Volunteers share the gospel and medical care with 500 women
As the OneWay Africa team works to spread the gospel to unreached people groups in northern Ghana, some of the people from those regions migrate to work in the capital city Accra, where the ministry headquarters is located. Earlier this month the team organized a medical missions outreach to share the gospel and serve some of these migrant workers, known as “kayaye.”
The kayaye (transliterated “luggage women”) are a marginalized group of women and girls who accompany shoppers in the marketplaces and carry purchases in baskets or buckets on their heads. Often they are uneducated, alone and vulnerable to disease and mistreatment on the streets.
The OneWay Africa team is grateful that the Lord opened an opportunity for them to address the kayaye’s needs. Since last year, Urban Missions Coordinator Portia Owusu-Amoateng has made frequent visits to the places where kayaye live, building relationships with around 20 of them as well as holding weekly meetings with them at the Philip Centre, one of OneWay Africa’s two ministry centers in Accra.
On March 7, after much preparation and coordination, about 65 volunteers and staff provided care and distributed gifts such as medicine, clothes, sanitary towels and snacks to the kayaye. More than 500 women came — a much higher number than the team anticipated, but they trusted the Lord to be able to take care of them all. And He did!
The women were very grateful. One of them asked a OneWay Africa staff member if the team was going to take money from the kayaye for all the care and gifts they were giving. When she heard there was no charge involved, she was dumbfounded. She said that as kayaye they suffer much abuse at the hands of people, so for them to receive such love and care was truly amazing.
As part of the medical missions outreach, volunteers met with women individually, sharing the gospel and praying for them. By God’s grace, about 100 of these women gave their lives to Christ!
This outreach wouldn’t have been possible without a number of Christian doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technologists, evangelists, medical students and many others who joined the OneWay Africa staff to provide care and share the gospel.
“It’s beautiful to see partnerships at work,” said OneWay Africa Director Ray Mensah, calling it their first major urban missions project since they first started serving the unreached people groups in Accra.
OneWay Africa’s outreach to the kayaye is both a ministry as well as a strategic gospel-advancing effort. The team is praying and trusting the Lord to bring many more of the kayaye to know Christ and become ambassadors of the gospel back in their hometowns.
The team plans to follow up with the women who came to the March 7 outreach as well as reach out to more kayaye in April. They are also engaging with churches and individuals to come alongside the outreach to the kayaye.
Join in praying for the continued weekly outreach to the women working as kayaye in Accra. Ask God to raise more new disciples among the unreached in Accra. Pray for lasting fruit to the glory of God.
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