Real and Lasting Value
Download complete January 2013 newsletter.
by Jere Gowin
Geography and/or history buffs know that Ghana used to be called the Gold Coast. Logic tells us that there used to be much yellow gold in Ghana, and that logic is correct. In fact, there is still much gold here
It has been estimated that only 5% of the world’s gold resources have been discovered. One of our pastors and many of our church folks have dug for gold. Some of their children still do. I meet gold company trucks practically every time I go to our remote villages. On dusty dirt roads they have very nearly run over me. :-)
Others referred to this land as the Gold Coast because of the valuable slave trade many years ago. Numerous old slave castles dot the landscape along the coastland. We have visited many of them.
Just recently our villages celebrated the annual holiday to commemorate their forefathers who were sold into slavery either to the whites or warring tribes. Many became rich, despite the fact that the lucrative business involved the captivity and bondage of innocent souls. Our people danced energetically that day, then cooked a great feast in the evening just to let it sit alone so that their dead ancestors might “eat.” The next morning the people ate the “leftovers.”
As valuable and tempting as gold is, the Scriptures teach that commodity is temporary and perishable. Real and lasting value involves the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Scripture says that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” What is your focus of faith upon? If you believe this world is about gold and the next about Jesus, you have an impoverished soul. This world AND the next are both about Jesus.
Jere and Ruth Ann Gowin live in northern Ghana, where they minister in outlying villages.
Since the Gowins moved to Ghana in 2008, they have seen churches started in five villages that had no church.
The Gowins plan to return to the States in the summer of 2013.Ask for God’s blessing as Jere trains church leaders to continue in his absence.
