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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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