Our Farewell Service in Ghana

Can it be that more than two weeks have gone by since we landed in Ghana? We've been in 9 different grace churches - we've had a pastors' conference, 4 radio broadcasts, 15 services. Sometimes it feels like we've been here for weeks, and sometimes it feels like we've just arrived. And today we had to say goodbye with sadness to our brethren in Ghana.

Last night we had an open air meeting in New Tafo, a section of Kumasi. It was my turn to preach and I preached the gospel from Romans 1 - "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes..." The audience was unusually attentive and I had about a half hour to carefully explain God's way of salvation. There were many people, both in the audience and standing on the street in front of the meeting place. I heard that several people, as many as a dozen, registered their interest with some of the church people. They will be followed up soon by the visitation teams. We pray that each will be saved.

We had the farewell service this morning in the new church in New Tafo, pastored by Pastor Richard who is Pastor Peter's son. The building was full; the music and singing were especially enthusiastic.


I preached on Paul's strategy for spreading the gospel as found in his letter to the Colossians. Isn't it interesting that in Acts 19, we read twice that all those in Asia heard the word of the Lord, and yet Paul writes to Colosse, a town in Asia, a few years later that many of the Asians had never seen his face -- Col 2:1!

Paul's earlier missionary journeys meant going from town to town; Paul himself preaching in each town as in Acts 13-14 in Galatia. Somewhere along the line, Paul realized that there were too many towns, and that he would not have enough time to reach all the towns of the world. And so, in Asia he adopted his new strategy. He stayed in Ephesus for three years, and trained ministers, men and women, evangelists and pastor-teachers and sent them throughout Asia -- to Colosse, Hierapolis, Laodicea, Miletus, Troas, etc., and in 3 years "all in Asia heard the word of the Lord."

Pastor Peter is applying the same principle in Ghana, and we are applying it in New York City.

We had a blessed time in the service.

After the message, we received gifts from the grace believers -- Leon and I each received a large -about 5' x 9'- piece of hand-woven kente cloth, and we were wrapped in them like chiefs or village elders. Everyone enjoyed the scene and many, many pictures were taken of us and with us in our traditional Ghanaian garb.

It was a wonderful ending to our two weeks of ministry in Ghana.

Now, we're packed and ready to leave at 3:30 tomorrow morning for Cote d'Ivoire. I'm not sure of how the trip will go and of how the ministry will go there. Please be praying on Monday for a safe and speedy trip to the Ivory Coast, and for the rest of the week: that our meetings may be done well and that we may receive a good hearing for the message of grace.