Arrest made in Ghana in the case of missing missionary Sid Barnes

Posted on October 2, 2010 by admin

ASSIST News Service (ANS) –
PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net — E-mail: assistnews@aol.com

Friday, October 1, 2010

Arrest made in Ghana in the case of missing missionary Sid Barnes

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

ACCRA, GHANA
(ANS) – A man has been arrested in Ghana in the case of Sid Barnes, a Calvary Chapel missionary who has been missing in the West African country since he arrived in the capital city of Accra on a British Airways flight from London, on Thursday, March 18th, 2010.

Sid Barnes with a Ghanaian flag

Ghana/Interpol agents have been investigating his case and now the ASSIST News Service has been told by a source in Ghana that “some significant developments have occurred this past week” in the case of this London-born missionary.

The source said, “An individual in Ghana came to the police, having seen the missing persons reward [that had been circulated in Ghana] and reported that an acquaintance of Sid has tried to sell him a laptop computer last March shortly after the date of Sid’s arrival.

“In following up this lead, a rebuilt Dell Notebook computer, which Sid took back with him to Ghana last March, has been recovered by Interpol. An arrest has been made of the individual who sold the computer. He was the main suspect from the beginning.”

The source added, “More as to his identity and to charges, etc. will be released as this situation unfolds.”

Another picture of Sid Barnes

Barnes had initially moved to Ghana in 1998 from his home in Southern California where he started the Crossroads Christian Mission Inc., in Koforidua, which is about an hour by road from Accra, and is the capital of the Eastern Region of Ghana, with a population of 87,315 (2000 census).

He moved from London to the United States in the 1970s and became a Christian while running a business in Santa Ana, California. He then began attending nearby Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (CCCM) in early 1977 and later he took the first pastoral training classes at this church pastored by Chuck Smith.

A door opened for him to go to the Pacific Northwest to a Calvary where he helped to start a single’s fellowship and then in 1984 he returned to his native London to help start a church in the “red light” district of Britain’s capital city.

In 1989, while back at CCCM, he went to Nigeria to help start Calvary Chapels there and had been writing books on spiritual warfare and prayer.

Soon he was busy ministering as a “pastor to pastors” and also as a Bible teacher. He also was involved in a secretarial school in the city.

He had begun working as a missionary in various West African nations in 1989. He started Crossroads Christian Mission in 2002, and it was in 2004 when it was finally registered and incorporated. The areas of his ministry, he said, were church planting, and evangelism in rural areas and, as he explained, “These are where the centers of occult rule, in the tribal and traditional areas and they reach into the cities with their influence.”

He described his personal ministry as “teaching/preaching, healing, deliverance and fighting the occult.”

Barnes, a British citizen, had returned to Southern California for a period last year and I last saw him in early January of this year at the Calvary Chapel “Meet the Missionaries” day at the church.

Note: You can hear a re-broadcast of an interview I did with Sid Barnes for my Front Page Radio program on KWVE by going to http://www.assist-ministries.com/FrontPageRadio/FPR06.20.10.SidBarnesMono.mp3

Dan Wooding, 69, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is also a regular contributor to The Weekend Stand on the Crawford Broadcasting Network, and a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available here