Greetings from Kumasi, Ghana!

MaChee! (good morning) Well, if there is one thing we have learned about missions work - be flexible! We have already been hard at work building scaffolding and constructing the roof on the Amadum-Adankwame church building. Upon arriving here we found that we needed to rearrange out schedule to better accommodate the needs of the church over here. The days for our activities have been move around a bit so if you are praying for specific things, please use this schedule:

Tuesday (yesterday) Construction, The first Crusade begins - Sue preaching.
Wednesday - Construction, Medical Clinic start, Children's Ministry, second night of the first Crusade with the movie, The Passion of Christ" with commentary and preaching.
Thursday - Construction, Medical Clinics, etc. continue throughout the day. Last night of the first Crusade - Glenn bringing the message.
Friday we go to the second village and repeat the process (rather than starting the second one next Monday. The schedule change was because they needed the church to be fully planted by Sunday for dedication.
Saturday - Second day of Medical Clinics, Children's Ministry and the second night of this Crusade.
Sunday - Worship at Mim with the congregation that we worked with last year. Rest and then the last night of Crusades.
Monday through Wednesday - We continue the building construction - hopefully to completion!
Thursday will be our day off and travel down to the coast to be ready for our early Friday morning Flight.

So for yesterday:
We meet the pastor and many parishioners in Amadum-Adankwame Methodist church who came out to meet us and thank us for blessing them and answering their prayers. Making friends with lots of village children. They wore Karen and Sue out! They are also helping us to learn Twi so we can talk with them in their language. Building construction during the day for Tony and I. Hot sun but very productive! We are building trusses up on the roof (too large to construct on the ground and lift up two stories). That meant we had to build a scaffold work area and a way to move the trusses out into position as part of the process. Very primitive technique but effective. Yabua (my carpenter friend from last year is most excellent). We hope to upload some current pictures in the next day or two of what we are up to.

The Crusade was in "town square" last night. Much singing and dancing as we got started. Joseph and the District Superintendent introduced us and I introduced the team. Prayer and them Sue's message. Issac, a new Evangelist friend of Joseph was the translator and did a great job! Many came forward to be saved Praise God! All the children want to join in of course! We'll have numbers for the harvest each day sometime a little later as we gather all the details from the pastor and the praise team. More music and prayer and then back to the mission house for rest!

We stopped in at an internet cafe' this morning on the way to the site to leave this update. Thank to all of you that got the word late yesterday about the changes and prayed during the Crusade. Many were added to the book of life yesterday!

More later,
Glenn & the team

Dear Friends,

You might remember that about a year ago Glenn and I traveled to Ghana, West Africa to plant churches with Ghanaian Evangelist Joseph Otsin, and American Evangelist Cecil Williamson. We both gave personal testimonies as a part of the evangelistic crusades and then worked to build a pavilion, providing another village a place to worship. The trip was a wonderful and fulfilling experience! Working along side native people groups on the front lines of God’s work is an amazing and humbling experience. We also learned a great deal about how our congregation can help keep the church planting ministry going by partnering with Joseph in the years to come.

Let me give you some detail about how the trip turned out. There are now 11 new Methodist congregations in the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana. Well over 2,000 men, women and children received salvation during the Crusades. The churches are being served by the Local Pastors that Joseph trained as a part of this ministry. The pastors each received Bibles, discipleship training materials, and a new bicycle with which to serve their congregation. These pastors’ salaries will be paid for three years to give the new congregations time to get established. The people of the rural villages, who generally lack medical attention, received medical care each day of the crusade from the nurses who accompanied our team. Additionally, a new church pavilion now stands in the village of Mim, the start of a new church building.

You may also recall that we asked for your prayer support during the trip. I believe that the prayers that you offered for Glenn and I and for the church planting effort made a huge difference in the success of the trip, as well as for our personal health and safety. Glenn and I never became ill or suffered in any way from food or water issues, even after the villagers in Mim insisted that we eat the strange food that they had prepared as a sign of good will and community! We slept restfully, even on the nights with the worst “bed” you’ve ever seen. We did not battle malaria, even though I personally had at least a dozen mosquito bites. We did not sunburn or suffer heat exhaustion even though we were very close to the equator and IT WAS HOT! I know that I should have burned. Glenn worked in the hot sun with the church members of Mim for several days when building the pavilion. He did not suffer heat exhaustion and did not even so much as tan. While you prayed about the success of the crusades, I also know that some of you were offering specific prayers about our health, our ability to rest, and about the heat and sun. For that we deeply thank you.

So this year, we return to continue the work we have begun. We are again asking for your prayer support. This time Glenn and I are not going with Cecil’s group but with another couple from Dayton United Methodist. We are planning to leave on April 26 to the Ashanti region of Ghana where we will be going through the same process of crusades and church planting that we learned last year. This trip we are going with Tony and Karen Gascho, Joseph and our Ghanaian nurses. We will hold crusades in 2 villages, continue the medical clinics and help build a roof for a previously started church, all with the blessing of the Methodist Church of Ghana. Glenn and I will need to be the evangelists this year. It will be up to us to present the Gospel to the villagers. Please pray like crazy that the Holy Spirit will help us prepare and will get behind the words that come out of our mouths so that many of the villagers receive salvation. Oh, and please pray for our protection. Here is our schedule to make it easy to pray more specifically:

Sunday and Monday (April 26 & 27)– Fly from Indy to Accra then on to Kumasi

Tuesday – Recover from jet lag and acclimate to Kumasi

Wednesday through Friday – Medical missions and roof construction during the day Evangelistic Crusades in the evenings, (from about 2:00 - 5:00 PM Lafayette time)

Saturday – Construction Sunday – Worship with our new 2008 friends at the church in Mim, and then rest

Monday through Wednesday – Medical missions and construction Evangelistic Crusades in the evenings, (from about 2:00 - 5:00 PM Lafayette time)

Thursday – construction Friday (May 8) – travel home (from 3:00 am until about 12:00 midnight Lafayette time)

We will try to update this blog each day but maybe only every other day. Computer access is difficult in the area we will be. We’d love to hear back from you that you will be praying for us.

Thanks so much and may God bless you!

Love in Christ, Sue, Glenn, Tony & Karen