Prayer and Politics

Our church supports some mission work in Ghana. Charles Nyane is the leader of Word Alive Mission in Ghana that we help to support. I was happy to read of the following story regarding their political situation. I know that the Christians of the nation were actively praying (sometimes 24 hours a day) about the election - that it would be peaceful and that Ghana would continue to move forward. There are many challenges for the nation as the story tells, but we're thankful to God for peace and safety in a continent that sees far too little of that.

ACCRA, Ghana – Opposition leader John Atta Mills was declared Ghana's next president Saturday in a peaceful ballot that secured the West African nation's place as a beacon of democracy on a volatile continent.

The country is one of the few in Africa to successfully transfer power twice from one legitimately elected leader to another, proof that Ghana's democracy has truly matured after an era of coups and dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.

Atta Mills served as vice president under former coup leader Jerry Rawlings, who stepped down in 2001, and he will have to dispel any notion his rule could hark back to Rawling's strongman era.

Ensuring economic growth will be his biggest challenge. Ghana's economy has been growing by more than 6 percent a year and oil is eventually expected to bring in between $2 and $3 billion a year.

But the New York-based Eurasia Group consulting firm says Ghana's economy is projected to slow along with the rest of the world. It said Atta Mills will "grapple with a growing budget ... high rates of youth unemployment, falling remittance and aid levels, and surging inflation."

Most Ghanaians remain among the world's poorest, earning an average of only $3.80 a day. A tenth of the adult population is unemployed and 40 percent are illiterate.

For the rest of the story, click here.