Three stories of faith
Accra, Ghana — Not so long ago, the McCarthy Hill Church…
Missionary Isaac Adotey ‘called home’
‘How are you this morning?”
Once, when Steven Moore asked that question to his friend Isaac Adotey, the African missionary replied, “Better than yesterday.”
“Why’s that?” Moore asked. Adotey replied: “I’m one day closer to heaven!”
“After being diagnosed with typhoid fever and shortly before his passing, he told me, ‘Don’t worry, God is more to me.’”
Adotey helped plant more than 1,000 Churches of Christ and baptize nearly 50,000 souls, said Josiah Tilton, his longtime coworker and friend. The native of the West African nation of Ghana died Aug. 13 at age 63.
He and his wife, Janet, moved to Yendi, a city in Ghana’s predominantly Muslim Northern Region, in 1987.
“At the time there were only about four congregations,” said Tilton, director of Ghana West Africa Missions. “Isaac had no money and no prospects to get any. He was, as he always did, going on faith, trusting the Lord to provide.”
The support came, and Adotey ministered in Yendi for 17 years.
He moved to South Sudan just before the country’s independence in 2011. The church he planted in the capital, Juba, grew to 100 members before civil war forced him to leave. He spent his final years in the nation of Guinea-Bissau, nurturing a small church there.
Moore served as missions committee chair for the West Side Church of Christ in Searcy, Ark., which oversaw Adotey’s work in South Sudan and Guinea-Bissau.
“Prayer was such a major part of his Christian walk,” Moore said. “He gave many prayer seminars throughout Africa. He routinely woke at 3 or 4 in the morning for a time of prayer.
“Isaac eagerly awaited the day that he would be called home. … After being diagnosed with typhoid fever and shortly before his passing, he told me, ‘Don’t worry, God is more to me.’”
