April 24, 2001
Dear Hull Congregation and FMC and other Churches:
Greetings in the Name of our Lord
Jesus Christ from the Mission Field in Ghana.
Greetings to you all, a lot has
happened since our last newsletter and we will try to relate some of that to you at this
time.
In the first place, we have seen the
completion of our worship building. Throughout the months of February and
March, John and the men kept very busy to
bring the construction project to a conclusion. It was very interesting to see the
different stages of the work on the site. The methods of building here are quite
unique because of the fact that the whole structure, except for the roof, doors, and
windows, is made of concrete block. Then, it is finally plastered after the blocks
are in place. The electrical and even the plumbing are run into the walls by
chipping out a channel in which is laid the conduit or pipe. The channel is
plastered roughly. Finally, the finish plaster goes over this and it all looks very
neat and is serviceable.
The fruit of all the labor, planning,
and the work with the various government agencies came to a relative conclusion
by the end of March and we were able to
worship in our new building on the last Sunday of March. I was happy that we could
do this at this time so that John and Judy could experience the worship in the new
building a few times before they would return to the States on April 13. This
undoubtedly was a great joy for John. It surely was for your missionary and his
wife, as well as for our Mission Fellowship. The people feel very much blessed to
gather together under the truth and to hear that truth proclaimed in such a nice
building. The building is very modest compared to many churches buildings here
in Ghana, and yet because of the finishing and some of the special work by John or under
his supervision it is outstanding in its appearance. It serves very well the singing
of the Psalter numbers and the praise songs, and it is a very pleasant place in which to
preach and to hear the Word proclaimed. We are thankful to our God for this place of
worship, and we are thankful to our churches for it.
We had a dedication program on
Tuesday evening April 3rd and this also was a joy for us. We had the singing of the
Psalms and special numbers by the various
areas’ people who worship with us. We had special numbers from the
Cantonments-Burma Camp area; from the Hatso
area; from the Mission House area; and from Ashaley Botwe area. We had the main speech by
our Missionary on Psalm 127 the first verses, and we had other speeches by John
Bouma. He took time to thank God for the worship place and to thank those that God
used to build the building. We had a speech by the elder representing the Nii of
Ashaley Botwe (the chief). This was rather interesting, and we received a good
welcome to the community. We had a speech by Moses Tsorblewu, who has been a part of
our fellowship from about the third week after we began preaching in Ghana. He spoke
on behalf of the people of our fellowship. All these speeches basically followed the
central theme of giving God the glory and of calling the people to hold fast to the truth
of the Scripture as we take up the worship of God in our new building. It was a
blessed evening of fellowship, which concluded with refreshments and fellowship. We
had also the opportunity to acknowledge some of those that had helped us in special ways,
namely Rev. Gabriel Anyigba, who was present with his whole family, and a sister of our
fellowship Ernestina (who has been with us almost as long as Moses), who donated many
plants and pots and trees for our use on the property. Also, remarks concerning some
of our long time and hard working members of our fellowship were given concerning Moses;
brother Stephen Acheampong; who is our interpreter and does much work with the people,
being a former pastor to many of them; Richard Tetteh, who has been with us from almost
the beginning and is a faithful witness to the truth in the Cantonments-Burma Camp area;
and others. There were a about 100 present for this program. On an evening in
the midst of the week, we believed this attendance to be very good.
The next special happening was the
arrival of Arnold and Charlotte this took place on Wednesday the 11th of April.
We canceled our Wednesday night Bible Study so
that many could go to the airport to welcome this brother and sister
to Ghana. The Bleyenbergs arrived safely
and about 20 minutes early, and they took the trip very well. We gathered their bags
and headed for the parking lot. By then about 35 more people from the Ashaley area
met us in the parking lot and somewhere around fifty of us sang a few Psalters and two
choruses as a way of greeting Arnold and Charlotte to our land. They were
overwhelmed by the nice turnout and the beautiful welcome that they received. We
were very happy that they arrived safely to labor with us for the next year the Lord
willing. We spent much time talking and then finally we all headed to our homes and
bed.
Only two days later on Good Friday we
had a farewell for John and Judy Boumas and a time of welcome for Arnold
and Charlotte. The majority of this time
after the worship service on Friday morning of course was devoted to thanking God for the
faithful labors of John and Judy. There were several small speeches, a giving of a
gift of African clothes by the people to John and Judy, some tears, and many expressions
of love shown to this couple who served the Lord so well during the time that they were in
our midst. There were many special singing numbers by individuals and groups from
the various areas of our fellowship. Many had a number in the native language and
then a Psalter number to sing. This again was a time of much blessedness.
We cannot explain how thankful we are
to God to have had John and Judy in our midst for the first part of our labor. They
were spiritual companions. They were loved brother and sister. They were very
faithful in all of their labors. They were loved by the whole of our
fellowship. John was very faithful in his labors to construct the mission building
and to take care of things that would rob time from our missionary. Judy was a
blessed companion to both Jan and myself. She was always giving and became quite
accomplished on the key-board. She played many numbers for the mission fellowship as
we learned to sing the Psalter. We love them both very much so that it was hard to
say good-bye. However, we also understood this to be the will of God. We
could send them off even with smiles and trust that the Lord will care for them in their
life in Grand Rapids. There were about seventy that came to the airport to sing
Psalters and to say their good byes to John and Judy.
I could write a whole book on John
and Judy concerning our life together under one roof and our labors together as
the Ghana Mission of the Protestant Reformed
Churches in America became a reality by God’s grace. However, I will not,
and instead I will just say “thanks, for all of your love and care, John and
Judy!”
Now, we begin a new stage of our
mission activity and labor in Accra. We have a new building. We have new
volunteers, whom we are getting to know better
and are already beginning to appreciate and love. We look forward to laboring with
Arnie and Char. Soon we will be moving to Ashaley Botwe to live. This, too, we
believe will help us in our labors. The house is nearing completion and surely, by
the end of the month, we expect to be settled in Ashaley. Finally, we will soon be
coming to the United States for a little time. We are grateful that Rev. and Alva
Spriensma may come and fill in for us for awhile. We trust that they shall find this
time a blessing and that they will be a blessing unto the Mission here.
One last thing for this
newsletter: soon the Synod of our churches will be faced with the proposal of adding
another
missionary to labor in this vast field in
Ghana. There is much labor that can and must be done here. It is a necessity
that if we as churches desire to continue this labor in Ghana, then we must make provision
for this labor through men. Your present missionary is getting rather old. The
labor is strenuous and the body is not as strong as it once was. There will be a
time in the not too distant future that he will have to turn the labor over to another man
to carry on. Hence, it is neecessary that the one, who will carry on the work, be on
the field and understand the labor. At least, we must say this from our human point
of view. I would urge us as churches to provide such a man (the Lord willing) to
come and help in Ghana, Africa, with this labor.
Since moving our church services to
Ashaley Botwe we have some new people coming for our worship services and
Bible Studies. The numbers for worship
have been consistently at about one hundred in morning and above fifty in the
evening. Our Bible Studies have also
been consistently in the mid twenties. Our Friday catechism has been in the high
teens. Our Saturday catechism is close
to thirty present. We will continue to labor in the work of evangelism in this area,
but much more important than the numbers is the continuing spiritual growth within the
fellowship. We see evidence of this in the attendance of more complete families, who
worship with us both in mornings and evenings, and in the ability of the people to express
and defend the Scriptural and Reformed truths we hold so dearly.
May the Lord continue to bless our
churches and their labor in the fear of the Lord.
The God of all grace be with you and
bless you richly.
In Christ’s Service,
Rev. Moore and the Mission House |