July 2017 Newsletter

VBS Nkotompo, Ekuasi: 
This Summer we have decided to do something out of the norm and have VBS in the Sekondi areas one week a month from May – August. Our 1 VBS was in Kojokrom and a father from there brought his child. Just a few weeks ago we passed out some John and Romans at West Ridge School at our Wednesday morning worship time there and whole Bibles to the Schoolteachers. As we were finishing one of those teachers was that father in Kojokrom. He told us how much his daughter liked VBS week and how he has recognized our Bible Study. Pray that he will come. His name is Charles. After we finished another lady teacher came to our car where we usually sit after we teach the class for worship time, Prince, Koasi, Matthew, Joseph and I meeting together there in discussion of what we taught on in our classes and then pray for the school, what God is doing, our evening church services, church land, and the rest of week’s events. She wanted to thank us and tell us that she hopes that we continue to always be there to teach their students the Bible. They were all grateful to us and that sure made us feel good! Nkotompo was our 2nd VBS village where we saw about 8 receive Christ. The attendance was 160 to 268 during the week. Ekuasi, was smaller and our 3rd village that we just finished up with last week. The attendance there was 120 to 189. Many younger kids came and the seed was planted and many parents were impressed. This is the village that our church property is in. Please Pray That The Door Opens Soon that we can get on it and start constructing! European Town, Sekondi, where CBBC is, will be our last VBS next month. 

Bible Studies In Nkotompo: 
After VBS there the1st of June some of the men from CBBC, Prince, Koasi, and myself started a Bible study there with the men of that village in a location that was provided by a man named Samuel who seems to be very sincere. The next week my wife and Prince’s wife started a Bible Study with a lady there named Emma. She started bring her little niece to the VBS in Nkotompo. That is how we got to know her. She is 35, seems sincere, and claims salvation 5 years ago. Please Be In Prayer for us here. To the Religious “Jesus Christ... is a Stone of Stumbling, and a Rock of Offence, even to them which Stumble at the Word,...”

Contacts For Salvations & Salvations: 
Pray for Joseph & Freedom who are adult men about 35 who I presented the Gospel to from Nkotompo and are interested; I presented the Gospel 2 weeks ago to Cindy, Linda and their mother. These 2 teen girls received Christ 2 weeks ago on visitation. They are from the Kojokrom area in Jerusalem town. Older folks in their late 60’s & late 70’s, John and his Mother I presented the Gospel to. They were taught to Trust Baptism from the Church of Christ, but I showed them the Bible how it shows us that we must Trust Christ as our Savior alone. They sincerely were thinking and contemplating this New Truth To Them. They are from the village of Ekuasi as is Emmanuel. Emmanuel is a young adult man who we found lives in Ekuasi about where we were having VBS. I took the chance to witness to him but was interrupted. His father was my welder for the car, who just died in June. We will attend the funeral. Please Be In Prayer for this contact. This past Saturday I visited with 2 adult men probably in their mid 30’s. They received Christ as their Savior today. Daniel and Ernest are their names. Pray for them that we will see them in our Bible Studies at Kojokrom or that we will get to start one with them.

Scripture Container & Our Wednesday Night Church Service: 
The Scripture Container left BPS Milford, Ohio on the 23rd of March and arrived in the Takoradi, Ghana, West Africa port May 22nd. It took all day to get it released on Wednesday the 23rd. Our Scripture container was the only container released that day. God Was In It All! It is also the rainy season over here. When we got the container released, we had to unload about 1/3 of it on to another truck at the port because the container was so heavy the 1st truck could not move because the load was on the tires. After that episode we went with the 2 trucks to the church property to unload all of the Bibles so we could get the container off the 1st truck and set it on the ground. That took from 6 pm till 9:30 pm and 14 guys. Then from 9:30 pm till 12:30 am in the morning we reloaded the container with the Scriptures. Prince said to me earlier in the day, Pastor why don't we wait until early tomorrow morning and then we can reload the container? I said, it doesn't look like the rain will come but just in case let's reload tonight. We did and when we all finally got home, just a few minutes after I walked in the door Bro Prince text me and said, “Guess what?” I said, “What?” He said, “It has just started pouring down rain.” Then I reminded him how good God was in waiting until we were done and also putting it in my heart to finish reloading that night! That was our Wednesday night church service around the Written Word. The next day, Thursday was a holiday. Workers at the port didn’t plan to come back to work until Monday the next week. So God led all the way! I'm glad I listened to God instead of giving in to my tired flesh. “And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which  stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.” – I Ptr 2:8 

Matthew J. Siekbert

May 2017 Newsletter

Conference On Missions:
March 19th-22nd was a blessed week. CBBC had their Conference on Missions. Our Theme Verses for the week was: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” – II Cor 4:3-4. As a Christian the messages during the week dealt with The Glorious Gospel; Our Shine; Our Desire; Our Sharing; and Our Faith. The Lord was moving in hearts and God is at work!

Anniversary/Easter Sunday: 
Cornerstone Biblical Baptist Church’s 10th Anniversary was also Easter Sunday this year. What an exciting Sunday, our Savior is risen and the celebration of God’s church for the past 10 years. We had an early Sunday evening service following lunch and fellowship. The young kids did some special songs and a skit. The youth presented the church with a beautiful plaque representing 10 years. We also purchased a banner for the occasion.

Finished Up The Bricks: 
By the end of February beginning of March we had finished with the 6” blocks and started with the 5” blocks. We had a few blitz with the 5” block making for a few weeks so we could finish them up by the end of April and we did it by God’s Grace! We have about 5,008 6” blocks for the building mainly and about 1,202 5” blocks for the boarder walls of the church property. The Government is still in a slow down because of the new President and the picks for new Government agents who decide on the property price and issuing of the property. They already have said that the land would be for us, but it is not official until they commit with papers and act on it. Please pray that it will be made official soon and that they will give us a God fearing price. This is much of our hold up now with moving, legally, the squatters off of the property so we can, legally, construct.

VBS In Kojokrom:
We held VBS in Kojokrom. Our theme was “What We Learn From the Beginning”. In the Beginning of God’s Creation we can learn more than the days of Creation. Here is what other most valuable Truths that can be learned from the “BEGINNING”: on Monday “God’s Very Words Are Most Powerful”, Gen 1:3 “And God said....”; on Tuesday “Let God Be Your Atmosphere”, Gen 1:6 “Let there be a firmament”; on Wednesday “God Set The Standard and The Value System”, Gen 1:17,18 “And God set them.. and God saw that is was good.”; on Thursday “Seek For God’s Blessings”, Gen 1:22 “And God blessed them saying...”; on Friday “Seek To Be After God’s Likeness”, Gen 1:26 “...Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness”. The week started with 64 in attendance, by Friday we had 85. Through the summer time we plan on doing 3 more VBS one each month in June, July and August, in 2 villages and then at the church CBBC in Sekondi.

Class Of 2017:
It has been a whirlwind of events in the last 2 weeks. Our daughter Naomi graduated May 13th from the Homeschooler Edition of Abeka Academy in Florida. This year 1,828 students did receive an accredited high school diploma from Abeka. There were 479 young people who walked in the graduation ceremony. I took her to the States so she could walk in her graduating class. She also has applied and has been accepted at PCC. She is staying in the States and doing the summer work program there on the campus. Please be in prayer for Naomi and our family as we adjust to this transition.

Scripture To Arrive: 
The Scripture Container that we have coming to Ghana was packed full of Bibles on March 23rd by Bearing Precious Seed in Milford, Ohio. It’s estimated time of arrival in Ghana is May 20th. Please be in prayer for its safe arrival, our shipping and handling costs over here in Ghana, and the placing of the Scripture Container on the church property with no troubles. 

Matthew J. Siekbert 

March 2017 Newsletter

To The Work: 
Our brick making at the property is going well. We have made 5,008 bricks so far. We just finished up with 6” blocks and will begin on making 5” blocks this week. One of our ladies from the church has been making a meal for us after our brick making on Friday mornings. The guys really look forward to this time. In fact when it is nearing the time of her arrival, the men speed up the work so they can eat. I am proud of the hard work the guys have been faithfully doing every week. Please continue in FERVENTLY PRAY that we get the front piece of the property from the government for our church. It gives us a way out of our property and puts us right by the main road. They are supposed to meet this month (March) to decide the price and all. We are ready to move forward!

Container of Scripture: 
We ordered a container of Scriptures from Bearing Precious Seed. It is in the plans to be filled and leave BPS this week. Since last August some have given to this need in which we thank you. It has been delayed for reasons I am not all sure about but is now in the process of being shipped out.

Ghana is 60: 
Ghana’s had a birthday March 7th, they gained their Independence from England 60 years ago. The Navy gives boat rides on their Independence Day. So my family and I met up with those from the church wanting to go on the boat. The boat we were on was an old US Coast Guard ship named Woodrush. It served the Coast Guard from 1944–2001 then sold to the Ghanaian Navy. It was a buoy tender that performed general aids-to-navigation (ATON), search and rescue (SAR), and icebreaking duties for the United States Coast Guard (USCG) from 1944 to 2001 from home ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Sitka, Alaska. We were able to this year get a ride and then visited some of the base and their pool. It rained later cooling off the day. If interested, Wikipedia has more information on this ship about it’s commissioning, purpose, history, and rescue missions. While on the ship an older man, after learning that my family and I were from America, ask me why I was interested in riding on the ship when we have plenty of ships and bigger ships. I told him for the last 13 years I have been in Ghana telling people about the gospel, teaching the Bible, have planted a church here in Sekondi, and today we are on a church activity. I got to share a little bit of the story of Jonah getting on the ship to Tarshish to run from God’s Will.

Salvations: 
During our Wednesday morning worship time at West Ridge School I have been teaching on some special phrases God has impressed on me that He has said in Genesis while reading over and over the Creation account. Through thisI have been showing the Superiority of God because in reality of human nature and the Devil’s deception people think that they are good enough, they can earn their way to heaven, they as sinners are told by their pastors that they must do good works to get to Heaven. Proud-fully, the Pentecost and Charismatics think they can command God to do something instead of humbling themselves to the merciful Savior. At the end of each Wednesday devotion I have been asking them, based on what I have just taught them, if they know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Little by little kids are getting saved but Consistency is the key. Every day and everywhere they are being constantly lied to by ignorance and twisted minds of proud people. This Friday I was at Kokompa, a place where junk car vehicles get revamped somehow such as mine! The electrician that came to help repair my car is named Kwabena. Kwabena, as most everyone here is very religious and very twisted in Bible teaching. He was searching for right answers! Amen, I like that! He misunderstood what the Power of God’s Word was. He said that having the Bible on your phone is not same as having a Bible with you (I agree with that statement in many ways, but not as he was applying it). He said at night when the Demons come you cannot hit them or scare them away with your Bible because it is on a phone. Then I told him the Power of the Bible is not the book form or the phone app it is knowing and understanding God’s literal Words then applying them to your situation as Jesus did when He was fasting in the wilderness for 40 days. The Power of the Word brings Faith, It Converts the Soul, It Changes our Eternal Destination, It Changes our Life and Actions to being a Child of God not the Child of the Devil. Kwabena then asked me how he could be Saved. Then I told him that it is not just believing about Jesus and Resurrection Sunday it is about Trusting in Him as the One who Paid for your Sins with His Blood, Trusting in Him Who Paid for your Sins Punishment of Hell in Hell, Then Trusting in Him Who Won the Victory over Death and its hold. Jesus Christ is the ONLY One God Accepts for our Savior, Nothing else, no one else, and not your “good works” which come from you or me who are cursed sinners. After Kwabena realized what the Power of God’s Word and the Only Way to Heaven was he told me just trusted Jesus. Amen! Thanks for Prayer for us here! The Devil has a Stronghold on the Religious!

Prayer Request/Upcoming Events: 
Please pray for my brother Charles Siekbert. He is a missionary in Uganda that needs some medical help taken care of. Missions Conference March 19-22 and VBS in Kojokrom May 1-5. Let the Light of the Glorious Gospel Shine! “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” – II Cor 4:3-4 

Matthew J Siekbert 

January 2017 Newsletter

Goals/Plans: 
On December 15-16 Prince, Koasi, Benjamin, and myself had our Yearly Planning Meeting for CBBC and the Kojokrom Bible Studies. Kojokrom Bible Studies are still being bused in on Sunday mornings, but we are encouraged with a few new people that has been coming; The last Saturday of every month we have planned that those at our Kojokrom Bible Studies will break from our visitation there and go to visitation with CBBC in Sekondi; Every 5th week of the year I will be Preaching Sunday mornings at CBBC; Every 5th week of the year we will also be at CBBC for our Sunday Evening Services, the Lord’s Supper, and a Sing-spiration. Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings I am still teaching on Romans and Christian Principles. I will be preaching CBBC’s Conference on Missions and their Revival services. Sunday Mornings my wife teaches the young ladies at CBBC while Naomi, Matthew Jr, and myself go with Joseph and Nehemiah to teach Bible Lessons at the Deaf school. The Deaf school starts back up on the 29th of this month. My son Joseph is being broken in to teach Jr Church at CBBC. We have made over 4,093 bricks as of January 6th. During Christmas break we had a few more helping hands, small and big! About 2,500 bricks were made since December 1st. That is about 100 bags of cement. We just bought 80 more bags of cement. We need about 2,000 more bricks. Pray for us as we labor for the Lord! “...The work is great and large,...”- Neh 4:19b

Salvations: 
In Kojokrom this Saturday a young man named Steven, a student just last year at West Ridge School, and Prince, his younger brother, was led to the Lord on Saturday visitation. West Ridge
School’s Wednesday Morning Worship service has just resumed this week and in my class we had a few that professed Christ as their Savior.

Evening Bible Classes: 
Last year we started Evening Bible Classes at the end of August with 10 people and we finished with 9. That is not bad! Amen! This new year to start January 16th we had 10, but 2 of the students are new. They have been coming to CBBC and to the Kojokrom Bible Studies for just about the last 2 months. These classes are full of notes. Pray that we give them just the right balance and pray that they all will see the classes through to the end of the Semester. Monday, I teach on Giving Attendance To Bible Doctrine; Tuesday, Koasi teaches on How To Study The Bible; and Thursday, Prince teaches on Understanding Bible Prophecy. From the book entitled “Leadership – By the Book” by author David M. Atkinson: Horace Greeley, born on February 3, 1811, founder and editor of the New-York Tribune said, “It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.” The Bible says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” – Romans 10:17; “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” – II Tim 3:15; “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” – Mat.22:29. Between faithful Church attendance and these Evening Bible Classes, I know and I see that God is Doing a Work! It is helping others find freedom, Spiritually, from the Deceiver of all Nations, the religious hype and wresting of the Charismatics and Ecumenical mind-set, Jargon and Gibberish they call tongues speaking. A special thank you to those who gave us gifts for Christmas, the Container, and Church property materials. 


Matthew J. Siekbert