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

By Dan Wooding
 

ACCRA, GHANA  -- 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.

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."
 

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.

Provided by our friends at Assist News Service