N LOCATION. In parts of the Volta region of Ghana, Africa, a young. IM Partner Confronts Modern-Day Slavery in Ghana WINTER 2015 STRETCH FORWARD

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1 INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES WINTER 2015 N LOCATION STRETCH FORWARD IM Partner Confronts Modern-Day Slavery in Ghana by Laura Timmel In parts of the Volta region of Ghana, Africa, a young woman can become a trokosi, a wife of the gods. But this is not the privileged position that the name might suggest. It is a life of forced labor, sexual and physical abuse, social isolation and deprivation of adequate food, shelter, healthcare and education. It is slavery, and it is supported by centuries of cultural tradition. The process begins when someone commits a crime, or any act that is considered to be an affront to the gods. In order to avoid facing the gods wrath, the offender s fam- ily members must give up a young virgin daughter, usually between ages 8 and 12, who will be forced to serve at a nearby shrine to the gods for the rest of her life. If she tries to escape and return to her family, the village will stone her to death, believing that she will bring a curse upon the village. The practice of trokosi was made illegal in Ghana in Governmental enforcement has been limited, however, and so far not one shrine priest has been sentenced to the three-year-minimum prison term. (continued on page 4)

2 COMING APRIL 15 Stretch Forward! by Reid Trulson, Executive Director New Matching Gift Opportunity Stay Tuned for More! We have just completed three wonderful years of bicentennial celebrations. In 2012, we celebrated Adoniram and Ann Judson s departure to India as Congregationalist missionaries. The next year, we joined some 44,000 people in Myanmar/Burma giving thanks to God for the Judsons 1813 arrival as Baptist missionaries in Burma. And last year, we marked the formation of our mission society, which at its 1814 founding meeting adopted the Judsons as its first appointed missionaries. ON THE COVER Some 4,000 missionaries have been supported through International Ministries in the past 200 years. Those men and women have faithfully responded to the call to be agents of God s blessing to all the families of the earth. They have done so by addressing a wide variety of human needs through the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit while helping people come to faith in Jesus. It has indeed been appropriate to look back, praise God and give thanks! But we are not called to live in what lies behind in our memories, nor in what lies ahead in our imaginings. Only in today can we do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God. (Micah 6:8) And how should we do that? By stretching forward! This issue of International Ministries ON LOCATION invites us to reflect on the Bible s striking call to stretch forward. Philippians 3:13 is the only place in which this muscular Greek verb is found in the Christian Scriptures. Paul used this term in the context of wanting to know the power of Christ s resurrection. But what does the resurrection have to do with stretching forward? Bishop N. T. Wright wrote, Jesus s resurrection is the beginning of God s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord s Prayer is about. Stretching forward. Colonizing earth with the life of heaven. In this issue, we meet newly endorsed missionaries that are being culturally and spiritually stretched in preparation for mission service. We also meet Rev. Grace Akuno and the remarkable Baptists of Ghana, who are stretching forward to rescue and care for victims of trokosi slavery. What might it mean this year for you and me to stretch forward? To colonize earth with the life of heaven? Young women at the Baptist Vocational Training Center, rescued from slavery in rural Ghanaian shrines, select kitchen supplies for their catering classes N LOCATION INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES WINTER 2015, VOL. 7, NO. 1 Reid S. Trulson, executive director Catherine Nold, communications director Laura Timmel, writer and editorial assistant Rev. James G. Layton, senior writer Devon Nassif, senior designer To subscribe to this free newsletter, send your name & address to: On Location International Ministries P.O. Box 851 Valley Forge, PA

3 One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14a ASV to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal Theme Stretch Forward! Biblical Reflection: Philippians 3:13 14a by Stan Slade, Associate Executive Director, Program, and IM Global Consultant Lights! Camera! Action! After nearly a hundred years of motion pictures, we are all familiar with the sequence. It also very nearly summarizes Genesis 1. Perhaps lights, land, life! would be more exact in that context. From the beginning, the Bible describes God in action. God on the move. The first garden is a delightful place, and a dynamic one. In Eden there is growth and development and then, terrible error. When the man and woman horribly misuse their freedom and bring death where once there was only delight, God acts. To limit the damage. To help his now-dying creatures adapt to the new reality. To bring hope. God acts. As we move through the entire biblical story, the specifics change dramatically. But the basic reality remains the same, right through to the last chapter of Revelation: God is alive and on the scene acting, giving life, rescuing, redeeming and healing the nations. This epic story, the story of God s goodness and love in action from creation to new creation this is the story Paul knew he was in. He knew Jesus was the center of the whole story. He understood that, in Christ s resurrection, God had fulfilled the most ancient promises and assured the most distant future. Death and destruction will not have the last word. The final word will be the word of resurrection and life. And in the meantime? Stretching forward, I press on toward the goal. Paul knew both from his own experience and from Scripture that God in Jesus had rescued and redeemed him, saving him from death. And he knew there was much, much more to come. So, he stretched toward it. Paul assured the early believers that God had acted in Christ to put the world right. God had changed the fundamental truth about all those in Christ, transferring them from death to life. But in God s infinite wisdom, there was still a place for human action, a place for human response to God s gracious work on the cross and in the resurrection. So Paul called Jesus followers to respond. He called them to live on the basis of the resurrection. He called them to follow his example, on the way to, but not yet having arrived at the goal, stretching forward. Paul called Jesus followers to strain every muscle, stretching toward the new creation that is surely coming. Through Paul s inspired words, God calls us still today. Jesus is alive. God is very much at work. The kingdom of God, decisively inaugurated in Jesus, continues to draw ever nearer. We are called to stretch toward it. One day, God will wipe away every tear. (Revelation 21:4) Today, we can stretch toward that day. We can wipe away tears and join God s work in overcoming the things that bring tears. One day, God will be all the light we need. (Revelation 22:5) Today, we can stretch toward that day. We can share the Light of the World with those who do not yet know him. We can walk in his light, and encourage others to do the same. One day, the nations of the earth will bring their greatness into God s New Jerusalem. (Revelation 21:24, 26) Today, we can stretch toward that day. We can declare God s glory among the nations (Psalm 96:3), reflecting that glory in all the life-giving ministries that the Spirit of God makes possible and in all the many-splendored cultures of God s children. Give yourself to the power of God that works within you, to both desire and do what God wants. Give to the work of IM and support those who are stretching toward God s future all around the world. Stretch forward! ON LOCATION WINTER

4 Confronting Slavery in Ghana (continued from page 1) In response, the Ghana Baptist Convention, a longstanding partner of American Baptist International Ministries (IM), founded the Baptist Vocational Training Center (BVTC). The center rescues, rehabilitates and educates young women who have been victimized by the trokosi system. It does this by offering a three-year residential training program, with the goal of preparing these women for independent and fulfilling lives in the outside world. The vision I have for BVTC can be found in Acts 26:18, explains BVTC Director Grace Akunor. To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to life. My ministry is to bring these girls from the shackles, from the darkness, and take them into the light of Jesus Christ. As soon as they arrive at the BVTC campus, the former trokosi women are introduced to their first and hardest lessons how to maintain personal hygiene, how to wear a dress, what to eat and other basic life skills. The center s leaders also begin the slow process of teaching the women that they are not inferior to other people and that they are valued by God. In the second year, the women learn a variety of trade skills, such as sewing, cooking and hair styling; and in their third and final year they choose one skill in which to specialize. Upon graduating, each woman is given the tools and financial support she will need to start her own business. Since 2001, IM has been supporting this vital ministry through financial gifts to the World Mission Offering, says the Rev. Dr. Eleazar Zimherambere, IM area director for Africa. These funds have helped keep the rescue efforts going. Over 200 women have graduated and started new lives thanks to BVTC and gifts from American Baptist churches. Grace Akunar, director of the Baptist Vocational Training Center I want to thank everybody for their support, says Akunor. When Jesus was teaching, he told his disciples, When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was in prison, you visited me. When I was naked, you clothed me. That is what you are doing for these girls. And they are now living as human beings. 4 ON LOCATION WINTER 2015

5 AFRICA Ghana Roughly 2,000 women and girls are still held captive in the trokosi system. Akunor longs for the opportunity to rescue more of these girls and to offer them training in a wider variety of skills. My challenge, she says, is to have bigger classrooms. Classrooms that can have workshops, staff common rooms, restrooms and computer labs, so that I can take in more of the girls and give them skills alongside the word of God, so that they can have a future. Support the work of the Baptist Vocational Training Center Please pray that BVTC would be able to inspire communities to end their trokosi practices, reach rescued slaves with God s love and expand the breadth and capacity of its training program. To give online, visit To give by check, write Ghana/GBC/Training on the memo line and mail to International Ministries, PO Box 851, Valley Forge, PA To help IM continue to support BVTC and ministries like it, donate now at 5

6 IM S NEW GLOBAL WORKERS FROM 2014 Kyle & Debby Witmer Almost three years ago, God began to place in each of our hearts a hunger to do something more to do meaningful discipleship within another culture. Now that we ve begun language study in Thailand, we constantly give thanks to the God who is working in, around and through us. Because of those who continually support us, we are able to celebrate and be encouraged that we are not in this new ministry alone. Ministry Focus Area: Theological Education Location: Thailand Kyle & Katrina Williams As we anticipate our ministry in the Congo, we have mixed emotions. We are sad to be leaving friends and family behind for an uncertain future. But we are also excited to be stepping out in faith to further God s reign here on earth. As we raise support, we are gratified to see people being touched by God to partner with us. God is showing us that it is not going to be by our effort that we make it to the Congo, but by his. Ministry Focus Area: Theological Education Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo Kurt & Carrie Smalley When we first arrived in Hungary as church planters in 2013, we prayed that we would be able to build real relationships with Hungarians in spite of their usual reservation. We re told it normally takes five to ten years for trust to develop but in fewer than three years God has already broken down those walls, and people have sought to develop friendships with us! Ministry Focus Area: Evangelism Location: Hungary Melanie Baggao I am in awe of the ways God has provided for me during this time of raising support. Churches and individuals I have never met or hardly know believe in the ministry to which God is calling me in the Middle East. It s very humbling. I m looking forward to learning from Arab Christians, and I cannot wait to join our Lebanese partners serving in what the UN High Commissioner for Refugees calls the biggest humanitarian crisis of our era. Ministry Focus Area: Peace and Refuge Location: Lebanon Sharon Buttry 2015 marks my 48th year of walking with Jesus. I am amazed that his word opens up to me with fresh meaning, beauty and power daily. I look forward to joining my husband Dan in the IM ministry he s had for years while I was serving in our Michigan neighborhood. We ll be working together around the globe, starting in the Middle East. We look forward to seeing God bring fresh rivers of hope to lands parched by war, the mass movement of refugees and a persecuted church. Commissioned Ministry Focus Area: Peace and Refuge Location: Global Shigemi Tomita As I ve begun my ministry at the Kanto Gakuin (KG) University my creativity, genuine love and discipline of prayer are certainly being tested. I ve had the opportunity to work with KG elementary schools, advise a university volunteer club, speak at the university chapel and represent IM on KG s Board of Directors and Board of Counselors. As I focus on teaching Bible classes and speaking at a KG elementary school s assemblies, I pray that I will communicate the gospel message and build meaningful relationships. Ministry Focus Area: Education Location: Japan 6 ON LOCATION WINTER

7 Cheryl Jones I am so excited as I anticipate returning, better equipped, to full-time mission service in South Africa. However, as I have been preparing and raising support to return, I have faced many obstacles. I didn t expect that God would let me experience this suffering as I try to serve him. But experience has proven that my most substantial growth occurs amidst the severest trials. I strive to exercise patience as I look for any opportunity to give my best to the Lord wherever I am. Ministry Focus Area: Theological Education Location: South Africa Awenam Anifrani & Holale Azondjagni The call to serve as missionaries in France caught us off guard. The more we resisted, the more it intensified! We had been thinking about pursuing another ministry, but then God came out of the blue with this call. Now that we have answered, we are beginning the hard work of building a network of supporters which means our new ministry will not be a responsibility for us to carry alone. Ministry Focus Areas: Theological Education, Evangelism Location: France Peter & Sarah McCurdy We have been overwhelmed by the love and support from our friends, churches and donors as we prepare to leave for our first term of service. We experienced a similar feeling when we attended the gathering of all the other IM global personnel and their children, and then the World Mission Conference that followed. Those times were a blessing and encouragement for us as parents and new missionaries. Ministry Focus Area: Education Location: Dominican Republic Jeanine White Although the Bible tells us that God loves to fulfill our desires and bless us abundantly, still sometimes I m surprised when he does! Being able to join my husband, Walt, on the team of global consultants was truly a blessed surprise. After serving with him in Bangladesh and Thailand, and then raising our family in the U.S. while he traveled with IM, I am thrilled that we will be serving side-by-side again. In Active Service Ministry Focus Area: Evangelism Location: Global Tim & Kathy Rice God s plan is far bigger than we often imagine. We aren t just learning French at the language school here; God also intends for us to be part of a local church, connect with unbelievers and learn from the trials he takes us through. We can t wait to get to Vanga to begin working with our Congolese and German colleagues! But before we go, we are praying for a mighty revival in our own hearts as well as the hearts of those we will touch. Ministry Focus Area: Health Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo Jennifer Pedzinski I ve been gratified by the strategic perfection of God s timing and care both in the details of my placement at the New Life Center Foundation in northern Thailand and in the personal, long-term relationships that are forming with those whom God is calling to join the network of support. I feel that I am part of a much bigger movement of the Holy Spirit as we work together to discern and pursue God s leading in mission. Ministry Focus Areas: Human Trafficking, Education Location: Thailand Kathy Charland When following God, we may not know each detail of what s to come, and God s plan often goes far beyond what he reveals to us. Since I started the process toward long-term mission service, I have seen God orchestrate circumstances to lead me where he wants me. I look forward to witnessing the continuing work of God as I enter into the service to which he has called me. Ministry Focus Areas: Education, Economic Development and Evangelism Location: Zambia ON LOCATION WINTER

8 N LOCATION INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES VOL. 7, NO. 1 WINTER 2015 American Baptist Foreign Mission Society P.O. Box 851 Valley Forge, PA To register go to Teachers: Your skills are urgently needed in Hungary Short- and Long-term opportunities Due to recent changes in the Hungarian public school system, Hungarian Baptist Aid, an IM partner, has been asked to supervise over 50 schools. These schools are now in urgent need of certified English language teachers and English-speaking teachers of mathematics, art, science, geography and other subjects. Opportunities for chaplains and other support personnel may also be available. In addition to school responsibilities, teachers will be involved in Christian outreach programs through schools and local churches. Educators may serve in Hungary as a vocational missionary, employed long-term through IM, or as a short-term volunteer IM missionary. To learn more, visit or contact us at , ext. 2245, or vocationaldevelopment@internationalministries.org. EUROPE Hungary I465.PUB.2/15