There are nearly 10,000 Seventh-day Adventist educational institutions around the globe. In Ghana, Valley View University is the height of Adventist education. It sits just outside of Ghana’s capital city, Accra.

“We were the first to be chartered as a private university in this country. So we are proud and is the only church institution of higher learning in Ghana.”

“Valley View University started as a mission school training pastors, and then later we added the liberal arts and other stuff to it. And now we have diverse programs. So our nursing program is the best in the country. Our computer science program is the best in the country.”

From one small theology department in the 1980s, Valley View University now runs 43 academic programs from associate degrees to doctorate level. It started with only 16 students and now over 10,000 students attend, coming from more than 25 countries.

Jinad is a student in the theology department who didn’t come from an Adventist background.

“I'm a theology student here, level four in second semester, the student chaplain. I enjoy the fact that I'm able to be part of people's lives, to contribute to people's lives. Service to humanity on campus.”

When Jinad was growing up, he felt that his family was never at peace with their religious practices.

“My dad was a philosopher and a politician, and the fact is that he was searching for God, and that is the family in which I came from. He started from African traditional religion, and dabbled into spiritualism but he could not find God because, see there was a depth inside him that was yearning to know God . But he could not find it in African traditional religion.”

Jinad was impacted by his father’s search for God. He later became a Christian in secondary school through an evangelist who visited his campus.

Now the student chaplain at Valley View University, his desire is to share Jesus and worship together with other students. Their struggle is that the university does not have a church large enough to accommodate the thousands of students. Currently, there are only small groups meeting around campus because of the lack of infrastructure.

“You know, we don't have a church. That's just the problem. Everybody wants a place where they can call our church. And there is no such thing here.”

“They want to go and seek God privately. They want some refuge. We want to go to church.”

In 2011, the 13th Sabbath Offering supplied Valley View University with the funds to build the foundation of a new church. This church will be large enough for 3500 students to worship together. Although the building is not fully completed, they will soon hold their first church service together.

“We thank the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the world church for coming to our aid. Without that, we couldn't have raised this massive building. In a couple of months, we are going to be worshiping in that church.”

For the first time in many years, Jinad and the university students will worship all together thanks to your contribution to the 13th Sabbath offering. Please pray for Valley View University and future 13th Sabbath offering projects around the world.