Past Trips

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Thank you again for your prayer support!

Once again, the Lord opened the door for me to teach the same group of men as before (my fourth time with them) at another week-long Pastor Conference at Bold Grace Bible Institute in Ghana. They are all very hungry for Bible teaching. They listen intently with impeccable manners and take lots of notes. And they ask good questions.

We gave all of them a copy of Rick Hughes’ book, These Things (it tied with what I was teaching) and a copy of The Canon. Last year we provided all the attendees with the entire life of Christ on a USB drive. Eric Soglo, one of the pastors attending the conference, told me that he is close to finishing the series. That may seem unbelievable since there are over 1,400 hours, but life in Ghana in many ways is much simpler than in America. Social life as we know it is non-existent except with the very wealthy. And most Ghanaians cannot afford Wi-Fi. They are not streaming movies or a TV series. All do have phones, but data is very expensive and is used sparingly.

This trip I discovered a grace provision for the people of Ghana related to their food supply. For most Ghanaians, the butcher shop where they obtain beef and chicken is a local open air meat market complete with cattle stockyards and chicken pens, and all the odors you might expect with such (pictures below). Not being wasteful, Ghanaians eat the meat of cow plus the cartilage (a source of calcium), the liner of the belly, and the liver. The meat sits in the heat of the market throughout the day until it is sold. That presents the opportunity for bacteria that causes food poisoning. However, Ghanaians cook their food with hot green and red peppers, which have an active ingredient that kills the bacteria that causes food poisoning. That’s God’s grace to the Ghanaians.

Dear Prayer Warriors,

I am so grateful for you all. Some of you I know and many I do not. Yet our Heavenly Father knows each of you, and whatever eternal reward received for this ministry, you all share in that for all eternity. What a wonderful reunion that will be!

Your prayers had tremendous impact. The Lord answered in so many ways. For example, on my flight out of Dallas, a young Indian woman sat down in the middle seat next to me even though it was not her assigned seat. She was traveling with a young man and wanted to be seated next to him. When the man assigned to that seat boarded, he was happy to switch with her and take her window seat further back. Our heavenly Father totally arranged that because we ended up in a long discussion on the gospel.

Upon my arrival in Ghana, I had an opportunity later that same day to be interviewed live on a local Ghana TV station to discuss the gospel and the Christian life. A pastor named Ebenezer, who listened to the broadcast, reached out afterwards to Cyprian for more information. He ended up attending the Pastor’s Conference at Bold Grace Bible Institute (BGBI) the following week.

The first pastor’s conference in the farming community of Kpeve went well. A small group of pastors and local congregants attended; they were very hungry for God’s Word. One pastor at the end of class told me that he disagreed with what I had taught regarding eternal security because true believers reach sinless perfection. Then he gave himself as an example. It was the first time I had ever encountered that.

At one point due to questions asked, I spent extra time on sins of the tongue and the importance of not judging other believers (Matthew 7:1-2). At the end of the conference, the pastor came up and said that he especially appreciated the time spent on judging. He said that many in his congregation were wanting him to excommunicate others because of their sins and that excommunication is frequently used for that purpose.

One pastor brought his five young children. I was concerned that they might distract but decided not to say anything unless it became an issue. His children had the best manners—they all remained in their chairs and were disciplined and quiet. I was amazed!

Back at Bold Grace Bible Institute the following week, we had our core group of pastors plus one older woman, named Sarah, who faithfully attends every time the doors are open for Bible teaching. She always sits on the front row and takes very detailed notes. She has a ministry with her family and children in her neighborhood.

Cyprian decided to let me do all the teaching since he is in Ghana and has many opportunities for teaching. Again, your prayers were answered with God the Holy Spirit providing the energy, focus, and recall necessary for the teaching.

This was my fourth trip into Ghana and one thing of noteworthy issue that the Ghanaian people seem to be a very content even though their circumstances are nothing near what we have in America. Since Ghana has no government welfare system, everyone works. If you remember from the Doctrine of Work that Pastor Bobby taught a few years back, mankind is designed to work, and when we do that, there is contentment from a job well done. The Ghanaians are examples of that. Below is a picture of girls helping their mother carry bottles of water and other drinks home from the market place.

For our trip teaching in Nairobi, Kenya and in South Africa, God’s grace provided exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or think, to include our time with our dear friends Tom & Cheryl Molinar, which was icing on the cake. In Nairobi, the pastors and others in attendance were very positive and excited to learn. One thing that seems to be universally true with all the places in Africa where we have taught thus far, and Nairobi was no exception, the people are thoughtful, with great manners, listen intently, and even take notes. They loved Cyprian’s axioms for the correct interpretation of Scripture, e.g. context is king, and the many examples that he provided to counter the false doctrines prevalent in Africa (mentioned in previous updates). A local lumber yard, furniture store, vegetable stand, and dress shop in Nairobi.

Our host in Nariobi was Maurice Mwale, a pastor, who is considering focusing instead on training other pastors in Kenya. Maruice is one of the many in Africa who found the Colonel and R.B. Thieme Bible Ministries and latched onto the Bible teaching. Please add him to your prayer list.

After Nairobi, we went to Nelspruit, South Africa where we were invited to teach four different groups associated with Tom & Cheryl’s Molinar mission. We taught in Kanyamazane for four hours. These are faithful students of the Word who have been under Molinar mission for many years now. They are well versed in the doctrines of Scripture and very eager for truth.

This was the same group of pastors we taught back in March. They are very eager to learn the Word of God. We covered axioms for the correct interpretation of the Scripture, how to counter false teaching, and James chapters 1 & 2.

This conference was held at Bold Grace Bible Institute (BGBI), founded by Cyprian, with the sole purpose training pastors. Cyprian is in the process of building another facility that will open up additional quarters for pastors wanting to attend the conferences.

Deuteronomy 1:33. “The Lord your God goes before you on your way to seek out a place for your to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.”

Terry (boldgraceministries.org) and Cyprian (bgbi-ghana.org)

God’s grace always provides the hearers and in this case the hearers varied greatly in their understanding of basic Biblical truths. About 50 people, including many young men, and women consistently attending for the entire five days. The group included not only pastors, but church administrators and congregation members, the pastors had invited. The pastors were so steeped in false doctrine that they initially had difficulty accepting the truth. But by day-3, most were beginning to see the light. We had a few holdouts, but even the holdouts came all five days and listened. You could really see from the expressions on their faces that they were deliberating, considering, and pondering it all. On day-3 of the conference, one of the pastors commented to our host, “I pray that God will forgive me for teaching falsely all these years.”

In general, the false teaching is the same as what Pastor Bobby has been teaching about the Judaizers in the Philippian church. Instead of layering in Judaism, these pastors are adding in West African beliefs and culture. They find a line in a verse that supports their apostasy, take it out of context, and then dogmatically with great eloquence serve it up as truth to their congregations. Cyprian believes that the spread of the charismatic movement back in the 60’s and 70’s paved the way for much of the false doctrine being taught in Africa today.

Here is a sampling of the false doctrines and the Scripture verse taken out of context that were used to support it. This is just some of the dominate ones; there were others. The great deceiver has a strong foothold with believers in Africa.

•     Loss of salvation due to certain sins because it says those who do those things “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Gal. 5:19-21. This question came up on day one after spending two hours teaching eternal security and even making the point repeatedly that there are no contradictions or inconsistencies in Scripture.

•      The false doctrine of “decree and declare” which comes from Job 22:28. This verse is distorted to mean the believer can decree anything for himself, and God will provide it. Cyprian shredded the false teachers on this one, pointing out that those were not God’s words to Job but rather Eliphaz, who judged Job as being under divine discipline. And God Himself set the record straight in Job 42:7 when He judged Eliphaz for “not speaking what is right.”

•      There was the false teaching on healing, including not only man as a healing agent of God, but also the idea of having a serious health issue and refusing medical attention because of your own ability through faith to will yourself back to health. Joel 3:10b taken out of context. “Let the weak say, I am strong (a mighty man).”

Our original goal with this group was to teach eternal security, the basics of the Christian life, and then provide axioms for the correct interpretation of Scripture. We ended up focused on eternal security for the entire conference due to the many false doctrine attacks on it. We did cover 1 John 1:9 in all five sessions.

One morning at breakfast, we noticed the hotel restaurant employees were huddled together and the manager, David, was talking to them about God’s Word, and we heard him go over 1 John 1:9. Later we were able to have a conversation with him. His entire team are believers. He was very interested in getting more Bible teaching, and we were able to give him many of Pastor Bobby’s Bible lessons on a thumb drive.

In Liberia, Cyprian and I were given an official African shirt and hat to wear for the Certificate Ceremony

An independent filling station in Liberia. They legally sell fuel for 30% less than branded gas stations. They obtain the gasoline from tanker trucks who supply the branded stations. When you pull your car up, the station attendee takes mason jars full of gasoline and empties them into your car.