I will tell of all Your wonderful deeds

The African Enterprise Ghana Board welcomes the St Paul's team

One of the delights of St Paul’s Tervuren is the number of genuine places around the world that we have really good contacts with. Over the last few years, we have developed our links with Ghana, and in particular with Ben Sachie, the leader of African Enterprise there, one of the mission partners we support. After visits to Brussels, Ben invited a team from St Paul’s to visit them in Accra, the Ghanaian capital to be involved in the preparations of a city-wide mission being held to mark the 50^th Anniversary of the Ghana Evangelism Committee.

We joined a number of churches for their Sunday morning services, and the sense of joy in the Lord was so palpable in the vibrancy of their worship and the warmth of their welcome. They loved Jesus and that was clear to see, not just in the way we were welcomed, but in the way they were working to make Jesus known. We visited a small church in a poor neighbourhood. They had recently acquired a rundown building that they were turning into a small secondary school for local children who could not afford to go to school. In another church, we met some of the home-grown and trained leaders that were planting new churches in places where there were none – from cafés and homes to a church that wasn’t much more than a lean-to but had become a gathering place for young people wanting to hear about Jesus.

They were really wholistic in their approach to making Jesus known. There was an eco-conference at the university, and afterwards over 50 young people agreed to be part of a street cleaning outreach, clearing away litter in one of the run-down areas of the city as plastic pollution is a problem that impacts many of their local fishing communities.

One of the highlights for me was listening to one of the Ghanaian MPs, sharing with student leaders and those aspiring to a career in politics, about the integrity he must have and display as a politician, and how he needs at all times to remember who it is he is serving first and foremost as a Christian. The openness and candour that was displayed was incredible (including answering honestly “surely as a politician you must lie or avoid the truth”). It was a real joy to be able to meet up with him in Brussels when he came for the European Prayer Breakfast, and to hear of the plans he has to try and get one going back in Ghana.

The phrase they had at the bottom of their banners – the Whole Church taking the Whole Gospel to the Whole nation and beyond – is so inspiring. The importance of partnership was something we had seen at the NGO leaders conference, where the importance of collaboration was a strong theme. Recognising that working together enabled far better long-term outcomes, how can we see other organisations or churches as partners rather than rivals was a great question to explore.

The team returned so encouraged. It is so easy to be disheartened in church life by our, at times feeble, attempts at talking about Jesus and making him known, so being with others as they welcomed us in their churches and their outreach was such a joy. Much more though, was the privilege of sharing and listening to the stories of how Jesus makes a difference in our own lives, as our friendship deepened due to our shared faith in Jesus. It is that friendship that enables us to better speak of the wonders of the Lord.