Mission in Africa

Sarah Smith

In September 2009, Sarah Smith left Derbyshire and moved to Accra in Ghana to serve the Newfrontiers church there. This page will be updated with news from Sarah and details of how you can support her.

To hear Sarah explain a bit more about why she's going, where she's going and what she's going to be doing in Ghana, click here (15mins 4MB).
[A link is also available via Podcast page.

25th February 2010

Hi everyone,

Well what a week last week was!!! First it was the Leadership Conference and then Rebuilding the Nations Conference as well as a house full of guests. So today I'm enjoying a quiet moment at home catching up with different things and writing emails. The electricity has been very on and off this week but thankfully we had power all last week during the conferences .. we thank God for that...especially as the generator is still not mended.

The Leadership Conference gathered leaders from the Newfrontiers churches across West Africa - currently there are churches in Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Benin and Ghana. It was great to meet people from these nations and to find out about their countries and the joys and difficulties of church planting in them. Some of the countries are Muslim dominated and so there is much difficulty and opposition to the church. In others the expression of Christianity is mainly very religious and mixed with local beliefs. There is much need to preach the gospel and to plant churches based on truth and New Testament values.

We heard many stories of situations where so called leaders and prophets charge people money for their time, for a word from God or for a prayer for healing. Edward Buria who has apostolic oversight of Kenya and East Africa was with us for a few days. He is pioneering some amazing projects in Kenya - take a look at www.edfri.org He also gave a powerful talk saying that it was time time to turn up the volume of prophecy here in Africa and challenging us to become a part of that!

A song sung many times at the conference and had us all dancing round the tent was..
'The church is moving on, it's moving on, it's moving on..... nothing's going to stop us now... it's moving on , it's moving on!!'

Last week we were celebrating the fact that we managed to catch a mouse in our house. It had been merrily eating all sorts of things from corners of t-shirts to corks, soap and plastic lids off our jars. Sadly either it has returned or it had a friend! They seem very difficult to catch and just seem to be able to eat the food off the traps without being caught. We think we might have to go and borrow a cat!

Also we are looking after a small hedgehog! One of the guards at the school found it and was keeping it in a cardboard box. Sadly he forgot about it for a couple of days so we have taken it in to look after it and fatten it up. We'll have to be careful to release him in a safe place though, otherwise he might end up as somebody's dinner!

Today our guests from Sierra Leone left and so I am busy washing bedding and towels and tidying up our home. Next week I will get back more into school and all that needs to be done there.

Love to you all and thanks for your continued prayers and support

Sarah

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7th February 2010

Hi everyone,

It was so good to be able to see and catch up with many of you when I was back in England over Christmas. Before flying I had been trying to explain to people here in Ghana that it was going to be cold in England and that I was hoping that it would snow at some point. So I was very excited when as we took off from Accra the pilot announced to us that the forecast was for 4 inches of snow in London on our arrival... and so there was!! In fact I seemed to spend my time in England enjoying walking and playing in the snow and looking at weather reports trying to work out if it was safe to travel. As much as I enjoyed it, I was sad that it prevented me from seeing as many of you as I might have done. Anyway, I'm now back here in the heat and thoughts of wearing multiple layers and sitting by open fires are far from my mind.

It has felt like it has taken me a few weeks to get back into things here, but I am now finding my feet again and picking up from where I left off last year. I seem to be spending more time working in the school and have been called in at the last minute to cover for teachers who were off sick. The school day is long from 7:30 until 3:30 and the children seem continually excited and full of energy so I didn't find them especially easy. But it is a great opportunity to get to know the children more and to understand how things work in the school. I have also been asked to help put some structure to the Art and PE curriculum and so I am busy observing lessons and meeting with the teachers. The maths books that I worked on last term seem to have gone down well with the students, parents and teachers. Teaching here seem very different from teaching either in the UK or in Burundi so I'm trying to draw on experience from both places and apply it here. I'm also helping with various admin type things and am currently sorting out the student record files.. that's over 500 of them! Work has also started on building further classrooms up at the new site with the aim of moving the upper junior classes to join the seniors as soon as possible.

One of the things I enjoy is meeting and talking with people as I walk to and from the school/church centre. At the moment I seem to be meeting lots of children on their way home from school who are all very keen to talk about what they have learnt. Some of them have even found where I live and so they come knocking at our gate and asking if I am coming out to play! So I have read stories, played noughts and crosses and introduced them to a version of Beetle Drive!

We now have a butterfly net at our house which has us running about our garden chasing after butterflies and other insects trying to catch them so we can identify them. Today caught an amazing bright metallic green wasp like thing - after taking many photos of it trying to capture that award winning photo, we identified it as a cuckoo wasp. There seems to be more mosquitoes about at the moment and reports of people getting malaria even though this is the dry season. So, we aren't looking forward to when the rains start. Today I noticed a new pile of sawdust under my bed and on closer investigation discovered that more of the slats of my bed are being slowly eaten away by beetles. So, I'm working on getting some new ones made - this time of harder and so less tasty wood. I'm getting better at recognising some of the local birds and wake up each morning to a loud dawn chorus from the bulbuls.

City of God church had a very busy time over the Christmas and New Year period. On Christmas eve they distributed 1000 food parcels to homes around the church centre. These parcels consisted of rice, a tin of fish, oil and tomato paste - all you need to make a special Christmas meal! Then they had a special guest service at the start of the year and many visitors attended. The church is growing rapidly with visitors each week and the vision for the year is to grow to a church base of 1000. It's exciting to be involved. Last night we started a new mid week group in our house. We gathered 9 people which included 3 of our neighbours!

Soon it is half term but we will be busy with first of all a Leadership College at church and then from Thursday till Sunday we have the annual Rebuilding the Nations Conference. This event is eagerly looked forward to by everyone and gathers people from the Newfrontiers churches across West Africa as well as anyone else who wants to attend. I'm expecting this to be a great time with visiting speakers including Edward Buria (Newfrontiers) from Kenya and Sam Amara (Newfrontiers) from Nigeria. Many people will be bringing their children and I am part of the children's team - I've no idea how many children there will be.

In recent weeks I seem to have watched hours of football as it has been the African Cup of Nations. Ghana is a football crazy country so there was much excitement when Ghana made it into the final. Sadly they were beaten by Egypt 1:0. Now everyone is looking forward to the World Cup later on in the year.

Please pray for.... for New Nation School - for the staff and children and for my involvement with the teachers as I help in lessons and suggest ideas, for City of God Church - for the leaders and for continuing involvement in the community and especially for the Rebuilding the Nation Conference, and for me - for continued good health and safety, that I am able to build friendships with those who live near to our home and those who work at the school and wisdom for all hat I do in the school.

Thank you for your support and prayers

love Sarah

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3rd December 2009

Hi,

Just a short e-mail this time with a brief update of various things.....

Today have spent the day rehearsing the Christmas production for school which will be performed to the parents next week. One for the preschool and Nursery 1 and 2 children - about 80 children in total and another one for classes 1 to 3 - about 150 children. Going for a simple nativity drama with some songs... all good fun! Had a trip to Madina market yesterday to buy a large quantity of material to make the costumes. Always an experience going to the market and travelling there by trotro.

Tonight Terry and Wendy Virgo arrive for the weekend. We are gathering leaders from the Newfroniers churches from Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana for what is being called a Rebuilding Leaders Weekend. It's breakfast with Wendy tomorrow, various meeting during the rest of the day and on Saturday and Sunday ending with them coming to our house for lunch. So a busy few days but I'm looking forward to them.

Tomorrow I collect my new orange outfit!! In a rather spontaneous moment ended up stopping at one of the many little tailors near our house. Before I knew it I was buying some material, designing a top and skirt and being measured!!

It's getting hotter!! Weather report says it will be 34C tomorrow - phew! I'm looking forward to feeling cold!

Bye for now

Sarah

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29th November 2009

Hi everyone,

I have another very exciting story to tell you from life here in Ghana.... I hope that you will be encouraged by it....

A fortnight or so ago during our Sunday church meeting we were praying together in small groups. The day before Rose and I had been talking about prophecy and she had challenged me to bring a word to someone that morning. As we at in our group I felt my attention drawn to the beautiful buttons on the dress of the lady opposite. As I have found this is often the starting point for me to bring a word, when the group broke up I rather nervously went up to the lady and said that as we had been praying I'd noticed her buttons and felt that God wanted to say to her that he had a specific job for her to do and that only she could do it. I didn't feel at the time that it was a very clear word but rather I'd just brought something in obedience.

Well today this lady and her husband were in the church meeting again with an amazing story. The husband has known John Kpikpi for many many years and they are very good friends. This is their story.....

One day at the beginning of last week the husband woke up not feeling very well and went out of the bedroom. His wife initially wasn't worried as he often gets up early but this time she felt a prompting to follow him. He told her he felt unwell and within a short amount of time he died in front of her. At this time God reminded her of the word that I had brought to her and it stirred faith within her to pray for his healing. This was the specific job that she had to do....pray for her husband to come alive again!!!! So she did for about 30mins and then he did!!!!!

I'm sure that you will agree that this is an amazing story and it was exciting to have both the husband and wife with us this morning telling us all the details. It certainly stirred much faith among us. For me ..... well.... I'm almost speechless!!!!! by their story but also by the fact that we never know how God will use the things that we say to people. As I said before.... I felt that what I'd said to the wife wasn't any sort of mega prophecy just a simple word.... but God had spoken and the end outcome was all very mega!!! It's certainly a lesson for me and has stirred me to continue to ask God for words and to bring them to people. I hope that this encourages you to do the same!!..... you never know what God is planning to do!!!

With much love

Sarah

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17th November 2009

Hi everyone,

Hope all is going well for you all. I just wanted to tell you about a couple of things - for your interest, prayers and encouragement......

Some weeks ago Emmanuel from City of God church prayed over the phone for a lady in Amanokrom, a small town in the mountains north of Accra, who was very ill with asthma. She was totally healed and as news spread the people of the town were very eager for Emmanuel to come to them. The first time he went 28 people gathered and there were more healings. The next week there were even more and now about 50 people are regularly gathering. Yesterday I travelled up to the village with John Kpikpi and a team from the church. After a time of worship, John spoke, sharing the gospel message and 38 people responded!! We then prayed for those who were sick and facing difficult situations. It was an exciting and new environment for me to be in - the birth of a new church. We are now praying that a leader emerges to head up the work there.

Every Friday morning at 6:00am John Kpikpi speaks on national TV on a programme called 'Rebuilding the Nations'. This is watched by many people across Ghana and in neighbouring countries and is a significant work in the church and a fantastic way of getting truth out to people. When the programme ends there are often phone calls with people wanting further help etc. Many of these have come from Kumasi, a large town in the middle of Ghana. So this week on Thursday and Friday we are holding a 'Rebuilding the Nation Conference' there. I'm going - not sure what will happen - but I'm sure that it will be good. Please pray for this conference. I'll write and tell you what happens!

I've finished the maths curriculum booklets that I was working and so am now working on my next major job - staff records. As this includes everyone who works in the school - teachers, TAs, cooks, cleaners, admin, drivers, security etc - its about 100 people! Should keep me busy for a while.

That's all for now

love Sarah

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23rd October 2009

Hi everyone,

Well its Friday morning and at the moment I'm at home working on my computer outside in the shade on our balcony. The day started sunny but is now clouding over although it is still hot. I'm getting used to it and most of the time there is a bit of a breeze so its ok. Strange to hear from people about lighting their fires at home and scraping ice from their cars. The only time I get a brief feeling of being cold is when I stick my head in the freezer!!

I'm doing fine and adjusting to life here in Ghana. As I get to know people I am feeling more settled and beginning to find my way around the place and how things are done.

Our home is nice although fairly strange in its outer design. Everything is built in concrete so they make things all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes. Ours looks like some kind of white ship?! I'm living with a English couple called Ian and Rose who I met when I came out to Ghana on the Life Change team in 2007. I've got my own room and bathroom which is slightly on the edge of the main house although attached... so can have my own space if I want to. Then there is a main room, 3 other bedrooms and a kitchen. When Ian and Rose came they had to do quite a lot of building work here to get the place sorted and we are now in the process of gathering plants and seeds to put into the garden to hide all the concrete and white walls. We are also busy collecting all our water from our washing etc to water the plants. We have to pay for our water which is then delivered and stored in a large plastic tank at the side of the house, so we are trying to save/reuse as much of it as we can. Today there were a couple of men working here levelling the ground when they suddenly called us. We went to see what was going on and they pointed to a large lizard that they had just killed!! Rose, who is a real animal lover, was horrified and then set about identifying it and educating them in the fact that they don't have to kill everything that moves.! The situation was only made better when they said that they wouldn't bury it but would find someone who would like to eat it.... so at least some good came out if the event!!! Everything seems to very quickly get covered in red dust and so it's best not to leave things out for long. We are able to eat well with lots of fruit and veg it's just a matter of buying it when you see it as its not always around. I enjoy stopping at some of the stalls on the way home from school and buying bananas, peanuts etc. If we drive more into the middle of Accra we can go to a large South African run supermarket type place which sells everything. So we go there occasionally to stock up on things and then buy fruit and veg more locally.

Most days I have been walking into the school/church site which takes about 20mins or so. It goes along a series of paths and roads past houses and small stalls. I'm getting known and its nice to exchange a hello/good morning with everyone as I pass. The primary school is at the church site and the secondary school is at the new site which is where I was working when I was out here before. It's a large school with about 530 children in it from pre school to A level. They wear a smart uniform of blue and white striped tops and the plan navy blue skirts or shorts. All the children are very friendly and I'm beginning to be more known around the school and am greeted with cries of 'Auntie Sarah' when I arrive. The teachers are all Ghanaians and vary in the amount of training that they have had. This week I've been into some of the classes and it's been a good way to get to know the children and the teachers and also to see how things are taught. I'm still exploring how best I can help out at the school as there is much I could help with. One of the things I've been working on so far is to add some new material to the maths curriculum that they are using. I've about finished that other than printing it out and then someone will get it photocopied and made into books for the children. I hope that it will be useful to them.

I'm enjoying being part of City of God Church, the Newfrontiers church here in Accra, and am getting to know people as well as the songs, clapping rhythms and the way of shuffling round in a circle at the front during some of the songs?! On Sundays the meeting starts at 10:00ish and gathers about 300 people. It starts with a lively time of worship with songs in different languages and then most Sundays John Kpikpi speaks. He has been teaching on a series on 'Discipleship' and has been speaking on Trusting God and Growing in Love which have been excellent. Most weeks there have been people saved and becoming Christians as well as healings. I'm also attending a 'Joining the Church' course which is held before the meeting on Sundays..... so it makes for a fairly long morning!! On Wednesday evening its our mid week group and then on Friday evening there is a church prayer meeting. It's so good to be here in a Newfrontiers church where the values and teaching are familiar to those of Church in the Peak.

This weekend I am travelling with Ian and Rose to another town called Ho as Ian is preaching at the Sunday meeting of the Newfrontiers church there. Its about 3 hours drive to get there but thankfully over the past few years the road has been dramatically improved. I'm looking forward to the journey and to seeing a little more of the county.

I'm missing being able to ride my bike in the wonderful Derbyshire countryside... in fact any exercise seems quite difficult to do other than the slow walk to school. But I have now borrowed a bike for a few weeks and so my plan is to go out for a quick whizz around the block either early in the morning or in the eve when it is cooler. Haven't quite managed it yet though!

Well, I hope that gives you a little more idea of what I'm up to.

Please pray for.... continued good health and for safety, direction in my help and involvement in the school and in other church projects and for building good relationships and friends with our neighbours, people who I see as I walk around, those in the church and the teachers at the school.

Will write again soon

love Sarah

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5th October 2009

Hi everyone,

Well I've completed week one of life in Ghana!!!! This is just a quick one to say I'm here, doing well and enjoying it!

My fight was fine other than the fact that my marmite nearly caused me to miss it!!! and I arrived safely without further hassle in Accra to the sights, smells and heat of Africa!

It's been a busy time so far. Meeting people, church meetings, time in the school, shopping and generally taking time to take in my new surroundings and all that is happening. It's hot and dusty- although we nearly got caught in a sudden torrential rain storm as we walked to the school the other day and had to escape by dashing into the nearest available shelter which was a small hut/shop... sadly wasn't very useful as we sat out the rain as the only thing on sale was hair extensions!!!!

The school is a major project of the church with about 500 children. I have been put straight to work sorting and adding some new material to the primary maths curriculum and have already attended 2 staff meetings!!!!

As I've written this it has gone dark and the night noises of insects, very loud music from radios all about as well as the sound of the man grinding corn in his hut outside our gate have started. You certainly have to get used to noise here!

I'm about to eat and then head off to a church prayer meeting. Tomorrow I'm going to a wedding... so better get out my posh African dress again!!

I'll write again soon with more details and news

Sarah

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