Furlough News

Tears of Joy

The tears were hard to hold back at the joyful reunion with our families & sending church. We have certainly enjoyed this past month of fellowshipping with our church and visiting with our family members. The food has been wonderful– Texas Bar-BQ, Mexican Food, Country Fried Steak and fast food. Many times we do not realize how precious something is until we have been without it.

Doctors Appointments

We have also been busy with doctor & dentist appointments. Several of the kids had cavities filled and Rachael is needing a root canal done. Hannah has lost some more hearing and is now needing some hearing aids. Becky and myself are needing some new ear molds and hearing aids. The tropical weather got the best of my good aids and I am wearing one back-up aid until I can get some new ones ordered. Please pray that the Lord will provide the funds for these pressing needs.
The doctor found some skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma) on my face under my left eye. I had surgery to remove it on my birthday, August 1st. All went well and I will go for a check-up in four months. There was no charge for the diagnosis or the surgery– Praise the Lord! Pray for the open wound to heal quickly, so we can get a new picture made for our prayer cards.

Reporting to our Sending Church

We kicked off our missions month at Spring Valley Baptist Church by showing our video presentation of the work in Cape Coast. There was hardly a dry eye in the service as our sponsoring church saw the faces of souls saved and heard some of their testimonies. My wife and I cried the most as we have greatly missed the people to whom God has called us to minister.

The Mission in Cape Coast

The mission church in Cape Coast is doing very well in our absence. We are keeping in regular communication with the brethren there. The members have remained faithful and they continue to have visitors in the services. Be in special prayer for Sister Araba’s husband who has started coming to church and the Lord is working in his heart. He is in his upper 50’s and needs to be saved. The deaf class had 29 in attendance on a recent Sunday. Continue to pray for God to build them up in the faith.

Pray as we work on booking meetings with new churches and report to our supporting churches. If you would like for us to report on our work or share our ministry with your church, please contact us as soon as possible. My personal cell # is (682) 560-0872, or you can email me at: jwidener@fastmail.fm

Texas B-BQ, Family & Friends

We arrived safe in Fort Worth, Texas on July 3rd. What a joyous reunion to meet our parents, nephews, and church members at the airport. The first several days were spent visiting with family & friends, and eating some good Texas B-BQ. Our first Sunday was spent in our home church- Spring Valley Baptist Church- and what a blessing to see every0ne again! We enjoying hearing our pastor preach a great message and on Sunday evening the church had a fellowship for us.

The month of July is being spent with our families and taking a little R&R. In August, the kids will start school at Lakeland Baptist Academy in Fort Worth, while I will be traveling for meetings. We have been real busy trying to fill dental & doctor appointments in the midst of visiting all of our relatives.

The mission church in Cape Coast is doing well as people continue to visit our services. The men have been working on getting the paperwork all finished with the Land commission. There were some minor corrections that had to be made and it will soon be completed. They are also working on the process of getting a building permit for our church project. Please continue to pray for our mission church to be faithful and continue the work of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Preparing for Furlough

The past few weeks have been busy as we are making preparations for our furlough. It has been more stressful than expected as we are trying to get everything in order before we go. Cleaning, and preparing the house to be closed up, and packing our things to take with us has turned out to be a big chore. But even more difficult is saying our goodbyes to our beloved church members and co-workers in the ministry here at Spring Valley Baptist Church.

Sunday, June 29th was our last Sunday here before leaving this Wednesday. We had a few visitors in our morning and evening services. There were also some tearful eyes in the evening services as we bid our goodbyes. We are thankful to the Lord for the work that He has given us here in Cape Coast and the many wonderful people in our church.

We stand in awe as we look back over the past two years in Cape Coast and consider all the mighty works that God has done for us. A mission church has been started, along with a Bible Institute aimed at training faithful men. The church now has 23 baptized members and a regular Sunday morning attendance of 86. God has provided the church with two plots of land as a donation. This past week we received the church building plans from the architect. Some of the men will be taking the plans to Town and Planning Commission to apply for a building permit. We pray that all goes well and the Lord provides for the church to build. The building plan is divided into three stages that will allow the church to time to grow into the building and raise the money.

Please pray for the church leaders who will be carrying on the work while we are gone. There will no doubt be testing in store for them and they will need the grace of God to sustain them. We are confident that it is God who "worketh in us both to will and do of his good pleasure."

Our children are really excited about seeing their grandparents, cousins and friends. What a blessed reunion it will be to see our church family and our family members. My next blog will be written from the U.S.A. and we will keep you posted on the family as well as the work in Cape Coast. May God bless you all for your prayers.

Trials on the Mission Field

In this blog I want to share some of the recent trials that we have experienced in Africa.

Americans take for granted many of the common conveniences in life like running water, and electricity. Living in a developing country can be frustrating at times. Last year, in Ghana we were on power sharing because the Akosombo dam, which supplies the country with electricity, was at record low levels. For more than six months we experienced light on for 12 hours and light off for 12hours every other day. Sometimes they would not follow the schedule and we would have lights off for longer periods. Once we were without power for more than 36 hours. It makes it difficult when the children are doing their school on dvd's. Eventually we were able to get us a generator which is necessary on the mission field.

The last three weeks we have been without running water. The government has put in new gutters down the road from our house and then they begin grating the dirt road to match the gutters. In the process they destroyed all the water lines in the area which are buried only about 6-8 inches under the ground. Water was left flowing out of broken pipes for many days, flooding the road. Even after many complaints by area residents, the workers took there time doing the work.

This created a challenge for us as we only had a small water storage tank. Our landlord brought us another tank holding 1500 gallons. This was a blessing but it was not hooked up to our house, so we had to carry water in the house by buckets. With a large family of seven, this became quite a chore every day. In the evening we would have to fill all of the toliets, and bring in water for baths. Since we had no water in the house, all the laundry had to be done by hand in buckets and hung out to dry. Though this got old after a few days it gave us a new perspective on modern day conveniences. You never really know how much a blessing something is until you don't have it.

We have also had our trials with our vehicle being repaired in Africa. Last month one of our ball joints on the van broke right out of the socket! This is not surprising when you consider the bumpy roads we have to travel on to go somewhere. We have a repairman in Accra that searched for the parts to repair our Dodge 15 passenger van. There are no Dodge dealerships in Ghana, though there are an increasing number of Dodge, Ford and Chevrolet 15 passenger vans being imported into Ghana. Because it is hard to insure them in America they are being sold and shipped around the world to be used as passenger vans. Luckily, he found three ball joints which he replaced and the fourth was broken and had to be welded together the African way. Here they just weld old parts together and make them work! Now, we have another problem - our water pump leaks. After searching we found one but the price was very high- $250, and in America it sells for about $90. It can be frustrating trying to find the right mechanic and the right parts to repair your car. Even after some experience at it, we still seem to end up with a bush job on the mechanic work. One of the men in our church joked that we now have an African car! It creaks along as we hope things will hold together.

Though there are many frustrations for an American missionary on the mission field, it is worth it all when we consider the souls that are saved and the lives that are changed by the Word of God. When we surrendered to be missionaries, we agreed to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to get the job done!

Deaf Sunday School Class

This is a picture of our deaf Sunday School Class. The deaf man in the black suit is the teacher. His name is Remy Kayang and has been training under our ministry for two years. We average around 15 to 25 deaf on Sunday Mornings. Two of the deaf men have completed one year of institute studies. Our goal is to train faithful men to go and teach others.

This past Sunday Remy went to the deaf school to preach at 7:30 AM and finished in time to come to church for his Sunday School class. We are happy that he is willing and desires to go to the deaf school to preach. It was his idea to go there on Sunday mornings. For that we are happy. Now, we will be ministering the Word of God to the deaf students on Friday's and Sunday's, as well as an occasional Saturday to visit the students one on one.

Pray for our deaf group that the Holy Spirit will give them understanding and help them to become established in the faith.

Bible Institute

This week we are finishing up final exams for the second semester of our Bible Institute. Classes offered this semester include Bible Doctrine 2- (the Doctrine of Christ & the Holy Spirit), the Epistle of Romans, New Testament Survey, and Practical Christian Living. We are thankful for the faithfulness of our students and pray that they would continue to be students of the Word.

All of our students are looking forward to the semester break. With six hours of classes every week in addition to our regular weekly services and various ongoing mininstries during the week has kept everyone busy. We plan to redeem the time wisely, however, and work on our building project and devote more time to evangelism in the area. We plan to organize some evangelistic services in the villages surrounding our area. There are over 150,000 people living in the Cape Coast area.

Pray that we will receive our land documents soon, so we can begin the work on our foundation. We have over 1400 cement blocks waiting to go in the foundation. Our building plans are still in the works as we consider what the Lord would have us to do. It is an exciting time for our members and we are thankful for the Lord's blessings.

Building Blocks

This past week the masons have made over 800 building blocks for our foundation. Here in Ghana most all of the buildings are made of cement blocks with metal roofs. Our goal is to make 1500 blocks to lay the foundation of our church. We are planning a two-story building that will serve the various ministries of our church. There will be a sanctuary, classrooms for Sunday School and our Bible Institute, offices, and a dormitory for our Bible Students.

We have been meeting in a school for two years now. The school has no lights, electricity, fans, or screens on the windows. This is no problem in Africa for our morning services on Sunday, but can sometimes be a problem in the evening services and for our Institute classes. The rechargeable lamps sometimes will burn out during the services leaving us in the dark. Mosquitos are always a nuisance and at times we can hear them singing "Nothing but the Blood." (just kidding).

However, we are grateful that the Lord has provided us a place to meet these past two years, rent-free. Also, we are excited that He has given us two plots of land to build our own building. Pray that the Lord would continue to provide through His people and give us wisdom for the building project.