For the whole month of April Leona and I have been working
and travelling in West Africa. We started in Ghana, then spent a week in Togo
and now are completing our stay in Liberia.. One interesting thing about West
Africa is that every other country along the coast is English speaking and
every other one French speaking.. Of the three we have visited Togo is French
speaking. Otherwise their cultures are quite similar. Rev. Andrew Mickelson led
the first Apostolic Lutheran mission trip to this area of Africa, namely to
Nigeria, already 40 years ago.At that time such an undertaking was highly controversial
but the "call had come from Macedonia" so he came. On one of those
trips he also visited Liberia with Pastor Gust Kandoll. In recent years we have
not been able to keep in touch with our contacts in Nigeria - assumedly because
of war conditions in the area - but with a visit by Andy Kandoll to the mission
field of his father in 2008 our contacts with the church in Liberia were
revived and have remained very active since then. (It should also be mentioned
that his sister Joyce and her husband Dan Karnes were in the Peace Corps in
Liberia many years ago and that is why Gust visited here) . Pastor Bob Maki
opened the mission to Ghana together with Pastor Frank Famiyeh of that country
a number of years ago and on that basis we build our mission efforts in that
country further.
With funds
supplied by The Master's Mission a church was built for the Lakeside ALC
congregation in the mid 2000's. It is a spacious church that has an active
congregation which often hosts combined services with the othter Apostolic
Lutheran Churches in Accra. Here are some of the members at the sevice we held
on Good Friday.
A very
important meeting we had this time was with the reconstituted Board of the ALC
Ghana. A serious and efficient body of servants. The advisor to this Board is
Mr. Ben Eghan, who just happens to be the Secretary of State for the current
national government - third from right. At the end of the table the current
president and chairman of the Board, Pastor Emmanuel Baisie.
The Sunday
School of another of our churches in Accra, the Gbawe ALC with two of their
teachers.
As a prelude
to the Easter Sunday celebration service at the Gbawe Church the younger youth
provided a song and dance act praising God.
The Gbawe church up on a mountain where the
congregation has a lovely view of the valley and full air-conditioning. Note
the organ (drums) in the front row. This church was completely built by
resources provided by local residents. On this Easter morning it was something
like being on the mount of transfiguration.
Lovely lasses. Leona with the Sunday School teachers
at that church.
Member of the congregation, seriously handicapped
Sarah, the mother of three children, who struggles to survive in a society that
is largely unable to help the handicapped. She is hoping to get some support
money so she can finish training as a seamstress. She could use this trade to
better support her family.
On Easter Monday we decided to really take it easy. I
invited about 50 of the youth from two churches out to the Botanical Gardens
Park where we had a great time. You know how I love young people. During the
afternoon we also took plenty of time around God's Word and there were many
questions. There was also a lot of drumming and singing of spiritual songs.
A more formal pose of some of the kids at the park.
Grandpa gets the only chair of course.
As you can imagine the Easter Sunday weekend rather
dominated our time in Ghana as well as the very important meetings with had
with the ALCG Board and Pastor Frank Famiyeh. Things are healing in Ghana and
the church is moving ahead. How crucial that we can come regularly to encourage
them.
In God's love and peace,
Dennis
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