Real Gold from the "Gold Coast"

West Africa Trip Report #2

If you put the accent on the wrong syllable, you get Tamále. But Tamalé, is about as far away as you can get from Mexican tortillas, tacos and salsa! Instead, it is the gateway city to the whole northern part of the country of Ghana, West Africa.

When the British first colonized Ghana some 200 years ago, they took the sturdy people from the rugged and remote northern tribes to provide the manual labor needed to harvest the richness of the “Gold Coast” with its abundance of coffee and cocoa beans as well as gold.  As a result, Ghana today remains a divided country with the southern population being the most educated and economically advanced, while the north remains relatively unresourced and backwards. Paralleling this dichotomy, is the fact that northern Ghana is 90% Muslim while the south is one of the more vibrant and progressive Christian regions of the entire continent.

Which is precisely why the ministry of Christian Outreach Fellowship was born: to train and support national missionaries in bringing God’s Truth to the people of northern Ghana. Believe it or not, you can pick up a piece of Ghanaian paper currency and see the face of the man who started COF—one of the six founding fathers of Ghana’s government after independence in 1957.

Emmanuel Dabson in front of COF's new office
and training center

Today, COF is led by Emmanuel Anukun Dabson who came up through the ranks as a grass-roots church planter himself. Emmanuel’s easy going and soft-spoken manner masks his fierce passion and clear-minded focus in leading his ministry to reach his country for Christ. If there is anything these few days of traveling with him have proven loud and clear, it’s that!

Yesterday, accompanied by Anita and Partners Japan director, Rev Kazuo Kinouchi, we arrived in Tamale and immediately were whisked off to spend several hours with a couple dozen COF missionary couples gathered at a local church. Not knowing exactly what to expect, we immediately found ourselves in the middle of a lively African service of celebrating singing and dancing. It was the first time most of these folks had met any leadership from Partners International and they wanted to make sure we knew how much they appreciated the ministry’s support of their efforts. With a special program coupled with the customary gifts of local, hand-stitched clothing, we were amply showered with love and good will.

Today, the same thing happened here in the far northeastern town of Bawku. Another gathering of the regional COF missionaries was accompanied by speeches, presentations, singing and dancing.  Half shuffle, half line dance, this local variant of “worship in motion” had a unique feature to it when individuals would  breakout of the line and proceeded to stomp the ground in a rapid-fire fashion.  Sometimes, two would pair off for this stomping movement somehow knowing how to end precisely together at the same time.  (I have to admit, that I produced a few wild cheers from the crowd when I made a feeble attempt at this stomping maneuver myself!)

Celebration aside, what has been most meaningful in all of these gatherings with local mission staff has been hearing their own testimonies of serving God in this part of the world. All live at the same economic level as those they are trying to reach. Thanks to a pair of bullocks and a plow provided by COF (courtesy of Partners International) many are now fully supporting themselves with a small local farm. Some of the testimonies expressed how much the PI-supplied bicycles had multiplied the effectiveness of their ministries, now being able to lead three or four new church cell groups in different villages.

We will come home wearing all sorts of symbols of Ghanaian hospitality (see picture) but most of all, we’ll return feeling deeply blessed by having had a chance to personally meet the "real gold" from the Gold Coast--the men and women God is using to establish His Kingdom in the unreached frontier of northern Ghana.

Under His wings,

Jon