| Ghanaian Mission Field Newsletter
Rev. R. Moore, PRCA Foreign Missionary Private Mail Bag #15 Madina-Accra, Ghana, West Africa |
e-mail: rgmo@AfricaOnline.com.gh |
Dear Hull Congregation and FMC and other Churches: Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. John and Judy and Momma Jan have kept busy as well. The women are always baking and setting up our church room for a Bible Study or for the worship services. They make sure there are Psalters and Bibles that are ready for the studies and for worship, of course Judy continues to play the keyboard for our worship services and this requires some practice. Jan keeps order and directs most things in the home with a lot of help of Judy. For our two families this has worked out well. John and Judy and Jan and I have been able to get along together so well, and it has been a blessing for both of us. However, the FMC has instructed John Bouma to investigate the cost and availibilty of a separate house for the volunteers, if the Lord is willing to provide this for us. This may make it easier for some to consider the call to be volunteers, knowing that you will have a separate domain of your own to live in. We do need volunteers for the work, a great deal of the burden of daily things has fallen upon John to take care of, this is the only way that I have time to get all the things done in connection with the labors of the gospel here. A good share of John’s time has been taken preparing the property that we have obtained in Ashaley Botwe. He has been working with respect to the preparation of the land, cleaning off the bush and lot, and spending time in working with the FMC and Hull Council in investigating the possibility of a church structure on the land. The materials of the temporary structure will all be put to use on the new property and building in whichever way we proceed. He also has been busy getting estimates so that our Foreign Mission Committee and Hull’s Council can make wise decisions as to how we should proceed here in Ghana with respect to these things. One thing is for sure and that is we need a place to worship other than the house. This past month we have had an average attendance of about 85 in the mornings and 50 in the evenings. The largest Sunday morning gathering was this past Sunday with about 115 present in the morning and our largest evening gathering was 64 or 65. Thus our house is full to the brim so to speak. The Bible Study at the Mission House also has steadily been increasing in size so that we had 38 for the study this past Tuesday. This we do not expect each week but the attendance both here at the Mission House and at Ashaley Botwe are averaging near thirty present at each meeting. The Bible Studies have been very beneficial to the people and to the labors here in Ghana. It is a time to go into a detailed study of the Scripture and at the same time to have many questions asked and answered about the distinctives of our Protestant Reformed faith based on the Scriptures. The result is a clearer understanding of the truth that God has been pleased to give to us in the Scriptures and that we have been given the grace to bring here to the people. You would be amazed at the depth of some of the questions, and would be pleased to see some of the people go to the Creeds for answers, and then turn to the Scriptures that set forth the truth that is found in the Creeds. The result is that there is an active searching of the Scripture to know what we ought to believe and how we ought to see that applied in our lives. We find these times of study a great blessing for our Mission House as well. We are being built up in the faith along with the people here. To God we give the glory for all of this. We were also blessed with the opportunity this past week to preach on the last Lord’s Day of the Heidelberg Catechism. We have preached once now through the catechism on the field here in Ghana. There are some of the members of our fellowship that have heard all of the Lord’s Days preached with the exception of the first few Lord’s Days. One of our sisters of the fellowship said only a few weeks ago that when she began worshipping with us there were ten souls in attendance. A couple of our brothers could remember when there was even less than that. But all of us would say that we were also richly blessed under the Word of God in those days as well. However, now it has pleased God that more can hear the truths of the Scripture proclaimed in our midst and next week we start through the Heidelberg Catechism once more, and we believe that it shall be a means for continued understanding in the truth, and shall serve our up building and blessing. It is our plan to preach the Heidelberg Catechism in the evenings this time through, thus those that were not able to worship with us in the mornings in the past year will also receive the preaching of the Scripture in this systematic way. However, it has pleased us a great deal to see that God has led more and more of the members of our fellowship to be present at both services, and we pray that this continues to improve. We believe that it shall. For the people are with growing understanding seeing the need to use the whole of the Sabbath in a special sanctification including the coming under the preaching of Christ through His servant twice on the Lord’s Day. This will continue to receive emphasis here in the land of Ghana, where many of the people live from day to day for their sustenance. Our radio program continues to bring us into contact with others. We usually have about twenty minutes of exposition of the Scripture with the remaining time to take calls of listeners of the program. Some evenings we get one call, some three or four calls. However, we also have people in various areas of the city say that they listen to our program. They say this to myself or to John as we are in various parts of Accra occasionally, and they state this to the people of our fellowship in the areas where they live. Some have even had suggestions to give our members about the format of the program. Basically these remarks have been do not be too concerned about the number of calls, because we enjoy listening to the “preaching” of the Word. We do like to have calls however, because it assures us that we are being heard and it enables us to see whether the distinctions that we are making in the expounding of the truth are heard. By the grace of God we have found that this is decidedly so. The callers are able to relate their calls directly to that which we have brought in the program. This past week a caller from the area of Tema called to encourage us to “continue to bring the sound exposition of the Scripture, for this is something which the people of Ghana must hear.” Others have made this same statement in a negative way, saying that which you are bringing over the radio is not heard in Ghana very much. Again encouraging us to continue to simply expound the Word. By the grace of God this is what we have striven to do. We believe that this remains a powerful means of reaching the people of Ghana with the Reformed Faith. We continue to take occasional speaking engagements to bring the gospel to others outside of our fellowship. This past Saturday evening we were invited to speak at a christian fellowship of married couples. This request came to us through an elder brother of one of those that worship with us and often is in our Tuesday Bible Study. We were able to speak on “Family Spirituality,” especially emphasizing the sovereignty of God in salvation, and showing that only with this basic understanding of the Scripture can we in our married lives live as spiritual witnesses of God in all things. The young people gather together on Friday evenings for study of the Heidelberg Catechism and we are presently studying the Lord’s Prayer. We are studying one petition each Friday. We have had as many as 18 present for these studies in the last few weeks and have had from 12-15 most evenings during this past month. Our Saturday catechism classes are studying from the New Testament for Juniors book and we are on lesson 12. Again attendance at Ashaley has been good averaging about 17, and at the Mission House we have had as many as twenty-two but more often we have smaller numbers of around ten. This instruction continues to be a means of blessing for the pastor - missionary. The remainder of my time as Missionary has been used mainly in visiting in the homes of our people who attend our worship and/or Bible Study. I attempt to do this on a regular basis. This is a means of following up on the preaching and study in such a way that I can speak of the personal and practical fruit of that preaching and study of the Scriptures. We do become a bit tired from time to time, but our health has remained strong. Perhaps Jan and I will be able to take off for a couple of days of rest and relaxation in the next few weeks, it would probably be good for both of us. Especially this would be nice before our helpers return to the States. We continue to speak and preach very much from an antithetical perspective, and do contend directly with errors that are prevalent in Ghana in the church world. Lately this means that we have emphasized the truth over against strong influence of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement in the land. I will write more of this in latter letters or articles. However, now I best draw this letter to a close. Again we covet your prayers as we labor on the field in Ghana. May God be with and bless you in your families and churches. 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. In Christ’s Service, Rev. Richard Moore and the Mission House |
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