Last days in Ghana

Today was the last day of training. Tomorrow I do the devotions on Ephesians 5, we hear testimonies and then we leave after lunch for Accra. We fly out for Atlanta at 12:30 am that night. The teaching has gone really well and I think the pastors gained a lot on Bible study methods and on the principles of marriage. It is always interesting to me how much I learn by teaching; even as I teach the same things, God opens up new insights to me over and over again.

I did learn a lot about the ministry here, called IN Network, Ghana. It is quite extraordinary. There is a cult here called the Trakosi. It teaches that if something bad happens in the family, like a death or serious problem, it is because the family is cursed by the gods. The only solution is to take one of your virgin daughters to a Trakosi priest and offer her to him as his slave. Girls as young as 5 or 6 sometimes are given into slavery in this way. The priest keeps them and sires many children from his "harem". Some have over 100 slaves. The ministry here helps liberate these girls, counsels them, offers training so they can earn a living, and gives their children an education. Nearly all become Christians in the process.

A man from Wisconsin came with us and has been taking great pictures. I have posted some on my Facebook page and hopefully I can attach more on the blog when I get home.

INN tries to plant a church wherever there is a shrine for this cult. We were training some of their church planters and some other pastors from the area that they invited. We are so privileged to be a part of this great ministry. Our prayer is that these men will be better equipped to go home to their churches and build them on the Word of God. Thanks for your help.

Al

Pictures from Ghana Trip

A Great Week of Training

It has been a very good week training pastors. We have around 60 and many of them have come from long distances for the training. The are eager to learn and have great attitudes. I and another pastor, Lee Heyward, trade off teaching devotions in the morning from the book of Ephesians. The we split the group into two groups and I teach on Bible study methods in the morning and on Marriage in the afternoon. Lee teaches on leadership principles. Today we traded groups and will start over with the same material. It is so rewarding to see these pastors grapple with the Word and rethink their beliefs, especially in the area of their marriages. We are not trying to get them to adopt an American view of marriage but a biblical one.

I did the devotion today on being raised up with Christ in the heavenly places and what a display that is to the powers and authorities, chapter 3:8-12. They responded really well and we entered a really neat time of worship together in response to the Word. What a privilege to be here!

I posted some pictures on my facebook so you can see there some of the sights around here. Go to Alan J. Lewis and they should be on my profile.

Al

Seeing the Country of Ghana

It has been a couple of difficult days. I've been crammed together with two other guys in the back of a small SUV driving for about 16 hours in the last two days. The Ghanans wanted to show us their country and we have covered about half of it or so it seems. I think that in the Christian life a lot of time is spent in the mundane and unpleasant so that we are available when the opportunity comes to make an eternal difference.

The country is pretty, very green this time of the year although it is very hot and humid. We've seen some beautiful beaches and a rainforest and lots of countryside. We briefly visited a family that had just had a funeral right before we came. They do that a lot differently than we do. Everybody comes dressed in black or red and it seems the whole town turned out. It becomes quite a social event, usually on Saturdays, and after the service later in the afternoon everyone comes over to the relatives' house and they essentially have a party.

We learned an interesting fact about this culture. Everyone's first name is the day of the week they were born on, although men and women have different names for the day of the week. For Friday men are called "Kofi" as in Kofi Annon. All men born on Friday have that first name. Then they are named after a friend or relative, then a Christian name like Paul or David, etc. and then their father's name. So they all have four names. They asked us what day of the week we were born on and none of us had a clue. Do you?

There seems to be an abundance of small churches here but very little knowledge of the truth. It makes our passion to teach pastors the Word more pressing. I can't wait to get started on Monday.

Thanks for your prayers,

Al

News from Ghana

I (Al) am in Ghana and adjusting to the 6 hour time change. On the way because of weather I missed my flight out of Atlanta and had to spend the night and then fly to New York to come on to Ghana. It is very hot and humid this time of year here with heat indexes over 100 everyday. Quite a change from the Midwest and snow that we left.

We spent some time today with Walter Pimpong the leader here. It turns out that we were at Trinity Seminary at the same time years ago but did not know each other. He is a fine godly man whom the Lord has used greatly here in Ghana. He has a ministry that rescues women who have been enslaved by a satanic cult. They have schools to train the women and other ministries to aide them. His group has also planted around 80 churches and we will be training some of their pastors and other pastors from the area in our conference. We hope to build some bridges with ReachGlobal for the future. The conference starts on Monday and we will be seeing some of the sights here in Ghana until then. I'll try to update as I can over the next few days.

Al