EMERGENCY SCHOLARSHIP CAMPAIGN
For all of us this year, we have been presented with a new way of daily life. It's not very often in our lifetime that the whole world experiences a common trial or battle as we are currently faced with due to Covid-19. So my prayer is that all of you and your families are doing well and leaning on our Savior for strength during these trying times. Susan and I pray daily for our friends and colleagues at Heritage Christian College in Accra, Ghana, as they try to maneuver through this difficult time as well.
One thing that remains constant throughout this time is the very pressing need to share the gospel of Christ to as many souls as possible. Our mission at HCC is to educate and prepare young men and women to be strong Christian leaders for their families, their communities, their businesses, as well as in their churches.
One of the greatest areas of impact to HCC due to Covid-19 has been in student recruiting and enrollment. Unemployment in Ghana is at a record high due to the impact of Covid-19, and many of our students families abilities to pay for tuition has rapidly ceased. The need for student scholarships has always been a focus of ours, and now more than ever, it is an enormous concern to the administration at HCC. It is for this very reason that I am reaching out to you to ask you to consider being part of the solution to this growing problem.
We are often asked how much it costs for a student to attend Heritage Christian College? $5,000 will help cover the costs for one student per year. Partial scholarships are also very helpful. Consider a 1/4 or 1/2 scholarship if a full scholarship is not possible. A one time gift or recurring monthly donation will be allocated directly to our EMERGENCY SCHOLARSHIP CAMPAIGN. Will you join my family and commit to sponsoring one student scholarship during this delicate time? Your commitment will help us reach out to both existing students and potential students who desperately are in need of the financial support these scholarships will provide them.
Susan and I have spent the last 40 plus years of our marriage being personally involved and committed to evangelism and Christian Education. It's a very important part of our everyday life, as I know it is for you as well. With your gift to HCCF and our EMERGENCY SCHOLARSHIP CAMPAIGN, we can all be part of the spreading of the Gospel and Christian Education in Ghana.
I want to thank all of you for your continued support for Heritage Christian College. Not only through your financial support, but through your prayers as well. May God richly bless you and your family.
DEON FAIR-CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD FOR HCCF-USA
INCLUDED BELOW FOR YOUR READING IS AN EXCERT FROM A NEW BOOK BY DR. IAN FAIR : A BIBLICAL KINGDOM THEOLOGY
The legacy of Heritage Christian College lies in the history of churches of Christ in Accra, Ghana, and significantly in the Nsawam Road Church of Christ, which had deep roots dating back to 1968. Records reveal that the church in Accra was established on Sunday, May 19, 1968, by Daniel Asiamah, with 14 people in attendance mostly Bible Correspondence enrollees. In 1970 Asiamah was joined by an American missionary, George Bosman, his wife, and two children who came from a congregation near Lubbock, Texas. They rented a garage, the local term for an automobile workshop, in 1970 to house the new Accra School of Preaching. This building was remodeled into a church meeting place with some space provided for student study. This meeting place was initially leased for 25 years as the home of the new Accra congregation. Since the building was located on Nsawam Road, the church was called the Nsawam Road Church of Christ, with a School of Preaching.
The first group of students graduated in 1972 and settled in different parts of Ghana. In January 1982, Daniel Asiamah who was also the preacher for the Nsawam Road congregation started a school of preaching which became the National Bible Institute with five full-time students using the facilities of a previous school of preaching. The curriculum included a Saturday program of training men in the Nsawam Road church by instruction and in practical evangelism. Some of the men in the church who received training included Samuel Twumasi-Ankrah and Douglas Boateng both of whom became leaders in that congregation and churches of Christ in Ghana. Samuel Twumasi-Ankrah eventually became head of the Bible Institute and now Dr. Samuel Twumasi-Ankrah is the President of Heritage Christian University. Asiamah, the original teacher of NBI traveled each week with the students in a truck to the outlying villages preaching, teaching, and converting people to Christ. In 1984 Asiamah moved to Lome, Togo to join one of his former students named Paul Gbedemah to engage in an evangelistic program in that nation. Togo is an African nation to the immediate east of Ghana.
At this point, 1981, an American missionary, Daniel McVey, moved to Accra and began an association with the Nsawam Road Church. In 1984 McVey assumed the leadership of the local school of preaching then known as the National Bible Institute. The National Bible Institute, apart from the teaching of Daniel McVey, was an entirely Ghanaian program under the supervision and support of the Nsawam Road church incorporating the missional evangelistic program of church planting and leadership development. Several outstanding kingdom living programs have grown out of the Nsawam Road church as a result of ministering to the needs and interests of their members.
In November 1989, Fred Asare who later graduated from the National Bible Institute began signing the worship services for one deaf member, Kwasi Nkrumah. This resulted in the establishment of a deaf ministry and congregation meeting in the same building as the main congregation, and an outgrowth of this ministry to other congregations in Ghana.
Like most developing nations, Ghana has struggled with the problem of young street people not being able to find employment. Through the Village of Hope Orphanage, the Nsawam Road church-supported localized training programs in mechanical, woodworking, leatherworking, and similar experiences. This involved both young men and women gaining experience in life skills. The ever-present problem of orphans, with the aid of interested Christians, led to the establishment of an orphan home, a school system, and a high school program. Asare eventually became head of the high school which has received national accreditation and praise as one of the finest high schools in the region. Each of these programs has received local and national recognition, opening more doors to congregational outreach programs.
Such was the dynamic and genetic nature of the National Bible Institute that its graduates had initiated an ever-expanding evangelistic ministry with literally hundreds of congregations being established in Ghana and neighboring nations. For years it was a requirement that a student graduating from the Bible Institute would need to establish a working congregation before he received his graduation diploma. The net result of this policy was two-fold; one, that many congregations were established, and two, the concept of Biblical and theological maturity for individuals and congregations was that the mission of churches and individuals was missional, planting and mentoring new congregations through evangelism.
