Ghana results

preparing home made pizza in Ghana

We have lots of history in Ghana and many of you reading this have also partnered with us in Ghana. Have you ever wondered what happened with all the work we invested in Ghana from 1986, the year we moved to Tamale to manage the Group House for the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) till we left Ghana during some tribal warfare in 1994?


Last year, a huge milestone was reached in Ghana:  5 full Bibles where dedicated  in the space of 5 months.  This grand result is the culmination of the life work of many people dating back to the 1960's and 70's (and for us, the 80's).  We along with you our friends played a small but significant role in these full Bibles!

Maybe you recognize the cashiers for this fufu party?

We moved to Ghana to do hospitality ministry... our  focus was providing a home away from home for our Bible translation colleagues so they could concentrate on Bible translation rather than running their own guest house.  And that was the situation before we arrived; the previous Group House Manager had fallen sick and could no longer work, so the Bible translators were each taking turns managing the Group House.  While we provided hospitality, our desire was to encourage those translators... and encouragement was needed in those days as the luxuries of electricity and water were in low supply.  Hosting Pizza parties as well as FuFu parties were great excuses to bring an eclectic group of Christian workers from many different missions and churches together for food, fellowship and networking.

In 1989 the guest house flooded as did our home.  Those were difficult days in Ghana!

Another tradition that developed was a Sunday night sing. I remember many different Bible translation colleagues along with their kids coming over to our home or Guest House for fun singing along with Shevawn's guitar! 

Sharing the dinner table with some of the pioneers of Bible translation in Ghana. On the right is Mary Steele who came to Ghana from Ireland around 1962. Center is Ivan Brown who retired in Ghana in the 80's to serve Bible translation in the GILLBT administration and he ran a long standing Bible correspondence course out of a Guest House bedroom.

In the near future I will blog to make a few connections between our Discovery years in Ghana and how that impacted those 5 full Bible dedications!

What are your memories of Ghana, GILLBT and Bible Translation back-in-the-day?