Greetings from Ghana! Many people I meet here say, “Welcome home” to me, as we lived here for several years, many moons ago. Indeed, there is some comfort in being back in some familiar areas but there has been so much change, growth, and expansion, that I sometimes have to look hard to recognize things.
I have spent the past four days with our DML leader from the Assemblies of God church, speaking at three different workshops (including a pre-Lausanne Forum), and preaching twice on Sunday. I then flew to Kumasi to meet a different DML partner, where we will have the Theology of Work workshops in three different parts of Ghana (Berekum, Wamfie, and Yeji). It will mean teaching all day and then driving in the evening to the next spot. On Thursday, we will return to Accra, and the Lausanne Workplace Forum for Africa and the Middle East will begin that day. They have over 1,000 people registered, and the entire focus is on the workplace, which is a very encouraging sign that the Global Church is seeing the importance of discipleship in this area! We continue to see more focus on businesspeople rather than the Church (trying to empower the 99% rather than reaching the 1% who can then empower the 99%), but we are praying for opportunities to share more about what we are seeing as the church engages with workplace discipleship. DML will have at least six people at the conference; two of us will be speaking during breakout sessions, but all of us will be praying for meaningful conversations and ask that you pray with us!
While in Tanzania last week, it was a great privilege to meet with the Council of Pentecostal Churches of Tanzania from the Morogoro region. This network of 47 denominations has fully affirmed the need for workplace discipleship and is starting to roll it out with the women’s ministry. They have identified ten different business industries and have appointed women leaders to be mentors in those areas, and then they will begin working on increasing their knowledge and working cooperatively together. The women will all go through the basic business skills training as well as the Financial Freedom for Families training. I had the privilege to work with the leadership team (pictured here) for one whole day to develop the plan for how to roll this out and what this next year would look like. The goal will be leadership development in these small groups. If they have ten teams of ten for this pilot project, the goal will then be to have 100 teams of ten in a year. And then continue to grow exponentially from there.
What’s exciting is seeing women leaders from different denominations. The leaders of CPCT, all of whom are bishops in their denominations, are unified for this, and they were present at all the meetings! To imagine that Christians could develop economic plans and to see those plans as spiritual is truly exciting. Individuals will flourish, the community will flourish, and it can lead to the country flourishing, especially if business is done to the glory of God. Taxes will be paid, jobs will be created, and more honest business practices will be used. It’s a Kingdom vision rather than a Church vision – which we have been praying to see come to reality in so many places!
I also had the chance to visit one of the DML sustainability projects – a pig farm which is growing rapidly, and the pigs resemble the size of pigs that I see in the US! Very exciting to see not only the growth but the creation care in that farm and the plans for ongoing growth.
And just for fun, let me share a picture of my first serving of grasshopper, a delicacy in one particular people group in the Morogoro area. I thought it was green beans when I first saw it! But it was crunchy and salty and didn’t taste bad at all! I’ve had termites before, but this was my first taste of grasshopper. Amazing protein and amazing diversity of foods, everywhere I go!
I leave for the US on Saturday night, but will not be going to Michigan. I will stop in Orlando for several days to join a workplace discipleship roundtable with leaders of Global Church Planting organizations, hosted by the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX), which is under Campus Crusade for Christ. I continue to ask for your prayers as we seek to join the work that God is doing in reclaiming the redeemed marketplace!