Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord. His name is truly wonderful. “The name of the LORD is as a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is SAFE.” In a world full of fear and uncertainty, I am thankful there is safety in the name of Jesus Christ.
We returned to Ghana on February 24th. The Lord has brought healing to my health. I have regained twenty pounds and much needed muscle mass. My A1C is down two points. The doctors took me off oral medication and placed me on insulin. I feel better than I have in years. For that, I am grateful.
These last several months have been the busiest months ever. Between being involved directly in Mt. Calvary Fundamental Baptist Church and the Calvary’s Hope Academy, life is exciting. We have had several professions of faith since our return, and will be having a baptismal service in one week to bring them into the church membership.
This is the first semester that I have not taught a course in our Bible Institute. I am thankful for the men whom God is using to further the student’s Bible education. While we previously stated we will have four graduates, one of the students was unable to attend his last semester so there will only be three. We are thrilled for the two men and the one pastor’s wife who will graduate. They are all godly, faithful Christians. Graduation will be Saturday, May 2nd. Next semester, we are fundamentally changing the way our Bible Institute operates and will bring in students from around the country.
After much time sorting and organizing, God enabled us to send needed Sunday School materials, Bibles, New Testaments, songbooks and other items to several national pastors around Ghana. Our storage facility is now almost empty again and ready for the next container.
The Lord has continued to provide the finances for the Calvary’s Hope Academy. We are officially under the $100,000 mark: we need $99,819.79 to finish the building. We plan to have the building fully operational by September 1st, Lord willing. We now have sixteen students in the school. Twelve of those are paying students. Of the remaining four, two are in our watch care until the building is complete and two are needy children from our church. The Lord has provided support for these four children. We are currently following up on four true orphans and hope to take the two younger ones into the children’s home. This September, we anticipate a student body of between 60-90 students which is why we are fervently praying for the Lord to finish the construction.
Two weeks ago, the Lord allowed my wife and I, along with a local pastor, to travel fourteen hours to the north to the city of Tamale. Tamale, the fastest growing city in West Africa, is 80% Muslim. They need Christ. To our knowledge there is only one fundamental baptist church in the city. We were able to visit the church and bring them Bibles, gospel tracts and Sunday school materials. God also miraculously allowed us to visit with the Muslim chief (king) of the city and pray with him. He has invited us back, and we hope to go again. Additionally, we were able to go inside the largest mosque in Tamale and pray to the God of Heaven to send laborers to reach that great city with the gospel. We fully anticipate sending men there as God calls them. We are even now looking at land in several places around the city which we can potentially buy to prepare for church-plants. While the trip there and back was incredibly rough, we are so glad that we went. We had the privilege of giving a dear Muslim lady the gospel. She had some knowledge of the Bible, and had many questions; we believe that she got saved. God saves Muslims. Hallelujah!!! Upon returning home, Angie developed a cough (from the dust) which she is just now starting to get over, nearly two weeks later. These kinds of opportunities never come without challenges but they are so worth it.
While there is always much more ministry news to share, we have run out of space. We look forward to writing another update soon. May God bless you as you continue co-laboring with us in the gospel.
Your Missionaries to West Africa,
James & Angie Ruckman