No more Ramadan!!!

Monday marked the first Ramadan that Inusah has not taken part. Last year Inusah decided that he would become a Christian and reject Islam after the fast. So, this year marked the first time that he has eaten during the days of this month-long event.

Pastor Andrew and I decided that we would visit Inusah and celebrate his new liberty in Christ on Monday. See, here when the Muslims break their fast, it is cause for great celebration. They will cook food, many times killing goats and rams. They feast, and here in Ghana anyone that visits the house will be fed.

We knew that Inusah’s family would not allow him to take part of the celebration since he was a convert to Christianity, nor would he want to take part since it was a part of his former religion. Though he is happy in his new found faith, we thought that it might be a hard day for him, since there were so many past memories about this day. So we decided to help make it a good day, one of celebration about his liberty in Christ.

Monday was planned to be a day to celebrate Inusah’s freedom from Islam. When we arrived on Monday afternoon, Inusah was not ready yet, so we waited in his room as he prepared. This is when something funny happened.

See, the practice here is to give food to anyone that arrives. So they heaped a plate full of white rice and stew for us. They wanted Andrew and me to eat. What to do? They wanted us to eat, yes, but they also wanted to remind Inusah that they had shunned him. They would not offer him food, and they made sure that they served us food in front of him. He did not ask and had not planned on being there long enough to be served.

As Inusah’s younger sister left the room, Andrew and I looked at each other. “What should we do?” So we asked Insuah. He said that he needed to get ready, but that we could eat some. We told him that we would eat a little, as not to offend the family, but just enough, and we were still going out with him to eat. That seemed to settle everything.

So we prayed over the food. (This is a real I Corinthians chapter 8 experience. That is the passage that talks about eating things that are offered to gods. A missionary gets to really experience the Bible in some ways that a pastor in his home culture does not). After asking God to bless it and dedicating it to him, we ate. It was really good food, but we ate just enough not to offend and then left. (Pray for Inusah’s sister, we are trying to get her an Arabic Bible and trying to witness to her).

After Insuah was ready, we headed off to Campus for a time of fellowship. We went to one of the dorms and ate some really good local food, jollof rice. We tried to get Inusah to buy a ton, but he settled for a large normal portion. After some eating and chatting, I asked each person, ”What was the best thing to happen in your life this past year?” We started with Andrew and worked around the table. This was Inusah’s answer, “The best thing that has happened to me this year is becoming born again. As a follower of Christ, I can have peace!”


Well, that just made the whole day better. After about two hours we all headed back home. Please continue to pray for Inusah, his family, and others that he is seeking to witness to. Also pray for the Lord to give him specific direction in regards to his future.

Baptisms

Yesterday at the Bible Study we where able to baptize our first three converts. It was a long saga, that I will not take the time to cover, but lets just say that finally after waiting for three weeks for the public water to flow in the pipes, we decided that we just needed to find a local river that we could use.



The Lord provided a great location, and we all had a wonderful time. Our first person baptized was a young man named Inusha. Inusha used to be a Muslim (one of his jobs in the mosque was to call out the prayer calls to gather people to daily prayers). He was very eager to be baptized, and rushed out to be the first person.



Our second person was Maybel. Maybel is a young single mother, that Patty led to Christ, and has been disciplining. She is Asante, and has never been in water over her knees. We explained everything to her, but still when I baptized her, she got sacred. But everything went well, and overall her baptism went well.





The last to get baptized yesterday was Joe. Joe is a young teenage guy that I led to Christ. He lives very close to the church and is very faithful to the Sunday services.



It was very exciting to see these people baptized, and publicly display that they have put their faith in Christ! Please continue to pray for each one of them, that they will grow, make good decisions, and become committed to Christ!

Just a few pictures of the areas that we visit in our Salvation Bible Studies:

Feeling the Nail

"I don't want to..."
Those would be the words to describe my feelings this morning. I was walking out of the house to go to the pharmacy and buy medicine for my foot - I stepped on a nail this weekend and have not enjoyed walking on it since! As I got to the junction and waited for a car, I kept debating with myself - should I go and see Inusah or skip it today? I had a good excuse! I had a hole in my foot and would have had to walk about 1/4 mile to get to his house. I mean, come on, did God really expect me to walk that far with a hole from a nail in my foot? Did I have to hobble around like a person with polio? I could just wait until Friday.

Then God put this thought in my mind. Jesus hung on a cross for hours, pinned by three nails for me, and here I was complaining about a small hole. That thought won the arguement. How could I fight against that truth? When I got on the tro-tro (mini-bus) Philippians 3:10 came to mind. 'That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.' I was not really suffering but simply getting to understand a little more of what Christ did for me. He bore the pain of nails for me, so couldn't I take the discomfort of one for someone else?

I am glad God won.

After getting to Inusah's house and waiting for him to finish the last few minutes of a movie he was watching, we started our Bible study. Currently I have been assigning him chapters in John to read and then he asks me questions about them. The goal was to get the Word into his mind and let It answer the questions that were still plaguing him about Christ.

Well, to my suprise he had some questions out of First Corinthains chapter six. After we talked for a while, Inusah looked at me and said, "I am going to become a Christian today, I am going to confess Christ!" Before I could say anything he said, "I today believe that Jesus is Christ, that He is God, and that He died for my sins, and I choose to follow Him, with all my strength, power, will, and mind. I am a Christian. I will not turn back!"

At first, I just sat there. I have witnessed to him for so long. I have asked him so many times if he was ready. And after all the waiting, it seemed so sudden. It had finally happened!

After a moment Inusah asked me what I thought. I took him to Romans chapter ten and showed him God's Word - if he really believed what he had just said, then God said he was saved. I asked him what would happen if he died, and he told me that he would go to Heaven. Then he added, "If my family asks me now if I am a Muslim, I will tell them that I am Christian now." Then, "Pastor now that I am a Christian, what do I need to do?"

I talked to him about the five basic things a Christian should do: read the Bible, pray, go to church, witness, and give. After that, we talked about baptism. On Friday we will continue our study on baptism. Baptism will be a big step. Confession is important to the individual converting from Islam, but not the family. Confession can be hidden, but when a person gets publicly baptized, there is no turning back. Often that is when the persecution starts.

I was still in shock when we parted, and he walked away with a big smile on his face. You never know when the fruit will be ripe, and God will allow it to be picked! I guess that is why faithfulness is so important.

I believe God wanted me to see the truth of Philippians 3:10 today. I must be willing to fellowship with His suffering and die to self, before I can taste the power of His ressurection. There is no resurrection without death, and there is no cross without suffering. God, please let us be willing to feel the nails so that we can see Your person and power!

Am I Faithful With One???

I had a reminder again today about something that God showed me in college. I remember one day after chapel, I was really excited. I was walking down the sidewalk thinking about the thousands of people that I would love to lead to Christ. Then God gave me this thought, or should I say that He hit me with this 2"x 4", "Why should I give you thousands to lead when I cannot trust you with one!?!"

Today I think that He wanted me to learn this truth again. Today is the end of Ramadan. That is the period of fasting that Muslims do, and it is very important to observe if they want to go to paradise. At the end of Ramadan, all Muslims go to the mosque and pray, then go home and feast, breaking their fast. Before I went visiting today I had to walk through a large Muslim community to see my mechanic. As I was going to his house I passed by one of the mosques. The scene was amazing. There were about 3,000 - 4,000 people outside. The mosque could not hold them all. There they were, mostly dressed in white, facing east, men in one group, head-covered women in another. They were bowing, heads pressing against the ground, and reciting the prayers as the Imam prayed into the microphone "Allah Ahk-bar..." I just stood there and watched for about 15 minutes. As I walked away before they dismissed I started to think how they needed to be reached. Oh, how great it would be to start a church in Aboabo (a large Muslim community).

After checking the mechanic (who was not home), I started visitation. From that point everything started to go wrong. My first few people were not at home or at work. I could not get cars because the taxi and tro-tro (mini-bus) drivers are Muslim and were not working. Let's just say that by the time I got to Anloga, I was not very Spirit-filled.

I finally made it to Inusah's house (this is a Muslim man that I have been working with for 7 months to lead to Christ), and when I got inside I found two Jehovah's Witnesses there. I decided to stay to make sure these men did not impart any false teaching to my friend. This is a good time to say that I was visiting by myself. My partner has started university classes and cannot go with me, so I just visit men on Tuesday. Well, here I am with two JW's and one man that I love, that I hope to see saved. They both speak Twi and English perfectly. I felt like a guy that comes to a gun fight with a knife and a bum leg. Inusah asked me to join in and asked what I thought about what they were saying. Basically I explained to Inusah that just like Islam and Christianity are different and that they both do not lead to Heaven, so also Jehovah's Witness teachings and Christianity are different (keep in mind that this guy does not know much about the Bible, to him a Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, or Mormon are all the same). I told him that if he decided to follow their teaching, that it was a totally different faith. They were not going to Heaven.

To make a really long four hours of Bible discussion and debate short... it finally ended. I left, Inusah followed me out, and the JW's stayed. Inusah walked with me, and we chatted as we went. I told him that I loved him and just wanted him to know the truth. I told him that I would be praying for him. We said our goodbyes and then I took a taxi home.

As I was going home, this thought from the Word of God kept running through my mind... Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

Then it hit me... here I was asking God for this great thing, but I had been careless in the things that He had already given me to do. He has given me one man, one of these Muslim souls. And when his time of need came, I needed to be Spirit-filled, full of grace so that I could know how to answer these men. I was not.

You never get today back when it is done, and you might not have tomorrow. You know, when you are young, you think life is made up of the big things, but the truth is that life is like lace. It is the small threads that make up the pattern and really make the thing beautiful. Today I am asking God to help me to do the small and do them well.

***(This reminds me of a story that I read in the Book of Virtues, but it is really long. Maybe I can type it out someday and put it in here, but for now I hope a word is enough for the wise. Let's just pray that this is one lesson learned quickly).***