Christmas Week 2013

On Monday, the church went Christmas Caroling to 5 different homes and gave them a "Blessing Basket." The church has been giving for the last two months for these baskets. It contained, rice, vegetable oil, soap, bread, miscellaneous items and a Bible. We had a great time together as a church and it really was a great start to our Christmas week.

One of the baskets went to our Kojokrom Bible Study Family

Steven's Family

Robert's Family
(the other two baskets went to Peter's Family and William's Family)

On Wednesday we had an evening church service. It was real nice. On Friday we loaded up the tro-tro (van) and headed to Ankobra Beach for our Christmas church gathering. We played Volleyball and soccer and had fun in the sand. 

Shadrick burying Joseph in the sand

Playing Volleyball

Celestina and Esther

Soccer

Lunch Time!

Steven

We had a great time with our church family this week. There was 23 that came on Friday. We were packed in the tro-tro. On the way home we sang songs and passed banana bread around. Pray for the tro-tro driver he said he would come to church this Sunday. We have had this driver many times for our guest who come from the States and also any church outings. His name is Christian, but he is not a born again Christian.

God Is My Help

Psalms 121
1. God is my help
2. God is my keeper
3. God is my preserver
~Pastor Prince~

I had to laugh as I was lost in the Takoradi, market circle. Well I was not lost, I knew where I was but rather I had lost my husband and son. As I looked out across the mass of people shopping on the crowded streets, I felt like "Where's Waldo?" Surely it can't be hard to spot two white people in all of this. They were looking for dress shoes for my oldest son. As I stood there I thought do I go back to where they might be or continue forward to where they might be? I did what was best, prayed. I continued going forward and went to the other place where they sell shoes. Two white people, I found them. I thanked the Lord! When Prince preached this message on Sunday, I just smiled, because the Lord is my help.

My son Joesph preached on Wednesday evening. He looked so handsome and did a great job. My little Joe. He preached on  Acts 26 really the whole chapter bringing out key verses. His title was "Why We Should Share Our Salvation Testimony With Others" One thing he said was "If you have God you can do anything" Lk 1:37 and his key verse was Acts 26:22 "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come."

My 3 handsome sons: Nehemiah, Joseph and Matthew

Pastor Prince is translating in Fante at our Bible study in Kojokrom. Cecilia in the red checkered school uniform (on the right)  is from our church. We found out she goes to school with Emmanuella. She came home with Emmanuella after school to the Bible study in Kojokrom. Cecelia lives near Prince and his family she also helps Naomi in Jr. church. 

Emmanuella is the closest one to you on the left side, white dress. Prince was able to lead her to the Lord on Tuesday night at our Bible study in Kojokrom.

We have a lot going on next week. We will be giving out "Blessing Baskets" on Monday evening, Wednesday evening we will have a church service and a church outing for our "Christmas Gathering" on Friday.

We want to Wish you and your family a Merry Christmas from: Mack, Jackie, Naomi, Matthew Jr., Joseph and Nehemiah Siekbert!!!!

Thanksgiving Post

Nehemiah's birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day this year. He turned 7 years old. We went to another missionary's house for Thanksgiving and had fellowship with four other families. We had a good time together. On Friday, "Black Friday," some of the ladies went shopping and then to lunch. The men had some hot dogs on the grill. It was very hot on Friday and we shopped (walked) till we dropped. We were glad to enjoy the air conditioned restaurant.

Everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to Nehemiah

The day before Thanksgiving we received two packages in the mail. One was from Grace Baptist Church in Greenville, PA. They send us a Christmas package every year with items to make Christmas cookies. I am thankful for their faithfulness to us and friendship. 

The second box was from Mack's sister, Debbie. Each year she gets the kids a Christmas ornament. They have quite the collection. One day they will be able to enjoy their ornaments on their tree (Mine will be bald). The kids look forward to this each year. They also love looking back at all the beautiful ornaments they have gotten over the years. Thank you, Aunt Debbie.

On our way home from Cape Coast (Thanksgiving) notice the goats on the roof?

Nehemiah lost a tooth on Saturday

Many Questions

Last Sunday we baptized in the ocean, Phillip and Peterson. It was a hot day that Sunday and many where out playing in the water as we baptized. We always enjoy the walk to the sea side. As we were walking you could hear people saying that we are from the Baptist church.

Phillip, Pastor Prince and Peterson

Pastor Siekbert, Peterson, Pastor Prince, Phillip and Pastor Koasi

On Wednesday before church starts we go out on visitation. It was on our way back to the church a few girls stopped us and asked us for a book. We pass out John and Romans.We began talking with Edith who goes to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, she had many questions, and we were late for church.

After Saturday visitation we where sitting at the fish roundabout watching the boys play soccer. Once the boys are done playing soccer Benjamin tells them about our church and invites them to come. Many boys have come as a result of this outreach. As we were sitting there Edith was coming from the SDA church and greeted us. I asked her if she would come to church tomorrow, she said she would. She wanted Naomi to meet her mother, so Naomi went with her. Edith said she could not come Sunday morning because she sells in the morning (due to her church being on Sat.) but Sunday evening she would come. Sure enough she came. My husband and Prince spent a good 45 min. after church with her giving her answers to her questions from the Bible. Pray for Edith that she will visit us again and the Lord will open her eyes to the truth. 

Matthew and Kendall finding shade under a tree

Time to be serious 

10 Years of Blessings

November 12th marks our 10th year in Ghana. 10 Years of blessings. I don't know where to begin as I think of how the Lord has blessed our family. 

So I will just give 10 blessings, though there are so many more.

1. The salvation of each of our children, and to watch them grow in the Lord. Acts 16:31

2. The Lord has kept our family safe and healthy. With malaria, yellow and typhoid fever, and poor hygiene         all around us, we have never been sick with any of these. Ps 91:9-10

    

3. The Lord has brought up two pastors to carry on the work. Ps 1:3

4. We have seen many accept Christ as their Saviour. Jn 3:16

5. God has provided our needs over the years. Matt 6:31-32

 6. The blessing of having water. You have no idea the stress on the family having no water. 

7. Dogs. Our dogs are watch dogs, they do not come in the house. They have protected our family from            deadly snakes, rats, monitor lizards and anything creeping in the yard. Deut 33:12

  

8. Our desires. The Lord has given us many of our hearts desires. Although undeserving, he blesses. 

    Ps 37:4

  

9. The Bible is a privilege to have. It is our guide book, map, compass, love letter, we can go to it for
    encouragement, comfort it is the answer. Ps 119:105

10. The blessing of prayer. For our family, friends and churches that has kept us on the field with your                 prayers. I Jn 3:22

THANK YOU!

Most Precious

Revival was last week. We do a little campaign with our revival week, encouraging our church to invite others. We give small gifts to the visitor. To the invitee they earn points for their visitors, if their visitor returns for another service during the week, you get more points.We put and age limit on it as well, your visitor had to be 13 years of age or older. By the end of the week we have the winners. They are 1st  Place: Peter/Joseph (they where inviting the same group of kids, so they decided to join together and split the prize) 2nd Esther, and 3rd was Naomi.

Naomi, Esther, Peter, Joseph

At the end of each month, we have one of the guys who are taking the Bible class on Saturdays preach. This class helps them to learn how to study the Bible and prepare lessons. They may not be called to be a preacher (yet) but they may be called on to teach in the church in some way as a laymen. I've mentioned those who have already preached in previous post: Joseph T, Kendall and Benjamin. This week was a "proud mom moment" my son Matthew preached. This was his first time and he was nervous, but he did a fine job!

He preached on: 

How to Study the Bible 2 Tim 2:15; Ps 119

1. By taking heed to his word 2. By hiding His word in our heart 3. Keep His commandments 4. Meditate on His word.

Why Should You Study the Bible?

1. So our way don't slide  2. So we can cleanse our way 3. So we can tell others 4. So we will remember the Lord. 5. So we will be wise

What the Bible Should Be To Us

1. It should be precious to us, sweet 2. It should be most valuable to us 3. It should be more that great riches or spoil to us. 

Try This

The weather here in Ghana is changing, it has rained for a little bit everyday. Once the sun comes out, the sun is HOT! The air outside it still nice, but the sun beating down is scorching. It is also paw paw (papaya) season. I was recently handed a trash bag full of paw paws. I took some down to our neighbor and still had plenty. My search began on what I could make with the paw paw. I found a recipe to paw paw bread. In the recipe if calls for 1 C paw paw puree. My kids at the time where making peanut butter and no jelly sandwiches? Mom, where is the jelly? I just got done with the puree, I looked at it and said, "Try this". They looked at me a little funny. I said, "Just try it". They said it wasn't bad, but needed a little bit of sugar. So I added some sugar and it worked. So they used that for their jelly for the week. I ended up pureeing most of the paw paw and freezing it for later use. The recipe I used for paw paw bread is here: Paw Paw Bread. Also I made a paw paw pie, not to my liking but not awful. Here is that recipe: Paw Paw Pie

Paw paw (Papaya)

I found these articles to be interesting: My Visit To A Convent also In The Way - Marriage

The kids have finished the first nine weeks of school. Revival at the church is this Sunday-Wednesday. Please keep us in your prayers. Have a great week!

Kojokrom Bible Study

Welcome to another week here at "Jackie's Journal" Our blogs are featured on "The Independent Baptist Missionary Blog Spot" this week. You can check out this site by visiting: "A pair of Bloggers in Ghana, West Africa" ~ Garry Wesner

On Tuesdays my husband and our older children have been going to Kojokrom to have a Bible study. Please visit my husbands blog: Matthew Siekbert for that information. I joined him last Tuesday. He was wanting to go a few weeks before me and our youngest son joined him. We had 15 in attendance. Now there are 6 of us and we pick up Peter and Robert two teenagers from church to help us. We did have three new visitors. Here are some pictures of the Bible study in Kojokrom.

Passing some kids on the way

Doing Sword Drills

Emanuella and Nicolina

Matthew and Ebenezer

Old Time Preaching

Benjamin (Prince's younger brother) gave us the message he prepared for us on Wednesday. He did a great job. He taught about "The Field Of Harvest" and the requirements to be in the field of harvest. Mt 9:38 KJV 

The first requirement is:

1. Salvation - you must be born again to work in the field of harvest.

2.Willing Spirit - you must have a willing Spirit. No one is going to force you, but you must be willing.

3. The Bible - farmers use a tool to harvest, we use the Bible to witness

If you love God, you will do what he wants - Go into the harvest.

Ben

Bro. Koasi our other great preacher. On Sunday  he preached about: "Are You Dressed For the Wedding?" Do you have on the wedding garment? Mt 22:1-14 KJV

1. The Availability of the garment - is to all who will receive it.

2. Acceptance of the garment - by faith, free, the garment was freely given, you don't have work or purchase it.

3. Ability of the garment - the garment will change your appearance, the righteousness of God

4. Absence of the garment - shame, speechless, no excuse, the man who didn't receive the garment was cast into outer darkness. The garment was freely given, but he didn't receive it. Mt 22:12-13

Koasi

Want to hear some great preaching? Come to Ghana. I am blessed to be able to get to hear these men of God.

The boys on Saturday visitation

See Them "Live"

Mack's dad turned 75 years old on September 19th. We got to "Face Time" him and sing "Happy Birthday" to him on Sunday. We were lucky if we got to send an e-mail 10 years ago. Now we can see them "live." Enjoyed being able to see some of the family and say hello.

Prince preached another great sermon, "He Is Able" He is able; to save, to keep, to succour, to deliver, to do, to give and to subdue. I love our Pastor's! (my husband, Bro.Prince and Bro. Koasi)

Here are some others who have a great blog post this week!!

http://www.valeriewritenow.com/2013/09/convicted-by-cartoon.html

http://intheway-lk.blogspot.com/2013/09/encouraging-our-young-people-toward-jobs.html

http://johninghana.blogspot.com/2013/09/giving-birth-in-ghana.html 

http://baptistmissionarywomen.blogspot.com/

http://joyunspeakableinkenya.blogspot.com/

I had to add this picture! Prince is wanting to get serious picture of himself. Joseph jumped in front of camera just as I snapped the photo. Makes me laugh...

Until next time!

Birthday Weekend

Mary Tackie (Prince's mom) starts the birthday's on the 14th of September, mine is the 15th and Prince's is the 16th. Mary left before I got my camera out. (shucks) So you will have to endure just a picture of me and Prince. Sunburn you ask? yeah! Keep reading and you will know why.

On Saturday we went to Essipon Stadium where we had a church activity with four other Baptist churches. There was soccer, races, bible quiz and preaching. It was a great day. Sitting in the sun most of the day, yes, I got burnt.

Aren't these nice yellow uniforms? I think so! Our church never had uniforms. We would just try to get matching t-shits. We did the best we could. Our church was the first match of the day. The other church came on to the field, and I thought to myself, boy, they look nice in their uniforms. I also thought it would be nice if we looked just as good. Carnal I know, thou shalt not covet etc., etc. Finally our church came out to the field in nice new uniforms. It was a surprise. I was so proud. Yes! I wanted to cry. Why? because they bought their uniforms. It said a lot. No matter how the day went, we had uniforms. Silly, maybe, it's not about the uniforms but they took pride in representing their church. God's church.

The kids got to play a little