“O depth of riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, as his judgments are unsearchable and his ways unfathomable,” writes Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles to the Church of Rome (Romans 11:33) and by extension to Christians throughout the ages. For the “great mystery” of the salvation of human souls, which the love, mercy and providence of our Lord Jesus Christ has wrought for us. In every minute, every moment, every step, it is ultimately He who seals the course of His Church. We merely do the human, He transforms them into the eternal!
With the grace of Christ, the intercessions of Our Lady and the blessings of His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodore II, the spiritual life and the journey towards the Eucharist of our local Orthodox Church in Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Mali is growing and bearing fruit day by day. With struggles and agonies, with sacrifices and pains, sweat and disappointments, but at the same time with hope, optimism, grace and joy, coming from the Light of the Lord.
I want to make you partakers of the problems that every missionary of Christ faces here in Africa, so that you can “taste” – as much as possible – the daily life of our brothers and sisters.
The Orthodox Foreign Missionary Brotherhood stands with us in our missionary work. It regularly supports us in many ways with many programs that reach the African brothers like a heavenly blessing, strengthening them in the difficulties of life. Already, in a short time we have drilled three water wells in Ghana, meeting the needs of communities outside the capital, near the Holy Baptist Churches of the Holy Baptist Gomoa Akropong, St. Nicholas New Town Tema, Transfiguration of Christ Abeka Lapaz Accra. Residents of the areas receive free water, praising God and knowing the Orthodox Church. We will continue with the remaining boreholes as soon as the rainy season is over, also meeting the water needs in the neighbouring state of Ivory Coast. We warmly thank all the donors who have offered to the Brotherhood and to us the strength to drill these wells. We pray that the joy you have given to these people will be returned to you by the Lord “a hundredfold”.
The basis and foundation of our life is prayer. Without prayer there is no spiritual life. Prayer for us Orthodox is absolutely intertwined with our breathing. Every step we want to take, we place it in God’s providence. And He sends us the answers, because He has unceasing care for all people. For this reason we have established daily Holy Masses, regular Divine Liturgies and Sunday Orthodox Catechism Seminars in the Cathedral immediately after Divine Liturgy, through which the faithful receive knowledge of Orthodoxy, the Gospel and the Fathers of the Church. We also send Sunday sermons to all parishes in the country, where they are distributed to the faithful. Also, we built within the Cathedral premises, a small holy chapel in the name of Saint Dionysius Archbishop of Aegina, where we celebrate daily Holy Masses.
In January 2025, classes will begin at the Orthodox School of Pastoral and Catechetical Studies “Basil the Great”, which we created to teach our young people the Orthodox faith and life, and to teach our existing priests pastoral care. Interest is strong and we believe we will have a large turnout. What we are facing is the cost of purchasing the necessary equipment (10 student desks, 20 student chairs, 4 small desks for the teachers, whiteboards, a printer and a photocopier) to enable us to run the school. We are unable to afford these items and humbly ask for your help to purchase them. This seminary is our hope for finding stalwarts who will lovingly minister to the Church.
We are in dire need to renovate all the parishes we have in Ghana, which need maintenance work such as painting inside and outside, changing windows and doors and replacing electrical equipment, because the long time and extremely difficult weather conditions have created many problems. We also have four priests’ houses, which are unfinished (no roofs, unpainted and no electrical equipment. Our Orthodox communities are very poor and cannot afford the cost of repairs. We are asking for your help to purchase the necessities for their maintenance and completion so that, with our own stewardship and personal labor, we can begin the work.
Through the regular catechisms that we hold in our parishes, we have planned to celebrate the baptisms of new members of our Church, which at the moment amount to 45 people, mainly young children with their parents. If you wish, you can become a sponsor of a child, giving him or her the possibility of Holy Baptism. By helping as a sponsor, you open the “door” of the Kingdom of God to a human soul for whom our Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed himself on the Cross.
The health problems that plague the people here in Ghana are mainly caused by the poor quality of food, drinking water and malaria (malaria), from which – mainly in the villages – they die because they cannot afford to buy the medicines to fight it. Poverty is so great that they do not have the 500 Ghana cedis (28 euros) to buy the pills, resorting to local ‘herbs’ to no avail, eventually losing their lives. They prefer to keep the little money they have to feed their family rather than buy the medicine. Our aim is to buy these pills, creating a pharmacy, the stock of which during our visits to the villages we will make available to the local government dispensaries. In this way we will save many people from certain death.
My truly beloved brothers and sisters, “the time is running out for me to tell you” (Hebrews 11:32) about the needs we have here in West Africa. I want you to know and be absolutely certain that any help you offer, often from your own savings, to the Orthodox Foreign Missionary Fraternity, reaches us “as the dew of Hermon” (Ps. 132) of God’s love for our African brothers and sisters, giving hope and comfort. Continue to support the work of the Brotherhood.
† O Accra Daniel
