As more people become aware of the mission work in Ghana and throughout the world, discussions have come up with many people in my life as they voice the idea of traveling to Ghana or another third world country. And for many that's all it really is...an idea. 

But there are some in which the "idea" runs deeper, in fact, its the beginnings of a desire... So this post is for those of you who have the desire (or at least the start of it) to travel into a different culture/country.

A few tips:

1) Pray. If you want to go to share Jesus and to make an impact, it all starts and ends with prayer. It's all God's work, by His hand and it takes knowing Him and seeking Him. That's in life. That's in faith. And that's definitely in places that you've never been!

2) If you sense that you may at some point within the next decade go overseas, get a passport. To travel to many places you don't even need a visa. If you DO need a visa, you surely won't want to have to wait for your passport. Be prepared in advance. Get your passport.

3) Pray about your passions and dreams and seek what God wants to do with them. Then be willing to submit to the direction He leads.

4) Research. Where does you mind go when you think of truly serving? Are you drawn to a certain people? What are your passions? Do they involve building in the third world? Evangelize in Asian countries? Playing football in the jungle? Spending time in a post-Christian world, being Jesus?

Whatever your passions are... research them. We get these ideas in our heads of what we want to do and how. If just spend time dreaming, we may struggle more than necessary when faced with reality in that culture. One of my favorite “free-time fillers” is to get onto YouTube and search for videos with keywords relating to the people I work with in Ghana. I always learn something new and usually have a laugh or two, especially when it's white people trying to teach Ghanaian lessons!

Research not just for knowledge but for guidance too. As you learn more about people and their lives, you'll see more of where your heart truly lies. Let's be real. Most of us would love to go and serve in some village and come back and have people pat us on the back for our work. Through the process of getting informed, we learn about the culture at the same time our true motives are revealed to ourselves. And God may open our eyes and spark a new passion or give us clearer direction as we learn more.

5) Pray about the research. Pray over what still lies within your heart. Pray about your motives and ask God to continually teach and lead you.

6) Get involved where you are. You want to go somewhere else and tell them about Jesus? How often do you tell people in your little bubble about the incredible Savior we have that offers Hope to them?? No, I get it, really I do. It is harder to step up, be bold and reach out to those directly around us because ultimately there will be a response, negative or positive, there will be one. Think back to your choice to go somewhere and share Jesus. What drives you to do that? In essence, what is your motive? People need Jesus; Jesus told us to go, so that's why we go to places like West Africa right? What about here at home?

7) Pray that God would give you the same passion and heart of compassion for those around you that you have for people you have never even met in other countries. I didn't realize it until this moment but this is how I first became connected with Ghana. I listened to a youth pastor share about the people of Ghana. The pictures he showed burned in my mind and I began to pray with a passion that they would know Jesus. Sixteen months later I found myself IN Ghana, with these people. And upon my return, God grew my heart for the people of my community. Now, 5 years later, my heart is near exploding with excitement as I await the opportunity to share Jesus this Saturday!

8) Pray about opportunities to support God's work in the place/with the people you have on your heart. Maybe you can give financially. Maybe you can collect items. Definitely you can commit to faithful prayer each day on their behalf. Write encouraging notes. "Share" the cause on your favorite social networks and get the word out. Help others get informed and involved. Hey...why doesn't someone do a "flash-mob" in Ghana with me?!?!?!? Or I can meet you in Romania and we can do it with my friends there!

The recipe is different for everyone. God works in a ba-jillion different ways. These are just some thoughts that come to mind at the moment.

Also, some insights for Ghana are blogs from the past...linked below:

Tso, You must learn the Evegbe

No, You are Doing it Wrong

Made it to Tefle!

Random Facts few will actually appreciate!

More Randomness

Glorious Day

Not Yesterday

Society of "We"

Speaks VOLUMES!

The Kingdom of God belongs to such as These

Insight to Women

Snapshots from Ghana

Knowing

I have a friend who knows me. She can watch my face as I listen to others and she knows what I am thinking and how I'm feeling. She can share words of comfort that I need without me ever voicing the need. The crazy thing is that I've only known her for five years! That's a great friendship there!

Another super awesome friend I have is my sister. She knows me probably better than any other human being and is my best friend in the WHOLE WORLD! May not seem like much to anyone else but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw her for the first time in over a month and she said, "Did you dye your hair?" almost immediately after she saw me. Now I posted on my blog about my hair color and although I did dye it, it's so close to my natural hair color that no one has noticed the difference. My sister did! AND I had my eyebrows done and the lady put some powder on them to darken them up. My sister asked if I dyed my eyebrows too. I'm pretty sure no one else would notice this except her! It made me feel good to notice this and see how close we still can be.


But there is One who knows me better. Now I've read in Genesis, the Psalms and other places about how God knows us. Sometimes I wonder what these passages mean but most of the time I chalk them up as one of those things I'll never understand. Only, God doesn't let me stay there. He does something. Something to show how much He knows me. Something that reaches so deep within me that I can do nothing but stand in awe of Him and who He is. Something that increases my awareness of Him, my longing to draw near to Him, and my desire to share Him.


Its a sweet thing to have people who know you...who really know you...and love you anyway! There is no greater love than this, that One lay His life down for His friends.


Jesus knows us. And He loves us anyway! 

Sad

I have a friend who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy. I've only known her since 2010 and she has been in a state where she relies wholly on her husband for most every task. This couple is allowing me to stay in their Fifth wheel trailer until I move out of the country. For the past two years this is where I've been. To me, their generosity is the same thing as donating $9,600 because I have not had to pay rent. They are very kind, supportive and great at visiting and encouraging.

Sunday I got a phone call that she was gone. I was unaware of her hospital stay. Today was her memorial. As a believer I know that she is experiencing the fullness of our salvation...she is complete, whole and totally free from that with which she struggled here.

But today my heart is sad. She's gone. I won't see her again on this earth. No one gave me notice. No one told me that my last visit would be just that...my last. I was only out of town for two weeks.

My hope is in heaven, its in Jesus. Knowing that my friend is free is incredibly calming.

But I also see her husband hurting. And I hurt. I saw her family, hurting and still suffering from this disease. And I hurt. And I know if I ever step foot in their house again, she won't be there. And I'm sad.

I'm not hopeless, please don't misunderstand. My hope is not far away, I feel like. This life is short. Unfortunately there is still pain. And I struggle to grieve.

Please pray for my friend's husband and their family and friends. And pray for me too while you're at it, please.

Thinking of those I know who have lost spouses and praying for them...

Experiencing Newfound Freedom

In April 2011 I typed this but just now got the nerve to post it.

***I am going to start this with a "non-disclaimer." People who know me, know that I speak up for what I believe in when I feel it's necessary. I'm always learning how love, mercy, and grace should be in what I share. This is a "non-disclaimer" because I AM taking full responsibility of what I am sharing, however, I do acknowledge that some may disagree and that's totally okay. Because this is my blog and because my experience has been so profound in my life, I wanted to share it. We don't hear about stuff like this too much and I am not ashamed of the Gospel and its impact on my life. :) Enjoy! Or don't, whatever suits you. :)***

I was born in the US. Born into freedom. I have never known a life where I was not free to say and do whatever I wanted.

Because I was born into this freedom, I forget about it. I don't think I often understand the sacrifices that took and are taking place for my freedom. I think many of my compadres and peers in the US are much the same way. I don't understand what it is like to be "set free" from another country's ruling and authority. I only understand what it is to "be free". Make sense?

BUT after choosing to follow Christ, I have experienced what it means to be SET free.

I have tried to fight for my freedom from one particular sin for well over a decade of my life. I have relied on Scripture, praise, devotional time, friends, family...all to no stinkin' avail! I began to question, "Where is the power of God in my life?"

But I had a week where a few people committed to praying for me for the entire week. During that week, I felt the Lord's guidance to confession, forgiveness of myself and others, refusing to judge others any longer...and what took place was basically a cleansing/purification process directed by and before the Lord.

Now I have spent time confessing sins before, but this time, I didn't sit down and make a list of sins and cross them off as I went along. Instead, I waited on the Lord to bring to mind anything I needed to confess and to be quite honest, it was like my spirit vomited! Forgive me. I know the word is a strong one but let's be real, "sin" isn't just a little 'step off the path'. Sin is a leap into slavery. In John 8:34 Jesus said, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin." In Romans we're told that the one we obey is to whom we are enslaved and if it is sin we're enslaved to, well, that leads to death.

Also, we know that God cannot stand sin. It is contrary to every facet of His Being. I have prayed the the Lord would fill my life and faith with Himself, that His Holy Spirit would come and fill myself, the ministry He has called me into and every area of my life I could think of at the time.

And if Light is to enter a place, darkness MUST go. Therefore, the Lord brought out many things that I needed to confess. As they came to mind, I acted in every way I knew how to confess, to see how God sees that action/word/thought and agree with Him, move forward in a way that was pleasing to Him and thank Him for His certain forgiveness (1 John 1:9). I spent a week doing this....a week...a WEEK! That's a lot of junk. And I continue to do this each day (so maybe I won't have to dedicate another whole WEEK to it later :).

But as the Lord showed me what I needed to be rid of, one thing in particular rocked my world. See I may not know what it means to be enslaved to another person. But I KNOW what it means to be enslaved to sin. I know how it is to fight with everything in me but when the enemy just pointed his finger, I would bow.

At this point many may disagree with me. Maybe I'll disagree with me later but at the moment, I can only share my experience.

As a child I opened the door to a world I did not believe in and had no idea of its power. I allowed the Enemy a foothold to which he would strengthen himself year after year, sin after sin, until I was so bound by him in an area of my life that the entirety of life itself seemed pointless.

Yes, Christ was my Savior. I was seeking Him. I was growing in knowledge and in faith. But some areas of my life I felt helpless. I knew there was freedom in Christ but in these areas where I felt helpless, I knew I was a slave to the sin. It seemed like the bondage in one area of my life outweighed the freedom in all of the rest and it definitely interfered with my relationship with my King. I didn't understand it because I have heard story after story of how people who smoked or drank or whatever stopped the instant they chose Christ. So why was my case different?

Finally I reached a point where I understood, that Christ's death HAD conquered sin and it was MY responsibility and privilege to renounce the Enemy's hold on my life. I have begun to understand that the authority that Christ was given, He passed on to those who choose Him. As followers of Christ, we have the authority, through the Helper, to be free from sin, to resist the Enemy...and it was my responsibility to shut the door to evil that I had opened, even if unknowingly, as a child. I believe that it was the oppression from the Enemy (that I unknowingly allowed) that kept me in sin.

No one told me this. I didn't read a book on "How to be free from sin." I just sat in my little fifth wheel trailer and did my best to follow the Lord's direction. I knew that I wanted to know God more. I knew that I wanted His Spirit to guide and direct. Through prayer and His word, I knew I needed to rid my life of some things through confession. As I mentioned, I allowed the Lord to lead me through this, rather than trying to figure it out myself. And as He did, and I obeyed (even if it seemed a bit different than what I was used to), He was faithful in forgiving my sins and PURIFYING me of all unrighteousness. And...

Jesus may have been reading this for those present at the time, but I believe He fulfilled the prophecy for me too:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has appointed Me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind. To release the oppressed, to proclam the year of the Lord's favor." Luke 4:17-19

I cannot express to anyone the feeling of freedom. I cannot express what I have been through for the last 'umpteen' years trying to free myself apart from the power of God (not the knowledge of God, not the word of God but the actual power of God). I always heard the scripture from Matthew 11 "for my yoke is easy and my burden is light" but having something sooooooo heavy in my life made me skeptical about that passage. It's like carrying around 100 lbs of baggage. No matter what task I have ahead of me, its going to be more difficult because of the extra junk. But when the baggage is removed, because I've carried the weight around for so long, even the difficult tasks seem easy.

His yoke is easy and it is light. Not because I say so and not even because I've experienced it but because He said so and because its true. His yoke is easy and His burden is light and it helps to not be a slave to any sin or oppressed by any principality of this world.

There are so many ways that we are oppressed and held captive that we may not even know. Through this world and our flesh the Enemy grabs at us looking for a place to hang on and drag us down with him.

For those who have read this and are skeptical, remember that it is only my account of my own experience. I have been vague and left out details because I am not trying to convince anyone of anything. I am only attempting to share my own account because few have shared any such encounter with me.

We should not forget that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12

It's difficult to remember that at times when we are so busy investing in the things of this world. Don't let your daily prayer time with the Lord suffer. Don't let the busyness of life crowd out your Jesus time. Invest in eternity daily. After all, its the only lasting investment.