We glorify God by dwelling in places that need the light. That's what Jesus did. And that's what we should do, too.
In 1998 I had the privilege of leading a team of four people to visit the country of Ghana in West Africa. Our host, Jim Haney, with the International Mission Board, gave us a tour of the country. When we returned to the States, we asked Jim, "What unreached people group would you recommend that we help reach?"
Missionaries often talk about people groups. These are people who are similar to one another culturally and linguistically. The reason this is important is because Jesus said in Matthew 24, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). He said that He's not returning until people from every nation, every tribe, and every tongue have been gathered into His flock, who will one day praise God with us in heaven.
Currently, there are over 7,000 unreached people groups in the world. These are groups of people where less than 2% of the population have a genuine relationship with Christ. They don't have the critical mass to evangelize themselves without outside help.
We've always wanted to be a church that adopted unreached people groups and made long term investments to help reach them.
So, when we asked our missionary friend, Jim, about unreached people groups in Ghana, he mentioned the Nzema, A group of about 300,000 people who live on the southwest coast of Ghana.
In 2000, six of us went on a trip to share the Jesus film in open air settings and to explore the possibility of adopting the Nzema. The darkness was great: poverty, poor health, and weak economy. The people generally practiced empty, ritualistic religion mixed with traditional African religion - superstitious paganism led by local local witch doctors. Only 3 churches existed in our association of churches in the area. Less than 6000 people knew Christ in a personal way. The people were in spiritual, economic, and physical darkness.
So, we made the decision to adopt this people group - to help bring the light of Christ into that darkness. Since then we have sent teams almost every year to do evangelism, church planting, health clinics, and more.
We helped to identify a Ghanian, Frank Archer, who moved to the area to become a church starting strategist for the Nzema people. Through your generosity we are able to pay his salary, his housing, and all his benefits, including transportation for less than $10,000 a year.
We helped to establish a micro-finance bank which makes small business loans to start small businesses in the area. We've trained pastors. We've been hands-on in the planting of the churches. We paid for the drilling of eight water wells to provide clean drinking water for the people and even sent a young man, Josh Cleveland, to live there for several months to oversee the completion of the project. More recently, we've been sending medical teams to Ghana to provide much-needed care for hundreds and hundreds of Ghanaians every year.
One story. On one of our visits, a chief came to profess Christ as Savior and Lord. That's a big deal because the chief is like the mayor, the judge, and a land baron all rolled into one. This chief donated the land for building a much-needed hospital. We are partneriing with several organizations to construct the hospital and send doctors and nurses to live in the area. One of our elders, Ron Cleveland, is overseeing this project. I am happy to let you know that the last several months ground was broken on that project. And you can get ornaments off our advent tree today to help build that hospital.
One of the couples in our church, the Wolfenbargers, had a leading from God to grow their family through adoption. And when they heard us talking so much about Ghana their hearts were drawn to adopt some children from there. Now little Eve and Kofi, from Ghana, go to CVC. So, children that were living in the darkness without parents now have parents at our church.
For the last 15 years, CVC has sought to glorify God by going to dwell in a place needs the light of Christ.
And it's extremely satisfying to know that the Nzema people are no longer classified as an unreached people group. Instead of less than 2% evangelicals in the area, the statistics I saw yesterday are that there are now 24% evangelicals - from less than 6000 believers to 10s of thousands! Over the last 14 years the number of churches in our association has grown from 3 to over 50!
We didn't do this, of course. Others have been reaching out there too. We've partnered with other churches and organizations. But those other churches and organizations didn't do this either.
Christ is the light! He has been shining His light in that darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. We have received His light. And we are reflecting His light in the darkness.
When it comes to missions, we are either goers, senders, or disobedient. Thank you, CVC, for glorifying God by going and sending. The Nzema people in West Africa needed the light and they are getting Him!
We glorify God by dwelling in places that need the light. That's what Jesus did. And that's what we should do, too.
Sola Deo Gloria!
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