Frimpong

April 2006

Dear Saints in Christ,

Greetings to you from a muggy and loud Kumasi! It is very loud here right now as different beer bars in the area are competing with their sound systems and they each have their speakers outside of their buildings blasting towards the direction of our home, even more than usual. The taxis do the same thing too. We also have been told that there is a "one week celebration", as they call it here, of someone's death. It was a thirty-year old neighbour man who died of typhoid fever last week. Funerals here are like a huge party. So you'll know why if you talk to us on the phone or later in person, why we may appear to be deaf.

Each Tues. night we are still having over 50 children in attendance each night, with new ones coming each week. There are over 100 children's names on the attendance sheet but they don't all come the same evening. As for the young people's group that is led by some brothers in the church, the number has gone down drastically. There are about 13 teenagers that showed up last Friday but the adults leading it didn't show up to lead it, and the leaders didn't feel the need to call anyone to cover for them. So, once again we had many teenagers showing up at our door wondering what to do. We have seen very few in the assembly take on any responsibility and actually commit to it, within the last year or so. We are thankful that we are still very firm in the New Testament teachings but participation is lacking greatly!

When Joseph went to renew our rent with our current landlord about mid-March, Joseph had to tell the landlord that we had bought some property. Ever since he is been treating us so much worse then he already did. Our hydro on our side of the flat went off the other night but nowhere else. To make a long story short, we had an electrician come out and he showed both Joseph and the landlord the problem. The electrician was absolutely amazed that we didn't have a house fire because of how the electrical work was done! The wiring, when the house was built, had been put in as "temporary" wiring as the landlord told him to build it the cheapest way possible. The wiring had melted and blew the breaker. Well, when it came to repairs, once again, he assumed that we'd pay for it as we normally do, just to simply keep peace with them, and also to get the item repaired. What a mess! We ended up having to pay about half of the repairs in the long run, even though they are things that the landlord should be responsible for. We just keep repeating, "We will be moving soon! We will be moving soon! Only about 9 more months and we'll be out of here!" (Lord willing, that will be when our house on the new property site will be finished.)

We have had a number of soldiers who came to the property site forcing our workers and threatening them to stop working or else they'll beat them up. Basically, what it comes down to it, the soldiers are using their uniform for their own personal benefit, which occurs frequently here, but are "misused", and just wants bribery money to leave them alone. However, we have said that we won't pay him the bribery money that he wants so he's causing more trouble at the site. We would appreciate your continued prayers in this regard and as we have a meeting coming up later this week, which will hopefully bring an end to this issue. On a good note though, it is been interesting to see the many changes on the property site each time that we go there. Since about one month ago of purchasing the property, it has come a long way, in which we are grateful for and excited about.

We are very thankful that we've continued in good health, besides the minor thing here and there lately. That certainly helps us to accomplish more of what the Lord has us set out to do.

Thank you for your ongoing prayers and encouragement to us. They certainly keep us going each day!

In His service,

Joseph and Heather Frimpong

March 2006

Dear Saints in Christ,

Greetings to you from hot Kumasi! We can't believe that we are already into another month already. It has been a very busy month and yet not many things have really changed too much with us.

In regards to the property update, they have been making bricks on the sight with concrete (made out of sand, cement, and a little water). They have almost 3000 bricks made and will be ready to start using them to build soon. We have the unfortunate responsibility of keeping it quiet right now with the locals, including church members and family members, because here they are not happy when people find out that you have a first home for yourselves. They, especially our current landlord, can make it very difficult for us where we are currently staying until we leave, even more than they already do, as jealousy takes over; try to hinder the building process; demand bribes; people will steal nails, bags of cement, bricks, etc. from the new property sight and also try to get something from our current home as well. It becomes rather difficult, at times. People's attitudes change as well and assume that you must be wealthier now and are spending money on ourselves and not on them as we normally would. Even the poor can be greedy. However, it has been exciting to watch as they make the bricks and the masons work really hard in this extreme heat with no shade coverage nearby. We have had an opportunity to witness to the masons and one even received a Bible and has been coming to the Sun. evening meetings in that village.

As for our car, well, if it were an animal, we'd take it to the vet and put it to sleep. Unfortunately, that's not possible with a car. On Sun. morning Joseph tried to start the car so that we could leave for church, and well, it didn't start yet again. So we walked to church and back again. Then we had to cancel studies in the evening in a village about an hour away, where Joseph speaks every other Sun. evening. We continue to seek the Lord's guidance and that He will provide the right person to come along and purchase it from us.

On the evening of Feb.17^th when Joseph, Daniel, and Donkoh were preaching in a village, as usual on Sat. evenings, Joseph was preaching on how important it is for them that now is the time of salvation and not to put it off any longer and that they never know when they might die. Then, suddenly, everyone heard screaming and whaling from the very next house over from where he was preaching. A young man in that house had just passed away. Suddenly, Joseph had about 600 people in the village in attendance listening far more intently at his message that the Lord gave him to share, and saw some come to know Christ as their personal Saviour that evening. It was definitely another incredible experience that the Lord has allowed us to be a small part of. Needless to say, the people in the village asked them to come back the following week again as well, and they did so, with many in attendance and with very good questions.

Last month we asked for prayer for assembly members to take more of a responsibility within the church and commit to things more. We had 15 teenagers show up for a young people's meeting and none of the three men that were to lead it that evening showed up. We had to make sure that that doesn't happen again and are trying to get those men to communicate better with one another and to make a schedule for them, along with more of a commitment to it. Some of the kids showed up at our house expecting that we would come to the rescue. We would appreciate your continued prayers in this area, as well that when some of the responsibilities are put upon someone that they commit to it, and hopefully avoid any further awkward moments as well.

Thank you once again for your prayers, support and encouragement. It means so much to us!!!

In His service,

Joseph and Heather Frimpong

February 2006

Dear Saints in Christ,

Greetings to you from Kumasi! Well, winter is flying by and we still have had no signs of snow. We dont miss the shoveling and clearing off of the car though. We have now been back here, in Ghana, for a year. We are grateful for the things that the Lord has allowed us to do in the past year here in Kumasi and area and the unlimited opportunities we have as well.

We were very happy and encouraged to see six teenagers get baptized on Jan.8th from our chapel. It was wonderful to hear of each ones testimony and how they joined the family of God. Each time we have a baptism it always makes others reflect on their salvation and step of faith and usually others share their desire to take that step of obedience in faith as well. Its always so refreshing to reflect from where we each came from and how the Lord has brought us to the point where we are in our lives today.

Last month we mentioned that we had found a piece of property and had told the owner that we had wanted to buy it. However, by the time that we went to pay the man for it, he had already sold it to someone else, as its basically first come with cash, first served. The Lord has His reasons that it didn't work out. As of Jan.30th we were able to finish observing a different piece of property with some building contractors and an agent. To make a long story short, we finally were able to say that yes, we will take it and then paid for half of it. We will pay them the other half of the money for the land once we get all the paperwork in good order. We are very excited about it and already see the opportunities that the Lord has been opening doors for in that area. This is the area that we have three bible studies already started in that area each week, as a result of the gospel meetings that have been going on in the last few months. We also know that there is a long way to go before reaching the time that well be able to move in. We would appreciate your prayers for the Lords guidance in this area.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers also in regards to what we should do about our car, which still hasn't been sold. Josephs spending more time at the garages then not, these days. We are feeling the need to trade it in at a dealership and get something better instead. We have to be very cautious though as people are so corrupt here that once you agree to purchase a vehicle, if you don't take it at that immediate moment with you, they will switch parts from the good ones in the vehicle that you have just agreed to purchase with ones from a beat up car, which happened to us in April 2005 when we purchased this current vehicle. We have many big decisions on whether or not we should be more concerned about the property or the changing of the vehicle. We continue to pray for the Lords guidance in this area.

We both have finished three treatments for malaria now (from before Christmas time) and we still are not feeling much better. We have four types of mosquitoes and some of them are during the day and some of them are during the evenings. We think that we are mostly bitten in the daytime. However, it only takes one of those little creatures to bite us, and then Walla we have malaria.

We are also trying again this year to encourage those at the chapel to make more of a commitment and seriousness to the things of the church, including being more on time (as many are coming in closer to the end of the services rather than the beginning of the service here and can be a big continual interruption to those in the meeting). Also, we are trying to once again (or still) encourage them to take more responsibility within the assembly as well. They are very laid back and are quite content to have no role at all and allow everyone else to do everything for them. We dont want it to be like as if its our church or be the ones to always run the meetings and things either. Thankfully, the Lord is always ready and willing to help us though.

We thank you for all your support, care and encouragement that you continue to give to us.

In His Service,

Joseph and Heather Frimpong

January 2006

Dear Saints in Christ,

Greetings to you from Kumasi for the first time in 2006!  Its amazing on how
time has flown by already.  We will have been here in Ghana for a year now at
the end of January.  What a year full of the Lords amazing and wonderful
blessings, even with the challenges and trials that one must go through as
well.  We know that we are Gods children though if we have trials, otherwise
Satan wouldnt have any reason to bother us.

We are happy to say that we have had a great turn out for our Young Peoples
group now in the neighborhood.  There has been approximately 75 teenagers or
more coming weekly now on Friday nights and hearing the gospel preached.
Everyone is very eager to come the following week as well.  Our Tues. night
Kids club continues to have the numbers increase to over 75 children as well.
The Lord is working hard in Kumasi, thats for sure!

Last month we mentioned that we felt that the Lord was providing us this one
piece of property about 45 minutes away from where we currently live, to
perhaps purchase and build on it, as our renting lease comes to an end at the
month of April 2006.  The contractor was discussing with the owner of the
property and made the owner even drop the price even more than what we thought
was already a great price for the size and location of the property.  We have
agreed to go through the process of the paperwork and legal work with the
lawyer and things if the property to ensure that it is genuine and legitimate
and if that is the case, Lord willing, we will be purchasing the land sometime
this month.  We are very excited about this and through dear Saints in Christ
like you; the Lord has provided the funds for us to be able to purchase the
property as well.  That was such a huge answer to prayer and blessing to us!

We had a nice but quiet Christmas.  We both taught at the church in the morning
and we were pleasantly surprised with the numbers of over 70 that came out on
Sunday morning.  Some of the childrens parents came out on Sunday, which was
great to see.  Quite often the children come alone without the parents and is
the main reason why we have many more children in the assembly than adults.  We
also had some new families desiring to start the year of 2006 off on the right
foot and have said that they appreciate on how we do our meetings and not
preaching on prosperity gospel and that they see the Truth preached right
from the Bible at the chapel and would like to be a part of it.  So that was
exciting to see families, including the parents, desire to meet with us on a
regular basis.  On Christmas Day after the meetings we took some of the new
teenage girls out for lunch with us and then came home and played some board
games for a while.  Then the rest of the time we called family members back in
Canada.  It was difficult in some ways, as our first Christmas away from family
but the Lord gave us the strength to get through and love of others here.  For
Christmas we were excited as we were able to give some people new clothing for
Christmas, some medications, and approximately 20 families laundry baskets full
of grocery items that they use on a regular basis and some items for a treat,
along with bags of rice.  Weve never bought so much canned mackerel fish and
bags of rice in our lives!  It was exciting to see the appreciation from them
as well.  Much different than gift giving back in Canada, as you knew they
really needed these items rather than wanting them.  We had a lot of fun making
the baskets up for them all and yet it was hard to know when to stop and our
limits, as its so easy to get excited and carried away as they truly
appreciate these items and need them.  So we thank you on behalf of all of
those families and friends that received these items for your help and support
in making this sort of thing possible.

We thank you once again for all your support, love and encouragement that you
have given to us.

God bless,

Joseph and Heather Frimpong

We know that this is a very busy time of year for everyone so we wont take up much of your time. We just wanted to wish you all a very special and happy Christmas with your family and friends as we have the honour and privilege of celebrating the birth of our Saviour. May the Lord bless you in the year ahead!

This Christmas will be quite different for us, as we are not used to having the weather being in the high 40s as it is right now (and its still morning yet) and running the air conditioner rather than the furnace or fire place. No signs of snow, thats for sure! It will also be quite different not doing many things that we would normally be doing and be seeing many of you, if we were back in Canada though either. A couple of days ago we went to the village where Josephs family all are and brought them some groceries and things for them for Christmas and left some very hyper nieces and nephews behind as we left. Its so easy to give here, no matter the season. Its more like knowing when to stop is the issue. We are trying to keep in mind that no matter where we are, whether its in Canada or Ghana, the Reason for the Season never changes! Praise the Lord!

It has certainly been a very busy but rewarding year here in Kumasi. Thank you for your cards, letters, emails, and prayers for this past year in 2005! We greatly have appreciated them and look forward to corresponding with you all again in 2006!

Greetings to you from the hot city of Kumasi! It’s hard to believe that it’s already the last month of the year. Time sure has flown by here for us. It has been a year of ups and downs and a year of answered prayers and learning experiences. It has been such a privilege to see many souls saved, baptized and come into fellowship, numbers increasing in attendance after we moved locations, and the spiritual growth within the assembly all within the last year. God has been good!

On Nov.25th we began a new group for young people’s, for ages 12 and up at our assembly. It was a great turn out of 40 teenagers for the evening. There was a brief introduction to the group, dinner provided, and watched the “Gospel of Luke” video. The numbers encouraged us and we know that it will only grow, as this was a meeting just for our teens that come out regularly. We had asked them not to bring their friends until next time as we wanted to treat them special for the first night and it would be difficult to provide dinner for them otherwise. Everyone there seemed to have a lot of fun, excited, and others looking forward to coming when they get older. We are especially encouraged that there is this meeting now because there is nothing for the teenagers to do in the evenings besides the local bars or getting into trouble. Teen pregnancy is such a high rate here and especially when they see it as the only way they think that they can earn money. The parents of these teenagers have greeted us with their thanksgivings that we are doing this for them and that they see a change in their kids since they have been coming to our home, meetings at the church and now the young people’s group. That has been encouraging to both them as parents, and to us.

Another development for us is that we are in the process of looking to purchase some property to build on, due to current circumstances. We are currently renting a place and the rent comes up for renewal at the end of April 2006. However, we have both been praying for the Lord’s guidance in what we should as we, by no means, want to renew our renting agreement with the landlord as he and his family has been making it more and more challenging for us to continue to live here. We have been investigating in different properties and feel that the Lord has perhaps led us to an area and in a price range that is reasonable. We would ask you to please pray for us for the Lord’s continued guidance and provision in this area, as this is something that needs to be decided on rather quickly. A man from our assembly said that he and his construction workers could have the basics of a house and the property in order for us to move within six months. The land that we are looking at to perhaps purchase is in an area that would quickly resell if we needed to in the future as well. The only disadvantage of this property is that it would be about an hour away from the assembly and that our house won’t be so easily available for them to drop in for questions or visits with us. However, we know that we would be available to those in the new area, as we get more comfortable there. We will continue to pray to see what the Lord would like us to do at this time.

Our Tues. night kids club is still thriving and over 50 children in attendance on a weekly basis. They have been enjoying the study of Genesis in the last number of months, and a series of “Questions and Answers”, and will be starting another book of the Bible soon with them. It’s been so encouraging to see on how many children come and the distances that they are willing to walk, even in the rain at times, to come with eagerness to learn more of the Bible and Christ.

We have also been asked to come and preach at a Liberian refugee camp in the New Year and they are all very excited about the possibility of us coming there. We don’t know if we should take this challenge or not.

We are both eager to see what the Lord will have us to do in 2006 here in Kumasi and area. The Lord has been amazing in 2005, that’s for sure! At this time, we would like to wish you and your family’s a very special and happy Christmas as you celebrate the birth of our Saviour! May the Lord richly bless you in the year! We look forward to corresponding with you again in the New Year.

We warmly greet you from Kumasi! We trust that you are doing well and are moving on to the winter months when things get really busy. We have been informed recently that a number of our friends are helping out this year teaching Sunday school, Awana, and even preaching/teaching the older folks. That is encouraging news to us as that is exactly what we have been encouraging the believers here to get involved in. We pray the Lord to bless your efforts as you labour for Him!

As we have informed you in the previous months, the Lord has been working in the lives of some of the people that we are ministering to. Four candidates expressed a desire to be baptized on October 16th, but one teenage boy, Daniel, got sick the day before the baptism, thus unable to participate. The remaining three candidates were baptized after each one of them gave a clear testimony of their conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel has since recovered and he has asked us to baptize him whenever it is possible to make an arrangement. It is encouraging to see Daniel and other new believers attending meetings, reading their Bible, and seeking to be obedient to the Word of God. Please, continue to pray for them, as Satan is ever ready to discourage them.

Our co-worker, Daniel Webster, is a very good Bible teacher and encourager. He has been challenging everyone in our assembly to memorize the entire Book of James by December 17th, 2005. The Book of James, as you know, has many practical teachings to challenge a believer to walk right with the God. We hope to teach from the Book early next year after many of us become familiar with it. So far, four of our teenage boys have each memorized the entire Book and they can recite all five chapters without looking into their Bible. The girls are not memorizing them as fast as the boys, but they are coming up. One of the girls, Theresa, recently recited chapter two to us without making mistakes, she is now working hard on chapter three. It is a joy to see some of the kids come into our flat, and sit quietly for hours in our living room studying and memorizing the Book. When they are ready to say the chapter, they will call on us and say it to us. We then inform Daniel Webster who lives across the city from us and also does the record keeping. We the adults are confessing that we are having it quite difficult to memorize the Book at the same rate as the kids/teens who seem to have sharp minds. We are doing our best though, but…please, pray for us!

One of the leading brothers in our assembly, Ofori Agyeman and his wife, Alice, were married last year. They are expecting their first child this month in the will of the Lord. Alice have had a number of sicknesses since she got pregnant, thus many trips to the hospital. We are thankful to the Lord that she has been doing better lately, as her due date is getting closer. However, of October 31st, thieves broke into their little apartment and did a considerable amount of damage to their property while they were out. One of the thieves, a seventeen-year-old boy was arrested but other one managed to escape. This obviously has caused the couple to be upset, shaky, and insecure, especially for Alice who will soon be home alone with a baby. They would sure appreciate your prayers.

Heather is currently in Scotland meeting a friend from Canada who is bringing our much-needed medications with her. She will be returning on November 4th. Joseph was treated for malaria recently and he is currently battling with a stubborn cold.

Thanks again for your love, prayers and partnership with us in the Lord’s work here in Kumasi. We really appreciated that.

Greetings to you from Kumasi! We hope and pray that you are doing well. We are thankfully able to say that our health is in good order and no sickness at this time. We greatly appreciate God’s help in that area. Heather’s test results have continued to show more and more closer to the normal range as well, which is an answer to prayer. Joseph also is doing well at this time and no malaria symptoms either. Praise the Lord!

We are very excited to announce that we have had a very encouraging month once again in seeing the Lord’s workmanship here in Kumasi. We have had three teenage boys, one man in his 40’s and one teenage girl all come to join the family of God through their salvation. They are now all seeking to be baptized as well. We have also had others requesting to be baptized now too as they have been saved for a while but finally see the importance of following in obedience in baptism. The man in his 40’s has said numerous occasions that he has really appreciated the teaching of our assembly here and really wants to be a part of it. He has expressed the interest in baptism as well. He hesitated asking to be baptized and to come into fellowship though here because he has been living common-law with a lady for a number of years and they have two sons together. He intended to marry her years ago and even paid the dowry for it as well. However, they just “never got around to it” or had the money for it. After talking with him for quite some time he really desires to walk in obedience with the Lord and realizes that he really wants to get married now to this woman and soon. We expressed that it didn’t have to be a fancy or expensive wedding but it can be a simple one if they wanted. He always is telling us that he can’t express it into words on how excited he has been since he got saved and how he feels so different when he gets up in the mornings now. His name is Kwaku, and we are sure that he would appreciate your prayers as well.

Heather will be leaving on Oct.21 to Nov.5 to go to meet a friend from Canada in Scotland. She is going to be bringing us a lot of our medication that we take on a regular basis as the amount that we brought with us is running out. We are only able to purchase some of our medications here and it’s much more expensive here then in Canada. However, it’s more of a concern on that we are at high risk getting an authentic medicine and not an imitation here, as imitation medicine is very popular here and there’s no way of telling the difference. So with the elders permission and blessing from Canada, Heather will meet her friend, Eunice, (who was our maid of honour in our wedding exactly a year ago - Sept.25/04). We would appreciate your prayers in this area for safe travelling mercies, that we’ll be able to transfer the medications and things through customs, etc. safely and easily.

We just celebrated our first anniversary together. We decided to go away from the city for a few days to a resort that was recommended to us. It was a beautiful resort and it was difficult to realize something so nice could actually be here in Ghana. It was a nice time to get some rest and relaxation. The only negative thing about the trip was that while we were swimming in the Atlantic ocean there, the waves, current and tide were very strong (storm came afterwards) and managed to take off Heather’s engagement ring with one of the waves. It wasn’t that loose either but after six hours of searching for it, we were still not able to locate it. That was quite the disappointment but at least she still has her wedding ring. We have left it in the Lord’s hands and if the resort should be meant to find it, they have told us that they will make sure that we get it back.

Happy greetings to you from Kumasi! The month of July was certainly a month of answered prayers, encouragement, excitement, and growth for us here in Kumasi.

We are very happy to announce that our shipment has finally arrived!!!! Yes, after eight months, numerous frustrations, phone calls, emails, confusion and emotions, we have finally received our items from our shipment and have them safe and sound in our home. The containers themselves were badly damaged as they “toss” things around a lot at these shipping companies, but the actual items themselves were not damaged. It has been like Christmas in July for us!!! We have also been able to extend that “Christmas in July” to many needy individuals here in Kumasi too. It has been exciting to see many people as they receive books, clothes, shoes, food, etc. that will help them greatly. It is quite a pleasure for us to be able to see the shock but delight on their faces as they receive these gifts from people they have never met and for no particular reason (e.g. their birthday). We let them know that there are many people around the world that are praying for them in one way or another and wanted them to have these items. They are very amazed, considering people that are in their own family never even give them anything. We look forward to seeing many other smiling faces as we continue to give these items out as we see a need. Thank you once again for your donations that we have collected to ship here. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without you! Most importantly, thank you for your prayers that we would receive our shipment. To this day, we still have not been able to get a hold of our Canadian agent, but at least we have our items now.

We have also had some very encouraging news as we continue to see the numbers of children and adults rise since we have moved to our new location for the chapel. We have had many people come to visit and end up staying as they have been looking for the truth and practices of the Bible, as they have not seen this from the other numerous denominations here in Kumasi and surrounding areas. We now have over 50 children attending our “kids club” on Tuesday nights now too. This is a surprise but encouragement to us, especially as this is the time where we have a lot of rain and many want to stay home, times where the kids are helping out on family farms, and also exam time at most of the schools. We have been doing “Question and Answer” nights for a number of weeks now and the children seem to look forward to Tues. nights with attentive minds, as we do. They are able to ask a question or write it on paper and put it in a container with a slit in the top of it, if they have a question. This has been especially good for those who are shy or “too cool” to ask a question. The questions have a wide range of topics, that’s for sure. We also have been having a soccer game for an hour on Tues. nights before the singing and study time. They have also been enjoying this opportunity very much as well. We will be having our annual quiz on the last week of August and the first week of September, which we all look forward to, especially the kids.

We are also very excited to be able to purchase a washer and dryer the last week of July. We will be able to use it hopefully by the first week in August. This will be very helpful as washing clothes by hand the last six months has been very “painful” on the hands and legs, not to mention very time consuming. This has been another answer to prayer as well.

Daniel Webster, our co-worker, and Joseph are planning a training course for the next month or six weeks for some of the young men in our assembly that desire to learn more on how best to evangelize and preach the gospel. There are at least three Christian men that have been attending school for the past year and now that they are on summer holidays, they want to use this time to learn. We are all quite excited about this opportunity as well.

As we continue to do the work here in Kumasi, and surrounding areas, we are encouraged to see many things that the Lord is giving us the wonderful opportunity to do here in Kumasi. These things we would not have been able to do without your prayers and support, not to mention encouragement.

We would like to greet you again from Kumasi. We trust that you are all keeping well in health and in spirit and are enjoying the summer days. Here in Ghana we are in the raining season, and for this month we have seen very little sunshine, mostly rain and clouds. On one hand, the weather is not so hot, which is really good. On the other hand, the rain has brought in more mosquitoes, thus more malaria related cases. Weeds grow quite fast at this time and many gutters are choked with rubbish thus becoming incubators for the mosquitoes and it makes it easy to get sick, at this time, because of all the garbage flooding onto the roads and things and it is not cleared away either.

We would also like to thank you for your continued prayers for us. We are mindful daily that you are partners with us in this work of the Lord. We do witness answers to your prayers for us, so please continue to bear us before the Throne of Grace. Speaking of answer to prayers, on June 26th, our assembly had a baptism for two young men who expressed desire to be baptized. There were six candidates who wanted to get baptized and to come into fellowship. However, due to various reasons, only two were able to be baptized. Prayer partners may recall the name of Kofi Sadat, a young teenager, who was saved a few years ago from a Muslim background. He was one of the candidates. We hope in the will of the Lord to conduct another baptism soon. Please pray for them as they have now been added to our fellowship and that they may grow spiritually and serve the Lord with their spiritual gifts.

Daniel Webster, our co-worker, and Heather were each granted a one year work permit by the government last month. We really thank you for praying for that! They have now applied for a residence permit. After they are granted a residence permit, they will have to apply for a non-quota status in order to avoid paying a yearly fee of two hundred dollars ($200.00 USD). Dealing with the government here is very difficult, cumbersome, and time consuming to say the least! Almost each office you visit the employees don’t tell you exactly what paperwork you are required to submit, and when you do submit your application they reject it and make you go and come back again and again. We have travelled to Accra (about 5 hours from Kumasi) a number of times to various government offices seeking to obtain proper document. Joseph has not heard anything about his dual-citizenship application that he submitted about two months ago. We would appreciate it if you would please continue to pray for these matters.

As to our goods that we shipped back in December and January, sadly we are still without them. Apprently, our shipping agent in Toronto has run into financial difficulties with the shipping company, thus the shipping company has been withholding the container in Tema since March until the “demurrage” is paid. He also changed the initial agent in Tema who should clear the goods for us. We have now come up with the sufficient amount of money on our part to pay the shipping company and the Ghana Shipping and Harbour Authority for them to release the container to our new agent. However, the new agent is having difficulties coming up with the proper paperwork and Randy Houston, our agent in Toronto is nowhere to be found. Joseph is hoping to travel to Tema this week to work with the agent to see what can be done to clear our goods. We are praying that the price we now have yet to pay for customs and duty, and the fee for the agent here will not be too expensive. Please, continue to pray regarding this matter.

As to our health we are doing fine, except that Heather’s knees are continuing to give her much pain.

We warmly greet you again in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We could hardly believe that we have been here just over three months now. Praise the Lord we have passed our probation! Time seems to fly by very quickly to us.

We would like to thank you again for you intercessory prayers on our behalf. We know that many of you have been praying for us and with us daily. We witness answer to prayers daily. Our God is faithful! Answer to one of our prayers is that we were able to purchase a vehicle about two weeks ago. What a huge relief it is to have a vehicle to get us in and out of where we live. The vehicle is already proving to be useful in many ways as it is helping us to do more than we could before. We are truly thankful to you for praying with us to that end!

On Sunday May 1st, at 8:00 a.m., our assembly launched a weekly thirty-minute gospel program on Kapital Radio 97.1 FM in Kumasi. Our co-worker, Daniel Webster, is the instrumental in getting the radio program going. The radio station is not only heard in Kumasi but in a number of other regions in Ghana as well. The gospel preacher is Mr. Minor Hawk, “The Voice of the Gospel”, a well know radio gospel preacher in America for about fifty years. Mr. Hawk presents a clear, non-compromised message of the gospel to sinners. He does not solicit for funds, nor attach money to the free gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is so common here to solicit for funds. At the end of the program, listeners are directed to contact our assembly or visit us for any questions or concerns they may have. We are exceedingly thankful to the Lord for enabling us to get the gospel on the air. We are trying the program on the air for three months. If it is successful, we hope to continue with a longer term of contract with the radio station. Please pray for the listeners that they might be convicted and thus respond positively to the gospel.

The Lord graciously provides us opportunities to be a witness for Him here daily, for that we are thankful. The children’s ministry is going on well although the attendance has gone down a bit both on Tuesday nights, and on Sunday mornings. However, those who do attend participate well. Two of the teenagers have expressed a desire to be baptized, so we are looking to the Lord for an appropriate time to baptism them.

Heather’s visa has been extended for three more months stay in Ghana. Thank you for your prayers in this area. However, she has to apply for a work permit in order to stay here longer. We traveled to Accra (over 5 hours away from where we live) to submit her application to the Ministry of Interior, but it was rejected. It was rejected because they made requests for additional paper work that they didn’t make us aware of beforehand. Thus, we are planning to go there again soon to submit it to the ministry. Joseph also has to apply for a dual-citizenship card from the same ministry. Please, pray with us that our applications might be received at this time and our requests be met.

We are still without our goods that we shipped ahead of us back in December and January. We were to receive the first shipment in the middle of February and the second shipment at the end of March. We don’t have concrete information as to when we will receive them. Obviously, this is a real concern to us. We would appreciate your continued prayers in this area. Once again, thank you for your love and partnership with us. May God richly bless you!