George Akpabli

Director, Benin Bible Training Center
 

Benin Bible Training Center

     George, his wife, a son and one convert from Togo began work in 1992. George was able to identify Brother Godfried Kwao in the village of Se, a Christian from Ghana who came to teach in the public school. In the next two years two small congregations began to flourish. One in the house of George in Cotonou and another in the village  of Se`.
Several requests came from George in those days among those came the notion to begin preacher training school in the native French language. This notion was intriguing to the Benton eldership but was imagined as a much larger task than we could handle. Elders Bill Morgan and Ed Jones journeyed to Benin in the spring of 1994. We surveyed the situation in Benin and observed similar mission  efforts in Ghana and Kenya.

     Benton began the fund raising process as George searched for a facility, developed a curriculum and recruited students. Things ran smoothly in both locations as elders Bill Morgan and Charles Cavitt traveled to Benin in August 1995 to begin Bible Training Center. We began in limited and rented facilities but we had eighteen students from Benin, Burkino Faso, Cameroon, Chad and Togo that were eager to begin the preparation to preach the gospel.

     The small beginning to establish the gospel of Jesus Christ in Benin West Africa has truly been blessed and guided by the Almighty God. As we continue to dream of spreading the gospel to all of French West Africa the Benin leadership is dreaming also. They have developed a plan they call the 2020 vision. They believe by the year 2020 they will have 500 congregations in Benin with 14,000 members. Most assuredly this will depend on training sound and dedicated preachers, but we are exploring some ideas that could enhance our vision for continued growth. The Benton eldership believes as BTC grows and expands in Africa that our growth and support base in America must keep pace.

   Through the years as we visited Benin we have observed the great need for improved healthcare. Not only do we realize the need for our students in training to have better healthcare, all the people around the school have the same need. After learning of the success of the International Healthcare Foundation we see the opportunity for us to partner in a venture to provide this service by developing a medical clinic on our campus. This would certainly give opportunity to teach God's word as we provided medical care in this Christian atmosphere. As we develop plans for vocational training this would surely become a popular choice. We believe that if we could bring the unchurched to our campus to provide opportunity for a higher standard of living and lead them to Christ that God's Kingdom would grow in West Africa.

For this is what the Lord has commanded us:

"I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation

to the ends of the earth."

                                                                                      Acts 13:47