Out
of Africa 2013
Missions
Trip Report
Sunday,
February 3rd 2013- MRWC
I
once heard someone remark that one of the hardest things about being a
professional speaker is knowing what not to say; of knowing what to leave out.
I
would have to agree with this statement. How can I take 18 days of ministry and
boil it down into a 17 minute presentation, and all at the same time, hope to
have you leave here, excited with what God is doing around the world?
I’m
not completely sure, but I will do my best, so as we get under way, I would
direct your attention to a little slide show I’ve put together.
ILLUSTRATION- I am a local church pastor
who believes that “the Local Church is the
Hope of the World” (Hybels)
Whether
that Local church happens to be here on the Ridge, or in the West African
Countries of Ghana or Burkina Faso, it doesn’t much matter, because the Local
Church is the hope of the world.
This
was the primary reason for me leaving my family and church and traveling over 64
hours in a tin can filled with Jet fuel, to train and teach pastors in the
Wesleyan Church of Ghana.
Allow
me to give you a brief history of the church in Ghana before I dive into some
of the memorable moments of my trip.
The
Wesleyan Church in Ghana is one of the newest mission’s fields that The
Wesleyan Church is responsible for.
It came to us via merger with the
Standard Church in Ontario several years ago, and giving leadership to the
church in Ghana is Rev. Joe Ocran.
Joe,
and his wife Jemima, left Ghana to come to Canada in the late 70's, and both
were prepared to spend the rest of their lives working and living in Canada.
Of course, God had other plans.
In
1990, the Orcan’s packed up their belongings and made the return voyage back to
Ghana.
This was met with questions from their
people, as no one leaves Ghana only to come back again.
Joe
informed them that God had called them back to Ghana to plant churches, and a
little over 23 years later, The Wesleyan Church has over 50 churches and
preaching points in Ghana.
Rev.
Ocran has for some time, felt the need to move beyond Ghana with the Good News,
and recently they have planted a church in Burkina Faso.
Because
the work in Ghana and BF is relatively new, there is little or no training for
pastors.
This
was the primary reason for me going on this trip, to teach and train my African
brothers and sisters how to do the job that I love to do.
So
with that little background, allow me to share some highlights of the trip.
After
arriving in Ghana on January 8th, we got about 5 hours of sleep, and
then climbed into our home away from home (Photo
of van) for the 14 hour trip to the Northern part of Ghana to a city called Tamale.
On
Thursday morning, we walked into the Presbyterian Lay Training center and met
18 pastors seeking district licencing.
For
the next week, we interacted with them, prayed for them, listened to them, and
yes, I will say it, we—myself included—even taught them.
The
course that I was asked to teach was “the role of the pastor” and because I like to
make things interesting, we spent some time role playing.
I
had my students perform a wedding, a communion service, a deliverance service,
and even a funeral. (Photo
of funeral)
We
had a great week of teaching these pastors
the two courses they will need to obtain their licences to pastor their
respective churches. (Show
photo)
Two
of our students in our class, happened to be the pastors of our church plant in
Burkina.
This
Pastor Issah and Pastor Theophilus. The way they met is nothing short of a God
thing.
Pastor
Issah is a native of Ghana, and has believed for some time that God wanted him
to plant a church in Burkina, but he knew he couldn’t do it alone.
So he began to pray for God to send a
helper, someone who lives in the spot where the church was to be planted
All
the while Pastor Issah was praying, Pastor Theophilus was also praying that TWC
of Ghana would come to his country and plant a church.
When
Rev. Ocran and Pastor Issah took an exploratory trip to Burkina, they came face
to face with Theophilus, and they have been working together to plant the Ouagadougou
Wesleyan Church.
Don’t
you love it when God brings two people together?
So,
here it is; the very church that we are helping to plant. (Show Photo)
On
the Sunday we were there, 71 people attended service that morning, and one baby
was dedicated to God for His service! (Show Photo)
During
the week, the church building is being used for a public school, and 111
students are enrolled. (photo)
Already, our
efforts are paying off. Not only is our church offering a public school to the
children in the area, 8 people have been baptized since the church opened in
August! 8!!!
As you can
probably see, the church is made primarily of mud bricks. (Photo)
This is fine for
the next few months, but when the rainy season comes, the church could
potentially be washed away, so the need to finish the church with plaster and
cement is very real.
The cost to
fully finish the church is $1000; this will do the inside, the outside and the
floor.
When you give to
missions at our church, you will be helping this church reach more people for
Jesus.
Another
encouraging word about our church plant in Burkina is that they have already
planted 2 more churches!
We had an
opportunity to visit one of the two, and while they are not quite the size of
the mother church, the potential is there for many more changed lives.
We left Burkina
Faso on Sunday afternoon encouraged and excited for the lives that have been
changed, and for what God is doing, and will continue to do through the local
church!
Speaking of life
change, our team had the opportunity to attend a showing of the Jesus film. (Photos)
After travelling
two hours to our village destination of choice, the chief of the village was
asked if the film could be shown, and he said: “Who am I to stop the work of the Living
God?!”
Unfortunately
the equipment didn’t work properly and only the video was working, but Pastor
Isaac was able to describe the events of the film to the people, and many of
them were seeing and hearing the Gospel for the first time.
After a few more
technical difficulties, the movie had to be stopped at the half way point, but
without missing a thing, Pastor Isaac continued on with the message of the Good
News, and invited people to receive Jesus.
All of a sudden,
I was standing in the middle of 50+ people who were ready to give their lives
to Jesus and we prayed the sinner’s prayer, and they were welcomed into the
Kingdom of heaven.
We made sure to
get their names for follow up, and the following Sunday, Pastor Isaac held
church there for the first time!
God was once again at work through the Local
Church.
Well, it wasn’t
all about work, we did have some time off, and when we did, we made use of it.
One of the
things we did was to get up close and personal with a crocodile. Not just one.
Not just two. Or five. At my count, there were at least 7 crocs, with 15 more
in the water before us.
After the crocs
were taunted with a chicken (photo),
we were given the opportunity to sit on his back and have our photo taken. (show my photo and the group
photo)
I’m happy to
report that no one on our team lost a limb, and we all lived to see another
day.
The chickens on
the other hand, that’s a different story. (If you want to see that video, I can
show you later…)
One of the low
lights of our trip was when we traveled to the Cape-Cost of Ghana to visit the
Slave castles.
It was at this
very place that African men and women were traded to the Europeans in exchange
for money and other goods.
We were told
that of the 40 million slaves to have entered these castles, less than 20
million made it to their destination.
They were either
killed in the castles, or on the way to their place of slavery.
As I was touring
the castles, my mind thought of two things.
I thought about
were the words found in Jeremiah 17 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who
can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9, NIV)
What I saw was
evidence of how low the human race could go, but I also thought of how The
Wesleyan Church was one of the first denominations that took a stand against
the slave trade!
I need to tell
you that I was proud to be a Wesleyan in that moment!
The Local church
truly is the hope of the world.
ILLUSTRATION- In an interview with Observer
Music Monthly Magazine, Elton John stated:
“From
my point of view I would ban religion completely.
Organized religion doesn’t seem to work. It turns people into really
hateful lemmings and it’s not really compassionate.
Now,
I’m not a fan or Sir Elton, but I think he’s way out in left field here.
I’ve travelled
to Africa 3 times now, and in that time I saw wells dug by organized religions,
hospitals and orphanages that were operated by faith-based organizations and
schools that were funded and operated by various churches. (Txs to Denn Guptill for his help on this illustration)
In
all of my travels, I did not see one school, one hospital, one orphanage, owned or operated by “rock stars”.
What
I did see was the church—the Bride of Christ—step up and meet the needs of the
people.
As
I said at the start, I am a local church pastor who believes that “the local
church is the hope of the world”
I
saw the local church at work and how lives are being transformed by the saving
power of Jesus Christ.
So
thank-you to those of you who prayed for me and for my team as we travelled
half way around the world to see the hand of God at work.
A lot could have gone wrong, but it
didn’t because you were praying for us.
Thank-you
also to each one who gave financially toward this trip. I could not have gone,
I could not have seen, or did what I did, without your financial assistance, so
thank-you.
While
I am a local church pastor, I did leave a peace of my heart in the West African
Countries of Ghana and Burkina Faso, and I will have to return their one day
soon.
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