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MATTHEW A. DEBRAH
Called To Ministry

My Call to Ministry

The grace of God, and the conviction to let others know about God’s desire and plan for their lives has always been a force in my life since about age 9 – before God led me to The Three Angels Message in my teens. Although I was being raised in a Christian home, and cherished reading a Bible which my dad had given me as gift, I had not yet made a decision for Christ; until I understood the Adventist message, and decided for Christ and was baptized in 1988. Right after  my baptism, I started spending a lot of time in private prayers and Bible studies, especially during late nights into early dawns.

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During one of those  prayer nights, I was overwhelmed with a peaceful atmosphere, and immediately I became very light like a paper or a dry leaf, and felt taken away from my surrounding. Then I had a profound conviction that I must go and share The Three Angels’ message and plant congregations in all the idol worshipping towns and communities where there were no Adventists; beginning with the Ga-Dangme, Ewe, and the Northern regions of Ghana. Also, I was convicted that this was going to be a very difficult task, but a possible mission, that as few as 10-15 souls gathering in each of these communities every Sabbath to worship the Almighty would be a great start. I knew the experience was more than a dream, but I convinced myself that it was a dream and that I should not worry
about it. But the conviction to share God’s love with people grew stronger daily.

After high school, I started college with a major in Marine Radio Engineering, which had one of the highest job prospects at the time, however, I had to give it up and dedicate my life to evangelism, because the conviction to tell people about the love of God and the second coming of Jesus grew stronger in my heart constantly.

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Like the Prophet Jeremiah, I could not keep silence, but continued telling people about Jesus and his love for humanity. During another private prayer time, I had same previous overwhelming conviction to go and reveal the truth to the towns near Ningo and build churches. Now, Ningo was the town, where I was staying at the time. Although I realized that God must be talking to me, I felt unfit, unrighteous and too young for such a heavy task. Meanwhile all my siblings and several relatives accepted the good news about Christ that I was preaching and
were baptized. Right after those baptisms, I got some courage and told my elder about the convictions on my heart to reach out to the surrounding towns with the Three Angels messages.


My subsequent prayer times became more intense with convictions to go out and tell people about Christ. In fact, it got to where I loved to pray, but was afraid to, because I always felt too unrighteous and yet having the burden to tell others about Christ. One night in December of 1988, the urge to share the truth came upon me with conviction to go build churches. And I said to myself, ‘but I do not have what it takes to build churches.’ Then was a second conviction that said ‘yours is to build the congregations and someone will follow you to provide the places for worship.’


Furthermore, during another private prayer time in the mid-night, the irresistible Conviction to work for souls came over me to the point where I got out around 4:45AM to go and preach. (Called dawn broadcast). As I started preaching Dan.2 and the second coming of Christ in a town called Ahwiam, I had another profound conviction saying ‘someone will come to you here in few minutes to donate something to you, but be sure you Do Not Receive it because that is not from God’. Amazingly, in about 3-5 minutes after that, I saw someone coming towards me, and interrupting my preaching by praising me for the wonderful words she claimed she was hearing from me and therefore wanted to donate money to God’s work. Then I paused and was gazing at the face in the twilight, at the same time prayed in my head how to answer her. I had no idea how the following words came out of my mouth “The Lord needs your soul before your money, so repent from all your wicked ways and be baptized, and then bring  your money to him!” Immediately I said that, she turns around and went away. That, to me was a physical confirmation of God’s call on my life to full time work for him.


By the space of six years, the Lord led me to plant six strong congregations in six towns around Ningo. Then I was followed by one elder Alock Asamoah, a marine engineer in Tema, Ghana, who the Lord put in his heart to build decent chapels for those congregations (See photos of the church buildings in the gallery) – and I believe that, that was another physical confirmation of God’s call on my life to full time ministry. The conviction that, I was called to build congregations and someone will follow to build the buildings has fulfilled and continue to fulfil right in my eyes. The Lord has done several miracles in the past 35 years in my life as a church planter and revitalizer. My ministry has been heavily in Ghana, the USA, and Kenya. So far, the Lord used me to plant 21 congregations, revitalized 3 dead ones and established 2 grade schools. I have had many 'minor'  upper room experiences within the past 35 years. I pray the Lord to revisit  the day of Pentecost upon me. So that my ordination is truly the   empowerment of the Holy Spirit  to serve him better, and to reach out and bring  as many souls as he assigns me to lead onto  his path of righteousness by in faith Christ Jesus as we  finish the great commission. 

My Resume

MATTHEW A. DEBRAH

8305 Woods Walk

Villa Rica, GA 30180

405 305 1655

mdebrah@gccsda.com

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PERSONAL PROFILE

Commissioned and Licensed minister with remarkable achievements in Church planting, Church revitalization, spiritual counselling and leadership to individuals with diverse backgrounds, people groups, the homeless and addict community, children/orphans, and all ages. Very passionate about training young people to be evangelists and co-workers with Christ Jesus.

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PERSONAL DATA

Born: Ghana, May 28, 1969

Elder since: June 1997

Married: September 18, 2008

Spouse: Grace Adobea Debrah

Children: Roshpinah Debrah, Bezaleel Debrah and Rina-Mercy Debrah.

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EDUCATION

Master in Arts (M.A) – University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, Oklahoma.

Field: Addiction Counseling – In progress.

2014 Bachelor in Arts (B.A) – Valley View Adventist University, Oyibi – Accra, Ghana

Major: Theology

Senior Project: The Sanctuary (Focus on the goat of Azazel).

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MINISTRY EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Senior pastor for the Atlanta Ghanaian SDA Church of the Georgia Cumberland Conference of SDA Church since December 2022.

Only one year and one month in this position, but as the ground was hit running with in-reach and outreach in several capacities, these are some of the significant positive impacts on the community and also in the church such as:

  • Giant step made to initiate strong and healthy friendship with the Austell City/Police Department

  • Partnered with a local non-profit to distribute groceries to families in need, partnered with the Austell Police to celebrate “Faith & Blue” – where our  Path Finders were in their uniforms and serving the community by literature distribution and prayer request collection. Mayor and his wife were highly impressed.

  • The Police Chief said “I will come to church, please let me know when I can come!”

  •  A lot of community parents expressed interest in having their children join the Path Finders.

  •  Strong Mission Group got planted in the Gwinnett County of Georgia with 69 people signed up as members and 91 people are attending.

  • Revival & Evangelistic series of 42 sermons preached, with significant results of 9 Baptisms, many backsliders coming back to church 11 Bible study sign ups, and 10 getting ready for baptism.

  • 8 Day Manual week, where the 20th Edition (2022 Revised) Church Manual was vigorously studied from cover to cover, to prepare the church for electing elders and department workers for 2024/2025.

  •       Twice daily online church got restructured and revived and strongly ongoing with services at 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM except Sabbaths; and Sundays 10:00 AM allocated for Women/men study.

 

District Pastor – Oklahoma Conference, OK, March 2018 – October 2022.

Pastored the following congregations: Abundant Life, Oklahoma International, 3Angels Ghanaian, and the Stillwater Church, in the State of Oklahoma. Focusing ministry on both community and Church needs which produced positive impacts; resulting in steady spiritual and numerical growth such as Baptisms and backsliders coming back to church, and the formation of Adventist Christian Fellowship (ACF) on the campus of Oklahoma State University (OSU), which meets together weekly.

Key Achievements:

  • Planted 3Angels Ghanaian SDA Church in North West Oklahoma City.

  • Conducted several evangelistic meetings

  • Conducted several Revival meetings – to reclaim former members alongside reaching out to prospective members.

  • Trained 11 sabbath school teachers, preachers, Bible instructors

  • Average quarterly Baptism is 10

  • Doubled the district-wide attendance.

GLOBAL MISSION PIONEER | Meridian Ghana Conference, Tema, Ghana – 2014 – 2017

Key Achievements:

  • Colporteur and Church planting

    • new set of congregations in coastal stretch between Tema and Ada

  • Trained several young people to be self-supporting evangelists and colporteurs

 

RADIO PROGRAM – GHANA – 2010-2014

Radio Ada 93.3 FM

                “Voice of Redemption” program aired 6 times a week, while I finished my Theology degree at Valley View University in Ghana

LAY PASTOR | Oklahoma Conference 2009 – 2010 | www.okadventist.com

  • Senior pastor for Midwest City Church, membership increased to double or triple its original members.  Very strong youth class and baptismal class.

BIBLE WORKER | Oklahoma Conference 2008 – 2009 | www.okadventist.com

Served as facilitator of all programs and church activities for the Midwest City Church. The church was at that time struggling and was on the verge of closing down. Personal church revitalization module aimed at vigorous door-to-door Bible study interest generating, prayer coordination, series of Bible lectures and visitation that I initiated, brought about a total turn-around of the Church to the glory of God.

Key Achievements:

  • Several former members reclaimed

  • 15 baptisms in the year

PERSONAL MINISTRY – GHANA – 2005 - 2008

Key Achievements:

  • Formed a team to start 6 churches in unentered areas in the Meridian Conference and surrounding areas, with Several baptisms.

  • Started a strong congregation in Kenya

RADIO PROGRAM | GHANA - 2002 - 2006

Radio Ada 93.3 FM

                “Voice of Redemption” program aired 6 times a week from 2002 – 2006.  Thirty baptisms to create church in the Town of Wekumagbe.

GLOBAL MISSION PIONEER | South Ghana Conference, Accra, Ghana - 2002 – 2006

Key Achievements:

  • Planted one church in the Volta Region of Ghana.

  • Revived a weaker company in the Volta Region

DISTRICT EVANGELIST | Tema District, South Ghana Conference, Accra, Ghana – 1991 - 2002

Revived companies and groups while establishing new congregations in unentered areas. 

Key Achievements:

  • 10 churches established in unentered areas

  • 250 Baptisms

  • Trained several church members and young people to be Sabbath School workers, preachers and Bible instructors

  • Started Adventist grade school with 7 children which has grown into two big schools with students of no or very little Christian backgrounds, many of them orphaned and would have had no opportunity of going to school.  Both schools together have about 326 students at present.

 

SKILLS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

CAMPUS MINISTRIES

  • Every Wednesday and Friday visited most high schools and junior high schools in the Greater Accra Region for worship and Bible study and interest generating (1991-2006)

  • Presently, leading Adventist Christian Fellowship at Oklahoma State University (2019 - Present)

 

CERTIFICATIONS AND AWARDS

  • Prepare and Enrich Facilitator (2020 – Present)

  • Certificate of Appreciation for commitment to the Colporteur ministry – Three Angels Church – Wichita, KS

  • Certificate of Honor for Evangelism for tremendous assistance and involvement in soul winning – South Ghana Conference

  • Certificate of Recognition for valuable contributions for growth of Conference – South Ghana Conference

 

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

  • Chair person for Ghana Private Schools Association, Zone 13 (2010 – 2014)

  • Homeless Ministry “Feeding the Broken Hearted,” Oklahoma City, OK (2008 to 2022) – ministry was focused on the homeless and addicts. There was significant positive impact on many souls. 26 people gave their hearts to the Lord and I baptized them.

 

RESEARCH AND ITS IMPACT

                Senior research work for B.A. in Theology degree, on the Goat of Azazel and the Sanctuary Service was supported by Messiah’s Mansion to exhibit the full-size replica of the Mosaic Sanctuary to the public for the first time in Africa.  The study pulled more than 30,000 viewers in the Accra – Tema Metropolis of Ghana with 60 baptisms following.  (2014)

 

PERSONAL INTERESTS

  • Bible themes &topics researching

  • Nature walking

  • Reading

  • Gardening

 

REFERENCES

  • Nathan Teye Odonkor (DMin) Pastor/Chaplain   – teyeodonkor@gmail.com – Associate Secretary, West Central Africa Division of SDA Church.

  • Pr. E.D. Poakwa – dicsteward@yahoo.com – Meridian Ghana Conference President

  • Prof. Daniel Sambu (Wisconsin State University) - Dsambu@gmail.com - Phone: 304 963 1336

  • Pastor Harvey Gil (District Pastor, Oklahoma Conference)  Gilharvey53@gmail.com - Phone: 918 691 5264

  • Pastor Juliana Marson (Executive Committee member, Columbia Union Conference) – jmarson@njcsda.com - Phone: 646 772 0574

Seven Core Competency Areas of Ministry

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