Physical and Spiritual Healing

Physical and Spiritual Healing: How the Community Health Evangelism Program is Transforming Ghanaian Villages for Christ

The Community Health Evangelism-Ghana (CHE) has established a development ministry whose purpose is to bring together Jesus’ Great Commission found in Matthew 28:19-20, and his Great Commandment to heal the sick found in Matthew 25:36. This plan is accomplished through the training of nationals as trainers and villagers as Community Health Evangelists (CHEs). The CHEs will, in turn, minister to their fellow villagers by teaching disease prevention and health promotion along with spiritual truths such as how to be sure you are a Christian, how to tell others about Jesus Christ, how to live under God’s control, and how to lead Bible study groups.

 The ministry was introduced in the village of Aduman in the Ashanti Region in late 2002. Two Ghanaian young men, Ema Osei and John Peprah joined Courtnay Langford and I as trainers. Much has been accomplished in the years since CHE was introduced. A committee was formed and CHEs were selected and trained. Home visits began in May 2003. In those three years over 90 people have come to Christ and have been connected to various churches. 

In October, 2003 a conversion took place that will forever be with me. John Peprah and I were making home visits. John met an eighty-five year old lady during one of his home visits who was not a Christian.  When John asked if she was a Christian, she stated she had gone to Church in her youth but had not attended for sixty-five years. She stopped attending after marriage and some difficulty bearing children. Her husband had taken her to a fetish priest (from their traditional religion) to determine the problem. The priest had directed them to bring in certain animals and items to offer as sacrifice to remove the curse that prevented her from becoming pregnant. After making these sacrifices, she felt that she could never return to church or become a Christian. John shared the Good News with her. If she would place her faith in Jesus Christ and repent, she would be forgiven and be reconciled with God. Through tears of remorse she prayed and accepted Christ. She began praising God for sending John to share Christ with her.

From that small beginning in 2002, God has brought growth to CHE in the region. We now have thirty trainers organized in seven training teams working in eight villages bringing transformation to 13,800 villagers. CHE-Ghana has offered school health screening to over 3,200 children in these eight villages and challenged the communities and parents to solve some of the health problems identified. A micro-enterprise program has been introduced in Aduman and is assisting individuals with small loans to start small income producing businesses to assist their families in educating their children and feeding their family. Other micro-enterprise programs will be introduced in the other villages as CHE becomes established. John Peprah has accepted a call into the ordained ministry and began seminary in Accra in September, 2005. Ema Osei is attending a Christian Community Development course in Ireland sponsored by the Holy Ghost College in Dublin. Afterwards, he will return to CHE-Ghana to resume a leadership role.   

Christian community development must be based on the Bible. We are commanded in Luke 10:27 to love God totally and to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will truly be concerned with their welfare; both physically and spiritually. We will want to help our neighbor live a more abundant, meaningful life here on earth, and to share how they can have eternal life. Because of God’s love for us, we will desire to share that love with others. To God’s glory we see these things happening in Ghana.

 

Reverend Reid S. Buchanan and his wife, Lola, have served as Mission Society missionaries since 2001. Reid formerly worked as an engineer before accepting the call to ordained ministry and earning his Master of Arts in World Mission and Evangelism from Asbury Theological Seminary. He is an ordained deacon in The United Methodist Church. Lola is a Registered Nurse in both the U.S. and Ghana and works with Reid.