We spent two months in Ghana instead of one like most other teams. The rest of the squad went on to Togo, while my team and one other team stayed. The ministry we did was mainly reaching out to students at the University of Cape Coast (UCC). We were technically partnered with Campus Crusade for Christ and joined them in evangelizing. The first month we were asked to go door to door on campus and just basically start talking about God. Most people say they are Christians, sort of like America. You find some really are, while others are not. We broke up into smaller teams and headed out. Just stepping right out there like that was a little unnerving and sort of challenged me in the way I normally like to minister. The women are more reserved so at first it was somewhat difficult to make friends. They kind of wonder
what you are doing on their campus, but don’t just come out and ask you, but rather stare at you. So, it really challenged me to just be the first one to reach out and break the ice. Once that happened it typically changed the situation. We made friends with these amazing women from one dorm room in particular. We did make friends with a few others, but these five ladies seemed to be the ones God was highlighting for our team of three to reach out to. We sparked up a friendship and prayed for them each time we saw them. However, the deep conversations were limited. One of my friends, Joy, made the remark that white people have never come and talked to her about God like we did and how that opened her perspective towards Americans. It was neat to spend time talking about the expectations we had of Africans and they had of Americans. She was grateful to us for talking to her and so were we. The first month for me seemed like some progress was made, but the second month was when a fire was lit.
Once we decided to stay for the second month, God gave me a strong word that convicted me. I realized that a lot of the door to door just approaching people factor was freaking me out. I was not excited and did not feel like doing it. I realized that I thought because I didn’t feel like it that meant I will not be fruitful once I arrived on campus. God said that was not true: just because I didn’t feel like it did not mean I was not supposed to do it. He said this is the mission I have placed before you, I am doing something major in Ghana, I am raising up a generation of leaders from this campus, I need you to step forward in just obedience, and once you go I will be with you and will show you the way.
We went out the next month and I felt like I was tired of surface conversations. When we went back to
our friends’ room, we just got down to business and asked the hard questions. This opened the door for a time of just talking to them and speaking into their lives for a few hours. It was awesome watching their eyes open as we talked. I noticed in many of our conversations, even with other women we became friends with, that when we would ask what their prayer requests were so much of it was based on working for God. They would say I want to know how to work for God better or I need help in balancing my school work with the work of God. God was really speaking to me that He truly wants those women to just know Him, to be with Him, to speak with Him, to rest in Him. Not to go out and feel like they have to perform and do for Him.
There is a spirit of religion over the land and that causes people to be bound to working for God and feeling judged for not. God wants us to first find our intimate place with Him and to experience His love. I could sense intimacy was lacking. They would say they really don’t feel like working for God, but feel obligated, and that they are not in love with Him, yet feel bad for not being. I knew exactly what they meant, but we were able to tell them God does not want you to feel obligated to work for Him. That He loves them just as much if they are sitting in their room than when they may go out and evangelize. He doesn’t want us to feel like His slaves and perform and then feel bad if we mess up or don’t do enough. He wanted those ladies to just sit at His feet. And we were able to say to them tell God these things, tell Him how you feel, that you don’t love Him, cry out, spill it all because He cares and wants to hear. They were somewhat surprised like “you can tell God that?” Yes!
From my perspective the women in Ghana are not valued as highly as the men and I could tell God wanted them to truly know they are His princesses. It was awesome to be able to speak into their hearts and show God’s love to them. We also were able to write out words God had given us for each of them and just to watch their faces as they read these words was amazing. You could see them being touched by God’s love and watch their value just increase. We made those five ladies lunch on our last day of campus ministry. Being with them and making some American type food like mashed potatoes, fried eggplant and popcorn with sugar, was awesome. God intends for us to break bread and fellowship with one another. I love how Jesus often just hung out with people and talked to them as friends. It was so nice to just be with them. They felt so honored to be treated to lunch. They are AMAZING WOMEN!
For some of the other teams something huge happened as well. The men from our two teams were able to minister to the men. The men are much more frank about how they feel and just come right out with their questions. So our men were able to go deep from the beginning. Tough questions were asked and our men were able to be honest and provide the tough answers back and minster to their hearts. One of our men talked about how to value the women on campus. We were so honored that he stepped out and spoke truth in love to some of the Ghanaian men.
Also, some of the other women from our teams met a few African traditionalist men, following the African
religion. The men asked tough questions, but it was awesome to hear our team’s testimony about how the Holy Spirit just kept leading them and guiding them with the answers. The men wanted to meet with them again after this first conversation and so our men joined with the girls and went and talked to them several more times. The traditionalists mentioned that if they accepted Christ and then went back to their families that they could be disowned and maybe even killed. In America, we don’t really face anything like that. So to hear someone actually say that could happen to them if they believe in Jesus was intense. One of our teammates spoke life into him and gave him the scripture, which paraphrasing says, when you lay down your life for Christ you gain it and the other scripture, also paraphrasing says, those that give up mother, father, sister or brother in this life will receive that much more in this life and the next. God had given me a word about this and He said: there is a time when brother will fight against brother due to my name, but I will prevail and my love will seal the hearts of those standing firm on my name. On one of the last days of ministry, after numerous conversations with these guys, they accepted Christ. We were all so excited to see the fruit of our teammate’s labor blossom before us. These men could in fact cause huge change in their families and on campus. God can do so much with one man!
We were the first World Race squad to be in Ghana and Western Africa. That is awesome! This in and of itself has been a blessing, knowing we are pioneering and planting seeds for the next group.
