TAPPAHANNOCK, Va. — Ghana is one part of the world where Beale Memorial Baptist Church in Tappahannock, Va., is involved in missions, and it started with a tractor.
In the summer of 2006 Brian Toliver, deacon chair at Beale Memorial, traveled to Ghana to distribute mosquito nets through the ministry of His Nets. Malaria is the scourge of Africa, especially in the Sub-Sahara region which includes northern Ghana.
While there Toliver met a Ghanain pastor who shared his vision and passion for reaching people with the gospel, but it would require a tractor. Convinced this was a God-led moment and a farmer himself, Toliver returned to Tappahannock sharing with pastor David Donahue the need. The story was passed to the congregation and a tractor was donated by one of its members.
Mission team members from Beale Memorial Baptist Church Bryan and Nancy Taliaferro, Tyler Lowery and Eddie Hammond, following a village worship service.
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The tractor now travels from village to village allowing farmers to harvest more and become more self-sufficient. It also helps them understand the gospel of Christ is more than a spiritual component, reaching people in a practical, useful way. And it opened the door for Beale Memorial to respond to other needs, such as more mosquito nets, computers for a school and schoolbooks. “Momentum just started to build,” says Donahue.
This past February a mission team from Beale Memorial traveled to Ghana and helped start 15 churches, put the roof on Beale Baptist Church, distributed 1,000 mosquito nets, shared the gospel with thousands of people, distributed soccer balls, clothes, 100 dolls and Bibles, repaired the computer lab for a local school, purchased a five-acre camp for the training of leaders, watched 1,200 people respond to the gospel and saw 42 people baptized.
Starting churches in West Africa is much different than America, said participants. Some villages have as many as 200 people already meeting under a tree. When the team arrived, it was not unusual for people to begin singing and clapping hands. Women danced, and 100 or 150 people came running.
“The soccer ball thing started on my first trip to the village,” says team member Tyler Lowery. “The adults went off to do their thing with the mosquito nets and church planting and I would generally gather the children up, sometimes a handful and many times 50 or 60. I’d explain the soccer ball was a gift from my church to their church. I’d throw the ball in the air and flip-flops and dust were flying. It gave me such joy to watch the kids have such fun, because when you stand back and look at the village you realize there is nothing.”
It may have started with a tractor, but today Beale Memorial Baptist Church is actively involved in missions in Ghana. During its last two mission trips, 2,500 mosquito nets were distributed. Yet the tractor was the vehicle that enabled the church to get on board.