Reaping

Gal_6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Reaping is hard work. We have one lime tree and many banana and plantain trees. It is not real hard to harvest them. When we where on furlough we stayed in a farm house. There was corn fields as far as the eye could see. That is a major reaping job. Even with tractors and reaping machines it still takes days of reaping. I also think of many in the Bible that we find reaping and harvesting. Ruth spent many days behind the reapers. Ruth 2:7  And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house. Throughout the Bible we see the harvest mentioned. If you have fields that need harvested, you will want labourers to help you. I imagine the farmers feel like fainting when it is harvest time, because of all the hard work. He needs labourers to help or the work won't get done.

Mat_9:37  Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

Mat_9:38  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

We have a job to do: Mar_13:10  And the gospel must first be published among all nations. Mar_16:15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Bob Hayes a missionary to Ghana for over 35 years once said. "The fruit will rot on the vine, before we get enough labourers in the field."


Our little harvest:

Friends

Sunday night Koasi preached about "The Secrets of Abundant Life." in John chapter 15, by abiding in the vine. While teaching he said we obey God out of fear. A proper fear. God wants us to go beyond and obey out of love. He also mentioned a servant has a fear of the master, but doesn't have access to the master, like a friend does. God wants us to be a friend. A friend has access to the master. Have fear but also go beyond fear and have a relationship of love.

Joh 15:15  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

Here are a few of our friends:

Peter came over Saturday night and then went to church with us on Sunday. It was his birthday on Thursday.  So I made him a cake. He was surprised. They don't celebrate their birthdays here. Many of them don't know when their birthdays are. Some know the month but not the date and some older folks know the year but that is all. He said, "I didn't get a cake for my birthday, I had to work. Carrying bags of cement, I had a headache afterwards." We said, well sometimes that happens, you have to do what you have to do. Peter is 15 years old.

William came to church this Sunday. His mother Comfort and sister Rebekah came as well. He also brought a friend Junior. That is encouraging that he wants to see others come to church and get saved. Mack is doing a Bible study with William at his house on Saturdays.

Comfort, Rebekah, William and Junior

Kendall has been with us since we came to Takoradi. He was a neighbor boy who came over to play with our boys. He started coming to church and got saved. We have known Kendall since he was 11 years old. He will be 20 in May. He will graduate from school in May as well. They are all getting old.

Pro_18:24  A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. 

CBBC 6 Year Anniversary

We celebrated Cornerstone Biblical Baptist Church's 6th Anniversary today, April 14th. We had a baptism after the morning service, and then we had food and fellowship after that. It is hard to believe it has been 6 years already. We enjoyed the Lord's day, enjoy the pictures!

Mack presenting the church with pew Bibles from BPS

Pastor Koasi's 1st baptism

These girls are growing up!

Evelyn receiving her baptismal certificate from Pastor Prince

Peter receiving his baptismal certificate from Pastor Prince

In Need of Repair

It seems everything needs fixing all at once. If one thing breaks, so does another. The last couple of days we have been repairing the broken things. They are not big items, but items that sure do help when they work. We have needed some ceiling fans in our bedrooms. We have repaired them often and they just where dragging. Mack replaced ours and Naomi's ceiling fans. Ahh! air! The clothes line broke last week, of course there where clothes on the line, and it came down. So Matthew rode his bike to get some new line. While we put that up, Matthew noticed an outside light had fallen off the wall. Yes, another thing to fix. We heard a crash the other night while sleeping, Mack got up to investigate. He found nothing. The dogs weren't barking so we just went back to sleep. The light falling must have been the crash we heard. So Matthew took his bike to get another light fixture for outside. They boys put that up, "let there be light."The next day Matthew replaced all the broken bulbs inside and outside. "We can see." Mack and Joe worked on the lights on the car replacing the brake lights and things. Mack said they would work, until he hit another bump in the road, which is inevitable. Mack has to get the car inspected this week. The driveways need weeded, but with all the little repairs they did not make much headway on that. Naomi and I cleaned up the inside and made dinner while the men where fixing things. Then last night to top it off, our well is at rock bottom. So we are running off our tanks on top of the house. So hopefully our well will fill back up enough to keep the tanks full, until the rains come.

William is a man that works at the mechanics place where my husband goes to get his car fixed. Mack has been have a bible study with William at his house. William got saved and came to church this Sunday. After church we dropped William off at his house. Mack wanted us to meet William's mother and father. So we went to greet them all. Well it ended up, she had lunch for us. We had banku with fish and bean stew of some kind. It was good. Very nice people. Pray that his family will also be saved and come to church. Pray for Linda at our church, she will have a 3rd surgery. Shadrick fell off a ladder and twisted his arm, pray for him as well. It's true even we need repaired.

William

A Week Later

I made a resurrection cake! wow! My kids where so excited. They enjoyed eating it as well.

Easter Egg Hunt

Joe, Nicholas, Peter, Nehemiah on visitation

Easter Monday is a big day here in Ghana, so we had game day at the church.

Mack took me to a hotel for our anniversary, the kids got to swim before they had to go home for the night.  The kids said they where glad it was our anniversary!!!!

Joy Of Reading

I don't really know what to say this week? I wanted some great story. I thought I had one, but it didn't happen. About a head of cabbage? Hopefully, I can still write about it later????? We had ladies fellowship this Saturday. Our numbers where down, so that means the few girls had all the cake to themselves. I talked about the "Titanic" and how the ship sank. I explained to them the history of the ship etc. We either have made it to the life boats or we are on the sinking ship. Maybe we are on the life boats, but are not heeding the warnings of danger ahead. Have we told our loved ones and friends who are on the sinking ship about our Saviour? I managed to get a piece of cake for Prince, Koasi and Mack. The men and boys went out on visitation, while we had our meeting.


My kids are doing really well on reading books. Joseph and Naomi have discovered the joy of reading. Matthew reads when he has to. Even Nehemiah got his $ for reading his books! I have never been a reader myself. Since coming to the field, I have read more than ever. Once I got introduced to Kindle. I am hooked. I love it! There are so many free ebooks!
 http://www.inspiredreads.com/ www.gospelebooks.com




The 30th of March is our 17th wedding anniversary. Time flies! We plan on dying Easter eggs and making some cookies to decorate on Friday. Happy Easter!

Hot African Days!

On these hot African days, we try to just keep cool. One way we achieve this is by Fudge Pops!

Fudge Pops:

3/4 C Sugar
3 T Flour
3 T Cocoa
4 C Milk

In saucepan, combine sugar, flour, and cocoa. Gradually stir in milk until smooth. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 min. (stirring) or until thick. Cool slightly. Pour into molds and freeze.

*Note* Plan on doubling this, too good, to wait until you make it again. If you don't have enough molds, we put ours into small cups, (or big cups for dad).

The blessing for this week is...we have had electricity all week! PTL! We have had missions conference this week as well, which means clothes need ironed and the washer needed to keep up with all the extra clothes we had.

Last week, the electricity was off quite a bit, so the kids found refuge in the shade.

Now What?

Naomi passed out all our John and Romans before we got done with our first street. I looked at her and said, "Now What?" So we continued down the street and I had some tracks in my purse, so I handed those out to some people. As we where walking, I saw a boy sewing his trousers. I passed him up, he gave me one of nicest smiles. I told Nehemiah to go back and give that boy a track. As Nehemiah was going, James was also there, I told James to tell him where our church is in Fante. The boy got of of his seat at walked over to James. I then walked to where they were. I starting talking to him and found out his name is Richmond. He goes to the Apostolic Church. I asked him if his church teaches him the way to heaven. He hesitated and then said, they teach me many verses. I said, good, but verses won't get you to heaven. He said, he would come to church tomorrow. He again asked James where our church was. I said, we are  headed there come and we will show you. He followed us to the church. Once we got to the church, I gave him a John and Romans and a New Testament. I began to talk to Richmond, he was convinced he was good enough to get to heaven. I couldn't get him lost, so he could be found. Finally, I said, if I give you a ticket to ride the STC, (the public bus transportation) you can get on the bus. I said, but if you don't have a ticket and stand in line and tell the person collecting the tickets, that you are good enough to ride, they will look at you and say, I'm sorry, you cannot ride unless you have a ticket, no matter how good you are. I also used that illustration in regard to heaven, having Jesus Christ (the ticket) to go to heaven. Then it clicked! He was not good enough to ride the bus, he was not good enough to enter heaven. At that moment Prince came around the corner. Prince continued talking to him, in Fante, Richmond asked Christ to be his Saviour. I asked him if he had the ticket to heaven, he said, Yes! On Sunday, church began and I didn't see Richmond, I thought surely he would come. About a half hour later, I saw Richmond walking down the street, he even came back Sunday evening. Richmond is 13 years old. 

Peter (left) Richmond (right)

Naomi got to lead Emmanuella to the Lord, after Jr. Church. There have been several salvation's this week. Peter and Nicholas have also been coming on visitation the last few weeks. 

Peter, Emmanuella and Ebenezer

Naomi praying with the girls

Some Praying

Some Sleeping

What's Your Name?

Living here in our neighbor hood, we have names we have given to people. Mainly because of what they do. For example, the banana lady, she sells bananas. The Shoe man. The man who repairs shoes. My boys have given not so nice names to people they have come across, like creeper, because he is creepy. You get the idea. I wonder what names have been given to YOU? If you could be a spider on the wall in someone else house, maybe you would find out what they call you? Maybe it is best not to know. What about your neighbors or people you don't know, but they have given you a name. I wonder what they call me? It makes me think more about my testimony and what I do. If I call others names because of what they do, their occupation etc., what am I doing, that can give me a name? Oh no, not the Siekbert's!!!


Pro 22:1  A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.

Dinah in the center, and her visitors

Peter, Emmanuella, Ebeneezer

I finally got a picture of the boys on visitation

After a hot Sunday at church!

Around the Fish

I took these pictures, while walking along the sea side. There are little shacks and some old European houses along the way. If this was anywhere else, these would be million dollar homes, shh, someone might get a crazy idea and prices might go sky high. 

We have been having lights off for the past two weeks. So far it seems to be on some kind of schedule. They  say it is to last for the rest of the year? It has been off Monday and Thursday's during the day from 8 am to 3 pm. Then Tuesday and Friday's from 6 pm to 9 pm. We just make sure we have everything charged up so whenever they go out we are ready. The kids do DVDs for school, so we have to be sure those are charged up and no wasting time, when in use. 

The Ocean not far from our church in Sekondi

We almost stepped on these small fish drying on the sidewalk

Around the fish, this is a round about near the church

Pastor Prince taking Nehemiah for a ride!

Sweet Lady

We met an older lady on visitation. Her name is Auntie Agnus. Everyone in that area knows Auntie Agnus. I have met her before, but it was awhile ago. We where talking with her near her home and she was about to leave, so I asked her about her salvation, she told me that she has accepted Christ. I told her she was my friend and I want to see her in heaven, so I couldn't let her go without being sure. Well then she asked us where are church was, she wanted to go with us so I could show her where we meet. Our church is just behind her house. On the way we met Mack and Prince so I introduced her. Even on the way, people where yelling Antie Agnus and she would stop and wave. Esther a girl from our church, saw us and even knew Antie Agnus. She is a live wire! So we headed back to her house, on the way I asked her how old she was, she said, 70+, she was thinking, then she said 78. I was shocked. She is very fit, however the longer we talked, I realized, she was forgetful. She invited us into her room. He daughter came into the room, as we where talking with her. They go to church at Faith Alive. Antie Agnus, teaches a class there. I then asked her daughter about salvation and she too has accepted Christ. We pass out John and Romans as we go out, and there on the table her daughter pulls one out. She said, I have one of your books, I said, well, it is two books of the Bible from the KJV, she said I read out of the KJV. We discussed that a bit. Her daughter told me, her mom has told many people about Christ. We said our good-byes and continued visiting and walked back to the church.