August 6, 2001
Ghana Baptist farms in Texas to sow better seeds at home
___By John Hall
___Staff Writer
___WACO--While many people journey outside Ghana to find a better life, Ebeneezer Nortey-Mensah's spiritual journey has led him to bring a better life to Ghana.
___Nortey-Mensah is learning organic agricultural methods this summer at the World Hunger Relief farm outside Waco with several other ministers from around the globe as well as Baylor University students who work there.
___These methods allow for farming in small areas without diminishing the amount of nutrients in the soil. Nortey-Mensah said he will take these techniques back to Ghana to teach to his people through the Ghana branch of Willing Workers on Organic Farms, an international organization of volunteer organic farms.
EBENEEZER NORTEY-MENSAH works on the World Hunger Relief farm outside Waco, where he is learning techniques to help his people when he returns to Ghana
___But this has been only another step in a journey that began more than 10 years ago.
___Nortey-Mensah, a Baptist, said he saw the plight his nation was facing and hoped to alleviate some of his people's struggles. Children were lacking practical skills and faced either a harsh life on the streets or emigrating to more developed countries.
___The latter is a common occurrence in Ghana that Nortey-Mensah said he wants to end. "If everyone leaves Africa, who will develop it?" he asked.
___To end this trend, Nortey-Mensah quit his teaching position and turned his house into a missionary school that has grown to enroll 514 students. The school also teaches vocational skills such as typing, photography and dressmaking.
___"The aim of this school is to put the future of this generation in their hands," he said. "When children have no skills, they go into drugs and prostitution, and then they don't want to live in Africa. They want to leave. If they learn skills, they can develop Africa."
___The students at the school are active in tree planting clubs and a bicycle witnessing ministry that has spread to several other nations in Africa, he said. The students also witness to people on the streets of their town on the weekends.
___Nortey-Mensah also began a community library that is connected to the school. He said he carefully chose a strong Christian as the librarian so that person can minister to those who come into the library.
___"The more books we have, the more people will come into the library and the more he will be able to share God," Nortey-Mensah said.
___Despite running a school, library and farming center, Nortey-Mensah said few suspect he is in charge of the three ministries. He normally does not wear suits and does not own a car. Although his school owns a bus to pick up the children, he refuses to learn how to drive it, riding a bike instead.
___He even likes to have fun with his image, telling people to see his assistant when asked who is in charge of the school.
___"I said to the Lord, 'I am ready to live and die for this ministry.' And when I accepted working for the Lord, things like material wealth, greediness, selfishness were out of my life."
___Though few people even attempt to handle so many different ministries at one time, and though the work is constant, the road has not been hard, Nortey-Mensah said
___"The Lord is always in control. I look at the school and see so many needs, and the Lord provides. He is always in control."
___
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