Dayton United Methodist Church Ghana 2014 Church Planting Mission: A day to learn a bit more about Ghana

Friday, August 1, 2014

A day to learn a bit more about Ghana

A view of downtown Shama from the Fortress slave castle. Off in the distance is a cross erected on those rocks in the ocean that has been there for hundreds of years. This is the location where the first European missionaries came ashore from Portugal to spread Christianity to Africa. This is the area in which our work started and continues today. Joseph's family home is just 100 yards out of the picture to the left.

We also visited a local beach resort for lunch and a little relaxation. It is important for us to decompress a bit before we attempt to re-enter our western culture after our very busy and emotionally draining work.

Just fun on the beach. No swimming suites but we had a great time anyway.

Last stop before the airport was a visit to Kakum National Park and the Canopy walkway. Seven segments of rope bridges between the tallest of trees in the rain forest. Lots of fun and beautiful views if you are not afraid of heights! Lunch followed at Hans Cottage and pictures with the crocodiles.

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The Mission Continues...

For the seventh year in a row, a team from Dayton United Methodist Church joins with two of our strategic missionary partners for outreach in Ghana, West Africa. The team partners with The Methodist Church Ghana, as we work with evangelists Joseph and Stella Otsin and medical missionary Dr. Cameron Gongwer. This year’s team travels first to Kumi, in the Boshen Circuit of the Ashanti Region and then to Anopasu, in the Shama Circuit of the Western Region. You can follow the team’s progress as we add stories, comments and photographs to this blog. Please keep in touch with us. You are invited to respond to the blog, and above all, please support the team and the work being done with your prayers.

Our Mission...

The main goal of the trip is to introduce the people in the villages to Jesus and offer them the opportunity to receive salvation. Each year Joseph works with his Bishop to identify rural villages and growing city suburbs that seem ready to receive the Gospel. Joseph then goes to these communities where he gets to know the local people and talks to them about Jesus. Joseph works with people from within these communities and begins organizing them into fledgling Methodist congregations. From within these tiny new churches, Joseph identifies a few potential leaders. One or two leaders from each of the congregations receive intensive training that qualifies them to serve the churches as lay pastors. Eventually, one of these people is chosen to serve each of the new churches as its “Caretaker”.

As the second step in establishing a new church, Joseph partners with evangelists and local churches from the United States and with Methodist congregations that are geographically close to the fledgling church. Together, these groups work to facilitate revival style meetings in the communities where the Gospel is presented. New believers who receive Christ as Savior at these meetings are immediately introduced to their lay pastor, and are invited to worship on Sunday. Then, on Sunday morning, the new church is dedicated at its inaugural worship service, with their local Methodist Superintendent and often the regional Bishop. This new church becomes a part of the local circuit and a member church of the local diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana. The pastor is presented with a bicycle so that he can more easily get around to visit his flock.

Hopefully right away, or perhaps at a later time, a third goal is to help the young churches with the construction of a simple worship pavilion. A pavilion consists of a roof on steel posts. It provides protection from the blazing sun and monsoon rain. Little by little, the growing congregation can complete their church building on their own, by pouring a floor and building walls.

Dr. Gongwer serves the Lord as a medical missionary with the Mission Society’s Global Resource Team. Cam is a family physician that promotes physical and spiritual health in individuals and communities. He coordinates mobile health clinics in Ghana, trains workers in international medicine and public health, and networks with Christian health professionals in America, Ghana, and India. Dayton UMC has a rich tradition of partnering with Dr. Cam in medical outreach in Ghana. Physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals from America’s heartland have had the chance to help bring physical healing into remote villages through Cam’s ministry. This year’s team will continue that tradition as we take medical clinics into the communities of Kumi and Anopasu.

A favorite area of ministry of the Dayton teams is that of outreach specifically directed to children. Over the years, hundreds of children in Ghanaian villages have heard stories, sang songs, watched skits, and played games that are all meant as avenues for them to meet Jesus for themselves. This year’s team includes a number of “kid people” to carry the Gospel to children.

Beginning with the 2012 mission, the teams from Dayton UMC have added the ministry of clean water in villages where none is available. We fund the drilling of bore holes and establishing wells is areas where the current water supply might be as little as a muddy stream shared with their livestock. These wells are sufficient to support the immediate area and dramatically improve overall health of the entire village.

History about Dayton UMC Missions in Ghana

The first mission team from the Dayton United Methodist Church to visit West Africa, went there in 2006 to help Dr. Cameron Gongwer and his wife Anne with their medical and literacy ministries in Ankaase, Ghana. The team was led by Pastor John Walls. Before departing for Africa, Pastor John asked the DUMC congregation to pray that the Lord would enable John to meet someone who could become a partner in Ghana for spreading the Gospel. The congregation did pray, and God was faithful. Through Dr. Cam’s connections, John was able to meet Joseph Otsin, an ordained evangelist and church planter working through the Methodist Church Ghana. From that initial meeting, a ministry partnership developed. Joseph and his wife Stella, an ordained elder and evangelist, began facilitating a partnership between the Methodist Church Ghana and Dayton United Methodist Church that continues to this day.

In 2008, Glenn and Sue Meiser, serving as vanguards for Dayton UMC, joined a team of evangelists heading to Ghana and lead by Cecil Williamson. During that trip, eleven new churches were planted and thousands of people came to faith in Christ. The Meisers watched and learned as much as they could and began planning to return to Ghana with teams from the church in Dayton. They remained after the Williamson Crusades concluded to help construct a worship Pavilion for the church at Atwima Mim.

The Meisers returned to Ghana in 2009 with one Spirit-led couple joining them. During that trip, two churches were planted and hundreds of people came to faith in Christ. That year, we began to include outreach to children as part of the daytime activities. We held medical clinics with the help of Ghanaian nurses, and helped to put a roof over a Methodist congregation. We also worshiped with our friends in Atwima Mim and with the two newly planted churches. (See our blog at dumcghana2009.blogspot.com)

We returned in 2010 with a team of nine that included our new senior Pastor, Mike Dominick. The 2010 team was able to expand our ministry and outreach in every area. We participated in evangelistic events, medical missions, children’s ministry, and pavilion construction. Pastor Mike also preached at an interdenominational prayer meeting and at a camp meeting attended by all of the Methodist congregations in the Kumasi area. Members of the team worshiped with the newly planted churches as well as with those with whom we worked during the two previous years. (See our blog at dumcghana2010.blogspot.com)

During the 2011 outreach, our team helped two small congregations reach their neighbors for Christ by providing extensive medical clinics, children’s ministry, children’s ministry training, pavilion construction, Gospel presentations during the daytime medical clinics and during evening evangelism events in the two villages. Team members were able to attend worship services with our friends who comprise six different Methodist congregations in the rural areas of the Kumasi Diocese. (See our blog at dumcghana2011.blogspot.com)

In 2012 The Dayton team returned to plant two new churches, attend to the medical needs of nearly a thousand people, continue our ministry with children and build two new church pavilions. A busy time indeed! New in 2012 was the addition of the water well ministry, where six new wells were established in rural villages without a source of good clean water. We had the pleasure of dedicating one of those wells before departing. (See our 2012 blog at dumcghana2012.blogspot.com)

The 2013 mission was particularly eventful, and proved to us that our work was indeed making a difference in Ghana. We again were blessed to be able to plant two new churches in Wenniso 3 and Korko in the Ashanti Region, build each a worship pavilion, and put down three more wells in areas of need. We provided medical treatment to over six hundred people while sharing the Gospel at the same time. It was a blessing to visit the churches we planted last year and see how they had grown and thrived! (See our 2013 blog at dumcghana2013.blogspot.com)

Dayton United Methodist Church Ghana 2014 Church Planting Mission

Friday, August 1, 2014

A day to learn a bit more about Ghana

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