While On Furlough, The Spradlins Share Exciting News...

It always feels so good to come back home to the USA after many months in South America! Furlough is a little sweeter every time we walk through those Immigration Department doors at the Miami airport. This year, we returned home earlier than our usual time so that I could attend classes at Bear Valley Bible Institute in Denver. Afterward, we will commence our reporting trip to visit all of our supporters and the Bible Academy’s supporters. We are excited and looking forward to seeing everyone. Meanwhile, the brethren at Avenida Sacramento are proceeding with business as usual, handling every aspect of the work. What a blessing and encouragement to see a maturing congregation doing so well! We hope you enjoy this report!

Developments at the Avenida Sacramento Iglesia de Cristo
The brethren in Paraguay are currently making plans for their upcoming congregational retreat. This will be the first time that there will be no American missionary involvement in the planning. They are excited about the event and doing a great job. We are excited for them!

Brother Ike Yegros was selected to speak at the upcoming “32nd Encuentro Iberoamericano,” in Bogota, Columbia. His topic will be over the Lord’s Supper. I am planning to attend the event with him.

New Developments at the Asuncion Bible Academy
The students finished up their first three classes of the new quarter: “Ezra, Nehemias, Ester;” “Job;” and “Homiletics 2 (Expository Preaching)”. The young men also practiced preaching from the pulpit.

Due to my furlough travel plans and the schedules of our adjunct teachers, this entire quarter will be made up of short courses (a complete course in just one week). I will be teaching one of the upcoming courses via video from the USA. We will also be having Osvaldo Rodriguez and Enrique Morales returning to teach this quarter via video.

The overseeing committee for the Academy will be taking a more active role in all of the decisions for the school over the next year as we prepare for a transition in Director. This will help them be better prepared for managing the school once I have completed my tenure in Paraguay.

New Developments at the Iglesias de Cristo of Ñemby San Lorenzo

The brethren at the church of Christ which meets in San Lorenzo (formerly Ñemby) are considering what to do about signage in front of their new meeting facility. Since the new location is situated over a main avenue, they want to have something that will attract lots of attention and be easily identified.

Personal Developments and Activities
I had the opportunity to attend two special “Blitz Week” classes on the campus of the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver for credit towards the Masters in Missions degree that I have been working on. One of the classes was “Cross-Cultural Missions” with Dr. Roger Shepherd of Amridge University and the other class was “Introduction to Anthropology” with Dave Chamberlin of BVBID. It required some extra special effort, but I got through the classes just fine and now have my eyes set on finishing and graduating in May of 2017!

Andrea and I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with the youth group at the Dripping Springs church of Christ via Skype this past month. They were participating in a “Missional March” study where they were visiting with and encouraging several of the missionaries that their congregation supports. They had some great questions and it was a lot of fun getting to share a little about missions with them!

Andrea and snow! You have never seen a Florida girl so excited as she was about seeing snow! Not only did we see snow in Denver, but we also experienced a blizzard while we were there. They even cancelled school (except for the blitz classes!).

After finishing up classes in Denver, and before starting our Furlough Reporting trip to visit supporters, we decided to take a much needed, quick, two-day vacation up in the mountains. We went to Breckenridge, Colorado and enjoyed the sights and culinary treats of the town.

My studies and readings for the month have included:
IntroducingCulturalAnthropology-AChristianPerspective, by Brian Howell and Jenell Paris

Planting Churches Cross-Culturally in North America and Beyond, by David Hesselgrave

Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally by David Hesselgrave

God In The Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams, by David F. Wells

I preached at Avenida Sacramento this past month and also had the opportunity to speak in Chapel at Bear Valley Bible Institute.

Troy and Andrea Spradlin

To see the report with pictures, please click here.

A Prayerful Week Needed...

Prayer Request: We ask you to pray fervently for the family of Isaiah Suwari. While traveling to share news about the opening of the school in Zimbabwe, brother Suwari was killed in an accident. Plans for the new school involved his role as director of the program in Zimbabwe. His wife and two year old son need the strength of our Lord to help them find comfort and peace during this time. Please remember his family and the future of the work in Zimbabwe.

Students in Denver are now in full-swing with the final quarter of the school year before their break during the summer months. During graduation next month, we will witness eight men complete their studies and enter the ministry. We experience mixed emotions during this time. We are always sad to see students leave, but we are also glad to know they are entering into the work of the Lord’s kingdom. Please pray for these men as they finalize their studies over the next few weeks and prepare to leave Denver and begin the work in a new place.

News from various extension schools this week also provides encouragement. The reports below share news about numerous souls who were added to the kingdom. The work of these men throughout their weekend evangelistic campaigns is exciting. It would be interesting to know how God works through each of these situations and the number of lives influenced by the individuals who come to the Lord. The web of influence that spreads through this work must literally reach hundreds, if not thousands, of people every week. How exciting!

Please remember to pray for the development of the work as new schools finalize plans to train men to preach. Pray for the Suwari family. Remember our brother Cy Stafford as he continues to gain strength in preparation for further treatment. 

Now on to this week’s incredible reports...

Coordinator Updates
Reports from the coordinators are now located on the website, under Staff Reports. The address is http://www.wetrainpreachers.com/extension-schools/

Extension Reports

Making To Dismantle The Kingdom Of Satan: After a weeklong campaign in Cameroon, students continue their studies in preparation to dismantle the kingdom of Satan.

Students Begin The First Quarter Of The Second Year In Mbanga: Growth is experienced, lectureship completed, and students are continuing to study in the last year of the program.

Souls Were Added To The Church In Ukraine: While students continue their studies in Ukraine, news this weeks indicates the local church is growing as souls were added to the kingdom.

The Work In Nigeria Continues To Experience Growth: From preaching out each weekend to personal evangelism, the work in Nigeria grows and the news is encouraging.

So Many Reasons To Rejoice With The Work In Tanzania: The report this week from the Maynard family emphasizes the evangelism in Arusha, sharing reasons to rejoice.

Final Thoughts
A big thank you to each of you. Your involvement in the Bear Valley program is a key reason behind the success of the work. We pray you are encouraged by the progress of the work. We also ask you to pass along the news to others you know that might be encouraged by reading the news each week. 

God bless
Bob

Making To Dismantle The Kingdom Of Satan...

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings from this part of the globe. We are doing fine and we do hope you are doing great also in all that you do for the Lord.

Our students went out to 21 locations for one week preaching and teaching and they are all back safe and sound with great reports about the development of the kingdom. We give all glory and honor to God and we send our sincere appreciation to you and all those you know who are making this possible.

Students are already one week into the new quarter in high gear as they make sure that all is okay with them, as concerns the equipping of themselves while they prepare for full time ministry.

One of our students, Hilary, went on house to house evangelism. We believe in this aspect of evangelism because it keeps you closer to the prospect who can freely ask questions for clarifications.

The staff of BVBIC-Wotutu were also out sharing the message in different locations. We also used the opportunity to meet some of our students in the field and spend time with them sharing the message. It is always good for us to witness, and it is a blessing for the students to stay with the staff side-by-side handling the scriptures. By doing so, we help them learn more outside the classroom.

I was also part of house to house evangelism in different villages sharing the message and given hope to the hopeless, that Jesus cares and He is still on the throne.

Evangelism is our passion. Everyone here is eager when the week draws near to Friday because it is an ample opportunity for us to go out to share the good news and also help many know the bad news as well.

God blessed our efforts by adding souls as brother Edube baptized a soul in the Kumba area.

God also blessed the work by adding souls in Bole village through the evangelistic efforts of brother Akama Kingsly.

Sister Mirabel obeyed the gospel bringing in a total of 26 baptisms from the different locations, along with 10 restorations from the one week we were out. The Lord helped us establish two new congregations. Keep the new work in Kom and Bechati villages, which is really far from Wotutu. We need to send students every week for nurturing. The field is ripe and the laborers are few. Thanks for your prayers and support, as 21 laborers are in the making to dismantle the kingdom of Satan.

There is an ongoing cultural jamboree in Limbe that envelops all ethnic groups in Cameroon from all parts blending our cultures and regional integration.

Muslims are part of it and there is free integration and peace, making Cameroon a peaceful place, as our soldiers continue to push away the Boko Haram. Keep our northern part of Cameroon in your prayers.

I was with the Nguty congregation last week. Please, they are crying for help to fill up the open walls and to place a concrete floor, which will be their own permanent place of worship. After being harbored in a brothers house for 35 years, they need help. If you can help it will be good. They have tried to cover the iron sheets and some walls, doors, and a concrete floor, end up their cry.

Plans
1) Ideanua mission in still pending.

2) Likomba is making progress.

Appreciations
od bless you. Thanks very much for all that you are doing for the work here. Your love has sinked down in our minds and we shall never forget about you.

All our computers are down because of power failure. Please, our students need to be back on the internet as they carry out research to end up their course. Pray for us to have the\ means to get the computers back on track.

Brightland Christian Academy resumes tomorrow for the last face of this academic year. Keep the kids and the teachers in your prayers as they will be involved in a number of public examsand other things, which if done well, will keep the name of the school flying high.

Do your best to share with others this report.

Elangwe and family
By His grace Director BVBIC-Wotutu

So Many Reasons To Rejoice With The Work In Tanzania...

Farming: 
We are thrilled this month to be able to show everyone the progress being made on the 1,000 layer chicken house. This project is a huge push in the direction of self-sufficiency for the school, and we are thankful for the progress. To the right is a picture of the foundation that was poured this week! 

We have a 1-acre raised bed plot and we were able to get all of it planted with corn before the long rains started. We rejoice in seeing the result of our labor. Today, we planted beans in these same fields. It was a long day’s work, but we were able to get around four acres planted.

A huge thank you to Betts Berry and the Walker County Young Farmers. We received 25 drip-irrigation kits from them this month!

This is a huge blessing to the work here. We have been hard at work getting them installed this month. 

Evangelism: 
This month we have so many reasons to rejoice. We want to share with all of you one of these reasons! One of our close friends in the work here was having a difficult time with his sister-in-law who had come to live with him and his family. The tide quickly turned, and things got worse as the family learned she had been heavily involved in witchcraft. For a few weeks there were many problems going on because the sister-in-law did not want to stop practicing, and being involved with the work of the devil. Justin had asked many times if he could go and study with her, but the family wasn’t sure she was in her right mind. After many sleepless nights, the family called Justin and asked him to come over. 

Brother Garry Hill had just come in from America the night before, so together Justin and Garry went to pray and study with this young girl. When they left, they were sad that despite their efforts she was choosing the devil. When you talked to her, it was clear that she knew her choices and she was rejecting Christ. However, only five days later we received a wonderful call. The young girl had decided that she wanted to turn away from the devil and his hold on her, and turn to the only One who can save our souls. She chose to put on the Lord in baptism and walk in a new life. Please pray for our new sister! 

The ACSOP hosted a great seminar on the second Saturday of this month. Over 160 people came to hear Brother Garry Hill speak on how archaeology proves the Bible to be true. It was an amazing seminar that showed the great power of our Lord. The locals had lots of questions in the Q&A session and you could tell they really enjoyed learning about this subject. 

Due to this seminar, we moved our children’s seminar to the third Saturday this month. So, this upcoming Saturday we will be traveling to Boma Ng’ombe to do the Lord’s work. We ask that you keep this effort in your prayers. We will post a report on the seminar at the end of the month. 

This Sunday was Samantha’s last Sunday with the children at Kisongo. They combined Anna’s women’s class and Samantha’s children’s class and did a joint review session. The children (and adults) were so sad to see her go home. 

Please continue to pray for this work, and for Brother Cy. We rejoice in the good news we received this week. Cy continues to improve and was able to leave the rehab center this week! 

Mungu akubariki!
The Maynard Family

The Work In Nigeria Continues To Experience Growth...

Beloved in Christ Jesus,

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you all from God our Father and from Jesus Christ, the strength of the saints.

A day Bible lectureship in Yoruba tongue on March 19, 2016 featured brother Ayobami Ogunjimi while one of the SWSE graduates, brother Joseph Olaleye, served as interpreter and some of us contributed to the discussion on God's plan for the home. The program commenced by 9:00 am and ended by 3:00 pm. Over 200 brethren graced the occasion which was held at Owode-Egba congregation in Ogun state.

On March 25-26, the students and staff of BVBIN/SWSE - Ibadan traveled to Wasimi, Osun state to work with one of our year-two students named Godwin Ede in evangelizing his area.

On our way back, our school bus broke down completely at Adekanra village. We were later forced to get the students back to the school campus in Butubutu through three hired taxi, while I used my Jeep to tow the van to the mechanic workshop in Butubutu village. 

On March 20 I taught on “Why the Early Church Grew” at the Onikokoro/Gbongudu congregation and concluded on March 27 with “How to Save Our Youth” to give room for divided classes for the next Lord's day that will also center on “Church Growth.”

Report from BVBIN/SWSE Campus Church: Brother Abraham Idu Yeje, our campus minister, taught on “Evangelism” March 20, while brother Nzunyang Rimamskwe admonished the brethren from Romans 12:1-12. 

On March 27, 2016 brother Shotola Emmanuel, one of our year-two students taught on “Choices” (Deut. 30:15-20), while another year-two student named Nnamdi Blessing admonished the church from John 15:1-10.

Report from Co-WBSFUW and BVBIN/SWSE Graduates: Brother Matthew Adeyemi, one of my fellow WBSFUW in the Western state of Nigeria, reported the conversion of sister Janet Ediboh on March 27 at his new station in Ogun state. Brother Lawrence Abiodun Peter reported the conversion of two souls and the restoration of one at Owode-Yewa in Ogun state, while brother Abiola Joseph Olusoji reported the conversion of two souls at the Agege congregation in Lagos state in this month of March 2016.

We are posting a package of 100 introduction lessons just recruited for free from WBS correspondence courses to WBSTC in California, USA. Those willing to teach more souls the gospel of Christ by correspondence should contact brother Joel Coppinger (International Director), WBSTC (wbstc@lightspeed.net). And another 700 introduction lessons just arrived at my table for cross checking before posting to USA for grading by early April from brother Gbenga Ilori, one of our graduates who is now working with a Lord's church in Igbara-Odo, Ekiti state. 

Southwest Kiddies Academy: Our kiddies academy is growing rapidly. The school started their 2nd term examinations today (March 29) and will go on vacation on April 8 through 29, 2016.

Ghana Trip: Lord's willing, I and brother Isaac Olaniyan will travel by road to Ghana on April 16 for a week of classroom instruction in the Bear Valley Graduate School in Accra, Ghana, where brother Ralph Williams will teach on “Leadership” in continuation of our Master’s program. Please keep on praying for our successful trip to and from Ghana.

While in Ghana, brother Abiola Joseph Olusoji, brother Kayode Eniafe, and my wife will help to supervise and monitor both the BVBIN/SWSE and SW Kiddies Academy.

Our Need: Since our old school van continues to give us problems whenever we travel out of Butubutu, we think the best thing for us is to get another fairly newer bus for our evangelism trip within the Western state of Nigeria. It will cost us not less than N1,500,000 ($7,500) to get a better van for this assignment.

In Conclusion: We are very, very grateful to you all for your love, care, prayer, and financial support for the Lord's work in Africa, Nigeria in particular. May the Lord of blessing continue to bless all our joint efforts in Christ name, Amen.

Yours in His service,
Makinde Ebenezer Olufemi (Minister)

Souls Were Added To The Church In Ukraine...

Hello brothers and sisters.

I want to share the good news that I enjoy and that encourages us to serve God more. Considering the unceasing military actions in the east of our country, I would like to point out that God still cares about Ukraine and especially about His church here.

Baptisms at God’s Church
In March there were several saved souls added to the God’s church in Ukraine. I want to tell about two of them. The first one is Yuriy, a young man from Kyiv. Brethren from Shevchenkivska church of Christ in Kyiv have been teaching personal Bible classes to him for a while, and as a result he obeyed the gospel. He was baptized by a BVBIU student whose name is Yura Romanov. Yura Romanov has a wonderful family; he has a wife, Katya, and a son, Matthew, who soon will be three years old. They joined the BVBIU program in February last year, and now God is already doing a great work through their family. Together with Andrew, Yura is preaching at the Schevchenkivska church of Christ. Their family loves God very much, and he will be preaching full time after the graduation. Please keep these two men named Yura in your prayers: one of them needs to grow spiritually, and the other needs to continue serving the Lord confidently. 

The other man is from Lviv. His name is Igor. As far as I know, he obeyed the gospel on March 27. I haven’t met him yet, but I’m very happy that brethren (BVBIU graduates) who started a congregation in Lviv only six months ago have such results. Please keep praying for the congregation in Lviv so the Lord’s name will be glorified through this ministry. 

The Bible Institute
Everything is well at the Institute. We had both Ukrainian and American teachers in March. I taught a class on Personal Evangelism, Walter Rayburn taught Wisdom Literature, Garth Hilton taught the book of Job and Contemporary Religious Thought. It was a wonderful time, and we are grateful to God for the wonderful lessons that were taught.

We try to have evangelizing events on the streets of the town together with students once a week; also we want to start an evangelizing project in social care places (hospitals, orphanages, schools, for handicapped people). Two weeks ago we visited a doctor in charge of one of the local hospitals. Unfortunately, they can’t give an affirmative answer, since the traditional Orthodox church has a great influence. However, they let us know that they won’t object to spreading the gospel and we can visit the sick. Also there is an opportunity to work with the people who temporarily lost the ability to move (after traumas, serious illnesses, strokes etc.) and handicapped people. We will have contacts of those people who want to talk to us. Please pray for our ministry and the opportunities to spread the sound doctrine. 

Last week we had our annual planned evangelizing practice. We were able to send our students to 4 congregations (Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Skvyra). This way we can help churches in their evangelizing ministry. I participated in the evangelizing with brethren in Skvyra. It’s amazing when people have an interest in the gospel and we asked to pray for them. During this short time, we preached on the streets, at the local hospital, and prayed for those who needed support. I hope that the hearts will be opened for the further communication. 

We continue searching for students for the new school year, and there are some prospective men, women, and couples that want to join our program. Some of them I’ve known for a while now, and I’ve met some others as a result of personal visits to congregations in the territory of Ukraine.  

We planned an all-Ukrainian meeting of preachers and ministry leaders in Dnipropetrovsk in April; it will be a BVBIU initiated meeting. It all started in November as a simple meeting for the local preachers. It’s been wonderful how many people are willing to come to these meetings, and their number is growing. We will do our best so that these meetings will bring forth good results. 

The Institute, its staff, and students send you their greetings and their thanks for the prayers and support of this work. Together with you we continue fulfilling the Great Commission of saving souls.

Your brother and coworker,
Dennis Sopelnik

To see Dennis’ report with pictures, please click here.

Students Begin The First Quarter Of The Second Year In Mbanga...

Greetings from Cameroon. 

The last Sunday in the month of March the world is under a lot of celebration with the Easter and all the like where, as Christians, we are celebrated in Mbanga over the souls that repented this same week. Let us keep on thinking souls that are perishing.

The Lord has been so gracious to us this week as the students returned to campus this Sunday with no problem except brother Mamoudou who is still in the North because he sacrificed His week to continue working in that part of the country in their Zonal Lectureship that ended Sunday March 27th. He was accompanied by minister Ename Paul, one of our instructors in the school, and the Lord added two souls to His Kingdom. We pray he returns safely as he will be making his way home.

We train faithful men for a faithful work of God. Training continues today at 8 a.m. prompt, and this will mark the beginning of the 1st quarter in the second year. Oh dear support team, the more time flies the more we are crowded with lots of ideas on how to graduate the students and to begin with the second batch that will be taking the entrance exams by October. We appreciate what you have done so far and every one who contributes his or her quarter to see that men are being trained in Cameroon and in Mbanga in particular.

The campaign was good with a lot of good news coming from the various congregations, and confidently. I get that from some of the members of the congregations, and the same thing with those that I visited while in the field, but the rocks in the French-speaking countries really had to be chopped just like our colonial masters who are really find it difficult to accept the truth. With time, the people will come to know that the truth will set them free.

The students and the Church shall be attending the annual youth forum for their first time since the creation of the school in Mbanga, which will be another room for evangelism in this part of our country come Thursday 02-04-2016. This will be our first weekend evangelism this semester so as to continue with that of Sancho and Njombe still in the month of April and May respectively, by the grace of God.

Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Have a splendid week.

Ititi

A Rocky Mountain Spring Brings Interesting Weather To Denver...

UPDATE: We continue to rejoice with the improvement with Cy Stafford. We were all encouraged to see a picture of Cy at one of his grandson’s baseball games and he attended worship today. We rejoice with the strength he demonstrates and his effort to improve. Please pray that as Cy grows stronger that he will endure the upcoming treatments to help him remain free of cancer.

Students in Denver returned to the classroom last week to begin their final quarter of the school year. There is always a level of excitement to beginning the quarter. This quarter was met with a winter blizzard in Denver. After only two days of classes, Denver experienced a blizzard that closed school for the day. Temperatures were warm on Tuesday and plummeted to below freezing and snow fell like we were in the heart of winter. The problem is we are entering spring. Oh well… welcome to a Rocky Mountain spring.

Extension news continues to be exciting as the work in each location demonstrates the greatness of our God. Reports below indicate growth on the part of students who train and the growth of the church as souls were added to the kingdom. To read the reports from each location brings encouragement and excitement about the future of extension training. We hope you are as encouraged and excited as we are with the development of the work.

In addition to the reports below from current schools in the program, we are excited about last week’s announcement of three new locations where men will be trained to preach the gospel. Please pray for the beginning of schools in Zimbabwe, Liberia, and New Zealand. As these schools begin classes, we will highlight the development of each program of study.

Now on to this week’s incredible reports...

Coordinator Updates
Reports from the coordinators are now located on the website, under Staff Reports. The address is http://www.wetrainpreachers.com/extension-schools/

The latest report from Mike Reese about the work in Kenya can be read by clicking here.

Extension Reports

The Church Grows In Togo By The Assistance Of The Kpalime Congregation: A new church is planted and others grow as a result of outreach from the church in Kpalime.

A New Staff Member Begins Work With The School In Tamale: A local coordinator for the Tamale Institute of Biblical Studies begins to assist the program of study in Tamale.

ACSOP Provides A Tool Of Great Blessing In Tanzania: Men continue to be taught the Word of God and go into their own communities to preach the gospel and win souls to Christ.

Souls Added And Restored To The Church In Arusha: The church grows by the work of graduates from the program of study at the Andrew Connally School of Preaching.

A Children’s Seminar And Preparation For A Family Seminar Takes Place: The work in Arusha, Tanzania continues to reach out to children and families.

Final Thoughts
A final word of thanks to each of you for all you do to help the program of extension training continue to provide growth for the kingdom of our God. Witnessing the development of men who desire to preach both in the U.S. and around the world signifies the hope God promises in His word. The opportunity to share His word and see the fulfillment of that promise makes each day a little brighter and eternity that much sweeter. Thank you.

God bless
Bob

A Children's Seminar And Preparation For A Family Seminar Takes Place...

Greetings friends and brethren,

I hope that you're having a great Easter weekend with your family and friends. It warms our hearts to see all of the photos on social media of our friends enjoying Lads to Leaders or just family get-togethers. Those are good times.  

We're enjoying good days here as well. The weather is beautiful and God's work is thriving. Here are a few highlights of the work that you are helping to make possible with your prayers and support.

Children's Seminar in Boma Ng'ombe
Last Saturday the Maynard, Gaines, and Massawe families were privileged to take the monthly Children's Seminar to the village of Boma Ng'ombe (which means "Cow House"). This little village at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro provided a great setting for the well-attended seminar. As usual, Tiffany, Anna, and Jane taught the children lessons about the Bible, and gave the ladies some tips on how to better teach the Bible to their children.

Meanwhile, Daniel, Justin, and Desdery had a Bible study with the men beneath the shade of a nearby tree. Afterwards, three men expressed a desire to put on their Lord through baptism. We promptly went down to a local river. While ladies doing their laundry on the banks of the river looked on, these men were washed clean of the stains of their sins.

Plans for Family Seminar
The rotating Spiritual Discipline Seminar has now run its course at all of the congregations on the initial schedule. The area preachers met yesterday to discuss future plans. Our next traveling seminar will be "What Every Family Needs", based on the book by the same name from Faulkner and Brecheen. We are strategically enlisting the help of some of our older preachers and church leaders in order to benefit from the wisdom gained from their experiences. The brethren seem to be excited about what this seminar will have to offer their congregations.

We'll also be spreading the Spiritual Discipline Seminar to some congregations that did not get a chance to receive it the first time around. This will be done by men who served as "Timothy's" during the first round. After all, teaching to teach, and enabling men to share what they've learned with others is the name of the game around here.  

Concluding Ilkiurei Quarter
This year the focus of cooperative evangelism is on revisiting and boosting some of the newer congregations in the area. The first quarter was spent at the Ilkiurei congregation, as area evangelists devoted a Saturday each month to doing personal work in that neighborhood. 

In the coming quarter, our attention will shift back to Njiro Chini. This will also be the location of some of the Safari for Souls campaigns that are making preparations to come in the next few months. Please keep these efforts in your prayers.

New Chicken House
Justin and the guys at the farm have been hard at work in building a new, larger chicken house for ACSOP. Once finished, it will eventually enable us to increase our stock to 1,000 chickens. This will be a great benefit to the school.

Cy Treatments
Our brother, Cy Stafford, will take a new round of chemo treatments this week. Please pray that the side effects are minimal, and that the treatments are effective. He should also be having bone marrow evaluations during his stay in the hospital. 

As always, thank you for being a valuable part of this team. Together, God's kingdom is growing stronger and stronger. May God continue to bless our service together.  

You can see this report with pictures here: http://tanzanianmissions.blogspot.com/2016/03/short-report-march-27.html

Till all have heard...
Daniel Gaines

Souls Added And Restored To The Church In Arusha...

As I mentioned in my previous report, our evangelistic team continues to put an internal check on it members and strengthening souls. We thought it is both necessary to add new souls to the Lord each day and also teach our members the importance of discipleship because this is all about the Big picture in Mathew 28:19.

A number of topics were taught in a series by many invited local teachers in order to edify the congregation. And this coming April, our friend and lover of the gospel brother Daniel Gaines will start teaching another 13 lesson series on Giving (worshiping God through our finances). We hope and believe that these lessons will bring much blessing to both of our visitors, old and new church members. 

I found it necessary to share with you the good progress our congregation. Over the past few months I encouraged my adult class to continue praying and thinking about the need for elders. As the scriptures teaches the importance of having a strong leadership, we also need be moving into that direction. At this time we pray a lot and teach in the area of leadership. As a preacher I spend much time with the men of the congregation who have shown the desire to serve as our church leaders in the future. The work of equipping faithful men to take a lead has never been easy, but we believe, with the Lord’s help, things will take its shape very soon.

During March two brothers were restored to the church and that brings glory to our Lord God. Brother Yohana Laizer and Alfred Massawe decided to withdraw their membership from the church and went to join the Pentecostal faith, and that was two years ago. But through our earnest prayer, we kept on talking to them, and they decided to come to the church and ask for forgiveness. I still believe that when the gospel has been preached to a person correctly, there is one day before it is too late, after wondering into the world, a person will come back home.  We are glad that they decided to repent and change their way before it is too late for them.

Brother Daniel Edaga (age 22) in 2014 received a TEAM booklet from one of our evangelists in Arusha. He was still worshiping in a denominational church since 2010 when he arrived in Arusha from Morogoro for the purpose of finding a job. As a young boy in a new town, he had many life challenges. After a while he finally got a job of selling shoes and a place to stay. During this time he never stopped reading the TEAM magazine which was then produced by our brother Cy Stafford and other staff at ACSOP. As he was reading the subject of baptism and the one true church of the Bible, many question came it his mind. Lucky enough there were many contacts for further questions. He finally called one of the numbers of brother Gasper of the Mto wa Mbu church of Christ and later got connected to me because I am the preacher at Arusha. For many months now we have studied with him through messages and this is because of the nature of his job of traveling to different markets on each market day. He finally gave me a call early in the morning this Friday and asked me to be baptized. And this is part of his message “… I have studied enough to know the true baptism and the true church Jesus built and there is no need for me to wait to be baptized so that I can put on Christ in baptism and added to His church…”  To be honest I called him right away and took him to the church building making the water ready for him to be baptized into Christ. As I was making preparation of the baptistery and water ready for brother Daniel, my coworker, Isack Kusupa, encouraged him with many words from the scriptures for what he is about to do. You can tell from the pictures this man was very happy for this new spiritual birth. Please continue to pray for the the Arusha congregation as we seek to do God’s will. 

Godfrey Mngoma

ACSOP Provides A Tool Of Great Blessing In Tanzania...

First of all, thank you for your interest and support of the TZ 2000 Mission Work. Without the prayers, financial support, and encouragement from all of you in the U.S., none of the good done here could have been accomplished. Thanks for sharing in the vision of Cy Stafford in teaching Africans to evangelize Africa. 

The ACSOP has been a great blessing tool in East Africa. Many men were already taught the word of God here several years ago and they have gone to their areas to preach to their communities and as a result many souls are being brought back to the Lord who created them. Almost every week we receive reports from all over East Africa about the souls who are being saved through their efforts. 

Just to mention two of them who were able to communicate to us this week: Elias Kwilaza in Kilima Hewa Mwanza had 2 baptisms this week, and Amri Luberati in Mbagala Dar es Salaam had 4 baptisms just this week. Others are in the field doing the same thing and we are looking forward to hearing from them soon. 

As we witness such a great effort in the Lord’s kingdom, the ACSOP recognizes that we are in debt to the Lord for more effort to produce these kind of men in big numbers for more results unto His kingdom. That is why our heart-felt gratitude goes out to you for your loyal support and interest to be a part of this big picture.

In one week, our second quarter for this year is going to begin for both first and second year classes. The first year class will be learning Life of Christ I, taught by Godfrey Mngoma, Writing Skills taught by Losotwa Michael, Introduction to Hermeneutics taught by Bernad Kulanga, New Testament Church taught by Desdery Massawe, and Public Speaking I taught by Bernard Kulanga. At the end of that quarter there will be two short courses: Job / Old Testament 3a taught by Ahimidiwe Kimaro, and Godhead taught by Charles Herberth.  

The second year will be learning Greek II taught by Losotwa Michael, Gospel of John, 1, 2, and 3 John taught by Daniel Gaines, Biblical Interpretation 2 (In depth study of Hermeneutics) taught by Adam Evans, Old Testament 4 (Study of the Major Prophets: Isaiah - Daniel) taught by Josephat Massawe, and Public Speaking 2 (Practical Homiletics - Sermon Prep) taught by Godfrey Mngoma. At the end of that quarter there will be two short courses: Christian Ethics, taught by Mason Norman, and the book of Romans taught by Charles Herberth.

On the other hand, as we are being encouraged by the reports about the recovery of our dear brother Cy, let’s keep giving thanks to our loving God and praying for his complete recovery for he still has a long way to go.  

Our deepest thanks to you who are loyal to the TZ 2000 mission work and sincerely care about the lost souls in East Africa. Thank you for your love and prayers for the greatest work on earth of sowing the seed of the Kingdom.

Losotwa Michael
Dean of Academics, Andrew Connally School of Preaching
A Bear Valley Bible Institute International extension school
Arusha, TZ

A New Staff Member Begins Work With The School In Tamale...

Once again we greet all God loving individuals who have dedicated their lives to building the noise of God.

May the Heavenly Father and our Lord through the Holy Spirit continue to strengthen us in our course of duty.

By the grace of God, Tamale has a new coordinator. He is brother Francis Ayine. Currently, he is stationed in Accra and preaches at the Accra Road Church of Christ. He is a native of Bolgatanga, the capital town of the Upper East Region in the Northern sector of Ghana.

Brother Francis Ayine has being preaching for the past 29 years, he is married, and has been blessed with four children who are all Christians.

All those who want to have correspondence with brother Francis Ayine can do so with the address below:

Church of Christ (Accra Road)
Post Office Box AS 144
Ashiaman- Accra
Telephone: 0246226673
Email:evangelisayifra@yahoo.com

It is hoped that with the replacement of the Coordinator,  activities will be improved here in Bear Valley Bible Institute Ghana - Tamale.

Baah Joseph Okyere
Director

The Church Grows In Togo By The Assistance Of The Kpalime Congregation...

Church of Christ Now Meets In Agbave
On the 25th of February the chariot team left Kpalime for a three day campaign in a town called Agbave, about 45 minutes from Kpalime. The team was made up of 20 men and women. Activities, as usual, consisted of open air preaching, house to house, a film show, and tract distribution. At the end of it all, six (6) souls were baptized. Activities were climaxed with a worship service under trees in Agbave. 

Since we are entering the raining season, I am appealing for $800.00 to construct a meeting place for this new congregation. 

Visit To The Adeta Church
On my recent trip to Kpalime, I had the opportunity to visit the Adeta Church of Christ. I used the occasion to teach the Bible class while Agbesi, one of our recent graduates, preached the sermon. Agbesi is a native of the region and has therefore decided to work with the church. We shall need at least $100.00 to support him while he works with this new congregation. 

Kpalime Churches Assist New Congregation
Each Sunday morning some members from the Nyiveme congregation in Kpalime travel to worship with the Adeta Church of Christ. Each week also a group of preachers visit for personal work. The landlord who rented the place of worship to the church has found favor with it and has continued to visit since the work started in Adeta. The future of the church in Adeta looks very bright. 

Activities At BVBI In Kpalime
The number of students remains at eleven. The courses being taught this quarter include the following: 

1) Introduction to the New Testament
2) Church planting
3) The preacher and his work
4) The book of John
5) Exodus – Leviticus
6) Management
7) Homiletics (2)
8) French (2)
9) Congregational Development
10) The book of Matthew
11) The book of Galatians – 1& 2 Thessalonians 

Esperance preaches for the Nukafo congregation in Lome the capital of Togo. He has been dedicated to this work since the very inception of the school in 2005. He was there recently to teach “The Preacher and His Work.” 

BVBI Vegetable Farm
Since the agricultural workshop sponsored by Healing Hands in October last year, we have not relented in our efforts to start a vegetable farm. We plan to feed the students with some of the produce and sell some to the hotels and the restaurants in the Kpalime area. 

We have completed the wired fence project and the clearing of the land. On my next trip, we shall raise the beds, apply manure, and start planting. 

BVBI Needs Another Motor Bike
Cephas has been my assistance since the day the school started in 2005. He has also served the church in Kpalime as the minister all these years. Cephas used to have a bike but after several repairs, we have decided to secure a new one for him. He has truly dedicated his life for this ministry and handles all the day-to-day activities at BVBI. I am therefore making this appeal on his behalf to get him a motor bike to facilitate his work. A bike now cost $1,000.00 (one thousand dollars). This includes the bike, registration, and insurance. 

Report by: Willie Gley 

To see Willie’s report with pictures, please click here.

New Schools Prepare To Open...

UPDATE: We rejoiced with the news about Cy Stafford, as he was able to leave the rehab facility last week. He will continue to do out-patient physical therapy over the weeks ahead and visit with doctors to determine the course of future treatment. The journey to full recovery is not complete, but we are encouraged by the progress and continue to pray for Cy’s full recovery.

Students in Denver return this week for the final quarter of the school year. For several students, this is the home stretch. They complete their studies and will graduate in May. We share in their excitement to reach the end of this journey and enter the work of ministry. Their ability to share the word of God with others encourages everyone in the program. We ask you to pray for all these men and their families as they make their way through these last few weeks of study.

One of the areas of extension training that holds an exciting place in the development of the work involves the location of each school. We frequently receive requests from individuals around the world who ask to apply for the program in Denver. Our response involves pointing them to a location in or near their country. Last week we were able to connect four potential students to schools in their own country and we pray they are able to enroll and study.

Three new schools will soon begin training men to preach the gospel of Jesus. Zimbabwe, New Zealand, and Liberia are all set to open doors in the program. Adding these new locations, along with the work in Malawi and Zambia raises the number of schools in the extension program to twenty-two. The twenty-third location will open in Fiji later this year. This is an exciting time to see the development of these locations. The potential number of students involved in these locations may take the program to nearly 400 students studying to preach the gospel.

Please pray for the program as it grows and we partner with great brethren around the world in training men to preach.

Now on to this week’s incredible reports...

Coordinator Updates
Reports from the coordinators are now located on the website, under Staff Reports. The address is http://www.wetrainpreachers.com/extension-schools/

Extension Reports

Bear Valley Bible Institute Cameroon: Wotutu, Cameroon

Visiting Instructors Provide Empowering Lessons For Students In Mbanga: Two instructors visited the work in Cameroon and their lessons benefited all who heard the message.

Evangelism Characterizes The Recent Activity In Nigeria: Staff and students alike participated in evangelistic efforts over the last few weeks and the results encouraged everyone.

Thirty-Nine Baptisms And Seven Restorations From One Work In Tanzania: News from near Arusha indicates the increase God provided to one specific area. This is exciting to read.

Crops Are Growing And Souls Are Saved Through The ACSOP Program: The Maynard report shares information about the progress of the farming and evangelistic efforts.

Final Thoughts
Thank you for your continued involvement in this program. Every area of this work is possible because of the partnership between the greatest brethren on one side of the world and the greatest brethren in others parts of the world. How does a partnership get any better? We thank our God daily for each of you.

God bless
Bob

Crops Are Growing And Souls Are Saved Through The ACSOP Program...

Farming: 
We are thrilled this month to show everyone the progress made on the 1,000 layer chicken house. This project is a huge push in the direction of self-sufficiency for the school, and we are thankful for the progress. We were able to pour the foundation this week! 

The corn we planted last month is now growing! 

We have a 1-acre raised bed plot and we were able to get all of it planted with corn before the long rains started. We rejoice to see the result of our labor. Today, we planted beans in these same fields. It was a long day’s work, but we were able to get around four acres planted. 

A huge thank you to Betts Berry and the Walker County Young Farmers. We received 25 drip-irrigation kits from them this month!

This is a huge blessing to the work here. We have been hard at work getting them installed this month. 

Evangelism: 
This month we have so many reasons to rejoice. We want to share with all of you one of these reasons! One of our close friends in the work here was having a difficult time with his sister-in-law who had come to live with him and his family. The tide quickly turned, and things got worse as the family learned she had been heavily involved in witchcraft. For a few weeks there were many problems because the sister-in-law did not want to stop practicing her involvement with the work of the devil. Justin asked many times if he could go and study with her, but the family wasn’t sure she was in her right mind. After many sleepless nights, the family called Justin and asked him to come over. 

Brother Garry Hill had just arrived from America the night before, so together Justin and Garry went to pray and study with this young girl. When they left, they were sad that despite their efforts she was choosing the devil. When they talked to her, it was clear that she knew her choices and she was rejecting Christ. However, only five days later we received a wonderful call. The young girl had decided that she wanted to turn away from the devil and his hold on her, and turn to the only One who can save our souls. She chose to put on the Lord in baptism and walk in a new life. Please pray for our new sister! 

The ACSOP hosted a great seminar on the second Saturday of this month. Over 160 people came to hear brother Garry Hill speak on how archaeology proves the Bible to be true. It was an amazing seminar that showed the great power of our Lord. The locals had lots of questions in the Q&A session and you could tell they really enjoyed learning about this subject. 

Due to this seminar, we moved our children’s seminar to the third Saturday this month. So, this upcoming Saturday we will travel to Boma Ng’ombe to do the Lord’s work. We ask that you keep this effort in your prayers. We will post a report on the seminar at the end of the month. 

This Sunday was Samantha’s last Sunday with the children at Kisongo. They combined Anna’s women’s class and Samantha’s children’s class and did a joint review session. The children (and adults) were so sad to see her go home. 

Please continue to pray for this work, and for Brother Cy. We rejoice in the good news we received this week. Cy continues to improve and was able to leave the rehab center this week! 

Mungu akubariki!
The Maynard family

Thirty-Nine Baptisms And Seven Restorations From One Work In Tanzania...

It’s my hope this finds you well in the Lord’s work. I always thank God for the great opportunity to serve Him, and also for the opportunity to see his kingdom growing all over the country. Please take a few moments to visit what one of our ACSOP graduates has done at Ushirombo during February and March. Brother UsufuMdaki is working hard with his team in the Lake Victoria zone.

Ushirombo Congregation And Others: February - March 2016
“The work of God in the Lake zone continues very well, and it is encouraging to hear that our fellow worker and our missionary Cy Stafford is starting to get well. We are continuing with prayers every day and we believe that nothing is too hard for the Lord. We continue to encourage his family to depend on God and God is very faithful all the time. 

The outline of baptisms and restorations for all congregations on the lake Zone this February and March:

Ushirombo Town - 3 restored; Lulembela - 13 baptisms; Kazibizo/Mtinga 10 baptisms; Imalamagigo - 8 baptisms; Ibambula 3 Baptisms; Sunve 4 restorations and 5 baptisms.

The Sunve congregation is restored because they lacked a preacher and a place to worship. From Ushirombo to Sunvethere is a big distance. We are now training someone as a preacher there that he can take care of that Church.

The Katoro congregation is doing well; we have now someone who will be the full time preacher there who is now attending training at ACSOP.

Edification

In February we conducted the seminar for all men from six congregations. Thirty men attended to receive training to work in their congregations. We give God glory because the Ushirombo congregation provided food for this seminar. This seminar will continue through March and April. Also, at the end of March we will have a ladies seminar, and after that will be followed by youth seminar.”

This is just one report, from one person, and there are still many things that our graduates are doing out in the field. God is doing wonders through them.

At ACSOP this week, we completed a long quarter and will have two short courses in next two weeks. Pease continue to pray for our friend Cy that he can fully recover. Thank you all for your time. May God bless you. 

In His service

Ahimidiwe Kimaro
Director, Andrew Connally School of Preaching
A Bear Valley Bible Institute International extension school
Arusha, Tanzania

Evangelism Characterizes The Recent Activity In Nigeria...

Beloved in Christ,

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you all from God our Father and from Jesus Christ, the hope of the world and the strength of the saints.

We evangelized Tadi and Alagbede villages of Ona-Ara Local Government, Oyo state last Saturday and a man of sixty years that left the church after his baptism two years ago at Alagbede was restored back to the Lord on Sunday, March 13, 2016 at the Campus church Butubutu. Brother Kayode Solomon Eniafe and brother Dele Shotola, my fellow WBSFUW and graduates of SWSE-Ibadan evangelized Ijebu-Igbo town with brethren from the Ijebu-Igbo congregation, Ogun state.

On the Lord's day, March 13 at Onikokoro / Gbongudu congregation, Ibadan, brother Destiny Elijah, one of our year two (BVBIN) students continued our teaching on “Basic Factors to Church Growth,” while brother Emmanuel Okpachui, one of our year one students (SWSE), admonished the church on “The Joy of Sharing,” and I served as one of the contributors.

At the BVBIN /SWSE campus church on the Lord's day of March 13, brother Emmanuel Tobi Godwin taught on “Justification by God,” while brother Godwin Johnson admonished the church from Gal.1:1-10. Brother Segun Shotola, one of our year two students taught on “Faith” at the Egbeda congregation via Ibadan, and brother Samuel Olorode, another year two student taught on “Baptism” at the Baale -Ayo congregation in Osun state. Brother Godwin Ede taught on “Looking unto Jesus Christ” at the Wasinmi congregation in Osun state, and brother Edwin Ebire taught from the book of Revelation at Asejire, Ondo Ore / Benin way on “The Facts of the Gospel.”

Brother Matthew Adeyemi, one of my fellow WBSFUW in this Southwest Region of Nigeria, reported the conversion of sister Janet Ediboh at his new station in Ogun state.

Lord willing, I, some staff of the school, and foundation members will attend a one day ministers’ forum at the Owode-Egba congregation in Ogun state this coming Saturday.

In conclusion, we appreciate you all for your love and care. May the Lord keep on using you all for His glory in Jesus Christ name, Amen.

Yours in His grace as a servant,
Makinde Ebenezer Olufemi (Minister)

Visiting Instructors Provide Empowering Lessons For Students In Mbanga...

The grace of God is able to do beyond what humans can think. Greetings my beloved. I glad to get in touch with after a period of about two weeks that we spent together with ministers David Ballard and Todd Crayton in Cameroon, in Mbanga in particular. Special thanks to the Pattonville, Frisco, and Bear Valley assemblies for the enormous sacrifices. We had a very busy time with our instructor and our coordinator on teaching the book of 1 Corinthians and Leadership, which really helped our students. These lessons empowered the students with skillful studies. Moreover, the sisters accompanied the brothers in their studies on Leadership in order to prepare the preachers’ wives in leadership, so as to help them direct the sisters and children in the various congregations, most especially in French Cameroon and neighboring countries, such as Tchad and Central African Republic, while not Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The work is really much, even though the laborers are few, but with time, as God permits, we shall be able to enter many virgin lands.

Oh how time flies. We just ended our first year of courses and the end of our first year campaign today, March 20, 2015. By the grace of God we shall begin with our first semester of the second year come March 28, 2016. This academic year will help prepare students for their call into the wilderness where things are going to have a completely different face and a complete change of life with a new look. So, my beloved, I urge you to keep praying for the students and the staff at home and oversees. We hope to go through successfully.

With the help of God, I traveled to some different zones where our students went for their evangelism campaign to find out how they are working, and also how the various congregations are doing, not only with the students but also their welfare. We want to see how ready fit they are for the work as a preacher and full-time evangelist in their assemblies. To share in the trip was very very necessary because this has given me a look inside how to better prepare both our students and the new beginning of sensitizing the congregations or their interim leaders on how they can prepare their members to handle a preacher because the French congregations have very few members in their assemblies like that of Dschang with just 2 brothers in the whole assemblies. You can't imagine the long way we have to go. It is like every thing is still strange to this part of the country. We hope we will one day reach the level of maturity.

Our students and staff are all doing great, and the Bibles that were sent to us have been of great help to our small library. They have gone a long way to empower young converts in various assemblies and in Mbanga were God adds such as they believe.   

As soon as we return to school, we shall go on our first mission to Ebonji Tombel with all the students for an evangelism trip at our National Youth Forum. Afterwards, we will take the second trip to a virgin land at Sancho, where we are have been doing evangelism in preparation for the establishment of a new assembly. We already have about 3 members who are worshiping, but without freedom, because the landlord is a Jehovah Witness and does not want the church to hold meetings in his house, and this is an obstacle for the growth of the church and to the souls who cry every day for rescue. God, listen to the cry of the souls in Sancho.safe arrival to the USA. Have a blessed week with God. 

Ititi

An Incredible Weekend In Guatemala...

UPDATE: We continue to ask for your prayers on behalf of Cy Stafford. As he continues to make progress in his physical therapy, additional chemo-therapy awaits. The journey is ongoing. Cy and his family expressed their appreciation to everyone for the continued encouragement in prayer, cards, calls, and visits. Thank you for your diligence in all you do for this dedicated servant in the Lord’s kingdom. Read more in Sean Hochdorf’s report below.

We experienced an exciting week in the Bear Valley program. Students in Denver were busy in campaigns all week. Initial reports from the work in the Cayman Islands, Kayenta, Arizona, several locations in the Denver metro area, and others indicate a successful week of growth and development through the “hands-on” application of what students learn each quarter in their studies. As students return and further reports are given, we will share the encouragement.

As you can read from the reports below, a great level of encouragement was experienced over the previous week through the work of students in the extension program. Reading about the number of souls added to the kingdom always heartens those connected to the program. We know the purpose and result of all that is accomplished is to the glory of our God, and we give thanks for the opportunity to work along side these dedicated brethren around the world.

This past weekend, the brethren in Guatemala hosted their annual ITL Lectureship. The development of the program at ITL is encouraging. At the presidential banquet, ITL president, Hawatthia Jones, mentioned the new class of students set to begin their journey next month. Additionally, the lectureship hosted speakers from Central America and North America, including graduates from the program at ITL and brethren who came with a desire to share the powerful message of God’s word. If you ever have an opportunity to attend the lectureship in Guatemala, it is worth your time.

In addition to the powerful messages in the lectureship, the attendance Sunday morning was standing room only and eight people responded to the invitation. The moment was moving and encouraging as the work continues to develop. Visitors were also given a tour of the renovated facility for ITL. A great weekend with a great focus is the best description of ITL's annual lectureship.

Now on to this week’s incredible reports...

Coordinator Updates
Reports from the coordinators are now located on the website, under Staff Reports. The address is http://www.wetrainpreachers.com/extension-schools/

The latest report from Chad Wagner can be read by clicking here.

The latest report from Luis Camacho can be read by clicking here.

Extension Reports

A Gospel Chariot In Mtapa - March 13, 2016: The work in Chimala, Tanzania experienced growth that is worth reading about.

Visiting Instructors Provide A Boost To The ACSOP: Visiting instructors from the U.S. traveled to Tanzania to provide benefit to the work of the school.

An Update On Cy Stafford And The Work In Arusha, Tanzania: Positive news about Cy Stafford and the program in Tanzania continues to blossom as the work grows.

Final Thoughts
We pray you were encouraged by the news from this week’s report. We also pray that you know how much we appreciate your efforts to assist us in the development of this program. The success of this work cannot be attributed to any one individual or organization. Our God is the source behind all who work to keep the whole of the program moving forward. Thank you.

God bless
Bob

An Update On Cy Stafford And The Work In Arusha, Tanzania...

Greetings friends and fellow workers in the kingdom.

The work in Tanzania continues to thrive and we offer gratitude to our Father for such growth. It is a real blessing to watch brethren carrying on the work, planning campaigns, and conducting regular seminars on their own. 

Prayers answered concerning our dear brother Stafford.
Before I share with you a report by our brother Mngoma I wanted to let you know that our prayers for Cy Stafford are continually be answered. In speaking with Cy a few days ago we were encouraged that he is about to be discharged from the physical therapy clinic and will be returning on an outpatient basis until his strength returns. Early last week Cy was able to walk 100ft! An amazing distance considering his previous condition. Once his strength is built up the doctors will administer two more rounds of chemo and then proceed with the bone marrow transplant. Please continue praying for Cy and Stephanie. They still have much to endure to get through this.

We want to express our thanks for everyone who has been praying for Anita and her recent back procedure. The procedure went well and now we will have to wait to see if it will be successful. So far she has noticed that some of the tingling down her leg and arm has subsided, which we view as a real positive. The pain is still present and we are really hoping that will soon come to an end. Your prayers are most appreciated and we will keep you posted on her progress.

ACSOP students get practical training.
As mentioned at the beginning, it is great to see the brethren in Tanzania mature and grow to love our Lord and serve in His kingdom. Brother Godfrey Mngoma, the ACSOP Dean of Students, recently wrote the following and I wanted to share it with you. Keep in mind that Godfrey’s native tongue is KiSwahili.

Student outreach program begins this month at ACSOP
“…the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come,” Luke 10:1 (NASB). As I was studying and meditating on this verse I came to realize that soon after Jesus had trained these men He sends them out to preach the Gospel. This month about 40 students from ACSOP (28 from first year and 12 from second year) are going to be involved in an evangelism program in about 16 congregation around the area. This program has been started a few years ago by our Brother Cy Stafford who is a coordinator of the TZ2000 mission. As we all know Cy is still sick, but the Lord has been so very good to him. Our fasting and praying for him have encouraged his family and many others who love the Lord’s work here in Africa. 

Because of him the faculty of ACSOP have seen a need to continue with this program for our current and new students. This is something he would love to see continue and move in the right direction. In the text we also learn that our Lord sends His disciple where He Himself was to go. Preachers have been asked to be part of this program. This quarter each student will be receiving a grade on this outreach program as part of his academic development. We have asked the preacher to work hand in hand with our student and they have agreed to do so. It our hope and prayer that this program will bring forth much fruit to the kingdom here in Arusha and beyond.

As I have been following reports from preachers and evangelists of congregations around the area, and found that 28 out of 42 men and women who have been converted through this program are still faithful to the Lord. I encourage you to keep on praying for the many good things that are happening here at ACSOP because the Lord has always been good to us. I will always keep you updated of this wonderful program of reaching out the lost soul with our students.

Thank you again for your support and prayers as we all continue working for Him and the Kingdom.

In Him
Godfrey Mngoma
Dean of Students, Andrew Connally School of Preaching

Conclusion
As we come to a close we again want you to know how grateful we are for your support of this great work. The number of faithful brethren, like yourselves, that it takes to make a work like this happen is staggering. While we may be scattered all over the globe, we are indeed a team working with a singular cause…reaching the lost. Thank you for your care and concern of souls everywhere.

Until next time, take care and God bless.

Yours in Christ,
Sean and Anita