Newsletter of August 2000
Dear Congregation of Hull and our other congregations:
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are thankful to God that the
our calling church now has their
own minister again. As this union made by our God between church and pastor begins,
it is our prayer that the union
shall be in the service of the glory of God and a blessing to both Rev. Key and the Hull
congregation. We look forward to Rev. Key's advice and counsel in our labors as
well.
We have been again blessed in the labor with God's people here in the land of
Ghana. This as we have had the
opportunity to preach and teach the people from the Word of God. The continued
growth in the knowledge of the things of the kingdom of heaven becomes obvious to us in
the daily conversations with the people and in our Bible Studies.
The Bible Studies do prove to be an excellent means for instruction of the saints
here. And the people here are
like the Bereans to a large extent, they rejoice in searching the Scriptures and rejoice
to see that that which we teach is
in harmony with the Scripture. But further when shown that a certain thing is taught
by the Lord in His Word then they
desire to bow down before that Word and bring their thoughts and lives into conformity
with it. And they seek the grace
of God to do this. The Bible Studies have therefore become an important part of the
work here and of the life of God's
people here. This is evidenced in the good attendance that we have, and the
active discussions that take place. While
during the discussions various views of the things or doctrines are brought out we find
time to give instruction as to the
proper teaching of the Word and the people have ears that by God's grace are open to hear
this instruction. So that we
find that they also remember the things that they have been taught and are able to use
that by God's grace to convince
others of the truth. We now are averaging over twenty-five present at each of the
Studies on Tuesday at the Mission
House and at Ashaley Botwe in the unfinished house in which pastor Acheampong lives with
his family. We also have
been having over ten present for the young people's study on Fridays. This has been
a special joy to be able to instruct
these young people in the truth of Scripture as it is set forth in the Heidelberg
Catechism. We are presently treating the
Lord's Prayer. Some of these young people have been at these Bible Studies for near
to a year now and have been
present at almost all of the studies.
This reminds me that there have been people worshipping with us and coming to the
Bible Studies for a year. A
few of the very first ones to worship with us have been faithfully here for that whole
time. We are filled with gratitude to God for this blessing as well. Needless
to say they have come to know much about us, and have enjoyed the spiritual
growth that comes with faithfully coming under the truth of the Word.
The catechism classes for the younger children also are a blessing for your
missionary and as many of you know
we now instruct twice on Saturdays. In the morning we are at Ashaley Botwe and have
around fifteen regularily come
under the instruction there. And in the afternoon we have instruction at the Mission
House we have a fluctuating
attendance here, as high lately as twenty - three , but also as low as nine.
The core group of these children has been
here for most studies throughout the past year. The others come and go and come
again. But many are growing in the
truths of sacred history. We are using the Juniors books for this study.
The Psalter is used for singing at all of these meetings as well as for our
worship services. Again we rejoice in
the blessing that the Psalter brings to God's people as we sing these Psalms. Many
of our fellowship have their favorite
Psalter number and there are some that are favorites of the whole group. Psalter
numbers 360, 188, 252, 140 second
tune, 203, 212, and 290 are some of the favorites here. But there are many more.
Our worship services continue to be the heart of the ministry here of
course. And the continuing interest in the
worship of God is a cause of great gratitude for us. The numbers continue to
increase by small amounts as each month
goes by. And we have had two Sundays in this last month where we have had near to
100 present in the morning to
worship with us. Probably even more encouraging to us, and something that we really
rejoice in, is that we have had at
least two evening services that numbered over 50. This we find encouraging for
it is the fruit of a growing
understanding for the proper use of the Lord's Day by those of our fellowship here.
Another thing that we rejoice in is
that there are more families that come together as families to our worship services.
At the present time one case is
outstanding. Maybe some of you remember little Daniel that was close to death when
we took him to the hospital and by the grace of God he lived. He is the little one
that had all sorts of fetish ropes tied around his body, but was dying. You may
recall that the father had not worshipped in church but still held to a lot of the fetish
ways. Well his wife and Daniel kept coming to worship and about a little over a
month ago the father came to worship with us. He has been at most worship services
since then and at the Bible Studies in Ashaley as well. It is our prayer that God
will grant that this
family may continue to faithfully worship with us for their blessing and strength and unto
the glory of the God of our
Salvation. In our worship we are now treating the Lord's Prayer, which means we are
nearing the end of the Heidelberg
Catechism for the first time. We are convinced that systematically bringing the
truths of the Scripture under the instructor of the catechism is a rich blessing for those
that have had such a precious little instruction in the doctrines of the Scripture.
Many times there are references made to a sermon during the course of our Bible Studies or
daily
conversations, and the references are made in harmony with this instruction.
As you may have figured out we have something going on every day except Monday,
and often these are taken
up with church related business that needs our attention as well as our caring for
visitors, etc. One of the things that
have filled our extra time this last month, was for John: the final removal from the
property (that we had desired to
purchase but could not) the things like extra gravel and rock and had to find people
willing to purchase the water pipe,
etc. that we were going to use there. The next-door neighbors bought much of
the extra gravel and the water line that
we had laid right past one of their pieces of property. Thus we did not have to dig
it up and the gravel we did not have to pay for trucking nor find a place to store it
until we got new property.
On my part I have met some six times with the chief of Ashaley Botwe over the
past three weeks in order to try to
get some property in this area to establish our worship services there. This is very
interesting but also it tries the
patience. What could be done in three or four days has now taken some three weeks
and will probably stretch out for
another week or two. However, the protocol takes time, and even the chief said
"if he were a foreigner and seeking this
property he would have given up." But he says that he can see by our patience
that we really are concerned to help the
people of God by opening their minds to the Word. When the chief does decide on what
parcel of land that we can use
for our church, and if it also meets our approval then the lawyer will make sure we can
get the legal title to the property.
Which in this case should not be too hard once the chief has spoken. Further we will
have to have the Foreign Mission
Committee and the calling Church also confirm that this will be the best for our labors
here. Both of the ruling bodies
have been keeping in close contact with us as we have worked to find acceptable
property. When this is all done we
can finalize things and begin. However, if this does not work out we have also been
looking at several other pieces of
property in different areas. One of which would probably also serve our needs if it
is legally obtainable.
Well there are other things that we are quite excited about for example the
continuing response to our Radio
Program, etc. But we will have to write about this another time.
We send our greetings to you all in the name of Christ. The Mission House
continues to be very thankful for all
of your prayers and emails and letters. Keep us in your hearts and bring us before
the throne of God's grace in your
prayers. We pray that God may continue to bless you all richly.
Pleasenote we have a different cell phone number: 024 27 9459
In Christian Love
From the Missionary and
the Mission House,