES TO THOSE IN AUTHORITY . We are 58 in attendance with total contribution of N3,075.

EGBEDA OUTREACH: The students and staff of BVBIN & SWSE,Ibadan and one of our graduates & a WBSFUW, Bro.Dele Shotola arrived Egbeda town in the school van and a public bus on Friday through Saturday evening.

We evangelised Egbeda town and environs on Friday evening and Saturday morning between 9:30am and 2:30pm while Friday night and Saturday evening was used for open-air Bible Lectureship. I, Bro.Makinde Ebens spoke on Sin & it's Effects on Friday night while Bro. Kayode Eniafe spoke on Heaven or Hell---Where will you spend your eternity? and the host minister, who is also one of our present students, Bro.Samson Akintunde served as moderator.

To God be the glory, two souls was restored during the 2 days program with many prospects and I will be worshipping with the Egbeda congregation Lord's willing tomorrow with two of our students.

Brethren ,we thank you all for your partnership and moral and financial supports.

May The Lord of blessing continue to bless all our work together in Jesus Christ name,amen.

Sincerely His & yours.... Makinde E.Olufemi, Ibadan, Nigeria

55 baptisms in the first campaign in Liberia!

The new school in Liberia has now finished it's first campaign and it was a resounding success! You can read the full report and see the pictures by clicking HERE