|
|
 Pastor Dotse of Taifa Central SDA church. |
 Opening night |
 Childrens Sabbath School |
 Adult Sabbath School |
 At our meetings, we had a few Christian music groups come out and perform for us. This one is called Victory Voices. |
 This is the youth choir. |
 This was the last night that we held the meetings in the church. |
 The woman sitting down is known as the church mother. At age 67, she is the oldest member of the church. |
 Our site was a park. So before every meeting there would be kids playing soccer. |
 Several of the church members arrived early each night to set up the chairs. |
 I usually arrived early so many times I helped them set up chairs. |
 Daytime view of "No Way for Satan" Park |
 This is the banner they made to announce the evangelistic series. |
 The site had a sound system that could be heard from miles away. |
 Arguably the best music of the series came from the Deliverance singers. |
 This team kept record of the attendance throughout the meetings. |
 We averaged 295 people and 21 guests a night during the meetings. |
 Each night, the youth choir would sing the theme song before I started. |
 The Prayer warriors at work. |
 The big screen helped a lot to attract the audience. |
 This was an appeal night. These nights had a very powerful message. |
 Many people responded to those appeals. |
 A selected few from the youth choir would also sing the appeal song. |
 This is how the site was set up for church on Sabbath. |
 This is the main choir. |
 This is the singing band. They are a more traditional choir and they only sing in acapella. |
 The baptisms were done in a pool at a church about an hour away from my site. All the baptisms from my church and 2 other churches were done here. We had 2 pastors in the pool because there was a large group of people to be baptized and we needed to save time. So after about 8 baptisms, another pastor standing outside the pool would bless the next 8 people who were about to be baptized and they would continue like that until there was no one else left. It was pretty amazing. |
 These were the singers at the baptism. |
 In this group is me, a few of the elders, and all of the people who were baptized. |
No Way for Satan
August 5 2009 / ShareHim in Ghana, Jul. 10 - Jul. 25 '09 #377by Quincy Egwu
Campaign Site Narrative from Taifa, Accra in Ghana. The speaker assigned to this site was Quincy Egwu.
My name is Quincy Egwu and I went to Accra, Ghana as part of a group from the Glendale SDA Church in Arizona. I just finished high school and I'm now planning to attend ASU as a science and kinesiology major. Before actually going on this trip, I was struggling on figuring out how I was going raise the money to go. Then one day, Pastor Greg Jones, who was the coordinator of this trip and a pastor in my church, told me that a couple had anonymously donated $1200 to my trip because they couldn't participate in it for whatever reason. Of course, this was great news and I couldn't have been in a better mood since most of my trip had already been paid for! But that's also when I realized that God wanted me to go on this trip.
This was my third ShareHim mission trip and I had a similar experience on my last trip to the Dominican Republic where $700 of my school tuition was paid off because I went on that trip. So maybe you can say I'm just lucky or it's all a coincidence, but the chances of receiving a donation for over $1000 is very low, so I knew that God was calling me to go on this trip and that's exactly what I did.
My first ShareHim mission trip was in Ghana in 2007 so I knew some people there and wasn't exactly a stranger to the culture. The church I was selected to speak in was Taifa Central, Accra which is one of the bigger churches there. Since it was raining on the week that we started, we held the first three meetings in the church. The church was a good hour and a half away from the hotel and the ride was not that smooth, so it took a while to get used to it.
During that time in the church, I went through some hard times. I know the first night is always tough, but what happened on the next night was a real challenge. I was preaching the sermon about why there is so much suffering and I was getting to the peak of the sermon and everything seemed to be going right. But then, all of a sudden, my computer froze, and when my computer froze, I froze up as well. I noticed that there was confusion going on within the audience, so I went down and tried to fix the computer but it was no use. It just remained frozen. It's an embarrassing feeling when something like that happens; however, I knew that I had to finish the sermon.
So I got back on the stage and concluded it the best way I could. I did fine on the conclusion but I felt that all the energy and momentum that had been carried through the sermon had been drained out. So I was feeling really discouraged at that point. At that time, the attendance was at its worst, with an average of about 167 people with only 6 guests a night. I've noticed that anytime you try to do God's work, something will always go wrong. Satan hates it when people hear the gospel because it exposes him for who he really is, so he tries anything possible to ruin it. But in every tough situation, God always shows us a way out and that's exactly what he did.
Since it hadn't been raining, the next night we moved our meetings from the church to a site called "No way for Satan" park. From then on, things just got a whole lot better. There were no more computer problems or any other real technical problems. Also the number of guests boosted from 6 to 20 people a night. So things were going great and people were responding to the message.
Several nights later while I was preaching about baptism, it ironically started to rain. Now it hadn't rained since we moved out to the park, which was a miracle, since we were in the rainy season, but for some reason the rain chose to fall that specific night. I knew that the people were known to leave when it started to rain, but I still needed to get the message across. So I continued to preach, and amazingly, despite the rain, everyone stayed in their seats which allowed me to preach the best sermon in my life. The rain actually made the sermon feel more powerful, and it couldn't have felt any better than that. It was just a shower of blessings.
Then when I made my appeal, a lot of people came forward to prepare for baptism. That night, I saw and felt the Holy Spirit at his best. After that night, it didn't rain again until the campaign ended.
Our attendance remained strong, people continued to respond to the message, and we ended with an average of about 295 people a night and 32 baptisms. The 32 baptisms were great, but I was a little disappointed that many people had dropped out. I knew this because at one point, the Bible class had as many as about 50 people and some of them I personally talked with and explained to them some of the sermons. I even drew for one of them a layout of the 2300 day prophecy so he could understand it better. But unfortunately, none of them followed through with the class for whatever reason. I realized though that there was nothing else I could have done or said for them to go through with their decision and be baptized. Whatever it was that was keeping them from making the decision to follow Christ is now between them and the Holy Spirit.
It was very interesting to watch the Holy Spirit at work. Out of the 32 people that were baptized, I have no idea about any one of their backgrounds or the struggles that they go through. But despite the circumstance, each of them made that decision to follow Christ and that was truly impressive.
I saw the Holy Spirit work through the music. Every night we began our meetings with about 30 to 45 minutes of great music. The music is what attracted the people to come out and hear the gospel, and I know that the Holy Spirit had something to do with that. Music is a powerful ministry for the gospel and I witnessed that. I also saw the Holy Spirit work through my translator. He had very little education, but from what someone told me, he translated just about word for word of everything that I said. So that impressed me too.
Furthermore, I was impressed with how the Holy Spirit worked through me. This was my third time preaching an evangelistic series, but every night that I went up, I still got goose bumps. I get goose bumps even thinking about it now, but it's an incredible feeling. It's scary to go in front of a big crowd and speak, but the Holy Spirit turned that fear into something that I love and now have the ability to do well. When people describe how I preach, I keep hearing the word "power." So I know for sure that the Holy Spirit has spoken through me and I give all the credit to him.
Preaching an entire evangelistic series night after night (twice on Sabbath) for two weeks is physically and mentally exhausting. By the end of the first week, my throat was sore and I felt like I was going to faint. But the Holy Spirit gave me the strength I needed to push through and finish the work that we started. If it wasn't for the Holy Spirit working through me, I wouldn't have made it through the whole two weeks.
Overall, the evangelistic series was a huge success. God gave Satan no way for him to interfere with our meetings. But I don't think that happened just because of the name of the park. It happened because of prayer. Each night, there was a group of prayer warriors made up of the pastor and several elders to pray over the site. Their prayers were very loud and intense (I could hear them while I was preaching) but I believe they were answered along with the prayers we received at home in Phoenix. Prayer is one of those things that I struggle with, but I have witnessed its power and I know that it works. This has been a tremendous experience and I am very thankful to be able to go on this trip.
It's not easy to raise all that money, so special thanks to Bert and Gertie Woods and all of those who donated, for allowing God to use them and giving me the opportunity to go on this trip. I really appreciate it. I now know that it's not just the pastors' job to spread the gospel. All of us have the responsibility as Christians to spread the gospel as well and it doesn't necessarily have to be by preaching. It can be through music, art, prayer, construction, donating money for others to go on trips like these, or even just by the way we live our lives--whatever it takes, as long as everyone gets to hear that message of salvation.
I don't know when I will be given another opportunity to go on another mission trip like this again but whenever it comes, I'm definitely going to take it. So when God calls you, just trust Him and go and you will be blessed if not as much, more than I am. If God can use me to do his work, I know he can use you.
This was my third ShareHim mission trip and I had a similar experience on my last trip to the Dominican Republic where $700 of my school tuition was paid off because I went on that trip. So maybe you can say I'm just lucky or it's all a coincidence, but the chances of receiving a donation for over $1000 is very low, so I knew that God was calling me to go on this trip and that's exactly what I did.
My first ShareHim mission trip was in Ghana in 2007 so I knew some people there and wasn't exactly a stranger to the culture. The church I was selected to speak in was Taifa Central, Accra which is one of the bigger churches there. Since it was raining on the week that we started, we held the first three meetings in the church. The church was a good hour and a half away from the hotel and the ride was not that smooth, so it took a while to get used to it.
During that time in the church, I went through some hard times. I know the first night is always tough, but what happened on the next night was a real challenge. I was preaching the sermon about why there is so much suffering and I was getting to the peak of the sermon and everything seemed to be going right. But then, all of a sudden, my computer froze, and when my computer froze, I froze up as well. I noticed that there was confusion going on within the audience, so I went down and tried to fix the computer but it was no use. It just remained frozen. It's an embarrassing feeling when something like that happens; however, I knew that I had to finish the sermon.
So I got back on the stage and concluded it the best way I could. I did fine on the conclusion but I felt that all the energy and momentum that had been carried through the sermon had been drained out. So I was feeling really discouraged at that point. At that time, the attendance was at its worst, with an average of about 167 people with only 6 guests a night. I've noticed that anytime you try to do God's work, something will always go wrong. Satan hates it when people hear the gospel because it exposes him for who he really is, so he tries anything possible to ruin it. But in every tough situation, God always shows us a way out and that's exactly what he did.
Since it hadn't been raining, the next night we moved our meetings from the church to a site called "No way for Satan" park. From then on, things just got a whole lot better. There were no more computer problems or any other real technical problems. Also the number of guests boosted from 6 to 20 people a night. So things were going great and people were responding to the message.
Several nights later while I was preaching about baptism, it ironically started to rain. Now it hadn't rained since we moved out to the park, which was a miracle, since we were in the rainy season, but for some reason the rain chose to fall that specific night. I knew that the people were known to leave when it started to rain, but I still needed to get the message across. So I continued to preach, and amazingly, despite the rain, everyone stayed in their seats which allowed me to preach the best sermon in my life. The rain actually made the sermon feel more powerful, and it couldn't have felt any better than that. It was just a shower of blessings.
Then when I made my appeal, a lot of people came forward to prepare for baptism. That night, I saw and felt the Holy Spirit at his best. After that night, it didn't rain again until the campaign ended.
Our attendance remained strong, people continued to respond to the message, and we ended with an average of about 295 people a night and 32 baptisms. The 32 baptisms were great, but I was a little disappointed that many people had dropped out. I knew this because at one point, the Bible class had as many as about 50 people and some of them I personally talked with and explained to them some of the sermons. I even drew for one of them a layout of the 2300 day prophecy so he could understand it better. But unfortunately, none of them followed through with the class for whatever reason. I realized though that there was nothing else I could have done or said for them to go through with their decision and be baptized. Whatever it was that was keeping them from making the decision to follow Christ is now between them and the Holy Spirit.
It was very interesting to watch the Holy Spirit at work. Out of the 32 people that were baptized, I have no idea about any one of their backgrounds or the struggles that they go through. But despite the circumstance, each of them made that decision to follow Christ and that was truly impressive.
I saw the Holy Spirit work through the music. Every night we began our meetings with about 30 to 45 minutes of great music. The music is what attracted the people to come out and hear the gospel, and I know that the Holy Spirit had something to do with that. Music is a powerful ministry for the gospel and I witnessed that. I also saw the Holy Spirit work through my translator. He had very little education, but from what someone told me, he translated just about word for word of everything that I said. So that impressed me too.
Furthermore, I was impressed with how the Holy Spirit worked through me. This was my third time preaching an evangelistic series, but every night that I went up, I still got goose bumps. I get goose bumps even thinking about it now, but it's an incredible feeling. It's scary to go in front of a big crowd and speak, but the Holy Spirit turned that fear into something that I love and now have the ability to do well. When people describe how I preach, I keep hearing the word "power." So I know for sure that the Holy Spirit has spoken through me and I give all the credit to him.
Preaching an entire evangelistic series night after night (twice on Sabbath) for two weeks is physically and mentally exhausting. By the end of the first week, my throat was sore and I felt like I was going to faint. But the Holy Spirit gave me the strength I needed to push through and finish the work that we started. If it wasn't for the Holy Spirit working through me, I wouldn't have made it through the whole two weeks.
Overall, the evangelistic series was a huge success. God gave Satan no way for him to interfere with our meetings. But I don't think that happened just because of the name of the park. It happened because of prayer. Each night, there was a group of prayer warriors made up of the pastor and several elders to pray over the site. Their prayers were very loud and intense (I could hear them while I was preaching) but I believe they were answered along with the prayers we received at home in Phoenix. Prayer is one of those things that I struggle with, but I have witnessed its power and I know that it works. This has been a tremendous experience and I am very thankful to be able to go on this trip.
It's not easy to raise all that money, so special thanks to Bert and Gertie Woods and all of those who donated, for allowing God to use them and giving me the opportunity to go on this trip. I really appreciate it. I now know that it's not just the pastors' job to spread the gospel. All of us have the responsibility as Christians to spread the gospel as well and it doesn't necessarily have to be by preaching. It can be through music, art, prayer, construction, donating money for others to go on trips like these, or even just by the way we live our lives--whatever it takes, as long as everyone gets to hear that message of salvation.
I don't know when I will be given another opportunity to go on another mission trip like this again but whenever it comes, I'm definitely going to take it. So when God calls you, just trust Him and go and you will be blessed if not as much, more than I am. If God can use me to do his work, I know he can use you.