The 13th African Games were hosted in Ghana starting from 8 to 23 March 2024 and were mainly hosted in Accra with some games also being held in the two sub-host cities of Cape Coast and Kumasi. The event was participated in by 53 nations from all over Africa and involved 2,644 athletes with 335 events in total.
In anticipation of so many coming to Ghana from all over the continent, the saints in Ghana were burdened to pray and distribute New Testament Recovery Version Bibles and other ministry books and booklets to the athletes participating in the games and others open to receive the books. This burden was opened up to the saints in all the localities in Ghana and the saints were encouraged to participate in the distribution through, prayer, giving and going. The distribution was to be carried out in two of the three host cities namely Accra and Cape Coast.
The burden for the distribution was also opened up to saints in other countries for prayer, giving and going and through the supply in the Body, we received from the saints in London, 1,013 English and French New Testament Bibles, 480 Gospel of John in English and approximately 40 in French, 900 each of the Basic Elements of the Christian Life Volume 1 in French and English, Cantiques, French Life Study of Ephesians books and a few English ministry books. These coupled with New Testament Bibles and Ministry books we already had in Ghana, were used for the distribution. The distribution covered three main language groups, English, French and Spanish.
Approximately 21 saints from Ghana and a few children of the saints, 8 FTTAA trainees from West Africa and 5 from Benin and Nigeria participated in passing out Bibles, booklets, tracts and other ministry books in both English and French. The distribution in Accra was mainly at two locations, that is, The University of Ghana Legon, where all the athletes were residing and a number of sports events were held, and the Borteyman Sports Complex where most of the indoor sports events and tennis were held. The Cape Coast distribution was mainly held at the Cape Coast Stadium and the main sport played there was women’s football (soccer).
The Lord answered the prayers of the Body with many sweet and positive experiences in the distribution. We saw His hand in many ways, small and big, He supplied not only the outward physical materials as well as financial support, but also opened a door for us to be able to meet the athletes and their officials and distribute the Bibles directly to them as well as spend time to talk to some of them to share something of Christ. We were also able to pray for and with some of them. The distribution statistics and some testimonies are recorded below.
Quantities of Ministry Material Distributed
Contacts according to Country:
Those living in other countries outside Africa
Out of this about 512 contacts were collected, athletes from 19 countries without a local church received ministry materials. Many other athletes received the ministry materials but didn’t give their contact information.The contacts had been sheared with the brothers by countries and regions to follow up .
Payer
May the Lord create a hunger in all the contacts to read and be saved and recovered to the full knowledge of the truth; that the enemy will be put to shame and the Lord will gain the glory. May the Lord raise up shepherds in all the countries to follow up and shepherd the new ones for the raising up of lampstands in all the countries.
Testimonies
A sister shared that at the beginning of the distribution she was unsure as to whether we would have access to the athletes since we were restricted from going to their accommodation and dining areas and it seemed like they would be boarding their buses and disembarking only at the accommodation area and at the entrances to whichever arena they were holding their activities, so we prayed that the Lord would grant us access to them. On the first day of the main sports activities, there was a soccer match between South Sudan and Uganda and some saints went to the stadium to do some distribution. The Lord was sovereign in their sitting position by placing them close to some Athletes from Uganda who had come to support their soccer team and at the end of the match, they were able to distribute some Bibles and Ministry books to these athletes. Not only that, but the saints also managed to gain access to the soccer players’ locker room where they were changing after the game and distributed the bibles to the players as well as their officials. The team coach requested for his photo to be taken while receiving his Bible and said that he has received many gifts throughout his lifetime, but this is the best gift he has ever received and that because of this gift, his coming to Ghana has been blessed. The team doctor also spent some time talking to the saints and was touched by what they were doing, he shared that his desire also is to spread the word of God.
A team of three saints approached a women’s group that were training with their coach at a field on the University of Legon. The saints’ team consisted of two English speakers and one who spoke both French and English. They were unsure whether this team that was practicing was English or French speaking but approached them to find out. It turned out that this was the Women’s Rugby team from Madagascar and they spoke French. The saints showed the Bible with its features to the coach and gave him one then requested him to allow them to distribute to his team and he gave the go ahead. The players who had just finished their practice and were stretching were called over and the French speaking saint told them that we wanted to gift them some French Bibles and booklets, the saint told them that the Bibles were free but we would like to take their contact information to follow up on them and see if they needed any help getting into the Bible or wanted to have Bible studies with others in their country. The players were hesitant in the beginning thinking the saints to be Jehovah’s Witnesses but started receiving the Bibles and writing down their contact information when the saints assured them that they were not Jehovah’s Witnesses. Two of the players held out a little longer asking why the books had the name Witness if we were not Jehovah’s Witnesses and the saint assured them that we are Christian and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, He is God, which Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot do. The ladies were then satisfied and told the saints that they were Christians and love the Bible but don't want to receive anything from Jehovah’s Witnesses. Eventually, the Coach told the saints that they had a match in a couple of days and asked the saints to pray for his team so that they would win the match. The saints agreed and the players requested that the prayer be in French so they can understand what is being said. After the prayer, the saints encouraged the players to pray a simple prayer that can be uttered anywhere at any time and that is, “Oh Seigneur Jesus!” The saints asked them to call together with them and they did, this was glorious! A couple of days later while the saints were distributing at another location, they ran into this team of players and the players upon recognizing the saints started calling on the Lord audibly in French. They told the saints that they had won their game.
On one of the evenings after the initial distributions in Cape Coast, a call came through on the Ghana Gospel Bookroom phone from someone who said they had picked up a book entitled Truth Lessons that had been left in the stadium stands at Cape Coast. The caller said he had found the Bookroom number in the book and was calling to return the book. The saints told him that the book had been given out as part of a free distribution so he could have it if he wanted it. He said that he had already read a little bit of it before he called us and he did want to keep the book, he was also open to being contacted by the saints in Cape Coast for further fellowship.
We met a young man who lives in Spain but was representing his paternal country of Equatorial Guinea at the African Games competing in High Jump. He assisted us with translation as we were trying to speak to athletes from his country who couldn't speak English. On the first day that we met him, we gave him an English New Testament and a book and booklet and we distributed some Spanish books to his colleagues. On the second day that we ran into him with some others from his country, one of his friends requested for a Spanish Bible but we didn’t have any on hand to give to him. We promised him that if we could meet him the following day, we would find a Spanish Bible and bring it to his friend, since he didn't have a local phone number and would be participating in some games the following day, we made a plan to meet at the same spot that we were at on that day even though he couldn't give a definite time because he didn't know what time he would be done with his game. The next day, some brothers set up camp close to this point and waited, while distributing to others that passed by, for approximately three hours before they saw him. He was touched that we were there and had brought not only the Spanish Bible but some Watchman Nee ministry books in Spanish for him too. He asked us a couple of times, “why did you choose me out of all the people that have passed by?” and all we could say is that we didn't choose him, but the Lord probably chose him. He gave us his phone number in Spain and we encouraged him to read the books he had received. We pray that the Lord gains him and those from Equatorial Guinea that received the ministry books in Spanish.
We kept on getting rejected by the Arab and white Africans, the Arabs were mostly muslim and would not receive the Bible. The white Africans were polite but would not receive the Bible. Our burden was that the Bibles and books would go out to as many countries as possible so we sought some fellowship from saints that serve in the Arab speaking world and also asked the Lord to specifically open up a way for us to distribute to these two groups of people. Most of those who were Muslim told us that it was their fasting season (Ramadhan) and it was Haram (an abomination) to touch the Bible. The Lord however made the way for us, three brothers spoke to two tennis players from Tunisia who received the Bibles initially but gave them back when they saw that their officials were looking at them. Eventually as they walked off, one of the brothers ran after them and compelled one of them to take the Bible and he did, he also gave his email address. On the final day of the competition, the brothers ran into him again after he had just won a gold medal and he was happy to see them and took a picture with them, he told them that he was going to compete in the Paris olympics, we hope that some saints would run into him there and the Lord would continue to appear to him. In addition, we distributed some ministry booklets, mainly the Mystery of Human life and Basic Elements of the Christian Life to a couple others from Morocco and Algeria. We also distributed Bibles to some white South African athletes and received their contacts.
The saints who participated in the distribution shared that some lessons learned were that they didn't have to worry about what they were going to say to the recipients as they approached them, as they looked to the Lord, He would give them a word for each one. The energy for each day was supplied through the prayer and fellowship in coordination that was carried out every day before going out. They also learned not to judge people by their outward appearance because some from muslim countries like Mali, who were dressed in muslim garb, still joyfully received the Bibles and said they wanted to read and see what it said. Also they learnt to have an aggressive spirit to take every opportunity to speak to people and distribute the Ministry materials. They also learned that the players, especially the Arabic speaking ones who had declined to receive books from the saints earlier on gladly received them when the children of the saints, who joined the distribution on the last day, handed the books to them.
Post distribution
A week after the distribution, an email was sent to the Ghana Gospel Bookroom by a young man from Benin who said he had seen the New Testament Recovery Version with his sister and had looked over it and liked it and was writing to request for a copy. The brothers in Benin started to correspond with him and eventually met with him and gifted him a Bible. It turns out that one of the athletes that came to Ghana received a Bible and gifted it to her friend who is a sister to the young man who sent the email. He was therefore the third in line to be affected by the one Bible that was given out in Ghana. The brothers reported that the time with him was a good experience and that he appears to be one seeking after the Lord.
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