An authentic Christian life is not free from persecution. Jesus himself predicted it. John 15:20 says: "Remember what I told you: A servant is not greater than his master. [a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." The world persecuted our Savior, his apostles, the first Christians and unfortunately, persecution continues even today, in emotional form, financial, and even physical. What impressed me the most about Paul is from 2 Timothy 3:12 "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" Want to live a devout Christian life? Of course we do So we should not be surprised by the persecution! The same goes for our beloved BICA students. They want to train to save as many souls as possible from eternal punishment! And they are doing it with excellence - with your support and prayers! This persistence in sharing the gospel infuriates the enemy, Satan. I share with you all the time about how our students are putting into practice what they have learned in classes during the intense weeks of evangelistic campaigns. But on the flip side, there are persecuted and suffering for preaching Jesus. Do not misunderstand me, the students are not complaining or denying God s power. On the contrary, they strive to become strong and enjoy themselves amidst these persecutions. For example, two students, Jorge and Wayner were proclaiming Jesus in a very dangerous neighborhood, one that is dominated by gangs. A member of a local gang assaulted them and demanded their cell phones. In that very moment, the students immediately started talking about Jesus. The man causing the harm listened, and his reaction was to stand down and return their phones.

Another story is from a second-year student, Angelica. She baptized two sisters one day and the next day, she came down with a very high fever. She was one of the hottest areas in all of Guatemala, Estanzuela. Angelica spent the whole day trembling with fever and wrapped in blankets. Those few days were very discouraging and worrisome. But thankfully, after medical care and rest, her fever passed and Angelica continued the next day sharing the name of Jesus! The last story comes from a student named Marvin. Marvin s mother became very ill. She was in serious condition and Marvin continually asked for prayers for her every day. But sadly, his mother passed away and Marvin spent time planning her funeral and mourning with his family. And then, only three days later, Marvin was back on the BICA campus ready to continue studying! I truly believe that our students and BICA graduates can easily be described by the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 4.12: "We tire ourselves by working with our own hands; they curse us and we bless; we suffer persecution and we endure it." Thank you for your spiritual and financial support for these lifetime, self-sufficient evangelists! Thank you for praying for them continuously.

These last few months we have been quite busy saving souls for Christ -- From April until now, we have had 16 Campaigns not only throughout Honduras and Guatemala but also in El Salvador and Mexico! For the glory of God, 593 people were baptized, 205 reconciled and more than 1,500 Bible studies given by our students. This makes us elated that BICA is fulfilling the Great Commission. On weekends, when we are not in campaigns, students continue to help almost 50 churches in Guatemala and Honduras. We help them share the good news of salvation with the communities and prepare disciples inside the church family. These disciples receive the teachings that our students teach them what they have learned in their week of classes. Then students and disciples put into practice what they learn and evangelize. In these months serving in the 48 churches, we had 217 baptisms! The Lord is good!

Once again, this summer was such a great success for our BICA Missions program! In the summer months of June and July, we hosted four missionary trips from different churches of Christ and a private Christian school. This mission work provided much needed help to so many different people of Guatemala and Honduras! Some of the help included: Distributing more than 10 tons of food for low-income, high-need families caring for more than 750 patients in the medical, dental and ophthalmology areas. More than 1300 children attended our VBS in multiple public schools, sharing God s word through Bible classes and planting the seeds about the word of God in their hearts Several Mission Teams assisted with construction projects, as well as directly at our campus in Guatemala More than 500 Bible studies were conducted in different towns resulting in 103 baptisms... for the Glory of God! We want to thank our mission teams Lipscomb Academy (Nashville TN), Rural Hill Church of Christ (Antioch TN), Fourth Avenue Church of Christ (Franklin TN) and Southside Church of Christ (Rogers,Arkansas)... This could not have happened without you! Thank you for all your help and for encouraging our students to move forward in their studies to proclaim the name of Christ! Thank you so much for being a part of such an amazing summer. We are already counting down the days until next summer! Don t miss out! Contact us if you are interested in your church or mission team have a mission experience like never before with BICA Missions! Be sure to follow the #BICAMissions hashtag on FaceBook and Instagram.

The third BiCA National Seminar was held in Guatemala at the end of August. These seminars are such an important part of continuing education and preparation for our current students, graduates and other leaders of the church of Christ in Guatemala. This seminar s theme was "Understanding the Book of Revelation" and it was taught by Selvin Monterroso, Dean of Baxter Institute (Honduras). It was such a great day of learning for all! There were over 460 people in attendance this seminar. We thank the Baxter Institute and our Brother Selvin Monterroso for conducting this seminar, it was a great blessing to so many! Here you can see the highlight video from this seminar.

In the first BICA Now! newsletter this year, we shared our goals for this year. They were big goals and we asked for your prayers. We can now say, all thanks to God, they are coming true! One of those goals was to buy our own land in Honduras. Here is a little history behind why this was a goal-- First off, the campus of BICA Honduras right now is not owned by BICA, it is rented monthly. For more than 10 years, we have rented this location so that money has just been lost. An additional reason for looking for property for BICA Honduras was that each winter is rough for this campus location. It rainsa lot unfortunately during this time, the campus floods and that continually causes BICA many problems. We are so happy that this has become a reality! We had the opportunity to purchase a piece of property with more than 5 acres with a warehouse on property. We have a lot of construction and remodeling plans ahead of us. There are plans to remodel the warehouse so that our students can live in that building as a dormitory. We would like to have an apartment building for our single men students, another one for single women, and a house option for our married students. In the future, one dream would be to have a Mission House on the property, in order to properly host BICA Missions groups. We ask for your prayers for this amazing opportunity, as well as your your financial support of any amount. You can help us make this dream a reality! Click here to see Honduras new property in video

Building an apartment complex on our BICA Guatemala campus for our single students was also one of our 2018 goals. We are setting a record this year by having the largest class in BICA History we have a total of 60 students in Guatemala, with 40 single students. This makes expanding our BICA Guatemala campus and having ample space for our students became quite the priority. Praise be to our Almighty Father, an incredibly gracious donor donated the money to buy the land and build the apartment complex. Each of the five levels have eight rooms with a total of 40 rooms for our students. As of now, two levels have been completed. This building will be inaugurated in March 2019 and we are counting down the days! Another addition to the BICA Guatemala campus is a recreational complex for freetime and activity for our students. Thanks to the Church of Christ of Rural Hill in Nashville TN for contributing to make this dream possible!

Click here to watch the Volcan de Fuego Relief video! The volcano eruption and the tragic impact on the surrounding communities put a sense of urgency into the situation, requiring some last-minute HELP. While other ministries were cancelling their planned trips, we prayerfully continued with our plans to go said Rex Barker, Elder of the Rural Hill Church of Christ. Our daughter Libby was one of the leaders for the Lipscomb Academy group that was there when the eruption occurred. Her on-site assessment of the situation let us know that it was safe and prudent to continue with our plans of our mission trip Roberto Alvarez Sr., Director of Biblical Institute of America (BICA), contacted some government officials to ask specifically if there were areas that had not yet received assistance. We know a lot of relief flows into the country, but it doesn t always get distributed effectively to those who need it most Paola Tzoc, the wife of a David Diaz, minister of the Santa Lucia Church of Christ near to the volcanp, works as a volunteer firefighter in the Bombero community near the volcano. She informed Roberto that the Siquinala community was cut off from direct accessand had not received any relief supplies. The main road was buried by lava flow, leaving only a back way that requires fording 3 streams. 3.5 tons of bulk food was purchased because of your help. The BICA students and the Rural Hill team worked in assembly line fashion to split the food items (beans, rice, sugar, salt, corn, pasta, oil, and sardines) into family size portions. Each food bag was enough to feed a family of four for 3 weeks. A total of 400 family size bags were assembled (roughly 25,400 individual meals).

The 3-hour trip from Guatemala City to the base of the volcano began at 3 am. The rivers are fed daily from mountain rainwater runoff, and can only be crossed at certain times during the day. We had to wait at the 2nd river for over an hour to allow the water to recede, Rex said. A backhoe was in the raging current spreading huge boulders to diffuse the current into a wider, more shallow flow. The first few vehicles that tried to cross had to be pulled with a chain. The Guatemalan army had offered to supply a heavy truck to cross the river, but the day before they received orders to relocate. So, Teto rented a 5-ton flatbed truck that was similar in size to the army trucks. Our school bus forded the first river, but there was no way it could make it thru the second one Rex said. So, we backed the rented truck up to the school bus, transferred all the food from the bus to the truck, piled in, prayed, and plunged ahead. The reception at the Ozuna community was serene almost to the point of reverence. All the locals had on their best traditional Mayan clothing. The community leaders had organized who would receive the food, and they queued up and began passing the truck in a graceful, dignified way that is typical of the Mayan culture.

The prayer prior to passing out the food was so touching said Libby Barker. As Jon s words were translated, we began to hear a buzz throughout the crowd. Everyone was praying softly in their own tongue to the God of Heaven. It was a Pentecost type moment. Lots of tears wiped, lots of joy overflowing. While the food bags were being distributed, a small truck full of passengers asked if we would travel with them to their village. Roberto Alvarez, Jr. and Rex crowded into the front of the 1987 Toyota vehicle and bounced for an additional 30 minutes to the very base of the volcano. This village of 800 people had been spared because of a ridge on the mountain that split the lava to their left and right, said Roberto Jr (aka Teto). They asked if we could make another trip to bring them help. It was very touching that in the same breath they also mentioned another community of 60 families even closer to the volcano that also needed help. They were as concerned for their neighbors as themselves. An empty truck passed back thru the river, and an empty school bus made the return trip to the city. But compassion coupled with action fills the heart with a love that only God can teach us. Please look at volcano victims, the poor, the sick, the hungry, or the homeless in your community thru the eyes of Jesus. and do something.

BICA NOW