I’ve always wanted to follow God where He called me to be. I want to be exactly where He wants me to be in the exact moment when He wants. I had no idea that would be a bar in Ghana at 9:30 on a Monday morning.
This month, my squad has been working with a church in Sunyai, Ghana and our ministry has been evangelism with the directions “go out a make friends and tell them about Jesus”. Simple instructions right? For me, it opened the door to anxiety and overthinking. Recently, I have been pushing into that discomfort and just following where I think the Lord is leading me. Thankfully, my team is also pushing into that as well. One of my teammates and I were talking with a man at a small shop when our other teammates said they would go on ahead and we would all meet up later. After our conversation finished up, Caleb and I decided to find the rest of our team. We walked up a dirt road and I heard a familiar voice coming from the building next to us so Caleb and I followed it and found our teammates sitting around a table surrounded by a group of Ghanaian men. Caleb and I pulled up chairs and joined them. I asked who’s house we were in and Nathan said “it’s not a house at all, we’re in a bar”.
So I found myself in a situation that I was very confused with. Was this the end game? Was this where the Lord called me to be? Was it safe to be here? (I was the only girl because the other girls on my team were not with us). I took a deep breath and gave it to God.
We ordered Cokes while some ordered other drinks (for most, it was not their first of the day) and we just started to talk like old friends. Let me promise you this, the Spirit of God can show up anywhere even a bar at 10 am. Where people want to talk about Jesus, Jesus is going to be there. Where people want to grow in Him, that’s exactly where He is going to be.
Our conversation with one man, David, led us to his house to keep going deeper. He pulled out his bible and we read scripture together. When one of my teammates was sharing a verse with him, he actually had it highlighter already! I mean, come on Jesus, that’s awesome. When we left David’s house we all felt as if we would see him again, and if already written in God’s plan, we did.
A few days later we gathered our whole team together and we went back to the bar where we first met David and our other friends. When we walked in the door, one man, Francis, whom we had previously met started yelling “Everyone get out here! Our friends are here to share the word of God!” Not typical bar announcements but we knew that this was not a typical bar. The poker game took a pause and before we knew it, we once again had a crowd gathered around that table.
A bar is not a place I thought I would find myself on the Race to share the love of Jesus, but that’s exactly where I was. And the best part was, that’s exactly where Jesus was too. He meets us all where we are. He doesn’t ask us to change who we are or to clean up for Him. He wants us how we are, brokenness included. That’s how much He loves us. He wants our real and true hearts and because of that He’s willing to meet us wherever we are, even a bar at 9:30 on a Monday morning.
