Bob & Becky Mach
Serving in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Africa
Bob and Becky were accepted as missionaries with BIMI in December of 1991. After spending several years in the town of Anyama, assisting another BIMI missionary in establishing a church there, they moved to the town of Bingerville to start the Enlise Baptiste Fondamentale (Fundamental Baptist Church) in June of 2000. Today, the church averages over 250 people each Sunday morning. Along with their church, their adult literacy classes, and their medical clinic, the Machs are making a great impact for the Gospel.
Ministry Information
Past
We arrived in Côte d’Ivoire on September 16, 1995, and began working with Tom Vineyard at the Fundamental Baptist Church of Anyama (Eglise Baptiste Fondamentale d'Anyama). The following January we opened the Fundamental Baptist Institute of Anyama (Institut Baptiste Fondamental d'Anyama) in order to train men for the ministry. While with these ministries, we were involved with preaching, teaching, music, discipling, and construction. We were in Anyama from Sept. of 1995 to Nov. of 1997 and from April of 1999 to Jan. of 2000.
Present
In January of 2000, we left the Anyama church with its founder, Tom Vineyard, and moved to the city of Bingerville, Cote d’Ivoire. On June 18, 2000, we opened the Fundamental Baptist Church of Bingerville (Eglise Baptiste Fondamentale de Bingerville). This church has grown to averaging over 250 on Sunday mornings.
In 2001, we started literacy classes as an evangelistic ministry of our church to teach adults to read and write in French. We have over 150 adults in these classes, the majority of whom are either muslim or village animist. We use Scripture materials to teach French and require that the students visit the church. The graduation service each year is done at our Sunday morning service when all the family members come to see their loved ones graduate. We have many in our church who were saved through the literacy classes.
In 2002, we signed an agreement with the town hall of Bingerville to open a small clinic as an evangelistic ministry of our church. This clinic opened in November of 2004. Since that time we have enrolled over 15,000 people. We are the primary care giver for the Bingerville town hall and the district workers in our area. This ministry has opened the doors to not only evangelizing the sick who come, but also to the villages that surround Bingerville. The villages had previously denied us the permission to evangelize there. Now because of the service provided through the clinic, we have an open door in the villages for evangelism. It is our intention to start churches in these villages through the ministry of this clinic.
In 2003, we opened a Bible College through our local church in Grand Bassam. This is a four year Bible college preparing men for the pastoral, missionary, or evangelism ministries. It also gives our ladies a good Bible education for their particular ministries. The Bible College currently has 18 students representing 5 of our local churches. As well, we have opened a publication center through the Bible College to help meet the material needs of the Bible College as well as our local churches.
In 2005, our pastors formed a fellowship which serves to provide good Christian fellowship amongst the pastors as well as encouragement for maintaining doctrinal purity. This fellowship meets three to four times a year.
Future
In the future we hope to open an elementary school and a youth center as ministries of our church in Bingerville. The need for these two ministries is great. As well, we will be building a church building, school building, parsonage, and youth center at the Bingerville church, a Bible College building with dormatories at the Grand Bassam church, as well as certain building projects at some of our other local churches.
Family Details:
Birthdays:
Robert C. (Bob) - 02/14/63
Rebekah L. (Becky) - 05/22/66
Robert M. (Bobby) - 12/12/92
R. Marylyn - 07/25/95
Morganne L. - 05/30/97
C. Lucien (Luc) - 09/20/02
Anniversary: May 18, 1991
