Meet James Ewudzie - Pioneer of Ghana

Every week, we are greeting warmly by a temple worker named Bishop James Ewudzie from Cape Coast.  He has been working at the temple since it was dedicated and he is a true pioneer of the Church in Ghana.  He drives from Cape Coast which is 3 hours away, works for a few days, and then returns back to Cape Coast to resume his bishop duties.

In this month's Liahona, he and his brother John are featured in an article entitled "James and John Ewudzie--Instruments of the Lord."

James and John Ewudzie

Here is a summary of the article:  "In 1970, Ghana was a place where groups called themselves "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" even though the Church was not officially recognized and there were no members.  James and John were inspired by dreams and promptings to further the work and both were introduced to these groups by a mutual friend, Billy Johnson.

James had frequent dreams that helped him understand the teachings of Billy Johnson about the Church.  At the end of a Church meeting one Sunday, Brother Johnson asked if anyone had a dream they could share with the congregation.  Although he did not want to share his most recent dream, James felt prompted to do so and told the people gathered there that a certain house had caught fire in his dream.  One woman from the congregation knew the house that James described and told everyone that it had burned that very day.

Missionaries arrived in 1978 soon after the revelation President Kimball received about the Priesthood.  James and John were baptized, along with many others who had been waiting for the day missionaries would arrive with the authority to baptize, organize the Church, and confer the Priesthood upon worthy males.  The day had been long awaited and was a joyous time.

Bishop Ewudzie continued to have strong spiritual impressions.  On one occasion, he was asked to bless a baby.  When he finished, he felt a humble feeling and heard, in his mind, that the Lord would bless the country of Ghana with the blessings of a temple.  From that point forward, James listened carefully to the words he felt in his heart.  Finally, that blessed day arrived in Ghana as well.

On another occasion, James hand been visiting with Billy Johnson about the Book of Mormon.  They loved the story of Abinadi and had been discussing it.  That night James dreamed that the angel Moroni appeared to him and five other men.  The men followed the angel and as they came to an avenue, he stopped and pulled out the gold plates.  It was a testimony to James that the Lord had sent an angel to Joseph Smith to give him gold plates to translate so the world could have the truth.

James often wondered why so many miracles were happening in Ghana at that time.  Perhaps it was because of the willingness of the Ghanaians to accept dreams and visions.  The Lord used these means to help the Ghanaian people to read and accept the Book of Mormon as inspired and additional scripture.

You can read the rest of the article, which features James' brother John in the July 2015 Liahona.

The article closes in sharing the historical event of December 9, 1978 when a group of 60 people were baptized in Cape Coast.  Two senior couples, Elder and Sister Mabey and Elder and Sister Cannon, had been the missionaries to bring Ghana the gospel.

Just after the dedication of the Ghana temple, James was sealed to his wife but his children were not sealed to them the next day.  He and his wife had two daughters and a son, who was ill with meningitis and had not spoken or walked for 9 years.  James heard a voice in his mind, right after the sealing telling him to return quickly to have his children sealed.  One week after the sealing of his children, his son LeGrand Richards Ewudzie passed away.  James was happy he had listened to the still small voice.