Dear brother Fred,
Warmest greetings to you in the gracious name of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. We pray and hope that things are going on well with you, your family and with the church there. It has been quite a long time since we last communicated.
The home fellowship here in Ghana is growing deeper, the believers are growing and standing firm in their faith. We are learning more to hear the voice of God, encourage each other, and speak the life-giving Word to one another. The Spirit is teaching us about the importance of speaking Truth, recognizing the lies of the enemy, and the power of our words. Many of the brethren here are having physical and financial challenges, but as we function according to the Scriptures, especially Acts 2, hearts are encouraged. We are eager to see more souls giving their live to Jesus Christ. Please pray that we will continue to proclaim the Gospel fearlessly, with wisdom and boldness, and that the voice of the Spirit will be loud and clear.
We have just recently cultivated cassava, maize (corn) and some vegetables. Due to unstable climatic weather these days over here, the crop farm have not yielded reasonable profit for sometime now. But it is providing for our food supplement. We have also raised 3 goats, just to get familiar with livestock and animal farming. If it works well, we planned to raised more goats and other livestocks in the future when God provide the resources.
Our vision is for all the families in our church is to have something doing to earn a living. Apart from evangelism which is our core objective, another important vision of our church community is to extend hand of help to the poor and the most destitute. With this step of faith and love, it is our hope that sinners will give their life to Jesus. One aspect of the early Christianity that is often overlooked by many Christians today is its togetherness and its commitment to the poor. May christians mistakenly thinks that helping the poor is not part of the gospel. However, helping the poor was a high priority of Jesus and His apostles. A central part of the gospel of the Kingdom is helping the poor, as Jesus made clear many times. Following the footsteps of Jesus, the early apostles and believers also placed great emphasis on helping the poor. The scriptures says more about this in the following passages: (Luke 12:33), (Matt. 25:31-36),(Gal.2:9,10), (1 John 3:17,18).
In the future when God positioned us well, we hope to be able to provide micro-loan to the poor & the destitute. Although the income derived from microbusinesses is small, the cost of living for those running such businesses is also small. As a result, just a small amount of credit can provide a significant percentage increase in earnings and make a major difference in the life of these people. Micro-loans enable the poor, with God's help, to stand on their own feet through their own hard work. Unlike one-time gifts, the funds used for micro-loans are not exhausted once made. Instead, the same money is recycled and used to make indefinite micro-loans to others.
Some of the elderly brothers in our church are talented in hand craft making. We have been praying all these while asking God to provide for a means that the brethren can get involve in productive work to support themselves and their families. By the special grace of God, we are so excited to be able to put up a website on the internet which will sell locally hand-made African craft items. You can view the website at: (click the link)
We are acquiring materials like wood, robes, etc. from the forest settlers at a very cheap price, then the brethren here do the real hand work. when once an item is being ordered, we will package, and send it at the post office here. There are also other faster sending methods, but it will depends on the choice of the buyer.
There are some few process and business registration that must be done locally here before we can be able to start accepting order and export those fantastic hand made items. It it necessary for us to rent and set up a small store front here to stock locally made items before exporting. A physical store front is also a requirement before we can acquire local permits to operate the business. Moreso, with a store front here, we will also be able to sell the items locally too. From all indications, the sales we will make locally here will cover the cost of rent and expenses of the business. So online sales will be additional gain and for the Lord's work.
We sense God's blessings in this business, we just look unto Him fervently with prayers. We have gathered all resources we can, for rent deposit and setting up of the physical store front here. We are still in dire need of equivalent of US$380 to complete the rent and all the registration procedures we need to do here. When once we are able to get this business running, our burden will be lessen, rather, the seed planted will continue to yield more fruits in the Lord's kingdom and continuous source of income for the brethren here.
May God continue to watch over all of you, and may we all continue to enjoy the abundance of faith as God provides all of our spiritual and physical needs! Extend our greetings, love and thanks to your family and to the brethren there. We look forward to hear from you.
Your brother,
Udeme & the brethren here
African Hand Work - Home
