Volume: 2 • Issue 5 • May 2002                                

From the President’s Pen:

Dear Friends and Family of CCBI,

I send you Christian love and greetings in the of Jesus the Christ.

This month, I thought it would be a pleasure to hear what the Lord has laid on the heart of our friend and brother, Dr. Franklin Jabini.

Praising Yah,
Bro Bill Sharples

I just returned from a seminar for pastors which focused on the subject “The Pastor in the New Millennium.” I was asked to speak on organization skills and modern technology. We observed that there are certain things that have to change as we approach a new era, but the task remains the same.

We can use modern technology to help us carry out our task, and in fact CCBI is doing that right now. This month, for example, I got e-mails from prospective students from Mozambique, India, Brazil, St. Lucia, Afghanistan and other areas asking about our program. Another technological approach designed to help CCBI students is our newly developed certificate program, in which all the materials will be available on one CD.

In the new millennium there are certain things that are not going to change. It does not matter in which millennium we are living, a Christ-centered life is always a must! CCBI will therefore continue to provide Christ-centered, Bible-based education for all our students. Some very dedicated people are helping this to happen, as a team of highly qualified professors from the Netherlands is now in Suriname teaching courses on the Master level in the Dutch division of CCBI. We are very privileged to have these people coming to us.

With all these things in mind we might think of Caleb. Caleb trusted God when he was sent out as a spy from the wilderness. Almost forty-five years later, he still trusted God to accomplish what He had promised. Hear what he is saying in Joshua 14:10-12 “Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

What can we learn from this? Even when we are in a new millennium, even when things around us are changing, the Lord has remained the same, and CCBI can continue to look up to the Lord. Praise His name!

Dr. Frank Jabini,
Academic Vice President of CCBI

My Bishop and I also solicit donated clothing for both the children and the elderly, and we have sought sponsorship for the children, even as far as the USA. At least 30 children now have sponsors who pay for their education and food. Maybe CCBI would like to sponsor some of these children. HIV/AIDS is taking a very heavy toll, leaving an ever growing number of AIDS orphans.
There is a lot of work we Christians can do to assist the needy people in our world. After all, Jesus came to the poor .We Christians have done very little to alleviate the problems of the very needy (old, orphans and sick) in our society.”

In Kenya the government takes little or no responsibility for these tragic victims. Extended family members, who are required by self-respect and culture to care for them, are overwhelmed by multiple family deaths and by forced early retirement of wage-earners. Social security and retirement benefits are a bitter joke. If you would like to help, your designated contribution through Samaritan Inn/CCBI will be tax-deductible.