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The
Benin Bible Training Center was a mere figment
in the mind of a native Ghanaian before he knew
there was a Benton Kentucky. George Akpabli was
identified as a missionary to assist the Benton
church of Christ with a mission point on the
island of Mauritius. This recommendation began
the working relationship between the Benton
Church of Christ and George Akpabli. Mauritius
was a mission point supported by Benton and
George agreed to go there with a three year
commitment. When he arrived there the government
would not grant him a permanent visa. He was
forced to leave after three months. Upon
George`s request we moved him to Benin West
Africa. George was familiar with this country as
he had been involved in mission work in Nigeria
and Togo.
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.
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