Dear Friends,
This week, please pray with us for Raymond Ayayee in Ghana.
The Republic of Ghana is known for its abundant natural resources, including rich reserves of minerals, precious stones, and oil. Lake Volta, the largest manmade lake in Africa, runs across the country’s eastern region. Around 71% of Ghana’s estimated 31 million people identify as Christians and 18% as Muslims, while 5% exclusively practice folk religions. Currently, Ghana is fighting a second wave of COVID-19 across West Africa. After an outbreak among government officials, Ghana recently suspended its parliament for three weeks until early March.
Raymond is pursuing a PhD in Theology at Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission, and Culture in Ghana. His research focuses on holistic discipleship and missions. Raymond seeks to evaluate the legacy of parachurch organizations in Ghana, and to propose a discipleship model that promotes spiritual and sociocultural transformation in African contexts.
Since 2003, Raymond has worked with the Great Commission Movement of Ghana, a ministry of Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ International), and currently serves as the National Leader of Campus Ministries. Raymond and his wife Esther, who is also a missionary with the Great Commission, live with their son Josh and daughter Aseye in Kumasi, Ghana.
Raymond shares the following message:
Shalom! Ghana has just successfully emerged from a presidential and parliamentary election, though the main opposition party is contesting the results in court. Praise God for His mercy!
I serve as the National Leader of Campus Ministries in the Great Commission Movement of Ghana. My ministry focus has been in mission and transformation, as well as mission in the pluralistic context of Islam and primal religions. I am also in development as faculty in theological education. I write with gratitude to God for seeing me through the coursework phase of my PhD studies amid COVID-19.
My Research
To a large extent, Christian mission has been from the West to the rest of the globe, with Africa serving as a significant laboratory for Christian mission. Considering current Christian growth rates and dynamics in Africa, as well as their implications for global Christianity and mission, I have chosen to evaluate missional approaches to discipleship in Ghana’s parachurch organizations.
I expect to ascertain some of the merits and demerits of the legacy of Western Christian mission in the African context. I hope to contribute to scholarship needed to guide current mission practices in Africa, especially Ghana, and to help shape Christianity in this context to better contribute to global mission.
Prayer Needs
Please join me in thanking God for seeing me through my PhD coursework successfully. Please ask Him to give me grace for the research phase as well.
Ask for God’s protection over my family, especially over my six-year-old son, Josh, who returned to school last month. Prior to COVID-19, he struggled with respiratory infection challenges due to his SC genotype.
Please join us in thanking God for the PhD tuition fee and timely relief stipend from ScholarLeaders last year. As a support-raising full-time missionary family, we are still trusting God for a breakthrough of resources for the research phase of my PhD pursuits and for family sustenance. Kindly join us in prayer.
Please pray for the Church in Ghana to significantly develop into a missionary-sending Church. Thanks in advance for praying.
Raymond Ayayee