Ghana

From Spencer Shadrach who recently went to Ghana:

"God is alive and well in Ghana! The Ghanaian people are thirsty, hungry and desperate for the gospel, sound teaching, and how to make disciples of all nations. Several years ago, a man named Ben Oforinayme was taught the disciple-ship methods outlined in the Gospels. His ministry is flourishing by reproducing himself into faithful him who will do the same, teaching others to do the same also. When we arrived in the capital city of Accra, Ghana we were greeted warmly by the people and the climate. The first day we sowed the seed broadly to many pastors in the hopes that some hearts and eyes will be illuminated to the multiplicative discipleship strategy of Jesus Christ. Training nationals to train their own people is the strategy we are using for these short-term trips. Also, we look for a few men that look ripe for following Jesus’ strategy for the entire world coming to Christ.

On the second day, the teams split up with 2 men training pastors in North Niger, 2 men staying in Accra for a week and 3 men to Sunyani to teach and train local pastors, youth leaders and business people in Jesus’ discipleship strategy. These are the front lines. In North Africa, there are 200 million Muslims who have never heard the name of Jesus. These Muslims are only several hundred miles from Ghana. Reproducing intently in one man, the strategy of Jesus will have much greater impact in the long term and build quality disciples. These are the principles we taught. The 1^st century church used the same strategy culminating in a budding gospel witness to every major city in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Faith comes by hearing the word. In order for the Muslims to hear the word of God they need to be sought out by world changers. This is who we were looking for in Ghana; WORLD CHANGERS.

I think we have found several men. One, named Michael Attufa, who is 30 years old, is catching the vision for Jesus’ strategy. In October 2012, 5 men robbed him at night and beat within inches of his life. The men claimed he was a thief and a mob began to drag him down the street. Michael thought he would be meeting his Lord and Savior very soon. They didn’t kill him but stripped him naked and put him in a gutter to die. Everyone passed him by without a care thinking he deserved being in the gutter; so no one helped. Finally a few friends got him to the hospital. Many prayers were lifted up at this time and Michael recovered quickly; within a weeks time. Nothing can stop Michael because the Lord has promised that he would be with us to the end to the end of the age. Satan tries his hardest to deter us from starting a pandemic with the gospel. I believe in the bottom of my heart that this is what was happening. Satan knows stopping Michael in the beginning could stop the flow but the Lord knows he will have such a great impact for the Kingdom." 

Some pictures from Pepper's trip to India

Another Update from Pepper in India

Dear faithful friends,


I'll be teaching 3 hours of Downline lessons beginning at 8:30 pm on Thursday (Memphis time).  We had approx. 700 Banjara in attendance tonight for the 10 year anniversary celebration of outreach through a local ministry. They say 50% of the people in attendance are lost and they've come with a Christian friend. I will be sharing the good news tomorrow afternoon with the group. More people are expected to arrive tomorrow.


Thanks for holding the ropes. Feel free to forward to a friend.


Many thanks!

Pepper Horn

India Update from Pepper

Here is an update from Pepper Horn how is currently in India:

Hello everyone,
We arrived in HYD. We've met our host Srinivas and his wife. We will be prepping today and getting our body clocks regulated. We're 11.5 hours ahead of you in Memphis. I'm told the .5 is because India has one time zone for the whole country and they split the difference. Tomorrow (Sun eve) we'll attend a local fellowship. Mon-Wed will be the celebration of 10 yrs working with the Banjara people group. Thursday we will travel to a village 3 hours away and have a conference for pastors and evangelists (approx 30 of them). I will be teaching disciple-making lessons on Thursday as well as Friday morning. Please pray for Holy Spirit empowered communication and illumination, (Eph 1:18a). We'll stay in the village Thursday night then Friday morning possibly more training. Friday afternoon I will begin the long journey west...half way around the world.

Here are a couple of videos Pepper sent.  One is of the busy traffic in Hyderabad and the other is a Hindu temple.  Pray for the people of India and God's glory to be known among the people there!

Holy Land Reflections: Gild & Glory

Hopefully, you've been able to keep up with what our team was doing over in the Holy Lands. It was a busy-yet-fruitful time for the four of us to tour and teach. 

The most indelible part of the trip for me personally came during our time in Jerusalem, but not for the reasons one might suspect. A subtle discomfort rose within me after a long day of walking around the Old City. I'm not even sure exactly how to characterize the feeling in my gut other than to say that I was struck by the heaviness of law and ritual.

Holy Lands Update

Hey, friends!

It's our last day in Bethlehem, and we just wanted to give you a little update. On Thursday we had the opportunity to see a few sights in Bethlehem. We went to the Church of the Nativity, which is shared by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, which makes for a hodgepodge-looking church. Each side had people lining up to go underground to view where that church claims Jesus was born. It was kind of crazy!

After visiting the church for a bit, we drove down to the Beit Sahour section of Bethlehem to visit the Shepherds' field where the shepherds may have seen the star that led them to the manger. It was much more peaceful here, and we almost had the place to ourselves. We were able to go into a structure where shepherds kept their flocks around the time of Jesus. The book of Ruth is also set in the fields at Bethlehem, and her grandson, a pretty important guy named David, was also a shepherd in Bethlehem. So although most of the city is developed, we were able to see a few fields where these stories either took place, or close to where they took place.

The last couple of days have been spent either at Melissa and Terri's home teaching, or spending time with the teachers and students at the school. We've really enjoyed getting to see the school and all they're doing. We even got to see the high school basketball teams play! So, I think we're all going to be sad to leave, but today we'll be heading up to see King Herod's summer palace and heading back to Terri and Melissa's for the last day of teaching before departing tonight.

We fly out of Tel Aviv at 12:40 am, so pray for safe travels home!

Anne

Holy Lands Recap of Day 3 & 4

Our recap of our travels continue...

Day 3:
We started out the day riding a camel named Shushi at sea level on our way toward the Dead Sea region. Once we hit the deserts and the Dead Sea region we began at Qumran, the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. There we hiked up to a cave that overlooks the dig site, Anne and I were done about halfway up the mountain but Jason and Steve made it all the way to the top. After that excruciating climb we headed to the national park En Gedi, where David hid from Saul in the caves around the waterfalls. Masada was next on our list. This is where Herod built his summer/escape palace and where over 200 Jews hid when the Romans were capturing the country. After Masada we went to the Dead Sea where Anne and I dipped our feet in and Jason and Steve floated in the water. We ended the day with seeing the Mount of Olives at sunset, which overlooks Jerusalem.

Day 4:
This day was spent touring around all of Jerusalem. We began at the Garden Tomb, that is run by an English trust, which is one of two sites that are believed to be Golgotha where Jesus was crucified and then buried in Joseph of Arimethea's tomb close by. After this we went to St. Peter Gallicantu- "Peter's exile" where Jesus was kept in a pit before his trial began. It is also believed that tis is where Peter heard the rooster crow after he had denied Christ three times. This is also the place where Caiphus' house was. From here we went to the site of the Upper Room where Christ had the Last Supper with his disciples and the site of King David's tomb which are both located in the same complex right outside the city walls of Old Jerusalem. In the Old City there are four quarters which you walk through: The Armenian, The Jewish, The Muslim and The Christian. Once inside the city walls we went first to Cardo which was a Roman shopping center from the 2nd temple period and then on to part of the wall that Nehemiah built which is still preserved in the middle of the Jewish Quarter. After this we went to the Western Wall, the holiest site for the Jewish religion because it is the closest location to where the temple once stood. Where the temple used to stand is now the Muslim Quarter, and on the site there are two major Mosques, one of which is considered the third holiest site for Muslims. From this site we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which, along with the Garden Tomb, is considered a possibility for the place where Jesus was crucified and buried. Thirteen denominations share the Church that now stands there. It is also the location of the final three stages of the cross. After the church we went backwards through the stations of the cross, going to Dalaraha which is Veronica's church, who is believed to be the woman who washed the face of Jesus, then to the church of Simon of Cyrene, who helped carry the cross, then to the street where Jesus fell the first time, after this we went to the place where Jesus met his mother, lastly came the house of Pontius Pilate and St Anne's church who is believed to be Mary's mother. After we left the Old City of Jerusalem we went to the Garden of Gesthemane where Jesus came to pray as Judas was betraying him. The Garden was our last place to visit and after we had left we rode a bus into Bethlehem where we will be for the remainder of our trip!

I know this was a very quick recap of our time in the Holy Lands thus far but we just wanted to give y'all a little update on everything we've been experiencing! To tell everything would take days, but feel free to ask when we get back! Thank you for loving us and praying for us so far and please continue to do so as now we begin to teach and learn from the students and teachers here!

In Christ,
Alex