First: Nsuta, a more prosperous village just off the main road. The church has its own building, nicely decorated with flags and even linoleum. This is the only church we've visited in Ghana that has a bulletin printed up for its service. The members invited many friends and the building was packed with visitors from all the churches in the village and surrounding territory. I preached on being a faithful Ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ from 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.
After the service, one of the church leaders invited us to his home and served us a lunch consisting of a meat pie with tuna fish, and a diet Pepsi. Then the man who owns the house took us for a walk around the neighborhood. He showed us a cocoa tree and picked one of the pods and split it open, and showed us how cocoa grows and is processed. We also saw banana trees. When we left they gave us enough fruit – bananas and oranges – to last us for a week. They are very sweet and generous believers in this church; and like most of the Ghanaian grace churches, they are growing.
Dennis, Peter, and Leon with church leaders in Nsuta***********
Then we took a short drive over some beautiful mountains to another town. This one straddles the main highway so all the traffic – cars, tro-tros (mini-buses), and trucks – constantly roars through. The congregation in Kona has no church building; they meet in a home set back a little from the highway, somewhat like a truck-stop in America. They minister out of a Voda Phone booth: a small store where a brand of cell phones is sold. Next to the store, they have a very tall mast with four loudspeakers on top; basically, they blare the grace message out to the whole village through their powerful sound system.I was invited to preach and I spoke on our need for salvation and gave an invitation for the listeners to trust in Christ. Our congregation was anyone who happened to be on the road, or walking by, or sitting at their booths across the road, as well as a group of the ever-present children in Ghana. I could see some 30 or 40 people scattered out across our line of vision, and who knows how many others were home listening on the super sound system!
The grace church in Kona is small, just a handful of believers, but they are a bold and resilient group. I recognized several from our last trip two years ago and a few new ones have joined since then.I have noticed in both of our trips to Ghana that Pastor Peter seems to have a special love for this church. It is the smallest church that we visit, and has the most unusual mode of ministry, but you just have this little group when you meet them.
Tomorrow, Saturday, I start the day early, with another 5:30AM live radio broadcast with Pastor Peter. I love doing radio: I've been doing a weekly broadcast in NYC for 25 years. But these early AM broadcasts are a little difficult – no yawning allowed on-air!
We will have the rest of the day off until evening. We plan to take a trip around Kumasi, specifically to the Kejetia (ke-je-TEE-a) market, said to be the largest market in West Africa. You can buy anything there, from toothpaste to a bathtub, new and used clothing and shoes, etc. It is a maze of small booths with twisting "aisles". You have to orient yourself by looking for a tall building or antenna outside the market area so you know where to head to get out. Some people are afraid to go into the market, for fear they'll never find their way out; it really is that intimidating.
In the evening we start a new phase of our ministry in Ghana - the first of our open-air, evening evangelistic meetings: meetings held in a clearing in the center of villages, with music and dancing, and then preaching in English and Akan. We'll be doing six of these over the next week.
Prayer needs: That Elizabeth's cold or allergies will get better, she didn't feel well today. That the radio broadcast will be well done. This is an important part of the Ghana grace church's ministry and I want to "open my mouth boldly as I ought to speak." That our evening meetings will clearly present the gospel of grace and that people will respond for salvation.
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