Widows giving sacrificially towards God’s cause go back to the time of antiquity. Some have given to support God’s work when it was all that they have. They do not shirk when there is a call to give to extend God’s work. Such is the case of Alice Obeng, a staunch Seventh-day Adventist usher at First Ghana SDA Church in the Bronx, New York.
Ante Alice, as she well known, has been singing the great Christian hymn, “Hark the voice of Jesus calling” many times since she became an Adventist. According to her, “sometimes it was without any meaning on my life as I sang by rote.” After sometime this song took a profound meaning on her life and she decided to put the words of this great hymn to action by doing something small for the Lord. Her target was to help the less fortunate in Ghana, her homeland.
A widow the last three years without any gainful employment, she still felt that she can reach back to Ghana to help someone doing something for the Lord. Every year she sends donations to some churches in Ghana to help them in their programs and church construction. Unbeknown to most of us she has always been sending Ghanaian wax print cloth to some poor widows in Ghana to support them for as she said, “I can identify with them”. Recently she heard and read about the challenges facing Pastors and gospel workers who labor for the Lord in remote areas of Ghana and she wanted to help them too. She started setting aside some money. Soon she found out that she has saved about $4000.00 for God’s work in Ghana.
“I was flabbergasted to see how the Lord was quickly blessing me the moment I decided to save and invest in His vineyard,” she said smiling uncontrollably. “I realized that this is what God wanted me to do to for others to spread the good news of Christ. She continued, “I do not know how to preach and I cannot cross the oceans to Ghana to preach. I felt I can lend a helping hand to equip someone who is doing God’s work on the frontline.”
Without any faint idea of what has been incubating in her mind, she recently came to church to make a donation of three brand new Dell power point projectors and a laptop computer worth about $4000.00 to the glory of God. This is meant to help evangelize Ghana. She specifically directed that one power point projector and the laptop be given to Taifa SDA Church in Accra and the other two projectors be given to Evangelist Dennis of North Ghana and First Ghana SDA Church. The projector for First Ghana is to be used by the church for evangelistic work in New York City. “My intentions are two-pronged: To help the work both at home and abroad to hasten the second coming of Christ,” she said.
First Ghana SDA Church Pastor, HVA Kuma received the projector on behalf of the church. He asked God’s blessings for her and promised that the project will be used to do God’s work. Pastor SK Twumasi, the secretary of North America Ghanaian Churches received the projector for Evangelist Dennis from Mrs. Obeng.