Amazing day in Moseaso.  The folks our coaches have been investing in this year are transforming their community as they are building friendships with drug addicts, alcoholics, personal enemies and traditional fetish priests (voodoo stuff which actually originated in Ghana’s Volta region).  We met with a lot of people and witnesses many lives changed by Jesus. 

Mike and I had an amazing long conversation and time of prayer with our new friend, the traditional fetish priest  I wrote about in our last newsletter.  He is ready to walk away from the bondage of his destructive idol practices, but its a difficult position to “resign”. We are trusting him to the hands of Dominic, the man who is discipling him.

Anyone who knew Jim Moye knows how much he loved games.  A couple of games he introduced in ghana back in the day, Connect 4 and Jenga have become wildly popular.  Coaches give copies of the games away everywhere conferences are held, and Ghanaians are using the games to build relationships in their villages.  The games have also been instrumental in uniting Moseaso churches in the work of reaching their community. 

You have never seen such raucous games of Jenga….trust me.

In Moseaso, we also spent time praying for a sick boy who suffered a stroke on his way to school, and got invited to a joyful funeral.

Its been brutal getting to the computer with a good enough connection and enough time to post news of my trip with Mike Moye to Ghana.  In short, we’ve had an incredible time of ministry and community.  Mike is going to post an update tomorrow (as long as technology cooperates), so you can hear from his voice as well.

Now I’m going to start posting short excerpts from our time in Ghana.

18 September –

Today, Mike Moye (Jim’s older brother) and I arrived in Accra, the capital of Ghana.  Its exciting to be back for many reasons, but its also Mike’s first trip to Africa, and I love introducing people to Africa.  We’re going off the beaten path for the next ten days to see for ourselves, and lend a hand to, work that our young Ghanaian leaders (Coaches) are doing in their communities.

By “work” what I mean is that they are showing Christ’s love, in very practical ways, to the lost, needy and broken people where they live.  Then they deeply disciple these people to “do the same to others in their community”.  It is through this serving that some people first learn that they are loved by God.

In Moseaso we will be meeting with young people who are multiplying our vision in their home town and are building relationships with people suffering from drug abuse and alcoholism, and others who are involved in traditional idol worship.  I love that they are intentionally loving people that the local churches often write off as “already condemned to hell”.  We are equipped with donated school supplies for kids in this mining town.

In Kumasi, we’ll be helping Vincent Asamoah with his basketball outreach to local kids.  Mike will be helping coach Vincent’s newly recruited b-ball coaches, some of whom love Jesus and kids, but they are learning to play the game for the first time!

Finally we will be up in the predominently Muslim, less economically developed, northern region of Ghana for a YLI Leadership Identification Summit and for more time in villages.  Stay tuned because as we go, we’ll be posting stories and photos of our experiences and “Jesus sightings”.

   

 

 

 

YLI conferences usually begin and end with wild games of Connect-4 and Jenga.  We want all that we do to be wrapped in relationship, and the games are the grease of relationship building.  From the games we move into a just as spirited and joyful time of P.W.D. (praises, worship and dance).  The rest of the conferences is teaching time interspersed with breakout discussions.

Over a period of three days we dive deeply into teaching and discussion on:  developing an intimate relationship with God, showing God’s love to the lost through local service in their community, and choosing a few people to mentor and disciple deeply.

The photos are from an earlier conference this year in Tarkwa.

In the US, it is hard to understand how different relationship evangelism is in countries where poverty is the normal every day reality. At times when I have explained to people that we focus on “practical acts of love” toward the lost in Africa, the question has been, “So, is YLI a social needs ministry or a spiritual needs ministry?”  It has led to some very rich conversations.

The Hole in Our Gospel, by World Vision president Richard Sterns, addresses the problem this schism in American Christianity has caused.  Bluntly stated:  ignoring the needs of world’s poor leaves us with a gospel with a huge hole in it, of which our world is understandably skeptical.

Examining the life of Jesus we see that physical needs and spiritual needs of the world’s lost were never meant to be divided.  In fact, the schism did not appear until the liberal and conservative splits that American mainline denominations experienced in the early 20th century.

As Sterns notes, great revivals in our history like the great Wesleyan revival coincided with huge social reforms to the poor as well.  The Church’s commitment to caring for the poor and alleviating suffering communicates to the world that our gospel is truly transformative, not just words and personal belief.

Kojo Darko was abandoned by his family when he was 14 so he lived in the streets where his only acceptance was with criminal and drug gangs. He told me that he slept in open market stalls and rarely bathed, which resulted in people despising and avoiding him. But a local pastor reached out in friendship to him, buying him clothes, soap and food, and Kojo came to see that he was loved and accepted by God.

Here is part of Kojo’s testimony

God has given Kojo a unique vision to reach a group of youth in the broken margins of Ghana. There is an isolated village five miles from Kojo’s home where the children and youth engage in open, recreational sexual activity. Kojo told me that they treat sex like soccer. Because of the remote location of the village they have few healthy recreational options. They have no soccer balls or other types of games. Kojo has started a youth club in the village to introduce sports and other activities that will also give him a voice into their lives to show and teach them how much God loves them and cares about their choices.

I am planning on visiting Kojo later this month and will capture his work in this village on video for the blog.

Some viewing tips:
1. Click the play button
2. Click the little button with the four arrows on the bottom
3. When it launches into full screen, click the “Scaling is Off” button so the video enlarges.

 I uploaded to Flickr a few photos of the key folks we are training in Ghana.   They were taken at our house in Kumasi the last day of the coaches summit this month.  Most group photos I’ve taken in the past have seemed just a little too formal and boring so I told them to lighten up and have some fun.

These reflect better the personality of Ghanaian culture and our community of coaches.

Back from left:  Kojo, Naomi, Jonah, Isaac Nanoa, Ethel, Isaac Gyesaw, Patrick, Esther, Eric, James, Churcher.
Middle:  Adam Brown, Solomon
Front:  Vincent Asamoah

This afternoon at lunch I found myself craving dried fish with my Fufu.  On my first eight or so visits to West Africa the sight or smell of dried fish immediately turned my stomach.  I even avoided walking past them laid out on the ground at the market.  But in September, Churcher dared me to try a bite of his.  And today I was almost disappointed that the dried fish was “finished” at Osofu Mommy’s Chop Bar. 

I still give the fish head to Churcher though.  That is my current line in the sand.

I uploaded this separately from my earlier post so I didn’t lose one or both of the entries.  Its a short greeting but man did it take a long time to upload!  I almost am starting to appreciate Comcast!

Our coaches summit finished up today and most of the coaches and trainees have started returning to their homes on hot and dusty afternoon buses. Its humbling to think that some of them travel by bus for almost the same length of time that I travel by plane to be with them.

I am noticing this group become more cohesive as they encourage, support each other and have fun together. The experience of authentic community within the coaches in Kumasi is key to seeing our ministry multiplied by the coaches in their towns, cities and villages.

I spent a good amount of time with one of our new guys, Kojo Darko. 10 years ago he was a homeless teenager after being rejected by his family. A gang was his family, he slept in the open market and in storefronts, and got into the local drug culture. Its no surprise that Kojo now has a passionate heart for reaching teenagers who are involved in dangerous stuff. He has started taking a team of people he disciples to reach out to the youth in a remote village who are involved in some very destructive behavior. I did about a 15 minute video interview with Kojo today that I am looking forward to making available by web (when I get to some respectable internet service).

Moving forward, tomorrow my good friend Pastor Bossman is coming to visit from Sunyani. Then, Monday we start working on a lot of stuff that make me so thankful for Jim Moore. I am sure that Churcher and I will spend much more time with spreadsheets than I would like. Pray for my attention span.

Thanks so much for praying for us and supporting us in so many ways. Our coaches were effusive in their thanks for all of you. They have heard about the US economy and they just wanted me to send their gratitude for your commitment.

Until tomorrow.