Simon Asante

My name is Simon Asante. I was born in Ghana in the late 1970s. I moved to the United Kingdom after I completed my bachelor’s degree in the early 2000s.

When I was about 7 years of age, I found myself living with my grandmother when my parents separated. As typical of many African homes, mine was the Church going type. The church my grandmother attended was the type focused immensely on spirituality. The Pastor claimed to see a lot in the spirit and could prophesy to my old grandma on things of the future. I attended church with my grandma on regular basis, most evenings and on Sundays.

At the age of 10, I went to live with my uncle in another town to attend preparatory school. My Uncle had 2 sons, the oldest of whom was a similar age as me. I was already used to attending church so I asked my cousins to look for a church in the area which we could attend. We found a Pentecostal church in the area and our enthusiasm of regular church attendance influenced my uncle to start going to church with us. As children, we didn't really understand what church meant even though we started learning and memorising verses of the Bible. The verse that stuck with me until today is Matthew 6:33 -

".... seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.".

My Uncle however, understood the message of the gospel and became a “Born again” Christian.

At the age of 13, I was fast-tracked into boarding school to start my Secondary level of education. This is the practice in Ghana; most secondary schools are boarding schools. This is the stage where my Christian way of life - which I barely understood, was put to test. Students from all sorts of background were brought together, and for most people in Africa, this is where our future is shaped as we grow up as teenagers.

Very soon, I started learning about other things in life which brought fun to a teenager that I was. Peer pressure was at play and I began to learn a few vices, like drinking alcohol and sneaking out from school into night clubs at weekends. I broke all the rules in school with my friends and managed not to get caught. There were other things that were more fun to me at this moment than going to church despite the strong Christian influence on the school campus. Every student was given a Gideons New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs. I left mine in my box and never read it.

Church was not a thing for me anymore, although I always had it at the back of my mind that I had to be right with God someday. Something always reminded me that I wasn't on the right path and I needed to turn to Christ.

I constantly struggled thinking about how I could be right with God. I thought I had to do it myself, and that if I could stop my drinking and changed my life, then Jesus would accept me.

This continued all the way through university. God always had His eyes on me. Whilst in University back home in Ghana, I escaped death twice. One in a near fatal car accident in which a drank-driver nearly crashed into my side of the car I was travelling in with my cousin. The other was a football stadium disaster in which about 140 people perished in Ghana in the year 2000.

This causes me to constantly ask myself even till today, "What if I had died at that time"? However, God always had His eyes on me.

My wayward lifestyle continued when I came to the UK. When I met my lovely wife and we had our first two children, nothing would push me to go to church. My wife constantly quarrelled with me as she wanted us to raise our children in the Christian way. Shortly the pressure from my wife began to influence me and I started attending church in London where our first daughter was Christened and dedicated. I became the Church Accountant and the responsibility demanded that I always attended the church. I still didn't know a lot about the Bible as the Church was not deeply focused on Bible teaching.

In 2014, during the dedication of our second daughter, a friend of mine came to our Church in London. After the service, he began to ask me a few questions about salvation which stirred my thoughts. My lack of knowledge of the Bible was laid bare.

This caused me to dig deep to find the truth from the Bible. With the help of my late Christian Uncle in London, I began my search to find God's truth.

Strangely, this was the first time the Bible had some meaning to me when I read it. Every word was well understood and the words looked new and interesting.

One evening I was listening to a Bible teaching on Paul's Epistle to the Romans. The Preacher got to Romans Chapter 3 in the series and started explaining the Righteousness of God through faith.

This message pierced through my heart and I leapt for joy about what The Lord Jesus Christ has done for me as a sinner. I understood that salvation was not by works but by grace through faith. I realised how I couldn't do anything to earn God's righteousness. Christ has already done it. I called my wife and explained it to her. It was the happiest day of my life!

After this change in my heart and in my life, I realised I needed a Bible believing church where the focus is purely on preaching and teaching the Word of God. The church service in my previous church didn’t seem to make sense to me any longer. I was hungry and eager to learn more of the Scriptures.

I began to look for a Bible focused local church. My search finally landed on Enon Baptist Church. I was familiar with Enon as my Children used to attend a program on Thursday mornings. I had, however, never attended the main church services.

My first visit to Enon felt great. The Pastor preached on salvation for the soul and the focus on the gospel aligned with my expectations. The words from the hymns that were sung expanded my knowledge of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. I decided to make Enon my home and after several weeks of attending, I approached the Pastor to enquire about baptism and church membership.

The constant thought of how Jesus Christ has justified me freely fills my heart with joy and being a Christian has completely changed my whole perspective of life. I want to thank God for saving me and giving me Hope and a new lease of Life.

AMEN!!!