THE demand for students to study Bible remains high at the Balasuna Bible College (BBC) in North East Guadalcanal this year.
This was revealed by the College principal Leonard Letana in an interview with the Solomon Star last week saying more people would like to come and do their studies there.
“This year, we have only accepted 35 students due to limited space,” Mr Letana said.
He added they felt sorry for many students who want to go and study Bible there.
“Due to lack of enough space provided, we have to cut down on enrollment.”
The students came all the way from across the country and some from Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.
Mr Letana said, that he will try to work on addressing space in order to meet the demand in the years to come.
The Balasuna Bible College was established as a result of the vision of Innisfail COC led by Pastor Kevin Dales.
There was a break of 6 years in the life of the College between 1999 and 2005 as a result of the ethnic tension that prevailed in the Solomon Islands.
In 2006, the vision for the College was launched again with pastors like Murray Townsend, Santo Gullo and Kevin Dales leading the way.
Innisfail COC was again involved and people and Churches around Australia gave financial support as they sponsored students to be trained as pastors.
There have been some attempts at more self-sufficiency and the students have only been from the Solomon Islands.
Pastor Willie Tagadaena took on the administrative role of Acting Principal during 2006 & 2008 and then Pastor Leonard Letana was appointed the principal.
Today the College is running its programs serving the students in and around the area.
By LESLEY SANGA
