In a directory about Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the profile for Kodzo Alabo includes an intriguing item. This senior international diplomat, fluent in English, Russian, French, and Portuguese, describes his hobbies as “evangelism, reading, and lawn tennis.” But his stories of sharing Christ internationally demonstrate that evangelism is much more than a casual hobby. It appears to be his life’s work.

Remarkably, H.I. alumnus Kodzo Alabo is not only a specialist in economics, the field in which he earned his doctorate, but an ordained minister of the Gospel. He divides his day accordingly. “From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., I work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After that, I undertake diverse engagements as a pastor.”

He is a diplomat who uses his influence to fuel the evangelization of nations he works in, including India and Russia.

Christians in diplomatic service, claims Dr. Alabo, can establish a beachhead for the Gospel where missionaries cannot go. This is not evangelism by stealth. Dr. Alabo insists his work and his Christian mission represent two sides of the same coin. “Put it this way,” he says, “for 23 years, I have been combining two roles. I am an agent of divine change, an ambassador of God and an ambassador of my country.” It’s a blend that demands vigilance and discretion. As Dr. Alabo comments, “You never know what others may feel.”

While training influential believers during his posting in India — as Minister Plenipotentiary at Ghana’s Embassy in New Delhi — Kodzo realized the need to sharpen both his teaching and witnessing skills. God led him to Haggai Institute in May 2008, an experience he later described as “lifechanging, as it gave me the skills I needed both for witnessing to Hindus and people of other faiths, as well as for the training of Christian leaders for the marketplace.”

Upon his return to India, his enthusiasm for winning souls was intensified, as well as his efforts to train first-class Christian leaders. Within the next three months, Kodzo organized two classes, each with 20 participants, and passed on the valuable lessons and tools he had gained. An intercessory prayer ministry, which he had begun in 2006 in New Delhi, experienced a surge of growth. This international group, which met for weekly all-night prayer vigils and monthly thanksgiving services, swelled from 70 to 200 members over a period of four months, after Kodzo’s return from Haggai Institute. “More significantly,” he asserts, “some of the leaders I trained have themselves been led to establish their own ministries in several parts of India and China. From the reports that these leaders send to me, their ministries are doing very well.”

After moving to Moscow as Acting Ambassador for Ghana, he set up a third seminar in the Russian capital. In December 2009, he planted a Christian fellowship in the Chancery Building of the Embassy that regularly brought together worshippers from among students, workers, diplomats, and the general public. From this emerged a direct platform for evangelism—a soup kitchen ministry providing food and medical care for destitute Russians.

Now back in Ghana, Dr. Alabo heads his nation’s Africa and Regional Integration Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He wants to bring the Gospel to as many diplomats as possible, and he’s using the transference of his H.I. skills to do it.

“At Haggai Institute,” he says, “the great need of evangelism across the length and breadth of the globe, in each case dispensed with cultural sensitivity, became vivid and clear to me. That’s why I appreciate Dr. Haggai’s vision to train other people to evangelize.”

Dr. Alabo receives many invitations to lead training seminars in evangelism and leadership. He attributes the number of invitations to his ability to package an evangelistic message “in a manner that makes it easy for the targeted audiences to understand and assimilate.” During a visit to Romania to lecture at a Haggai Institute seminar, he also had the opportunity to preach the Gospel across international airwaves.

Dr. Alabo considers himself, his wife, and two children an “H.I. family,” as well as thankful beneficiaries of H.I. donors. His heartfelt thanks to the generous sponsors of H.I. can be best shared in his own words: “I wish to thank all donors for the great support that they are giving toward the realization of the vision of Dr. John Edmund Haggai. They can be reassured that their sacrifices are not in vain, but rather contributing to the transformation of the world, transferring people from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of the glorious light of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the Holy Scriptures teach us, their labor of love shall not go unrewarded. May God richly bless them!”