Raymond Sogah
Rhema Full Gospel Churches

Pastor Ray sent me this email soon after I had arrived home on Long Island.  How funny it struck me that he thought I had adjusted to being home so quickly; it took quite some time to shift gears. Pastor Ray is a man with a quiet spirit; these few words contain enormous impact.

Praise the Lord. How is everything? I believe you have fully adjusted to being back in America. We are also fine and the Lord is moving mightily. We are expecting great things to happen.

Sister Colleen, God spoke to me in October 1994 concerning John 15 verse 16. He showed me two sides to this scripture: going forth to bear fruits and the fruits remaining.

This actually led us to our motto, EVANGELISM and CHURCH PLANTING; we believe that is the heartbeat of God. Make the children of God profitable here for the Kingdom of God and fit them for the sky. Nothing is impossible with God.

Ever since then, we have been going about preaching and planting churches wherever our resources would allow in rural villages and remote places. We have now planted nine churches and we are planning to plant more this year.

As time has continued, the Lord has shown us that we are to focus more and more on the youth and the children of our country. Our purpose is to catch them young, for a child trained up in the way he should go will not depart from it when he is grown.

This year the opportunities presented to us are great but so are the challenges that stand in the way. The Lord is faithful and we are confident that He will help us complete the task He has given us and bring it to fulfillment.

It’s Pastor Ray. God bless you.

Rhema Full Gospel Churches

P. O. Box KW274

Keta , Volta Region

Ghana, West Africa

And so on 22 December, we loaded up the bus for the long trip to Keta. Keta is Pastor Paul’s home village, the place where he was born and spent his early childhood, and it holds precious and treasured memories for him.

So, when we arrived, up went the Bouncy Castle in this quiet fishing community; out came the surprised gasps of wonder as Winnie the Pooh rose high in the air. I am certain that delightful sound will always remain in my ears; it is a blessing to see children stand in awe and wonder, laughing and jumping up and down in pure delight. As we waited for the time to begin service, the team members roamed the crowd and interacted with the people.

Once again, two small children adopted me almost from the moment they saw me and we quietly held hands and walked the premises. Do you remember times like that, simply putting your little hand into the hand of an adult you loved and trusted, and just spending time together for the sake of sharing the moment? It is such a safe place, a place of quiet comfort and strengthening. I think it is one of my most treasured moments of each festival, just holding a little hand and spending time together.

The local church is Rhema Full Gospel Church, set just several hundred feet away from the shores of that beautiful lagoon. Pastor Raymond came to greet me and I vaguely remembered his face, although, as with so many other people I met earlier this year, it took me a while to remember him. Pastor Paul had brought me to Keta with him for a pastor’s meeting in March and Pastor Raymond was among the pastors present. He remembered me, though, and we had a warm reunion.

Pastor Raymond is a kind and somewhat quiet man with a generous smile; the love of God shows on his face. He had set up his outdoor church as if for a regular service, complete with canopies over the seats where the people would sit and over the platform so we could be shielded from the sun. Thank God for the canopies, for the air was thick and humid in the heat.

When it was time for ministry, Pastor Ray opened the service with a time of praise and then presented Pastor Paul to begin the children’s program. We had the same enthusiastic and fun welcome from the people of Keta as everywhere else; we taught them the songs and had the kids come up to sing along with us. When we were practicing our fat bellies for “Ho, Ho, Ho, Hosanna,” a mother up front was doing such a great job that I pulled her up to help me. The kids loved it. And mom was a perfect ham!

Later, I asked the kids if they would like to see their Pastor sing the song; the kids roared with laughter as I pulled a surprised and somewhat reluctant Pastor Raymond from his chair and had him stand next to me so the kids could see their Pastor being as silly as they were. Pastor Raymond was somewhat shy about it, but gave it his all. We all enjoyed it enormously.

Paul then took the platform and taught the kids from the Wordless Book. I have known about the Wordless Book but have never used it, and I can see what a useful tool it is. Paul beautifully illustrated the colors of the Wordless Book with the surrounding landscape; the colors of Ghana are glorious and rich, even where the terrain is rather barren. Many kids joined in prayer when Paul led them in the prayer of salvation.

While the program was in progress, the faithful and hard-working team of food preparers had been busy cooking the rice, peeling egg after egg after egg, and packing the bags of food for the kids: rice, stew, and an egg or a piece of chicken in each. When Paul took the platform to teach the Wordless Book, I went back and did what I could to help out with packing the food. Even packing the bags was great fun.

Small groups of workers sit in vague circles with large pots of stew, bowls of chicken and eggs, and huge vats of cooked rice (the chicken and the eggs are cooked the day prior to the festivals; the rice is cooked onsite). As the supply of rice continues cooking over open fires, one worker pulls apart the plastic bags, another opens them one-by-one and puts in an egg or a piece of chicken. The bags are passed along to the next worker, who scoops in a generous portion of either white rice or jollof rice and then to another who plops in a spoonful of stew (stew here is more of a sauce).

Then the filled bags are tossed into a bowl to be tied and placed in buckets for distribution, thousands of times over until the bags are all packed and the kids are all fed.

I found a place for myself in the assembly line holding the opened bags of food for their finishing touch of stew to moisten the rice and then handing the bags to the workers who tied the bags before tossing them into the buckets for distribution.

It is a true LABOR of love.

After the kids ate and the day began to wind down, I sat with Pastor Raymond and asked him about his vision for this church. He shared the same heart I had heard from so many other pastors for the work of the Lord, the same challenges each pastor faces. His heart is for the children, to see them filled with the joy of God, understanding His love for them and their great worth to Him. The children’s ministry had blessed his heart; he asked me when I would return. God’s work is truly humbling.

As Pastor Ray and I were speaking, a young boy in rather tattered clothing walked up to us and stood in front of me.  Ray and I were sitting on a step at the platform so the boy and I were face-to-face. The child looked at Pastor Ray and sadly cried that he was thirsty and wanted some water. Pastor Ray began to tell him that all the water sachets were gone when I remembered that earlier in the day I had dropped one in my bag, wondering if anyone might need it later on.

I dug in my bag to fish it out as I looked the child in his face and told him that earlier in the day my heart just felt that I should put away extra water in case someone needed it later on and here he was asking for water. I told him that Jesus had known all day that he was going to need some water and that He had touched my heart to put one away just for him. I am not sure he understood what I said, but I do know that one day, perhaps many days, in that child’s life the Spirit will remind him of how his Father is always looking after him.

Once again the Lord was so gracious to give me words to encourage a pastor forging ahead in new territory concerning the children, and once again I asked the pastor to write his vision down for me so I can share it with you. I am so utterly blessed to be a blessing to the pastors here; just a word of encouragement lifts their spirits enormously. The promise of prayerful support and the plans to organize a training session for them visibly lifts their countenances; no longer do they feel alone or weary in their work. My heart so desires to continue to be an encouragement to them, to help them see their visions come to life.