Easter in Africa

On Easter Sunday, children from surrounding villages gathered at Kushibo Village, home of Heritage Baptist Church, to celebrate Jesus at an Easter Camp.

These children are part of the Good News Club, a child evangelism program which is overseen by Pastor Ziblim Mohammed and led by Pastor Issah, that reaches out to Muslim children living in remote mud-hut villages.  The program has grown to over 350 children.

In the words of Pastor Mohammed:

Today many children are coming to church to hear the gospel, and Pastor Issah and I work tirelessly to make sure we train them to know the Lord and remain in Him. Continue to pray for us to be strengthen and that God will provide the needs of this ministry.

The Making of a Miracle

Yushaw was five years old when I first heard about him last fall.  He lives in the remote mud-hut village of Zugu, in the Northern Region of Ghana, West Africa.  This is a very poor Muslim village with no Christian influence.

When Yushaw's father died last year, his widow, Salmatu, had no way of providing food for her children. The children survived on hand-outs from other poverty-stricken villagers, but after awhile, they had no more food to share.

One day, my friend and co-worker on the mission field, Pastor Ziblim Mohammed, from a neighboring village was in Zugu, checking on widows and orphans when he came across Yushaw and his sister.  He was suffering from severe malnutrition and not far from death.  He could not walk. Here is one of the first pictures I received.  Yushaw is on the right.  Remember, he is five years old.

By the grace of God, Pastor Mohammed was able to get Yushaw and his sister to a local private hospital where they were treated for malnutrition.  They were given nutritional supplements and food was purchased for their family from the local market.  After a couple of months, here is what Yushaw looked like.  But he still couldn't walk.

That was several months ago. Yushaw is now six years old.  Just this past week a friend of mine went to Ghana and he went to see Widow Salamatu and her children.  This is the picture he sent me as soon as he landed in the US.

And guess what?  Now he can walk.  And now I cannot stop thanking the One who made it all happen.  Some of you were used by God to make it happen and I thank you for being obedient and especially for your kindness.

Adijah and Ushaw

Here is one of the first pictures I received of Adijah.

Here is Adijah and Ushaw as of yesterday:

I thank God for allowing us to know about these hurting children and allowing us to help them.  Their mom is Muslim, but she knows that Jesus sent the nutritional food and healthcare.

Going to Ghana!

Plans for the Ghana 2010 Mission Trip are well underway.  If you are interested in joining the team, contact cheryl@hopeheritage.org for more information.

The trip is scheduled for July 2010.  You may go for 10 days, 14 days or several weeks. 

In order to get the best price, airline tickets must be reserved in the next few weeks. NO funds are due at this time.

The primary purpose of this mission is to help widows and orphans in their distress.  We will also join with the national pastor of a local village church in helping to plant a church in a village where there are no Christians and no Christian influence. 

Additional activities include hut-to-hut evangelism, a visit to Ghana Bible Society and ministry partnership with World Vision.

This trip is sponsored through International Hope and Heritage.  Click here to learn more about IHH.

Hungry No More

These pictures speak for themselves.  And yes, this IS the same child.

Thank you to the anonymous donor who helped save the lives of these children. 

October 2009 Photograph - unable to walk due to malnutrition

December 2009 Photograph - beginning to crawl

There are others.  Click here if you want to help.

Widow Program Launched

Please click here to read about the IHH Widow Care Program that will benefit widows in the Northern Region of Ghana, West Africa.
 

Good News Clubs

Dear Beloved in Christ,


Indeed,this is Good News to all!

I am sending you a report and photographs of the club's activities in Sankpem,one of our preaching station and mission field.On Sunday 13th December 09,Shalom Baptist Children moved with Pastor Issah to Joined the children of Sankpem to begin Xmas celebrations. They held Church service with the believing and unbelieving children in the community. A guest pastor named Niendow preached about the incarnation of Christ,after which they eat a common meal together.  Later in the evening I joined them on the field to play games.The pictures you see are taken on the field during the games,you can see younger ladies line up for soccer and ampe games,pastor Issah also joined and lead the children to sing as you can see.

In my Mission Strategy Plan,this club is an advance team, they go with games which attract the attention of non-christian children,they also do Bible story telling,Scripture memorization and many more.I want you to pray for this club,because it exists to reach out to non-Christian children in ten (10) villages surrounding Tarikpaa.

As you pray think about these things:1. Soccer balls,currently the club has 10 soccer balls,but it will need more as we plan to extend to many communities. 2.jumping ropes. 3.Jessey (for kids) 4.Learning materials 5.Evangicubes.6.Funds.We all agree that the club cannot function well without money,especially it involved movement,Shalom Baptist Church children walks about six miles on foot to join their colleague children in other villages,if there is fund we can higher a bus for them so that they don't become too much tire of walking, even sometimes they reach home late in the night,you can imagine how dangerous to walk in bush area like our place, but the children are happy always to go out for this evangelistic programmes.I share this with you so can pray more for God to use these children in order to draw many more children to His kingdom and raise support to carry out the programmes successfully.

Our next Village is Kushibo,Kushibo is an Islamic stronghold,but the Christian children there are very active, Good News Club has planed to do programme there on the 26th of December 09,pray that there will be a turning point in this community after the programme.

Thank you,

Your co-laborer in the gospel,

Pastor Mohammed.

A New Life. A New Name

In Ghanaian culture, names are very important and carry great meaning.  The name is kept a secret until the Outdooring Ceremony, where friends and family gather to celebrate the birth of the child.

The birth of this child is especially meaningful because this family lost a 6 yr old daughter a year ago to malaria.

Posted by Pastor Ziblim Mohammed

Beloved Brethren,

It was a joyful celebration as believers gathered together on Monday morning to celebrate God's goodness and faithfulness to us as a family in Christ. As Dorcas and I was praying for a name that will be given to the newly born baby boy into our family, God gave us this name, Hanani.

Hanani is a Hebrew name and the meaning is Yahweh is Gracious. His Dagomba name is Chalpang,meaning forgive. Hanani was a brother of Nehemiah who reported the return exiles to Jerusalem reproach to Nehemiah. He was also one of the family leaders during the time of rebuilding the wall.

Pray that God's gracious hand will be upon Hanani and he will grow to Love and serve God with fear all his life on earth.

Thank you for your prayers in advance.

Pastor Mohammed

Update on Starving Children

As reported by Pastor Mohammed of the Northern Region of Ghana, West Africa:
My fear was that those children might have die before June 2010,but now by God's grace i have hope that they will not die because they are growing stronger each day,so there are situations which we can not wait.

As reported by Dr. Kuubiere of the Northern Region of Ghana, West Africa:

Both have improved remarkably

Baptism in Tarikpaa

Dear Brethren,

"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Luke 15:10. There is much joy in Shalom Baptist Church in Tarikpaa over the 18 young men and and ladies who have accepted the Lord as their savior and Lord and are added to the Church, i therefore called you to rejoice with us as we celebrate the victory of these people salvation,I spent three months teaching them in the enquerer class even when i was in seminary, and this is the result we are seeing today.When they heard that i was going to leave Accra and come to Tamale to work as home missionary,they were happy and said they will wait for me to come and guide them in their final decision ,making and arrange their Baptism.Upon my arrival in the North i organized them,thought them on two Sundays and then interviewed them to make sure they realy understand what they were doing, finally i called Rev.Isaac Issah Wuni, the principal of the Northern Ghana Baptist Theological Seminary and the senior Pastor of Koinonia Baptist Church in Tamale to come and Join pastor Stephen Napari of Shalom Baptist Church to officiate the initiation ceremony.

I am therefore sending you the pictures of Rev. Wuni and Pastor Stephen with some of the candidates and the candidates group picture.This is a confirmation that we are being obedient to the Lord's command in Matthew 28:19-20.I therefore call you to pray with these ones to grow in the Lord as i spend another time of teachings with them.

I want to assure you that if you can pray with Shalom Baptist Church and I as a missionary, i tell you the truth we will put the devil to shame, so even if you don't know what to do in order to support our ministry of evangelism and Church planting among the Dagomba people group in the North,but do as a favor to remember us in your prayer,that is very crucial to us.
I also want to use this opportunity to thank those of you who partner with us in prayer,encouragement and support this ministry financially,may the good Lord bless you,i encourages you to keep it up and continue the good work you are doing, because what you have seen is the reult of your prayer and support, I appeal to all our mission partners and those who think God has called them to rescue the perishing to join the Shalom family and pastor Mohammed to reach out to the unreach people groups in the North, especially the remote villages in the Savelugu West Corridor.

Thank you for now,


Pastor Mohammed, Missionary, Tamale Mission Field.