Here we are, about to end our second month in Africa and start our third and final month here. We’ll actually be spending two extra weeks here in Ghana and two less in Burkina Faso because of a lack of contacts and some other stuff going on there.
As always, God continues to push me. Not, like, pushing in the sense that He’s holding my arms, saying “stop hitting yourself” until I finally hit back, but pushing me like Ms. Norbury pushed Cady Heron in Mean Girls. She knew Cady could do better, be better, than she was, so she pushed her. And then Cady won the Mathletes competition, fixed all of her burned bridges AND got the really cute guy in the end. What a ride.
It’s funny how when we have absolutely nothing to give, absolutely no strength of our own left, God does His best work. It’s because we have no choice but to lean on Him and depend on His strength to get through the day. I dreaded every day of evangelism until I was completely empty and would just wake up and want to go home. I thought last month was my lowest point and that I was on my way up, and then I realized I was still sliding down. I was honestly just tired of being a missionary; I never felt rested enough. I needed a renewed compassion for the people of Ghana. Finally, one day when I was feeling particularly low, God showed up.
We stumbled upon a group of guys hanging out in a little hut and they invited us in.
“You’re missionaries? Okay, tell us your message.”
We then spent about 45 minutes there getting to know them, discussing differences between Islam and Christianity and explaining who Jesus was to us and how he had changed our lives. Before long, I felt so filled up from getting to have that conversation with them, and before we left, I just felt God’s love for these men. It was so overwhelming I had to tell them how God saw them: as beloved sons- created uniquely with purpose. After that encounter, ministry this month changed for me.
I was suddenly excited for every day. I was eager to walk up to strangers and hear their stories. I was actually having fun doing the thing I started out hating. We’ve gotten to know so many wonderful people in different neighborhoods here in Sunyani. We help people while they work, we play with children, we buy from people’s shops, we sit with people and listen to them tell us their dreams and their grievances, and we cover all of them with prayer. We’ve gotten to see people find freedom and come to know Jesus! The Lord’s given us so much this month. I love seeing people so filled up after we’ve prayed for them. They have so much joy- not because of the words that we’ve spoken, but because the Holy Spirit has touched them and they’ve felt that love.
One new friend we’ve gotten to hang out with a few times runs a barber shop; his name is Ben. He’s 19 and asks a lot of questions about God and Jesus and the Bible because he’s been told a lot of different things. We tell him it’s so good to ask questions because it’s never good to follow something blindly, and that he should ask God to reveal the truth to him. Most recently, I let him cut my hair. It worked out as well as you would expect it to, but I got to support his shop, spend some extra time with him, and show him love in that way. I think Jesus would let someone ruin his hair for the sake of the Gospel.
There is a lot of change within this year, but one constant: God is always pushing me to grow. Oh, sure, He always loves me exactly where I’m at, but He also loves me enough to not let me stay there. I would miss out on all the joy I’ve gotten to experience this month if I had stayed there! If it means rising above my selfish nature, my shortcomings and my sin to love people and help build His kingdom, then I’ll always choose to be pushed.
