Dayton UMC Ghana 2011 Church Planting Mission: Stretching

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Stretching

I came to Ghana in hope of being stretched by God. I wanted to learn to be able to share my faith with others and reach out to people that are hurting. Today I had the opportunity to give a piece of my testimony with the help of Joseph as translator. God was able to help me speak the words to a different people group, and I lived through it. I have a feeling it was a message that they needed to hear. When I come back to America, I hope to maintain this boldness. I feel that I have grown closer to people on the team. Hopefully I have lost a little bit of my introvert-ness. This has been an incredible trip. The weather is great. I have not met a bad person here. Everyone is nice and friendly even with the language barrier. I walked down the street near the mission house and was able to say hello to people. That got a smile and a greeting back. I helped in the medical clinic for the first village and then with building the church in the second village. I also had time to play with the kids in both villages some. It is time for supper now. The food has been wonderful. They feed us way too much. Thank you for supporting us on this trip. Why didn't I do this earlier? -Rick

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Our ongoing mission...

A team from the Dayton United Methodist Church in Dayton, Indiana is returning to Ghana, West Africa for the fourth consecutive year. The main focus of the annual mission is to win new believers to Jesus. The next step is to help them become established with a local congregation under the direction of trained leadership so that they can grow as disciples of Christ.

We are partnering with evangelists Joseph and Stella Otsin and the Methodist Church of Ghana in the Kumasi Diocese to conduct outreach in two different communities this year. Together we hold evangelistic outreach events during the evenings and reach out to the people in the communities through additional ministries during the day. The ministries to support the main goal have grown and developed each year.

This year’s team includes two of our associate pastors, Pastor Jim Hiestand and Pastor Austin Bender. They will be presenting the Gospel during the evening events. Additionally, they bring a depth of knowledge and experience in working with children and young people, and have planned activities and outreach among the youngest Ghanaians. Pastor Jim will also lead a Saturday seminar to equip and energize adults from the Kumasi area who work with children.

The medical outreach this year will be much more in depth than past years. Dr. Cameron Gongwer, a full-time medical missionary working in Ghana through the Mission Society, will be joining our team. Cam brings a depth of knowledge in tropical medicine as well as leadership in the area of public health training. Joining Cam in medical outreach will be two physicians from Indiana, as well as others from Ghana. Several nurses and other medical professionals will complete the clinic’s staff. The medical clinics will be able to provide a greater level of service to the communities than ever before.

Members of our team will also be working side by side with a crew of Ghanaian carpenters to construct a worship pavilion for a congregation that is currently worshiping under a tree or perhaps in a borrowed room. We hope to leave the congregation with a solid roof supported by steel posts. In the short term, this pavilion will shield the church members from the hot sun and the tropical rain. Later, as they are able, the church can gradually pour a concrete floor and construct block walls to complete the structure.

This outreach had it’s start in 2006 when Pastor John Walls lead a team from Dayton United Methodist Church to support the work of Dr. Gongwer and his wife Anne at the hospital and library in Ankaase, Ghana. Pastor John and our congregation began asking the Lord for an opportunity to partner with someone from the Methodist Church in Ghana to bring the unreached to Christ. We asked the Lord to lead Pastor John to someone who is making an impact for the Kingdom of Heaven that we could assist and support on an ongoing basis. God was faithful and arranged for Pastor John to meet Joseph Otsin. Joseph, and his wife Stella are both ordained by the Methodist Church of Ghana. They have been given the task of carrying the good news throughout Ghana, with a focus on the Ashante region.

The Otsin’s ministry operates on an annual cycle. Joseph works with his Bishop to identify communities that they believe are ready to receive the Gospel. He then goes into the communities and begins to prepare the way. Joseph locates individuals who can become the core of a new congregation and from this group selects one or two individuals for additional training, which Joseph conducts as part of his ministry. Eventually one of these people is selected as the “caretaker” or lay pastor of the new church.

Joseph and Stella partner with evangelists and local churches from the United States and coordinate with the Methodist Church in Ghana to facilitate revival style meetings in rural villages and newly developed suburban areas. The new believers who receive Christ at these meetings are introduced to their lay pastor and are organized into a new congregation. The lay pastor is given a bicycle, a study Bible, and discipleship training materials to help him or her begin leading the church. The new church becomes a part of the local circuit and a member church of the local diocese of the Methodist Church of Ghana. Later, as the church grows, Joseph may be able to bring a team of workers to help the congregation construct a worship pavilion.

In 2008, Glenn and Sue Meiser, serving as vanguards for DUMC, joined a team of evangelists lead by Cecil Williamson. During that trip, eleven new churches were planted and thousands of people came to faith in Christ. The Meisers watched and learned as much as they could and began planning to return to Ghana with teams from the church in Dayton. They remained after the Williamson Crusades to help construct a worship Pavilion for the church at Atwima Mim.

The Meisers returned to Ghana in 2009 with one Spirit lead couple joining them. During that trip, two churches were planted and hundreds of people came to faith in Christ. That year, we began to include outreach to children as part of the daytime activities. We held medical clinics with the help of Ghanaian nurses, and helped to put a roof over a Methodist congregation. We also worshiped with our friends in Atwima Mim and with the two newly planted churches.

We returned in 2010 with a team of nine that included our new senior Pastor, Mike Dominick. The 2010 team was able to expand our ministry and outreach in every area. We participated in evangelistic events, medical missions, children’s ministry, and pavilion construction. Pastor Mike also preached at an interdenominational prayer meeting and at a camp meeting attended by all of the congregations in the Kumasi area. Members of the team worshiped with the newly planted churches as well as with those with whom we worked during the two previous years.

This year’s trip will take place from February 17 through March 1 in the villages of Anwiafutu and Serebuoso of the Kumasi Diocese. Our plan is to help build out two small churches, provide an extensive medical outreach in the villages, provide children’s ministry and children’s ministry training, construct a pavilion and worship with as many of our sister churches as possible. You can keep track of our progress as we begin to populate this blog with stories and photos of our ongoing work. Please visit the blog as often as you can to follow our adventures as they unfold. And please, keep praying!