Ghana minister to Texans: ‘We need help’

Posted: 11/30/07

Ghana minister to Texans: ‘We need help’

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS—Yaw Ofori traveled from Ghana to Texas to communicate a very simple message: “We need your help.”

Christians in Ghana need people to provide training to help them plant new churches, said Ofori, director of missions for the Ghana Baptist Convention. Of the 75 people groups who live in Ghana, 15 are unreached with the gospel, he said.

Ofori’s main emphasis has been letting Texas Baptists know about ministry opportunities in Ghana, both short- and long-term hands-on missions, as well as the need for financial support.

“The field is white in Ghana, but we need help with the harvest,” Ofori said. “We need prayer support; we need financial support; we need the physical support of people coming to help us.”

The Ghana Baptist Convention includes 1,000 churches with more than 100,000 members, but most are very poor, he said.

“We are reaching many people and have many ministries, especially to the poor. All we need is a little push, a little help, and we could do so much more,” he said. “Through partnership, we can do more than we can do alone.

“There are many villages where there are no Baptist churches and many other villages with no church of any kind.”

More than 150 villages have been identified as having no church, he said, and each is home to more than 300 people.

Volunteers are needed to do medical evangelism, train potential pastors and other church leaders, and possibly teach in the national seminary.

A gift of $400 a month will support a home missionary in church planting efforts, and $100 a month will provide for a pastor, he noted. The stipend a pastor receives decreases each year, and by the fourth year, the church is expected to be self-supporting.

“We don’t want to develop a dependency syndrome,” Ofori said. “Some places it is difficult, because the people are so poor, but that is the challenge we put before them.”

Ministry in Ghana is accessible to American volunteers because English is the trade language of Ghana and is taught to children in schools, he added.

The Ghana Baptist Convention concentrates much of its ministry on children—particularly efforts to stop child trafficking. It is common for parents to sell their children as slaves to fishermen or caretakers of pagan shrines, some of which have up to 600 children working as shrine slaves. The convention is working to have child trafficking laws enforced and to provide an education for children rescued from these operations.

Many children also come to the city alone to find work because their families can no longer afford to feed them. These street children are forced to turn to crime and prostitution to survive. The convention is building a house to give some of these children a safe place to sleep and learn a trade.

“We have great opportunities, but we need help,” Ofori said.