Headed Home

[Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana] Our evangelistic project has just ended. God allowed us to share the gospel in 138 venues and witness 38,093 individuals indicate their first-time decision for Christ. Even though these numbers are staggering we have been reminded that there are 15,000 unreached villages here with a Muslim population in excess of 5 million people. Therefore the unfinished task ahead of us is both daunting and demanding.

The grace of God has been evident in all our work. The fact that He organized for our first-ever medical clinic was amazing. Unknown to the American team was the fact that this project would be conducted in a Muslim dominated region of Ghana with the potential of turmoil and chaos. The clinic, however, provided us with the perfect platform to demonstrate the genuine love of Jesus Christ. More than once we heard the villages proclaim that they could not believe the fact that we were freely treating Muslims without any reservation. These people had been taught that Christians were hostile and threatening. Perhaps this is a sad indictment upon some who preceded us. We are so thankful that God used our team members to show a gentle and honest picture of the grace and love of Jesus Christ. Through these medical clinics we offered medical assistance to 984 people who, otherwise, would have nearly certainly gone without help.

One sad, yet victorious story bears mentioning. In Saturday’s clinic, there was a particular old man and his wife who traveled a great distance to be seen by our team. The man complained of fatigue and weakness. He was seen by the doctors and referred to the regional hospital. However this man also sat and listened to the Gospel message as it was shared during the clinic to which he responded by inviting Jesus into his life. Although the man was fatigued, he placed his trust in Jesus and a great change in his countenance was evident. We received word on Wednesday (4 days later) that this man had died. This worn out body had succumbed to death, but thanks be to God that he is now at home with Jesus! This certainly served as a reminder that we have the responsibility and privilege of sharing the Gospel with all those in our paths.

It is good to see that God is always a step ahead of us. On Tuesday night Sammy Lartey informed us that he had decided that we would complete our school ministry on Wednesday rather than Thursday. Although his reason was so that we could rest on Thursday in preparation for the long trip early Friday morning, we learned today (Thursday) that all the area teachers have been on strike. Sammy said this morning, “I had no idea, but I know God told me to bunch the schools together for Wednesday.” God is always a step ahead!