Trials and Triumph in Ghana
The following is from today’s Letter to the Brethren from the Continuing Church of God:
Trials and Triumph in Ghana
As regular readers of the weekly Letter to the Brethren are aware, we in the Continuing Church of God were contacted by leaders of the Church of God 7th Day in Ghana, nearly 1 1/2 years ago.
In the late Summer of 2015, we sent CCOG Pastor Evans Ochieng and former UCG Pastor John Owak to Ghana to meet with them.
The meeting went well.
We have had various communications with them since then.
While our relationship was fine, it was also a bit distant in that they were organized differently, and were still checking out our teachings.
In July and August Ghana Pastor Samuel Ofosu Gyeabour held some meetings, that I asked readers of this Letter to pray about, regarding whether or not those in Ghana wanted to truly be part of the Continuing Church of God.
Those that Pastor Samuel Ofosu Gyeabour agreed.
So, I made some announcements.
This, however, upset some.
In August, I received some difficult telephone calls and one or two threatening letters from a couple of Ghanaians.
So, I contacted Pastor Samuel Ofosu Gyeabour and Pastor Evans Ochieng (who was already planning on visiting Ghana).
Both agreed to look into this. Also, at the request of Pastor Samuel Ofosu Gyeabour , I sent an email detailing some of what we in the Continuing Church of God would expect from any group and leader associated with us.
So, late last month we sent Pastor Evans Ochieng and host Nimrod Ondigo Ochieng from Kenya to Ghana to hold meetings.
A couple of days ago, Pastor Evans Ochieng sent me the following report related to his trip to Ghana:
Pastor Dr Bob,
Greetings from Kenya.
I thank God for the safe journey to and from Ghana. I was sick when I
was going to Ghana But through the prayers from brethren, God healed
me and I was very safe in Ghana. Thank you very much brethren for your
prayers. The journey was very safe even though it was long. We were
received by our three brethren from Ghana at the airport. Our brother
Kwame who is working in bank, Daniel Kwesi who was our translator
throughout the meetings in Ghana. very humble, loving man with a lot
of respect and pastor peter Adei. This pastor really dedicated
himself to God’s work. He was always with us throughout our time in
Ghana and served God’s people both physical and spiritual to make sure
that every stage went well. I thank him so much for giving us easy
time in Ghana. We traveled again by bus for 6 hours to Kumasi where
Overseer Samuel is living. We received a warm welcome from the family
of pastor Samuel. He gave us a warm welcome and took us to the hotel
where we spent night with my brother Nimrod Ondigo.
MEETING WITH
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL IN GHANA
We met with church executive council in Ghana on Tuesday. I met seven
people who are the executive council. The council included the
overseer, 1 pastor, 2 elders, 1 lady, board chairman and the
secretary.
AGENDA
1READING BOB THIEL’S LETTER
2-TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF AFFILIATION
The meeting commenced after prayer from secretary.
CONTENTS OF BOB THIEL’S LETTER
The secretary read Bob Thiel’s letter which were to be discussed
before coming into affiliation. The letter was read paragraph after
paragraph and they asked me to explain every paragraph. They also
wanted to know more about theology and government which I also explain
to them till they become satisfy. Every member asked questions and i
was answering all the questions. I told them that we could not go
beyond your letter. Even though all members were convinced and sober,
a leading member of the board was against the affiliation. He turned the meeting
place to be like politician arena. He was confronting every person who
was in the hall and denying them chance to talk. Lastly he made a
great mistake of disrespect to overseer Samuel. It was very bad and it
forced me to confront him and stop him. He was in a group that wrote a
threatening letter to pastor Bob. He was also having falls accusations
against overseer Samuel. so it forced us to end the meeting on
Tuesday. I want to thank elder Appia in a special way for his
politeness of controlling the meeting and having good questions to
give proper directions for the growth of the church. May God bless him
highly.MEETING ALL PASTORS OF 7TH DAY CHURCH
OF GOD IN GHANA
On Wednesday I met all 7th day church of God pastors . Because of the misconduct and rudeness of the leading board member, I talked with overseer to
call a meeting of all 7th day pastors to meet with me on Wednesday.
These are the pastors who attended the meeting:-
1-pastor Isaac Aboagye
2-Kinsley Kumi
3- Anthony mofum
4-Isaac Amponsei
5-Victor Addae
6-Ayissi Boamal
7-Peter Nkamsah
8-Peter Adei
9-Armstrong Domaa
10-Nimrod Ondigo ————-Kenya
11-Overseer Samuel Efosu
12-Evans Ochieng
We opened the meeting with a word of prayer from Samuel Efosu.
After prayer, Samuel gave chance to his secretary Daniel to read the
letter from Dr Bob paragraph after paragraph because all pastors
wanted to hear the reply that came from Dr Bob. After reading the
letter the pastors wanted me to explain every paragraph because they
wanted to understand every paragraph. The pastors were very very
happy with the reply which Dr Bob gave. They were not happy with what
leading board member did on Tuesday at the meeting.
The pastors accepted the affiliation highly. They said that hey are
going to use the name CONTINUING CHURCH OF GOD (7TH DAY) to make
affiliation successful.
Here are the comments from pastors:-
pastor Isaac————- I accepted the affiliation fully.
Pastor Kumi————— I accepted
Ayissi———————– Unity is strength
peter Nkansah————- We must all help to gather the harvest for God .
Armstrong Domaa————- I have total support for the affiliation
as far as Mathew 28:18 is concern. The work of God need to be preached
globally and in support.
Victor Addae ——————– I am supporting the work which is
being done by continuing church of God fully. And we need the gospel
to be preached in all corners of Ghana.
The Overseer Samuel
declare that “I share same vision with my pastors and Bob Thiel.
All pastors accepted the affiliation.
I asked them if they agree to work together. They unanimously agreed.
I thanked God for leading the meeting to be successful. The pastors
said that they will allow only pastor Samuel to send and receive all
reports from Dr Bob or me. Not any church member who is trying to
bring confusion.FEAST OF TABERNACLES 2016 GHANA
After the meeting we went to a place where they want keep the feast
this year. it is a catholic site with many buildings. The site is very
smart. The pastors said that what they have cannot help them to
complete the feast successfully. So the are requesting if the church
can support them. I told them that I will send your request to the
headquarter if they add to you something to help you.TRANSLATION
The pastors said that they need to translate our magazines in Ghanian
language that many people in Ghana can understand. It is a national
Language in Ghana. So they chose Daniel Kwesi to translate them. I
promised them 2 lap tops that will help them in that work.PRINTING
They agree that the printing can be done in Ghana successfully to make
the work easier.
The work will be led by Samuel .
Finally I thanked our brethren in Ghana for working together with CCOG
to preach the gospel.KENYA CONFERENCE
We agreed that Samuel will attend the meeting in Kenya 2017 with his
secretary. They ask the church to support Samuel and his secretary to
travel to Kenya.
Evans.Hopefully the serious opposition in Ghana is over. I had suspected that someone in the leadership was involved, and sadly this was confirmed. Perhaps in time, those who remain opposed to CCOG will reconsider.
It appears that the bulk of those in Ghana are with us. And now, they officially are.
As mentioned earlier, Pastor Ochieng brought Nimrod Ondigo Ochieng (who is not a relative of his) with him from Kenya. I met Ondigo when I was in Kenya in 2014. This year he assisted with the translation of our song book into Kiswahili.
Here is a report from him:
Dear Pastor Bob,We are glad to inform you that we were warmly welcomed by the Ghanian brethren!It was such a wonderful moment when we met the brethren from the airport who drove us to the bus station to Kumasi city.Though we were tied,we felt the warmth and love of our brethren.On Tuesday,we had a leadership convention in the church hall where Overseer Samuel Efosu was the chairman of the meeting.The topic of the discussion was about affiliation.On that day,it did not went well because of one such controversial man who had been spreading some allegations.On the second day,Wednesday,the meeting again went well and all the pastors and some deacons from all over Ghana Church of God 7th Day came.Pastor expounded to them what seemed to be misunderstood-governance in God’s church.He also went over the CCOG statement of beliefs.It was so wonderful.I love the way our brothers are organized and they are in unity in whatever they do.They were very much willing to be part of Continuing Church of God to continue with the mission of Matthew 24:14 and 28:19-20 and to hold fast to the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.Pastor Evans also showed much concern for them for they had been allowed to do the Feast of Tabernacle in the Catholic premises but funds have been a challenge to them.They were also desiring to translate the BNP and the Bible Hymnal into Ghanian language.Pastor Evans helped a lot during these meetings.We thank God for calling our brethren to be the co-workers in accomplishing the final phase of the work!May God richly bless you for your love and concern for our brethren.May our almighty bless pastor Evans for the heart he has for us and the entire brethren in Africa.Best RegardsOndigo OchiengHere is a photograph of Ghana leaders along with two CCOG leaders from Kenya:
From the left, the second man is Ondigo Ochieng and the fourth man is Evans Ochieng. The other men are from Ghana.Here is an email from Osei Bonsu, who was the first person to contact me from Ghana:
Dr Bob we are most grateful to you ; your family and the entire brethren of the Continuous Church Of God . Shalom. The congregation of Ghana Salute you once again.
Pastor Evan was here in Ghana and everything was successful. We appreciate your tolerance upon this affiliation. This was my happy desire ; that through your mission we can propagate this missing doctrine of the Church which our Saviour laid His life for us. My dream has come to reality.Is my fevish prayer that we conquer the entire continent of Africa for the Gospel of God.
Thank youHere is a letter I received from overseeing Pastor Samuel Ofosu Gyeabour:
Dear Bob,
With much sincerity, we send you our utmost greetings from Ghana to the brethren there in the faith through the righteousness of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be upon you all in abundance, through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our lord, Amen.
I want to first of all thank God for giving our brethren, thus the Kenyan delegates a safe journey and for that we are most thankful and grateful unto the almighty for protection.
I also want to thank you Pastor Bod Thiel for your courage and determination towards your purpose objective and the aim of bringing Africa into the light line through the kingdom gospel, over major task in the call of our Lord.
Again, I wish to hereby commend you once more for your focus in spite of the numerous unanimous letters you received.
It tells and shows the level of your spiritual maturity and of course your growth in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ (II peter 3:17-18)
We strictly condemn such defiant attitude and as a matter of fact, before I proceed to brief you on the proceeding of our meeting, the entire pastoral board on behalf of the congregation, wishes to extend categorically here our apology for such uncalled behavior as witnessed.
In as much as we wouldn’t want to justify ourselves we are pleased you didn’t notify that as a deliberate attempt either to mud the meeting and our friendship as such character can be sometimes traced in (III John 9-12 and II timothy 4:14)
Oneness of faith in our lord is the most important thing and we are grateful you understand this already.
Notwithstanding, on the arrival of the Kenyan delegates, our brethren, we discussed a lot and prominent among the issues on board were; merging together preparation for the feast of tabernacle and the desire for developing a PERMANENT CAMP-SITE to reduce expenditure in the near future.
Globalization in the word of our Lord is all our major priority in the advancement of the kingdom gospel and so your idea to propagate and bring Africa to light has been applauded and consented.
On the issues of the preparation for the feast of tabernacle the challenges are very numerous and we sweat to pay for the facilities owned by other organization.
Most of our children lose their jobs for loyalty to God, while some cannot for financial reasons, and this indirectly affects the Pastors economically and denying us of our social responsibilities among our families the least to talk about for now.
Your support last year really helped us a lot of which we had a feast absolutely different from the past ones, because transport was made available for all branches and the camp site as well.
Ironically, Pastor Evans exclaimed Ghana is rich! Yes! Ghana is blessed to have been rich indeed but not for the ordinary Ghanaians rather politicians and powers.
The brethren visitation was an affectionate one and we are most grateful to you Pastor Bob Thiel and the Brethren here for the wonderful progress and our relationship shall grow much stronger in unity, having taking special note of the other recommendation you made. BRAVO we say PASTOR BOB THIEL, May the Lord who keeps you from falling bless and protect you. Amen.
Yours in Christ
Pastor Samuel Ofosu Gyeabour.
It is great that the Ghanians are with us. We are reaching people in Africa and it is fantastic that the trip to Ghana worked out well.
Of course, it is not just Africa that we are reaching people in. But we have more members in Africa than the other continents.
Here is a link to Congregations of the Continuing Church of God.
Other items of possibly related interest may include the following:
Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word What is the ‘short work’ of Romans 9:28? Who is preparing for it? Here is a link to a related video sermon titled: The Short Work.
The Final Phase of the Work What is the final phase of the work? Who will lead it? Do you have the courage to support it? Here is a related YouTube video titled The Final Phase of the Work. The written article has been translated into Spanish La Fase Final de la Obra.
Leading the Final Phase of the Work Matthew 24:14 teaches “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come ” will be fulfilled and RCG is not the group doing this. Who is leading the final phase of the work? What did Herbert Armstrong and the old WCG teach about that and about prophets? Does Bob Thiel meet the criteria that the Bible and the old WCG set? What is the proof? What has the Continuing Church of God been doing? This is a sermonette length video.
CCOG.ORG Continuing Church of God The group striving to be most faithful amongst all real Christian groups to the word of God. To see how CCOG has done so far, here are links to two sermons Continuing Church of God (CCOG) first year anniversary: What has been accomplished? and The Continuing Church of God: Two Years of Proclamation. Here is a written link to a version of that sermon in the Spanish language: Aniversario del primer año de la Continuación de la Iglesia de Dios: ¿Qué se ha cumplido?
Congregations of the Continuing Church of God This is a listing of congregations and groups of the Continuing Church of God around the world.
501(c)(3)? Why the Continuing Church of God chose a better option Churches in the USA do NOT have to register as 501(c)(3). Why would they? Why is what CCOG did better?
Why is the Continuing Church of God a corporation sole? What is a ‘corporation sole’ and why is this a better organizational choice?
Behind the Work: Go Therefore and Make Disciples How is the Continuing Church of God making disciples. What has been happening in the Continuing Church of God related to this and aspects of the final phase of the work. This ‘behind the work’ video shows New Zealand, Africa, Jerusalem, Vatican City, the USA, and the United Kingdom as well as one from Asia. Teaching and baptisms are shown.
CCOG.ASIA We in the Continuing Church of God also have the url www.ccog.asia which has a focus on Asia and has various articles in Mandarin Chinese as well as some in English, plus some items in other Asian languages. 我们在继续神的教会也提供此网址 www.ccog.asia, 关注于亚洲并且有各种各样的中英文文章，其中一些用菲律宾语翻译的文章也正在进行中，准备添加到这个网站中。 Here is a link to our Statement of Beliefs in Mandarin Chinese 继续神的教会的信仰声明.
CCOG.IN This is a website targeted towards those of Indian heritage. It has a link to an edited Hindi translation of The Mystery of the Ages and has other Indian language translations of certain CCOG literature.
CCOG.EU This is a website targeted towards Europe. It has materials in multiple European languages.
CCOG.NZ This is a website targeted towards New Zealand and others with a British-descended background.
CCOGCANADA.CA This is a website targeted towards those in Canada.
CDLIDD.ES La Continuación de la Iglesia de Dios. This is the Spanish language website for the Continuing Church of God and has articles in español/castellano.
PNIND.PH Patuloy na Iglesya ng Diyos. This is the Philippines website Continuing Church of God. It has information in English and Tagalog.
Paglalahad ng Mga Paniniwala ng Patuloy na Iglesya ng Diyos This is the Statement of Beliefs of the Continuing Church of God in Tagalog, the primary language of the Philippines. Here is a link to the first Tagalog edition of the Bible News Prophecy magazine: MGA BALITA NG PROPESIYA NG BIBLIYA January-March 2013 edition.
Bibel Nachrichten Prophezeiung, Januar – März 2015. This is a link to the first Deutsch (German) edition of the Bible News Prophecy magazine.
501(c)(3): Why the Continuing Church of God chose a better option Many churches in the USA have put themselves under greater government control by registering as a 501(c)(3) charity. The Continuing Church of God chose a better option.
Why Bob Thiel Left the Living Church of God Several have speculated reasons, but here is the truth. (En el idioma español: ¿Por qué Bob Thiel dejó la Iglesia del Dios Viviente?)
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