The Work of the Church Goes on2 min read

On October 31, Lutherans in Accra, Ghana, gathered at All Saints Lutheran Church in Anyaa to worship, to remember the Lutheran Reformation, and to celebrate that we are saved by grace through faith—a free gift of God!

Rev. David and Joyce Erber, Michigan District missionaries to Ghana, couldn’t be there in person as they were brought back to the US when the pandemic began. Still, they continue to work remotely supporting God’s mission to the people in Ghana.

Rev. Erber reports that the church in Ghana has three huge new training programs starting up at this time:

1. Equipping selected senior Ghanaian pastors for service as seminary instructors. This involves enrolling and mentoring four Ghanaian pastors in graduate studies in local theological degree programs and providing them with guided teaching opportunities. This will increase the church’s ability to train pastors and to pursue accreditation for our Lutheran seminary in Ghana.
2. Starting seminary classes for employed men who aren’t otherwise able to attend seminary. The church in Ghana has the goal of starting Lutheran preaching stations and congregations in all of Ghana’s districts. Training men who aren’t dependent on significant income from the church will increase the church’s capacity for reaching out to new areas.
3. Starting a Deaconess program. The church in Ghana has 20 women in their first group of deaconess classes.

Rev. Erber is very involved in the process to develop seminary instructors (1) and has also been preparing to teach “Introduction to the Old Testament” through WhatsApp for the new training programs for pastors (2) and deaconesses (3). Joyce serves as the business manager for LCMS work in Africa. She is responsible for managing the financial and accounting dynamics for 25 LCMS missionaries and 82 mission projects in Africa.

If you would like to keep up with our Michigan District missionaries, visit our missions page to sign up for their newsletters. For a related article on missions during the pandemic, click here.

_{Photos courtesy of Rev. David and Joyce Erber}