The Roof is On!!

It's our honor to report to you that the roof is on the mission house! We are so excited. Doesn't it look great!? The electrician has put the outlet boxes in as well.

Next steps. Plumbing, bringing electricity to the site, wiring the house, plastering the walls, tiling the floors, putting in electrical and plumbing fixtures, painting the house, stone work on the outside of the house to protect from mold/mildew.

Stay tuned!

Christmas in Ghana 2008

When we started receiving the giving reports for Christmas in Ghana and realized that we would only be receiving 1/4 of what we had hoped we were quite sad. We thought that we would not be able to do much of anything for the children of the New Life School - but GOD!!!

On December 5th - WorldVenture Ghana stormed the New Life School with the message of Christmas and the love of Christ in a beautiful way.

Ms. Carla Christian (Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church - Houston,TX) put together a beautiful Christmas presentation for the school and everybody participated. The students had speeches and even the teachers had a role to play. There was Christmas music playing and lots of fun to be had by all. The students said Christmas prayers and told the real story of the birth of Christ - even using the ABCs as a prop. When the program ended with a beautiful presentation about the Candy Cane - we did our give away.

Each child received a bag with rice, fish, tomato paste, an energy drink, a toy (or two) and candy. Each teacher and the headmaster of the school received a bag as well.

Our great thanks to Carla for sharing her gifts in Ghana for a 2nd time; and to Mr. Antwi a local grocer who gave us quite a deal on the food stuffs so that it was possible to get this done.

To God Be The Glory!

Knowing God's Will and Living God's Way

This photo is of our December 08 Short Term Team - from l to r; Vanessa Smith, Janice Parker, Geneva DeVaughn (Jan's sister), Lloyd, Lisa Autry, Ken Rucker, Jan and Carla Christian.

Our 2nd conference for Pastor's Wives and Women and Ministry was a great success! The theme for this year was Knowing God's Will and Living God's Way. Our guests were three dynamic pastors wives from Texas. Min. Geneva DeVaughn - whose husband pastors the Silverlake Community Church in Pearland, TX. Atty. Janice Shelton parker - whose husband pastors the Golden Gate Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas, TX; and Min. Lisa Autry - whose husband pastors Eirene Christian Fellowship in Richardson, TX. This group was extra special to us because one of the speakers - Geneva DeVaughn - is Jan's older sister and the first member of our family to visit us on the field!

(The next picture is Geneva speaking at the conference)

The topics that were covered were Prayer, Faith and Excellence in Ministry. 71 women registerd and attended the conference for 4 full days and they all testified that they will never be the same. They were challenged to pray in faith, to trust in God even when things don't seem like they are going as they should and to strive to give God their absolute best in all things. At the end of the week they spent time in prayer and counseling with the women and answered some tough questions about the Bible's sovreignty over culture. One of the women who was serving lunch for us made a profession of faith in Christ for the first time and is now in discipleship at a local church!

Ms. Vanessa Smith, RN (Houston, TX) provided free blood pressure screening for the women at the conference and thanks to her diligence one older woman who had a serious issue (high blood pressure with low pulse) made a trip to the hospital and was given proper medication for her problem. This was Vanessa's 2nd trip to Ghana and she was once again a blessing and a breath of fresh air. Vanessa has a strong gift of prayer - in other words she really knows how to talk to the Father and her prayer covering during the week was invaluable.

At the same time the women were meeting - Pastor Ken Rucker (New Branch Community Church - Dacula, GA) was meeting with the pastors. Pastor Ken's time with the pastors was centered around discipleship and he camped out with the pastors in the book of Colossians. This is Pastor Ken's 2nd time to Ghana this year - and we are looking forward to his 3rd visit next June - when he will continue the work he has started here. It was great to see the pastors applying the lessons they were learning about expositing scripture as they engaged in sermon development and preparation exercises in a small group setting.

(This photo is Lisa Autry and Janice Parker praying for the elders at Shiare)

At the end of the week all of our guests climbed up the mountain to the village of Shiare. Those of you who have tracked with us for a while know that it is our desire to plant a church in Shiare. Shiare is a village of about 3,000-4,000 people with only a handfull of believers. There is a shrine in the area that is a literal spiritual high place where people from all over Ghana and West Africa come to sacrifict to the fetish for different reasons. Seeing the living conditions there and meeting the people was life changing for all. We do solicit your prayers as we continue to visit the people of Shiare attempting to meet their felt needs - so that we can eventually meet their REAL need!

Bible Church of Africa Conference

On November 19th and 20th Lloyd taught at the Bible Church of Africa Missions conference in Tamale - Ghana. The purpose of the event was to ignite the fire for missions among pastors in churches that had been planted in Ghana. The theme for the event was Unity Towards Progress. Lloyd's teaching focus was what a unified ministry team looks like and the key characteristics of a progressive church. There were also sessions on strategic planning led by Dr. Joshua Bogunjoko - the Deputy International Director of SIM for West Africa and Europe.


There were approximately 60 pastors present at the conference with at least 5 different ethnic groups represented. These pastors work in some of the most underserved areas in northern Ghana.

This was the beginning of the development of of what we hope to be a new partnership with the Bible Church of Africa. They will be sending some of these pastors to the Nkwanta Leadership Equipping Center in order to multipy the leadership in their churches.

The Bible Church of Africa is the association of churches planted by SIM (Serving In Mission).

Bringing Jeremy Home

When we were home this summer to get Joe settled back into the USA, Jeremy let us know that it was his desire and intent to return to Dakar Acadamy for 8th grade. We reluctantly agreed - knowing that we would miss him even more with Joe being off the continent. Jeremy got back to Dakar Academy (DA) and got right into the swing of things - he was elected 8th grade rep, his grades were good even though he got back 2 weeks late, his dorm parents were so glad he was back because he is such a good helper, etc. In other words, there was no issue at DA.

We made a family decision that it would be best for Jeremy to be with his parents at this critical stage in his development. He was 13 at the time (he had a birthday November 10th and is now 14) - and we wanted to sow into his life just as we did with Joe. We are a pretty tight knit family and we knew that no one could encourage Jeremy and build him up in the faith like we could. So at the end of October - we went to Dakar, Senegal and got our boy.

We are home schooling again and we are excited to have our baby boy home with us. Though DA is a great school - it is a 4 day drive away from Ghana - flying takes at least a day because we have to drive over to Abidjan to catch the flight. We hope that you too are rejoicing that we are together again!

Working On A Building!

Putting a roof on a building in the US doesn't take long - as a matter of fact, most of us don't know how long it takes because the builder takes care of all of those details for us. This is not the case in Ghana; especially in Nkwanta.

You are the builder - and the general contractor - and the financier. It all starts there.

We never thought it would take us a year to get the walls on the mission house up - but it did. So when we realized we were at the roofing stage - we got just a little excited. After the masons added the number of courses required to put the rafters/trusses on - we went to order the lumber. The first step is to talk to the person that sells lumber about the types and amounts of wood that you want. If the lumber seller does not have what you need on hand - he then goes to the chief that owns the land where the trees are to get permission to cut the lumber. Once he has permission and you have paid at least half then he contracts for the trees to be cut from the forest. The trees are brought to his workplace where he splits and prepares the wood. The wood has to have time to dry and then it has to be treated. This process can take two to three weeks.

Then the lumber guy delivers the wood to your construction site - where the carpenter and his crew start building the trusses/rafters. In all - this portion of our project took about one month.

So we are excited that the trusses are up - and the roofing sheets will go up in the next two weeks! Stay tuned for pictures of those sheets!

Expanding the Vision for Global Missions

On October 4th and 5th in Humble, TX - a group of people with a passion to see people of all ethnicities involved in the work of the Great Commission met to learn, worship and pray together. The event was sponsored by WorldVenture (formerly CBInternational) and hosted by Solid Rock Baptist Church.

This event was the Genesis of a great move of God in missions - it was a place for the beginnings of connecting and partnership across racial lines in a real way. Lasting relationships were established that will benefit kingdom building all over the world.

The group that organized this event included leaders at WorldVenture, and pastors & church leaders from Houston, TX and Memphis Tennessee. They call themselves the Missional Gathering Team. Their work is based upon the fact that a missional church orients every aspect of its life around God’s mission, understanding that every member of His Church is sent to participate in the mission of God in the world. They believe strongly that missions is not the domain of a particular group or committee or those with a special calling, but rather every program, function and activity of the church is aligned with God’s mission.

Workshops offered included: Mobilizing the Church to make an Impact for Missions; Mobilizing Your Youth for Missions; Financing Missions; Nuts & Bolts in Preparation for a Mission Trip; Creative Missions Strategies of the Local Church for Missions; and The Role of Prayer and Spiritual Warfare in Missions.

Key note speakers for the event were Pastor D.Z. Cofield, Pastor Paul Cannings (pictured), and Pastor Ross Cullins.

The next GC4 Man It Is On missions festival will be held the first week of October at the same location - SAVE THE DATE!