Early in 2004 I asked the Lord to give me something
worthwhile to do in my spare time. An Internet ministry developed as I was led to certain chat rooms to observe conversations,
waiting on the Lord to show me the wounded souls He wanted to reach out to, and then gently pursuing them so I could share
Father’s heart with them. It was difficult at times but most rewarding and fruitful. It seemed that most of the people
I connected with at first were teenagers struggling with life.
I relied very heavily on the Lord for wisdom in responding to IMs inviting me to conversations. I thank God for the Spirit
who gives us discernment, for I began to fully understand how easy it is to prey on those wounded souls. I was so thankful
that the Lord had led me into those rooms; only He knows the fullness of the healing that took place in so many hearts
A most curious commonality was that nearly all
the people who IMd me were from one country or another in Africa, Nigeria in particular. IMs from Ghana were probably the
next most abundant group. I actually made myself a chart to keep track of all the people I began to speak with on a regular
basis.
A young man named Paul gently and
persistently continued to contact me, sharing the wonderful work his ministry does for the children in his country of Ghana.
I am the administrator of the Children’s Ministries at The Village of Faith Church and my heart was just so taken by
his words and the heart behind them. Paul began to share his plans and progress in organizing a crusade set for September
2004 for outreach to the villages in his country. Fourteen Days Ministries from California would be going there to help him.
About the same time as Paul and I were becoming
friends, another young man named Akli found his way into my heart. Akli is an earnest young man with a zealous passion for
the Presence of God. As our friendship developed, we would work a chat room together, one ministering and one praying. It
was great fun and most productive. We had such a laugh when he told me he lives in Ghana; I remember telling him that his
whole country was in there with us.
One day Akli told me that he was going
to fast and pray for a week; he would not tell me why, he just asked me to uphold him in prayer as he sought the Lord. Each
day as we met in the chat rooms, I would ask him about his fast; on the third day, he shared the reason for it.
He was beseeching the Lord to move mightily in his country to alleviate the poverty and
the starvation, to bring His Presence there in mighty manifestation. As soon as he told me this, my heart thought of Paul!
I told Akli that I had met another young man from Ghana who was organizing a crusade for just such a purpose as to allow the
Lord an avenue to bring such a move. There was such an excitement in my heart—what could happen if I could connect these
two young men?
I
think it was the next day, on the fourth day of Akli’s fast, that Paul IMd me to say hello while I was talking with
Akli!
Paul! Where in Ghana do you live?
Tema.
Akli! Where in Ghana do you live?
Tema.
Are you getting the picture? What are the odds that two men from the same city in the same
country over 6000 miles away from me who had never met each other would each find me in the same chat room among the thousands
of chat rooms on that Internet and the millions of people chatting in them? I have no words to express the wonder in my heart
as I watched them talk to each other; the Lord had used little me and my request for something worthwhile to do to bring together
a man of God crying out for His Presence with a man of God who was creating the scene for Him to show up.
Akli went to join Paul to help with that crusade and the Lord worked wonders there as well.
Truly Father is a Wonder of Wonders and He is marvelous in my sight!!! Little did I know just how prophetic it was that the
Lord had brought these two young men into my life.
On December 1, 2004 I was laid off from my job; the initial barrage of thoughts suddenly evaporated
as I realized that the answer to what was I going to do was that I was going to go to Ghana. Later that day I visited my Pastor,
sat across from him at his desk, and simply said, “I have to go to Africa.”
Pastor thoughtfully and simply said, “Okay.”
And so that is how I first found myself on African soil on February 13, 2005.
What an awesome season of life began for me when I met those two young
men online. Who would have ever imagined that such a simple request for something to do would soon have me boarding a plane
to cross the Atlantic to become part of a wonderful work of God on the African continent?
What follows in this book are the email reports I originally sent home to friends while
I was in Ghana. They have been edited somewhat for the general reader but still retain my thoughts and impressions of the
wonderfully warm and generous people of Ghana that the Lord so graciously allowed to capture my heart and of the kind and
dedicated pastors who so diligently press forward despite the most daunting challenges to establish children’s ministries
in a country that is beginning to recognize and acknowledge the value and the worth of its children. They are truly obeying
the Lord Jesus Christ, bringing the little children unto Him, for children are the substance of the Kingdom of our God.
My heart’s prayer is that your
heart is touched by these life stories and moved to seek the Lord for your own part in the lives of the people you will meet
here. No one comes into our lives by accident; each comes by divine appointment. An enormous move of God is beginning to take
place here, not growing out of civil strife or the ravages of famine, but out of the very heart of God for His children.
Be blessed
as you seek Father’s heart
for
your life Today!
Smiles
