The End.

After lots of thank yous, goodbyes, hugs, and Ghanaian handshakes on Saturday morning, the last of the Ghana Gold 2009 team walked into the terminal in Accra. We passed smoothly through the airport, onto our flight, across the ocean, into JFK, and to our final destinations. For Sharina and I, that meant flying to Cincinnati, where I helped her find a suitable place in the airport to camp out until her connecting flight to Kansas. Carri picked me up at the airport and took me home, and I was pretty ready to curl up in my own comfy bed after that. It was a great month, but I was definitely energetically drained.

I've been thinking about the most impactful things that happened on this trip and, like any good boy raised in the Baptist church, I believe there are three. The first was sharing the gospel with people in Swedru. This gave me a renewed passion to see people go after Jesus and a desire to be alongside them during this process. In Sonshine, the backyard Bible clubs our youth group put on for neighborhood kids, Mrs. Wolf always used to say that the eyes are the mirror to the soul. As I watched people listen to the message of the Bible for the first time in Swedru, I saw people coming to serious realizations of their desire to have a personal relationship with God and it was evident in their eyes. But, especially with the children, I often thought, "Who is going to go with them now and help them to grow in their faith and answer their questions when things don't make sense and comfort them in the hard times and rejoice with them in victories and just share life with them?" If I'm following Christ, I'm called to do those things. But I don't have to go across the ocean to do it; there are people on my block that need that.

The second experience, a longitudinal one, that had a big impact on me was in the area of friendship. The eleven people that joined me on the Ghana trip quickly turned into great friends (some of us already were and grew even closer). The personalities, ages, and backgrounds differed quite a bit, but our common mission and passion bound us together tightly and God did great things among and through our team. There are conversations from that trip that I will remember for a long time and that have left a mark on me, a result of all of us allowing God to use us in each other's lives and a willingness to be vulnerable with one another. So Matt, Tom, Briana, Dan, Michael, Brenna, Dayna, Sharina, Mike, Dahlia, and James... thank you.

The third experience was meeting the serving attitude of the Ghanaians face to face, which was also longitudinal. Rich and Gina lived this out every day with Matt and I, doing anything they could to make us comfortable and ensure that we had a nice stay. I know the other host families did the same. But we saw it everywhere in little things. They made sure that we all had bottled water on hand for our health. They gave us their shower shoes to use. They hung our laundry out to dry. They carried water buckets from the well to the house so we could bathe. And they don't do it to be recognized or to pre-purchase a favor from you later. They do it because it's kind and it's the right thing to do. It's our duty to one another as fellow human beings. Matt talked about this in the devotional we led from Luke 17. You don't get any special commendation for doing the right thing when it's a given that you should always be doing that anyway. It's a duty. Given that, it has definitely challenged me to have a better attitude and increased readiness to go out and just serve people.

If you've been reading the blog regularly, you know that God definitely accomplished a lot through our team this month. The three things I've just mentioned are the biggies for me, but really there are many, many more things that I could have talked about that also had an impact on me. If you'd like to stop and talk to me sometime, I would be thrilled to tell you more about the trip, give you more specifics, and share some pictures. For now, I just want to thank you for reading the blog, praying for me, and/or financially supporting my trip. It was a great month. I'll leave you with a small appetite-wetting sampling of pictures here...


Swedru

Making Fufu for Dinner

Team Photo

Marching into the Bush

The Hand Slap Game

Sampson and I

Kid Time

And More Kids

Cutest Kids on the Planet

Yeah, the Camera is Popular

Cape Coast

Neighborhoods Along the Way

A Local Market

Pit Stop

Slave Castle

Canopy Walk

Pretty High Up

The Cincinnati Kids

Youth Camp

Oh, Americans

My Camp Roommate

Speaking at Camp

Downtime in the Courtyard

Delicious Peanut Butter from Home

University of Ghana

Prepping to Meet New Students

On Campus

Hanging Out

Family Time

Baby Sister, Rinna


Gina and Rinna


Hidden Talents

Don't do what others can and will do when there is so much that others cannot or will not do.
-Dawson Trotman, Founder of Navigators

Things Draw to a Close

Well, everyone, it appears we have just about reached the end of our trip. As much as it feels like we've been here a long time, I can't believe that we're coming home on Saturday. But there will be time for reminiscing later; let me tell you about this past week.

On Saturday, we went to Takoradi, a costal city in the Western Region. Matt and I woke up really early, because we had to take a taxi with Rich to a meeting place and then ride a tro-tro (van) with some other people to Takoradi. The place really isn't all that far, but the roads to get there are bad, so everything takes longer. It probably took about three hours to get there. We went to participate in a Navs conference on discipleship. The speaker was a Nigerian man and he did a great job. Some others shared, and then we had two Bible studies and talked about the topic in small groups. It really wasn't that long of a program, just a few hours, but it was good. Then we climbed back in the tro-tro and started the journey back. The thing about Ghana is that traffic is an incredible factor in going places. Somehow the trip back took over six hours. But we made and Matt and I were more than happy to crawl into the comfortable taxi to go the rest of the way home.

Sunday, we went to church with Rich and worked with the youth again. It felt good being in the Bible study, especially, because I knew people a little better this time and felt like I could challenge them with a few things. We had a really good discussion on receiving peace from God.

Monday was a fun day. We went out with our team, Kwesi, and Akwia on a trip to see the largest dam and lake in Ghana. This was another pretty long trip, but it was good just to spend some more time hanging out as a team. And, as usual, some really good challenges and encouragement came out of conversations with people along the way. The dam was pretty impressive and the area around it was beautiful. Definitely a good time.

Tuesday was a recovery day. Matt and I went out and had some fun around the city. Oh PS, if you're in a foreign country, don't assume you can walk anywhere you could in the US. Matt and I stepped on this little patch of grass and were seconds later threatened with our lives by some renigade mall employee. Classic line from that interaction: "Don't you here me calling you?! Don't you know this is my country?! I can harm you!"

Wednesday was the day of our closing team meeting. Tom asked Matt and I to lead the devotional for the morning. We had a really good talk about Luke 17 and Philippians 3 that made us think about what we're taking away from this trip and where we go from here. I'm really thankful for the team we've had here; they've been awesome.

On Wednesday night, Matt and I made an "American meal" for Rich and Gina. The menu: pancakes, bacon, and Jello. Gina had seen pancakes before because she worked with an airline and traveled around, but they were new to Rich. Syrup was new to both of them. And I think the Jello was the biggest hit of the evening. We made it in glasses and Rich thought it was pretty cool that he could turn over his glass and the Jello would stay put. We gave them some small gifts and said thank you. It was a really nice evening.

Tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday morning are all that stand between me and the plane taking me back to America. I've really enjoyed this trip, but I'm ready to come home. See you soon!

Meet the Freshers

It's been a pretty busy week in Accra. On Monday, the six of us that remain met at the Navs office to have a devotional time, pray, and talk about possibilities for the last two weeks. It was great to be with everybody again after a long weekend apart. Plans were still up in the air, though, after our meeting. So we prayed that we would not get frustrated and that opportunities to serve would come up. That evening, while Matt and I were hanging out at the house, James and Tom called us to let us know that we would be meeting with the University of Ghana Navs on Tuesday morning to make plans to help with the freshmen move-in. It was a good feeling to see plans coming together so quickly.

Tuesday morning, Matt and I took a taxi to the University of Ghana and found everybody else ok. For about two hours, we threw around ideas about what we could do this week on campus. The Navs have a ministry of about 60 people here, a pretty healthy size. But in a country where 70% of the people would call themselves Christians, there is plenty of room for growth. They wanted to reach out to the freshers, as they call them, and invite them to get involved with Navs. The Ghanaians were looking for creative suggestions as to how to do that, so we shared some of the things that we do to reach out to freshmen. We finally decided to make a brief survey that just gauges where people stand in their willingness to get involved with an on-campus ministry and gets their contact info. We don't use that method at UC, but a lot of other schools do it and it's a very helpful tool to get to know people.

On Wednesday morning, we all came back to the University, took some surveys, and broke up into groups to go welcome students at the different halls. My group was at Sabaah Hall, in the court yard. By the way, the campus is beautiful and all of the dorms have these great courtyards at the center of their facilities. As students waited in the long lines to get their keys and everything, we would just walk up and start chatting with them. Almost everyone was more than happy to talk with us and willingly filled out a survey. Sometimes, the Ghanaian Navs students would exchange numbers with them and offer to help with any registration issues that came up. It was a really great time to build friendships and just get the word about Navs out there.

When we all met afterwards, we had gotten about 80 surveys back from people after only two hours. Since follow-up with all these students would be a lot of work, we decided to take Thursday off and determine later whether we would come back on Friday to do it again. Despite the fact that not all 80 of those students surveyed will end up being in Navs most likely, even if just 30 of them got involved, that would already be a 50% increase in the number of people involved and we wanted to give them a chance to figure out what they would do about that. In the end, the Navs country leader, Uncle Joseph, asked us to do it again on Friday, because he didn't want resources to be a limiting factor in the number of people involved. He promised to recruit leaders from other branches of Navs in the country, if need be. So we went back today and did it again, and it went equally well. Please be praying for the Navs ministry on campus at the University of Ghana. It's a really great group of students and, with some of the fresh ideas that they've developed even just this week, God can do some pretty awesome stuff through them. We're going to meet with them one more time before we leave to help them brainstorm some more for the first semester.

On a personal level, the last week has been a really great thing for me. I re-read Crazy Love by Francis Chan this week, which was really a good kick in the rear. My time praying and reading the Bible has been rich, the result of being in an environment with a lot less of the typical distractions. And my conversations this week have been really encouraging, definitely some good talks with Matt, other all-stars on our team, and the Ghanaians. It's always cool to see that I go on trips like this expecting to be used to help others, but God always turns it around and works on me dramatically. It just makes me feel even more pumped about getting back to Cincinnati and keeping this going.

Lukewarm people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God.
-Francis Chan in Crazy Love

Speaking and Living the Gospel

Things have been pretty relaxed for the past several days here in Accra. We are in the middle of a shift in team dynamics and plans right now, since the first half of our team returned to the US on Friday. Between wrapping things up with them and taking a couple days to reorganize, not too much structured ministry stuff has been happening. Regardless, the rest is a welcomed thing right now, given the business of the last few weeks.

Matt and I had the privilege of a day at the beach yesterday with our family, Rich, Gina, and Rinna. We drove out to the Central Region, parked by the beach, and then took a little row boat over to a small island. I spent the day playing in the ocean, dominating Matt in Oware [a local board game (just kidding, Matt, if you're reading this)], and eating good food. It has been really cool to see how Rich and Gina incorporate their faith into their life so much. While we ate lunch, Rich and Gina invited us to be a part of their Bible study time. So, as we ate, we discussed a psalm and everybody shared their thoughts. Simple times like that are key in encouraging one another in our faith. After a few hours of sunny relaxation, we headed back home.

Today, we got to go to church with Rich. Gina stays home right now, because of the baby. Rich leads the youth service, for anyone in high school or college, which takes place during the main service. It was cool to connect with people our age again and to discuss the Bible with them. They break into Bible study groups for part of the time and some of the students are seasoned leaders and others are just getting started, so I picked one of the smaller groups and joined up with them. The Ghanaian Christians are really good at drawing the principles and truths out of the Bible and even better at retaining what they have learned. The number of verses and passages they have memorized is humbling. I can say for myself that I am weak in the area of memorization and knowing exactly where things are in the Bible. But one thing I have learned, especially through Navs, is application. So, as I participated in the discussion, I tried to add that application step to our conversation as much as possible. People opened up little by little and God did a lot with that. I'm excited to go back next week and see what happens next.

I keep being reminded of this one passage from 1 Thessalonians that I really love. I've been thinking about it ever since we were in Swedru, I spoke about it at the youth camp, and I think I should share it with you now.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover greed - God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well, because you were so dear to us.

In the US, at least, there seem to be four camps for Christians in the area of sharing your faith with people.

Camp 1: Don't say anything; it's annoying.
Camp 2: Share the gospel, no matter what.
Camp 3: Just be around people and they'll figure it out.
Camp 4: Sharing your faith is both what you say and how you live it.

Camp 1 is right on one thing - if it's not done right, a Christian sharing his or her faith can be very annoying. But take a look at this video from Penn, a well known performer and atheist. He summarizes why sharing your faith is important very well. You should definitely check this out if you haven't seen it before.

Camp 2 is also partially correct. Jesus calls Christians to share their faith all over the world. But we have to be sensitive to the culture we're in. If somebody doesn't want to talk about God, you don't shove Him down their throat. That's disrespectful and they aren't going to listen anyway. It makes people angry. Case in point: Brother Micah. If you know who he is, enough said. If you don't, you can YouTube him with caution if you really want to know. Basically, he's an infamous "evangelist" that spends a lot of time on college campuses doing a lot of judging and relatively little preaching. This doesn't mean that we just quit at the first sign of opposition, either. Rather, we must earn the right to have a personal conversation like this with somebody. That's why the living aspect is so important, especially to Americans, who tend to be much more uncomfortable with religious talk in general.

Camp 3 is another one that has some good thoughts, but misses it. Yeah, Christianity is largely about how you live among others. And yes, what people see you do will dramatically affect their opinions on your faith. But look at the passage above. Verbally sharing the gospel is necessary for people to go from seeing a way of life that seems appealing to accepting a heart-changing God into their life. Christianity, after all, is not a call to morality. It's a rejection of the old way of life and a surrender to Jesus to lead you into a completely new one.

Camp 4 is where it's at. Christians are called to live in the world, put into practice what we know to be true from the Bible, and to share the gospel with others - "but not just the gospel of God, but our lives as well." That last verse is so key.

We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well, because you were so dear to us.

This means hanging out with your neighbors, talking about stuff that actually matters with co-workers, staying up until 4am to work through life issues with your roommate, dishing out soup and eating with people at the shelters. It looks different for everybody. The point is, if we're in a happy, safe Christian bubble, having little to no contact with the "outside," what are we really doing for God? People around us are not our projects. Nobody likes to be looked at that way, and with good reason! We should share our faith because we care about people, not because every person is part of some master conversion plan. But look at what Penn said in that clip above: How much do you have to hate someone to be unsure about where they will spend eternity and to say nothing? At least give people the chance to reject or accept Christianity!

I've been challenged the last couple weeks to figure out which camp I would really place myself in. In my head, I know which one is right, but is my life really reflecting that knowledge? If you're a Christian, I would urge you to think about that, too.