As I reflect back over the past 12 days in Ghana, I am amazed at what the Lord has accomplished in and through this DUMC Ghana Team. The format of doing church building construction, providing free medical service by a team of doctors and nurses and doing children educational and fun activities opened the door for the crusades to be successful. It broke down walls and built good relations with the people. The medical team alone saw just under 900 people in 5 1/2 days.
I don't have the results on all the decisions, but I know a lot of people in the villages came to the crusades and many responded to the Gospel invitation.
I was personally stretched spiritually and physically. My time in the late evening was spent in recouping and preparing for the next day.
These are some of the opportunities that that Lord game me.
-Preached 5 times
-Shared the Gospel with the Wordless Book 10 times in 3 different schools. (One group alone had over 300 children in it)
-Taught a 4 hour Super Seminar for children teachers. Renee also helped in that.
-Refereed 5 hours of soccer games in 90-95 degree heat.
-I played a lot of soccer with the children and had some training sessions with them, along with passing Frisbees and blowing bubbles which the children loved to chase after them to pop.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

"Pin ball na shay"
Pastor Jim

This was my official nickname in both village, which means, "head the soccer ball to score"

Because of the Lord and you, we definitely "scored" for the Lord this past week.
Thank you.

Anwiafutu Methodist Church Vision

In these pictures you can get a glimpse of the vision the congregation of the Anwiafutu Methodist Church has for themselves.  The initial construction for a much larger building surrounds their very small existing church.  One day, as the membership grows and the new size is warranted, they can move ahead with this plan.  After a roof is built on the columns and beams you see here, the small structure will be removed creating a large worship area.  Maybe one day that will be a building project for Dayton UMC!

Pastor and I are discussing the construction requirements and initial cost estimates.  With the expected growth through our Crusades and the anticipated building effort, this may happen sooner than later.  It would be an bigger project than a pavilion - one more like we did two years ago at Amadum Adankwame.  -Glenn

Sunday Service at Anwiafutu!

Though the Methodist Church at Anwiafutu has been there a while, it was very small.  Our mission with their Crusade here was to grow and build out the congregation.  A mighty success, as there was a crowd in the tiny church building.  Austin brought the message and Bibles were presented as with the other planted churches.  Upon our return next year, we expect this group to be even larger and more lively!

Children's Ministry Training

On Saturday, we presented a 4 hour workshop for Ghanaian leaders of children's ministry at the central church in the area.  Jim and Renee were the primary presenters of the six part series that was prepared in advance back in Dayton, Indiana.  It was well received and we were able to leave materials for additional sessions in the future to be facilitated by these participants.

Sunday service at the new Siribuoso church pavilion

We split our mission team in half to be able to share Sunday services with the churches at Anwiafutu and Siribuoso at the same time.  This first service under the new pavilion was now three times larger than the small group that used to meet in a school classroom.  Jim brought the message, Rick gave a witness, and Tommy & Glenn made presentations of Bibles, the Caretaker’s bicycle and the children’s Bible story books.  Everyone present got a New Testament!  Renee joined the fifty or so children under the trees for Sunday school.  The best part of all was when the chief and the village elders arrived and joined the congregation.  The chief warmly greeted and then addressed the Dayton team and the Siribuoso Methodist church .  He and the elders were very pleased with the growing church and declared they would make it their church home.  This support should make a huge positive impact to their growth.

Nearing completion

Framing complete, galvanized roof sheeting is installed to keep off the sun and the rain.  This completed pavilion measures approximately 30 by 40 feet and will be completed by the local church over time with the addition of walls, doors, floor, etc.  – Glenn

Pavilion construction begins…

Construction of a new pavilion to support the church at Siribuoso begins with setting steel posts in concrete and building trusses from native timber.  We worked with our carpenter friends Yebouah and his team of four.  This was the fourth year working with them and a pleasure to see they were all still doing well.

Only simple tools are available to the erect the structure, including setting the constructed trusses.  With two men up top, six or eight more lift them up from the ground by hand.  - Glenn