An altar call was given and I urged those who are lost to seek the Lord while he is near.  There were around 17 people from young to old up seeking the Lord for salvation.  What a sight to see.  My heart was yearning for them all.  Much prayer was lifted up that night by the congregation in hopes that we might hear of those who would be saved by God’s grace.  At around 10pm, the folks from the mission had to leave and that left about 6 people left seeking until service was concluded around 10:30pm. 

After walking around a while I found myself very uncomfortable with my situation.  We were the center of attention.  Everyone was staring at us wherever we went.  This was something very new to me, which I had never experienced.  I realized that all that I was feeling was a perception of the only thing I knew from back home in the States.  I thought I was good at reading people, mannerisms, and body language, but I had to quickly understand that my understanding of all those things had to change.

Thankfully, the majority of the brethren who traveled from the States have firsthand experience conducting mission work.  Brother Jeff and Jonathon Elliott have lived on the mission field for the majority of their lives, Brother Todd Reynolds spent the majority of his childhood on the mission field, and Brother Justin Farris is currently on the mission field in Virginia.  The following are the themes and topics we discussed.  

We concluded both revival meetings on Wednesday Night, encouraged that Ebenezer church and the mission work were seeing constant, healthy growth since the previous year and that a lady who had been saved the previous year was baptized into Mt. Zion and faithfully serving at the mission.  Please specifically pray for the mission work to find a permanent building if it is the Lord’s will and that the well at Ebenezer would be completed soon. 

Although we are not about numbers, sometimes numbers can help put larger pictures in perspective.  While in Ghana for 12 days, 38 sermons were preached at 5 churches, three Missions and three schools. There were 21 who told of being saved and the Preachers and Deacons School was attended by 31 of our fellow laborers in the various Ghana works. The Lord blessed us with safe travels and sweet fellowship.  We serve a great God!

If you ask most church members what the purpose of their local church is, you are likely to hear scriptural, although very broad statements like: preach the gospel, baptize, teach, etc.  When I hear people talk in such broad terms I am often left to feel sort of empty.   It is not that any of these are wrong, because we know those are instructions left to us by Christ in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).  It's just they are so broad and immeasurable that people don't feel accountable to act or inspired when they accomplish them.  In short, their is no personal connection to them.

To get to the core of our purpose we ought to ask follow up questions which have more detail.  Questions like: What specific demographic or group of people in our community are we trying to reach?  Orphans? Widows? Academics? Poor? Young?  Or some combination of them?  Who are we trying to teach?  What are we trying to teach them and to what end?  What will they be able to do with the things they are learning?  How can they use them for the benefit of the Lord and within the context of His church? 

Grandiose stories of triumph or heartbreaking stories of terrible loss is the American version of mission work because it is the only story often related by those who go on mission trips.  Those who go on mission trips (including myself) tend to accentuate the exciting aspects of our trip because a less exciting (but more accurate) version wouldn’t garner much response from an American audience numbed to reality by the fantasies and fictions of Hollywood.  Mission work, like real life, is most effective when the missionaries involved abandon any desire to impress onlookers and rather devotes themselves to the mundane tasks which deepen the Word of God in the hearts of those they are trying to reach. 

As we bowed to pray with those who were seeking God, the majority of the saved individuals did not rise from prayer for approximately 1 ½- 2 hours.  From time to time I would rise up from my knees and just watch in amazement as these men and women –many who had worked in the hot sun all day, deprived of any luxuries in life- prayed in the beautiful Twi language as sweat and tears poured down their faces.  As the prayer continued for what seemed like days, I would periodically bow on my knees and repent to God for a life of such prayerlessness.  I remember in particular one man who reminded me of the night which caused God to change Jacob’s name to Israel (one who strives with God).  He was bowed on his knees and his whole body was involved in his prayer.  He prayed for almost 2 hours and never once (that I noticed) stopped from his passionate prayer.   

To fully understand the opportunities we had, one must first understand the culture, geography, politics, and infrastructure in Ghana.   Most people in Ghana do not have a personal vehicle nor do they travel very far for business or work.  The majority of transportation is done by public or private vehicles (mostly vans) and are available at most times of the day or night.  Though we often refer to places by one city name (Kumasi, Accra, Atebubu, etc.), in truth, these cities are really comprised of dozens of smaller communities, similar to townships in the United States.  Within the city of Kumasi, there are six main paved roads, and the majority of the others are dirt roads.  This makes transportation a daily concern and changes the way one might approach establishing missions compared to the United States.  

For 20 years these brethren have greatly benefitted from the revivals held by cross-cultural missionaries but they are now hungering for the Word to be taught.  The diligent attention, innumerable questions, and 2-3 hour deacons meeting held at the place we stayed, only reinforced the obvious desire they have to learn more so they might be better equipped to spread the gospel. 

This will be the last update before we leave to go to Ghana at the end of June.  The Lord has been blessing the work in Ghana and I look forward to seeing firsthand the men and women who are faithfully serving the Lord.  I also look forward to sharing with all of you more information about the men who are ministering there and how we might directly help the work in Ghana.      

A few notable things have happened with the work in Ghana since our initial blog post and I would like to take this time to inform you of those things as well as look ahead to what may be forthcoming.