New Creatures in Christ

Part of this post is borrowed from Patty's blog.

Today I wanted to tell you about some of our new believers and ask you to pray for them!

This is Joe. He is an Asante. He is 14 years old and in junior high school. He was one of the first people that accepted Christ near our meeting place. He faithfully attends every Sunday morning and evening. He was also one of our first converts to get baptized. He has started reading through his Bible with the church reading program. Please pray for his spiritual growth.

This is Dora. She is a Kasina, from the northern part of Ghana and was raised in an animist home. She was raised worshipping idols and going to the "witch doctor" if there was a problem. She found no peace or fulfillment in this so when she moved to Kumasi a few years ago, she decided to attend church. Sadly, she found no peace there either. She tried many churches, but felt like most of them were no different than what she had been raised in - the music was the same, the thinking was the same, the attitudes were the same. The only difference between the churches and her old ways were the use of "Christian" terms for everything! Even though she has never been to school, she bought an English Bible and started teaching herself to read with a little help from the Indian people she worked for. John met Dora while inviting some girls at a sewing shop to come for the Thursday night Bible study. She started coming to the Thursday night study, and we began witnessing to her. She accepted Christ and was baptized. Her employer recently moved to the other side of the city so she now lives very far from the meeting area. She still faithfully attends every Sunday morning, but cannot come to any other services because of the distance. Please pray for her to get a job closer to the meeting area, and please pray for her continued growth.

This is Martha. She is a FraFra from the far north, near Burkina Faso. We met her through a bus driver we used during a missions trip last summer! The bus driver quit coming, but Martha didn't! She struggled greatly with fear, a common problem here, until she accepted Christ as her Savior a few months ago. She has not yet been baptized, and right now she is very sick. Please pray for her health, and pray, too, that she takes this important step of obedience at the end of August.

This is Fred. He is half Asante, half Nzema. He is a student at the city's Community College. He was raised in a Convention Baptist church, but had never heard the way of true salvation. He accepted Christ a little while ago, but is really struggling with baptism. He is heavily involved in a Charismatic Baptist Church, and it will be a big step to break with them. He loves coming to the Bible study, and he goes out witnessing every Saturday with John and Andrew (our co-worker). Please pray that he will let the Lord work in his life, and that he will follow God completely, even though that means breaking with his old church.

This is Richard. He is Asante. He has been attending all three Bible studies weekly for six months. Richard was Andrew's taxi driver. He decided to stay one week and listen, and after he told us that he had never heard the things that we talk about before. He has attended the church of Christ for years, but had left after feeling no peace. Richard speaks English and Twi very well, and has been successful in live. He has his own home, is married with three sons in school, and owns his own taxi. We began to pray for him to receive Christ. The main fear that we had, was his church back ground. It seemed that he was learning new things, but pride was seeming to keep him from admitting that he was unsaved and ignorant of Christ completed work. Well, finally after finishing some salvation studies at church, I decided to take Richard aside privately two Sunday nights ago.

To make a long story short, after about 45 minutes Richard accepted Christ as his Savior. Had had done most of the talking, (if the reader knows me, this will amaze him). Basically he told me of all the wonderful blessing God had given him in his life, and at the end, he said, "If God has been so good to me, I have only one thing left that I can do, ask him to be my Lord and Savior". So he did. Please pray for Richard, he seems to be at peace now. Pray that he will be willing to be baptized in five weeks.

Would you please pray for these people? Yes, they are new creatures in Christ, but Satan does not let go easily! Even though he can never take them to Hell, he wants them to live a life of defeat here on earth. He doesn't want them to grow or bring others to Christ. He wants them to "forget that they have been purged from their old sins" (paraphrase of II Pt. 1:9). All of these people carry much baggage already from their past. Pray that they can "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Pt. 3:18).