Ghana: suspect questioned about mysterious disappearance of London-born missionary, Sid Barnes

ACCRA, GHANA (ANS) — Ghana/Interpol agents have been interrogating a Ghanaian national about the mysterious disappearance of Sid Barnes, a London-born Calvary Chapel missionary who has been missing since he arrived in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, on a British Airways flight from London, on Thursday, March 18th, 2010.

Barnes, had flown from Los Angeles to London, Heathrow, on March 15, 2010, and stayed at a local Heathrow hotel for two nights (March 16/17, 2010), and then flew onto in Accra on March 18th, where it has been confirmed by ANS sources that he arrived.

He 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).

Now Phil Twente, Mission’s Pastor at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California, has revealed the latest news about Barnes.

“This past Wednesday, Ghana/Interpol agents spent the entire day interrogating various individuals who know Sid and his activities in Ghana,” said Twente. “One individual was questioned for seven hours because of conflicting stories that were given. That individual is now their leading suspect and is to be further interrogated this coming Wednesday.

“It appears the authorities in Ghana are co-operative in getting to the bottom of this situation. Ghana does not want any incidents involving international residents or visitors to remain unsolved. Please continue to pray for this situation.”

Barnes 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.

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
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