Presidents Update from the road – Engaging the Global Church!

President’s Update from the Road

By Brian Rex Davis

What a joy to join hundreds of preachers across the nation of Nigeria gathered for the 2026 World Bible School Great Workshop in Abiokuta, Nigeria.  Many of these preachers obeyed the Gospel as WBS students.  Western Nigeria Christian College was the host of the event this year, where Bro. Biodun Owolabi serves as President.  We explored the theme of “Making Mission Work a Priority!”  Truly this was one of the most significant series of presentations that Sondra and I have been privileged to experience.  Many of us would meet late into the night as we discussed how to further the mission of God in Nigeria and the other 6 or 7 countries represented at the workshop.  Delegations from Cameroon and Sierra Leone pleaded their need to have WBS tools available for their evangelism efforts.

At the end of last year, Tim Brumfield was able to host a unity meeting for the churches of Christ in Mozambique as a part of our Portuguese outreach. Unity has been a difficult challenge in this nation torn by years of civil conflict. One thousand leaders in the church gathered to pursue the unity of the Body of Christ as presented in Ephesians 4:1-6. This opportunity for unity is creating a synergy for student recruitment for our Portuguese World Bible School work and opening doors for new
church plants.

In a local ministry of some of the university students, several WBS students who are inmates in a local prison had requested to be baptized.  we were thrilled to be witness to 12 men who turned their lives over to Jesus on that great day.

We were blessed to be traveling with Daniel Gaines, our new WBS International Relations representative.  Daniel, who has many years of missionary experience, immediately began forging important relationships with fellow missionaries and Nigerian church leaders.  Here, right, he is interacting with Chad Wagner, the President of African Christian Schools Foundation.  Chad is a huge WBS supporter and has been instrumental in our continued participation in the WBS Great Workshop.

While in Nigeria, we were also called upon to help in the WBS Ocean Bridge student recruitment in local schools. Hundreds of students lined up to become WBS students  through this innovative approach to WBS correspondence courses. Nigeria was our number one student recruiting country for Ocean Bridge in 2025, a record our young recruiters are proud of and keen to maintain.

I sure was hoping to get one of these colorful outfits. Sondra told me that she didn’t think I could pull it off as well as our Nigerian WBS Service Center team!

Next stop… the Southern Africa International Lectureship held in the beautiful Venda tribal area of The Republic of South Africa.

The largest gathering of the Lord’s church in the Southern Africa area which encompasses some 11 or 12 countries is held every Easter.  John Reese and I were once again asked to participate in this great gathering.  Machona Mnyamane participates in the organization of this event and has been instrumental in keeping WBS visible to so many churches and their leaders.

The theme this year was:

THE 21^st CENTURY CHURCH VS UNHOLY ALLIANCES.

We were so encouraged by so many congregations and church leaderships taking a strong stand for New Testament Christianity and the Restoration plea.  Of course, singing along with the Zulu and Xhosa songs of South Africa and the Shona songs of Zimbabwe was tantamount to experiencing a little slice of heaven.

John Reese presented a powerful lesson about how to avoid getting trapped in immoral alliances.  Machona participated in this as well. Machona and I also delivered a lesson on how to find courage from God in rejecting unholy alliances that leave our churches doctrinally in rebellion to the Kingship of Christ.  We were able to introduce the WBS Advanced Courses as excellent material for the churches’ teaching programs.  Machona brought hundreds of courses for our display.  They were all gone 20 minutes after our first presentation.  As churches are seeking to stay faithful to our Lord, they are longing for teaching materials that address many of these concerns in loving and Biblical ways.

Next stop… the far eastern highlands of Zimbabwe as we had been hearing of several churches that have been planted as a direct result of Ocean Bridge follow-up.

One of our greatest hopes for our WBS correspondence students is that they might complete their courses, learn the Gospel, and choose to become a Christian.  Futhermore, we pray that these new Christians will find their place in the Body of Christ, the church.  But not just any church, rather, we hope that they will be able to find a congregation that is committed to following Jesus according to the teachings of the New Testament.  And if one is not readily available, we will help them to establish a congregation of the Lord’s church in their location.

In 2015, I was working as a missionary of the Hillcrest church of Christ in Abilene, Texas in their longtime work with Mutare School of Preaching in eastern Zimbabwe.  I remember sharing with some young preachers in training about how WBS materials could really super-charge their evangelism work.  Well, some of these young evangelists were listening!

In 2024, several of these young evangelists asked me, Sondra, and my youngest son, Bryson, to accompany them to meet some schools where they were hoping to register Ocean Bridge students.  I had asked them how long this would take, and they assured me it would only be a couple of hours.  Twelve hours later, we had visited 5 schools in some very remote areas of Manicaland, Zimbabwe.  Sondra asked them if they thought kidnapping the President of WBS was good Christian form.

This year, Machona drove us from South Africa into the remote eastern region of Zimbabwe to see what these young evangelists have been up to.  We drove as we wanted to have control of the vehicle we were using this time.  By the end of our visit, we were thankful for having been kidnapped in ’24 as God has used these young men in mighty ways!

Meeting in the very school buildings where they registered their students two years ago, these young evangelists and their wives have planted four congregations.  They had organized three Gospel meetings for us where all of these young congregations were able to attend.  Communications are such a challenge in this area, they alerted the churches of the day that the Gospel meeting would take place.  The members walked to the school in the morning and then waited all day for us, hoping that we would show up.  Some waited for hours.  But they were there, and they were excited!

In each Gospel meeting, the leaders of the schools and the government leaders in the community came and attested to the difference Jesus was making in the lives of their students.  One headmaster said that, before, his school was struggling.  But after the WBS Ocean Bridge courses were offered to his students, the student body began changing their behavior.  They became better students.  Parents talked of the transformation of their youth into better children.  And government officials affirmed that we would always be welcome in their communities.

The headmaster in this picture decided to enroll in the WBS Master Series, himself.  He decided to become a Christian during his studies.  Now he is helping to provide leadership in the new congregation.  He completed his course, and I was able to present his certificate of completion while there.

In the course of the Gospel meetings, more students and parents decided to obey the Gospel.  Over twenty responded to the invitation and were baptized, both old and young.

In our summer issue of ACTION! Magazine, I plan to share more of this remarkable story of follow-up.  These young congregations each have 20 or 30 members now and they are busy sharing Jesus with their communities.

The week after these meetings, I met with John Reese, our WBS Board member, Washington Mhlanga (far left), and the Ocean Bridge service center team in the capitol city of Harare.  I shared with them what God was doing through their efforts and thanked them for their hard work.  The leader of this team, Terrence Muza (second from left) was one of those young men in Mutare School of Preaching back in 2015.  His wife now works alongside of him as this team serves 70 different preachers all over the nation of Zimbabwe.  Preacher training schools associated with Sunset International Bible Institute and Bear Valley Bible Institute teach their preaching students how to make use of WBS tools in evangelism. The Zimbabwe Ocean Bridge program is unique in that they cover the entire nation with their network of close relationships with churches and evangelists nationwide.

We met around the Lord’s table of the Avondale church of Christ, who has provided WBS with office space in their building for several decades.  We prayed for the continued success of Ocean Bridge to reach ever expanding numbers of students.  We prayed for the church plants and the local evangelists who make that follow up possible.  And we prayed for you as part of the global team that makes these powerful evangelism tools possible!

I hope that this little update from the road has been an encouragement to you.  After writing it, I’m itching to get back on the road again to see what great things God is doing!

Yours in Christ,

Brian Rex Davis