The Church in Busuafise Part I

The Church in Busuafise Part I - Bill Wilson -

www.dailyjot.com

 

Christ Fellowship, a small church in a remote area outside of Accra, Ghana, began meeting in the year 2000 in a very small space built with two feet tall mud walls, roughly cut trees, a thatched roof, and a tightly ramped dirt floor. Here, less than a dozen poverty-stricken village folks, enslaved by paganism and stripped of all hope, started worshiping God, after receiving Christ. To get there, one must follow a narrow footpath of a road. These are the people of the bush that the large churches turn their backs on because it is too difficult and dangerous. But not The Daily Jot and our ministry partner William Agbeti. This is a story of a small part of our work in Ghana-a story of courage, perseverance and the Holy Spirit.

 

William writes: "The Spirit of God began moving to attract evangelists to help spread the salvation message to individuals, families, households and other villages far and near, for the redemption of souls from fetish priests and shrines. This divine move also attracted opposing forces, notably Muslims, who began various "onslaughts" into the territory, offering loans, material things and invites to conversions to village folks; whilst targeting the nerve center of the local church. Some of the Islamic skirmishes included attacks on the village by notorious land guards who have been attempting to forcefully drive the villagers out of their own land to apparently kill the church and take over the land. Eventually they succeeded in winning a couple of members in the church to start a mosque a stone-throw away and to lay claim to tracts of land around.

 

"Even though Islam might have existed nearby, the widespread success of the small church led to the rise and much bigger physical presence of Islam in the area, with the construction of another mosque elsewhere. These tactics are now daily occurrences, with Muslims riding motor bikes loaded high with personal items, coming into the village to sell items and enslave village folks through offers of credited material needs. Not satisfied with these moves, Muslims have bought large tracts of land surrounding the village to start real estate projects. As is well known, perhaps non-Muslims may not be allowed in such enclaves. It has always been an Islamic modus operandi to control people through the control of land."

 

I know this church first hand. I have ministered there and encouraged the people to keep going. In 2012, for example, while preaching there, aggressive Muslims kept buzzing me on their motorcycles. While we didn't feel our lives were threatened, it was a threat. William's Redeemer Ministries and The Daily Jot have continued to stand with this church. Food, clothing, water, medical supplies are all part of what we do in this village. But the Muslim threat is constant and growing. Busuafise Christ Fellowship is an Ezekiel 22:30 church: "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none." The Busuafise church is courageously standing in the gap that faces the gates of Islam's hell. But there is more to come...Tomorrow Part II.

 

 

The church in Busuafise Part II - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com

 

 

Yesterday, The Daily Jot introduced you to Christ Fellowship Church in the rural bush village of Busuafise in Ghana, West Africa. This is the story of a group of people in a small village who came together and started a church amidst paganism, witchcraft and Islam. All these have come against the folks who are part of Christ Fellowship. They are an outpost for the light of Christ, not only because of their physical location in the bush and the enemies of Christ who surround them, but also because the larger churches in Ghana are afraid to go there or even send money to help. This has been a story of perseverance in the face of constant danger for witchcraft is no small thing, and Islam is even worse.

 

The Daily Jot and William Agbeti's Redeemer Ministries have partnered to assist the people in Busuafise with the church building. Key word is "assist." A portion of our funding is going toward materials for the church building, in addition to our normal food, clothing, water, and water filtration outreach. The additional funding and labor is provided by church members and volunteers from our ministries. William explains, "We have entered into the third week of construction works on the building. At the end of the fourth week, we will halt all works to raise more funds for our operations. In an age where huge building projects can be completed in weeks or months, the small village church we are working on has taken almost two decades, and is still not anywhere near completion.

 

"The hope of the village in getting the project completed, however, has not dwindled. It remains steadfast, rooted in the Lord. The inhabitants are simply hanging in there. Meanwhile, the seemingly drawn out construction of the small church project, which some may lament over, has become the very reason more and more villages are opening to Christ." William says that over the past 18 years, this small frontier church is responsible for "hundreds and perhaps thousands of souls won for Christ in the Busuafise district and its environs, far and near. The Christ Fellowship Church, Busuafise, has proven beyond all doubts, that the Great and Almighty hand of God is at work in their midst, using the weakness, resilience and hope of a rejected people to bring salvation to many in unbelievable ways! What an awesome God we serve!"

 

William recalls Christ's promise in Matthew 16:18-20: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." William writes in his email to me, "Individuals, couples, families, churches, companies, organizations and agencies can indeed make a huge difference, in very small ways, in the lives of whole communities, starting with a small project or a little donation. The Christ Fellowship Church, Busuafise, is a teeny tiny church with a powerful divine mission! I end with a lesson well learnt in the development of the Busuafise Church: I am convinced, beyond all reasonable doubts, that truly the gates of hell, including paganism and Islam, cannot prevail against what humanity sees as the least or littlest in the Kingdom of God!"