Missionary profile – Rhoda Oluwakemi Appiah

By Mercy Kambura

Nigerian missionary to Ghana

As a 22-year-old newlywed, married to a foreigner with stars in my eyes, I landed in the mission field in a new country. I had expected a smooth ride, all things working out, peaches and cream. After all, hadn’t we heard God? Before long, financial difficulty and family tug-of-war tore the stars out of my eyes and exposed the reality on the ground—life was hard.

My wrong ideologies started falling apart like a cake with too much flour. I was disappointed and lonely. But I turned to God and developed a strong relationship with Him. He reminded me that even when Abraham left in obedience, things didn’t work immediately.

In my journey of self-discovery, I found God afresh. I stopped being anxious and focused on serving with my husband in our new post among the Kokombas in Ghana.

This disappointment wasn’t new; my parents separated just before I turned twelve. My 12th birthday was one of my loneliest because I celebrated it without my Mom. When I was 15, God gave me another birthday—someone preached to me, and I gave my life to Christ. at 16, I knelt in my room and told God I’d do anything He asked me to. I didn’t know the intensity of what I had gotten into, but it all makes sense today.

Although we grew up religious, we didn’t understand salvation. I was hurting and still disappointed by my parents’ separation. We did learn about prayer, though, so when someone preached to me about knowing the will of God in my life, I went seeking God.

Something strange happened while praying—I saw the person I’d marry. I prayed about it and waited for God to speak to him. He was a leader in the church, and I wanted to ensure that this, indeed, was God speaking.

He was a Ghanaian student in Nigeria studying at the mission school. God spoke to him too, and we married on the 22nd of June 1996. Shortly after, we moved to Ghana, his home country, as missionaries. We were based in Accra, but I’d follow my husband to the mission field. We started sharing the Gospel with the Kokomba people, planting churches, discipling, and mobilizing them for missions.

We were expected to raise our family upkeep and support, and financial challenges were immense. We groped in the dark for the first few years on the field. It took us at least 3 years before we started to gradually find our feet in ministry.

My husband had mission training, but I had to do a lot of on-the-job training. I’d have fallen away if I didn’t have a strong relationship with God.

There’s a dire need for contextualized training for all Christian workers. There’s no one-size-fits-all prescription for every mission field. Unmet expectations can be disappointing. Even if you’re very zealous, zeal without knowledge will not help. We need training and orientation. Let’s first call people to be with God.

#Pray:

For God to help us raise young people who love God passionately.
For the Body of Christ in Ghana to be fully mobilized to embrace missions, and to send more missionaries.
For more resources—we need men, money, and machines.