I shared the principles from my book, Biblical Pictures of the Church.

Another brother who spoke that week was Pastor Ransford Obeng, pastor of CCC, one of the largest churches in Ghana, located in Kumasi. He spoke on the practical aspects of pastoring.

It is an honor to speak alongside these amazingly dedicated men—they always challenge and encourage me.

Another man that I admire for his specific dedication to reaching Muslims is Pastor Ahmad Agyei. He has sacrificially given his life to live in hostile territory, befriending Muslims for the sake of the Gospel. He has written several books on understanding Islam and Muslim evangelism for those who want to bring Muslims to Christ.

In my spare time (!), I helped brother Albert who runs the farm at Msfensi. He is getting ready for the dry season and organizing the supplies it will take to put the drip irrigation in place now that the rains are ceasing. I also assisted in getting the soccer field ready for sports evangelism camps. There are so many possibilities for touching lives when you can use different approaches.

In this picture, you can see me with brother Stephen who came up to me at the conference with an amazing story. When he arrived at last year’s conference, he was despondent, in debt and severely depressed. He owed so much money that he had lost all hope of surviving or being able to care for his family. But after hearing my messages on “The Biblical Perspective of Work” and brother Yaw’s on being a bi-vocational pastor, he went back home and started gardening. God blessed him with such fruitfulness that he got out of debt and began to prosper. This year he came to the conference with money to give to other pastors. He even gave gifts to all of the conference leaders and organizers. How good of God to bless Stephen and for him, in turn, to bless others. His generosity encouraged everyone present, as you can imagine.

Through our partnership with New Directions and Impact of Hope, we bought bicycles for 5 rural evangelists. They are working in remote villages among idol worshipers and Muslims. You would have thought we had given each of them a Mercedes! We take so much for granted that we can’t imagine getting excited over a bicycle for our main transportation. But if you had spent most of your time walking from village to village, and you were offered the chance to ride (in less than half the time and with much less wear and tear), you would have done the same thing: praised the Lord and received His gift with great joy!

As our time together ended, we felt a unity that often comes when you have time to pray, learn, weep and worship together. We almost didn’t want it to end.

Thank you for all of your prayer-covering for Ghana. Please continue now as I fly all night to Kenya. I hope to report to you again soon from among the Samburu.

With Much Love in Christ,

Dr. JL Williams
Founder: New Directions International
Board Member: Impact of Hope International
Professor-at-Large: Carolina Evangelical Divinity School
P.O. Box 4066
Glen Raven, NC 27216