President's Report
SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES,
JOS, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA.
January 5, 2022.
Dear brethren,
REPORT FOR THE MONTH 0F DECEMBER, 2021.
Greetings to you from Nigeria. Happy and prosperous 2022 to all of you. May our Good Lord continue to bless each and every one of you in your good works. We appreciate our God who through His abundant mercy, helped us through the year 2021. It was actually a tough year for many of us. We lost so many beloved people even in the church. We went through different threats. While still battling with covid 19, the variant Delta surfaced, and became more deadly than it predecessor. It was still within that same year, that omicron virus also came out. For us to be alive today is God’s doing. Here in Nigeria, in the midst of all these, insecurity caused by Islamic terrorists compounded issues for us. Traveling become so risky. Prices of food was out of the reach of common people, because Islamic militant would not allow farmers to enter their farms. Even those harvested, they burgled homes and packed the food stuff, and set fire on people homes. Yet, God still allowed us to survive till today. He surely has a purpose for our existence, may we live to actualize his divine plan for us this year. We have much hope for this year. We know our God works everything for the good of those called by His name.
Academic Activities
The school of Biblical Studies, Jos will resume for academic activities on the 10th of January, 2022. Our students are expected to return to campus this weekend. Please, join us in prayers for them to have safe passage back to school. Nigerian roads are so dangerous. Kidnappers are everywhere in the country. Some of them who went for internship will complete their 5 weeks internship this weekend. So far, we have not heard of any negative report. God is faithful.
This semester, by God’s grace, this semester we have so many activities line up. We have interview for new intake in April first week, our campaign for Christ is last week of April/May, we have annual lectureship the second week of May, and the graduation the third week of May. This year graduation will actually be merging of three sets of graduates (2020 – 2022). It will be a huge events by the grace of God. Please, join us in prayers for these activities to take place to the glory of God. Last year, we could not hold any of these activities because of the restriction the government placed on gathering. Since that has been relaxed, we will take advantage of that and spread the Gospel wide and far. Our weekend evangelism will continue as well. We however are still limited on places we can go because of the present security situation. We pray God to help us to be effective in the available place we are evangelizing. We appreciate everyone of you who is heloing us in any way. Some people are sending money to us, some are praying for us, some are sending us tracts to evangelize the country, and some are doing all of these. May God keep blessing you. Once again, thank you and have a pleasant year ahead.
SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES,
JOS, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA.
July 3, 2021.
Dear brethren,
REPORT FOR THE MONTH 0F JUNE, 2021.
Dear beloved in Christ, greetings to you all in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We give God the glory for enabling us to go through the first half of the year with minimal challenges. Our survival is the act of God’s goodness, so we appreciate Him. As we go through this month, we pray God to enable us do the needful as time does not wait for anyone. We pray for his grace to abundantly be supplied to everyone of us. Economic hardship is intensifying in Nigeria. Remember last year, people could not enter their farm because of the wide spread of insurgency and kidnapping in Nigeria. This has resulted in high price of common food stuff. The case may be worse this year as conflicts among farmers and headers increase, and more so, kidnapping has become the fastest growing business in Nigeria. Insecurity is everywhere. We thank God for continuing keeping us safe.
Our Foreign Students
One of our foreign students (Tatenda) who came from Zimbabwe for studies, has returned home having completed his studies. We pray he will be useful to his country and the church there particularly. Below is Tatenda (left) standing with me (right) shortly before his departure to his country. He is the last of the three who completed their program to return home.
MA Programs
All things are ready for the program to commence. We are waiting to receive at least 5 applications from qualified candidates for the program to start in August. We know the staff will be laden with more load, but it is necessary we do what we can do now to reposition the Church in Nigeria and Africa at large for greater work.
Extension Program
We give God the praise for safely bringing back our staff who traveled for extension program. Thank you for your prayers. It is good for them to meet their families again after being away for 4 weeks. Traveling along Nigerian roads can be a nightmare sometimes. We give glory to God for standing with us all through the program this time. Below are pictures of cross section of the students in Asaba and Lafia (Nasarawa) centers respectively.
Asaba Center
As you can see from the picture, most of them are adult in age. Some are preachers in their local congregations, some are Bible teachers, and some are prepared by their congregations to take care of new congregations coming up in their respective areas. They do not have the opportunity of leaving their businesses and jobs to come to Jos for 4 months each semester. That is why we carry the program to meet them in their local settings. This is to ensure the Lord’s Church remain Biblical true and continue to grow as we have the opportunity now to reach out to the lost souls.
Lafia (Nasarawa) Center
Our Library
We continue to work hard to update our library with current books. As I mentioned last month regarding the library tables that meet the required standard, we are trying to make the tables gradually. Below is a sample of the new table we are making. This one has one side partitioning, there are some that have two sides partitioning. We make them depending on the space they fit in.
Our Agric Program
We are glad to mention that one set of our laying birds have started laying. The other set is coming up well as well.
Our Internship Program
Some of our students who took part in the 6 weeks internship program have completed their program with those congregations and have returned to their home congregations to help before resuming in August. Some are still on the program as the host congregations are enjoying their services and want them to extend their stay. A total of 15 students took part in the program across the country. Two went out of the Nigeria to Guinea and Cameroon respectively.