Leon and Elizabeth gave their greetings and I preached in the very enthusiastic church service -- the dancing and singing and joy are amazing to see. After the hour and a half service, we all went outside and enjoyed a lunch of fast-food meat pies, cokes and coconuts fresh off the tree. A boy shimmied up the tree, picked the coconuts and threw them down to the men waiting to split them with their machetes.
Then we took a walk around the town. There is one main road, going right through the center of town; all the houses are built, somewhat helter-skelter, on each side of the road. The heat was terrific - over one hundred degrees - even the Ghanaians are commenting on how oppressive the heat is. We walked along accompanied by a crowd of children; school was let out early today in honor of our visit. The "Akwaaba" (Ghanaian for "Welcome") that we receive in all these churches is really amazing. They have never been visited by another outside person, and it seems that they feel greatly honored to have visitors from America; we could not be more of a sensation if we were President Obama himself.
Everywhere we've gone, we can see that the Grace Bible Churches are growing. Pastor Peter's radio broadcast, which covers nearly the entire country, has been very effective. The believers, in turn, are bringing others; new people are being saved - we met a few; and the message of the grace of God is spreading. There is an emphasis in every grace church to reach out into the next community, into the next village, and everywhere they are planting churches. We are always being introduced to "the pastor from the next grace church," in the next village farther out, who is planting a little church that 2 years from now will invite us to visit, and have a good-sized congregation. Ghana is truly ripe for the gospel of grace, and Pastor Peter has been leading the grace churches to buy up the opportunities.
Grace For Today has been helping to pay for the radio broadcast in Ghana for the past few years and I'm glad to see that our investment is paying good returns.
Please continue to pray for success in the next two days as we attempt to get our visas to enter Cote d'Ivoire for the ministry next week in Abidjan. I'll be going to the Ivorian embassy in Accra on Thursday. It is difficult. We need your prayers.
Also, pray for this weekend's meetings. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we will be at New Tafo, a new grace church in a neighborhood on the east side of Kumasi. This is a real urban church, surrounded by a diverse neighborhood that includes a large number of Muslims. Pray for effective messages in every meeting -- that we may open our mouths boldly as we ought to speak.
Church service in progress. What you can't see in a still photo is that the whole church is in motion: some are dancing, everyone is singing and lifting up holy hands to the Lord, there are two drummers and a keyboardist, the doors and windows are full of the overflow crowd.
Elizabeth giving her greetings. In all the churches, we speak and then Pastor Peter does a translation into Akan, the language of the Ashanti people. Not many people speak English in the villages, but in Kumasi, most people can understand English and many can speak it fluently. This is Elizabeth's last address in Ghana; she will be flying back to NYC on Friday.
Joseph, the church secretary and one of the key leaders (the tallest man in the pic) in front of the building that belongs to Grace Bible Church, on the main road through Tano-Dumasi.
Pastor Peter and Leon standing over a pot of palm nut oil.
Joseph and Dennis touring the town.
We passed this food stand along the main road through town. This is a typical scene everywhere in Ghana. There are bananas, peppers, cassava, plantains, dried fish, onions, etc. for sale.
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