Sunday March 1, 2009 at God's Will Baptist Church in the Kalpohanie Village on the East side of Tamale

God's Will Baptist Church was begun in 2000. Rev. John Napadow and others from the old Baptist Pastors Training Center were involved. They first met in a school near the site of the present Church building. In 2003 the building was built with the help and participation of Bob and Bonnie Parker and the Seed Ministry of Tamale. Pastor Alex was a student from Bolga Tanga in the north. He was called soon after the church was formed to be their pastor. The church has a school building adjacent to it separated by a courtyard. The school building serves as a nursery day school during the week and Sunday school classrooms for the children on Sunday. There are also Sunday School classes which meet on the school veranda and in the courtyard as seen in the pictures. The men standing between our green Toyota pickup and the taxiecab are Mr. Lansah our driver and general assistant and David the night watchman at our compound. David was our contact person at the church and it was his idea for us to go there. He had requested us to come for some time, so I told him to get his pastor to invite us and we would. He arranged it and the door was opened for us to minister. I preached a message using two of the Bible stories from S-T4T and asked the question, "What shall I do with Jesus."

more pictures from God's Will Baptist Church, Kalpohanie

When the service began there were only a hand full of worshippers in the sanctuary, but soon many more came in from Sunday School and others came in as they arrived. Everyone gets involved in the worship. They are unrestrained in their worship and praise and would probably be put to sleep by our worship in the states. We noticed that during the preaching there were two of the men who moved among the worshippers with long switches to make sure that everyone was paying attention.

More from the service at God's Will Baptist Church

These pictures show the celebration and praise of the people at God's Will. The third picture is of pastor Alex who is their pastor. He is a product of the Baptist Pastor's Training Center that is now the Northern Ghana Baptist Theological Seminary. The last picture is of Mr. Lansah who was called upon to say a few words of introduction for Peggy and me.

More from the shopping trip

The food items like formula and cereal are dried so these cases will go a long way when it is prepared. Thank you Sarah and God bless you.

Buying food for Anfanni Children's Home

Today we received money from a lady in Texas to buy food for the children at Anfanni. We don't solicit money, but this lady had seen some of pictures of the children and she sent the money by someone who was traveling through Ghana. We don't even know the lady's full name, just Sarah. I took the money and exchanged it for local currency at a rate of 1.3 for 1 which made the fund grow. We went to the children's home and took Emelia grocery shopping because she said they were almost out of food. She has places where she can buy in bulk and save money. Never has the middle man gotten such a blessing. Peggy had a blast helping Emelia, and it was all for the children. Didn't I hear somewhere that "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world?" God knows the exchange rate too for if it had not been 1.3 to 1 we would not have had enough money.

More from Sunday at Namdu

Prayer time is a big part of the worship in the village churches. They all pray out loud and at the same time. It took a bit of adjustment for this honky from Alabama, but it is their way and I know that God has no problem hearing all of them and understanding. He knows their hearts. The young man in the white shirt on the left is their worship leader who keeps things moving along. The shorter man standing in the middle in front of the chalk board is Pastor Daniel. The young girl in yellow is leading the singing which was accoppella. There is no electricity, no fans, no lights, just people worshiping God. After the service we presented them with the clothing and left pastor Daniel in charge of distribution. Then we had them gather for a group picture. Pray for these simple people and their needs and pray that their hearts will be on fire to evangelize their family members and friends, and those in the surrounding villages.

Visit to Namdu Village to preach and share the Gospel in Bible story form

This Sunday Lansah, Joseph and I went to a small village called Namdu. It was my first visit there, but Joseph had been there and thought it might be a place for us to work. The village has four other villages surrounding it a short walk away. The church there meets in a school building because they don't have a meeting place of their own. They have been given land and they have a dream of building a meeting place so that people from their village and the surrounding ones will have a place to worship together. The congregation is small, most don't speak English. Their pastor is named Daniel. We took clothing to them today, because they are poor and some of the people in the village are dressed in little more than rags. We got there for Sunday School which rapidly became an "ask the white preacher what this means session." They had some really good questions and God was good and gave me the answers. Many of their questions fit right in with the message God had given me, Surprise? I shouldn't be. I used the ST4T story Creation to the Church and then tied it together with the story of the trial of Jesus before Pilot, asking the question, that Pilot asked, "What shall I do with Jesus?" There is only one answer that is acceptable. Surrender.