Wednesday, October 12, 2011

CIBS MISSION NEWS - July to September 2011


Dear brethren and friends in Christ,
I would like to share this mission efforts report with you trusting that it will trigger your love and commitment more and more towards the great commission of our master Jesus Christ.  The preaching of the old rugged cross should be a priority to every disciple of Christ if our concern is to bring the alien sinners to the savior. Jimmy Ferguson once stated and I quote ‘Perhaps there is not a greater need in the church of our Lord today than the need for a greater emphasis upon evangelism. This need can best be realized when we understand that evangelism is in a very real sense the "life-blood" of the church, i.e., it is the activity which causes the church to thrive and grow. In the absence of evangelism there can be no church growth’.
The legendary Apostle Paul charged Timothy to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. He further stated ‘And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will qualified to teach others’ 2 Tim. 2:1-2. It is on this account that we laid the foundation of the Cameroon Institute of Biblical Studies, Batibo , Cameroon. Our focus to educate men for the work of God, for effective leadership and ministry in the Lord’s vineyard is unshakable despite our challenges. In as much as His word has been our ultimate standard in our every evangelistic effort and broadcast, His rich mercy remains our point of reference each time we want to talk about accomplishments occasioned by our work of missions  here in Cameroon. With this in mind, we will always give the Lord thanks for keeping His promise of His presence attached to the Great Commission. He has been with us always as we reached out to those who are yet to receive the light of His word into their lives.
We praise God that the presidential election in Cameroon took place on the 9th of October 2011 successfully, although with some abnormalities. The proclamation of the result / the winner will take place in the next 15 days and I covert your prayers that all should go well and that peace should prevail at last.
Please pray for the church in Cameroon to come out of the possible calamity of war. The 23 short-listed candidates who are fighting to be elected to become the chief tenant of the presidential palace in Yaounde have vowed not to give peace a chance should there be any election malpractice. These threats have been freely announced on radio and television, thereby casting a shadow of fear and terror over the nation. Please do know that Cameroon is sitting on a timed bomb and it is only the grace of God that can incapacitate this looming danger. We have invested much in the vineyard of God in Cameroon and I pray nothing should happen to thwart on mission efforts. I love the people of Cameroon and which to spend few more years to accomplish more to His glory if that is God’s will.
Holidays report .The CIBS students did marvelous job during the first semester holidays which lasted for two months precisely July and August 2011. They were assigned in pairs to some six local congregations in Cameroon for field practice during their holidays and they came back in September for the second semester with blooming reports. They conducted bible studies from door to door with a total of 425 persons, Baptized 16 into Christ and restored 24 into the fold respectively. A side from the students holidays report, we have embarked on effective weekend evangelistic activities in Batibo community and its immediate environs since the resumption of our second semester


CIBS evangelistic activities report of September 2011
In September we stormed several places with the message of the gospel to people who gave us their time and attention. Several studies of the Bible were conducted during the period under reappraisal. Many of them have indicated interest in further studies, while others said they will be baptized after careful investigation of the gospel that we have preached to them.

1. Numbers of studies conducted                          56.
2. Numbers of person studied with                       157.
3. Numbers of Baptism                                                 6




Radio Evangelism: The work of declaration of the good news in the mass media is still doing great things in the city of Bamenda and other towns that can receive our broadcast on radio. This radio evangelism is worth talking about every time because a number of souls have been brought to Christ through the faith that came by hearing of God’s message.
Our Challenges: Till date we are not able to secure a regular financial support for the smooth running of the CIBS and as such, we are hardly able to pay staff and students allowance as suppose. In addition, we have not been able to embark effectively on out reach campaigns or carried out most of our planned evangelistic activities out side Batibo / the North West Region. There are days in my ministry that I literally cry for divine help to fortify the fiber of my faith.  Sincerely at times I feel like giving up but thank God for his grace and the great crowd of supporters like Bro. Gene Adams, Dr. Obot Essien, my wife and all of you who have always stood by me to say move on, it shall be well.
Our Needs:
I have been buying Bibles for some serious prospects but I really need a helping hand in this regard. Please if you can help with copies of NIV or NKJ even if they are fairly used. It will really relieve me of the burden of giving these serious ones a copy of the word.
We lack funds to keep going, but still trust God for help. We need not less the 180,000fcfa @ $418.00 equivalent  monthly for students allowances, 370,000fcfa $860.40 equivalent for staff allowances every month , 100,000fcfa @ $232.60 for our evangelistic campaign trips monthly and 50,000fcfa @ $116.30 for bills and miscellaneous .That is to say, we stand in need of the sum total of $1,627.30 monthly and till date we are not yet having a regular support for the smooth running of the CIBS mission and it has not been easy with me to raise this amount to move this Institution forward the way it should be.
Our pressing needs are that of staff and students allowances and funds for evangelistic campaign trips. We are not able to settle the school bills for last month, not to talk of these remaining months. We did not host the campaign for Christ program last semester due to lack of funds and are still not certain for this semester’s own. We are expected to send our students on field work exercise to the neighboring congregation this November ending, all these need money to effectively carry out. Pray for us.
The school is having a total of 12 students and 7 teaching and a non teaching staff. Among them are four for biblical courses and three for secular courses such as ; Computer studies, French language, use of English, Farm economics, Graphic Arts and Community health. When the students left for their first semester holidays, we were forced to employ a non teaching staff as a security guard.

In regard to our evangelistic programs, we schedule to embark on twice a month evangelistic trips / campaigns to congregations. Our mission is for evangelism, edification and church planting.

  We exist as a school today at a borrowed apartment and a plot of land as a temporal site, we need a size able plot to build our permanent school site and enough space for a demonstration garden. We need some computers to set up our lab. We need to obtain a 19 sitter bus to ease our regular evangelistic trips.
We have already introduced poultry farming on Campus; and we trust to introduce in addition piggery and fishery farm respectively to enable us generate funds for the smooth running of the institution.   Pray for us.

100% of funds we receive which is ear marked for this mission will be judiciously put to use to the glory of God and expansion of His mission on earth. We will equally submit a regular report to our donors.
Missionary welfare: We have been struggling with poor health condition from time to time. Funds that would have been spent in paying Gershom and Gene Jr. School fees has were spent on hospital and drugs. And I'm so depressed about the postponement of their fees payment. Come what may, we will never lose sight of the great contribution you have been making to ensure the furtherance of the gospel in Cameroon.  My family and I wish to say thank you for having renewed your financial commitment to us.
In His service,
Prince Otobong Ituen
CIBS Director
P.O.Box 73, Batibo
North West Region, Cameroon.
Tel:+237-75-190238

'I can do everything through him who gives me strength'. Philippians 4:13

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