August 22, 2001
Dear Hull Congregation and FMC and other Churches:
Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ from the Mission Field in Ghana.
We take the time to write once again. Since coming back to Ghana we have been
extremely busy with
catching up and with the labors here. We were well received by the people of our
fellowship, and immediately
we had much contact with most in the fellowship. First in the way of their desire to
greet us and welcome us
back, and secondly, with visits because of various spiritual and benevolent needs of the
people.
There were many things with respect to the business of having a Mission in a foreign
land that also required
our attention.
The activity that I have apart from our regularily scheduled Bible Studies and
Catechism and worship services
was spent also in a very enjoyable way. In the first place, I have been able to make
many visits to the people
of the Ashaley Botwe Community. These were in the nature of local evangelism
visits. During which time I go
to the homes of the people and introduce myself, tell them where we worship (many already
know that) and
invite them to come to worship with us. At times I read the Scripture or quote it
and have prayers with the
people.
Since our return, as a fruit of the above, and as a fruit of people of our
fellowship’s witness, we have now
coming on a regular basis several new people. To be more specific, we have three
younger mothers with their
children attending. Also we have one new couple with their children coming
regularily to the worship service.
Besides this we have two new young men attending our worship services on a regular
basis. The three
younger mothers have been at both worship services and at the Bible Studies. I have
also visited the
husband, of one in their home and talked with him about the need also to be in worship
with his wife. I will
have to do this more with them all. However, we have found not unusual that either
the man or the woman
comes first for a while before the other also comes to join in worship. This has
happened both ways where the
man was first and then the woman came, and visa-versa. Besides these we have had
four or five individuals
also come to the worship services. We are grateful to God for a continued interest
in our work here in Ghana,
and we know that He alone can gather His people under the preaching. We are content
to be the servants of
our Lord also in this labor.
We are nearing the end of the Heidelberg Catechism for the second time in our preaching
on Sundays. We
have been having the Catechism preaching in the evening services this time as we have gone
through it.
When we are done we will return to having the Lord’s Day sermons in the
morning. We made this adjustment
so that those that came in the evening that were not present in the morning could also
receive the reformed
doctrine systematically as is the case with the preaching of the Catechism. This has
worked well, but it will be
good for us to return to the morning services where more shall benefit from such preaching
of the Reformed
doctrine as it is practically applied by the Catechism to our spiritual lives.
We have had increasing numbers up to the present since we have returned; the morning
services have been
averaging over 115 worshipping with us, and in the evening an average of about 65
present. This later fact is
very pleasing to us as our Lord is impressing upon the hearts of the people a growing need
to be under the
preaching at both worship services. One other thing has been a very positive sign
for us and that is that the
people are much more prompt at coming to the worship services as well the Bible
Studies. We have been
making a point that they should be there for the whole worship service, and now in the
mornings especially
almost all are there ready to worship by the time we begin the worship service.
We have finished the book of Galatians in our Tuesday night Bible Study and this proved
to be a very
interesting study, which led us to more clearly understand the devastating error of works
righteousness and
the blessing of having true liberty in Christ to serve our God with the assurance of
salvation. We are now
taking up the study of I Timothy, which has much instruction for our mission fellowship in
proper church polity,
as well as the doctrines of salvation. This study has gotten off to a very good
start, and we believe we will be
blessed by it. Our attendance in this study is consistently around thirty.
The Wednesday evening study in the past month and a half has been concentrating upon
the Scriptural
teachings of the bond of marriage. This study is very much needed here and because
we have concluded this
study for now on Wednesday evenings, we will have to continue to study this marriage
instruction of the
Scripture by other means with the whole of the fellowship. We average on this
study, which is interpreted into
the TWI slightly more than thirty.
The sickness has been much greater this season especially since our return we have
noticed it. The reason is
that we had heavy rains while we were in the States, and since our return have had
extremely cold weather for
Ghana. It is just in the last two days that the temperatures are starting to climb
back towards normal. What I
mean by cold is that the high during the days is at most low eighties, and the evenings
cool off to the high
sixties. For the people here it is cold and hard to keep warm enough in the evenings
and during the night.
This fact seems to have made the people more susceptible to illness. We have had
much malaria, typhoid,
and even a strain of flu that has run its course through several of our members.
While we were gone Arnie
and Charlotte had some malaria that has been cleared up for almost a month now.
However, I ended up with
Malaria again and had to go through two sets of injections to be rid of it. Also Jan
and I both got the flu, and it
was rather severe for a couple of days. The one Sunday I had both the malaria and
flu and wondered whether
the preaching would go okay, but the Lord provided enough strength to preach both
sermons. The next
Sunday however, was a relief to know that I would be strong to preach. Also during
these times we realize
that our Lord is with us and gives grace sufficient for all our trials. This is
something we continue to
emphasize to the people as well. And by God’s grace they are able to see this
as well.
Finally for this letter, we will mention that we did have time to make two Monday trips
together with the
Bleyenbergs. This is a time of relaxation and an opportunity to visit various
villages and areas in Ghana. We
always enjoy taking the time to meet the people of the villages, to give some rides for a
ways. And to see the
beauty of this land as God has given it great beauty. The trees are so majestic and
the birds and butterflies,
the waterfalls and the “mountains,” all reflect a little of God’s
virtues. Of course we had some experiences on
these trips, like blowing a tire out at night where there was not much traffic. We
were invited to spend the
night in a hut until morning. A young woman and her younger brother offered their
home to us for the night.
However, we were able to get a taxi to stop that had a jack (ours broke while trying to
jack the car), and in a
short while later we were headed back to home. Arnie and I at least were a little
disappointed that we were
not able to spend the night in the hut with the family that dwelt there. But
it was better to be back at the
house. The other trip we retraced the steps that we took when momma Jan and I were
stranded for a night
because we were stuck. This time we took the pickup north of Mpraeso and to the
Volta Lake and along the
lake back south. One thing that impressed me was how did we ever make this trip with
the car. We
thoroughly enjoyed this little outing as well.
So It has not all been work, we have taken some time for refreshment. The Lord
continues to bless us here in
Ghana.
One final remark, we are overjoyed that the FMC and Hull’s Congregation have
worked together to form a trio
and call a second missionary for this field. We pray that the Lord will lead Rev.
Bekkering to take this call.
Perhaps by the time you read this letter you will know if this has happened. We do
trust that the Lord will send
the man of His choosing to us according to His good pleasure. May God sustain
Rev. and Mrs. Bekkering as
they consider this call.
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. Moore and the Mission House |