The Door Swings Wide Open

An Email Dated May 19, 2012

I haven’t had much to share since last August. Through the fall months I pursued several options related to Ghana, but each of them fell through after a little exploration. After a few months of that I decided to just settle into enjoying my current job and let Africa happen when it happens. Then comes March!

I think this story is best told through my prayer journal …

journal entry tuesday, march 13, 2012

“Question of the week: Is wanting to go to Ghana, rather than another African country, selfish? Am I “called” to Africa or to Ghana? Is going to Ghana just what I want to do? And is that bad?

journal entry thursday, march 22, 2012

“As time marches on and summer approaches I so badly want to be intentional in my walk with you and in making an Africa plan. So far my take on it this year has been very peaceful. I enjoy my job, I would like to go to Africa, but I would like it to be of you and not my manipulation.

On Monday night I showed up as usual at REP (tutoring program for African refugees). There was a youth group there hanging out. When I walked up Mr. Jules said, “Hey, this guy goes to Ghana.” So I started talking with Steve Bullard – a youth pastor in Oklahoma. He told me his wife just got home from a survey trip to Ghana. She wants to start an organization that ministers to teenage girls that are on the streets and prostitutes in Accra. They have a 24-year-old girl from their church that wants to go over there for a year. As he talked I kept asking more and more questions, my jaw dropping and heart leaping the whole time. Is this the one? Is this my chance? Oh Father, this sounds so perfect. Ministering to teenage girls in Accra. This whole journey started as a passion for Africa – thoughts were on adoption, nonprofit and on moving there. I finally settled on the idea of moving there. Then it was Liberia or Zambia – but my heart was still not feeling right with it. Ghana, teenagers and females is where my heart has recently come to rest. I still remember the faces of those women at the vocational center we visited years ago in Accra. I’ve been concerned at my heart’s narrowing of purpose, feeling like I was being selfish in telling you what I want to do. But now I wonder if it was your wonderful work of preparation.”

It took me a week to even be able to verbalize this story to anyone other than the Lord. I slowly started to tell a few of you eventually, but it has still taken me some time to get to the point of telling this story. I think it’s because I felt like God and I had an amazing secret and I didn’t want to mess it up by talking about it. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I feel like that conversation was a gift from Him, affirmation that He sees me and He hears me.

God’s faithfulness continues to be displayed as I have talked with Steve’s wife, named COURTNEY several times. Just so you can see a little piece of her side of the story, she got home from her first trip to Ghana on a Friday in March feeling very overwhelmed. The location she thought would be ideal for this ministry turned out to not feel like the right place. She still wanted to make this dream come true but was struggling with how to make it happen, how to get it going, how were they going to find an American to be on the ground permanently. I met Steve THREE days later on Monday. Did I mention that Courtney is 33,and they have a daughter named Francesca? … I’m 33 and my middle name is Frances. I’m not trying to get all superstitious here, but there’s no denying that the Lord is in the middle of all this.

Courtney and I have continued to talk and plan. The name for this ministry to teenage girls is the Pearl House. There’s a Ghanaian man that Courtney and Steve’s church works with named Bishop Odai. He is a man of God that has been praying for a ministry like this to be started by someone. It turns out that his church ministry happens to have some land in Winneba that He is willing to offer for the Pearl House. Winneba is about 30 to 45 minutes away from the Village of Hope. That’s right, it could very well be that the Pearl House ends up located just down the road from the place I know best in Ghana. The place that people I know visit several times a year. The place that has a great medical clinic. The place where I already have friends, support and wise counsel. …. Oh my, our God is good at what He does!!!!

By God's grace, it turns out that Steve’s mission team will be in Ghana at the same time I am there with our group in June. They will be visiting Winneba one day while we are there, so I am hoping to join their group that afternoon to meet Bishop Odai and some other Oklahomans that are interested in getting this work up and going.

I am very at peace about all of this. I don’t feel the need to try to figure it out. I don’t feel anxious. A tiny part of me is scared because I think this time it might really happen. A larger part of me is really excited because I think this time it might really happen.

Prayer Requests:

*Please pray that it will work out for me to go to Winneba when the Oklahoma team is there.

*Pray that the Lord will continue to give me peace in the process and the faith to go where He leads.

*Pray that the fundraising aspects will come together in a way that’s better than I could ever imagine.

When I look back over the notes I have sent asking for prayer I can see how God is clearly answering prayers. I pray that He is dreaming up good works for each of us to live out each and every day.