History

Assembly Work in Kumasi, Ghana Written by: Daniel Webster

A Brief History

In 1996 Mike Bowron, from Canada, was stationed in Kumasi as a consultant for a Ghanaian mining company. His new bride joined him shortly thereafter, and they spent the next 2.5 years in Kumasi. Mike and Elaine were in fellowship at the 16th Ave Gospel Chapel in Vancouver, BC back in Canada, and when they came to Ghana they looked for a place of fellowship, but after trying several of the churches, they could not find harmony with their teachings and practices. It was not long before opportunities came their way to witness to some of the Ghanaians they came into contact with. They saw some trust in Christ, and some others coming from other church backgrounds to meet with them for bible studies. In time the group of believers formed a small assembly, and began to break bread together. After the Bowrons left Ghana, the young assembly was left on it’s own to try and meet together and carry on. They could not afford to rent a building, so they met under a tree for a while, and some of the men took part in teaching and preaching for the others. Mike’s parents, Dave and Louise Bowron, kept in contact with the believers and sought to encourage them spiritually and help them practically. In 2002 the Lord directed Joseph Frimpong to come and help the young assembly. Joseph had grown up in Ghana, but had spent the last 15 years in Canada, where he completed his education, and worked at a food processing plant. Joseph was saved in 1991 in Canada and added to assembly fellowship. Joseph’s ability to converse in both English and the local Twi language, along with his good grasp of the scriptures made him an ideal candidate to help with the young assembly in Kumasi. After nearly two years of missionary service Joseph became ill with Hepatitis B and Malaria and had to return to Canada for medical attention. Joseph married Heather Collyer after his return to Canada, and then they as a newly married couple were able to return to Ghana in January 2005. I came to Ghana in October of 2004 to also assist with the assembly work, but had to return to Canada for my fathers funeral in Nov 2004. In January 2005 I returned to Ghana, and enjoyed getting to know Joseph and Heather better, and working with them for the spiritual growth of the believers in Kumasi.

A new name!

The church was originally referred to as the Santasi Bible Assembly when Mike and Elaine were working with the believers from 1997 to 1999. Later the believers moved the meeting to the home of one of the brothers, and the name was changed to the Adiebeba Bible Assembly. When Joseph began working with the group in 2002 the name was again changed to the Asokwa Bible Assembly when rental space for meetings was found in the Asokwa area of town. In 2004 the church was registered with the Ghanaian government, making immigration paperwork easier for myself as a visiting foreign missionary. The name of the church was registered as the “Bible Assembly Church”, and therefore for legal purposes and banking the church has adopted this name. The name was legally updated to “Believers Bible Assembly” in 2013.

Update 2023:

The Believers Bible Assembly relocated to the home of Daniel Webster in 2012 at 10 Agyiewaa Bota Road, in the Buokrom Estates (Quarry/Truba) area. This move was made due to a new church group moving into the Crown Prince School where we had been meeting. The noise level produced by the other church group made it very difficult for us to carry out our meetings on Sunday morning, and so we had to make a move. Fortunately, through God’s grace Daniel was able to purchase a home not too far away and in May 2012 the church settled into Daniel’s home, which featured a large room where the church could meet, as well as areas for the Sunday school and the teen class to meet.

Over the years the Believers Bible Assembly has been involved in several ministries aimed at winning souls to the Lord Jesus Christ, and nurturing Christian believers in their faith. The following notes highlight some of these ministries.

Radio work:

The radio ministry began in August 2005 with a weekly gospel broadcast on Kapital Radio each Sunday morning at 8am. Over the years the ministry has included gospel messages, a series on New Testament church principles, and another series called “The Way of Righteousness”. In 2010 we began a series called “Searching the Scriptures” teaching through every chapter of the New Testament. This radio series is made up of 260 messages, and continues to be used for our weekly broadcasts on Kapital radio 97.1FM. The time slot was changed to 7:30am each Sunday since 2022.

Emmaus Ministry:

Emmaus Bible courses were provided to us through an Emmaus ministry which has been in Ghana since the 1990’s. The central office is in Accra, and we have been able to serve more than 350 students with these paper courses, with many of them graduating from either the first series of 12 courses, or also the second series of 12 courses. To date we have marked more than 2000 bible courses and watched as the Lord blessed many with spiritual growth through this ministry.
In 2021 we began using the Emmaus Online App ministry to help students across the 16 countries of West Africa. The student body has grown to almost 1200 students with daily course submissions online. We review the course submissions and send feedback to the students on their progress. This has greatly increased the scope of this bible course ministry affecting many lives with effective bible teaching.

Memory Challenges:

Each year since 2005 we have held a memory challenge for all those children and adults who regularly attend the Bible Assembly Church. We have been so encouraged to see the amazing results of these challenges. The chart below highlights the memory challenge results.

Evangelism:

It is our custom to go each Saturday morning to pass out gospel tracts, and try to meet and talk to people about the gospel. We find great opportunities week be week in this ministry to share Christ with the people around the Kumasi area. We use many different tracts for evangelism, and in particular we like to use a tract called “Passport to Heaven” which was designed specifically to reach the people of Ghana. Besides our Saturday outings, we also have a weekly children’s outreach at the home of Daniel & Priscilla Webster, where different leaders will teach the children and seek to lead them to Christ for salvation. We also have had several mission teams visit Ghana over the years. These mission teams are supported through MSC’s E-teams mission outreach.