Oops.
I promised I wouldn’t do sketchy things.
But, everyone was doin’ it. Said no good excuse-giver ever.
Okay, here’s what’s up. I’ve got a story from Ghana I haven’t yet shared.
It’s a pretty good one, too.
Recently, I shared about ATL here in Indonesia.
(Brief recap: ATL stands for Ask The Lord. It’s when a team has no ‘assigned’ ministry but seeks God to figure out where he wants them to go and minister for the month and then they set out to see what ministry and housing God provides. Think: holy treasure hunt.)
*Read my last two blogs about fried chicken and being homeless to get caught up.*
Well, this wasn’t the first time I’ve done ATL. And it wasn’t the first time God has shown up in amazing ways. I share this story,
1. Because it’s super cool and shows how awesome God is.
And,
2. Because it shows that my recent experience in Indonesia wasn’t a once in a lifetime miracle. This is just another day at the office for our miracle-working God. It shows that the supernatural is the norm, not the exception, in following him.
Let me begin.
We started in Sunyani, Ghana. Both for logistical reasons (sometimes God works this way too!) and simply gut-instinct, we felt led to a city in northern Ghana called Tamale. So we got on a city bus and off we went. Upon arriving, our only plan was … well, to get off the bus. Once we did that, we had no step two.
So we prayed.
And, actually, we had spent much time preparing in prayer, seeking God through his word, and surrendering our time of ATL to him, so once the answer arrived we were able to quickly recognize it.
In that time of prayer, one of the girls received a vision of the letter ‘M.’ As we looked across the street immediately after getting off the bus in Tamale, we saw a store named Melcom. You guessed it, ‘M.’
First clue in our holy treasure hunt.
So, she and a few others ran to the store to check it out. The rest of us hung back with our big packs and interceded in prayer. One of the girls had gotten the word ‘East’ during prayer so we hung on to that clue as well.
Soon the girls came out with another American by their side, not from our group. With them walked a Ghanaian man we later learned is none other than the lead pastor over the network of all the Christian churches in the whole Northeastern region of Ghana. No big deal. (Internal jaw drop.)
But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Sorry, I get excited.
So, this man started talking to the team leaders. They learned he’s a pastor, he has mission teams often, and he can easily accommodate the 14 of us looking for housing and ministry. Welp, it’s exactly what we’ve prayed for so after some more prayer, discussion, and discernment, it was a yes!
Our new host, Pastor Mustafa, or Muss for short, called a van to bring us to his church about an hour and a half east of where we were. East. EAST.
Second clue in our holy treasure hunt!
Up rolled one of the sketchiest vans I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure it was held together by a rare chemical phenomena – melded rust and dirt. As we boarded the bus I looked down only to see the dirt ground beneath us through holes in the floor of the van. Some of the windows had glass panes, some only a piece of splintered plywood and some, well, nothing. For aesthetic appeal, I’m sure…
But we all felt the peace only God can give that this was meant to be. So, I got in a sketchy van and we set off to our new home.
We arrived in Yendi. We sat and talked with Pastor Muss to discover a little more about what we had just gotten ourselves into.
Here’s the skinny.
He’s the lead pastor of the whole Northeastern network of Christian churches, but you knew that part already. Sure, this would be the person we run into randomly at a grocery store next to the bus stop in a large city in Ghana. Naturally…
Oh, and he’s been to America many times. So much so, that he knows little specific details about nearly all of our home states and can have a conversation about each of them. Sure, I can do that with any ole’ state in America… Not!
Oh, and he regularly hosts missionary teams from his American sister church who partners with his church in Ghana. Of course…
Oh, and he has ample housing for to stay in and ministry to do because he’s used to having large teams come in. Obviously…
Oh, and he actually lives an hour and a half away from the city in which we met him but he just happened to be in town at this exact grocery store at this exact time on this exact day as we just happened to be getting off the bus because it just so happened he had a big American missionary team arriving in a few days so he was picking up supplies for them. Right. That’s just normal stuff…
Oh, and it just so happened he had an American woman with him this particular time who initially caught my friends’ attention and drew them to someone they normally wouldn’t have even noticed among all the locals because it just so happened she was an intern serving with this ministry for the summer and it just so happened her job was to assist with the mission teams that came in. Cleeeaaaarrrrrly a coincedence….
Are you catching my drift???
(Gasps for breath!)
There are no coincidences with God!!!
The letter ‘M’ is all it took. That’s all it took for my friends to trust what they had seen in prayer, go toward it when they noticed something that matched, and meet the person who befriended us, housed us, and set us up with ministry for our time doing ATL. The van may have been sketchy, but the experience was one for the books.
Now, I’m not telling everyone to just jump in a sketchy van, bottom’s up, hoping for the best.
But, moral of the story: When you pave the way in prayer and trust the one and only miracle-working God to lead and provide, it’s funny just how many ‘coincidences’ start showing up…
