Alcoholic ‘pierced in the heart’ by FCBH

Two participants of a Faith Comes By Hearing workshop held in Hohoe examine the Scripture cassettes. Hohoe, Volta region, Ghana. Photo: BS Ghana/Immanuel Kofi Agamah (GHA03DJ-5.JPG)

ACCRA, Ghana — “It became my habit each morning to drink akpeteshie [a local brew made from palm wine], even on Sundays, before I went to church. I would cause a lot of disturbances during the church service, and had to be escorted out by the ushers.”

Elizabeth Odi recalls only too well those days when her addiction to alcohol made her the object of local ridicule.

“Some people thought my behaviour was caused by witchcraft, and for years, there were a number of different rumours about me,” she remembers. “All attempts by pastors to deliver me proved futile. People lost all respect for me and nicknamed me ‘Radio Ghana’ because I talked too much when I was drunk.

Tot before church

“Then, praise God, my deliverance came one Sunday morning. As was my custom, I called in at the akpeteshie bar to have a tot before going to church, but I was told that it had sold out. Feeling upset, I decided to go home. But something that I cannot describe compelled me to go to church.

“When I walked into the church, an FCBH listening session was in progress, and the Book of Galatians was playing. I sat down quietly and as I listened, especially to Chapter 5:19-21, I felt that my sins were being pointed out to me. I was struck in my heart as to how far I was from God.

People nicknamed me ‘Radio Ghana’ because I talked too much when I was drunk.

“After the tape finished I raised my hand and asked the pastor to replay those verses. The church members all turned and looked at me with scorn, thinking I was going to start creating a disturbance as I usually did. But the pastor did what I had requested. When I heard those verses again, I was pierced in my heart a second time and broke down in tears. The ushers tried to stop me and make me leave, but the pastor told them to leave me alone, and he played the tape a third time. I wept until I could weep no more. The pastor then prayed for me.

“That day marked the end of my drunkenness. My husband who threatened to divorce me is now a happy man and we attend church together.”

Mrs Odi’s life-changing encounter with the FCBH program is just one example among many in Ghana of how audio Scriptures are having a dramatic effect on communities and individuals.

The FCBH program is being undertaken on a national level by the Bible Society and other organisations. The Society itself has established 1,510 listening groups, with tens of thousands of people regularly listening to the Scriptures each week in one of six languages: Akuapim, Ewe, Dagbani, Asante, Nzema and Ga. Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) is running listening groups in four other languages: Adele, Deg, Naafranra and Buli, while the 1,619 groups co-ordinated by Jesus Harvest International are listening to Scriptures in the Kokomba language.

Powerful effect

Many people who attend these groups have described how hearing the Scriptures spoken aloud has had a powerful effect on them, helping them to understand the Bible’s message very clearly. Many have testified, for instance, that although they professed to be Christians, they thought that they could still worship idols and visit the fetish priest.

“I was a Christian, but when the pagans in our village worshipped the gods, I joined in,” remembered one man. “But when I started listening to the cassettes, I changed my mind because I heard some verses saying that if you do not give yourself fully to God, you will not go to heaven.”

Participants at a FCBH workshop in Hohoe listen to one of the Scripture cassettes being played. Hohoe, Volta region, Ghana. Photo: BS Ghana / Immanuel Kofi Agamah (GHA03DJ-6.JPG)

Another man said that he had been obsessed with money, and despite becoming a Christian, had continued consulting fetish priests, hoping that they would help him become wealthy. One day, while attending an FCBH listening session, he heard Matthew 6:25-27. He took its message to heart and no longer worries about money or visits fetish priests.

Bilan Nchiibi was so afraid of the spirit world that he would not allow himself to mourn his father’s death.

“I was told that the gods of the land had killed my father because he was a wizard, and that if I was to mourn him, those same gods would kill me,” he explained. “But when I heard John 11, when everyone, including Jesus, mourned Lazarus’s death, I realised that I could mourn my father, without anything happening to me.”

The program has also helped restore peace between people. Pastor Andrews Aseidu of the Lord’s Peace Church was in anguish because his church was anything but peaceful – the church elders and his wife were engaged in an ongoing, bitter conflict, which was threatening to split the congregation. One day during a church FCBH session, they heard a powerful message about forgiveness. To the pastor’s relief, his wife and the elders have reconciled their differences and peace has been restored in the church.

90-year-old Chief

The Scriptures are also reaching the ears of an older generation of traditional leaders, who still have a considerable influence on people in Ghana’s rural areas. Barima Kwesi Owusu, who, at more than 90 years old, is Chief of Coaltar in eastern Ghana, was unreceptive to the FCBH promoter who visited his village. Feeling that he had seen and heard most things, he placed the cassettes on a shelf, and left them there for four years despite frequent pressure from the FCBH promoter to play them.

One day, after yet another visit by the persistent promoter, the chief played the tapes. He was captivated by the message he was hearing and from then on, listened to the tapes regularly and advised his children to do the same.

“The FCBH men have shown me the way to salvation, with the FCBH cassettes,” the old chief says. “I now have confidence that when I die, I will die in Christ.” (WR 380/5 - 10.03)