Greater Grace Churches of Ghana - Western Region

Urgent Prayer Request - Church Land

2010-10-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

As you may recall, currently the church and the Bible College in Takoradi are meeting at Pastor Henry’s house because the school where we have been renting has not allowed us back on a consistent basis since the student riots this summer.

The other day Pastor Henry called me to tell me that the chief in the area where we have been looking for land the past two years has finally agreed to sell us a nice piece of land. We are grateful that we have a nice piece of land, right in the main part of the town/village, with a nice view, and on firm ground.

As you are aware over the last several years we have been raising money to purchase this land and we are now at a crucial stage. I think you know I prefer not to make urgent request, but this is one of those times.

Because the oil companies moving into the area and purchasing land at more than double the values it is crucial that we take this opportunity to purchase it. It looks like the chief is giving us a last chance before he decides to sell out to the oil companies.

I am asking that you would consider helping us with an extra gift to raise the extra $2500 that we need to make this commitment. We need to do this within a week and ask that you would pray about it and see if the Lord leads you to help in this area.

If you do decide it would be greatly appreciated if you could just email me and tell me how much you can help so we can make a final decision.

God Bless and keep in touch.

Chuck

Church Property Project - PRAY

2010-10-04T17:35:00.001-07:00

2010-10-04T17:34:00.001-07:00

Greetings from Pastor Henry Nkrumah in Takoradi, Ghana

2010-10-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

“ Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. “ (2 Corinthians 2:14). This verse has been an encouragement to us for the past few weeks because God has really been faithful in bringing this Scripture to pass in our lives.

We have faced a lot of difficulties since July. Since then we have not been able to meet at the Technical School for church services or Bible College due to student riots at the school. For the past two months we have been meeting in my house and sometimes in my living room when it is raining outside. The thing that blesses me so much is to see the members of the church still coming out and having a great time even though we don’t have our usual place of worship. The Life in the Body of Christ has been intense and the Word of God is coming out with power and anointing. The enemy can take our place of worship but he cannot take the Word from us. We are determined to finish the semester whether we have a place or not.

After postponing Bible College for a week because of our building problem, we have now started classes and have about 18 students coming out to learn the Word of God. Somehow we manage to pack ourselves in my living room and do Applied Bible Doctrine and Discipleship of Grace video classes, and on my front porch for the live classes. The enemy cannot stop us. Keep us in prayer. We are praying for God to give us a permanent place of worship and have been discussing the possibility of a parcel of land with the local chief.
Two weeks ago on our way from church, my family and I were involved in a serious car accident. My whole family was in the car. The car was badly damaged by a reckless “trotro,” minivan driver but, thanks be to God we all escaped unharmed. The car is at the shop and probably will stay there for a while because we don’t have the funds (about $250) to fix it. We sensed “ the angel of the LORD truly encamps round about them that fear him, and delivers them “ (Psalms 34:7). This is what He did for us and we thank God that once again He was faithful to deliver us.
In the midst of all this we are more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37) and we plan to continue in this victory we have in Christ. Thank you all for your prayers and love and support.

God Bless, Pastor Henry Nkrumah

2010-04-09T09:45:00.001-07:00

“You and Me” Village Outreach

2010-04-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

On Saturday March 29th the team from our Shama church, led by brother Abeku took us to another fishing village outside Shama called “You and Me”. We had an awesome time of evangelism in the small fishing village where we found the peoples hearts to be open to the Gospel. Several received Christ and we plan to continue reaching out to these areas with the message of the grace of God.

2010-03-10T09:49:00.001-08:00

Mission trip to village of Awuna Beach

2010-03-10T09:47:00.000-08:00

Written by Renee Beland our missionary in Takoradi from Greater Grace Church of Montréal, Canada….

Last weekend, the church in Shama reached out to the Ewe people living in the village of Awuna Beach, just a canoe ride away from Shama. It was our first missionary journey, and was truly successful, not only in reaching to those people and seeing them getting saved, but also in giving our people a vision for the lost, and in experiencing joy and lots of fun when the Body of Christ gets together and walks in unity.

6 of us left Shama in the afternoon last Saturday. The 30 minutes or so canoe ride to that village was successful for some in overcoming their great fear of being in such a small boat on the water. As for me, I was overjoyed to be part of that little group of believers, being on that African canoe, going to unknown territory to meet strangers, by faith... to proclaim the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. Being in the midst of a Fante speaking area, were we going to find people in that village to communicate with or will they all speak only in the Ewe language which none of us knew???

We arrived in a very small village spread out along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Even though I was with Africans, I felt very much that everyone from that village knew we were not natives of the place. We arrived at the first house and were right away invited to sit down with the ladies and shared the Gospel with them by using a mixed of English, Fante and very small Ewe. Some needed interpretation and after some times spent with them, they all received Jesus in their hearts and were all so thankful. That was very encouraging for us and we kept on exploring this new place.

In no time at all we found ourselves in front of a shop bar (a very small place where people can sit and eat the typical African food)...and all of a sudden, surprisingly, all the guys expressed the fact that they were hungry... The food served that day was the Banku (a mix of corn dough and cassava dough) fresh fish and groundnut soup...it was very appetizing except for the million of flies that were around and who were also hungry. At first, although I love that food and was also hungry, I did not want to eat because of all the flies. But as the guys all sat down and the food was brought, I decided to join and by some miracles the flies were gone and the food was awesome and the cooks were laughing and being happy that the white lady had finally decided to partake of their delicacies.

We made new friends in that “chop bar” (A local restaurant) and promised to be back and told them that they should have the Banku ready for us... and it was already time to be on our way, church service in Shama is at 6 pm and we knew that we probably would have to wait for the next canoe taxi to take us back to Shama.

As we waited on the beach by the Coconut trees for our ride to come, two of the guys with us decided to try to get some coconuts. They both climbed those tall straight trees in no time but none of them when they reached the top could get a hold of those precious coconuts. One of them who were at the top of one of those tall trees started to speak Fante to us who were standing on firm ground. I naturally did not know what he said, but started to be worried because I sensed he was up there getting very tired and like a cat that cannot come down from the tree he had climbed, he also did not know if he had the strength to make it down. I thought that he would just collapse and fall backward...but then, all of a sudden he just slid down very quickly from that tall coconut tree and threw himself in the sand ...he was exhausted...
Now that he was safe on the ground... I was able to think of this whole scene, it was hilarious. You should see the picture I took of him up there: an African Spiderman.

The canoe finally arrived and we made it back on time for church in Shama. Abeiku, the preacher / leader who came with us, kept complaining on the way back about being tired...being so tired after this outreach...but he ended up preaching a great message on Psalm 133...Oh how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity...for there God commands a blessing. And truly we were blessed that day at Awuna Beach with the Ewe people....

Thank you for continuing to pray with us for the great work of God here in the Western region of Ghana. This Sunday we will be having our joint service in Takoradi with our churches from Shama and Sekondi.

We love you all and may God bless you,

Renée

2010-01-07T06:47:00.000-08:00

JOINT CHURCH SERVICE

2010-01-07T06:45:00.001-08:00

5 Year Anniversary Celebration & Joint Church Service

2010-01-07T06:43:00.000-08:00

This weekend we will be celebrating 5 years of ministry in the Western Region of Ghana. We will also hold our first graduation of our Bible College in Takoradi where we will graduate four students with 4 Year Degrees and three others with 2 Year Certificates. It will be an honor celebrate with these faithful students and their families. Please pray for this weekend as we will have Pastor Scibelli, GGWO Missions Director, who is still en route from the USA after being delayed in London because of the snow storm. It will be great to have several of our Ghanaian pastors who have been so much a part of our ministry through their prayers and encouragement. Three of other Greater Grace missionaries from Benin will also be with us.

It was a joy to welcome Nikki &Sari with a joint service and food fellowship with our churches from Takoradi, Sekondi, Shama, and other friends visiting from Daboase. It was a festive time of celebration as we were still in the Christmas spirit. A few days later we enjoyed a late night New Year Eve service as we brought the new year in together as a church in worship and song. The YouTube video may give you some idea of our worship service here.

Chuck

Baptism & Bible College Closing Ceremony

2009-12-22T15:43:00.000-08:00

Takoradi Baptism & Bible College

2009-12-22T15:30:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Ghana!

I pray by now you have received our Christmas news in the mail. So, I just wanted to give you a quick update on few church happenings and notes of encouragement of what the Lord is doing through our ministry here in Ghana.

Christmas Baptism… a Takoradi December tradition!

This last Sunday we continued our Christmas tradition by having a baptism at the beach. We joined together 14 people from out churches in Takoradi, Sekondi, Shama, and Daboase. It was great to see so many take steps of faith and public professions of their commitment Along with the rejoicing in the baptism, there was much swimming and serious football (soccer to you westerners). I posted a YouTube video at the link below.

Maryland Bible College of Takoradi - Fall Semester

It is encouraging to see the growth in maturity and understanding of our 25 Bible College students who have been faithful throughout the semester. These students represent not only our church but six different churches in the area. So we are truly being "ecumenical" in teaching the finished work message of grace in our region. Four of these students will be receiving four year Degrees and three at our January graduation ceremony.

5 Year Anniversary Celebration and Bible College Graduation

The weekend of January 9 & 10^th we will be celebrating 5 years of ministry in the Western Region of Ghana. We ill also hold our first graduation in Takoradi to honor the faithful students and their families. Please pray for this weekend as we will have Pastor Scibelli, GGWO Missions Director, and several visiting pastors her to celebrate with us.

Have a Blessed Christmas.

Daboase Church Service

2009-09-18T00:15:00.000-07:00

Our newest church in the farming community of Daboase is located about a 45 minute drive from our home in Takoradi. After initially hearing our Grace Hour radio program we began to visit and minister to a small group of people there. They had never heard the grace message and have responded to the message that we bring. Most people in the community live very simple lives of farming of palm nuts, cassava, yams, and other local foods. They are very loving people and open to hear the Gospel. Mr. Owusu, one of our Bible College students from our Sekondi church has been going there for two days during the week, spending he night with the people and doing a church service on Tuesday nights. Yesterday I travelled with Pastor Henry & Abeku to meet all the people there. The response was great to the message of God's love constraining us and holding us, never letting us go (2 Cor. 5: 14 ). The usual group of 12 - 15 on the porch of the house where we meet continued to grow as we began the service. Nearly 35 adults with equally as many children listened to my open air preaching and it was a great time of fellowship. The core group of 15 - 20 adults will be joining us this Sunday in Takoradi for our joint church service where we gather all the churches together for fellowship. Please pray for these humble people and God's wisdom in leading them. Chuck

DABOASE VILLAGE CHURCH

2009-09-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

Daboase Church Service

2009-09-17T10:00:00.000-07:00