Progress in the Work!

BUILDING PROJECT:

We started building a 10'x24' two-room building on our church property. It will house our watchman and a store room for our building materials. It is almost completed. The roof will be put on next week. We are hoping to have it finished in about 3-4 weeks. In a couple of months we plan to start the foundation for our church building.

BIBLE INSTITUTE:

We are about half-way through our semester, studying church history, and the doctrine of the church, angels/Satan, and last things. It has been a very profitable time and it is evident that the Lord has been using the lessons to help our students grow in the Lord.

One of our students recently led a friend to the Lord. He brought her to church this past Sunday. Her name is Mina. Pray for her to continue coming to church and for Michael as he disciples her.

SUNDAY SCHOOL CHILDREN'S CLASSES:

We have added a new children's Sunday School class and enlisted two new teachers and two assistants. It is a joy to see the nationals doing the work of the ministry.

My wife is teaching some of the children phonics and how to read. Some of them do not go to school. The education system here is so far behind and many do not learn to read until they are 11 or 12 years old. We are very limited in what we can teach these little ones that have no education. It is a joy to see they are making progress and by Christmas we hope they will be able to read the Christmas story from the Bible.

Darkness, then Light!!

We showed the video “The Light of the World” to more than 300 deaf school students, several staff members, and about 12 deaf adults from town. The Devil was fighting us and trying to block the way! During the video the power went off for about 25 minutes. We resorted to prayer and shortly thereafter the power came on. To God be the glory!

The next day we went back to the school to answer questions and summarize the video. Several indicated that they were trusting Jesus Christ for salvation. We are following up on these.

One deaf lady, Theresa, who has attended our church for 3 years came to the light during this video. She trusted Jesus Christ and is now desiring to be baptized.

Pray for the deaf as it takes much sowing and watering before we see the fruit of salvation.

Evangelistic Opportunities

We have been greatly encouraged by those who have asked us for email updates on the work in Ghana, so that they could better pray for us. What a blessing to know that God has poured out upon many “the spirit of grace and of supplications,” (Zech. 12:10). Therefore, we are endeavoring to send regular email updates, in addition to our prayer letter that is sent out every other month by snail mail.

New Converts:

The Lord has blessed us recently with a number of souls coming to Christ for salvation. It is important for us to pray for them to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

1. Emmanuel Enu- 18 year old boy who recently trusted Christ as his Saviour. He has been faithful to church and has shown the joy of the Lord in his life. He also has been witnessing to his friends and inviting them to church. It has been a blessing to see him have the desire to serve the Lord. Last Sunday he gave his testimony in church and will be baptized this Sunday.
2. Ekow Sam- a deaf man who was saved several months ago. He has been faithful and growing in the Lord. We need to pray for his wife who is not saved and is causing him problems. We hope to baptize him this Sunday.
3. Hannah- a 20 year old deaf girl who made a profession of faith in January 2009, but recently came for assurance of salvation. She has been faithful to church on Sunday mornings for more than a year, even though she lives in a village one hour away. She has to take several taxis just to come to church. She is ready to be baptized on Sunday. Pray for her to grow in the Lord.
4. Emmanuel Acquah- 17 year old boy who made a profession of faith in Christ in November 2009. He has not come to church the past month. But this week one of our members talked with him and he wants to start back to church. Pray for him to make sure of his salvation and to grow in the Lord.
5. Hannah & Abigail Widener- our two youngest daughters were saved recently. Our family is complete now! For this we praise the Lord!
6. Pray for the salvation of Emmanuel Anafo, a young teenage boy, who has been coming to our church for several months. His brother Michael has been a faithful member of our church since our beginning.

Evangelistic Outreach:

On Friday, January 29, at 6:30PM (GMT), we will be showing a evangelistic video at the Cape Coast Deaf School. The video contains more than 600 pictures and is presented in American Sign Language for the deaf. It is produced by Chick tracts and gives a great foundation for the Gospel. There are more than 300 deaf students who will view the video, and we have invited the deaf association in our area to come. We expect at least 45 deaf adults, and some of the teachers from the school to attend.

1. Pray for all the video equipment to work without any problems.
2. Pray for the Devil to be defeated in his opposition to this event.
3. Pray for the deaf to have understanding of the Gospel and be saved.
4. Pray for those who are in false religions to be delivered from their blindness (Jehovah Witnesses, Muslims, Catholics, and Church of Christ).
5. Pray for our church as we prepare for this evangelistic outreach.


We will post an update following this evangelistic outreach to share with you the victories that are won through your prayers. Thank you for your labor of love in striving together with us in prayer.

Bro. Johnny Widener

Meeting A Ghanaian in Washington DC

I had the special privilege of preaching at Hampshire View Baptist Deaf Church in Silver Springs, MD. It was a joy to preach in sign language again! This is a unique church, as it is an all deaf church located near Gallaudet University, a deaf university. They have a vision of reaching the deaf and training them through their local church Bible College. My heart was encouraged by the vision of their pastor, Terry Buchholz.

While at this church, I met a deaf man who was born in Cape Coast, Ghana! Wow! That is where we have started our church. You can see our picture above. He has family still living in Cape Coast that we will visit when we get back.

I also met a deaf man from Tanzania who is in the Bible College. He is about to go back to his home country to start deaf, independent Baptist churches. Pray for him, his name is Frank Laurent.

New Web Page

Dear Friends,

I want to announce that I have a new website which can be found at http://widener2ghana.org

I will be posting all of my future blogs on that web page.  Thank you so much for reading our news and praying for us.  May God richly bless you is my prayer.

Bro. Johnny Widener

God is so good!

The Lord has been so good to us!  He certainly gives us more blessings than we deserve.  When we came home for furlough, our needs list was very long!  Sometimes you wonder how everything is going to work out.  But God never fails to provide for those who patiently wait upon Him, (Ps. 37:7).  One of the things that we have learned living in Africa is to wait patiently upon our God.  Everything in Africa moves at a casual pace which is good in some ways.  However, it can be very frustrating to Americans.

I was finally able to get my new hearing aids after a long wait.  Now, I have to patiently adjust to the new sounds of these highly advanced digital aids.  In the long run I believe they will help me to hear better, though my hearing continues to grow worse over time.  If I lose any more hearing, the next step will be to have a cochlear implant because I am almost beyond the use of hearing aids.  But I praise the Lord for His grace and the burden that He has put in my heart for the deaf to hear the Gospel through sign language.

Hannah, our 11 year old, has received her first pair of hearing aids.  She had hearing loss before we went to Africa, but not enough to require aids.  But now they are needed and she can hear much better with them.  Becky got some new molds, but is waiting to get new aids when we get some more funds raised.  The audiologists cleaned up her old ones and adjusted them to have more power.

Next week Rachael, Hannah and myself will be going to the optometrist for eyeglasses.  All three of us need reading glasses.  I am getting where I cannot read the fine print.  Soon, we hope to get all of the children caught up with their dental work, and then Mom & Dad will need to go before we get back to Africa.  

The work in Cape Coast continues to move forward.  We are happy to hear good reports concerning the services and visitors continue to come.  The church had the meeting for the member involved in marital problems and all went well.  The member confessed his sin to the church and repented.  All the church members forgave him and received him with love.  But do continue to pray for this brother and his wife to put it all behind and for their marriage to be strengthened.  I will be needing to counsel them when we get back to Ghana.

Again, we thank you for your prayers for our ministry in Ghana.  May the Lord bless you all for your faithfulness.

Bro. Johnny Widener

Building Project is Moving Forward!

I received word from Bro. Emmanuel that they have finally received the land documents from the Lands Commission and are now working on the building permit. We have been working on this for almost one year. There are two other offices where our land documents must be filed and they are on that now. They have begun having sand and stones brought to the property in preparation for the foundation. The church's funds are almost exhausted now. Pray for God to provide the funds for the work to continue. Emmanuel is searching around for laborers to come and do the excavation for the foundation. In Africa we do not have the privilege of using back hoes. Everything is done manually. We give praise to the Lord for this progress that is being made in our absence from the field.

Bro. Emmanuel Ewur is the national in charge of our work in Cape Coast while we are on furlough. He has been a faithful servant working with us since we started the work in June 2006. He is not paid by the church or by us, but is doing the work out of his love for Christ. He graduated from the University of Cape Coast and is completing his first year as an English teacher at one the schools in Cape Coast. Pray for Emmanuel as he carries the heavy responsibility of the church, that God would strengthen and guide him.

The church is doing good in attendance, averaging in the 90's on Sunday mornings and in the upper 20's in the evening services. Visitors have been coming regularly to the services. Pray for the church as they go out every Saturday for evangelism.

There is one man in the church that is having some marital problems that has called for church discipline to be exercised. I am having to work through this problem by letters and through Bro. Emmanuel. They will be having a church meeting concerning this problem next week. Fortunately, the member has expressed his desire to repent before the church and get things right. For this we praise the Lord. But the church needs prayer as they work through this difficult problem.

We thank all of you who read our reports and pray faithfully for us. May the Lord bless you is my prayer.

Bro. Widener