Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2014 | Page 44

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alumni news

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Sam Boateng M.A. ’14 is one of 1,000
international students, furloughing
missionaries, pre-field missionaries, and
urban/ethnic ministry workers who have
received advanced degree training through
the Billy Graham Center Scholarship
Program, founded in 1975.

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from idol worship
to Christian ministry

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by Andrew Thompson ’13

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After growing up
hungry and poor in
a pagan society in
Ghana, this BGC
Scholar will soon
begin equipping
Christian leaders
in West Africa.

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W H EATON .EDU / M A G A Z I N E

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“Lord Jesus, I am so sorry
for all the stealing I’ve done. I was so
hungry, and I wanted to feed my family.
Would you please forgive me and come
and live in my heart?”

The recipient of a BGC scholarship, Sam
came to Wheaton to pursue studies
in historical theology, with the goal
of returning to his roots in Ghana as a
Christian pastor and leader.

record low of 64 degrees Fahrenheit,
but Naana loved the snow from the start.
At Wheaton, Sam has been exposed to
teaching from professors he describes
as humble and brilliant.

Sam Boateng, M.A. ’14, prayed these
words after hearing God’s call on his
young life through a street evangelist in
Ghana.

Paul Bowers ’98 and BGC Scholar
Femi Adeleye M.A. ’86 encouraged “Studying how the church of Jesus Christ
Sam to apply to Wheaton’s program. across the centuries has engaged with
Femi mentored Sam while they the theological, political, and social
worked as pastors at Akuapem Ridge issues thrown at her has equipped me
“My family lived in one small room. We
Interdenominational Church, an hour to be able to think theologically about the
cooked in that room, and we all slept on
east of Accra, Ghana’s capital. Because context of Africa and the issues that face
the floor in that one room. I slept there
of Femi’s formative Wheaton experience the African church,” Sam says.
for over 20 years. That night I went home,
and Sam’s passion for ministry, Femi and This May, Sam will return to Ghana to
with no food, and lay down in my usual
his wife parted with the little money they pastor a growing evangelical church,
spot. The next day, I began to talk to
had to send Sam to Wheaton.
and to lead an initiative to equip other
people about Christ,” he says.
Christian leaders in Ghana and in the
“I expect the relationships he nurtures at
Few people move so quickly from
Wheaton to make him a bridge builder for West African sub-region for church
conversion to proclamation, but Sam’s
the benefit of the church in Ghana, Africa, leadership.
story stands out for other reasons as well.
and the wider world,” says Femi.
“Wheaton continues to make a massive
A descendant of the Akan tribe, Sam
Leaving his wife, Gifty, and his three-year- impact on the lives of not just American
grew up in a starkly pagan society.
old daughter, Naana, behind, Sam began students, but on the lives of many like
“We literally worshipped idols. We had an
his 22-hour journey to Chicago in the myself from obscure places in Ghana,”
idol in my room. We worshipped it and
summer of 2012. His family joined him six Sam says. “I want to encourage
it got us nowhere. I became a Christian, months later, in the middle of Chicago’s Wheaton alumni that the flame that was
and the first-ever person in my family to
winter. It was a tough adjustment for Gifty lit in 1860 continues to burn for Christ
embrace Christian ministry!”
to leave Accra, a city with a historical and His Kingdom!”

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3/19/14 8:21 PM