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Native
Africans Stream into New MTC in Ghana
by
Dale and Darleen Workman
At the current
rate of growth, Church membership in West Africa will double in
the next five years, fueled by a missionary force that is 80% native.
Like Scandinavia in the nineteenth century, where missionary work,
largely accomplished by new converts, caught fire and swelled the
ranks of the Church, so is West Africa today.
Thus, the first
African MTC dedicated this month in Ghana, West Africa, is a robust
facility which will accommodate over 100 missionaries at any one
time, both male and female-and the work before those missionaries
is great as they go to a field ripe, already to harvest.
Temples are
currently under construction in both Accra Ghana and Aba Nigeria.
Membership at December 31, 2001 in West Africa was approximately
118,000, with at least half of those members reside in Nigeria.
As of July 2002 there will be five missions in Nigeria, one in Ghana,
and one in Kinshasa DR. Congo with 850 missionaries currently serving
in the area..
The
first group of missionaries receive training in an MTC Classroom.
Those countries
with significant Church membership in West Africa are: Sierra Leone,
Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Congo, DR Congo
and Cameroon. Languages spoken are mainly French and English. Sierra
Leone, Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria are considered English speaking,
with the others speaking French. The MTC teachers will teach in
both English and French.
President
and Sister Hadley.
The dedication
services were conducted on Friday, May 17 under the direction of
Elder H. Bruce Stucki, Area President for the West Africa Area.
A choir made up of missionaries serving in and around the Accra
region, ten Sisters and twelve Elders provided special numbers.
The first MTC president is Stephen M. Hadley formerly of Bountiful,
Utah.
A walk through
the new facility was conducted by the teachers for all of those
in attendance. On the Saturday following, an open house was held
where between five hundred and one thousand people attended.
An
MTC bedroom.
The classrooms
are spacious, as are the sleeping quarters, each having three bunk
beds and study desks and storage closets. The restrooms with showers
and other facilities are the nicest we have seen in Ghana. Since
the kitchen is modern with stainless steel fixtures, it will take
some time for the cooks, who are used to preparing food in a large
pot over an open fire, to learn to work in such a facility.
The MTC is in
the city limits of Tema, Ghana, the main harbor for shipments coming
into Ghana from throughout the world.
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© 2002Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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