March 16, 2011 10:44 GMT
I am very tired so I will be quick and try to finish up before the day starts on Thursday. We met the Methodist mission team from Missouri for dinner last night. They brought picnic lunches that were packed at their hotel in Bolgatanga. I told them that we didn’t have any “restaurants” in Walewale that had safe food to eat. We set up some picnic tables in the guest house courtyard to eat with the mission team. Mary Kay Jackson is hosting the team as a Ghana missionary. We went to Singini first. It was dark by the time that we went to the village to see our new church building. It was also the first time that I had been in the village, too. I didn’t know the way. It felt a little different relying on mary Kay to show me a village in this part of Ghana.
My pastor, Ibrihim, felt called to preach the gospel to the people two villages away. Mary Kay went to the village and saw that it was good. My mission team leader, Kofi, also liked the spirit in the village. A special donor from Rocky Mount UMC is paying for the key construction for that church. We will get support from other churches to pay for benches, drums, Bibles, doors and windows. It was neat to see the reaction of the Missouri mission team finding a Methodist church in such a remote spot in the African bush.
We preached in Sagadugu for the evening service. Pastor Michael from MO, Kenny Lovelace, and I preached in Sagadugu. I preached about the great commission from Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” I edified the pastor in Sagadugu. Ibrihim went to Singini to preach the gospel. Now, a new church is growing. I told them that I was excited that our churches are growing new churches.
We repaired four boreholes in Sagadugu and Sagadugu No. 2. The pump handles were broke or usually a very inexpensive part broke. The children filled the pump with rocks and dirt which made the repair more time consuming. It is great having Michael with us to get this work done. Kenny Lovelace is especially enjoying the pump repairs.
I talked with the chairman of the Water and Sanitation Committee about God blessing his children by keeping the boreholes working. I went to each borehole (deep well) with the chairman to tell him the things that needed to be done around the borehole. Most of them needed the weeds cut down, the concrete pad swept clean, and the soakway cleaned out. I explained that water should not be allowed to stand for a long time in the soakaway because it would give mosquitoes a chance to breed in the stagnant water. I also showed him where dirt needed to be added around the well so that the waste water would flow away from the borehole.
The chairman started talking fast in Mampruli with our pastor, Ibrihim, and another elder from Sagadugu. I finally asked Ibrihim what he was saying. The chairman was wondering why a white Christian would travel so far to tell him how to bless his children. I told the Chairman that with God’s help all things are possible. I also pointed to Michael standing tall pulling pipe out of the borehole. I explained that Michael from Water in Africa was black and that he had the knowledge to repair the boreholes. I told the chairman that it doesn’t require a white man to make a difference in Ghana. The chairman asked for God to richly bless us for our work. The amazing thing is that the chairman is Muslim. We were laughing and talking about how the people of Sagadugu can have a better life with clean water. The Muslims and Christians are working together to bless the village with a working pump! I believe this is the way to reduce conflict in this world. We must be willing to give people hope for the future for their children.
I met an old man who told me that I helped to baptize him “at the beginning of time” at the river baptisms at Gbani. He described the amazing day when people from Gbani and Sagadugu came together to worship and be baptized. He told me that he was the first one to be baptized that day. He also remembered that I came with my uncles: Bill and Johnny Barker. Uncle Bill Barker is a Baptist pastor near Atlanta, Georgia. They remember having people line both sides of the river and baptizing eighty-one (81) people. The “beginning of time” actually was September 2003. It made me feel old to be told that I was baptizing at the beginning of time.
We finally left the pump repairs to Michael. Michael had to purchase or make some of the parts for the borehole pumps. He dropped us off in Singini. Singini is about five miles or so away from Sagadugu away from any major road. In fact, Singini doesn’t have a road to the village. The road is more of a bush trail that is hard to follow unless you know your way. Singini is between two other villages: Nabulugu and Binduri. I haven’t been to either of those villages yet, but our new church will pull people from those villages.
Kenny Lovelace and Jon Morris preached first. They were preaching on the basic beliefs of our faith. I told them that they could pick any topic they wanted to preach on. I covered the rest. I covered faith, grace, prayer, Jesus, salvation, the Armor of God, fighting juju or witchcraft with the parts of the Armor of God (Ephesians 6), and finally baptism. I felt it was important to cover the key points of our faith before baptism so that they would understand what baptism means. We had women haul water in three buckets for us to use for the baptisms. I explained that it is possible to baptize by sprinkling, pouring, or dunking. We explained that it was impossible to find a river at the end of the dry season. It is not the quantity of water required for baptism, but rather what God does during baptism.
We baptized 70 people in Singini under the “preaching tree.” Kenny Lovelace, Ibrihim, and I were the ones baptizing. I grabbed three handfuls of water for “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the son Jesus Christ (Jesu), and the Holy Spirit.” Most of the people bent over in a worshipful way. I felt God’s presence in a strong way while we baptized. Jon Morris anointed each one with oil and prayed for each one after we baptized. Gabriel Alinga from Singini recorded their names in our book. He is a teenager. Someone else gave each person a pair of flip flops from Shiloh Baptist Church for the adults or a bracelet made from Glade Hill Baptist Church or New Hope United Methodist Church.
We preached at Diani tonight. At first, the church was empty except for a few children. I was told that many of the members thought that we would stop on our way from Sagadugu. They waited from 4:00 PM until we got there near 7 PM. We had a full church in a few minutes after our arrival. I took Jon Morris outside to tell him the stories of prior victories. We had a wonderful service that asked the people of Diani to follow the work happening in two of our other villages to start a new faith community. Michael also preached from Daniel.
I’m tired and will need to say more later.
March 17th Thursday
Today was a glorious day for baptisms. Michael dropped us off at Diani so we could preach, teach and baptize. Michael fixed two more boreholes in Sagadugu while we were in Diani. The people lined bowls up in a line for the food distribution. We filled the bowls while people came for the worship service. All of the bowls of food were placed on the altar for us to bless after the service. I saw one of the women who were blind and now can see. She came to be baptized! She lives with her daughter now in Tinguri, a neighboring village.
I preached that it was my hope that Diani would start sharing the gospel with neighboring villages so that the love of Jesus Christ would shine all over Mamprusi land.
We baptized 63 in Diani today. I had expected about twenty or thirty people because 64 people were baptized in November 2010 by another mission team. Now, we have 127 people baptized in Diani. Kenny, Kofi, and I performed the baptisms. Pastor Elisha wrote the names in the book. Jon Morris anointed them with oil and prayed a blessing in their life. We danced and sang after the baptisms in Diani. I noticed that dancers danced the baptismal water around the church in a circle. The day would’ve been a blessing if we stopped after Diani.
Instead, we went to Nabari for baptisms as well. We preached almost the same message as we preached in Singini. We preached about faith, grace, salvation, baptism, prayer, and spiritual warfare. It was important use the preaching to prepare their minds for baptism. We found one of the young teenage boys to write the roll of people being baptized. We were able to videotape a lot of the baptisms. I hope the video captured the joy of baptism. We baptized 59 in the Nabari church.
An amazing thing happened when we went to greet the chief of Nabari. We told the chief that we baptized many in the church. The chief responded that he wanted to be baptized, too. He would become the first chief of the Mamprusi villages that I would baptize. I asked him if he would renounce Satan and the evil forces in his life. I also asked him to confess Jesus Christ as his personal savior. He did. We had him move to the end of his throne. We didn’t want to get his animal skin wet and I didn’t want to sit on his throne. We used some water to baptize him in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Afterwards, we started walking around the village to find Michael and his truck. The children walked around the village with us with every finger holding onto a different child. All of the children would try to hold onto us, but we only had so many fingers and arms to grab. We went around to the hand dug wells that were paid for by our first Rotary matching grant. Michael and his team of volunteers from the village were working on all of the hand pumps. They were able to get the pumps from three hand dug wells working again. Two of the men were from the church who took Michael around to fix the wells. They missed the baptismal service in the church so we decided to baptize them at the well that they just fixed. We pumped water out of the well and baptized both men in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It seemed so right to use the water from the repaired well.
We noticed a Mark II pump on a deep borehole near the school that needs another pipe and rod to reach the water in the dry season. It will take us two hours. We are hoping that we can find time come back to Nabari to help the deep borehole last through the end of the dry season.
It was getting late in the afternoon when we had the well pumps fixed and were able to get on the road to Bolgatanga. We decided that we would buy a motorcycle for Pastor Paul. Pastor Paul has been the faithful pastor of the Bugiya Church and the new church at Guakudow. The motorcycle will belong to the churches. The motorcycle was brand new and we will give it to him on Friday morning. We ended up praying for about seven Muslims who sold us the motorcycle or who put the battery into the motorcycle. They asked for God to bless their businesses. One asked for love. I prayed that the mechanic would be blessed so that he could provide for his family and that the work of his hands would be blessed. One of the men in their twenties asked if he could become a Christian. I recommended that he learn more about Jesus Christ at the Methodist Church or Assembly of God Church in town.
We rushed over to the Ebenezer Methodist Church in town to meet the “district superintendent” of the Bolgatanga District of the Ghana Methodist Church which includes the Walewale area of the West Mamprusi District. It was a short, but productive meeting. Next, we rushed to the Sand Gardens to allow the team to eat and me to meet with the Bolgatanga Goodwill Rotary Club which is being chartered. I encouraged them to continue the effort until they were completely chartered. I answered a lot of questions and told them that many people were wanting them to succeed.
I preached with Pastor Atia in the village of Goo outside of Bolgatanga. I preached with him in that village last year. It is a new church start. I preached on being united in faith, speaking in faith, being snared by the tongue, and much of the usual stuff for a new faith community – John 1, John 3, Romans 8, etc. Kenny and Jon noticed that the adults and kids were not as open as the people in our churches near Walewale. I explained that Pastor Atia is plowing ground so that seeds of faith could be planted at another time. It is tough breaking through in an unreached area. We said goodbye to Mary Kay Jackson and the team from Living Word of St. Louis, Missouri who went out to Goo with us.
March 18, 2011 Friday
We started our day late at 7:30 AM since we didn’t make it back from Bolgatanga until 12:15 AM. Our objective for this morning was to rededicate and sanctify the Bulbia Church. We drove toward the White Volta River from Walewale this morning toward Bulbia. I remembered preaching in Wungu on previous mission trips. I also remembered the road to Bulbia was a difficult one.
I was overcome with tears of joy when I saw the Bulbia Church. God awakened me in December to show me a vision of the damaged church in Bulbia. I was able to see it as if it was a movie. The message from God was that we needed to rebuild this church. I sent Kofi Boakye to the village to find out if anyone still worshipped God in that place. The answer was “Yes!” We went ahead with the plan to rebuild the church walls and roof. The walls were reinforced. The columns for the front and side porches were strong. The roof was well built. I grabbed Kofi and told him that I was so thankful for his work to get the church completed.
I met two young men in their twenties who are preaching in the resurrection church. They are Sam and Elisha. They told me that about seventy members were baptized last Easter by a missionary from Navrongo. The Bulbia Church has about 35 active members right now. We had a full church this morning, but we had Muslims and witches in attendance, too. They had come because we were going to give out food.
We had to move the bags of corn to the back rooms so that the people would concentrate on the message. I quickly realized that we had to consecrate the ground under the church. We prayed over the church and had the church members sing praises to God. It took a lot of work to get the people to move away from the altar and pulpit area so we could preach. I had to “plow the ground” to start preaching. The preaching was very hard because the church was being brought back alive. It will take time for it to become Holy Ground again. I preached as hard and strong as I could with the Help of the Holy Spirit. It was like riding a bicycle uphill without any gears. It is possible, but it was hard.
Jon Morris told me that I “preached like a Southern Baptist preacher.” I told them about the story of God waking me to get me to find a way to repair the Bulbia Church. God wanted to encourage and strengthen them. I asked the congregation why God did it. An old woman said it was by God’s grace! I told them that they had a choice to make. They needed to choose God or Satan. I couldn’t do it for them. Salvation is a free gift, but it is their decision.
I finally was led to ask how many wanted to confess the sinner’s prayer to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. About seventy or eighty raised their hands. They rejected Satan and accepted Jesus into their hearts. We baptized nineteen in Bubia. One of the baptisms was a witch who took off her talisman bracelet. The witch asked Jesus Christ in her life. We baptized her and anointed her with oil so she could be healed of physical problems caused by Satan.
We prayed for many people. Several people who were blind or in pain were healed. We also prayed for God to bless many children. We rested today from about 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM. The second half of our day is about to start. Talk to you soon.
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