A New Year, A New Mission, A New Blog

Here's the link to our new (and permanent!) blog. 

Come on over and check it out to see the wonderful work God is doing in the Northern Region of Ghana, West Africa.

Merry Christmas and Taali Mmbo

Dear Beloved in Christ,

The leadership and entire membership of Shalom Baptist Church-Ghana, wishes"MERRY CHRISTMAS"to the Ghana Team in the US and to all our ministry partners. We send you special greetings and love in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We will not forget our dear brethren in First Baptist Church (FBC) Rockwall,TX. We also extend our sincere greetings to Girls in Action (GA) of FBC,Rockwall for their generous contributions to our missions,and to our brothers and sisters in Koinonia Sunday School of FBC Rockwall, we thank you for your generous contributions to make the Widow Care maize farm project possible.

To the leadership of Lakepointe Church TX,we send our season greetings and say thank you for the impact you are making in the Northern part of Ghana.

Finally but not the least, to the IHH leadership and members,we wish you "MERRY CHRISTMAS". You are an outstanding and distinguished partner in this ministry in the Northern Ghana. We salute you and say in our local dialect "TAALI MMBO" (thank you very much) for your hardwork,committment and generous support to the promotion of Missions and Evangelism,Education,Relief to the Widows and Orphans,Good News Club (Children ministry) etc.

We thank the Lord Almighty for seeing us through to the end of 2011, It is our hope and prayer that 2012 will be a year of breakthrough in our lives as missionaries and evangelists. As we celebrate the festival of Christmas let us not forget to share the Love of God with the people around us, and also look for every possible means to spreading the Good News to the lost.  Remember what the Bible says in Luke 19:10, that is the purpose of Christmas, so let us celebrate with a Purpose.

Thank you and may the Favor of the Lord and His Grace be yours during this season and the years ahead of you.

Pastor Mohammed(Pastor for Missions,SBC/IHH).

Shalom Preschool Update

Shalom Preschool children enjoying their lunch, which is sprinkled with plant-based nutritional supplements from Manna Relief.

Mariam lost her father when she was one year old.  The widow being poor could not provide proper diet to Mariam which affected her growth and health,because she was beginning to suffer malnutrition.  Thank God for Mariam because of this nutritional supplement. As you can see her in the picture for yourself, Mariam is now very healthy.

Update from Preschool Administrator, Pastor Ziblim Mohammed

I was able to conduct a thorough investigation about the pre-school children who are feeding on the nutritional supplement. Their parents confessed to me that they have seen positive change in their children's health due to the provision of the nutritional suplement. Most of them told me that their children used to be sick with various deseases and sickness but when they started taking the nutrition those sickness disappeared and the children are now growing healthy.

Moreover, many of these children were been taking to hospital frequently for treatment, but now is not so they visit hospital once a while. And Cheryl, today as I also take a close look at these children while they were in class, I can see all of them looking very healthy. This is not common among the children who don't take the nutritional suplement. The suppelement makes the difference in the lives of these pre-school children from the other children in the community.

Thanks to the dornors for making this difference in the lives of these poor children.

Maize Harvest

We thank God for the 20 bags of maize that was recently harvested in Tarikpaa Village by the members of Shalom Baptist Church.  This maize will be stored and the distributed to needy widows during the lean season.

If You're Happy and You Know It...

The Groundnut (Peanut) Farm Harvest

Groundnuts from Tarikpaa village

The harvest of groundnuts from this year's crop

This past summer the members of Shalom Baptist Church planted groundnuts on land that had previously been planted with maize.  While the harvest was not as plentiful as hoped for, due to drought conditions, we are still very thankful for the bounty.  The groundnuts will be stored and then distributed to needy widows and orphans during the lean season. 

We want to give a special thanks to the Koinonia Sunday School Class of First Baptist Church of Rockwall, Texas, for their generous donations that helped plant and harvest the groundnuts.



International Heritage Academy

The first class of preschoolers with teachers Suyuhini and Drucilla. 

Drucilla teaching them English

Drucilla distributing nutritional supplements from Manna Relief that were provided by funds raised by Ghana 2011 team members and donations from generous supporters.  Thank you!

The preschoolers enjoying a nutritious lunch.

Two years ago, the leadership of Shalom Baptist Church in Tarikpaa had a vision to start a preschool at the church so that they could reach out to the predominantly Muslim village that they live in. Last week, the preschool opened its doors!



Good News Children's Congress

This past weekend the Annual Good News Children's Congress was held at Heritage Baptist Church in Kushibo village, a remote village located in the Northern Region of Ghana, West Africa. 

Many of the children come from far away so the church hired a tractor/trailer to transport them to the church.

Futbol clubs are a way to reach the students for Christ.

Beautiful Children of the North

One of the greatest joys of spending time in the villages of the Northern Region of Ghana is meeting and playing with the children.  They are full of life and joy and love.

A Special Thank You

If you read the previous post, you know that our team had the privilege of visiting with and serving the Women of PKatinga, otherwise known as the KPatinga Witch Camp.

As we were getting ready to leave, they blessed us with a song of thanksgiving for our coming and helping.

The Women of KPatinga

Some say they are witches.  I call them the Women of KPatinga.

In the culture of the Northern Region there are many things that are difficult for a Westerner to understand.  The custom of banishing a woman from a village is one of them.  My understanding is that in order to banish a woman (I've never heard of a man being banished, but maybe that happens, too), there has to be two witnesses that accuse her of being a witch, meaning that the witness either saw, felt or dreamed something strange about the woman.  Her case is then presented to the local village chief and then to the regional chief.  If both men agree to the banishment, then she is labeled as a witch and sent away, never to return.  Other villages also shun her and she may eventually find her way to a Witch Camp.  KPatinga is one such camp.

The women of KPatinga have a landlord who is considered a witchdoctor.  It is said that he has the power to exorcise them of their witchcraft.  He does have power, that is for certain.  He has the power to do whatever he wants and the power to make decisions about food distribution, etc.  The women are held captive by his control over them.

This was our second visit to KPatinga.  Last year we visited there and were received with great enthusiasm and gratitude.  The women there told us that our visit brought value to them.  It was a humbling and life changing experience.

On this year's visit, we brought cooking pots and a few bags of maize and rice (two items we were told they needed).  Our wonderful friends at World Vision helped us purchase, transport, and distribute the grain. 

Once again we found the women to be gracious and welcoming. As we were preparing to leave, a small group of the women approached us and began singing a song of thanksgiving for our visit.  The only thing better than hearing them sing was the joy and happiness in their eyes.

Here are a few pictures of the grain and rice distribution.

It started raining right after we arrived, so we took shelter in a local school that was built by World Vision so that the granddaughters of the Women of KPatinga could be educated.  These women are waiting to receive their portion of the grain and rice.

42 bowls for 42 women

Picking up their bowls of rice

Several of the granddaughters of the KPatinga Women live in the camp.  They have a moral obligation to help their grandmothers survive.  Some of them are shunned also because of the stigma attached to them. 

We want to express our gratitude to the donor from the US who provided the cooking pots, grain and rice for distribution to the KPatinga Women.

Ghana Mission 2011 - video by J. Pelegreen, team member

We are in Belgium!

We were very sad to say good-bye to part of our team today today as some of us continued on to Belgium for more mission work and some of us went back to the USA.  For the next four days, the Belgium team will be working with Kyle and Amy Goen, church planters from Tennessee, in an effort to help them in their ministry.  We will also get to do some sightseeing and have a fun day in Paris, France at the end of the week.

Our home this week is a YWAM guesthouse in Brussels, Belgium.

Today we celebrated 18th birthday of team member, Lissy Olivares.  Happy Birthday Lissy!  Tomorrow we will celebrate the 16th birthday of Jackie Castro. Happy Birthday Jackie!

Tuesday in Agobogbloshie

Today the team visited Agbogbloshie, a village just outside Accra, which is home to many Dagomba people.  Many times this village is referred to as Sodom and Gommorah because of the awful living conditions there.

But there is hope in Agbogbloshie!  As you wind down the sewer strewn streets you will see a small Baptist church tucked between chop shops and shantys.  Inside that church are some of the most joyous people on earth.  They love the Lord and serve Him with gladness, regardless of their circumstances.

Our time with our friends at Agbogbloshie was priceless and we are thankful to be able to encourage them in some small way.

Monday in Mahamakrom

After a delayed flight out of Tamale, we finally arrived in Accra around 11:45am.  Our driver took us to drop our things at the guesthouse and then we went to a small, remote village about 2 hrs from Accra, named Mahamakrom.  The story behind this village and it's children is nothing short of amazing.

About five years ago, two American women from Texas found this village while on a church planting mission with a Ghanaian friend.  The school was in shambles and there was no water or electricity in the village.  God spoke to these ladies and they listened and a ministry to the children of Mahamkrom began.

Seeing this village and these children was very encouraging.  The different in their lives are remarkable. Only God could have woven all of these people and all of these good things together for His purposes.

Click here to read more about God's work in Mahamakrom.

Closing Ceremony at Shalom Baptist Church

Sunday was a special day for the American and Ghanaian teams, along with the members of Shalom Baptist Church of Tarikpaa village.  It was our last day to see them before we returned to the US. We enjoyed a wonderful Closing Ceremony that included special music by the talented Shalom Voices Choir and a message from Pastor Mohammed.  There were lots of smiles and lots of dancing.

Our Shalom friends gifted us with beautiful beaded bracelets, shea butter, clothes and shoes as a way of expressing their gratitude for our visit.  We struggled to say our good-byes and we took tons of pictures to remember them by.

One of the highlights of the day was presenting a Bible to a young man named Mishael.  The Bible had been sent with us by one of his friends in the US who was on a previous mission team.  He was so overwhelmed that he was at a loss for words.  He told us that he had just been praying about that very thing.  He had been asking God for a Bible and here it was!  His former Bible was falling apart and he did not have the funds for a new one.

We spent Sunday afternoon visiting with friends who dropped by the guesthouse and packing up our things for an early Monday morning departure to Accra.

Leaving our Ghanaian friends and loved ones is hard on them and on us.  We have grown very close to them these past few weeks and some of us having know them for several years.  We know that we will stay close in heart and possibly even be able to communicate via email, but face-to-face is so much better.

Please continue to pray for Pastor Mohammed and the members of Shalom Baptist Church.  They are doing a great work in the Northern Region.  They have planted several village churches and according to Pastor Steven, their head pastor, they are willing to go even further to reach the "uttermost".  We thank the Lord for the opportunity to engage with them in God's Kingdom work.

Navrongo Visit

Quick update:  Yesterday we had the incredible opportunity to travel to Navrongo to make contact with an unengaged people group, the Kasena.  Their lives are very difficult as they live without water and electricity.  Their area is very dry, so they also struggle getting crops to grow.  But somehow, someway, they survive.  And they need Jesus.  Our prayer is that God would direct those, including us, in how to reach them.  Would you join us?

Today is our last day of ministry in Tamale.  A few of the team members will be going to volunteer at a local children's home and the others will be going back out to do village evangelism.  Tonight we are being hosted for dinner by a friend of mine in Tamale.

Thank you again for your prayers and for all of your support.  Everyone is doing well and no one is ready to leave here. 

Miss Mary Steele - A Modern Day Hero of the Faith

Last night after dinner, we had the incredible privilege of meeting and visiting with Miss Mary Steele.  Mary is from the UK and is an 80 something year old Wycliffe missionary who has lived in Ghana for 49 years.  She is a quiet, gentle, soft-spoken woman who doesn't like attention.  She is what anyone around would probably call ordinary.  But Mary is no ordinary person.  She's a modern day hero of the faith.

Mary came to Ghana to help translate the Bible into tribal languages.  In order to do that, she had to first go live in the village, build a relationship with the people and then learn the language herself.  After that, she had to develop a written alphabet, which included all the sounds (blends, tenses, etc) made by each letter.  Only then, could she and local tribe members begin translating the Bible into Konkomba, their heart language.  The first translation of the old testament took 17 years!  Can you imagine the dedication and perseverance it took for this? And that's not all!  She did it a second time with another tribal language and then she went back and translated the Old Testament for both languages.  She also helped write Bible stories, grammar books, and heathcare and hygience books in their languages.

Here's some information that will give you a glimpse into the impact Mary's work had on the Konkomba people:

In the first four years:

• 2,325 communities set up listening groups
• 96,915 people joined them
• 6,375 of these believed
• 2,931 people bought Bibles!

After hearing her story, we asked Mary if she had any words of advice for us as short-term missionaries.  She said, "Just remember.  God has a plan for each person and being here is part of his plan."

Mary is truly an amazing woman who has been one of God's witnesses to a lost and dying world.

 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

World Vision and the Witch Camp

Today we will be partnering with World Vision to serve the women of the KPatinga Witch Camp.  These old women are not witches.  They are just like you and me.  They have been shunned from their villages for various reasons and have made their way to this village to live with other women.  The journey to the camp is long and bumpy, but nothing compared to the journey they have made to just survive. 

Please pray with us for these precious women.   Pray for their health and for their well-being.Pray that we can be an encouragement to them in some small way and that our visit will be more about them and less about  us.

We are all looking forward to our time at KPatinga and hopefully we can write about it when we return.

Tuesday Storytelling

Today was an incredible today for the team as they joined their Ghanaian teammates and translators in going into a mud-hut village and engaging villagers (mostly Muslim) in Bible storytelling. Many of the villagers prayed to receive Christ and others said they would think about it.  One team member even got to tell the Panorama story to the village Imam, who respectfully listened and politely declined to follow Christ. 

Chris and Jay, two of our teammates, traveled a couple of hours north with our Ghanaian friends and ministry partners, Baba Elijah and Paul Napari to the Navrongo area to make  initial contact with leaders of the Kasena tribe, an unengaged people group.   The entire team will have the opportunity to travel there and back on Friday.  We are all very excited about the incredible opportunity that God has placed before us to share Jesus with those who have never heard.  Please pray for the Kasena tribe leaders and villagers to know Jesus.

Please continue to pray for the health and safety of the team.  Also, pray for the villagers in Tarikpaa who will hear the Gospel tomorrow as we participate in more village evangelism.

We do our small part.  He does the big part...

Max Lucado - Live Out Your Life