Sometimes God tells you things that make perfect sense and there’s no question in your mind that what you heard was from God and what He’s telling you is applicable to what’s happening in your life right there in that moment, and then sometimes God tells you things that you just don’t understand and you don’t get how they apply to your life and you’re not quite sure what to do with them or how to interpret them and you question whether it’s really God speaking to you or if you just made it all up in your own head. This was one of those, “wait hello God, yeah could you please come again? That makes absolutely no sense” mornings.
We did a little bit of listening prayer before we headed out to evangelize in the neighborhoods around our guesthouse that morning. One of our prayers as a team is that God would give us common vision, and it has been so cool to watch how God has answered that prayer. This particular morning He gave us the color red, flowers, and a little girl. Even though we were unsure what all of that was supposed to mean, we set out eager to find the things that God had shown us. And we walked and walked and walked, but they were no where to be found. After walking for a while, we felt led to stop and pray in front of this unfinished, looked like it had been abandoned house with a red roof (at least we finally found some red). After we got done praying, one of my team mates said she felt like God had given her a verse from Matthew about murder. Wait what?! What did murder have to do with anything?!
After walking around for like 2 hours and not finding any of the things that God has shown us, three guys standing on the side of road waved us down and yelled, “Hey! We’ve been waiting for you!” They caught us so off guard. After chatting with them for a little bit we found out that another team had walked by them and they were hoping that they would pass by them again so that they could talk to them. They asked why we were in Sunyani and so we told them about how we were walking around the neighborhood encouraging people and sharing God’s love and telling people about Jesus. They said that they wanted to know more and invited us to come sit down and talk with them at their house. As we followed them to their house, everything we passed was red. Red houses, red roofs, red doors, people wearing red. Then, once we got to their house we walked through their garden to get to their back porch where we would sit. Guess what was all over their garden? The most beautiful red flowers! We could only stay and talk with them for a little while because we had to get back to our guest house for lunch, but we told them that we would come back later that afternoon to finish our conversation and answer any questions that thus had.
When we went back that afternoon, we learned that all three of them were murderers (oh, that’s how that verse about murder ties in, we see you, God!) and had killed people as a part of rituals along with other things. After getting to share the gospel and my favorite story, Jesus turning the water into wine, and part of our stories and how Jesus has transformed our lives, they said that they wanted in., they wanted what we have. They were tired living under the rules of the world, always searching, always left wanting more, stuck in the bondage of decay with no way to save themselves. They saw forgiveness and reconciliation and grace and love and freedom in Jesus and they were so hungry for it. So we prayed with them and they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and wow salvation tastes so sweet and God is so good!! Dirty foot water turning into wine right before my eyes!
Towards the end of our time with them, one of the brothers said that he wanted to be a pastor one day and tell people who stuck in dark places like he was about Jesus. No rules, no you have to wear fancy clothes or give this much money in order to go to church, just Jesus, just Truth. And then he looked at me and said, “And you can be my pastor’s wife.” In classic ashley fashion, I got real awkward, laughed it off, and quickly changed the subject. But hey, marriage proposal and eternities changed all in the same day, I’d say that’s a win! Touchdown Jesus!
So, I’m sharing this story with you, one because God is awesome and He is doing some pretty incredible things in Sunyani, Ghana and I am still in awe that He chose me to partner with Him in the things that He’s doing there. But also to encourage you, maybe God is telling you things that don’t make sense, that you’re unsure of, go with them anyways! Take that step of faith in obedience, you never know where it might lead you, like maybe to a couple of murderers who need to hear what God wants to say through you and one who wants to wife you up in the process. God is so good and so so faithful! But He can’t work through you if you never take that step!
