Thursday, December 13, 2012



Last night we had a wonderful cultural treat. We got to listen to composers and musicians from Isaac's village sing songs. Isaac has been sharing some Bible stories and together they have been composing songs. Music is a wonderful bridge to presenting the gospel. This song is about the fall of man.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012



Terah Jo has been such a breath of fresh air to have with us for the past three months. Her love for kids is amazing as is their love for her. This will be the last week in Ghana and then she flies back home a week from today from Accra.

Just recently she learned how to make the Ghanaian head dress as pictured above.

Where ever she and Ryan decide to share Christ with kids they will do a wonderful job. Please pray with us that they will join us in Ghana. A great foundation has already been laid and they will do a great job.

Thank you Terah Jo. We love you and will miss you.

Terry and Amy

Wednesday, October 17, 2012


Bobby and Mandy have decided to join our team. They have been approved by Team Expansion and have secured a two year lease on a house in Buipe.

We look forward to their coming. Their goal for coming is January 1st. There is much to do. They have a few more start up funds and monthly support to raise.

We would appreciate your continued prayers.

Thursday, October 11, 2012


Bobby and Mandy Graham have been with us a little over a week researching whether they would like to join our team. I took them out to the animal husbandry development which means walking through water so naturally we had to wear boots and Bobby and I had to carry our machetes.

We've had a good time getting acquainted and have been processing many questions.

Please pray with us for clarity for God will.




Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Four Gonja Baptisms


September 30th we had a real treat during our worship service. Sophia, Isaac's niece, had been sharing stories with Salu (top right). He came to church saying he wanted to become a follower of Christ. When we went to baptize him, Emmanuel (top left), Aziz (bottom left) and Emmanuel (bottom right, Isaac's oldest son) all decided to be baptized into Christ.

They are all Gonja and I can't wait to see what God will do as they share their faith with others.

May God be glorified!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Mark's Visit


It was great having Mark, one of our friends and partners in ministry, visiting us from the States.

Eyes on the ground are the best way of understanding what God is doing.

On the way from Accra to Buipe our truck broke down. At first we were wondering how much of Mark's visit would be spent waiting for the truck to be repaired. But praise God we broke down in a town where we had friends who referred us to some mechanics who diagnosed the problem and had us up and running early the next morning. We all marveled at the fact that they located a used rear-end for our truck and replaced it with very few tools. God is good!

Mark helped with several projects around the Permaculture Training site, was able to visit Isaac's farm and experience church under a Shea Nut tree at Isaac's house, Gonja style.

Each night we played Pinochle which was a real treat.

Thank you Mark for your sacrifice.

God was glorified through your visit.

Terry and Amy Ruff

Sunday, June 10, 2012




Well, the masons have worked hard at raising the addition to the Permaculture Training Center. This addition will have three bedrooms and a training room that we can use to house mission teams and area leaders that will come to the center for training. We will be using it to teach people organic farming principles that will help them raise food and animals for their families and villages. The concept of being good stewards of the land by replenishing the soil with compost material (instead of burning), controlling insects with local plants like neem and lemon grass and containing animals by the means of living fences is unknown to them and at best rarely practiced.


Community development is a large part of our vision of sharing Christ with those with whom we work. Loving people in practical ways allows them to know we care and opens up doors for sharing the love of God through Bible stories.


Of course we will also use it to train Christian leaders and church planters as well. In just a few weeks Isaac will be training church leaders from various villages where he has planted churches. Whether the training is to help church leaders be better leaders and church planters or to help their people with practical methods of agriculture that will help the people of their villages, our prayer is God will be glorified!


The center above is being completed as the funds come in. $10,000 has been pledged and $5,000 more needs to be raised to complete the site development. Please make this a matter of prayer. The sooner we have it completed the sooner we can use it for the glory of God.


May God be glorified!


Terry and Amy



Sunday, May 27, 2012


This is the view from Saboba, Ghana looking across the river into the country of Togo. We returned home last night after visiting Philip, one of the evangelists that we trained with Bridges training recently in Tamale.


We were very pleased to see the response he said he is receiving from his people using the story-telling method of discipleship.


While there he introduced us to some of the Council of Churches members to encourage them to let Philip train them with the Bridges course with the desire that they train leaders that they know. They were very excited as we shared how well this is working, particularly among the illiterate in oral cultures. We are anticipating great things from this group.


We were also able to visit several of the farm plots that Philip is farming to provide funds and resources for his family, ministry and especially the widows and orphans in his 17 churches.


It is so great seeing God at work.


Sustained by your prayers.


Terry and Amy 

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

What Encouragement A Short-Term Team Can Bring!









 We can't begin to express in words the benefits we have received from the Northside Mission Team that recently visited. So many things happened. Let me name a few, we:


  • taught children about the importance of personal hygiene.
  • played with the children.
  • prepared sack lunches each day.
  • received gifts from the village - (Bob received a Gonja smock, guinea fowl and yams)
  • met with the village health team
  • washed the feet of Saliu, our newest story-teller working with the Fulani. We gave him the Fulani NT in audio format as well as a water purifier to help improve his health.
  • told the children stories (Tony really got into it.)
  • observed how they make FuFu, one of their main foods.
  • created a bicycle water pump to help fill the tanks at the village water purifier the team previously installed.
  • taught personal hygiene at the village where we hope to install the next water purifier.
  • enjoyed great fellowship.
  • participated in the naming ceremony for Isaac's new baby girl.
  • celebrated Terry's birthday.
  • visited the market.
  • had a lot of fun
Thanks Northside for a wonderful time of encouragement and service. Thanks team for a job well done.

God was truly glorified through you and your sacrifice. Amy and I love you and really appreciate you.




Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sunday with the Northside Team

If you haven't had a chance to see the pictures of the team at work and play please check out our website at: http://ruffupdate.com/Photos.html

Sunday began with breakfast and then attending Isaac's church in his backyard under a Shea Nut Tree. Church, the oral way, is very simple yet powerful. We had a great time.

After Church we came back to our house along with Isaac and Comfort (his wife). We listened to their story. Isaac was raised Muslim and disowned by his family for three years after his conversion. Isaac shared about the opposition he received when he moved back to his home village as a Christian and how his parents and the village are beginning to respond to him more positively. He still has a few that are still persecuting him so we need to continually pray for him and the believers there.

Then I took the team down to the spring-fed garden and we took a look at what we have been able to do in the hottest/dryest time of the year.



As we were return to our house it began to rain. The ground is so parched and we have been praying for rain, so what a way to end the day.

The team has been doing a wonderful job.

Keep praying.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Great first day in the village with the Northside Team



We had a great first day in the village.

http://ruffupdate.com/Photos.html

Please keep praying. Today we play and minister the the children.

May God be glorified!

Terry

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Team Arrived Safely In Buipe

Long day of traveling but the Lord answered your prayers by helping us have a safe drive, some very enlightening and challenging cultural experiences and they are now settled in their room with full stomachs and plenty of clean water.

Our day begins tomorrow with part of the team preparing for Isaac's roof and part of the team begins following up on the water project.

Keep those prayers a coming!

May God be glorified!

Terry and Amy

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Northside Team has arrived safely in Ghana.

After a long flight from the US, the team arrived safely and we began our journey north.

We only drove a couple of hours to the top of the mountain so we are only an hour away from our breakfast stop in the morning.

We had a great time of fellowship and wonderful meal together overlooking the city of Accra.

I could tell they were very tired and so after supper they went to bed. We leave early in the morning for Buipe.

Please pray for our journey north.

May God be glorified!

Terry and Amy

Friday, March 23, 2012

Site Development Begins


The land is so depleted of carbon material that we will be creating several places to plant where we will deposit a layer of sawdust with a thin layer of chicken manure. It serves as a compost that retains the moisture in the soil and keeps the weeds under control and every time it rains the nutrients from the chicken manure and the decomposing sawdust will enrich the soil.

We will pull back the sawdust, plant in the soil and compost around the plant with sawdust. Time will tell but much of the research that we have been doing says this will work. I wish we had a wood chipper that we could shred up some branches, leaves and all, and use.

The next challenge will be how to keep the goats and sheep out until the living fences are established. We will probably be stretching chicken wire for a temporary measure.

Hopefully soon we will have a hand dug well at this site as well to help with water needed to not only water plants and trees that we will be planting but eventually to provide water for the animals we will be working with.

Plans are underway for five beehives, a facility to grow mushrooms and managed grazing areas for the animals we will be raising.

We covet your prayers and partnership.

May God be glorified!

Thursday, February 23, 2012



The last three Sundays we have been visiting different churches to encourage the believers. The picture above is the church that meets in Kabilpe. We also visited Sawaba and Lingbinsi. You can check out some of the photos at our website under the "church visits" gallery.


A lot of challenges still continue for which we need your prayers. Isaac has been struggling with reoccurring Malaria and just two nights ago we had a hard wind/dust storm that blew the roof off of our grinding mill. While Isaac and the kids were huddled together in one of the rooms of their house they noticed that termites have eaten all of the wood holding up the roof of his house. And of course all of this is happening when our funds are low. God is good and will provide.


Sustained by your prayers.


Terry and Amy

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Fulani Man Accepts Christ




A group of Fulani came to Isaac telling him they wanted to be believers in Christ. They told him that they have been watching him, noticing how he and the believers live and have decided they need to live differently and wanted to become followers of Chrsit. They have seen the love the believers show to others. Isaac told them stories of Christ. He went to their house, sat on mats and told them more stories.  The Fulani man told Isaac this story. "This past week we caught a Gonja boy slaughtering one of our cows. He told Isaac that he decided he should forgive this young man this first time who did this. As it happened there was a boy watching the Fulani man’s cows. The boy saw the young man who killing the cow. Because the young man had a gun, the boy didn’t confront him but ran to tell the owner what had happened. The young man had broken the legs of the cow and slit it’s throat and was preparing to take it to his house to smoke and take to market to sell. The young man is in hiding because he knows he has done wrong. If no action is taken, he will return to his village. The Fulani man has forgiven him, not because of any action of his, but because of Isaac’s life and influence. The mother and sister of this young man came to talk with Isaac. He told them that the Fulani man has forgiven the young man because of him. He tells them, “You don’t know the LORD, the One who helps you in time of need. Your son and brother was forgiven because of me. The taking of other people’s property, stealing animals (cows, goats, sheep, chickens) and taking them to market to sell is wrong.” Isaac prayed with them that their hearts would be open to the love of Christ. Isaac tells us, “When things like this happen, a door opens. You can use this open door to share Christ with them to see if they will repent. There are many women in the village talking about me because the Fulani man is telling everyone that he forgave the young man because of Isaac. They are saying that Isaac has been a great benefit to our community. He has helped us in many ways.”

On another note…
Isaac is in the process of creating “farm” story sets for the church planters to use as they go out taking permaculture methods as well as the gospel to surrounding villages.

Keep those prayers a coming.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Another Story Teller Dies Suddenly - Please Pray!


More shocking news 


The death of a storyteller at Kulonso 4. He the guy in the white smock in this picture. He is Alex K. Jimah. He died yesterday the 3/01/12 from a really short illness. The source has it that his wife finished preparing food and as they were getting ready to eat, he complained of some form of spinning in his head and he laid down.The next thirty minutes, he was dead.


Please pray for Isaac's church planters who will be visiting the family.


Isaac, Amy and I just arrived in Accra to begin our meeting with David and Barbara Kalb, Austin and 11 evangelists from the northern region of Ghana. We will be taking them through a portion of the Bridges training and begin partnering together in church planting among oral people. 


Also check out the latest photos on our website concerning our move to the new house in Buipe. 


May God be glorified!


Terry and Amy Ruff