FROM FRANCE WITH DEEP NOSTALGIA

   

L-R: Pastor Andrews and Mrs Faustina Gyamfi. Mrs Ntumy. Mrs Victoria and Pastor Asante

FROM FRANCE WITH DEEP NOSTALGIA

They came from France;

A delegation of four;

Two Pastors and their wives--

Andrews and Faustina Gyamfi of Paris District,

Obeng and Victoria Asante of Mantes-La-Jolie District.

The Church of Pentecost, France, occupies a special place of affection in my heart. 

In July 1995 while serving as National Head of our church in Cote d'Ivoire, the leadership of our church asked me to be temporarily responsible for our church in France. This meant that I would need to pay short-term missionary visits to that country to nurture the young church.

Martha and I during one of our visits to France

My first visit to the church in France was in September of that year. That was when our churches in Europe were reeling in the wake of church splits arising from the doctrinal errors of ancestral curses and post-conversion deliverance. My first strategy was to stabilize the churches through sound doctrinal teaching and prayer meetings to meet the various needs of the saints.

Pastor Andrews Gyamfi and his wife Faustina. Andrews was one of my Elders when we ministered in France. Faustina is a Musician with many albums to her credit.

By early December when I returned to Cote d'Ivoire, only a handful of our members in Paris had left the church. My wife and I returned the following year after which we were asked to take up residency as National Head in May 1996. We had churches in Paris, Marseilles, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Mantes-La-Jolie. Surely, such growth and expansion of the church without a full-time minister was a real testament to the lay leaders who shepherded the church from its infancy coordinated by Elder Emmanuel Apea (now, Rev. Dr. Apea), then UNESCO Director for Science Education.

With my wife and our two youngest children, Mike and Joanna, we eventually arrived in May 1997. We went straight into action, establishing and equipping the members and reaching out in evangelism and church planting. By the turn of the year we had, through the grace of God, planted three new churches in Lyon, Avignon and Troas.

Martha and I in our backyard garden in Hamburg. Spring is here; the flowers blossom after the terrible winter. Surely when weeping comes in the night joy follows at the break of day.

There was great excitement in the church as all indicators promised a very fruitful missionary assignment. The leadership of our church at the international headquarters was happy because being young (I was then 39),  they knew I could spend many years there as resident missionary for the benefit of the church. This was, however, not meant to be. Exactly one year later (May 1998), at our General Council Meeting in Koforidua, I was elected Chairman of the church.

We eventually left France in August 1998 for Ghana to assume office as 4th Chairman of COP, then operating in 44 countries.

Apostle Dr Emmanuel Owusu and his wife Pat. Dr Owusu is currently the National Head of COP, USA.

After a couple of ministers had played acting roles in the church in France, Apostle Dr. Emmanuel Owusu was posted from Canada as National Head from 2003 to 2009. He was succeeded in the same year by Apostle Osei Owusu Afriyie (the incumbent) from United Kingdom.

Apostle Osei Owusu Afriyie, current National Head, COP France

 Now you can understand why the visit of these precious brethren aroused so much nostalgia in us. And even more, it was during my apostolic oversight that both Pastors were ordained Elders in the church. You see the relationship?

Pastor Obeng Asante and his wife Victoria

Their heart-cry, like that of the millions of others, is one--- that the LORD would lift me up to my feet again.  

"IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO ACT, LORD" (Psa. 119:126 NIV)

DID YOU KNOW THAT A SCHOOL HAS BEEN NAMED AFTER ME?

A couple of weeks ago, one of our apostles called me from Ghana. As we shared reminiscences over many things, he expressed many wishes for me, including that somebody somewhere would name a school after me.


I told him that was not a big deal to me because God honors His faithful servants in different ways. If he had that as a desire for me, I was glad to inform him that his prayer had already been answered.
Now please read on.

Between 1961 and 1965, the Ghana Government, through the Volta River Authority (V.R.A), undertook
the construction of the Akosombo Dam to generate hydro-electric power for the nation. The construction of the dam resulted in the flooding of some upper parts of the Volta River, creating the Volta Lake, the world's largest man-made lake. It covers an area of 3,502 square kilometers. The flooding affected about 700 villages and a total of about 80,000 people. Re-settlement towns, 52 in number, were built for the affected communities who were evacuated to these townships before the dam was completed.

Apostle Ntumy Junior High School block.

Osramani is one of these 52 towns. It is an agglomeration of 15 villages which were settled there in August, 1964. The V.R.A which managed the town had built two Primary Schools and one Middle School for the new community. This Middle School (which later metamorphosed into Junior High School) served the ever-increasing population until September 2010 when the Government of Ghana, with some communal support, established this second Junior High School for the community.

Apostle Dr Opoku Onyinah, Chairman of COP (with microphone), offering the Inaugural / Dedication Prayer before the Pillar of Plaques.

The school was formally inaugurated by Apostle Dr Opoku Onyinah, Chairman of The Church of Pentecost in October 2010. He was assisted by Mr. Akara, District Director of Education, Apostle David Tekper, COP Area Head, Kete-Krachi and Pastor Maclean Arthur-Gyan.

The Chiefs, Elders and the Youth of the town decided to name the school after me, "in recognition of (my) numerous contributions to the development of the town."

Apostle Dr Michael Ntumy and his wife Martha.

LESSONS I LEARNT FROM THIS.

When the COP Area Head for Kete-Krachi called and broke to me the news of naming the school after me, I was overwhelmed. I wondered how and why. First, it was a public school ("government school") which, may normally bear the name of the town or community. Secondly, I was not aware that a new school was being built for them, let alone to have contributed anything to its construction.

I immediately contacted the leadership of our church to discuss it with them and they gladly consented to it.  I thereafter requested our Chairman who happened to be traveling to the Kete-Krachi Area around that time to inaugurate and dedicate the school for the community, which he graciously obliged.

In deep gratitude to God and the community, I learnt many lessons from this great act of grace done me:

1. It is God who honors people. Nobody should go round seeking to be honored.
2. We should not grow weary in doing good. Sometimes though the beneficiaries may not know how to express their gratitude, they are grateful. When they have the opportunity of opening up to you one day, you would be overwhelmed by what they say or do.
3. Our good deeds for the LORD will never go unrewarded. If human beings (the people of my town), who are prone to forget, remembered my personal contributions to the town over a long period of time, how much more will God not remember to reward us for our various good works.
4. When God blesses you, remember to bless others, your "Jerusalem"---your hometown, your church, humanity as a whole.

PS. I have responded appropriately to the kind gesture of the community. We want to make the school an "A" school. Somebody is putting up a computer lab and library block for the school. If there is any way you want to help achieve my dream for the school---library books, computers, etc, you may contact me through this email address: ntumybooks@yahoo.com.
God bless you.

DEFYING THE ODDS

DEFYING THE ODDS

In 444 BC Nehemiah, a Jewish official in the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes, led in the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. They were opposed by Tobiah and Sanballat, some of the king's representatives in that land. They used such weapons as lies, intimidation, misrepresentation before the king, and ridicule. At one point they even resorted to the sacrilegious tactic of hiring a prophet to prophesy against him. Shemaiah the prophet, purporting to have received a revelation from God, sent to call Nehemiah to join him in hiding in the temple of God because some people were after him to take his life. To this Nehemiah replied,

"Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go! I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him "(Neh. 6:11,12 NIV)

Neither Nehemiah nor his people caved in to the weapons of their enemies. They defied the odds and persisted in their mission. After 52 days, their mission was accomplished.

Various things often come our way which seek to hinder us from pursuing our respective assignments. Apostle Paul sums them up as, trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and sword. He continues the list by adding such facts as, life, angels, demons, the present, the future, powers, height, depth, and anything else in all creation (Rom. 8:35, 38-39).

Throughout history many people defied their own kinds of odds to do what they believed to be their divine assignments or duties. Abraham defied an uncertain future to leave all to undertake the journey which finally landed him in Canaan. Moses risked royalty in Egypt to identify with the people of God. Mordecai, Daniel, Shaddrach, Meshach, Abednego all defied related odds in connection with their faith. In what appeared to be foolhardy stances, these people saw death and destruction pass by with the doors of promotion and exaltation opening to them.

Not everybody had the testimony of having their godly defiance being rewarded by extraordinary turn-arounds in their situation. Hebrews 11 tells us of those who refused to give up and suffered all kinds of tortuous deaths. Yet, even in their dying moments, they rejoiced.

What were their secrets? Basically they knew their God. They knew what He required of them. They knew what He had called them to do or to accomplish. Anything that came between their God and themselves or what He had called them to do was the "odd" thing; and it had to be defied.

May children of God, like Nehemiah who referred to himself as "a man like me", know who we are in Christ. Don’t forget how Joseph bluffed to his brothers, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?” (Gen. 44: 15 NIV) Let us not desire too much the easy lifestyle and assume it is the sign of God's blessings on our lives. Neither should we compromise our positions when faced with any odds in life nor lose heart when such odds surface, assuming we have been abandoned by God.

So then, defy every odd with the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. As much as is possible, keep doing what God has called you to do. If this is not humanly possible find alternative ways of discharging those things. You remember what Jesus said, “Occupy till I come” (Lk. 19:13)

Remember, "a man/woman like you" should never give up or be cowered into a corner by any situation or circumstance.

Applying these lessons to myself as I await my miracle, I remind myself regularly in the words of Nehemiah that, "A man like me should/should not ..." Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am determined not to allow paralysis to hold me down. With the little mobility and functionalities that I have, I endeavor to “keep on keeping on.” For things I am not able to do, I endeavor to find other means of doing them.

One of my greatest personal philosophies now is, "Where my feet cannot carry me, my prayers and writings must go"

FAMILY EXCURSION TO DENMARK

              

On 4th May 2012, taking advantage of a one-week mid-semester break for Mike and Joanna, our children, our family decided to undertake a one-day excursion to the Baltic Sea at the German-Danish border.

Our 15-year old daughter, Joanna, pointing in excitement to the still surface of the Baltic Sea

We thought it would be a welcome change from my "triangular sphere of activity" ---home, therapy, church. It would also offer us the excitement of crossing the 18km stretch of the Baltic Sea from Fehman in Germany to Puttgarten in Denmark. We got all set and left home around ten o'clock in the morning.

Map showing the Baltic Sea between Germany and Denmark. Notice the red line between Route 1 and E47. That narrow part with the inscription "Fehmarnbelt" is the point where we crossed into Denmark.

The 147km journey took us barely ninety minutes by car. Hailing from a riviera district in Ghana I am naturally used to ferries and water bodies. The system of boarding the ferries was excellent. The dual-carriage way expanded into about eight lanes. Nobody was required to alight from their cars. Tickets were purchased from toll booths. Cars buses and trains board the ferry in their respective lanes after which the vessel sets sail.

The M/V Prins Richard ferry belonging to Scandlines, one of the vessels which plies the Baltic Sea between Germany and Denmark

We boarded the beautiful 142-meter long M/V PRINS RICHARD which has a 364-car and 1,140-passenger capacity. Besides, it also ferries a train of about four coaches in length. 

A passenger train on board the ferry.

The main deck of the ferry is like a little downtown, having shops, restaurants and cafeteria. The observation floor was where the children enjoyed the most as it gave them an unhindered view of the sea and other marine vessels.

Martha, flanked by Mike and Joanna, on the observation deck of the ferry.

The 18-km distance took us 45 minutes to cross.We visited some of the nearby towns such as Puttgarten, Roedby, Maribo and Lolland, returning only 135km shy of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark.

Joined by Elder Appiagyei (standing right), our Driver/Protocol Officer at a tourist center at Puttgarten in Denmark

We treated ourselves to some Danish meals, rested for a while and hit the road again, crossed the sea and returned to Hamburg before 19.00hrs, early enough for Mike and Joanna to attend evening service.

We give thanks and praise to God for the strength and vitality given us all, especially me. Yes, the stated objectives besides, the trip also afforded me the opportunity to explore my own physiological boundaries.

"THE IMPACT OF YOUR LEADERSHIP IS GREAT"

Bishop S. N. Mensah (left) standing beside me.

The LORD continues to gladden our hearts through the visit of friends and gallant colleague ministers with whom we did Kingdom Business in Ghana and across the world. One of such Pentecostal stalwarts to visit us in Hamburg recently was Bishop Samuel N Mensah, President of FULL GOSPEL CHURCH with headquarters in Tema, Ghana. His historic visit was from 19th to 21st April, 2012

Bishop S. N. Mensah with me in the Standing Machine.

Rt Rev S N. Mensah is an Executive Council member of Ghana Pentecostal Council(G P C), the largest Christian fraternity in the country. It is composed of over 250 different Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches in Ghana and accounts for over 25% of the country's population. I had the godly privilege of serving as President of G. P C from 1998 to 2008.

 Like many other visitors, Bishop S N. Mensah expressed great joy at seeing me, thanking God for all that He had done for me and, by extension, the entire Christian body in Ghana. He thanked God for the opportunity of being able to visit me, adding that it had allayed all his worries and inquietude about me since the condition in which he had come to find me was far better than the assumptions he had gathered through various sources.

 As could be expected when old-time friends meet, we conversed about various issues late into the night. He brought me warm greetings of the Council and specially of the G. P. C President, Apostle Dr Opoku Onyinah, and Apostle S. Y Antwi, the General Secretary.

 At various points Bishop S N Mensah interpolated his conversation with expressions like, "Apostle, Ghanaians still love you very much" and "The impact of your leadership is great, it goes far beyond The Church of Pentecost"

Rt  Rev S. N. Mensah, beaming with smiles, standing with me.

We are eternally grateful to God and to our colleagues for the great love they continue to show us as we travel this difficult phase of our life. The testimony is around the corner and great shall the celebration be!

THREE GHANAIAN GIANTS VISIT

THREE GHANAIAN GIANTS VISIT

The past four weeks have been very busy times for us.

1. On 16^th March, 2012, my elder brother, Joseph Adade passed away in Brussels, Belgium. “Daddy Joe” as we affectionately called him, was a Lecturer at Jasikan College of Education. Four years ago he moved to Belgium to join his wife. After a protracted illness, he passed away peacefully at age 62. He was interred in Brussels on 31^st March.

Some COP National and Area Heads in Europe. On behalf of our Family Head, Abusuapanin EKT Dofuor and myself, we express our gratitude to these gallant men of God and the congregations they represent for the great assistance they extended to us during my brother's funeral.

 In typical Church of Pentecost solidarity, all our National Heads and friends in Europe rallied around us and did what I could not do to give my brother a fitting farewell. We are grateful to them all, especially Evangelist Samuel Asiamah, COP National Head of Belgium who hosted the ceremony.  

Mrs Martha Ntumy, left, being interviewed by Sister Peggy Donkor

Rev Ntumy, flanked by Sis Peggy Donkor, left and Mrs Martha Ntumy

2. Between 15^th March and 4^th April, we were delighted to host the nationally renowned Peggy Ama Donkor, the Southern Ghana News Coordinator of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation who now doubles as Acting Manager of PENTMEDIA. Peggy is doing a documentary on all COP Chairmen and she traveled here to interview me, my wife and our young children, Mike and Joanna, for that purpose. 

Rev Ntumy and Sis Peggy Donkor in an interview session

Sister Peggy Donkor in an interview session with Dns Grace Sanders.

She took advantage of the visit and also interviewed Apostle Sampson Ofori Yiadom and Pastor Eben Quaye, National Head and Secretary respectively of Germany as well as Dns Grace Sanders, Deputy Women's Movement National Leader for an in-depth focus on the church in this nation. 

Elder Nana K Gyasi, left, with Rev Ntumy

3. Our blessings continued to overflow as we joyously welcomed Elder Nana K. Gyasi, Ghana’s famous “King of Iron Rods” who visited us between 4^th and 10^th April.

Nana, an old friend of mine, had kept in constant touch with me and nursed the desire to see me. Like many others, he expressed great joy at seeing me, insisting that my condition was far better than they had imagined. He helped in any way he could---with my standing, bicycle riding and pulling exercises, constantly reminding us that he had come to serve.

Elder Nana K. Gyasi, right, seated with Rev Ntumy in Hamburg Central Assembly

Rev Ntumy, left, with Elder Gibson Annor Antwi, Registrar of Pentecost University College, Accra, Ghana

4. Currently visiting is Elder Gibson Annor Antwi, Registrar of Pentecost University College and first Chairmanship of the Committees of Registrars and Finance Officers of Private Universities in Ghana. Elder Annor Antwi, who arrived on 15^th April, also came to interview me for a book-writing project he is currently undertaking.

We cannot fully express the level of our gratitude for such visits or our sentiments of camaraderie from the sweet fellowship renewed in us. We are more than grateful.

 

Elder Annor Antwi, left, with Rev and Mrs Ntumy

Please,

Keep praying for us;

Keep calling whenever you have time;

Keep coming if you are able.

God bless you again and again.

EASTER MESSAGE: BALANCING THE EQUATION OF GOD'S LOVE

One of my classmates in College hated Mathematics like Hell. Topics like Simultaneous and Quadratic Equations often sent him running wild. The usual task was “balance the equation” with the right side of the equation being equal to the left. Anytime my friend could not solve an equation he would throw his hands up and say, “O boy; an unknown variable has entered the equation, making it difficult to be balanced.”

Admittedly some Lecturers and Professors set questions which are so difficult that students wonder whether such teachers expect those questions to be answered. The good news is that God’s equations are not difficult to answer; in fact He provides the answer and explains the rationale.

Consider this: “…We are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2Cor. 5:14, 15 NIV)

The issue was that ALL of us were condemned to die. In the sight of God we were already dead. Jesus however stepped forward and offered to die in our place. His death was actually our own death; we should have died and He should have been physically alive. Instead we are now alive and He was the One who rather physically died

On the equation scale, there is a clear imbalance. The scale has tilted too much towards the divine side. The Substitutionary nature of Christ's death has proved to be a kind of love far above our comprehension. There is nothing we, as Christians, can do to balance the scale. In fact, God does not require us to do anything extraordinary to balance this scale of love.  

Whereas nothing great we do can balance the equation, God has ordained that it should be balanced by one simple requirement: that we, who are alive, SHOULD LIVE FOR HIM ALONE.

Well, I hope I did not bore you in trying to explain theological issues in mathematical terms.

Living for Jesus---in holiness and righteousness, and being involved in Kingdom business---should not depend on what He does for us or any such thing. We live for Him because it is the right thing to do; because He died for us; because it is the only thing to balance the equation of love.

As we celebrate Easter, may we always remember this equation: Jesus died in my place that I should live. As I now live, I must live for Him ONLY.

I WISH YOU A BLESSED EASTER CELEBRATION FILLED WITH THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION.