The Groth's Visit Good Shepherd
On November 5 and 6, 2005, our missionaries, Rev. Charles and Jeanette Groth, visited Good Shepherd here in New Jersey.

 

For 30 members of Good Shepherd, Saturday November 5 proved to be an especially memorable evening. They were present for a pot luck supper and a very enlightening Powerpoint show and talk by our missionaries, Pastor Chuck and Jeanette Groth from Ghana, Africa.

Pastor Chuck told us about their mission in Ghana, which is to train men to be ministers. They have had two classes. Their first class consisted of 14 men who were from Ghana and 3 who were from Uganda. The current class consists of 17 men: 3 from Uganda, and 14 from Ghana. The men go through a 4-year program, which is comparable to study here. The men are high school graduates; they don’t usually come directly from high school. Their education is not the traditional one usually seen in Seminary. They have no history background. To understand the lessons in the Bible fully, they must be taught where Israel and Egypt are.

English is the primary language, but there are 75 different languages spoken. Only about 50% of the people are literate. Ghana is approximately the size of Indiana. Ghana was a British colony, but is now independent.

Pastor Chuck and Jeanette are warm, enthusiastic people who share God’s love in everything they do. Their talks are always so entertaining and informative. Pastor Chuck and Jeanette come from Lexington, Kentucky; they are on leave from their Mission because their 17 students are on vicarage. They will spend 1 year in the field. Pastor Chuck and Jeanette may be asked to go to another country for a short period of time before they return to Ghana.

The people of Ghana are very poor. Most are farmers. If you see pictures of the children, they look so healthy, with round tummies, but their tummies are round because of worms! They get worms because their food is contaminated. They can be easily treated, but the condition only returns.

They are so proud of their new school. The building is made of bricks made of clay and sand. The walls are only about 3 feet high; this allows for air to go through the building. It has a tin roof with 3 classrooms and 1 office. The members of our Sunday School are collecting money to add on to this school to enable more children to attend school. They presented the Groth’s with a check for $1600 toward their goal of $3000. It costs $15 for a child to attend school. We are providing funds for 46 children to attend school through our special Ghana Angels on our Angel tree. The children only attend school to the 6th grade. At that time, they take a West African exam. If they don’t pass this exam, their schooling is over. You may only go on to high school if you pass this exam. There are 3 sponsored colleges in Ghana, but there is a 3-year wait to attend.

Pastor told us that security is a problem for all missionaries. The local people consider them rich and Pastor himself has been robbed twice. There are armed guards and dogs at their compound.

Pastor Chuck said that their goal is to train them to write and print their own material. It costs 17 cents to provide a child with a year of Sunday School material.

One of their Pastors spends his whole week traveling. He goes from village to village to preach and train others preach and spread the word. We thanked Pastor Chuck and Jeanette for all the wonderful work they do in Ghana.

The Groth’s Visit Our Sunday School

If you by chance wandered into the Sunday School opening on Sunday, November 6, you were in for a really big treat. Rev. Chuck and Jeanette Groth, our missionaries in Ghana, dropped in to spend some time with our Sunday School classes, as well as the adult Bible Studies.

Rev. Chuck and Jeanette met the children in the sanctuary during the Sunday School opening. They opened by leading the children in a sing-a-long song that they sing with the children in Ghana. Lorraine Morrison, our Sunday School Superintendent, then presented them with a gift from the Sunday School children in the amount of $1,600.00. These monies have been raised throughout the year by the Sunday School classes by doing various mission projects. The reason for these projects is to build an addition onto the existing school used by the children in Ghana. The cost to build this addition will be approximately $5,000.00 and our Sunday School classes are still hard at work on this special mission project. Please keep your eyes and ears open for the different projects that you can support in this effort.

Rev. Chuck and Jeanette then did a brief slide show presentation of pictures that depicted life in Ghana, and the children were even able to see the existing school. Jeanette told all of the children how important their mission project is to Ghana, since there are many, many children that are not even able to go to school because there is no room for them. Some of these children may never have the opportunity to attend any school.

Rev. Chuck then left the children to go and meet with the adult Bible Studies, while Jeanette stayed and manned many, many questions asked by the Sunday School classes. It was so exciting to see how interested the children were as they asked Jeanette questions such as what is it like to be a missionary and live in Ghana, how much does food cost in Ghana, what types of food do they eat in Ghana, do the children in Ghana have any toys to play with, and in what other ways can we help the children in Ghana. The Sunday School classes were so interested in asking questions, that eventually Jeanette had to let them know that time was up and Sunday School was over.

It was a joy for all of us to see the Groths again and it was exciting for the children to see where their hard work is going. Even though we were not able to give the Groths all of the monies needed to build the school, Jeanette left us all with a story from Ghana that reminded us that if we move too quickly, progress is always not successful, but if we move slowly and allow God to work, then we have made true progress.