So much has happened since I last updated all of you at home. I am no longer in Africa, but unfortunately a huge part of my heart still is. Ghana wasn’t at all what I was expecting. The Lord absolutely showed up and showed off, and saying goodbye to that place and those people was harder than I ever expected.
To all of my friends back home that thought I wouldn’t leave Africa, I can say it wasn’t something I wanted to do at all. I fell in love with the ministry as well as the people. If you want to know more about the ministry I was a part of you can check out the details in my last blog post The Ministry that Stole my Heart.
God isn’t only present though in the ministry; He is moving all over that country. In one of our off days my friends and I decided to go check out one of the local art markets. The day started off as any other until the Holy Spirit decided normal wasn’t enough for us that day. He had much bigger plans in store. As we walked by all of the shops talking to the owners, we all began our own conversations. A man I was speaking to was trying to sell me on a few trinkets and toys to take home and I asked him what the symbol on the front meant. He said that it was an African symbol meaning “Accept God” (Thank you Jesus for the opportunity to talk about you!) I jumped on the opportunity and asked if he believed in God and he expressed that he was a Christian.
As he and I began talking more about what that meant, I noticed that one of my friends was also in a similar conversation a few feet away from me, so I merged the two together. As I began talking with my friend Rebecca and our new friend Mohammed, He said he wanted for us to tell him more about Jesus. We shared our faith right in the middle of the art market and got to lead this claimed Muslim man to Christ. He was so overjoyed in that moment that he didn’t quite know what to do with himself. We spoke with him for a bit longer about what this choice he had made really meant and then gave him a bible and told him we would see him soon.
Little did we know that the Spirit was not done with us yet. It’s funny how contagious it is. Once someone is filled the overflow is inevitable. We talked to my first friend, Matthew, that was the shop owner next to him and suggested that he should bring Mohammed to church with him next weekend. While we thought we were saying goodbye, I turned around to see more of my friends that began speaking to other shop owners that had gathered around when they heard us praying. By the end of our time in that market we had prayed over seven different shop owners for salvation, healings, unborn children, their families, and blessings over the shops.
The next weekend I went back to that same market. I greeted all of my friends and told them that I was not there to shop, but just to see them. I wanted them to know that they were not forgotten and that day was not just a brief encounter with the Lord, but the beginning of a new season for them. I don’t know quite what I was expecting to hear from them, but what I did hear filled me with an insurmountable amount of hope.
A few of the testimonies to report for now are:
Mehvis– The woman we prayed over for healing had no more pain. She expressed to us that she loved what the Lord was doing through us, and that only opened another door to share with her what the Lord wanted to do through her.
Mary– The woman we prayed over for her family and unborn child has been at peace. She said that before we talked with her she had not been able to sleep through an entire night in weeks because of her anxiety. After we prayed and prophesied over her baby, she has been able to sleep without any concern.
Mohammed– The once Muslim man that prayed the prayer of salvation didn’t even look or sound like the same man. He told us about how he went to church last weekend and has been reading his bible and looked at the verses we shared with him. I asked him how church was, and he said it was different than any other time someone tried to take him because now he has received it. I was filled with so much joy and even tears as he began talking about how he wanted to go with us to tell people about Jesus. I thanked the Lord for just one more opportunity with him, because then I was able to share with Mohammad what it actually meant to walk with the Lord no matter where you are. I told him that he has so many people right there in that art market that he can reach that we can’t. He was so excited and as we left encouraged us by saying that the next time we come back, he was going to have his own group of people there to tell everyone about Jesus.
This is just one day out of so many that I witnessed the Lord moving in Ghana. Saying goodbye was harder than I could have imagined, but the Lord does not need me to reach that nation. He is present and moving. I trust all of those people that I love into his hands and know that He is going to bring in others to continue sowing seeds into their lives. I just thank Him every day for having the opportunity to get to be a part of it for even a little while.
All for now, but stay tuned for Nepal updates soon.
My prayer for now is that the Lord continues to move in the people I left in Ghana. I pray that even though I can’t be there with them, that they understand that His Spirit is the constant in their lives. No matter where they are or what their situation is—He is always by their side walking with them hand and hand. Lord show them more of you every day.
