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Ep 156: A Pastor’s Journey Across Cultures And Callings

• Pastor/ Artist Fred Kenney Jr. • Season 4 • Episode 156

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"Imagine if your name meant “God is with us!” This is the meaning of our dear Brother Emmanuel Agyemfra's name. We visited with him on our last Christmas Joe Tour. Listen in!"

We sit down with Pastor Emmanuel to trace a faith journey from a Ghanaian living room church to Korean seminaries to New Jersey congregations, and we cast a vision for bringing Plays on Word Theater to Ghana. Along the way we explore “dinner church,” bivocational ministry, and how unity in Christ thrives across many languages.

• early discipleship in a home church in Ghana
• starting a campus fellowship and owning calling
• bivocational mentors and NGO-minded service
• seminary studies and ministry posts in Korea
• transition to New Jersey churches and community care
• dinner church as practical evangelism and hospitality
• vision for a Ghana theater outreach powered by Scripture
• diversity as a gift and unity in Christ as center
• language, culture and the shared “hallelujah”
• closing prayer and pastoral blessing

Information for Emmanuel’s church, Leonia UMC, is in the show notes.

(Please click on the underlined links below.)

Leonia UMC Church: https://leonia.church/

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SPEAKER_04:

Lord, you know. You're gonna have a listener play. It's the best. Tell people about Ghana. What's gonna happen when we go to Ghana? That's what I'm gonna do, man. What what do you envision when we when plays on word join you in Ghana? What's your play?

SPEAKER_03:

We can go to Ghana um and have some, you know, plays on word theater there. I think it's gonna be awesome for people to have a different experience. And we can grab one theater in Ghana, you know, and uh let people have something different.

SPEAKER_00:

Imagine if your name and God is with us. This is the meaning of our dear brother Emmanuel Jim Husman. We visited with him on our last Christmas gym tour.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to Plays on Word Radio, where we discuss, analyze, work, and play on the Word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion today. Let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenny Jr., the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God.

SPEAKER_04:

Amen, amen, amen, amen. Well, thank you, everybody listening to Plays on Word Radio. We are back. God bless every single one of you. Thank you, Katie Kenny, for that intro, and Josh Taylor for that intro. Today, we are visiting with our dear brother Emmanuel. What a cool name. Emanuel. Emmanuel I'm gonna be a good one. He's a pastor of a church in Leonia, New Jersey. And we've known him from a church in Brownville, New Jersey, and he transferred to Leonia. Anyway, he's a dear brother. We've been trying to get him on the program for uh a long time. And he is just a uh sweet dear brother in the Lord, so I'm not gonna waste any more time. Let's get right to it. Let me welcome Pastor Emmanuel. What is your last name? How do I say your last name? I know you as Pastor Emmanuel as just one word, but tell me the A Gemfra.

SPEAKER_03:

A Gemfra. Right.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, okay. And and you you were pastoring the Browns Mills UMC Church. Right. And now you are in Leonia, New Jersey. Right. Leonia UMC. How do you like it up here next to the George Washington Bridge?

SPEAKER_03:

Right. It's busy here. It's it's it's calm. At the same time, we have, I mean, here we have, you know, everything um in between.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so yeah, because New York's right there, and New Jersey. Yeah. So so how did you end up here? I know you got here from Brown's Mills, but I can tell by your accent that you're not from New Jersey.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so um in 2018, you know, my wife and I, um, Dr. Sun, we moved from Korea.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Originally I'm from Ghana.

SPEAKER_04:

From Ghana to Korea.

SPEAKER_03:

To Korea, okay. 2009 I had a mission called to go to Ghana to go to Korea. Okay. And then was here for about there for about five years and started going back to Ghana. And then um in 20 um 18 we moved here. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So and you guys were both in Princeton, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we were in Princeton for three years.

SPEAKER_04:

Three years, wow.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, for three years I did my master of divinity in Princeton. And then from there, um the Bishop of New Jersey, um, Bishop John Shaw at the time appointed me to Bronze Mills. Um, and then we're there for you know, we're going to the fourth year, um, and then 21 to 24. And uh we were in Rome for you know um a visit, and then we had a call that we have to move to um Leonia. So here we are.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, you were in Rome when they they're yeah, we gotta go. So is the life of a missionary?

SPEAKER_03:

Right. You never know.

SPEAKER_04:

You never know. It's like uh I'm sure if Paul had cell phones with Timothy and those guys, he'd be like, hey, I need you to go to Ephesus, man. Right. Don't worry about it, just go. Right. Okay, so so tell me, before you tell me how you met your wife, tell me how you met Jesus. I want to hear both stories. How did you meet Jesus? Oh, how did I meet Jesus? How did Emmanuel come to come to meet the Emmanuel?

SPEAKER_03:

How did that be? I I always say that um the last you know um days of the year, the Christmas and holiday season, um, my name is you know mentioned everywhere because the name means Jesus.

SPEAKER_02:

People were singing.

SPEAKER_03:

I was singing Emmanuel everywhere. Um, I give thanks to God for the one who named me. Um and um I I was blessed to grow up in a mission home. Um my my mother um I mean um was a minister. Um she started off as a businesswoman and then um had a call, was you know um doing merchandise on the street. Okay. And had a call. She was attending a Methodist church, and there was a revival in Ghana. People were going to prayer meetings and things, and in the 1970s and the 1980s, and that was where you know things turned around. She she felt the calling strongly, so subject herself for training, uh, went to a prophetic school and was, you know, um um released finally um as uh a prophetess. Wow, and so our house was the you know was a a home church. Yes, yeah, all the time. So yeah, so I walked from my church, from my my living room to the church. And so grew up in that, you know. So I grew up loving Jesus, grew up loving the scriptures, the Bible. Um, it was nurtured from the beginning. And so I got, you know, um into um to I gotta do whatever I want to do in the Sunday school because I, you know, um I was always in church. Um, and um all I needed to do was to learn the scriptures. Learn the scriptures, and so in primary five, um my teachers will always tell me, hey, you you gotta lead worship today, you know. So right even from grade five, primary school. Were you playing based back then? Not yet, not yet. Yeah, in primary school, you know, I was exposed. And so it was a gradual process for me, um, getting to know, you know, what parents are doing, getting to know, and then it was in the primary school that I began to really embody and you know um really actually own my own belief, yeah, and um, you know, surrender to the Lord and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And so so you wow, it was primary school, and then so from primary school?

SPEAKER_03:

Secondary school was quiet for me. I went to Accra Academy, okay. It was a boys' school, but I was very quiet there. Um and then it was the college that I kind of like you know began to serve again. Um, I mean, we started a college ministry, a campus ministry, um in college. Really?

SPEAKER_04:

So you started the ministry. That's that's amazing, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, because I I I had to do my college in the city, and so University of Ghana had a campus that in my my time um 2004, we were allowed to take classes there, and so there was no Christian fellowship. So a couple of friends came together and we started a Christian fellowship.

SPEAKER_04:

That's great. You weren't waiting for anybody else, you were like, Well, we're two or more gathered, where the Lord is with us, let's do this now. Yes, yes. I love that.

SPEAKER_03:

It was a basement. We started in the basement.

SPEAKER_04:

I love it. Yeah, that's that's kind of what we did in North Carolina. We were meeting, we just started meeting at my house. Yeah, I said, let's we're gonna worship the Lord, we're gonna study the scripture, let's just do it. So that's why we planted the church right in my living room.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So I met Jesus through my my parents, my mom. Yeah, that's that's fantastic, man.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow. So, okay. How do you end up uh in ministry though? I mean, it's one thing to it's it's one thing to start a fellowship and have you know people hanging out, but what when did you know that the Lord was calling you to to to take it to another level?

SPEAKER_03:

I think it was right earlier on. Um in primary school when I write my name at the you know at the book, at the back of the book, I would write Reverend Doctor Mario. I didn't know, you know, speaking into the future, but when I went to college and I had to make you know career choices, I I pretty much love the corporate world. Yeah, okay. I love the humanitarian world. And so I always want wanted, I knew that um because especially in Ghana in my time, my mentors and you know, those that went ahead of me, um, I saw them doing full-time ministry, but also working full-time. Well, okay. So they, you know, so one of my you know mentors, Reverend Lewis, um, he will, you know, he's working in the bank, he's working, you know, but you sometimes also yes, yes, but you know, and sometimes they are so dedicated to the work, and I love that. I love their bivocational ministry, yes. Um, and so that was what I I I knew I would do ministry, but I didn't know it to be like full, right? You know, I knew because in especially in Ghana, you have to survive, you know what I mean? You have to, you know, that's the case everywhere.

SPEAKER_02:

You know what I'm saying? You gotta survive.

SPEAKER_03:

So, I mean, I I had a privilege to go to college and do this, so I had options to either I work in the corporate world or to do my own um humanitarian work, and I was more on that trajectory of doing my own NGO, you know, um, I mean harnessing resources and sharing resources, mobilizing. That's that was my heart, and that's what I started doing.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, so you started learning that.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I learned that, I did that, that's a good humor. Had experience about those things, you know, or you know, work with on different projects around the country. Um, and so I had that in geo because I majored in sociology, so okay that makes you you you can work anyway, yeah, yeah. Because it's more about human relations.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh when I take sociology, I like to do it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it's about human society and all that, and so you exposed to be able to, um, and I had experiences that grounded me to be able to do projects on my own, and so yeah, and it was laying the groundwork for you, yes, and I was in the middle of that when one of my friends um you know came from Korea and said, Um, he used to live in South Africa. My okay senior brother who has passed, you know, uh, I mean, help him to travel to South Africa, and then he ended up in Korea, and so wow, that's not like that's a left turn. Right. And so he came back and he said, There is a uh a seminary program in a Presbyterian church that they are looking for missionaries from Ghana really to attend, and uh, you know, I was like, okay, that time I had finished my national service, okay, and my project office was kind of winding down. Okay. And so everybody was like figuring out what next.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, what's next?

SPEAKER_03:

Right. So um it happened that you know everything was on point. I said, Oh, why not? I think I don't have jobs now. Let me just, you know, take a try, applied for it. And it's it happened that the administrator of the program, yeah, she's right there. She's uh she was the main administrator. Yeah, so now it's making sense.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, okay.

SPEAKER_03:

But it was an official relationship until you know we went to mission work in Ghana, and uh that's fantastic, man.

SPEAKER_04:

I love it. I love I love the story.

SPEAKER_03:

So that's the short version.

SPEAKER_04:

That that is great. So then you you ended up now. Did you go straight to uh Brown's Mills or from did you have uh other other we had other other stuff when I was moving from Korea?

SPEAKER_03:

I was working. Um I I did um in Korea I served a couple of churches. So first was the Presbyterian church that invited me. Okay, Hangel Presbyterian Church. Okay. So after serving there for a while and I started doing a master's program in Yonsei University, I got an opportunity to to we were assigned to the Korean churches. That one was, you know, it was like the institutional assignment. And I was assigned to Yongi Cho's Church, okay, which is your full gospel church, used to be one of the largest. Yes. So I served in the international office, the national, you know, um church there. So I was there for almost about a year and a half, and then when I was we were moving here, the you know, pastors there, they made arrangements. They were like, we have a church in New Jersey. Wow. So in fact, my first year, first Sunday in the US, we we attended a church that is about eight minutes away from us here whilst we are talking.

SPEAKER_04:

Really?

SPEAKER_03:

So um we went there is a Korean church, New Jersey Full Gospel Church. Okay, so we're there for a while, um serving the English ministry for a Korean church. Um and then it was during that time that um son got a call to Marmont Grace in Eatontown. Yes, she got a call.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, and where Eatontown?

SPEAKER_03:

Marmont Grace, Eatontown. Eatontown.

SPEAKER_04:

I know that I know that church. I know it's on Wyckoff Road, I think. I know it's on White. I know the church, and I uh Yeah, yeah. I've uh I've I've driven past that church a bunch of times, and I've actually prayed for the the folks up in that church. So that's amazing, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Right. So uh Mamont Grace, we had a call there, and then the pastor invited me to come have lunch, and he was like, you know, we we need a minister here, yeah, and we wanted to serve in the same place. So we kind of um you know transitioned there, okay, and that is how the Methodist came into you know so I started serving a Methodist church without any, you know, I just started I land and you know got experience into the Methodist church. Yeah, man, God is good.

SPEAKER_04:

And so then when you were at uh Browns Mill, who by the way, they all say hello and they they they uh they love you that down there. Um when you were down there, that's when I think Joe Sugar, yeah, remember Joe, he was he it he said you gotta have these guys' plays on word come out. And I think uh when we came out, what play did we first do for it? Was it Pete or was it Genesis Joe? I don't remember. I don't remember what play, but what were your thoughts when you first saw the play? It might have been Christmas Joe.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think it might be. It might have been Christmas Joe. That might have been the first one, and then we did Pete Joe.

SPEAKER_04:

And then we did Pete, and then we did Christmas Joe the final year, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Right, right, right, right. I think it was awesome. I was you know blessed to see the how you know the your gift makes the word come alive and um the creativity and the journey, the heart behind the ministry, um, was you know, you know, we we can feel and we can touch that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So um that was very it was fun. Yeah, it was very interesting.

SPEAKER_04:

It was it was a lot of fun. It was a really cool, it was an outreach that you you guys did that you invited us to come be part of.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

It was like uh dinner or something. Yeah, we called dinner church, dinner church, we called dinner church, and people from the town came out, and it wasn't everybody that went to the church, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Right, especially those evening services in Bronx Mouse is beautiful because you have um the come the church family opening up the church for the community, and uh sometimes you have about you know 80-90 people showing up, and you know, you have to find creative ways to always prepare their meals and things, but there were people that were generous and loving and serving, they want to serve, and so um there was always something for somebody to and we didn't even it was real ministry, like it was real community of the church was real, yes.

SPEAKER_04:

The hands of Jesus were really reaching into the community rather than just saying come visit us, right?

SPEAKER_03:

You guys were reaching out and saying, Yeah, here we're gonna give you food, we'll feed you. Right, Brownsmills is like community church, wasn't it? I mean, it it is, you know. Um the pastoral care in Brownsmills reaches to the community. Yeah, yeah. Because everybody can knock on the doors of the church. Yeah, I mean, and uh it probably happens, right?

SPEAKER_04:

You know, right.

SPEAKER_03:

Anybody can knock out the door, yeah, because it's a fairly um you know mid-sized town, so there's a little more uh connection and you know um relational and things like that.

SPEAKER_04:

So a lot of people from the from the base, I think. Yes. McGuire Air Force's bases right there. Right. Tell me more about Ghana. What's gonna happen when we go to Ghana? That's what I want to do, man. What what do you envision when we when Plays on Word joins you in Ghana? Oh, man. What's your plan?

SPEAKER_03:

We can go to Ghana um and have some, you know, plays on word theater there. Yeah. Um, I think it's gonna be awesome um for people to have a different experience. Um and we can grab one theater in Ghana, you know, and uh let people see have uh something different. I think one of the blessings of our generation being in a global city or global community is the gift of difference.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah. Tell me more about that.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I think that we God's calling is for all nations. Yes. You know, say go into the world and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And I will be with you even to the end of the age. And so that um that gift of difference, of diversity, of you know, for me, I embodied it. And especially when you grow up also in places like Africa, Ghana, and all that. You grow up with people speaking different languages from you. You grow up with people who have different accents and this, but yet we live together. Yeah. You know, there are people, there are Ghanaians, yeah now that when they speak, I don't understand what they speak. Maybe we yes, maybe we meet midway, maybe in the three language, can be a midway, or you know, or maybe English.

SPEAKER_04:

So is it are there a bunch of different languages in Ghana?

SPEAKER_03:

Like different, you know, officially about 40 different languages.

SPEAKER_04:

But English, yes, uh, most people can speak English.

SPEAKER_03:

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, so I believe strongly that when you grow up in such context, you are open, you understand what it means to be diverse. Yes. Because there are people in my local church that I don't understand what they say. Yet, yet we are all chit farmers. Amen. And that is the beauty of the world.

SPEAKER_04:

And you know what? I think I bet you the the what the one word that that you'll understand that they understand is hallelujah.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh yes, it is.

SPEAKER_04:

Because I said that over when we were in Albania, they couldn't understand me, I couldn't understand them. But when I said hallelujah, they went hallelujah. Yes, no one they get it. They knew exactly, right? They knew it here, right? And I just find the body of Christ is is so diverse. I think God has expressed Himself in diverse ways. You look at if you just look at creation, how diverse the flowers are, every everything. Yeah, so people are like an expression of His His He's like, listen, I got black, brown, uh yellow, in between brown, white, everything else, pink, every color you can imagine. Yeah, and not just that, backgrounds where people come from, right? Uh upbringings, and uh so but the body of Christ, it's so cool to see unity in him.

SPEAKER_03:

Right, in Christ. In Christ. Christ becomes the you know he's the denominator, yeah, the common denominator that brings us all together and I love it.

SPEAKER_04:

I love it. And I think it's a taste of of heaven, man. Yes, heaven we're gonna have. Yeah, the kingdom.

SPEAKER_03:

Easter kingdom.

SPEAKER_04:

And we won't have language barriers, we'll we'll be saying hallelujah and understanding each other together and everything else. Exactly. So I'm I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_03:

And so much of my ministry has embodied that. Um, I really believe that the you know the church should be a place where everybody's welcome. Yes, should be a place that even if we don't speak your language, we create systems, we create atmosphere where people feel they belong, they are loved, they are they belong one another. So that's very, very important. Yeah, amen.

SPEAKER_04:

Amen. I agree to that. Well, thank you, uh Reverend Emmanuel. Yes, as the very Reverend Manuel. Uh Emmanuel is in that. That's right. And and God willing, we will, the next time we have him on the broadcast, well, hopefully, we'll be in Ghana. And we will be reporting back from Ghana. Now, before before we close up completely, though, did you learn Korean?

unknown:

A little bit.

SPEAKER_04:

He's like a little bit.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. A little to get myself out of trouble. Get out of trouble. Amen.

SPEAKER_04:

See, that's a smart man right there. That is a smart man. Yeah. Okay. Well, Pastor Emmanuel, uh, why don't you why don't you just pray pray us out here and pray for tonight's uh play we're about to do?

SPEAKER_03:

Let's pray. Yeah, Lord, we thank you for place on our word. Um, we thank you for the ministry that you you have called, um, Ken and Katie. Um, we pray blessing over the ministry. We pray that God, you will continue to bless them, you continue to um elevate the ministry. Um, thank you for the mission heart that you've given to them. We pray that every stage of your opportunity that you give to them, may they go on to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_04:

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being on play zone world. Thank you, thank you for coming finally. Amen. God bless you, amen. Hey, and uh information for Emmanuel's church is if you're in the New York, New Jersey area, New City, I mean, um, we'll be on this in the show notes. So until next time, the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

SPEAKER_01:

This program was made possible by the PlaismWord family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at plazonword.org.

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Fred David Kenney, Jr.

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