Here we have come to follow more the Lancaster Baptist Church, idea of visitation. As a person can see from the pictures, there are always tons of people around their homes. Given the social climate of Ghana, no one will turn a person away that wants to talk about the Bible, even if they are totally uninterested. Given these facts, our visitation program is done in the following manner:
1. We hand out tracts to as many people as we can. (In taxis, tro-tros, and at town).
2. We visit from door to door, room to room, and person to person. We try to give each person that we see or meet a piece of gospel literature. Then we invite them to our Bible studies. (We focus on the location that is closest to their current location).
3. After the person attends the group Bible studies, we gain information about their home and community. Then if possible try to start the first Bible studies with them, during our main Bible study time.
4. After they attend our Bible studies, someone will bake a loaf of bread (this is part of the cultural make-up) and we will bring it to the home thanking the person for attending. And will set up a weekly time to start personal Bible studies with the person and his family if possible.
5. After about 5-6 weeks of Study, either one of two things will happen. The person will see the difference of our gospel from that of their church, religion, or cult and start to run away because of conviction, or they will be very open and ready to receive Christ. (These Bible studies are mostly based on 5 story in the Old Testament, and they culminate with Christ on the cross, and His fulfillment of each story, i.e. Abraham and Isaac, Passover, Brazen Serpent, so on).
6. By this time we have developed a new but strong relationship with this convert, and we step right into the discipleship role. We followed the normal steps of baptism, Bible reading, and church attendance. Once a person becomes baptized, and is attending weekly, we try to connect them to the people attending in their area, and allow the group to help continue their growth.
This is not the only way, but is the way that we have found to be very effective for our ministry here in the culture of Ghana. The Bible Study method does extend the time that it takes to give the gospel to people, but we have found that it greatly aids the growth of the new converts. Currently about 40% of our total converts get baptized, and 80% of the people that attend group Bible studies, will get baptized.
This past week has been great. Sunday night Bismark, one of the men that attends our weekly Bibles trusted Christ as his Savior. Pray for his wife that she will trust Christ also. Also Dennis trusted Christ as his Savior during the week at a personal in home Bible study. Pray for Dennis, we wants to marry the women that he has fathered a child with, and also wants her to attend services.
No comments:
Post a Comment