Good evening. Looks like WordPass, I have told you, has given you at least a glimpse into what my life is like. And how many of you have ever thought that God has put you up for a test? OK, then I'm very glad I'm not the only one. It is very unique to be here, and I cherish the privilege. I very much appreciate Pastor working with me in those turns and burns, ups and downs of my journey, and how the Lord is leading, and how the Lord is directing my steps. And yes, in most cases, or almost all the time, I am being forced into a place where The only thing I can do is to trust the Lord. And I tell you, it's not a very comfortable place to be, but I tell you it is the best place to be. I will not trade anything for what is happening in my life, for what God is doing in my life, and I very much I ask the Lord every day to give me the grace to be able to go through each day trusting, each day leaning on his everlasting arms. And just like the psalmist said, I found myself saying this over and over again, this poor man cried unto the Lord and he delivered him from all of his troubles. And I thank the Lord that he's a prayer answering God. I was born in Ghana, West Africa to parents that were Roman Catholics, but they also still worshipped idols. And when I was born, my parents asked my grandfather on my mother's side to find out because he was a witch doctor. to find out what my destiny was going to be. My grandfather did find out and told my parents that I was an incarnate of the river god that he was worshiping. And as a result of that, he asked my parents to send me to him so that he will raise me and nurture me in the ways of this god. And so my parents did. And so when I came to age, all I knew was that I was growing up with my grandparents. I did not know when all that discussion and all that negotiation took place. And so that is what I was told when I could understand the difference between right and wrong, the difference between why I am here and not living with my parents. And so growing up, I accepted what my grandparents told me and did everything that they wanted me to do. I helped my grandfather in the shrine with the sacrifices, consultation, because an older cousin of mine that was old enough to help him, he had gotten saved through the ministry of the Baptist church in the community. And so his lot fell to me. And so I was helping my grandfather with all that, and I also, one Sunday morning, I used to go to the church with my cousin, but I didn't have any specific or special interest. I just went there to have a good time with my friends. But this particular Sunday morning was different, and the reason it was different was that the preacher used to be a blind man who would just read from the Bible and talk to the people for a while, and they said, we'll come to an end. But this particular Sunday, the preacher was a younger person. He had come from a different village. And I wanted to sit near the front so that I could have a good look of him and be able to tell my other friends in school the following day. And so sitting down probably on the second or the 10th row from the pulpit, he preached the first gospel message I have ever heard. And when he was preaching that message, he specifically mentioned idol worship. And he mentioned that all idol worshipers will die and go to hell. When he said that, I thought in my mind, did my older cousin talk to this man about me? And so he came to preach to me. As you realize, that was not the case. My older cousin was just meeting him for the first time just like I was, but it was the Spirit of God using his word to draw my attention to my lost condition in order to bring me to salvation in Christ. You will think that after hearing that first message upon the invitation, I ran forward and accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. Unfortunately, that did not happen. But I left the congregation knowing two truths. The first truth was this, I am a hell-bound lost sinner. The second truth was this, Jesus Christ is the only one that can save me. And Lord used those two truths to work in my heart on Monday, on Tuesday, and on Wednesday. And on the Wednesday night, the same preacher came, preached a similar message. in the community and not in the church building. And upon the invitation that night, I went forward and trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior. And the Lord began to change me. The Lord began to transform my life. And he's still doing that today. And I'm very thankful that he still works in my heart. He's still transforming me to be the person that he wants me to be so that he can use me for the work that he's called me to. And through my years, five years later, I got saved around 99, so five years later in 2004, my grandfather died. And so that liberated me from his control or from his guardianship, so I moved to be with my parents, and two years later in 2006, my father also died. And when my father died, I was, after losing my grandfather, It was very difficult. But having to lose my father himself was something that I did not prepare myself for. And to encourage myself on the path of life, I said, I'm going to pursue the best of all educations. I will do the best I can to be able to help my family, to be able to help the people around me. So I went to high school with a vision to study, and after high school, go into medical school. But after high school, after receiving my scores from high school, that night, I just don't know why that happened. Only God knows, and it was his way of bringing me to the place where I will ask him that question to get that response. I, after showing the results to my uncle and after he congratulated me and after everybody left the living room, I just took this sheet of paper that had my grades on it and laid it on the ground and went down on my knees and I asked the Lord one question, where will you have me take these results? And I was denied that every thought of going to medical school, every thought of pursuing secular education, left my heart. And any time I will think about going further in my education, it will be as clear as day, the Lord was telling me, surrender, go to the Bible college and train for ministry. And I said, no. I said, I didn't sign up for this. But I know if you have a fight with the Lord or if you have a struggle with the Lord long enough, there's only one thing that is sure. It's going to win. And so God won in my heart. And finally I said, yes, Lord, I will surrender and go to the Bible college. So I did. 2014, went to the college, studied there for four years, got my bachelors, and towards the end of that time, the Lord opened the door for me to come to Baptist College of Ministry and Theological Seminary to do my seminary work. That's what I'm still working through, as Pastor mentioned. Going back to Ghana with a burden for evangelism, with a burden to plant new churches, with a burden to equip local churches to reach the people that are in their areas. So I have a presentation video that I will have play now, and after that I'll keep some concluding comments and take a few questions if there are any. Africa is often called the Dark Continent, not because it doesn't experience sunshine or moonlight, but because of the spiritual state of its inhabitants. I am Alexander Timbani. I was born and raised in a small African village. And while growing up, I became aware of the spiritual darkness that invaded my own heart and the hearts of the many around me. In the west coast of Africa is a country called Ghana. There are several strongholds to the gospel of Jesus Christ that exist in Ghana. First one is false religion. The false religion of Catholicism. The false religion of Islam. And of course, the false religion of animism, and ancestral worship. I was raised by grandparents who were idol worshippers. And when I was born, they believed that I was an incarnate of one of the gods that they worshipped. And my grandparents dedicated me to the service of that god. One day, the darkness in my heart was revealed. Holy Spirit of God took the gospel light and shone it upon my dead heart of sin. And that day, I left the congregation knowing very well that if I died, I would go to hell because I was sinning. I was an idol worshiper and I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior three days after hearing that first message. And when I got saved, the Lord burdened my heart. to tell many others of Jesus Christ's salvation from ancestral worship and so many other false religions that are present in Africa. Ghana has a population of about 31 million people and out of this only 75 of them profess Christianity. But will you realize that out of this 75%, only 24% of them are evangelical Christians? That means that only three out of every 10 Ghanaians really know what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. The need in Ghana is still for gospel advance. The fact that there are so many people who have not yet heard calls for churches that will be planted among people groups that are not yet rich with the gospel. The burden I have is to train these churches, give them a gospel vision, give them a multiplication vision, and give them the Great Commission, and let them understand that a Great Commission is possible today. The other need in Ghana is for churches that are already existing to believe in a revival. To believe in an revival means that they should believe in the life and the victory that Jesus Christ has won for us on the cross. They will have the gospel in their forefront, and they'll be willing to go to the next village to reach others with the gospel. There are churches who have been established, but these churches do not have a vision to reach the next village with the gospel. The ministry God has burdened me with is to go into these churches and partner with them, to train them, give them a gospel-advanced vision. So it is my burden that these churches that has been planted for years that they will be equipped, they will be given that vision to take the gospel to the next village, to the next town that has not yet heard the gospel. So the Lord laid upon my heart the need for further training. And in the wake of that, the Lord directed my steps to Fault Baptist Church. and to the training school that they have. And during my time there, God has continued to burden my heart. He has continued to sharpen the vision that He has for Ghana. He has continued to give me vision and how to accomplish and fulfill the Great Commission in Ghana. It is with partnership and with the support of Falls Baptist Church. And then as the Lord burdened my heart, I am receiving my further training here, and then going back home, the Lord has brought me into partnership with Baptist World Mission. that will enable me to go and serve, to go and accomplish the Great Commission when they are supported with their credibility. The last need of Ghana I will point out is the need for Christians to be trained so that they can properly handle the Word of God, so that they can properly give the vision that Jesus Christ gave when He gave the Great Commission. My burden is to go in and help the ministers and help the various pastors and the leaders that they have. to train each member of the local church to know the reality of the Great Commission. And not just know the Great Commission, but realize that it is possible in our generation. And also to give them that vision to reach the next village. If we bring this into our churches, I believe that the next villages, the next towns around places where churches are already planted, are going to be rich with the gospel of Christ. God has called me to be an evangelist, and I am going to fearlessly preach the gospel. to witness on daily basis, to disciple those that have received the gospel, and organize them into local churches, which will also have the vision of reproducing disciples and other local churches in their cultures. I also believe that God will meet the need of revival through partnering with several churches, preaching revival truths, bringing them to the victorious Christian life by pointing them to the victory that is available in Jesus Christ. And the last need is for Ghanaians to be trained and be given a vision for gospel advance. I believe that God has called me to be a trainer of trainers, to train men and women to take the gospel from one village to another village, from one person to another person, till the whole country, until the whole region of Africa is rich with the gospel of Jesus Christ. How can you be a part of what God is doing in Ghana? First of all, you can pray. The Lord Jesus Christ said, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he may send laborers into the harvest field. I will implore you to pray for Ghana, that God will raise up Ghanaians to take the Great Commission into their own hands. And the second thing you can do is you can go. Come over to Ghana and help us. And the last thing you can do is to partner with missionaries. equip them so that the gospel ministry in Ghana will expand. There is a very great open door in the country of Ghana that invites the gospel. It is this open door that God has called me to send the gospel to, till the whole country is enriched with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The very essence of mission's work I think is captured in one statement that one of my professors in college always says, he calls it the goal mission. Jesus asks us to go. And that is exactly what we are intending to do in Ghana. As I go back, as I mentioned in the video, it is very sad that there are churches planted, that were planted by missionaries. And those churches today, they have been existing for over 20 years, but they have not gone to the next village with the gospel. They have not gone to the next town with the gospel. So that means that we still have communities that do not have the gospel. We still have towns that do not have the gospel. So that is going to be my starting point in reaching Ghanaians. When I say we, I want to point out what I'm including in that statement. I'm going to be working with another Baptist world missionary, he's called Aquila Darmani. He and his wife Rachel have had the privilege of being with them. He was one of my college professors and I served with him in ministry, in several aspects of ministry there, so I'm going to be partnering with him after I get back there. So one of the very key ministries we use in getting the gospel out to many people so many times in the week is the radio ministry. The radio ministry has proved to be very beneficial in the sense that we are able to reach a wide population at a time. And also it gives us the privilege or the opportunity to reach even Muslims who will not walk into the church building on a Sunday morning to hear the gospel being preached. But on the radio they have an excuse to listen because they will say we're listening to the radio. And so we have used that ministry to reach many. Some of them, after hearing the gospel over and over again, have made phone calls to us and given us places where we can meet them. And we have met them, explained more of the gospel to them. They have trusted Christ, have come out. Now in our churches, we baptize our faithful members in our churches. So that is a fruitful ministry that we are going to be pursuing and allowing the Lord to use that still in our area. Now, the other interesting thing about that ministry is that some of the radio stations are actually owned and managed by Muslims. We have that privilege, and we are very thankful for that opportunity the Lord has opened for us. Now, the second aspect of my ministry is occupying local churches. when Jesus Christ talked about the fact that he is the head of the church. And Peter used that illustration when he talked to the pastors in 1 Peter, he said, the chief shepherd. And then theologians and preachers today who call the pastors the under shepherd. Now we realize that when you look at a shepherd and a sheep, the shepherd doesn't give birth to sheep. It is a sheep that give birth to sheep. And I believe that it is the same thing in our churches. It is not the pastors or the preachers that should be doing the evangelism. Yes, they have that responsibility as Christians, but it is our responsibility as local church members to reach out and be in evangelism, be involved in discipleship, be involved in the active local ministry of the church. Paul tells us that it is the work of the ministers or the gifts that Jesus Christ have gifted and have in turn given them to the local church that they equip the members, the saints, so that the saints will do the work of the ministry. So I believe that God has given me that burden to help pastors train their church members so that they know how to witness on the streets, they know how to witness in the market, they know how to witness on the road to the farm, on the road to, you know, gather firewood. We want the gospel to be available. And so that is one of my burdens going back. And the next burden I have, and that's going to be the last aspect of my burden, is a training of national leadership for the churches that are going to be planted and for even existing churches. We realize that our world is becoming very, very falseful. And one of my teachers in college often said that truth needs a voice. But before you can be a voice to truth, you have to first of all know the truth itself. And so it is my burden that people that surrender to full-time ministry will be given enough training so that they know what they believe and can defend it. before all other falsehood that is present in our country and around the world. So those are my three burdens. I will invite you to come by if you have not already. Come by and get a prayer card. Also sign up for My newsletter, I'll be very glad to send that to you so that you stay updated as how the Lord is leading and how the Lord is working right now as I finish up deputation and head back to Ghana by May of next year. I'll pause here. If you have any quick questions, please shoot them my way or after that, after the service, you can come by my table. I'll be available to talk with you during that time. Any quick questions? Yes, sir. The last time I checked, it was at 8%. Yes. All right. Thank you very much.