January 26th was our one-year anniversary of living in Ghana! This year has gone so quickly, and Abbie and I are so thankful for the grace of God, for a wonderful team of co-laborers, for a beautiful daughter, and for you, those who make our lives here possible. Names like Antwi, Kwadwo, Serwaa, Comfort, Laud, Oppong, and Asamoah may not mean anything to you; but each one of these people—and many, many more—are fruit to your account before God.
Working in Christian education is a long-term investment, and I ask you to pray for my teachers and me as we work to train young people to be servants for Christ. Please pray that our students will be greatly used of God to spread the Gospel in Africa.
Being able to lead the Children’s Ministry at Fundamental Baptist Church International has been a great joy. The language barrier certainly presents problems, but I am working at developing as many relationships with the children and their parents as I can. We have dozens of children who walk to our church regularly without any parent. I have worked to find out where some of these children live, to establish a relationship with the parents, and to give their parents the Gospel.
Kwame’s family is a good example of the difficulties I have been facing in this endeavor. Kwame is 10 years old. He visited our church on his own a few months ago. I found out where he lives and started visiting his family. As a result, all four of his brothers and sisters, as well as a few friends from his neighborhood, are now walking to church on their own each week. However, I have never met Kwame’s father even once in the months I have been visiting there, and Kwame’s mother Rose is always busy with washing or cooking when I visit. She is friendly, but she just doesn’t seem to have time. I have tried setting appointments to come witness to her, but so far those have never worked out. I have found this to be pretty typical in working with the parents. Please pray that God would give me some breakthroughs with Rose and several other parents.
Fruit to Your Account
Kumasi is filled with little, one-room shops like the one pictured below. These shops can be good places to go soul winning. If a shopkeeper is not busy with customers, he or she is often happy to pass the time talking about the Gospel!
One Saturday I started talking to a teenage boy named Jerry, who was tending his mother’s shop. Jerry wasn’t busy—until I started talking to him. At first, we just had an interruption here and there, which is normal at a shop. But the interruptions became ridiculously frequent! Then his mom arrived with a whole car full of supplies for the shop to be unloaded!
Jerry never asked for me to stop explaining the Gospel to him, though, so I just kept dealing with the interruptions. I even helped unload the supplies! Finally, I was able to finish, and Jerry understood the Gospel and put his faith in Christ!
Yours for souls,
Micah Christiansen
