Andrews Abdulai Apr-June 2011 Report from Yendi, Ghana

Dear Elders,

Find below my work report for April, May and June 2011.

NSAWAM ROAD CHURCH OF CHRIST EVANGELIST QUARTERLY REPORT TO THE MISSIONS MINISTRY. ACCRA, GHANA.

MONTHS: APRIL, MAY AND JUNE 2011.

INTRODUCTION: In this work report are events on edification, which include my visits to: Galinkuka, Nakpah, kpalsoguni, Ngani, Kpatinga, Accra, Kanimo with Bros. Paul Dokurugu and David Wumbei to pray for Simon’s family who were under attack by the evil world, blessing of David Wumbei’s marriage, construction of Bacheborido and Kanimo worship places, Yendi evangelists meeting with Elder Josiah Tilton, Duuni and Bakpaba communal fasting and prayer which attracted eight (8) local congregations and worship activities of Yendi Church of Christ.

Also, under evangelism are preaching at outdooring, preaching at the funeral of the late Jaakum Dasana, world Bible School correspondence course, teaching Christ at “Church of Christ Day Care Centre”, Yendi Senior High School campus ministry, prison ministry at Yendi local prison’s, formation of “Friend of Christ Youth Club”, establishment of a new congregation in Bimbilla town, donation of bicycles to three lay preacher for village work and challenges at hand.

EDIFICATION:

I went to Galinkuka on the 5^th of June to worship and have assessment on how the congregations around there are faring after the departure of evangelist Joseph Chaitey, now an elder in one of the congregations in Accra. Worship was fine and by the grace of God Evangelist Nakoja Timothy from Wapuli Church of Christ who coincidentally visited the same congregation on that day met me there. After worship, we had a meeting with the local brethren as to how we can revive the congregations around that are sleeping. We have planned visiting the villages around on 3^rd July to revive the congregations that are now dormant Lord willing. This will call for the training of a local preacher who should come from that area. This will help in sustaining the work. He will be living there permanently and working. I am by this putting it across to our sponsors to step in, so that we support Bro. Bilandan Solomon who is an active member from the church to do the work.

Galinkuka is about 154km in and out from Yendi. He and I with the Galinkuka congregation are teaming with one another to see what we can do through Christ our Lord.

I visited Nakpah church in the Bimbilla district on the 10^th April 2011. Nakpah has good attendance and one of the old strongest congregations in the area. Nakpah is 60km from Yendi and a round trip is 120km. Nakpah church is a very vibrant congregation but very far away from Yendi. We are not able to frequently visit them like any other congregation due to our (evangelists) number and the distance, so any time the Lord bless me to visit them the joy in their faces and interaction tell me the importance of the love of Christ among his follows.

Kpalsoguni is an old congregation in the Yendi area which does not have more than thirty memberships but has survived for many years with our inability to regularly visit them. I visited them on the 15^th of May just to worship with them and service was good. It has always been a joy and encourage to the congregation when they see a preacher in their midst. There was no special program than normal Sunday service. A round trip to Kpalsoguni is 24km.

Daniel Dawuni’s (in Ngani which is 32km in and out) wife gave birth prematurely (miscarriage) on 15^th May and I visited them on 17^th May 2011. Under the culture of the people here, there should be soothsaying on the third day to know the cost of the abortion (death of fetus) of the pregnancy. In our case on the third day, I visited them and prayed with the family. We were not many but the few sang Christian songs to announce to the neighboring traditional worshippers that the funeral of the child untimely born was been performed according to scriptures. We had few hours and that was alright for the Christian family.

I visited Kpatinga in the Nanumba district which capital is Bimbilla on the 22/5/2011. A round trip to Kpatinga is 154km. This congregation was established by Bro. Fusheini Musah and I some few years back. It’s not a big congregation but well handled by one of the past Project Timothy students. When I got there the members were very happy because it has taken not less than four months when I have not been able to visit them. Besides, they needed a few number of bags of cement to locally plaster the church building against rains which was not easy to come by. My visit open the opportunity for them to have cement to plaster the small locally thatch roofed worship place. I have attached a picture of the building.
I left Yendi on the 24^th of May for Accra to attend lectureship on the “Leadership in Contemporary Church” on the African Union (AU) day which was organized by the Accra area Churches of Christ. Participants cut across the whole country. In addition to that was discussion on the celebration of the 50th Jubilee anniversary of the Church of Christ in Ghana. Anniversary posters were given out to us to begin advertising the event in our local congregations. I represented the preachers in Yendi at the program. The date of the anniversary is not yet fixed but committees are formed to see to some of the day to day running of the pre-activities, the activities of the event and the post activities. David T. Wumbei further attended yet another meeting of the anniversary in Kumasi on behalf of the preachers in Yendi on the 18^th June 2011.

Bros. Paul, David and I went to Kanimo village to pray for Bro. Simon and his family. The wife of Bro. Simon on the 30^th of April was cooking T.Z (a local dish) which is eaten with soup. While the food was well cooked and they started serving and eating, one of them in his desire to satisfy his hanger requested more soup to finish his food. The lady (Simon’s wife) went to serve him with more soup and rather found a chicken thigh in the soup. Meanwhile the family never put any kind of meat in the soup. Where then was this chicken thigh? It might supernaturally been drop by Satan and his agents for evil purposes against the family of Simon. He gave us phone calls and we went in the evening of 3^rd June to pray. An exhibit of the meat was brought for all the preachers to see. After this we started singing. The singing which was more as battle songs (“He is a miracle working God (2X), He is the alpha and omega, He is a miracle working God”,” He is Lord, He is Lord, He has rising from the dead He is Lord, Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”) took some time before the real prayer commenced. The songs took some time and did not attract adults but rather children who came to see what was happening. After all, we encouraged the family to be free from any fear because Christ has rising in their home and every demonic force will certainly bow, therefore there should not be any panic whatsoever. I later called them and the family was doing well. Up to this day am writing this report, the family is fine in the name of God.

David T. Wumbee, one of the evangelists in Yendi, and his wife (Gifty) blessed their marriage on the 24^th of April at the Yendi church auditorium. A number of brethren in Yendi and the villages were there to witness the occasion. I was given the task to do the blessing, which by God’s grace was done without any problem.
We engaged Papa Musah Dawud to pray for God’s blessing for the marriage. He at the same time advised them with his long time experience in marriage.

We are continuing the building of the Bacheborido and Kanimo worship places and hope to raise the walls as soon as possible. Bacheborido during the molding of the blocks added cement while at this time of raising the walls; they have promise shouldering some of the bills as their contribution and are taking up the labor as well except in things that needs technical handling. Kanimo on other hand is contributing labor and some little amount of money due to small number of the congregation. These two village folks share the responsibilities in some way that make them feel ownership of the projects. Kanimo was built but a strange powerful wind push it down and this time we have gone to the ground as a group to pray before the commencement of the project. This applies to Bacheborido as well.

Yendi evangelists had meeting with Elder Josiah Tilton on the 28^th June 2011. It was time for the local evangelists to let him and the team that came with him know what is been done in Yendi town and in the village congregations. Elder Josiah in turn as one of the pioneering workers in Yendi gave his advice and encouraged the local evangelists to continue in doing the work of the Lord in the area. He further prayed for us and punctuated with his usual friendly jokes by saying “Andrews is now the big man here”. Referring to me as the longest serving evangelists in Yendi after the retired ones.

As usual, we organized fasting and prayer with the local congregations around Duuni (52km in and out from Yendi) and far off there. There were nine (9) congregations that participated in the fasting and prayer.

These include: Duuni, Bakpaba, Limpusi, Kakpani, Jakpamba, Bagjoo, Nakpaa, Niliyundo and chamba congregations respectively. The preacher of Chamba Church of Christ was one of the participants. Chamba is far from Duuni but the preacher was able to make it to the one day revival fasting and prayer service. This is a rotational fasting and prayer program which is done around a number of congregations. The benefits of this kind of fasting is that it serves the spiritual needs of the brethren and helps them not participate/patronize in the mushroom prayer camps that are springing up all over Ghana. It also helps concretize the faith of the brethren in God through Jesus Christ. There are also threats from the evil world as well, coxing them to seek assistance from the world outside the Bible ways. That is “juju”. Last but not least is that, it gives us the idea that the individual small village congregations are smaller families in a bigger Christian family worldwide. One of the faith’s lifting real life testimony was a brother, who participated in the last year’s fasting and prayer program. He lives in Cheripone (a town) in the northern region as a motor mechanic. He frequently had sudden heart palpitation at the fitting shop when he is working. Any time that happened he will be out of his mind and will not be able to work for the day. After attending the prayer last year he went to that town and on the night while he was sleeping he had a dream and someone was chasing him at the fitting shop. He got up and prayed and when day broke and he went to the shop he saw five (5) inches-nail covered with red foul furthers tired with black and red thread around it planted on the land where his shop was. Meanwhile it was there for a long time but he never saw it. And when he removed it his shop started getting people to patronize it. He finally burnt it. At the moment the shop is doing fine. And he never had the heart palpitation and fears on working at the fitting shop. To God be the glory great things He has done and greater He will do. I have attached a picture of him holding the charm.
Some of the needs members requested prayers for were: A young man had a yam ban and went to take some of the yam for consumption and the first yam he picked; he took it with a snake and since then has been seeing snakes attacking him in his dreams. It happened one day that he was dreaming of straggling with a snake and when he rose from his sleep a real snake was lying on his chest.

Another woman said her husband died but every night she goes to bed the man will appear to her in dream and wants to forcefully take her away (evil spirit in disguise). She laid this before the Lord and we prayed for her. There is power in the blood of Jesus the Savior. We met on the 1^st July at Bakpaba for the prayer and the said woman stood to testify that since we prayed for her at the last communal fasting and prayer she has never dreamt of seeing the man let alone struggling with him. Early before that was a request of the family for her to slaughter a white fowl for her dead husband which she refused.

Another brother, Matthew, who was also ill and under drugs stood before the congregation and testify that when we prayed for him on the last prayer day, he felt some wind blown over him and the pain left him. He has stop taking all the drugs he was taking and now feeling very well. James 5:16 says “Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective”. The next communal fasting and prayer will be on 15^tt July 2011 at Limpusi. We are praying that the Lord grant us the grace to be there to assist ourselves and others.

We have dedicated some of the Sundays in Yendi church mainly for songs and prayer and the Lord is using it to edify the congregation. Many have walked to me and told me that the songs are making them joyful and edified. We know for sure that there is power when we sing from the bottom of our hearts to praise the Lord. It’s rewarding when we fully sing with all the love. Heart are mended and healed from the troubles of this world. Yendi church has taking at least one day in every month for fasting and prayer, but sometimes it may be more than one day depending on needs at hand. Also, a day is dedicated for singing songs to praise the Lord. New songs are also learned to make worship active and edifying. There are good results from members on that program.

On the tenth (10) of June the Yendi church of Christ had fasting and prayer. We have tried fasting at least one day in every month to keep the church peaceful and equipped against any attack of the evil one and his agents. I can say that Yendi church is enjoying peace in her life. True love has return and we hope this will remain through Christ and hopeful attract the unchurched.

EVANGELISM:

The Lord blessed a couple of Yendi church with a baby girl and we named the child on the 16^th of April 2011. Even though I did not personally preach due to sore throat, preaching was done by one of the evangelist (Yabdow Alhassan) and another (Paul Dokurugu) blessed the child. Here in the north, there are always non-Christians at the gathering of Christians; therefore every word preached is not to rocks but to the rightful empty hearts. As a result this ground was not an exception.

One of the clinic staff, Dasana Jaakum, pass away on the 7^th of January 2011 on his way to work around 6pm. Dasana Jaakum was an adult who has been with the church since 1994’s. The church in collaboration with the clinic alongside the family of the late Jaakum Dassana planned the funeral and it was performed on the 30^th April 2011. Over one thousand attended the funeral at Gbaungbalga, his home town.

The message delivered was the “Hope of the Christian”. On the eve of the funeral day was the wake-keeping when Bro. Fusheini Musah preached. I did the preaching on the funeral day.

Half of the population constituted non-Christians, and the message was therefore directed to Christian believers, traditional worshiper and Muslims alike. The word was preached in the local language (Dagbani), therefore went deep into the hearts of the people. I had calls from both Christians and non-Christians on the impact of the message after we had closed. Some shook hands with me and delivered their words of appreciation while others expressed their joy and thanks to the local congregation at the village. Our prayer is that the message is able to bear fruits in the hearts of the audience. Papa Musah Dawud, even blind as his situation, was there as one of the senior evangelists to participate in the final funeral rite.

The following Sunday witnessed Fasting and prayer as our regular program and also thanks giving for having a smooth funeral of the late Jaakum.

The World Bible School correspondence course is still one of our short, medium and long term goals of evangelism that we are using. A large number of Junior High School students are continuing to be enrolled and the already enrolled ones too are progressing with their lessons. This may not bring hundreds of baptisms immediately to the church but has the potency of bring the Muslims to God through Christ in the future. It could be years ahead, we therefore do not expect reports on hundreds being baptize but it will surely make impact in the lives we may never even know until we meet in eternity. Preachers are picking the answered lessons from various schools in the district as well as delivering question-lessons to various schools and posting it back to the USA. I picked some of the lessons from Gbungbalga, Adibo and Nakpachei on the 22^nd June 2011 and some from the schools within Yendi. Through Bro. Fusheini we have move the World Bible School correspondence course to the Gusheigu district. A large number have enrolled and many are still demanding the introduction lessons.

School Program. The “Church of Christ Day Care Center” (Church Nursery School) is still being modeled by the preachers and the school committee. Parent-Teacher-Association (PTA) meetings are organize to get parent contribute in the school development and also to share with them activities of the school. The weekly Bible teaching by the evangelists is still going on in the school, which I hope will yield fruits in the lives of the young ones in the future to come.

Before I left for Duuni for the prayer on the 17^th June, I had to go to the “Church of Christ Day Care Centre” to teach the children the love of Christ. It has always been lovely when I interact with the children with the word of God. Their minds flow openly and it’s directed toward Christ the redeemer. I have attached a picture of the children sitting quietly listening to the Bible.

I have always asked one of them to read for the rest to listen and I will allow them to ask me questions for clarity. It is not me alone who does it but all the evangelists are involved in this teaching. In fact, I was supposed to travel to Kumasi with David Wumbei to participate in the discussing of the 50^th year jubilee of the Church of Christ in Ghana. I thought it important to rather delegate that to David and avail myself at the fasting and prayer program at Duuni and the visiting of the Church School. David is the one who stood in for us in Kumasi. Thank God for the power He has granted us to serve in different ways and capacities.

Campus Ministry. The Yendi Senior High School ministry is progressing as directed by the Lord. This was established in the recent years by Frank and I. Bro Stephen Morogo is now delegated to be there but once a while I visit them to see how they are faring. In its entirety the ministry is going on well and we hope it will grow from strength to strength even though it’s a young. I visited them on the 12^th June at 7am and preached. From there I proceeded to Gbangbalga to worship there too. I had the opportunity again to preach there as well. This congregation is still one of the indigenous congregations that keep on doing very well. The songs alone edifies like a sermon with a double edge.

Prison Ministry. Brother Stephen still visits the Yendi Prisons to teach on behalf of the Yendi church. We cherish being part of these ministries and hope the Lord will open doors for souls to be won from there. A roster is there for the churches (church of Christ and denominations) in Yendi for both inmates and officers. Sundays mornings are for the inmates while Fridays mornings are for officers.

With God all things are possible. It is a joy to look into town and see prospects in various ways. We are currently working to put up a youth club (FRIENDS OF CHRIST YOUTH CLUB) to boost our methods of evangelism. This club will include clear church programs, sporting activities and academic oriented programs. We may go beyond these borders depending on where the spirit leads us. We are already being blessed by God as He has already joined us with brethren from the USA who are working hard to procure sporting equipment and uniforms for us. We believe this will be one of the big and attractive ministries and we will be glad for brethren to be praying and partnering with us in all these ministries. I am presently working on the constitution and bylaws and hope it will soon be completed by the grace of God.

Quite apart from the sports uniform that has been delivered to Elder Josiah in the USA to be given to us in Yendi, I have talked with an NGO (Christian Children Fund of Canada) leadership who has agreed to assist us with T-Shirts. They will print on the shirt whatever information we want. In addition to that is the “Church of Christ Rural Water Development Program”. The local leadership in Yendi has also committed to assist us in some way when the time is due.

I am teaming up with the preacher of the Chamba Church of Christ, Alex, and the Kpatinga congregation to establish a congregation in Bimbilla by the end of July. Bimbilla is the capital of the Nanumba district. We have already found contacts and now praying for the Lord to lead us. Bimbilla is equally like Yendi, which is predominantly Muslim community. We will enter and gradually receive those the Lord has called to his kingdom. We need prayer in all this areas.

By the grace of God the Lord blessed us with three bicycles from Prestoncrest which is given to three lay preachers (Alhassan Azindo, Daniel Dawuni and Alex Kulima) respectively for village work. These three brethren are helping in Bakpaba, Ngani and Gusheigu areas. The three brothers were called at Papa Musah’s house on the day the bicycles were to be handed to them. We called on Papa Musah to advise them and bless the bicycle for their successful use in the villages. With that a word of wisdom was given by Papa Musah who has lost his sight. This serves as encouragement and motivation as he contributes his quota in the kingdom of God.

Yendi evangelists are keeping on meeting regularly every week to plan and pray for the work in Yendi area, our partnering congregations in Ghana and overseas, and sister district. Yendi church has added songs and praises to her services.

CHALLENGES:

We are still calling for brethren to be praying for us for the Lord to bless the Yendi church with resources to complete the worship place which will serve as worship place and house the church nursery school. The school is housed in a private residence and the landlord is always on us to leave the house for him to complete his house and rent it out.

My family for some years now has face challenges in the house in which we are living. We have face persecution in different ways. We have a chamber and hall where my wife and three of our children are living. One of our rooms has door leading outside where for long time some of the households have intentionally been throwing garbage. We have endured it to an extend that two of the households have teamed against my family. In all we do, there are insults by two of the ladies every day. It became so open and serious and I went to one of the ladies involved husbands and pleaded with him to talk to his wife that we will always love to live in peace with them but that rather made the lady more furious. She became so angry with my family to the extent that our lives are now under threat. There are nine (9) households who are all Muslims in that one compound. We are the only Christian family. Some of the time we will dry our clothing and when we come back some of them are used to clean the floor and dirty things. There was a day when we dried our clothing in the courtyard and came later to find one of the cloths of Priscilla (our daughter) wet with blood and we never knew where this is coming from. The troubles are so much that my wife has to relocate to another house with the children. As I am sending you this work report I have moved her to a single room in another house within Yendi town with the children so that I can cautiously live with them till I have a good accommodation that can house the whole family. The best solution is for me to leave the house fully because they can sometimes plant charms against people. I am asking brethren to join me in praying so that I will be able to raise my own house (accommodation) where all this will totally be avoided.

We need your continues prayer for our ministries and challenges.

May the name of the Lord be praise,

Alhassan Abdulai Andrews.