OUTREACH

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NORTHERN OUTREACH

A passion so great with CMCM and the Straight Way Chapel is the salvation of souls, especially reaching out to the unreached. The ministry also desires to re-echo the vision and passion of Apostle Paul, who states in Romans 16:20-21, It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone elses foundation. Rather, as it is written: Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand (NIV).There are about 16,000 unchurched villages in Ghana according to a Ghana Evangelism Committee release (GEC survey 1993). Most of these villages are still unreached in 2011. Meanwhile, the mandate still remains, that we are to reach out to the unreached. John Wesley rightly stated sometime ago in the 1700s, Many untold millions are still untold.What has been done concerning souls in these areas? There have been some outreaches in some of these areas, but there is however, little or no footprints left of several missionaries. There is therefore the dire need to have a more consolidated approach to the outreaches in these places.Why is this situation as it is? As a missions oriented ministry, we have noted many reasons for this. First, access roads to these places are very rough and in many cases unmotorable. Certain places are without access roads, except for some footpaths. Secondly, because there are no economic benefits many dont want to go there. For instance, the recent journey of the Head Pastor to a few church plants in the Upper East for about 4 days (in May 2011) costed about US$1000. So if one is not very passionate in missions and for the value of souls, see how it may be difficult to pursue such a venture. Besides, there is the language barrier. The need for the northern outreach is urgent because of the Muslim challenge in those areas. They have started building mosques in many of the towns and villages.Although we are not the first to go to these places, the grace the Lord has given us has enabled us to plant quite a few churches in especially the Upper East region. Currently, some of the places we have reached out to are meeting under trees; and we are still planning to plant as many churches as the Lord enables us. How may we cover these places? Most of the people in these areas are either Muslims or traditional worshippers. Strong prayers and supplications to the Lord of the Harvest is an important factor if we are to see breakthrough. It has been our inevitable basic key since our church planting activities. We also show loads of love and concern by providing some second-hand clothing for the people. Then we endeavor to make Christ Jesus known to them. To consolidate the gains we make every effort to build a chapel and to get a pastor for the people.Some of the needs for effective evangelization and church planting for the area include: - bicycles, motorbikes, second-hand clothing for all ages. The Scriptures enjoin us to do good to all especially those in the household of faith (Gal. 6:9-10). We also need adequate support to enable us cater for the pastors we engage for the work over there. We therefore wish to seize this opportunity to solicit your prayer and financial support.If we go the Lord will certainly glorify Himself. Once we went to an unchurched village, Gbuo, in the Upper East region on mission. We had an initial difficulty in regards to getting someone to interpret the message to the indigenes. Finally we got a soothsayer, Patrick Onibaa, to do the job for us. The question that might bother us as believers is, How may darkness and light collaborate? And how can the devils servant help the servants of God? Nevertheless, the Lord used Patrick, the soothsayer, for the job, because He God is a wonderful God! The Lord touched Patrick and transformed him. We later on brought him to Kumasi to train him for Gospel work. He is now the Straight Way Chapel pastor of the Gbuo church. Praise the Lord!The Straight Way Chapel & CMCM alone cannot do the work. Some ministries and individuals both within Ghana and outside have been supporting the CMCM. The following ought to be mentioned and acknowledged:The Techiman Straight Way Chapel building and its Childrens Sunday School pavilion was put up with the assistance of Osceola Lutheran churchYua Straight Way chapel building was assisted by New Directions International; and Kurugus by Good News Fellowship. A Ghanaian woman, who accompanied us for one of our short term mission trip to the north, became so touched by the needs in those areas. She consequently, helped us in putting up a church for Kajolo, in the Upper East region of Ghana.Danny Jaynes and his ministry donated some motorbikes for the northern outreach.[We appeal for both prayer and financial support to enable us reach out to more of the unchurched villages.]Some of the churches planted have no church building for now. We want to humbly ask for support to allow us put up church houses for these villages and towns. An interesting feature about these church houses in these remote places is that apart from it serving as a place of worship, it also serves as a kind of community centre, make-shift clinic, school, and is a multipurpose building. The peoples in these places live in mud and wooden houses which has been used since the 1800s. The relative superiority of buildings and pavilions we put up in those places are quite attractive to the indigenes. All these help win the hearts of the people for the gospel message. A simple church house or pavilion costs about US$5,000.Most of the Straight Way Chapel churches are located in the northern part of Ghana, apart from the headquarters which is based in Kumasi and 2 sister churches in the south. Each quarter there is a trip to the north and it costs above US$1,000 .Your support in this regard will be very much appreciated.