February 27, 2001
Dear Hull Congregation and FMC and other Churches:
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
from the mission field in Ghana.
It is time to send another letter to you
giving some information about the continuing labor in our fair country of
Ghana. The labor continues at a very fast pace, with all of us keeping quite
busy. The weeks go by in a somewhat
routine way, if anything in a country such as ours is routine.
We have our Lord’s Day filled with the
preaching and the fellowship about the Word of God. This continues to be a
real blessed part of the labor. In the first place, this is true because the
preaching is central to all of the labor here.
In the second place this is true because we
continue to have consistency in the attendance to that preaching: our
morning services for the past month or two continue to be attended by about 100 for
worship and fellowship, and the
evening has been averaging in the low forties. However, this past Sunday we had well
over fifty present for the evening
service, and the attendance was composed mostly of adults and children of families.
Sometimes in the past we might
have had ten children whose parents were not in attendance. We have been stressing
the need to come under the
preaching whenever the Lord calls to worship. We have been emphasizing the need to
hallow the whole of the Sabbath
Day. These admonitions from the Word of God are being heard; and, by grace, there is
a growing awareness of the
calling we have as the children of God in this respect.
In the third place, Sundays are a blessing because
we continue to have new people come and listen to the Word.
While a few leave for a time or more permanently, there are always others to come to hear
and grow in the knowledge of
the Word.
We have had some of our fellowship with us
now close to two years and many for over a year. This, too, has had
a very positive effect upon our labors. For there is a growth in the understanding
of the teachings of Christ in His Word.
That is a rich blessing for us to witness. Again, this growth becomes apparent in
our daily conversations with the people,
in the changes manifest in the lives of the people, and especially in the ability to speak
the truth and defend the truth of
the Word of God in our Bible Studies.
We continue to have weekly Bible Studies on
Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and catechism for young people
every Friday and for the younger children every Saturday. The attendance continues
to be very steady in all of these
studies. The growth in knowledge of the Scripture, and its teaching is a joy to
witness.
We have a growing need for pastoral care in the
fellowship, and this indicates the fact that the people desire to be
led by the Word in their daily lives, and will seek out the Missionary to gain a proper
insight into the Word as it applies
to their particular needs.
All of the above, of course, keeps us busy in
preparation as well as in the actual activities. Further, we have
investigated new housing in Ashaley Botwe for the Missionary, his wife and the
volunteers. We have found such
housing, and we are planning on moving in the middle of April (if not before) into the new
housing. This will be very
good for our labor on the field as we will be much closer to most of our fellowship:
within a couple of minutes drive to
the church building or an eight minute walk from it. Further, the new property has a
large house and a smaller house on
it. The volunteers will have their own quarters, but shall still be on the same
property as the Mission House. This will be
a very nice arrangement to have, and we shall have this housing at a considerable saving
to our churches because of the
fact that Ashaley Botwe is not yet as fully developed as the area in which we now
live. Thus, we have been busy with the
legalities of obtaining this housing on contract for the next years.
The rest of the letter will be spent with news of
our church building, the volunteers, and other such things.
To begin with we will never be
able to express our appreciation to a great enough extent for the churches
willingness to support the idea and support with finances the placement of volunteers to
labor with us on the field. The
support for this part of the labor has been abundant and we pray it shall continue to be
so. But, even more difficult it is to
express our gratitude in an appropriate way to John and Judy Bouma for the time they have
given of their lives, to come
to the field and to labor with us on the field for almost a year and half. The work
on the field has been greatly helped by
their presence and labors. They have been faithful, they have been Christian, they
have been loving of the people, and
they have been tireless in their labors to help with the work here. We cannot put in
words the blessing that they have
been to Jan and myself as well as to the people of our fellowship. We know it will
be extremely difficult for them to put
down this labor for now, but it is the Lord’s will that they return to their calling
in the States.
Judy has been a faithful companion to my wife, a
helper in the home, a source of consolation and love to the
people, and quite accomplished on the key-board to accompany us in our singing during
worship and our other activities.
We are thankful for this.
John has kept very much occupied with getting our
mission building constructed. This has required many patient
hours of labor with the men who are working on the building. It has required
persistence and love. He has done very
well in all of this as God has given him grace to learn new ways of doing things and to be
very understanding with those
with whom he labors. The men who have been doing much of the work have done so very
well. It helps that many of
them will be worshipping in the structure that they are busy building.
The building itself has proceeded towards
completion. John went out today to buy the light fixtures, fans, etc.
The building is receiving the primary coats of paint, and the construction is nearing the
day when we actually shall join
together at the new building for worship. John assures us that by the time that he
leaves it shall be finished, the Lord
willing.
The time of John and Judy’s departure is fast
approaching. Right now the plans are to leave our midst on April
13th. We do not like to think about this too much because they will be very much
missed by all.
However, we do look forward to the arrival of Arnold and
Charlotte Bleyenberg from our Edgerton, MN
congregation. The labor will be a bit different for them. There will not be a
building to construct, and the driving will be
less with respect to picking up people for worship. However, there will be plenty to
keep them busy, and they will be
part of the next step in the mission labors here. We will grow to love them as
we have John and Judy, and we are sure
that we will appreciate their labors in our midst. We look forward with great
anticipation to their arrival here. May God
grant them the assurance of His blessing as they take up the labor here in
Ghana.
We are thankful that our Foreign Mission Committee and
Calling Church have decided to propose to Synod 2001
that a second missionary be called to labor here in Ghana. Such is very much needed
if we are to continue to develop the
field here, and consistently bring the Word of God to the people of Ghana. Arnold
and Charlotte, the Lord willing, can
help much with the second missionary family coming to Ghana. May our churches see
the need and also support this part
of the work here in Ghana as they have all the labor in the past.
Finally, I would like to take time to thank our
Hope, Redlands, CA, congregation for the generous gift toward
covering the cost of the wall about the property for the security of the mission
building. Also, we want to thank all the
congregations and our schools that have given gifts of books, Bibles, or even gifts of
money for the needs on the field.
And even more we want to thank you all again for the
support by way of prayer and letters and emails, etc. This
helps us much in our labors on the field.
We do look forward to our furlough and spending a few
weeks in the States, but we will miss the labors while we
are home. We are grateful to Grandville that they have released their pastor to come
and carry on the work here while we
are in the States. We believe that this will be a blessed experience for Rev. and
Mrs. Audred Spriensma and family.
May the Lord continue to bless our churches and their
labor in the fear of the Lord. God be with you and
strengthen you and make His face to shine upon you. Amen.
In Christ’s Service, ,,
Rev. Richard Moore and the Mission
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