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TRANSCRIPT
Report on Bro. Bill Dutka’s Visit for the first Leadership Seminar in Cameroon presented by Bro. Nguh Victor Chung with supervision
from Bro. Alex Forjindam MokomPART ONE (SEMINAR IN DOUALA)
Beloved Brethren in the Lord, greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ and blessings to all of us struggling to in God’s Vine yard. The
Year 2014 has been a good and memorable one in the Life of the Bible
Students in Cameroon thanks to the Bible Students Community for Africa in
America.
After the visit of bro. Joe and the blessings we received from him, the Lord
sent bro. Bill Dutka to spiritually feed the leaders of Cameroon in the first
leadership seminar. We are all aware of the circumstances that enabled
bro. Bill to come to Cameroon. We give God the glory for that.
This report will be presented without pictures but pictures will come at the
end of it. This is such that we read it not only as a report but also take good
notes of the scriptures and lessons from it. Also, towards the end of the
report, I will be making some general observations, jokes and comments
but all to the Glory of God and to strengthen us in our faith so as to
continue to strive for your Calling and Election Sure.
On the 10/09/14 the leaders started arriving in their numbers and were
resting and getting set for the evening opening program. Many of the
participants that came in were tired and hungry and had to move back to
town to buy food for themselves reason being that the lone feeding for the
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day was to be dinner and in the evening. However, this exercise passed
well and before 5PM, everyone was present for the Seminar. Dinner took
place for an hour and at 6:02PM, we were assembled at the conference
hall. Bro. Bill started with distribution of material like pens, papers, name
tags, folders and other religious material he brought from USA. This was
followed by distribution of writing sheets by bro. Victor.
Bro. Mekumba read the welcome address and at the end of the address
said he will like that he should be given some 30 minutes at the end of the
seminar so that he can re-align some issues. After the speech, followed the
prayers.
Bro. Bill took the floor and introduced himself and after introduction, he
started his chart talk. The very first book in the Bible he quoted was acts
4:12. He used several Biblical quotations to navigate through the chart talk
and all the participants were extremely happy as many of them started to
understand the mystery in the Bible. Some of the verses like 2 peter 3
verse 6, Acts 17:31, Luke 14:28 were among the many that he used to
explain his chart talk.
The second lesson of the day was on what it takes to become qualified to
be a leader. He dished out printed copies of the lesson titled Bible Student
Fellowship to all the students and took his time to expatiate on this topic. In
the course of the lessons issues like why the Bible students worldwide
celebrates the memorial only once a year was deliberated upon and with
the use of scriptures, bro. Bill guided the students and everyone
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understood it well. We closed up the day at 10.PM and retired to our rooms
to sleep while waiting for the next day.
Day 2:All the leaders got up early in the morning and after bathing, they all went
to the eating hall for breakfast. After the exercise, we rested for a while and
entered for the first lesson of the day.
Bro. Bill took time to explain how the Bible Students came to existence
(from the Seven days Movement of the Adventist Church). Important time
frames mentioned in the Bible were the main lesson for this particular day.
Bro. Bill used a good number of books in the bible to support his
explanation on the time frames. Some of the verses included Daniel 2,
Daniel 12:7,11 Ezikiel 37:1-10, 1st Thesalonians 4:13-18 just to name but a
few. Another important date he quoted in this morning session was 1874
which is THE RETURN OF CHRIST OR THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST.
This lead to some questions by some of the leaders but bro. Bill took time
to explain and everyone understood. He also used 2 Peter 3:8-0 to show
prove that a day for God means 1000years. He touched on many scriptures
and including John 21:28-25 explaining that Jon represents People in the
Bible. All these teachings caused the students to be very alert as many of
them had not had the thoughts of the mysteries of the Bible before. This
lead us to closing the morning session and we went for Launch.
After Session of Day 2:We returned for the afternoon session and after singing, we had a word of
prayer then bro. Bill took the floor to explain the meaning of Time Periods
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that are represented seven times in three different ways. He drew the
lesson from the book of Danial 7:25,12,7, which talks of time, time half a
time, Rev. 11:2, 13:5 which talks of 42 months, , 1260 days in Rev. 11:3,
12:6, and a host of others. With his interactive explanations, many students
started seeing the deeper things and meanings in the Bible. He went
further to talk on the year 1914 which is the year that the gentile time is
about to end. At this, he continued with some deeper explanations in the
book of Lev. 26:1-13 which talks about the promise of Obedience, Lev.
14:17 that talks on promise of punishment for disobedience, Lev. 18:28 that
talks of 7 times, Lev. 29:33 that talks about the promise of the Diaspora,
Lev. 34:39 which is the Diaspora itself including the returning of Israel.
Bro. Bill at all times in the class gave room for students to participate in
every part of the lesson and gave room for questions and was ready to
answer them to the best of his knowledge according to the scriptures.
The last phase of the day was for testimony which was coordinated by
brother Anthony from Kumba. The testimony went on well but one could
notice that no one actually talked on when he found Christ and left the
things of the world and is living for Christ’s only sake. However all went on
well and after that, the students retired to their rooms and slept.
Day Three (12/09/14)This day is the climax day where all the brethren will try their best to benefit
as much as they can from the spiritual food of Bro. Bill because it’s the last
day at the Seminar.
Early morning, the brethren carried out their normal routine, that is, bathing,
dressing up and getting set for breakfast. After breakfast, the brethren
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started to take some pictures. People from the East, South West and North
West took pictures at different stages and times and after that, there was a
group picture. After this exercise, we all went to the conference room for
the lesson of the day. There was general singing and after that, Bro. Alex
and the Wife Sister Paulina sang a special number from the hymnal.
Followed was the reading of the Morning Resolve and the Daily heavenly
manner by two brethren with a word of prayer.
One thing I will like to make mention here is that Bro. Bill never had a
special agenda because what he brought, he realized that students have
already a significant mastery of the Bible thus was able to teach many
topics in one lesson period. This time around he talked about how
Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D.70 and gave some insights on the book of
revelation, how to understand it and which year it was written that is A.D
96. He also distributed a good number of material including the Abrahamic
Covenant, will those who die in Armageddon be lost forever, the purpose of
Christianity, first born of every creature, a ransom for all just to mention but
these. This took us to the launch period and we went for lunch.
Afternoon Session:After break, the students all came back to the conference room and were
set for the next lesson. Bro. Bill sets up his computer to the projector that
Bro. Victor brought from the North West but to our greatest surprise, the
projector was made to function with only analog video systems which are a
bit rare to find now and the computer Bro. Bill had was a digital and latest
system. This led to some freezing of his computer but after some
manipulations by Bro. Victor, we managed to connect though it was not the
best.
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The lesson for this period which was drawn from the book of 1Timonthy
3:2-7, Titus 1:6-9, Col. 3:5, was centered around Qualifications for
Eldership. Bro. Bill took his time and went through the lesson but said it
was rather unfortunate that he had not printed out the notes but all the
students were satisfied with the explanations. He gave a series of
qualifications with Biblical backings. This lesson was very timely as soon
the Bible Students on Cameroon as a whole or different regional students
will soon be organized God willing. In this light, there will be no confusion
again on how Elders and the rest will be selected. The lesson also acted
as a call for personal checkup so that those who have been living a worldly
life will look back into their hearts and see how to change. To me, this
lesson really caught the attention of the students (my personal
observation). Bro. Bill was however careful that he did not want to use the
ten points to hurt anyone as from time to time he said there are certain
things there that may not all be real in some classes. This lesson took us to
dinner time and we went for dinner.
Last phase of day three (12/09/2014)The evening after dinner, we all assembled back to study the Abrahamic
covenant. Bro. Bill moved the class in the usual participatory approach and
to the greatest surprise of some of the students, they started discovering
the deeper things again in this covenant. The main theme came from the
book of Genesis 22:18 which reads (In thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed). Bro. bill passed through a good number of Biblical
verses to explain the covenant and students understood it well. Verses like
Gen. 3:15, 12:1-3, 18:18-19, Exod 2:24 Gal: 3:7-8, Gal. 4:22-31 and a host
of others were used to explain this covenant. This lesson brought us to bed
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time and all the brethren retired to their rooms to go and be parking their
things getting set for the next day to leave the area.
Day 4 (13/09/2014)This is the departure day for everyone and before 6:30 in the morning, all
the brethren were already up and had bathed, packed their bags and were
set at the eating room for breakfast. Initially it was said that breakfast was
to be at 7:00 in the morning but the hotel people were kind and did the
preparation as early as possible so the eating was at random as any one
just took his/her plate of breakfast and eat instead of the usual general
brethren sitting together. However, that was fine as many had longer ways
to go and had to be fast reason being that passengers cars in Cameroon
go when they are full and on first come first serve arrangement.
As the other brethren were travelling, Bro. Bill, Bro. Alex and I Bro. Victor
had the opportunity to travel together to other parts of the country which will
be part two of this report. You can scroll down for some pictures and
explanations in them for this part one of the report. More pictures for both
part one and two will be sent with the last part which is part two.
Done by Nguh Victor Chung
Bible Student North West Region
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LEADERS FROM EASTERN REGION AND BRO. BILL
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BROTHER BILL AND LEADERS FROM THE SOUTH WEST
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BROTHER BILL AND BROTHER VICTOR
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CROSS SECTION OF THE DINNING
PART TWO OF BROTHER BILLS VISIT:
This part two will include highlights of his visit to Yaounde, Bertoua and Kumba as well
as Douala. On the 13th of September morning as other brethren were departing to their
various destinations, we (Bro. Alex, Bro. Bill and Bro. Victor) left for Yaounde. We
arrived the church building (where bro. Joe visited ) in the afternoon at about 2:00PM.
Bro. Victor went and bought some food stuff and came and prepared dinner while bro.
Bill had the opportunity to witnessed to a Young man for close to 30 minutes. After that
we went to papa Abendigo (who is the main pastor of the church in Yaounde) so that
bro. Bill will be introduced to him so as to be able to carry out his discourse the next day
in church. Bro. Bill and Papa Abedigo had a long chat and after that, we returned to the
church building which at same time is where we lodged.
14/09/14
We got up and took breakfast then went down to the church for the talk. Many people
were present and bro. Bill presented his chart talk though without putting up the chart on
the wall reason being that in the church, they don’t welcome the idea of pictures on the
wall etc. However, the talk was well received and bro. Alex did the translation. After the
talk, Pastor Valentine, Pastor Abendigo and Bro. Alex also gave some supporting
messages to the talk. However, pastor Valentine said it is left only for the Christians to
go home and read through the passages that were given by bro. Bill to see whether
what he was saying is true or false. Many people got up and shook hands with us and
were happy then we left to the room so that we could park our things and leave for
Abongmbang.
We arrived Abongmbang in the afternoon and drove straight to bro. Luc’s house, (same
brother who housed bro. Joe when he was here in Cameroon). We were happy to meet
Sister Salome; she is bro. Luc’s sister-in-law and she also took care of bro. Joe and
cooked for us in the church building in Yaounde. We both shared the Word of God
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together after our meal. We were bro. Luc, his wife, Sister Salome, bro. Alex, bro. Kavin
and Luc’s two children. After that, we both slept.
15/09/14
We left for Doume in the morning which is where bro. Alex lives with his family. We
arrived there at 10 in the morning and after a warm welcome by the wife and some
brethren around, we rested for a while and took off to Bertoua town to change some
money. On the way, we had several stops. We visited the pigmy primary school and
also visited two farms right in the bush. It was not initially in our plans that we were to
visit the farms but I always believe that God has a better plan for us His loving children.
The exchange was done and we left back to Doume. On our way, we stop by to carry
some German friends of bro. Alex who were doing some voluntary consultation in one
of the villages. We did and took them to their camp where they are constructing an
orphanage.
We finally arrived the house in Doume at about 5:00PM in the evening and the brethren
were already present waiting for us to come and give them a talk. Bro. Alex did the
introduction and bro. Bill presented his chart talk which was well understood. Bro. Alex
did the translation and the studies were done in a participatory method. Towards the
end of the lesson, Electricity went off but thank God for a stand by generator that bro.
Alex had so we were able to light in on and we had electricity.
We later had our dinner and shared the songs in the night then went to bed. Bro. Bill
and I shared one room at Bro. Alex house (Same bed bro. Joe and I shared the last
time he was here).
15/09/2014
We got up and did our morning routines that is, brushing our teeth etc then started
preparing for the day’s activity which included, reading of the manner, going with bro.
Alex to the hospital for his heart consultation, fixing the car and taking off back to
Yaounde.
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We shared breakfast together prepared by Sister Paulina (bro. Alex’s wife) and after
some pictures, we drove off to Bertoua regional hospital. On our way, bro. Alex took
some two people along with us and they were also going to consult at the hospital. We
arrived the hospital and after waiting for close to two hours, bro. Alex came with the
medical doctor of the hospital who is also having his church groups (which are not Bible
Students) and introduced bro. Bill to and I to him. He was very happy and shared with
bro Bill and even accepted a chart from bro. Bill. We took some pictures with him and
he promised to be in close contact with bro. Bill by email and sometimes by phone.
We left the hospital for the garage and after some checking by the mechanic, we drove
off from Bertoua town heading to Yaounde. On the way, we stopped at Doume for
fueling and also to say the last good bye to bro. Alex’s wife and one of the leaders
Vernyuy Anthony who is a primary school teacher. After fueling, we drove to the school
and saw him with his children in an old German building that has been there since 1909
and were used by the German’s from 1909-1911. After a brief greeting, we came down
and greeted Sister Paulina then took off to Yaounde. We stopped at Abongmbang and
got some food stuff and ate so as to have some energy to continue. We finally arrived
Yaounde at 7:00PM though we had some difficulties with the whether but God guided
us safely.
17/09/2014
We got up early morning and went to negotiate the printing of the first French Volumes.
Bro. Alex directed us to his friend who has been a printer for several years with one
Biblical translation centre here in Cameroon. He is also a Full Gospel Pastor here in
Cameroon. After discussion with him, he called his son-in-law and we agreed on
printing them for 595 dollars. That is for 50 copies. An advance of 20 dollars was given
him so that he will produced the first copies and we will see whether it is good or not
before the rest of the money is paid. The pastor offered us breakfast and we were
happy with him.
Bro. Bill also had some talks with him and promised to give him some more Biblical
verses to read as he thinks that God has the right to burn people to fire since he is the
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creator and no one has the right to question God. We however left the house and we
came and put bro. Bill in the house and two of us came back to fix the car at the garage.
We stayed in the garage for a good number of hours but thank God the mechanic
diagnosed what was wrong and fixed it.
We came back to the house and ate our meal. Just as we were about to finish eating,
we received a call that the first copy has been printed and that we should come and see
it. We left and went there and after going through it, we made some few corrections and
asked the pastor to jot down the corrections so as to be able to tell his son in-law. We
agreed on how bro. Alex was to go back there and collect them for distribution to the
French brethren that are thirsty for the Truth.
We came back to the house and while bro. Bill and Bro Alex went to say a final good
bye to Papa Abendigo and Pastor Valentine, I stayed to rest in the house. They did and
came back then shared with me their experiences with the two people then we read our
songs in the night and slept.
18/09/2014
At 1:00 AM, we got up and parked all our things and at 2:26AM, we took off from
Yaounde and were heading to Kumba in the South West Region. While on the way, we
had a tyre puncture and but thank God there was a spare one though not of the same
size with the other three but it did helped. When we arrived Douala, we stopped and
bought two second handed tyres (we call them here brand new tyres) and fitted them.
We drove to one small road side restaurant and bro. Alex and I ate some food and after
that we continued our trip to Kumba. We arrived Kumba and drove straight to bro.
Mekumba’s hotel which is really modern. He was the one that requested that we should
come to his hotel and promised us that he was to house and feed us for free which is
exactly what he did. Some brethren came in and we shared together and they came up
with a program for the evening which stated that we were to have a meeting at Sr.
Patience house at 3:00PM and at 4:00PM we will be at bro. Mekumba’s hotel for
another one. Due to the late eating of the food that was ordered by bro. Mekumba, we
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went a bit late to the meeting at Sister Patience’s house. My own observation was that
there are some little difficulties between bro. Mekumba, Sister Patient and Bro. Isaiah
but thank God we talked about it and tried to plant a seed of love. All went well at the
sister patience house and even when we came back to bro. Mekumba’s hotel, we also
did discussed well and everything too was okay. Bro. Bill tactfully brought out some
reconciliation scriptures and we all did contribute in the discussion. He used the book of
II Cor. 13 to talk about love. We closed with a word of prayer and separated so that the
other brethren could go back to their various homes or destinations. Bro. Bill and I finally
tried to transfer some pictures before we finally slept.
19/09/2014
We got up in the morning and after bathing, we went for breakfast given to us free of
charge by bro. Mekumba and after we finished eating, we drove off to Douala. This time
around, the journey seemed shorter because the tyres were good and the car pulled so
well. We arrived bro. Alex’s friends church in Douala who welcomed us very well and
gave us some (American Cola ), a kind of drink produced here in Cameroon. We rested
there for a while and I went to see my junior sister while bro. Alex and bro. Bill had a
chat. Another thing we should note here is that this church is the same one that bro. Joe
had a talk when he was here in Cameroon in Douala and the pastor also treated us very
well. When it was evening, I left bro. Alex and bro. Bill to be going to the air port while I
go to take my own night bus to travel to Bamenda where I will take another one to
continue to Nkambe.
Conclusion:
Bro. Bills visit was a blessing to the Truth in Cameroon and his teachings cussed many
of the leaders who were present for the seminar to begin to see the hidden mystery
behind the bible thus longing for more truth. The materials are very limited and the
French speaking brethren need to have French materials as well. Much needs to still be
done in Cameroon as far as seminars are concern and also, materials are needed.
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Bible students in Cameroon is not a recognized religious group and it will be difficult for
other seminars to be held reason being that the country is going through some difficult
situations in the North and will not want any illegal group to be have sittings. Something
needs to be done in this line so that everything will be moving well and instead of our
brothers coming over here in the name of tourists, they should come from an invitation
of the Bible students in Cameroon.
Bro. Bill had his mosquitoes tent and it helped him while he was here and my advice to
any brother that will be coming over here to try as much as possible to have one.
In Christ
Nguh Victor Chung
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BRO ALEX SINGS WITH THE LITTLE PIGMY VILLAGE SCHOOL
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BRO ALEX AND BRO BILL IN THE PIGMY VILLAGE SCHOOL
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BRO ALEX TRANSLATES BRO BILL’S CHART TALK IN DOUME
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CROSS SECTION OF STUDENTS IN DOUME
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CROSS SECTION OF STUDENTS AS THEY LISTEM TO BRO. BILL
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THE BEST MEAL SO FAR AS WE ATE IN DOUALA