Our “YLI Elder” was bestowed a humorous gift this morning for his 47th birthday. Rob found this hat at the Kumasi market and we couldn’t resist. Happy birthday Vincent!

This is an update from my iPhone since we’ve had no power and internet recently. Its frustrating not to be able to share photos from the coaches conference, Vincents basketball site and the All Nations Orphanage. The only photos online are on my (Ash Zook) personal Facebook page.

This morning we are packing 6 of us and all bags into our car for the 7-14 hour drive up north to Tamale.

We have had some great conversations with our Ghanaian leaders about the diverse spiritual climate in this country and how Christ is making himself known in the lives of the humble who seek him.

One coach from the north recently began helping out a muslim youth with daily meals, a room to sleep in at his own and as a mentor. The young man, through the coach’s authentic love and concern has taken the decision to follow Jesus as well and is learning to walk as a disciple of Jesus. He and the coach now work as a team to go out and love and serve in their community. The coach has asked for prayer for the boy’s family, safety and increased wisdom for himself as well. It reminds me of the second part of 1 Corinthians 8:1, “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”. Seeing our friends here radically loving people in need is more exciting to me than any other sign of spiritual growth.

It has been a crazy amount of fun to travel with Vincent, Gary, Rob and Rich. We’re laughing constantly, but I am also greatly benefiting from their eyes and perspective here.

Gary did an incredible job leading the coaches through a study in Matthew 23, having them interpret it through their unique African experience.

Rob poured out a lot of love in kids in the orphanage and they soaked it up like sponges. He became a student, letting them teach him some Twe, the local language.

Rich has captured our trip with photos and video, and led the kids at the orphanage in songs that blessed us all. He’s a servant.

All three have listened to the life stories of the Ghanaian coaches, prayed for them and opened up their own lives as well. Some of the challenges faced are so different (pressure to worship idols, seek guidance from diviners and total rejection and violent threats from family), so there has been little advice giving and a lot of listening.

Ok, my finger is getting tired typing on this little iPhone keyboard, but hopefully we’ll stumble upon some reliable electricity and internet soon.

The car is packed and we’re off to Tamale right now!

Ash

February 24:  This is Ash writing from Delta flight 166 which took off from Atlanta just fifteen minutes ago.  DL166 stops in New York for two hours before departing on an overnight trip across the Atlantic to Accra, Ghana.

This is going to be a special trip; especially because of how the team came together.  As you read on about the people sitting with me on the plane to Ghana, and their stories, I hope you also will see the divine “coincidences” that are at work in our midst.

Rob Ketterer:  Rob has been on the YLI board since the very beginning in 2002; and, this is his first trip with YLI to Ghana (but that was not by his choice).  In 2004, Rob and Jim Moye planned a trip together.  The dates were picked, tickets purchased, shots received…but only two weeks before their departure date, Jim collapsed at home and shortly afterward was diagnosed with brain cancer.  Since then, Rob has been praying about another opportunity to experience for himself YLI’s ministry in Ghana, and TODAY is the day!  It is an honor for me to join Rob on this adventure.

Rich Erwin:  Rich works for the mission organization Operation Mobilization.  He actually lived for two years on a missions ship that traveled the world.  He is also on the global outreach team at Grace Evangelical Church in Fayetteville, Ga.  Grace Church has a calling to minister to next-generation indigenous leaders around the world, and asked Rich if he would visit Ghana to check out YLI’s relational style of discipleship.

Rich agreed to the trip and then began to look into the history of YLI.   He was amazed to find that YLI was started by Jim Moye!  In the 1980’s, Rich was a youth counselor at Northside United Methodist and was part of the group that was discipled by Jim Moye.  Rich’s first missions trip was to Jamaica with Jim! 

Gary Franklin:  Gary is a new YLI board member for 2010.  He is the founder of The Leaders Heart, through which he disciples business leaders, and is the lead pastor of Grace Evangelical Church.   Gary has mentoring and discipleship experience with leaders from India, Cameroon, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.  I am excited for the YLI coaches in Ghana to hear Gary’s voice, and to be exposed to the wisdom and experience he will bring to our leaders.

For the next five days we will be joining the YLI coaches at our home base in Kumasi for teaching, encouragement, friendship and community.  Our team of four will then  travel with our national leader, Vincent  Asamoah, to the northern region of Ghana to partner with one of our key local leaders, who is serving and reaching out in love to people who are living in remote villages and struggling with severe physical and spiritual poverty issues.

We will be doing our best to update www.youngleadersinternational .org and the Friends of Young Leaders International Facebook group.  We appreciate your prayers and are thankful for your friendship and support!

We have uploaded a new Jim Moye message to the audio page of the YLI website.

In this message, given at the missions conference at Grace United Methodist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, Jim passionately casts the vision that God gave him for YLI.

After listening, please post your reflections and comments (just click on “Leave a Comment” above).  We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Vincent (left) with Ash

from Vincent Asamoah, YLI’s leader in Ghana –

“This is my first time ever in Liberia.  I was not sure what to expect, and I was open to whatever there is to be seen.  

 This afternoon I had the privilege to drive through the city of Monrovia with some friends from the US and Caleb Dormah, a Liberian who happens to be a three-time national basketball most valuable player!

As we drove through the densely populated city (1.6 million people), Caleb said that about 40% of the people in the city were involved in the civil war that claimed over 300,000 lives.

From this story, I felt that the only way to bring about true healing, forgiveness and reconciliation is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and YLI is poised to do that.

Please pray for YLI’s leadership as we pray for God’s leading for 2010; especially in regards to how He may lead us to engage young people in Liberia.”   

“Mohammed A.  had no knowledge in listening to God until we finished the first day’s topic of Intimacy with God. It has been over a year now after the program and he is still growing.

Evangelist Mohammed in his testimony talked with passion how Incarnational Evangelism (loving the people around him) has been a powerful tool for him, penetrating into the ‘Konkomba’ community in getting his ‘Timothys’ (mentoring a few). Through love, kindness and sharing the little that he had (e.g. .clothing, food) with them, it has been easy for him to plant a Church in the Moslem Community where he lives with a membership of 20.This feat seemed impossible to others but it is a reality now because he identified and did things in common with them.

He thanked God for YLI, it’s leadership and their families, he also prayed for more blessing and support for YLI to extend the “Lifestyle of Jesus Christ” to others.”

This is an excerpt from Vincent and Churcher’s report from our time in Tamale, Ghana.  Even through I don’t specifically remember him, I met Mohammed a year ago.  The exciting thing is the impact that he has made on his community over the past year because he simply listened to God’s voice, and loved the people around him with the love of Christ.

That’s what its all about.

As I was going through all of the photos from the trip I found a couple of short videos that Mike shot.   They are in HD and look really good.  The first one is of kids singing to us in the village of Kpenchela, where Pastor Brown is discipling a few young leaders who are ministering to the kids of the village.   The second is of us getting the car out of the mud we got stuck in on the way to Kpenchela!