Posted by 
Ghana – April 14, 2010. Three Portable Bible School students were baptized in Jesus’ name after a graduation service. A Trinitarian pastor was baptized in Jesus’ name. This was an Internet contact from one of our pastors in the United States. Six were baptized in Jesus’ name during Portable Bible Schools International classes. Two received the Holy Ghost and were then baptized in Jesus’ name at yet another Portable Bible School class.
Colleen Carter
Foriegn Missions Division
United Pentecostal Church International
8855 Dunn Road
Hazelwood, MO 63042
http://www.foreignmissions.com/
Well endowed with natural resources, Ghana has twice the per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa. Even so, Ghana remains somewhat dependent on trade and international assistance as well as the investment activities of Ghanaian diaspora. About 28% of the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 a day, the vast majority of which are Ghanaian women from the politically marginalized and poor northern and upper regions and according to the World Bank
Ghana has a population of about 24 million people. It is home to more than 100 different ethnic groups. Fortunately, Ghana has not seen the kind of ethnic conflict that has created civil wars in many other African countries. The official language is English; however, most Ghanaians also speak at least one local language.
As of 2009, life expectancy at birth is about 59 years for males and 60 years for females with infant mortality at 51 per 1000 live births. The birth rate is also about 4 children born per woman. There are about 15 physicians and 93 nurses per 100,000 persons. 4.5% of the country’s GDP was spent on health in 2003.
The presence of Christian missionaries on the coast of Ghana has been dated to the arrival of the Portuguese in the fifteenth century. It was the Basel/Presbyterian and Wesleyan/Methodist missionaries, however, who, in the nineteenth century, laid the foundation for the Christian church in Ghana. Beginning their conversions in the coastal area and among the Akwapim, these missionaries established schools as “nurseries of the church” in which an educated African class was trained. Almost all major secondary schools today, especially exclusively boys and girls schools, are mission- or church-related institutions. Although churches continue to influence the development of education in the country, church schools have been opened to all since the state assumed financial responsibility for formal instruction under the Education Act of 1960.
Although freedom of religion exists in Ghana, a Religious Bodies (Registration) Law 2989 was passed in June 1989 to regulate churches. By requiring certification of all Christian religious organizations operating in Ghana, the government reserved the right to inspect the functioning of these bodies and to order the auditing of their financial statements. The Ghana Council of Churches interpreted the Religious Bodies Law as contradicting the concept of religious freedom in the country. According to a government statement, however, the law was designed to protect the freedom and integrity of genuine religious organizations by exposing and eliminating groups established to take advantage of believers. The PNDC repealed the law in late 1992. Despite its provisions, all orthodox Christian denominations and many spiritual churches continued to operate in the country.
