Father Grendel, the Superior General, selected Father August Gehring, an ex-Togo missionary (expelled from Togo during the First World War) as head of the new Gold Coast Mission. He spoke English but with an accent and thus needed a companion and the choice fell on Father Elsbernd as the nearest and readily available English speaking SVD. .
Fr. Elsbernd writes, “we landed at Takoradi, then the only deep sea harbour, on 13th October, 1938. Father Gehring was delighted when he met a taxi driver with whom he could converse in Ewe, who brought us to the Mission in Sekondi. But it did not hinder the driver from demanding twice what it was worth. There we met Father Rothoff, S.M.A. who took us in his car to Cape Coast where Bishop William Porter, S.M.A. received us graciously. Next day a pick-up of St. Augustine’s College brought us and all our luggage to Accra and to Sacred Heart Church”. From the Sacred Heart Church at Derby Avenue, Accra began the missionary activity of the SVD in the Gold Coast which later became Ghana.