What do we do at Spirit of Grace Ministries? That’s a good question. Obviously if we are a Christian ministry, the short answer is that we minister to people. But ministries have specific callings, just as people have specific callings, and two ministries can be vastly different, even though both are ordained of God and enjoy His grace upon their efforts. 

Over time ministers and ministries evolve toward certain specific forms of ministry, usually in line with the gifts and calling that is given to the founder of the ministry. No minister or ministry can do it all, and we are wise when we limit ourselves to those God-ordained efforts and activities that produce good results and much fruit. In my case, that involves two major endeavors: teaching God’s word and African missions. 

Bible Teaching  

Since my childhood I have always felt an attraction toward teaching. I can remember admiring my schoolteachers when I was around 10-11 years old and wanting to be a teacher “when I grew up.” My mom discouraged this, however, and told me plainly that teachers made little money, and that I should be some kind of engineer instead. For a while I listened to her but by the time I graduated from college, my inborn predisposition to teach overcame Mom’s warnings about low salaries, and I ended up a schoolteacher. 

But in those college years, something happened. I found Jesus Christ and was born again. And over the next few years I became less passionate about teaching math and reading and more interested in teaching the Scriptures. It did not take long for God to open the door. At the age of 25 I became involved in teaching a small group of believers who met in each other’s homes and within a couple of years I was a pastor with a small but growing congregation. 

Over the years I have taught as a pastor, in radio ministry, television ministry, and through writing. Teaching is such a part of my spiritual DNA that even when preaching as an evangelist in Africa, I could not help but teach as well as preach. I could not simply pound on the pulpit and tell my audience to “turn or burn.” I had to teach them something: what is the sinner’s condition, exactly what happens at the new birth, why did Jesus emphasize His return, and much more. I had to do more than merely exhort people to be saved, somehow and in some way, I had to give them something to think about. 

As Spirit of Grace Ministries grew and developed it was natural that Bible teaching should play a major role in the ministry. One aspect of my teaching has to do with something the Lord directed me to do shortly after Benedicta and I were married. In those days I had multiple dreams over the course of several months that encouraged me to have Bible studies in the mornings with Benedicta. At first, I resisted, feeling like this would take away time from my busy schedule, especially since our Bible studies often would last between thirty minutes and an hour. But finally, in the face of these repetitive dreams, I yielded, and we began to study the Bible together in the mornings. 

Sometimes the studies would be so fresh and enlightening that I would try to write an article to summarize them in a written form. But often, by the time I was ready to write them, several days had passed and I lost some of the excitement and life that I had originally felt. Finally, I decided to record these studies, mostly as audio recordings but sometimes in a video format. And these studies have resulted in many different articles, videos, “devos,” and podcasts. 

Sometimes I create video devos for YouTube that feature only me, but many times I post audio and video studies between the two of us. Between researching the topics, doing the Bible studies, editing the video or audio files, and then uploading them, this requires a lot of time and effort, but it is a labor of love, and Ben and I are happy to do it. These days we have three different times of Bible studies: 

Video Devos

My weekly video devotionals. I normally post these video devos on Monday mornings. They involve me sharing a 7-10 minute talk on various Bible topics. Most of these studies had their origin in one of Ben and my morning Bible studies. I then condensed the study and stood in front of a camera with a green screen behind me and started talking. Although they rarely last longer than nine minutes, they are edited so precisely that you can gain a lot of Biblical insight in a short time. 

Den & Ben Bible Study

A video Bible study series with Benedicta and me. These are Bible studies Ben and I do at our dining room table. Each video session will normally last 45 minutes or even an hour, but we have a video editor who separates these into bite-sized YouTube videos lasting around fifteen minutes. They often involve a study of a Bible character, like Moses, Abraham, and the apostle Paul. These normally drop every Thursday. 

Discover the Word with Den & Ben Podcast

Benedicta and I record the audio from our morning studies and post them as podcasts, usually two per week. Since these are “audio-only” they enable listeners to enjoy and learn the Bible even when they are in their cars, out for a walk, or sitting in their favorite easy chair, sipping some tea. There’s nothing to watch but plenty to hear. 

TO SEE VIDEOS FROM OUR YOUTUBE BIBLE-TEACHING CHANNEL, CLICK HERE

Ministry in Africa

Many years ago, while pastoring a church in Texas, I watched a video produced by an evangelist who ministered throughout Africa, a German man named Reinhardt Bonnke. I was transfixed. The video showed a recent African mission he had done, and I saw him preaching to thousands of Africans, calling them to Jesus, and praying for the sick. I was gripped deeply by what I saw and heard, and tears coursed down my cheeks. I couldn’t imagine anything better or more fulfilling than doing what Bonnke was doing. I did some serious praying at that time, but I could not imagine any possible way that I could do what he was doing. I had no money, no African connections, and no possible idea of how I could travel to African nations and preach Christ. But the desire was surely there. 

Over the ensuing years, God put all the necessary components together in my life. The connections were established, money became available, and doors opened. My first African mission was in Kenya, where I saw more people come to Jesus in a couple of weeks than I had seen in the last decade of evangelism and teaching I had done in America. I was euphoric! The desire of my heart had been granted. 

Eventually I married Benedicta, who is a Nigerian, and this opened even more doors for me in Africa. We spent around 12 years doing evangelistic crusades, holding conferences, providing free medical clinics, and giving out food to the local widows. This was not our full-time work. We spent more time in American than in Africa, but several times each year we ministered in nations like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nigeria, along with doing missions in India and the Philippines. It was exhausting work, but it was such a blessing to see the hand of God upon these missions, and lives transformed. 

We were in Africa when Covid first surfaced in a big way in the United States. We feared we might not be able to make it back to the U. S. but thank the Lord, we did squeak into the country just before travel began shutting down. We knew that we would have to take a break from doing in-person African meetings, so we focused upon sponsoring missions in Africa, along with charitable work. 

When Covid dissipated and travel became possible again, we did not find the green light from the Lord to resume our in-person missions. We now had enough African contacts that we could conduct missions through our friends, and save the money required for us to travel overseas as well as the hotel and food costs. And while I prayed about this significant transition, the Lord put it on my heart to create the “JESUS COURSE.” Here are the major African ministries we are now conducting:

THE JESUS COURSE

Benedicta and I have put together around twenty videos which all center on the Person of Jesus Christ: who He is, what He taught, what He did, what it means to abide in Jesus, and how we must keep Jesus central in all ministry, whether Sunday School classes or major evangelistic crusades, and everything in-between. We have assembled two teams, one in Nigeria and one in Kenya who will take these videos to various towns and cities and who will show them to pastors, church leaders, Bible teachers, or young people who feel called to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have purchased large-screen televisions and powerful speakers for these teams. For Africans, many of whom do not own televisions personally, the idea of being able to come together and watch these videos on large TV’s is exciting. And the meals we provide are a special bonus. This series normal runs for four days, usually Wednesday through Saturday. 

FREE MEDICAL CLINICS

For Africans, sickness is just a normal part of life. Many will suffer from many bouts of Malaria. And because conditions are often not always sanitary, infections are common. Foul, unclean water can also be a problem. To make matters worse, many Africans need their income just to feed their families and pay their rent and often medical clinics are seen as a luxury they cannot afford. As a result, they will only see a doctor or go to a hospital or medical clinic during a life-threatening emergency, and sometimes not even then. So, when we hold a free medical clinic, they are excited and show up in large numbers. We see old and young people, and we see many eager Mommas who bring their little babies to be examined. Our medical clinics are limited, obviously. We cannot provide surgeries, for example. But just the knowledge that they or their little child will be seen by a medical professional gives them hope. 

FOOD FOR WIDOWS

African widows are often in dire straits. There are few jobs and careers available for women, especially women who have reached middle age or older. Second, there is no government assistance, no welfare, and no food stamps. If you are poor, you had better have some child or relative who will help you, or you will simply starve. In some cases, the widows do have grown children who will take them in and provide their daily needs. But sadly, sometimes their grown children have scattered and don’t stay in touch, and in other cases the children are so desperately poor that they have little to give to the mother who raised them. The reality is that dirt-poor widows is a common component of African life. We cannot feed all the African widows, of course, but we can help the desperately poor local widows, known by the local pastors. And they are very grateful.

THIS IS OUR MISSION

This is what we do. We teach the Bible to people all over the world, and we minister to the Africans, both spiritually and materially. There are many ministries doing a lot of other activities, but this is what we do. It may be that in the future the Lord will lead us into new and different forms of ministry, but for now we fell confident that this is Christ’s calling and direction for us. We would love your support. It requires money to do what we do, and we could not continue for long if it were not for generous, kind-hearted people like you who will make regular donations to Spirit of Grace Ministries. Thanks for thinking of us!