The adventure started chasing the sun. We took off at sunset (from NYC) and after 10 hours in the air, we met the sun on the other side of the planet. The mission was to lead our workshops to teach pastors and church leaders the importance of parents pastoring their children in the home. They don’t have statistics, like we do in the US, that quantify the percentage of parents in the church who pray and read the Bible at home with their children, but the message of the importance of faith at home was received as so important that during the conference, Vincent said,
“It will impact our own families as well as the future of our churches.”
Pastor Zach emailed me two weeks later:
“I honestly was blessed and challenged at the same time to be more proactive in instilling faith in my family. My family has started doing devotions together. There is so much joy and happiness in my family now than ever before. I have also taken it as an opportunity to teach the church, of the many significance and blessings that are coupled with it. It is my desire to teach other churches around me on the necessity of having homes devoted.”
The second goal of leading this conference was to do it in such a way that they were able to experience the teachings, first as a participant and then discuss how they could implement the teaching to parents within their indivual settings. I gave them all the digital files (my notes, handouts, videos, transcripts), so they would have everything they needed to share this vision and train parents how to bring God into the framework of everyday life at home. Now the adventure continues as we stay in touch with these leaders, offering ongoing coaching as needed.
A HUGE THANK YOU!
I feel the urgency to take this message to parents in the U.S. and abroad. Thank you to all the donors who made this trip possible. And also our monthly supporters; without your belief in this mission, we wouldn’t have the means to inspire and equip parents to have homes devoted locally and in other parts of the world.
Cultural Differences
One cultural difference was their view of children. They love their children, but expect them to adapt to their adult world much more so then in America. We esteem our children; our world revolves around them. Not so in Ghana. (The last picture on this page will tell this story more.) On the other hand, there is great respect for the wisdom of the elderly. Another big difference was that all their high schools are boarding schools, so at around age 14, children leave home to live at school. This means the time parents have with their children are years shorter than in the United States.
Some things are common in Ghana like most countries: more affluence means more distractions that keep people (and families) from spending time with God as well as a lesser dependence upon God. Another similarity is many parents are both working and because roads are not the best, it can take parents and hour or two just to get home.
Takeaways: Short Video
Meet some of the participants in the video below from the the conference in Ghana. Pastors and church leaders from different denominations share how it impacted them and how they will lead others.
Click here to see even more photos with descriptions.
There are pictures you will laugh out loud to and some you will want to share with your children when they feel the need to complain. 🙂
I led pastors and church leaders for 10 hours on the vision and importance of parents pastoring their children; giving them practical plans to lead the parents in their faith communities.
Naomi (far left) runs a Chrisitan school for children at little to no cost (through fundraising), so children can get an education and hear about Jesus. Francis (on right) is a lay Catholic priest.
Jonah, Constant and George. Jonah and Constant are pastors in the outskirts of Ghana. They go into neighboring villages to share about Jesus, meet needs through education and bring hope. Jonah will visit homes and show them the Jesus Film on his iPad.
Discussing obstacles to why more parents aren’t praying together at home.
We had fun discussing practical ways parents can lead faith in the home. Laughed a lot, too. — with Yakubu Zachariah and Isaac Gyesaw.
This was the poorest village we experienced. This “chief” was in tattered clothes. The other chief we saw was in a bright white robe and had his own courtroom.
When your kids complain that there is nothing to do, show them this picture. They used this rim as a toy. The challenge is to keep it rolling by pushing it with a stick. No balls to kick. No dolls to play with. They barely had clothes.
This is very cool. Pastor Jonah has developed relationships with many Muslims in his village. Ash is explaining (Jonah interpreting) that he brought some solar powered mp3 players that have Bible stories and stories of others from their tribe who have put their faith in Christ.
Meet Cornelia. She became a Christian as a teenager in a Muslim family and held on to Jesus even though she was physically assaulted for her faith in Christ. (I recorded her story. Check back soon.)
These two children are 3 and 5 years old. They sat for all 10 hours of training. No coloring pages. No video games. I think they had paper and pencils. They laughed at the videos, but behaved like they were adults. Makes you wonder what they are doing right, doesn’t it?
Written by Jonathan
Rev. Jonathan Cronkhite has been serving youth and families for the last 28 years. With the heart of a pastor, he encourages and equips families to have Homes Devoted, through conferences, workshops, coaching, and writing. Married to Carrie for 25 years, they have 5 children, three of whom are young adults. Jonathan enjoys working alongside and discipling his teenage sons and their friends, renovating and flipping homes. He supports Carrie as she leads a home school co-op, and together they practice hospitality and serve in the community.
Comments 2
The videos of leaders expressing gratitude was extremely powerful and touching. Thank you for sharing this as it was more rewarding than words on paper could ever possibly be. I wish we could do more but it’s clear they have the hearts and will to teach their own communities. I will continue to pray for Ghana!
Blessings,
Brenda
Author
Brenda,
Thank you so much. It has been a leap of faith and God has been faithful. And prayer is needed.