News from KT Ghana

Community Building

On the 4th of Feb we were at the university of Ghana in Accra (Ghana’s capital) to run a weekend retreat for the Catholic charismatic Renewal on campus. We had 55 people, very enthusiastic for God and ready to know more about being part of a living community. They were excited, and challenged with the first activity as an icebreaker. During the prayer and interaction we saw people wanting to pull down any dividing wall between themselves and God. Hence building a healthy ‘’Body of Christ’’.

Leadership Training

Recently attitudes of leaders towards service and relationships are making leadership questionable. To help in addressing this problem, running leadership programmes in prayer groups and parishes has been one of our major activities. On the 27th -28th Jan we organized a weekend leadership retreat at our base, which attracted 15 leaders from different groups at our place.

Relationships between a leader, other leaders and God was a key point and more so knowing oneself and the character traits of others were some of the topics discussed.

It was fun doing group activities like Trust walk and “chocoshare” where some groups had to make fire with charcoal (local way of making fire here) to prepare chocolate drink; while others had to make fire with wood for us to sit around and do some discussions.

First GXP Youth weekend in Africa!

We, at Kerygma Teams Ghana, ran the first GXP youth weekend in Africa, on 29 April – 1st May. We trained up 10 youth leaders to help us to staff this dynamic programme.

God answered a number of our prayers, for the GXP. Our main desire was to have 50 young people, between 14-21 years old, as participants. To achieve this, we asked priests and leaders we know to send kids from local towns Koforidua, Akosombo, Somanya and Accra to join us. We were able to keep the costs to a bare minimum, thanks to accommodation provided for free, at the local Pope Johns Junior Seminary school.

We had great fun preparing for the weekend. Paul, Bernice and Antony were the main leaders, and each of us were helping to train our local staff how to teach, run the games, and lead the spiritual and liturgical aspects of the programme.

We had teaching on Gods love, on the Cross, how to pray, about Gods plan for your life, and we gave the challenge to follow Christ. Each session was followed by either a dynamic small group discussion, or an activity involving the whole group. One such activity gave everyone the chance to go through a series of prayer stations set in different rooms: you could go for confession (from one of 4 priests!); nail sins to the cross; see your sins are washed away; receive prayer; or simply adore an image of Christ.

Other Highlights:
Bishop Charles Palmer-Buckle dropped by to encourage us. He told us that it would be the last youth event he would attend as Bishop of the Koforidua diocese, before he becomes Archbishop later this month.

During a time of Eucharistic adoration, a young lady came out to testify what God was doing in her life, and to enthusiastically tell everybody how real He was.

Salifu, a student and a participant, told us that the GXP was the talk of the school. Clearly, his friends wanted to know what they had missed out on! Oh yes, and the good food too.

Before the programme, some of our team were unwell, so we really approached this programme with faith. God was so wonderful, that with all the running around that we did, things still worked out successfully. It was truly God who wanted us to run the programme.

The GXP gave us a feeling of independence – it was a sign that we no longer have to wait for invitations to come and get involved with groups; but can start to run with our own programs. And, that even if we are just two, we can do it!

DTS Outreach

Our team of 10 people (4 staff and 6 students) arrived in Ghana at the end of May.
We stayed at the Kerygma Teams house in Koforidua. Paul and Bernice Otoo welcomed us into their house. Antony, a member of Kerygma Teams Ghana, also arrived in Ghana with us.
For 3 weeks, we participated in local prayer group meetings where we gave teachings and prayed for people, a lot of people We visited primary schools where we gave teachings and played with the kids. They are very enthusiastic, outgoing and very open to what we had to say. And at the local hospital we talked and prayed over pregnant women.
We organized a youth weekend for students and that was really great. We could really get to know them and build relationships.

Following this, we travelled to Tamale in Northern Ghana for two weeks. Tamale is a mainly Muslim area. The local Charismatic Renewal had organized a programme, where we could visit people in the villages. Villagers didnt speak English so we went with a translator to talk to them and tell them about Jesus. A lot of people wanted to give their lives to Jesus but they were scared because of the fear of getting ostracized from their families. Their situation was not easy, but the people were very friendly and open to hear the Gospel.

After Accra it was almost time to say goodbye. We said our farewells to the prayer groups and people we had come to know in Koforidua, but it was not easy to say goodbye. You really get a heart for Ghana and especially the people, who were very open to what we had to share and we definitely learned a lot from them.

The outreach was a great experience where God really showed up and blessed us with the time we had in Ghana.

Ideline Meijer - The Netherlands (A Student from the DTS)