History of The Outreach Foundation in Ghana: Chapter 5 Addendum
Testimony: The Ghana Mission of First Presbyterian Church
by the Rev. Dr. G. Christopher Scruggs
In order to understand the mission of Advent Presbyterian Church to Ghana, several pieces of background information are important, some beginning many years before that mission began. Before attending seminary, I was an attorney in Houston, Texas, and an elder at First Presbyterian Church of Houston, which was then pastored by John William Lancaster, a founding Trustee of The Outreach Foundation. While in seminary, I had some relationship with Outreach via Donald Marsden and Dr. Bill Long, a former Trustee who was my pastor at Third Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA during those years. Shortly after seminary, Kathy and I went to First Presbyterian Church of Brownsville, Tennessee, where I was the pastor. During those years I visited Russia with Don Marsden, thanks to the generosity of a member of Third Presbyterian in Richmond. In addition, Bill Bryant, who was by that time the Executive Director of The Outreach Foundation, came to speak at First Brownsville at a renewal weekend and on other occasions. Our congregation began to support Outreach.
Because of our familiarity with The Outreach Foundation, I helped a nearby congregation, Germantown Presbyterian Church, become involved in a ministry of The Outreach Foundation in Russia that was led by Don Marsden, whom I had known while in seminary. Over the years, Germantown Presbyterian has been involved, not only in Russia, but also in Mexico, Brazil, and Ghana through The Outreach Foundation.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Rev. Bob Crumpton and his wife, Nancy, served as missionaries in Ghana. Bob was an evangelist and agricultural missionary, while Nancy worked as a nurse. When they returned, Bob became one of the pastors at Advent Presbyterian Church in Cordova, Tennessee. By the time I came to Advent in 1999, Bob was retired but continued to work at Advent a few hours a week in the area of evangelism and visitation.
One of the ministries of Advent was a spiritual renewal weekend called “The Great Banquet.” At a reunion of people in our congregation who had attended these “Great Banquets,” I was praying with Dr. Andy Jordan, an agricultural engineer with the Cotton Council in Memphis. Our prayer was that God would provide him with the ability to use his engineering and other expertise in mission. We thought it would be agricultural in nature—but God had other plans.
During this time, the Synod of Living Waters, of which we were a part, created a ministry known as Living Waters for the World (LWW). Our congregation became involved, eventually making or assisting in installations of water treatment facilities in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Ghana, and the Philippines. Andy had gone on Living Water missions in Honduras and the Philippines, but he made his biggest impact in Ghana working with the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. Andy was the major force in the Ghanaian ministry of Advent.
Advent’s Ghana Mission
At first, we made an exploratory trip to Ghana to determine what, if any, ministry Advent could do in that place. Andy went on that trip, as did Bob Crumpton. It was decided that an installation might be made in a hospital. That installation never occurred, but what did occur was instrumental in Advent’s role in Ghana. During that trip, we visited the Mission School and Retreat Center of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana at the Ramseyer Training Facility in Abetifi, near the highest point in the country and, therefore, a climate that was easier for the early missionaries, who came to Ghana from Switzerland, to tolerate. There we met Kofi Amfo-Akonnor, who was then the head of the Ramseyer facility. Kofi would continue to play a big role in Advent’s ministry even after he left Ramseyer. We also met a young man, Michael Asmaiah, a local plumber, who also became a major force in the installation and maintenance of our projects in Ghana.
In mid to late March 2006, Advent made the first of its installations in Abetifi, the first full team installation we made in Ghana. I believe a total of nine Advent members spent nearly a week in Abetifi installing that first treatment facility and looking at potential sites. Andy Jordan would become the leader of the Ghanaian ministry of Advent and Harlon Mills a leader of the Honduran mission. Andy’s wife, Susan, led the health and hygiene training for the community recipients. She eventually served on the Living Waters Board of Directors, was a teacher at its training programs, and went on many mission trips to Ghana and other places.
In March 2008, we returned to Abetifi to install a treatment facility in an adjacent Presbytery facility. This trip was marked by our first joint venture with The Outreach Foundation, a conference on South-South Mission relationships held at Abetifi and attended by myself, Andy Jordan, Jeff Ritchie, and others. This event solidified a relationship with Abetifi that continued during the entire time of our mission. In addition, this trip resulted in Advent giving some funds to the Akrofi-Cristaller Institute in Ghana. For some years, we hoped to install a treatment facility there, but it never actually took place. Nevertheless, our interest in the Akrofi-Cristaller and support for its mission dates from this moment.
Although I made a few more trips to Ghana, the remainder of the important mission in Ghana was done by Andy Jordan. My involvement was mostly to raise funds and assist Andy in his ministry there. However, I was privileged to make one more significant mission to Ghana.
In 2009 Advent completed its largest water project in Abetifi. With Andy Jordan’s expertise and the assistance of Engineers without Borders, we installed a large water-treatment system capable of meeting a major portion of the water needs of the Abetifi community. The installation involved reworking an old well and creating a new treatment facility. A significant amount of money had to be raised to bring the project to completion. This was a very important project and fun! Its completion was marked by a trip Andy and I took to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, where it was dedicated. Unfortunately, this was to mark my last trip to Ghana.
By this time Advent had an additional partner in Ghana, Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Advent helped this congregation begin its mission in Ghana by assisting with a treatment facility in the Women’s Retreat Center in Abokobi, Ghana. Andy was deeply involved in assisting them, and I came along on one of the initial mission trips involving that installation and follow-up. Idlewild continued to have its own independent mission program in Ghana during my time at Advent, and we coordinated and cooperated with them in meeting needs for clean water in Ghana.
Advent subsequently installed four additional Living Waters installations with its Ghanaian partners, rehabilitated a rainwater collection and storage system at the Women’s Vocational School in Begora, provided repairs to the collection system at a rural Presbyterian women’s health center, drilled a well at the Women’s Secondary School in Kumasi, and developed a centralized pumping and storage system and provided distribution systems for the fifty-acre campus of a Presbyterian Church of Ghana vocational school in Kumasi. One major accomplishment was to help a mostly native Ghanaian team install a treatment facility in Tamale, in northern Ghana. Andy and I were privileged to visit that installation during one of our trips.
Conclusion
Having helped train and equip its local partners in Ghana on water installation, Andy Jordan’s emphasis pivoted to supplying transportation for local pastors and catechists who had to travel long distances between the numerous congregations they each served. Five motorcycles have been placed, with a goal of raising money for an additional fifteen by the end of 2021. Andy also assisted one of our mission partners in creating a business in Abetifi. His involvement in Ghana continues to this day.
The Advent Ghanaian mission was an important part of the mission of the congregation from 1999 through 2017 (when I retired) and beyond. As a congregation, we were able to host visitors from the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, so that they might be trained at the LWW training center at Camp Hopewell in Mississippi. We made many friends in Ghana, including some in the leadership of the denomination. Everyone who traveled to Ghana, without exception, was struck by the hospitality and kindness of our hosts.
The Outreach Foundation was an integral part of the ministry and mission of Advent during this time, giving the congregation guidance and assistance. In return, the congregation gave significant gifts to Outreach that were used in Africa and elsewhere. Rob Weingartner, the former Executive Director, speaks of The Outreach Foundation as a catalyst for developing mission capacity. With respect to Advent, Outreach certainly made an important contribution to increasing our mission capacity. In some ways, the partnership between Advent and Outreach is a model for what other congregations might consider. I am personally thankful for our “partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:5).
Is he the pastor of the church? If so, change “worked” to “pastored.”