Music Festival Celebration
For most Ghanaians just the sound of these words creates a desire to dance. We love to dance and sing in Ghana and we need to do this as often as possible; it revives hope and joy in our spirit. All tribes and most communities have distinct holidays that are for blessing and celebration. These celebrations are similar to USA Thanksgiving traditions where you speak of the blessings from God/gods, your heritage and traditions. It is a needed cultural nuance that focuses on the positive aspects of life/family.
I have mentioned many times in my journal entries that Gomoa Fetteh has had 10 long years of Chieftaincy dispute; two families fighting over who is the rightful chief of this area. It is a bit complicated, but the chief usually come from a few of the founding families, usually the eldest son, and it alternates from family to family. The new chief is installed after the previous chief has died. Not in Gomoa Fetteh! Two families have been fighting in and out of courts for over a decade to declare rightful claim to chieftaincy. So there has been no strong leadership, no vision for the area and everything is deteriorating; infrastructure, housing, public buildings and the spirit of the people. The area’s festival has been canceled three years now because the feuding families had taken this opportunity to vilify the opposition. This caused the celebration time to become a time of unrest, and destruction. Many arrests were made for physical assaults, and the community became even more divided. The police in the area had to ban the Festival and it was unlawful to celebrate during this time. Gomoa Fetteh had become a place of negativity, despair, depression and seemingly without hope. So we prayed!
We had considered a 5 day revival/crusade but we knew many would not come to a church. This area has a substantial Moslem community and many of the area are traditionalist, still practicing African Religions. So we prayed! It was after much prayer, consulting with the local small churches, speaking with the law enforcement officials in Fetteh, and talking with many of the school officials in the area that God showed us the need for Celebration! We spoke with many concerning the Festival that had been canceled for years and the majority said they missed the music and dancing. The community needed to do something with JOY that was not divisive. So the Music Festival Celebration was born. It was a simple premise; it was a time for singing! Any one who wished to sing a song could sign up at the beginning of the evening and we would sing until every one had taken their turn at the microphone. About half way through the evening we would insert about an hour of Christian praise music. Monday through Friday this celebration began at 7:00 PM and would go until after 10:00 PM; one night the singing and dancing went on until after 11:00 PM.
It was a success! The Music Festival Celebration had many levels of victory.
* Every night’s attendance was 250+
* Largest attendance 500+
* Moslems were singing hymns in a church
* The community responded positively
* Each night we spoke for a few minutes about Jesus
* Over 200 came forward to accept Jesus or to re commit to Christ
* 38 baptisms following the celebration
* Baptism class was created for many others
* A ministry team from USA joined us
* Joy has returned to Gomoa Fetteh
We have been watching the continual harvest of fruit from this celebration. Attendance has increased in many churches, the baptism class from June is about to graduate, many Moslems have come to Christ, and it is happening again! November 3—7 will be five nights of celebration with a celebration of Baptism to follow on Saturday morning. Praise the Lord! The next Sunday will also begin a new baptism class for new believers. We are well pleased with the answer to prayer petition. This “vision” was received through research in the community, through scriptural references, through much prayer and the petition for discernment in bringing joy to Gomoa Fetteh. Yes, it finally came to me one night in a dream.
Keep praying
Pastor Charlie
Tags: accra, baptism, budd, celebration, charlie, Charlie Budd, chief, christian, festival, fetteh, ghana, god, gomoa, gomoa fetteh, jesus, joy, jymns, love, moslem, music, music festival celebration, vision
