A year ago I had the privilege to visit Partners International in Spokane WA.  Partners is an organization staffed with wise and seasoned missionaries and they have made a decision to only serve in the hardest parts of the world.  Partner’s Alex Araujo has led a conversation of how to shape an organization that depends not on our best human efforts, but on the movement of God’s Spirit.

I enjoyed listening to Alex speak and later found some of his writings online. This is from the Sailing Friends blog.

“This utter lack of knowledge of when and how God will act is likely to make us very uncomfortable. In fact, we are so uncomfortable that we resort to our best human resources to come up with plans to do what God asks us to do. We try to make up for the fact that God has left us in the dark about his plans and agenda by coming up with our own. When we do this, we fail to understand something very basic to being people of Christ in the world. What is this very basic thing?”

To hear about this very basic (yet so challenging) thing, point your rudder to Sailing Friends.

I often gain new perspective from our Ghana coaches that enriches my own discipleship journey.

This sign is hanging on the wall in Adam Brown’s one room, mud brick office in Tamale, Ghana.  Adam’s village ministry has no regular income, which means he is able to do only only a fraction of the village projects that he dreams up.  Yet his ministry has tremendous power.  The gospel is accelerating through his life, and the lives of his few fellow disciples, into communities where the name of Jesus has not yet been heard.

I’ve learned from observing Adam that God has designed us as creatures with limits.  Each one of us has only limited time, energy and resources.  It’s incredibly frustrating sometimes.  But God is limitless, and he multiplies our faithfulness.  He accomplishes great things through us as we pour ourselves into small things with Great Love.

Many have quoted that, “If we take care of the depth of our ministry, God will take care of the breadth.”  But this requires that I embrace my own God given limits, go deep where God has placed me, and give him the glory when he broadens and multiplies my small ministry.

With God, the magnitude of our impact is limitless, But we may only see the true impact when he gets the glory in the next life.  Are we willing to take the risk of investing deeply in small things, but with Great Love?

Update:  Naomi texted me with very sad news that the girl in the story below, named Konadu, has suddenly passed away.  Naomi told me that as far as she knows, the girl knows Jesus.  This sad ending makes me even more thankful for Sister Naomi and her eye for the broken.

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Naomi Awuni is an incredibly gifted teacher.  A YLI Coach since 2006, she has discipled men and women of all ages.  She has a masters degree in education and is the headmistress of a primary school in Sunyani.  Naomi gravitates to hurting and broken people, and sacrificially pours all that she has into them.

I have met many people over the past five years who left destructive lifestyles and began to follow Christ after experiencing the love of Jesus through Naomi.

One day when she was at school, Naomi noticed that it had been several days since one little girl had been in class.  She traveled the long distance to the girl’s village and found the girl with a swollen stomach and in a lot of pain.  She talked with the girl’s parents who said that they didn’t have enough money to send her to the hospital, but were going to take her to the local witch doctor.  Afraid that the witch doctor would give the girl a natural remedy that could be harmful or even kill her, Naomi asked the parents for permission to take the girl to the hospital.

The parents initially refused.   But knowing Naomi is a Christian, they asked her if she would pray for the girl.  Naomi gave a sharp response.

“God and the devil cannot work together.  If I pray for her, you must not take her to the witch doctor, but let her come with me, so I can take her to a doctor.”

After a long argument, the parents allowed the girl to go with Naomi.

Naomi took the little girl to the doctor and sat by her side.  Whenever the girl needed medicine, Naomi reached into her wallet and paid the bill.  Each day she paid the hospital fee.  This went on for several days and she began to run out of money.  Naomi approached other teachers and asked them to contribute.  She told me sadly that few would help.  Instead, peoples’ response was, “Naomi, what kind of teacher are you?  This is not your responsibility”.  By the time the girl was discharged and recovering at Naomi’s home, Naomi had spent every bit of her own money.

Yet, there was no regret as she told me this story.

Naomi’s story is that of the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Jesus rebuked those who would turn their eyes from suffering people, and not step in personally and sacrificially to help.  Naomi reminded me that all we have belongs to God, and He entrusted it to us so we can use it to accomplish his Luke 4:17-18 and Matthew 28:20 missions on earth.

Here’s an update on YLI’s national coordinator Vincent Asamoah.  Vincent started the sports ministry Shoot4Life in Kumasi in 2009.  After 18 months of focusing on  training 15 young men and women as basketball coaches and in youth ministry, he successfully constructed a basketball court in 2011 and held his first camp in September, attracting 120 kids.
Vincent’s basketball ministry is one of a kind in Kumasi.  Ghana is a sports crazed nation, but most children have never even seen a basketball.  Through Shoot4Life, Vincent’s basketball coaches are in position to lead kids to Christ and begin the discipleship process.

My good friend Jonah Manyan was illiterate until his mid-twenties when he began primary school.  He eventually attended bible college and in 2002 became a coach with YLI.

When I first met Jonah nine years ago we were both young men about to get married.  Today, Jonah is one of the most influential Christian leaders in his town of Saboba, which lies in Ghana’s poor agrarian north.  He still has a passion for literacy that he is using to lead people to Jesus and train them into disciples.

According to Jonah, the literacy rate in Saboba is a dismal 40%.  Using the bible that he helped translate into his native Konkumba language, he has formed literacy groups for young people.  In the process of teaching them to read and write Konkumba, they read through the bible together.  Many come to Christ as they are exposed to God’s word.

I met Ntenyabaka, one young man who became a Christian through Jonah’s literacy program.  Jonah is now investing in his life and paying for him to receive his secondary education.  After his education, Ntenyabaka will return to Saboba to help spread the gospel to his people.

On a personal note, Jonah and wife Agnes have just welcomed their third child, a baby girl, into their family!

In rural areas of Ghana, especially in villages, people are not used to relating to a God who loves them deeply, and desires to give them the unconditional gifts of salvation and life.

African traditional religions teach that various local gods need to be appeased of their anger and wrath through costly gifts, idol worship and animal sacrifices.

When YLI coach Adam Brown visited the chief of a village neighboring Kpenchela – the village where he led the construction of a project to provide clean water – the chief asked him a not-so-surprising question.  “How much money do I have to pay to become a Christian?”

Adam had taken with him a few young people from Kpenchela whom he is discipling in his village ministry.  All of them waited to hear his answer to the Chief’s question.

Adam replied, “The gift that Jesus came to earth to give was free, so what we come to bring you is also free.”  Adam told me that the chief became excited as he heard about the true God who loves him and his people.

The love that Adam has shown first in Kpenchela is now spreading to the surrounding villages, and it is exciting to me how Adam is embedding the mission God has given him into the next generation of younger leaders.  In the same way that YLI has grown after the passing of Jim Moye five years ago, so will Adam’s ministry multiply long after he is gone.

Please continue to pray for Adam, those whom he is discipling, and the Kpenchela young leaders who are learning how to reach out to the surrounding villages.  Pray for the chief and his village, that they too will receive the free gift of Jesus.

Update:  Just this morning (9/29/10), I received an email from Adam with the following news:

“Ash, I am happy to inform you that four other villages invited us to visit them so that they can also know our God.  The villages are Banvem, Komlanyili, Nagidigu and Digma.

The rains this year is very heavy and it is difficult to get to the villages. We went to Komlanyili, and at some point we crossed two streams, and the water was at chest level. We had to carry our motor bikes very high.

God is using the water project at Kpenchila to glorify him self in the area and beyond.

Adam Brown”

Last Monday I returned from my 10 day trip to Ghana and unfortunately had almost no internet access in the towns and villages I was visiting.  An irony of our work in Ghana is that many of the exciting things we want to report are happening in places where updating a website isn’t easy or possible.

Over the next few days though I will be post a few highlights from my journal along with some pictures of my time in Kpenchela, Kumasi and Kintampo, Ghana.

August 7, 2010

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Day 2 – Ghanaian YLI Coaches Adam, Vincent, and Churcher, and I drove out to a “hinterland” village called Kpenchela where for three years Adam has been living out what we teach.  He has deeply loved this village and has been discipling a few young leaders there; but a persistent source of suffering has been a lack of clean drinking water, and limited education opportunities for the children.

In September 2009, during my first visit to Kpenchela, I became sick to my stomach as I imagined my two kids having to live in the conditions we saw in the village.  Vincent, himself having grown up in a village in Ghana, was so upset by what he saw that he emotionally retreated to the car for most of our visit.

In March of 2010, on a return trip, the chief of Kpenchela communicated to our team through a translator that the lack of clean water and education in the village was like a sore on his leg.  Adam shared with me his passion to help with the need and willingness to give of his own meager resources.

This time we went to Kpenchela to celebrate.

Through a partnership of YLI donors, and an investment of his own money, Adam has successfully led a project to construct a system that captures rainwater in two 30,000 liter tanks which is then purified for drinking.  The water is collected from the roof of a new open air pavilion that will be used as a school, and as the first meeting place for the Christians in the village to worship.

Adam, the leaders he is discipling, and I talked together about his vision for the young leaders in Kpenchela now to reach out to eight similar and unreached surrounding villages with what they have received.

It was a fun party.

The chiefs and elders from Kpenchela and the eight surrounding villages, along with a couple hundred people came together for a dedication of the project, a time of prayer; and of course a traditional dance.

Kpenchela dancers performed their traditional dance.  Then Jonah did his traditional dance.  Then I did my dance (which could not be called traditional in any way).

To show their gratitude the chief made the first ever (live)stock donation to YLI.  I left with a sheep, a chicken and a guinea fowl (which to the disappointment of my children stayed in Ghana).

Adam, and his small team of disciples have been serving and loving the village of Kpenchela for three years, and because of their investment, Kpenchela is now becoming a beacon to the surrounding area.  It is a great living example of 2 Timothy 2:2, the reason for which YLI exists.

I (Ash) just arrived in Ghana and am resting up for a few hours before kicking off a travel schedule that is very ambitious (even by my whirlwind travel standards).

Tomorrow morning I’m taking a local flight to Tamale in the north to meet Vincent and Adam Brown. Together we will drive out to the village of Kpenchela where Adam has been training up young leaders who are loving the unloved there.

I’ll get to see for myself the clean water system that we partnered with Adam to provide for the village (with great help from a great friend, Garret Nichols).

I hear there is much more to this water story and its impact, but I want to see it for myself before commenting. This Love that Adam and his leaders are sharing in this Muslim dominated area is spreading…

Then we’re off to a Coaches Summit in Kumasi and a Young Leaders training in Kintampo before I head home in ten days.

Please pray that I’ll see what God wants me to see, hear what He wants me to hear and speak what He wants me to say.  And also that our coaches will experience His love  for them through their time with me.

Sometimes when I meet with people we’ve trained in Ghana they ask me if I will tell the people in the U.S. about them. It is a comfort to them that people know of them and think about them. I like to say that I will; after all we are all part of the tribe of Jesus.

One friend I met with yesterday in Ghana has made a courageous decision to plant a church in a section of his city called Angola. It’s drug infested – people go behind the storage shed my friend lives in with his wife and two kids to do drugs, and he goes out to befriend them.

One young man (Samuel) whom he led to Jesus is an alcoholic who struggles and often fails daily with sobriety. But Samuel loves Jesus and brings his friends to my friend so they can pray. My friend sits with them, prays (regardless if they’ve been drinking or not) and is discipling Samuel deeply to better reach his friends. My friend said “Can you believe I have a drunkard as a disciple?”. My response: “That’s awesome. God will change him. You just love him.” Of course that is far too easy for me to say.

Other pastors in my friend’s denomination have tried to convince him to plant his church in an area that can actually support him (he is dependent on tithes for his salary), but he knows whom God has called him to love and he’s not moving.

So now you know of my friend Bossman. He’s a humorous, compassionate and joyful man with deep love for God. As he comes to mind remember him in prayer – we are all part of the same tribe.

Here is a picture of our team (minus me) with Bossman.

Today we drove to Sunyani where over the past five years our coach Naomi has discipled many men and women of all ages. We got to meet with ten of them.

She has welcomed whole families to live with her in her two room house, adopted a four year girl who she found crying and abandoned at the market, she’s taught older male pastors how share their love for Jesus by engaging in acts of compassion to others.

All of this has taken place after the death of her husband in 2005 which left her a widow with three young children. People came around her and deeply cared for her in her grief, and so she, instead of circling the wagons and hoping to just survive as a single mom, threw open the doors of her home and her heart for others.

Since I’ve known Naomi, her house has been robbed and has burned down. One of her children was stabbed. Yet there a deep joy in Naomi that the people who know her recognize as Jesus.

Wednesday we are off to Drobo.