Seed Ministry: Ghana, Africa

41% of the population of Ghana is under the age of 15. This means that there are never enough adults to give children the care and attention they need. Children’s ministry is sometimes as simple as giving a hug, listening or putting on a band-aid. Seed Ministry ministers to children in the following ways.
 

Bible Clubs: 

Seed Bible Clubs are started by people who love the Lord and want children to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior. Clubs leaders meet 1 1⁄2 hours a week with a group of children in their own community to teach them a Bible Lesson, sing songs, and play games.

Many children who do not or cannot go to church will come to a Bible Club to learn about Jesus. They then take the Good News back into the home. Christ enters the home through the children and brings the entire family into a love relationship with Him.

There are over 450 Seed Bible Clubs in Ghana ministering to more than 15,000 children. These Clubs are divided over eight areas and are under the ministry of local Area Leaders. These Area Leaders oversee the Club Leaders to encourage them to always meet with the children at the appointed times. The children know their Club Leader is a friend and someone they know they can always seek for help.

Periodically, Bible Club Conferences are held to provide on-going training for the Club Leaders as well as time for fellowship, testimonies and encouragement. This training offers suggestions for teaching and reviewing Bible lessons, new songs, new games and health/sanitation ideas they can teach the children. Annually more than 200 questions are translated into Dagbani, Likpaakpaln, Likoonl, and Mampruli.  These Bible lessons will be a part of the curriculum for the on-going training of the Club Leaders and for their own use in the weekly Seed Bible Clubs.

Each club has been supplied with game equipment including colored batons for relay races, a rope circle for Tug and Pull, frisbees for “Parante Labu” (plate throwing) and game ideas such as tossing rocks in a bucket. Our desire is to teach games the club can play that do not cost money for the Club Leader to purchase.

Each Zone has its own Rally with the first and second place winners competing in the annual Area Rally. The 2003 first place winner successfully recited 23 verses of the 84 supplied to them. In 2004, all 84 verses were quoted and then tie-breaker verses were added. 2005 brought review questions over their lessons from the book of Acts. The children (ages up to 15) answered more than 150 questions before we had a 1st place winner! 2006 and 2007 again had all questions over the Book of John answered and going to a tie breaker. 2008 and 2009 questions were over the Book of Genesis. 2010 and 2011 questions were over the God's Story. 2012 Paul's Writings were added to the questions for practical living as we daily follow our Christian walk. It is always exciting to watch the children quote word for word the answers to more than 200 questions followed by approximately 75 verses before you have a winner! 

 

The Joyful Sowers are ministry teams that enter the public & private schools, villages and other areas to creatively provide a Gospel message appropriate for the location and audience. John H. leads the Joyful Sower Teams as they go into schools to give children a moral Bible Lesson. Each child is given a small coloring page with the Bible story on the back to keep, toffee, or some small gift when they are available.

Children’s Crusades are conducted using concerts, dramas, puppets and other unique presentation styles. Each Children’s Crusade is timed to occur as school ends. Parents are also invited to come. These have been very successful with many children returning for additional counseling. Meanwhile, the parents are also hearing the Gospel and receive counseling as they wait for their children.

Mission Camps are held several times a year for the 18-25 year olds who have successfully progressed through the Bible Clubs. Timothy leads these camps that encourages these young men and women to to actively live out their faith. They spend 3 days training in evangelism and how to share the name of Jesus then go on a 3 day mission trip.

The Soul Searcher is a pontoon boat used to gain access to villages that are difficult or impossible to reach with land vehicles. The boat was completely built from scratch by Rev. Bob. As he began to build a boat in the sub-Sahara, Bob said he felt like he better understood what Noah thought when God told him to build the ark! Engine boats in the Northern Region of Ghana were non-existent until the Soul Searcher. All waterway travel and fishing is done by dugout canoes.

As the Soul Searcher makes its way down the Black Volta River, they stop wherever there is a path up to a village and share the Gospel with whoever will listen. One example of the testimonies we hear from these “overseas” villages was a village where we showed the Jesus Film. There were 18 decisions to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We asked one of the young men from the village who spoke English to get a list of the names for us so when we came again we could have it. When we returned we thought he did not understand because he gave us a list of 35 names. When questioned, he explained that those who had made decisions went and told others and now there were 35 who wanted more of this Jesus and begin attending the local church (or start one if it doesn't exist).

The Jesus Film, purchased through Campus Crusade for Christ in five Ghanaian languages, is such an exciting way to share Christ in remote villages that have never seen movies. We take a generator, a screen and the equipment needed to show the film. When the miracles of Jesus are shown, the people well understand the incredible need for such healing and express their appreciation with shouting and clapping. After the movie, there are typically many who step forward to put their faith in Jesus and get involved in their local church.

There isn't anything more precious than going into a remote village at night and sharing Christ with those who are ‘crying’ for someone to come to teach them more about Jesus. After working in the fields all day and coming home to cook supper over the campfire, they are still eager to come and learn about how they can live in the abundant life of Christ.

We hear many testimonies from people that say they were not going to come but either heard enough from their home to bring them out or their families came back so excited that they had to come on the second night and give their lives to the Lord. Those who become Christians are integrated into the nearest church.

The Church needs are enormous. Many church leaders are preaching every Sunday with no training at all. Many Pastors receive no salary from the church because the people have no money to pay him. Many churches are meeting outside under a tree because there is no building in which to meet. Many times the only Bible in the church belongs to the Church Leader and it is tattered and worn. Seed Ministry is helping the Church in each of these areas.

Seed Ministry holds numerous conferences (lasting from one to three days) throughout the year for Pastors, church leadership, men’s and women’s groups.

In addition to holding sessions in the Tamale area, we have been invited to hold conferences in neighboring cities. While we desire to accept as many of these invitations as we can, we must maintain our focus on our local villages who humbly and gratefully desire for us to minister to them so their people can know more about the Christian life.

Supplying Bibles and other materials is a big part of Church Planting. We furnish Bibles in whatever language they prefer. In 2007 the full Bible was translated into Dagbani. Many people testified that they had never heard a sermon from the Old Testament until then.