WINTER ‘06 VOL. 13 ISS. 3

African Mission Evangelism, Lexington, NC

7343 Ridge Rd., Lexington, NC 27295 Ph. 336-764-1900 Email:info@ameghana.org Website: www.ameghana.org PayPal: ameghana@triad.rr.com

African Mission Evangelism, Ghana West Africa

P.O. Box DD142 Dodowa, Ghana, West Africa Ph/SMS Text. +233-20-837-8087 SKYPE: pcnghana SkypIn: 828-398-0637 Email: patrickcline@ameghana.org

The first official semester for the School of Community Development went off without any trouble. We started out the year with 12 students but a family emergency caused one young man to drop out. We pray he can come back in August of ’07.

Overall I enjoyed the semester with these new, non-theology, students in that they bring with them a challenge in several areas. While they are a product of the Ghana education system and all having the equivalent of a high school diploma, there are glaring differences between US high school graduates and those of Ghana. The largest difference was in the area of computer literacy. This is to be expected because it is only now that some of the more privileged Ghana Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) are only now introducing computers to the classroom.

FIRST SEMESTER OF SCD WENT OFF WITHOUT A HITCH

Contents SCD First Semester …..1

Heather’s Happenings….2

Mission Container.……..3

Why Bible Colleges in

Ghana?. …………….4

The second major area of difference is in the area of bible knowledge. I was surprised at the level of knowledge they had and their desire to know more. Even our only Moslem (Ahmaddi) student was curious and very attentive in the bible classes. Unlike our school children (well those in secular schools) Ghanaian children are exposed to bible at almost every educational juncture of their lives. The problem there is that what they are taught, unless it comes from an educated evangelist, it can be a hodgepodge of teachings from across the denominational spectrum. This is dangerous because it is from these misguided youths there are many indigenous “churches” that are not following the simple true gospel and often are no more than cults.

A third and more troublesome dichotomy is the real knowledge level of the students. Each student that comes into our college must take an English exam and cognitive abilities examto verify their abilities. They do take a West African Exams Council exam similar to our ACT or SAT but their abilities often do not match what is on the paper. Sometimes this is just bad teaching and others it is false papers. Education is such a prized possession in West Africa that some will stoop to whatever level to acquire the paperwork. The real shame here is that families spend hard earned or often borrowed money to pay for substandard education in the lower levels and fail the WAEC exams. We try to make sense out of the exam results and then apply our own standards through additional testing.

To the School of Theology students this entrance exam has never been an issue. Probably because they often come from areas of Ghana where the education is not very good and deserve a chance to prove themselves so see this as that chance. However, the SCD students (and especially those enquiring about the school) are not so enthused about it initially. I sat down with a few of my SCD students and showed them where they would not have been admitted if we relied solely upon the WAEC grades. Their eyes were opened and said we should communicate this to those applying because many do not apply precisely because of the entrance exam. We are looking into waving it for those with high enough grades but I must say that our entrance exam has been a blessing to many worthy students and no small blessing to those benefiting from our graduates.

The faculty of Ghana Christian University

College 2006

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HEATHER’S HAPPENINGS

It’s difficult to believe its Christmas, especially when it is over 90 degrees outside! This year has gone by so fast with the kids attending the American International School of Accra and me teaching at the school. I traded teaching for the kids attending the school and while it was difficult at first due to changing from home schooling to the traditional format we survived the change. Teaching has slowed progress on my Masters in Education but with the house empty in the afternoon it has given PC an opportunity to work on his doctorate without interruptions. I have five more classes to take and PC is now entering the writing stage.

The kids have had a very busy

schedule of late with school, the International Players pantomime, and two church plays. Kayla and Hunter had smaller roles this year in the International Players pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, but each enjoyed the play and learned the discipline necessary to present a good play. Kayla will earn some Drama credits towards her schooling. Jaden really

enjoyed seeing his sister, brother and mom on stage but was a little worried when the witch came on stage. Daddy had to convince him that it was his friend from baseball and there was nothing to worry about. Jaden still sings the songs we practiced for 3 months!

I was finally able to have a crown

on the tooth which was shattered last July on my trip to the North. We pray for special blessings to the family that assisted us in this large unexpected expense. The process was painful but not in the manner one might think. The week after my procedure was completed my dentist died after arriving back in Korea to visit his family. He left behind a wife, eight year old daughter and five year old son. He was inquisitive about Jesus but did not have time to follow through on his path to coming to know Jesus.

At times it's been difficult to manage

family, ministry, and school but especially right now. Ghana is having serious power problems and rationing is now taking place in the major cities. Unfortunately, Beacon House has suffered severely with the power being

The second semester and second year first semester classes are listed below for you to see what we are teaching and where we need assistance from our US/UK brethren. You see, quality education materials, especially textbooks, are not in plentiful supply. We need funds to buy books in the US/UK for the students to borrow while taking the class. This is not like in the US where you must purchase your books. With the average textbook costing $68.00 (2 weeks salary for most) it is practically impossible for a student to purchase a $110 Economics book.

There are two ways you and your church can assist our students. One is to give money towards the book fund and another is to buy the books from our Amazon.com Wish List. (search for it under my name or go to our website and click the link at the bottom of the page). We are

going to send a container from Atlanta with supplies for both the American International School and the college. (more on the container later) The books will ship to the default address up to the last possible day then afterwards revert back to being shipped to mom and dad in Banner Elk, NC where they will send them to us via a courier.

Each book you send is a blessing of immense proportion to the student and a building block for the church and Ghana. At GCUC we are committed to helping Ghana develop through holistically equipped saints. The School of Community Development equips young men and women to bring the Gospel message along with their development activities in the country. The School of Theology is the foundational school of the university equipping men and women with sound biblical teachings for a place that is desperate for them. (read below for an example)

Semester 2 2006/07 Year English II French II Oral Communication Bible Backgrounds II Intro to Computing II

Semester 1 2007/08 Year Intro to Psychology Intro to Development Theory Intro to Management * Intro to Economics * Intro to Statistics * * We need 30 books for each

class.

out for over four days on a couple occasions. This makes things very difficult and especially so without a generator. Making sure that all the children have safe food without refrigeration is extremely difficult in the tropical heat that we are now experiencing in full force. But God has been so good and much has been accomplished. Two of the children from Vea were adopted by a wonderful Christian family here in Ghana. Little Sammy has grown strong and healthy and looks forward to one day having a Christian mother and father. Six-year-old Rebecca who needed reconstruction surgery on her leg due to a flesh eating bacteria will be flying next month to Ohio for surgery. We are overjoyed for her! God has brought much love and security to these children through the work of Romana Testa who operates Beacon House with the renting of her home in London. Please be in prayer for the much-needed generator. Romana and I will be traveling to the North right after Christmas.

May God bless and keep every one

of you safe this wonderful Christmas season.

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MISSION CONTAINER LOADING! We have been very busy this year with several

projects working with many brethren for the cause of Christ. Between the college, AIS, Beacon House, and our family the needs for large items that cannot be cheaply bought or even at all in Ghana has reached a critical mass where we believe there is justification to ship a container to Ghana while we are still in Ghana. Now, this requires scheduling and some dedicated people in the US to coordinate the many boxes and the container itself. God has blessed us with two willing men to do the legwork and a church to temporarily house the goods.

The items we need are listed below in our prayer list. Some of these are for the college, some for evangelists, some for the orphanage, and some for AIS. We ask that you pray over each and present the needs to your missions committee. This will be a unique effort in that we are teaming up with a couple of other missions to share the cost of the container and the hassles involved here in Ghana.

We are aiming to ship the container out Monday Feb. 12th from 218 W. Ward St Carrollton GA 30117. The two people you need to contact to ship stuff are: Tim Moon [TimM@leucotool.com ; (770)-851-6483] and John Latimer [john@newgenerationcc.com ; (770) 834-3799].

Each item must be boxed and shipped for arrival BETWEEN Feb. 1st and 10th. Since each mission is paying for shipping by the cubic meter we ask that you ship, as much as possible, in boxes near that dimension. A possible Sunday School Class effort would be to fill a box with elementary school supplies such as paper, crayons, pencils, books, etc. Please be sure to mark the box either for College, AIS, Beacon House, Clines so that are assigned to the correct mission when we unload.

I ask that if you want to contribute to this in any way please contact me so I can answer any questions you may have. If you desire to help with the shipping/clearing costs then please mark the check “container” so Scott can put it aside for that purpose.

Ship all goods to: Ghana Container c/o Tim Moon 218 W. Ward St Carrollton GA 30117

WHY BIBLE COLLEGES IN GHANA?

Some time ago a well meaning and godly man asked me a question that was disconcerting at the time but later I just attributed to an ignorance of Africa. He asked me why the Africans needed bible colleges and why wouldn’t just local training schools work the way they did in the early days of the Restoration Movement. My response at the time was lacking a good example to prove my point but circumstances and the need to answer in more detail are providing an impetus to better answer now.

This past week in a widely read newspaper there was an article by an academic at the University of Ghana. She recited a recent incident she was familiar with and unfortunately not uncommon in Africa. A man, who is a “pastor” in a “prayer camp”, whose wife had just had twin boys became ill shortly after their birth and had to give the children to their aunt to take care of “while she was healed”.

In Ghana, prayer camps are pan-amount to juju houses in that the format is quite similar to that of a juju healing ritual. Normally there is not the praying to thunder gods and the like nor chickens being bled for sacrifice (although the later is not unheard of in

Togo) but the other periphery of the ceremony is very much the same. There is one near our house and on Friday nights the chanting, singing, dancing, and loud bombastic preaching can be heard over scratchy loudspeakers. The phrase that sticks out to me in Twi is the preacher will say; “… I only have the knowledge but you must have the faith for the sickness to be removed.” Or, “… if you do not have faith then why are you here? To bring shame to God?”

The pastor of this prayer camp did not take his sick wife to the hospital as he said she did not have a “hospital sickness” but rather a “spiritual sickness”. To the uneducated African mind this speaks to the very soul of their being. The African sees the world from a much more spiritual perspective than we do in the West. Over the years I have come to respect their spiritual view but on a more biblical plane of reality. The pastor committed his wife to this place for two weeks before the aunt came looking for the lady to give the children back as they were not thriving on the formula. The aunt was assured that it should take only one more week of prayer. However, upon seeing the condition of her sister she

pleaded to take her to the hospital. The pastor became enraged and escorted the sister out of the camp. Before the week was out the pastor’s wife died from internal bleeding associated with the birth of the children.

The doctor writing the column wants to regulate by certification these prayer camps the way doctors and dentists in Ghana are regulated. I think we all can see the danger here!

To my inquisitive godly friend in America I say; this is the reason we need bible colleges in Africa. This pastor was a “certificate” holder from some hole-in-the-wall “Christian Institute” that taught only faith can save you from the ills of this world. If Ghana goes down the slippery slope of regulating pastors then they will require pastors to attend and hold degrees from colleges like GCUC. We pray regulation does not come to be in Ghana and that we can continue to educate the society at every level with true biblical principles and exemplify through our lives the compassion and love Jesus has for us. Every society needs properly educated doctors, dentists, and ministers. It is our role to make sure it is done biblically correct!

PRAYERS, PRAISES, AND BLESSINGS

African Mission Evangelism, Inc. is incorporated under US Federal Tax Code, Section 501(c)(3), as a charitable organization. All contributions in accordance with this code are tax deductible.

African Mission Evangelism

P.O. Box DD142 Dodowa, Ghana OR 7343 Ridge Rd. Lexington, NC 27295 Email: patrickcline@ameghana.org Website: www.ameghana.org

Please pray for: 1. Container: we need $1500 to cover our part of the shipping. Also pray for Tim Moon of First Church in

Carrollton, GA as well as John Latimer of New Generation Community Church that are helping us with this project.

2. We need an $8,000 loan to buy computers for the college. The grant for this is coming in April or May of this year from Overseas Council International but we need to buy the computers now and get them installed before the next school year.

3. This has been a difficult month for our family as over $3000 in Ghana taxes and residence visas have come due before I was expecting them. If we don’t get this paid by the end of Jan we will have to leave Ghana. Not worried though as God knows and now so do you!

4. American International School of Accra- that it can continue to grow and tend to the spiritual needs of not only the children but the parents as well.

5. Beacon House Orphanage can find a generator to provide electricity and yet not break the bank. 6. GCUC- that it will have another great semester where her students are filled with the Spirit and exemplify that

Spirit in the community they serve. PRAISE GOD

1. For our health. Even though we’ve had colds everyone is free of malaria and the other sicknesses of Africa. 2. The safe and wonderful trip to the US of the college president, Manuel Adjei. He spoke at the NMC in Nov. and

is available for speaking engagements beginning in March. 3. For a great first semester of the SCD and the students therein. 4. Heather was able to get her tooth capped. She will need to find another dentist to complete the work started. 5. For all of our wonderful supporters, friends, and prayer partners there is no way we could do the work of Christ

here in Ghana without you. 6. For technology that allows anyone to call a US phone number and reach us here for just $0.014/minute! (828)

398-0637

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