Goleta, Ghana and the Grace of God

Goleta, CA – June 20,  2008 -- It’s not often that a church’s mission goals take on the type of “confluence of energies and entities” as in the case of Goleta Presbyterian Church (GPC), Goleta, California and its mission partnership with a Presbyterian community in Patriensa, Ghana. Funded in part by the Dorcas Davis Endowment Fund held with the Presbyterian Foundation and invested in New Covenant Funds, GPC’s mission in Patriensa celebrates its first anniversary this month.

In its first year, GPC’s special Ghana fund raised over $8000 to build a start-up business - a cooperative bakery run by women that sells baked goods on commission in the village and surrounding areas. In addition, GPC funded workbooks for the village school and made donations to provide school uniforms.  The fund also committed to purchase audio/visual equipment for local Sunday school programs. This past Christmas, GPC members sold 200 BoGo solar flashlights as a fundraiser, and with the added generosity of the company that produces them, a total of 250 BoGo flashlights were delivered to Patriensa this spring. 

The partnership between GPC and the vital Presbyterian community in Patriensa was the outcome of an exploratory trip made in June 2007 when a group from GPC traveled to Ghana.  For many years, leaders from GPC had been interested in creating a long-term mission program to help a church community in a developing country.  During that same period, the pastor of the Patriensa Presbyterian Church in the small Ghanan village  had prayed that his church could find a Presbyterian church in the U.S. with which to partner in thoughtful engagement, combining secular work with the spiritual work of the church community.

After a fortuitous introduction by a couple at GPC to Dr. Osei K. Darkwa, Pastor Steve Jacobsen invited Dr. Darkwa, Ghanaian-born and U.S. educated, to speak to the congregation about his goal to return to Patriensa, his birthplace, to integrate technology into the development of the village.  A descendant of Patriensa’s chief, Dr. Darkwa had left Ghana as a young man to study in America and eventually taught sociology at the University of Illinois-Chicago for many years.  Later, he returned to Ghana to work on his vision of partnering Presbyterian churches in Ghana (its Synod has 2500 churches with a combined membership of more than 600,000) with churches in the U.S. to work on sustainable development programs.  Today, Dr.Darkwa is president of Ghana Telecom University College where locals are trained to work in digital technology.

In June 2007, after a year of preparing and planning, the GPC group arrived in Patriensa.  During their visit, the group met with Dr. Darkwa, established a relationship with Opportunity International, a validated mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and one of the most dynamic micro-enterprise organizations active in Ghana, to form a partnership between local Ebenezer Presbyterian Church and GPC.  The group’s activities included worship with local congregations, visits to schools and businesses to determine the areas of greatest need and research on the promise and challenges of solar technology in Ghana.  The group also conducted meetings with interfaith leaders including Muslims, Catholics and Presbyterians throughout the area.

 As a result, the group concluded there was need in the village to create new businesses and to develop a program to bring simple solar lighting to people’s homes.  According to Dr. Darkwa: “These are common challenges faced by many of our villages.  GPC’s mission efforts are helping Ghana’s development through education and an emerging economy, as well as by providing needed access to hardware and connectivity.”

From Pastor Steve Jacobsen, GPC, “this mission collaboration helps us all to see what the Gospel means in our world.”  The collaboration is testament to the commitment of Presbyterians across the globe to further ministry and mission in meaningful ways.  Dubbed the “Theology of Technology” project by Pastor Jacobsen, GPC’s financial support will help empower rural Ghanans with the ability to apply information and communications technologies to their own social and economic development.  And God’s grace abounds! 

For more information about Goleta Presbyterian Church and its mission work in Patriensa, Ghana, please contact Pastor Steve Jacobsen sjniche@cox.net.  For more information about the Presbyterian Foundation, please contact Barbara Juckett at bwj@fdn.pcusa.org.

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Website URL’s referenced:

Goleta Presbyterian Church:  www.goletapres.org

Presbyterian Foundation:  www.presbyterianfoundation.org

BoGo Flashlights:  www.bogolight.com