As I sat at the Home and Urban Missions (HUM) Equippers Training for the Ashaiman Sector held on March 23, 2024, at the Pentecost International Worship Centre, Atomic, and listened to one of the leaders share a testimony of how a deaconess in The Church of Pentecost had resolved to leave the church for a new church that had transformed her son, who was a drug addict, the reality of the HUM effect became more visible to me.
Unknown to this deaconess, the church she was prepared to join to transform her son from being a drug addict into a new person is the same church she attends – The Church of Pentecost. She never expected her miracle to come from her own church. Her shock was evident when she realised it was The Church of Pentecost involved in such evangelistic works.
This is the story of the Home and Urban Missions in gathering the “devils” left in the streets, with no one wanting to have anything to do with them, and making them “saints” for the master’s use.
In the church today, we have classified certain groups of people as not welcome for worship because we think they are the worst of sinners and their place is not the church. However, if they are the worst sinners indeed, then the church is truly their best place to be. Yet, we have neglected our duty to go after such ones with the gospel of truth and light, which is able to break the power that has held them captive and restore their souls.
As we try to answer the question of whether such ones are not part of the lost Jesus came to seek and save, The Church of Pentecost, in its “Possessing the Nations” agenda (Vision 2023), brought about the Home and Urban Missions (HUM) in 2019. The coming of HUM was the church’s resolve to cast its net wider than had been done in the past by going after the marginalised in society whom the gospel is often kept from. Aside from HUM, the church has a ministry for persons with disabilities. This simply tells us the church is not only after polished pearls but also the abandoned stones that need the process (love of Jesus) to become polished pearls in His sight.
The focus of HUM over these five years has been on taking the gospel to Unreached People Groups (UPGs). There are currently 19 Unreached People Groups in Ghana. According to the Joshua Project, an Unreached People Group means there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to engage this people group with church planting. Aside from UPGs are the Unreached Unengaged People Groups (UUPGs), which means there is no church planting strategy, consistent with evangelical faith and practice, underway.
HUM seeks to purposely engage them with the gospel, win and disciple them using their specific languages and cultures. HUM’s mandate does not end with these two groups but also focuses on disillusioned persons in cities and towns, those trapped in slums, and the destitute (head porters – kayayie, drug addicts, prostitutes, the homeless, and street children).
I observed that one of the ministries of The Church of Pentecost very vigorous with training and capacity building is the Home and Urban Missions. Virtually no month passes by without a HUM training program. It is therefore not surprising the results the ministry has produced since its outdooring.
Statistics available show that from 2019 to 2023, 27,404 drug addicts have been won for Christ. Out of this number, close to 6,360 have been rehabilitated. I happened to have met one rehabilitated drug addict at one of the HUM training programs at Ofankor. I was astonished at the fluency with which he read the Akan Bible and his oratory when the Bible was closed.
Curious to find out if he was a believer before going into drugs, he responded in the negative. He was caught up in drugs very early in his youth and later graduated into criminal activities until a policeman led leaders of HUM into his ghetto one time where he surrendered his life to Christ after hearing the gospel preached to him. Everything about him changed from that moment onward. This gentleman, for the first time in almost ten years, had stopped breaking into people’s homes at night to steal. He has now become a church worker and a disciple that Home and Urban Missions is using to reach out to other drug addicts.
There are many HUM stories out there that we need to tell to show how God is transforming hardcore “devils” in our society into vessels of noble use, consecrated and useful to the master for any good work (2 Timothy 2:21). I believe the “Possessing the Nations” agenda first begins with reaching out to these destitute with the power of the gospel to transform them into salt and light in our society.
In the same period from 2019 to 2023, 2,502 commercial sex workers have abandoned their trade to follow Jesus by surrendering to Him. While figures for street dwellers stand at 7,321, that of northerners in the south won for Jesus reached over 35,201. The effort of reaching out to children has also been highly positive, with 14,130 children won through HUM and Bible Clubs introduced purposely to target them. One will not say this has been an easy sailing for the ministry.
Efforts of the ministry have come with many challenges, attacks, and temptations, but the Lord has proven strong at all times and comes through for the ministry in overcoming obstacles associated with their work. One initiative that has been of immense help to the ministry is constant dedication to prayer by the works of the Nation Possessors, whose mandate is to raise and bear the ministry up in prayers with regular long weeks and hours of marathon prayers.
The records from the fieldwork of the ministry make for interesting interpretation. Out of the total 84,852 souls won, 41,623 have been baptised in water; this represents nearly half of the souls won. A total of 42,406 souls have been retained in the church and are undergoing various discipleship training. This has led to the opening of 610 HUM churches comprising 286 assemblies and 324 ghetto churches and HUM cells.
While the ministry lauds itself with these achievements, one area, however, that is of great concern is the rehabilitation drive of the ministry. While the figure showing drug addicts and commercial sex workers rehabilitated is commendable, that number is far too low compared to the many souls won. Out of 29,906 souls won for both drug addicts and commercial sex workers, only 6,360 persons have been rehabilitated. It is here that the church must double its efforts to ensure the rehabilitation aspect of the HUM ministry is attended to. It would be great if the Vision 2028 agenda of the church to build a rehabilitation centre sees the light of day to help address the numerous cases encountered at the various levels of the ministry’s operation in dealing with drug addicts, commercial sex workers, street dwellers, and other marginalised groups.
Until then, when you have had a relation described as deviant and a social outcast but now purposeful for society’s progress, then you will appreciate the work of a ministry such as HUM.
Written by Elder Keith Eubulus Ackah
