Ghana (MNN) — On January 7, Ghana inaugurated its new president, John Mahama. The leading candidate who ran against him was then vice-president Mahamudu Bawumia, who is a Muslim.
“It made [the election] very unique, because the party in power was trying to push for Ghana’s first Muslim president,” Ray Mensah with OneWay Ministries notes.
A portrait of the President of the Republic of Ghana (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=157795094)
Mahama, a Christian, gained a decisive victory — 56.5% of the votes compared to 41% for Bawumia. Yet the election points to a growing influence of Islam in Ghana.
Mensah explains that like many parts of Africa, Ghana has a Christian south and a Muslim north. Missionaries entered the country from the southern coast, while Islam came down from the north.
Yet even as mosques are spreading in its towns and villages, Ghana is a majority Christian nation (71 percent according to a 2021 census). It plays a key role in spreading the gospel in Africa, but more believers need to be mobilized to do so.
That’s why Mensah and other leaders in the Ghana Evangelical Missions Association (GEMA) are working to rally local churches. “Vision 2040” as they call it has a goal of sending 30,000 missionaries from Ghana across Africa before 2040. They also seek to raise tens of thousands of churches to pray for and send out missionaries. Mensah says they came to that vision through “a process of praying and fasting and brainstorming.”
To him, it’s a matter of stewardship. “Just like we receive many missionaries, we should also give many missionaries to the nations to see people come to Christ all over the world,” he says.
“To him that much is given, much is expected. I believe the Lord is expecting much for Africa, and Africa has to arise. The Church in Ghana has to arise, the Church in Africa as well. We have no other option. We have to be the Great Commission. We have to contribute significantly to global missions and world evangelization, for such a time like this.”
Ghanaian Christian leaders have mentored Christians in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and other countries toward starting their own national missions movements. They’re also involved within Ghana. Mensah is the director of OneWay Africa, which supports boots-on-the-grounds missions outreaches across Ghana and raises up Christians for missions, and more.
How you can pray
Jesus Film Riders (Image courtesy of OneWay Africa)
Pray for peace. Ghana is still a place where Christians and Muslims largely live without violence. But not all of its neighbors can say the same.
“We see the insurgency, the insecurity in our neighboring countries, in Burkina Faso, in Mali, in Niger, Chad and in our sub-region, and we just pray God’s grace. We pray for divine intervention. We pray that God will have mercy on Ghana and protect us from all the insecurity,” Mensah says.
Pray for more people to come to faith in Christ. “We pray that God will reveal Himself to our [Muslim] brothers. They are our brothers, and God loves them. We love them. We pray that God would hear us and empower the church to be able to reach out.”
Pray for the church in Ghana to be strong in discipleship. Pray that those who know Christ will see their faith impact every area of their life.
Then, consider partnering in the work. “We also invite people to partner with us in different ways — in prayer, logistics, finances, teams, short-term teams. Ghana is open to short-term teams,” Mensah says. “We open our arms [and] say, come! Let’s share the gospel together. It will change their lives. Let’s do the work together. There’s so much work. The harvest is [plentiful] but the workers are few.”
Learn more about the 19 unreached people groups still in Ghana today. Visit OneWay Africa’s website to learn more.
Header photo courtesy of OneWay Africa, OneWay Ministries.
