Dela and his wife Elizabeth are from Ghana, Africa. They joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ, International, in 1980 and served in the campus ministry in Ghana, as National Director of Ghana and as the West Africa Regional Director before becoming the Director of Affairs for Eastern Africa and later for Southern and Eastern Africa. In 1999 Dela was appointed Vice President for Africa, the Middle East and the Central Asian Republics.
From 2010 to the present, Dela has served as Global Vice President, Leadership. From 2014 through February of 2019, Dela also served as Vice President for LeaderImpact. In response to his burden to help Africa’s leaders experience transformation based on biblical and ethical values, he founded the International Leadership Foundation (ILF) in 2002.