“How much do I have to pay to become a Christian?”
In rural areas of Ghana, especially in villages, people are not used to relating to a God who loves them deeply, and desires to give them the unconditional gifts of salvation and life.
African traditional religions teach that various local gods need to be appeased of their anger and wrath through costly gifts, idol worship and animal sacrifices.
When YLI coach Adam Brown visited the chief of a village neighboring Kpenchela – the village where he led the construction of a project to provide clean water – the chief asked him a not-so-surprising question. “How much money do I have to pay to become a Christian?”
Adam had taken with him a few young people from Kpenchela whom he is discipling in his village ministry. All of them waited to hear his answer to the Chief’s question.
Adam replied, “The gift that Jesus came to earth to give was free, so what we come to bring you is also free.” Adam told me that the chief became excited as he heard about the true God who loves him and his people.
The love that Adam has shown first in Kpenchela is now spreading to the surrounding villages, and it is exciting to me how Adam is embedding the mission God has given him into the next generation of younger leaders. In the same way that YLI has grown after the passing of Jim Moye five years ago, so will Adam’s ministry multiply long after he is gone.
Please continue to pray for Adam, those whom he is discipling, and the Kpenchela young leaders who are learning how to reach out to the surrounding villages. Pray for the chief and his village, that they too will receive the free gift of Jesus.
Update: Just this morning (9/29/10), I received an email from Adam with the following news:
“Ash, I am happy to inform you that four other villages invited us to visit them so that they can also know our God. The villages are Banvem, Komlanyili, Nagidigu and Digma.
The rains this year is very heavy and it is difficult to get to the villages. We went to Komlanyili, and at some point we crossed two streams, and the water was at chest level. We had to carry our motor bikes very high.
God is using the water project at Kpenchila to glorify him self in the area and beyond.
Adam Brown”
Aug 2010 Trip Report – Part 1, Clean water and living water
Last Monday I returned from my 10 day trip to Ghana and unfortunately had almost no internet access in the towns and villages I was visiting. An irony of our work in Ghana is that many of the exciting things we want to report are happening in places where updating a website isn’t easy or possible.
Over the next few days though I will be post a few highlights from my journal along with some pictures of my time in Kpenchela, Kumasi and Kintampo, Ghana.
August 7, 2010
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Day 2 – Ghanaian YLI Coaches Adam, Vincent, and Churcher, and I drove out to a “hinterland” village called Kpenchela where for three years Adam has been living out what we teach. He has deeply loved this village and has been discipling a few young leaders there; but a persistent source of suffering has been a lack of clean drinking water, and limited education opportunities for the children.
In September 2009, during my first visit to Kpenchela, I became sick to my stomach as I imagined my two kids having to live in the conditions we saw in the village. Vincent, himself having grown up in a village in Ghana, was so upset by what he saw that he emotionally retreated to the car for most of our visit.
In March of 2010, on a return trip, the chief of Kpenchela communicated to our team through a translator that the lack of clean water and education in the village was like a sore on his leg. Adam shared with me his passion to help with the need and willingness to give of his own meager resources.
This time we went to Kpenchela to celebrate.
Through a partnership of YLI donors, and an investment of his own money, Adam has successfully led a project to construct a system that captures rainwater in two 30,000 liter tanks which is then purified for drinking. The water is collected from the roof of a new open air pavilion that will be used as a school, and as the first meeting place for the Christians in the village to worship.
Adam, the leaders he is discipling, and I talked together about his vision for the young leaders in Kpenchela now to reach out to eight similar and unreached surrounding villages with what they have received.
It was a fun party.
The chiefs and elders from Kpenchela and the eight surrounding villages, along with a couple hundred people came together for a dedication of the project, a time of prayer; and of course a traditional dance.
Kpenchela dancers performed their traditional dance. Then Jonah did his traditional dance. Then I did my dance (which could not be called traditional in any way).
To show their gratitude the chief made the first ever (live)stock donation to YLI. I left with a sheep, a chicken and a guinea fowl (which to the disappointment of my children stayed in Ghana).
Adam, and his small team of disciples have been serving and loving the village of Kpenchela for three years, and because of their investment, Kpenchela is now becoming a beacon to the surrounding area. It is a great living example of 2 Timothy 2:2, the reason for which YLI exists.
An ambitious trip to Ghana, but so much to see
I (Ash) just arrived in Ghana and am resting up for a few hours before kicking off a travel schedule that is very ambitious (even by my whirlwind travel standards).
Tomorrow morning I’m taking a local flight to Tamale in the north to meet Vincent and Adam Brown. Together we will drive out to the village of Kpenchela where Adam has been training up young leaders who are loving the unloved there.
I’ll get to see for myself the clean water system that we partnered with Adam to provide for the village (with great help from a great friend, Garret Nichols).
I hear there is much more to this water story and its impact, but I want to see it for myself before commenting. This Love that Adam and his leaders are sharing in this Muslim dominated area is spreading…
Then we’re off to a Coaches Summit in Kumasi and a Young Leaders training in Kintampo before I head home in ten days.
Please pray that I’ll see what God wants me to see, hear what He wants me to hear and speak what He wants me to say. And also that our coaches will experience His love for them through their time with me.
Day 5: Update on our tribe
Sometimes when I meet with people we’ve trained in Ghana they ask me if I will tell the people in the U.S. about them. It is a comfort to them that people know of them and think about them. I like to say that I will; after all we are all part of the tribe of Jesus.
One friend I met with yesterday in Ghana has made a courageous decision to plant a church in a section of his city called Angola. It’s drug infested – people go behind the storage shed my friend lives in with his wife and two kids to do drugs, and he goes out to befriend them.
One young man (Samuel) whom he led to Jesus is an alcoholic who struggles and often fails daily with sobriety. But Samuel loves Jesus and brings his friends to my friend so they can pray. My friend sits with them, prays (regardless if they’ve been drinking or not) and is discipling Samuel deeply to better reach his friends. My friend said “Can you believe I have a drunkard as a disciple?”. My response: “That’s awesome. God will change him. You just love him.” Of course that is far too easy for me to say.
Other pastors in my friend’s denomination have tried to convince him to plant his church in an area that can actually support him (he is dependent on tithes for his salary), but he knows whom God has called him to love and he’s not moving.
So now you know of my friend Bossman. He’s a humorous, compassionate and joyful man with deep love for God. As he comes to mind remember him in prayer – we are all part of the same tribe.
Here is a picture of our team (minus me) with Bossman.
Day 4: Sunyani with Naomi
Today we drove to Sunyani where over the past five years our coach Naomi has discipled many men and women of all ages. We got to meet with ten of them.
She has welcomed whole families to live with her in her two room house, adopted a four year girl who she found crying and abandoned at the market, she’s taught older male pastors how share their love for Jesus by engaging in acts of compassion to others.
All of this has taken place after the death of her husband in 2005 which left her a widow with three young children. People came around her and deeply cared for her in her grief, and so she, instead of circling the wagons and hoping to just survive as a single mom, threw open the doors of her home and her heart for others.
Since I’ve known Naomi, her house has been robbed and has burned down. One of her children was stabbed. Yet there a deep joy in Naomi that the people who know her recognize as Jesus.
Wednesday we are off to Drobo.
Day 2: Basketball Court Progress Photos
Day 2: Inspection of Vincent’s Basketball Court
Three months ago, Vincent and I along with some visiting YLI board members, stood around a pile of dirt and debris which was the remains of Vincent’s first attempt at building a basketball court here in Kumasi. A retaining wall, constructed to level the surface where the court would be built, had collapsed and the project stalled along with it.
It was discouraging for Vincent, but it was also clearly only a setback- not defeat. Many of the materials were still salvageable, and we all felt strongly that this vision to introduce Ghanaian kids to basketball was inspired by God, and would succeed in His time.
Today, we visited the same site, where a few weeks ago four young men, equipped only with hammers and chisels, dug through a slope of rock (in areas over four feet in depth!) to level the building surface another way – digging down. The setback has been overcome and we move forward again, now with a more solid foundation.
When funds for some additional cement, gravel and steel are raised, the court will be poured and the basketball league for Kumasi’s youth will begin. I will upload some photos above from today’s visit, and what a great afternoon this has been.
