Expanding Service by God’s Grace
I have been concerned about my time spent in ‘ministry’ (all time is the Lord’s, but my heart is to be available to people looking for true answers to life’s most difficult questions). God always provides in ways that will further His purposes and meets the desire of our hearts that align to His will.
My close friend told me about a family of ten children that he had grown close to last year but with whom he had lost touch. A team of Americans had met this family of another faith last year, and had encouraged the father to allow his children to go to church. He agreed. So the American team brought them to church until they left Ghana. My Ghanaian friend, who works where I am staying, continued to walk the 15 minutes each way to their home every Sunday to ensure the children got to church. But his duties kept preventing him from picking them up, until finally he stopped going altogether.
My friend recently remembered them and suggested that I go and get them since I was going to be here for a longer period and wouldn’t be pulled away as often as he was. I heartily agreed, so we went to greet Nadoo, the father, two Sundays ago. Nadoo is a warm and open man. He keeps a meticulous compound that is always swept clean (I normally find him cleaning it), and operates a little mechanic shop from his compound. It is obvious that it is hard to make ends meet, but Nadoo, like so many other Ghanaians, has an indomitable spirit.
After greetings (Nadoo laughed kindly at my attempts at Dagbani), we talked about the children and church. While many parents in the US would have started with “Why should I let them go with you after they were abandoned before?” Nadoo knows that life is hard here, and that many times circumstances drive people in directions they thought they would not go. So today is a new day and here we were with an offer for him to consider. After talking a while about the children and my mission, Nadoo agreed that I could start taking them to church the following Sunday.
I arrived at their home the next Sunday at 8:45 a.m., the agreed-upon time. Picture the scene with me: the family realizes that I actually am going to show up (I will still have to come consistently to prove myself for the future), so the kids starting rushing – the little ones half-naked – to get their little water pails and run for water with which to bath (Ghanaian usage)! I see it may be a little wait, LOL! They are wearing ear-to-ear smiles, but I will have only six coming today, as the other four are out of town. We arrive at church at 10:15 a.m.; not too late, as church starts at 9:30 a.m. We all sit together – me and my new family. They are Hakem (15), Wadodo (13), Alimson (9), Rashead (8), Salom (7), and little Anta (6).
They sit still, listen intently, and stand with everyone. They seem to be enjoying the service. When the music starts with dancing, they really join in. Rashead goes to the front and dances with some of the college students that attend my home church. All clap and dance, with Hakem being the most reserved. All the time, I am dancing in my normal location—in the back of the church (the same place I ‘danced’ at Seabreeze at times; in the back, tapping my foot on the outside and dancing on the inside 
. In Africa, I really get to dance!
. In Africa, I really get to dance!The kids leave for the kids’ service around 11 a.m., so off they go in a blur. God bless the Sunday kids’ service workers. Leah, a co-missionary here, is one of the two that puts on the kids’ service. Leah’s Dagbani is much better as a result of doing it, too, as children constantly talk in their mother language a lot.
Around 12 noon, the services end, so I go to get ‘my’ kids. Oh my gosh, I forgot what it was like being a parent to little ones energized by excitement and sweets! It takes me a good 30 minutes to find and re-find them all. It provides entertainment for a few of my African friends to watch me run them down, only to lose one later.
Oh, I forgot to mention while I was waiting in the compound before church, Nadoo’s sister came to greet him. She was surprised to see a white man sitting under the shade of a tree in his compound. It turns out that Maltiti is the head mistress of a private school from Kindergarten to Junior High School, with 200 students attending. I am invited to come see her school, where we arrange to meet the next day, Monday. The story continues…go to Ministry Page of Hopeful Path to find out what happens!
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 5:03 pm and is filed under My Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Tina Word. says:
I loved reading about your "new" family. What a blessing that the dad is allowing you to take the kids to church where they can be blessed by God's grace and love. Salvation will follow! God bless you as you continue in His work there in Ghana, Joe.
Tina Worden