I celebrated the Thanksgiving of 2007 in Ghana, at the tail end of a two week mission trip with Presbyterian friends from Chicago and Bainbridge Island (Washington). We had been working with a school and hospital in the small town of Kasei (or Kase) in the far northeast of the Ashanti Region beyond the town of Ejura.
While there, we became acquainted with one of the teachers, Seth Owusu Koranteng, who also served as Clerk for the Kasei New Church Development of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (“PCG”). During the week, Seth introduced me to Rev. Osei Kofi, the District Minister for that area (Ejura region). As a result, I was invited to preach at the new church that Sunday since they had no regular ordained minister. The service of worship was a joyful celebration of God’s grace and mercy shown to us in Christ Jesus. (BTW, you can experience that same kind of joyful worship if you visit the Ghanaian congregation in Cherokee Presbytery!)
As the week progressed, I learned that Seth was hoping to enter seminary and prepare for ordination in the PCG. He was preparing to take the exams required for one to be granted entry into the seminary… I looked at them and WOW! The exams to enter the process in Ghana are almost as difficult as the ones we take at the conclusion of our preparation process in this country!
After I flew home, Seth and I continued to correspond via email and snail mail. He shared with me his marriage to the beautiful Dorothy and then the blessing of the birth of their son, Benedict. And he kept me up to date on his seminary studies, while I kept him up to date on my journey of faith and vocation. The commitment to preparation for ministry required a lot of sacrifices for Seth and for his family. He had to relocate to Accra during the school year, leaving Dorothy and Benedict in Kasei. He would return to Kasei between school years to work and to be with his family. All this, plus the cost of seminary and the hard study that the ministry requires.
And so it is with great joy that I received an email from him this last week telling me that he has completed his studies and has now been commissioned to preach and administer the Sacraments in Kasei. [The PCG system is a bit different than ours. Once you have completed seminary, the seminary commends you to the Church as fully trained for the Ministry. The Church will then Commission and Appoint you to Preach and Administer the Sacraments for two years serving as Probationer, after which the Church will Ordain you (provided you have behaved and served well). It is the Church that appoints ministers to individual congregations — no call system like ours.] Our mutual friends and siblings in Christ, Lois and Jerry Andrews, were able to be there with him to celebrate the big day in person.
And so, I now share this wonderful act of God with all of you. It is such a gift to have friends around the world who share our love of Christ and commitment to the Gospel. It is also wonderful that we live in an age when we can communicate almost in real time through the internet, and share thoughts, picture and so on.
Seth, congratulations on your commissioning. May God bless you, Dorothy and Benedict (and other children yet to come?) in your work for the Kingdom of God in Kasei. I’m so proud of you and so happy to call you my friend!
Thoughts & Images from the Heart 