Dear Burkina Faso,
I wish we could have met longer than we did. Our time was not a month, but rather a day. You were not safe enough to go to and so instead we stayed an extra month in Ghana. I’m Ghana be honest, I was not very thrilled and it took a lot for me to choose in during that time.
And then ATL happened.
We spent the last two weeks during our month asking the LORD what we should do and what a beautiful thing that was. I want to share with you about that experience since it was supposed to originally be with you Burkina Faso. But God knew what he was doing and he sent us instead to northern Ghana in a small town called Tamale.
I pointed to a map and the town of Tamale was under my finger. So I joked with Karla about it, but didn’t think we would go there. But then we spent some time in prayer. We asked the LORD for images or words or verses that we could take with us as we searched for where to do Ministry.
Things like water, and growth, wells, and north east came to our minds. Other people got the story of the woman at the well in Luke 4 and a compass. It all led to us looking for a place to stay in Tamale of all places. The place I had joked about days before. I found an Airbnb, the only one available, and it just so happened he had 6 beds available and it was in our price range. And so we booked our stay for one night. While looking on the description, it said it was next to SEED ministry. This was simply a land mark, but it stood out to us. And so we researched as one does, or well I do because I’m a planner. Bob and Bonnie were missionaries staying down the road from his house, they had been there for 17 years and so much of their ministry aligned with our promptings. We became optimistic, but didn’t get our hopes too high in case it didn’t work out. We planned to visit them the next day.
4 of us set off down the road, nervous excitement in our stomachs, not exactly sure how we were going to explain ourselves to them. But when we got there, we sat down with Bonnie and shared honestly our process of how we got there and she knew right away it was a divine appointment. They weren’t supposed to be there the next two weeks, but because hey had a missionary girl staying with them for that time they were here. They had exactly enough beds for us. So Bob took us to get our bags and within an hour we had food in front of us and not just any food, but Mac and Cheese and salad with Ranch dressing. I cried that night as everything fell into place.
The next day, Karla and I went to work at the elementary school they partnered with and the other girls worked with their bible clubs program. We got to minister to the girls living with us and bond with the missionary Natalie, and Bob and Bonnie. We made cookies and played games, and we got to rest. God knew we were going to need a nice place to stay and so he sent us to them. All of us but one got sick with something that put us in bed with fevers for days. We went to clinics and got medicine, but it was all okay because we were well taken care of. We imagined our ATL time to be us living under a bridge somewhere, but God knew that’s not what we needed.
That time is one of my fondest when I look back on my Race. They loved us so genuinely after such a short time. I remember vividly like it was just yesterday. We had a prayer time with them as we were leaving and Bob broke down in tears. Here was this Grandfather figure in our lives crying because we were leaving after knowing us only 2 weeks. It broke all of our hearts, but it also solidified how meant to be our time was there.
That night we arrived for our one night with your Burkina Faso, but I’m glad I got my extra time in Ghana.
Sincerely,
Katy May.
