VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Ben Kreps:

Welcome to the Mark Prater podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our Executive Director. Mark, I'm busy working on an article that I was asked to write for an upcoming edition of the Sovereign Grace Journal on partnership lessons from Philippians in partnership. It's an edifying exercise to study Philippians through that filter and to see so many of the virtues of healthy, biblical partnership reflected in Sovereign Grace. And you actually have an update for us on this podcast about our partnership with Dyonah in West Africa.

Mark Prater:

I do. First of all, thanks for writing that article, Ben. I'm looking forward to reading it. We were talking before we recorded. I thought that's going to be a good article to read. So, a reminder to everybody who listens to this podcast or reads, check out the Sovereign Grace Journal. But the story I want to tell that really, I think, illustrates partnership among a global family of churches, which we are slowly becoming, a global family of churches has to do with Dyonah Thomas, who's the Senior Pastor of Grace Life Church in Monrovia Liberia. He also leads a pastors college there; a dear friend that we've known for over a decade and a key leader for us in West Africa. He's helping us to build Sovereign Grace Churches in West Africa.

I feel freedom to share this story because Dave Taylor just sent out his Sovereign Grace Missions monthly update and mentioned this as a prayer request in that update. So I feel the freedom to share it publicly. Dyonah Thomas, just a few weeks ago, was diagnosed with what appears to be colon cancer. It appears they've also caught it very early. That's the good news. So, those that are listening to this podcast or are readers of this podcast, please pray for Dyonah; pray that God would heal him, pray that God would direct his steps to the right medical treatment that he needs, pray for his wife May, and for their children, that God would comfort them during this time. And it's important to pray for him, not just for his own healing.

He's an important leader for us. There's actually the very first Sovereign Grace Church's West Africa Pastors and Wives Conference scheduled in the middle of August in Monrovia, Liberia that will draw pastors and their wives from Ghana, from Guinea, from Sierra Leone, from the West Africa region that Dyonah is going to be leading. So, he just has real vision and real faith and real heart for it. This diagnosis hasn't deterred him in any way. He just wants to get it treated. So please, please pray for Dyonah and for his wife, May, if you would.

Ben Kreps:

Yeah, we'll be praying. And certainly one of the lessons on partnership with Philippians is that partnership is nurtured in prayer. That is a vital part of partnership, but also practical care for one another is important in our partnership. And you actually have a story of how that's functioning not just in West Africa, but here in the States. Tell us about that.

Mark Prater:

I do. I want to tell this story because as you mentioned, I think it highlights how partnership works relationally, even across different continents in Sovereign Grace and how we are becoming and really enjoying being a global family of churches. So, members of my church at Covenant Fellowship; Alfred and Virginia Essandoh, a married couple in our church along with their daughter Sophia, had expressed interest in a ministry in Ghana recently. So, I thought, let me connect Dyonah with Alfred in Virginia.

So just a few weeks ago I set up a Zoom meeting between Dyonah and Alfred and we talked through a number of things in West Africa, including this ministry in Ghana and Dyonah said, actually, Ghana is my second home. He has a lot of friends there, travels there. As the conversation progressed, learned that we're actually thinking about planting a church in Ghana, probably in Accra sometime, maybe in the next five years because Dyonah knows a pastor there, he's known for over a decade, who just has a heart to plant a Sovereign Grace church. So we just had a wonderful conversation, not knowing at the time the role that Alfred and Virginia would play in helping Dyonah.

So when I heard of Dyonah's diagnosis, I just reached out to Alfred and said, Hey, would you and Virginia be praying for Dyonah? He has this diagnosis. And Alfred got back to me and said, I know from growing up in Ghana and going to university in Ghana, I have friends who are physicians, who are either in Ghana or travel to Ghana and I'd like to try to connect my friends, my physician friends, with Dyonah. So, long story short, that's exactly what has happened. Alfred's interacted with Dyonah, he's interacted with his physician friend who does who does colonoscopies, who sort of lives in the world of the specialty that Dyonah needs. And even though he practices here in the States, he'll be back in Ghana, his home, sometime in the next few weeks. And, hopefully, Dyonah can travel to Ghana and they can meet and he can begin treatment and care. So, no one knew at the time when I set a Zoom meeting about totally something else, that the Lord would use these relationships and events hopefully to be a means of grace, a means of common grace to help and maybe bring the right treatment for Dyonah.

And by the way, why is he going to Ghana? His physicians in Liberia told him, we just don't have the advanced technology that other nations around us have. So go to Nigeria or go to Ghana. And, by God's grace and through his good sovereignty with my friend Alfred, there are new people that can help treat him in Ghana. So it's a wonderful story of partnership that I wanted to tell because I want the members of our churches to hear this. As we become more of a global family of churches, involvement in our global mission is going to be vital and important. I really want to encourage everyone to be involved in whatever way they can because that's only going to strengthen the partnership we share and that we're trying to live out as modeled in the book of Philippians.

Ben Kreps:

Yeah. Well, we're rooting for you, Dyonah. We'll be praying for you. What a sweet providence that God orchestrated in all of this to help care for Dyonah. Gordon Fee in his commentary in Philippians says in biblical partnership, it's not just two that are partnered, but it's a three-way bond. It is between us and West Africa and Christ, that our partnership is rooted. So, that's a beautiful story of how God is using that partnership to care for others globally. So thank you for the update, Mark. Thank you all for watching or reading. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.