August 12, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
I hope you and your family are well. My continual prayer for you and your family is to maintain your Godly living, while continuing to diligently strive further for the good God has planned for your lives. I pray God’s infinite love for you, motivates you to do all he has called you to do with love and joy, regardless of your circumstances.
I thank God for his steadfast love, faithfulness and power; to always do what we really need! Thank you for being so encouraging to me! Your kind words and support are invaluable to me and the mission. Thank you for your prayers and tangible support, they are vital for Ghanaians living in spiritual and physical despair to have real hope.
In a real way, Ghanaians and I are blessed to experience God’s love through your lives by your faithful decision to be a mission partner. While we seek to improve the daily lives of those in despair, your true gift is eternal, it is the gift of love.
July 30, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
We are all the same, not one of us is better than the next! We all have the same basic needs and desires. We each have our strengths and weaknesses; none of us is perfect. We all can have mountaintop experiences and all stumble at times too.
We are to honor those in authority over us and to make their work a joy. We are to esteem those who are called to put themselves in harms way for the sake of the Gospel. However, we should never let ourselves think more of that person than what they are, a person just like us, who is subject to life’s successes and every temptation and ways.
It is true that when God puts us in a more responsible position, there comes increased accountability and privilege. So pastors, spiritual teachers, mentors (Dads and Moms!), missionaries, etc. are expected by God and us, to not only know about God, but to walk with Him intimately with increasing perseverance.
So how do we meet our obligations of a higher calling? Whatever God has assigned to us, we need to be committed to it whole-heartedly and strive for excellence in all we do through His provision and power. We need to rely not only on His Spirit, but each other too! We really are made for each other.
We each need someone who knows not only the good in us, but the dark recesses of our hearts and minds, so we don’t act those dark things out in life! We need to encourage one another as this life is hard and will overwhelm any person at times. And most importantly, we need to pray for one another.
So please pray for me. Pray that I will honor and please God with all my heart, mind and body. Pray that I keep God’s interest and others above my own. Pray that I always fear God; He is God Almighty, not just a friend. Pray that I don’t fall into the trap of comparing my life with other people’s lives. Pray that I don’t become absorbed in self-pity or think of myself more highly than I should. Pray that I always remember that I need others to be what God wants me to become; that I’m not whole without other dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
We need to be watchful for each other and always ready, so lets agree to pray for one another as Jesus is soon returning!
July 14, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
I have an exciting announcement. While our prayers are reaching those hurting in Ghana, personally, my heart aches being 7,500 miles from those God has called me to express His love and care. So, I am very pleased to announce that my oversight team (Sr. Pastor Bevan Unrau and Jim Marmion with Rev.’s input) has approved my departure to Ghana at end of September!
The oversight team established a mission budget, based on needs in Ghana and for my support, of $4,052 a month. The team set a threshold for me to leave of $3,242 a month (80% of $4,052) committed for 3 years. Currently, 18 families have made an annual or monthly commitment that is equivalent to almost $1000 a month and another fourteen families have made one-time donations! To date, the mission has received in donations and commitments totaling $20,920–Thanks Again Partners!!
However at the current rate of annual and monthly commitments, I would not have left until at least May 2010. Prayerfully, I have decided that God wants me to give from my life savings to provide for personal expenses that current giving will not cover. After prayer and consultation, my oversight team has agreed to send me earlier because it will help the work in Ghana and reflects the same measure of faith my mission partners now display by giving sacrificially above their current church giving.
Our goal of $4,052 a month has not changed; we hope that amount will be raised in the near term. In these tough economic times, we realized that it is difficult for many people to commit to a project for three years. So donors will have the opportunity to decide to continue or end the relationship annually. Of course during a year, personal circumstances may lead to stopping, lowering or even increasing a commitment.
Your prayers are vital for this mission to thrive! Now that I have a departure time, a number of critical actions must occur and be completed in this order, please pray: Rev. confirms departure date and letter of service is written; for reasonably priced airfare; the Ghana Embassy approves a long time visa; and that $35,700 additional is committed to fully fund the mission this coming year (includes cost of car for Ghana). On a more personal note, pray for good health for my daughter, Megan and my first grandchild, Scarlet, due August 6th.
Thanks again for all your encouragement, prayers and tangible support!
July 3, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
So much happening in Northern Ghana through the Center of Good News! A Women’s Vocational School building is taking shape. A cement and block fence wall has been built around the two acre land property: construction of dormitories, lecture halls, offices, and dinning hall have been started. Kids Camp will be held in August, when 400+ kids will come to the Center of Good News for three meals a day, games, music and singing, and hear some very Good News!
After five years of waiting, the Center will start operation of a Christian radio station this November. This truly will be a voice in the wilderness! The Center was also able to purchase 320 acres for a very special vision and work! In a certain village amidst great personal cost, 45 persons came to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord! Good News is flowing from Ghana!
God has impressed upon me that He wants me in Ghana, but not for me to “save the day!” Jesus Christ has and will continue to do so. I will be a small part of the work in Ghana; yes I will give the work my all. But I will be just one of many, however one that is vital for the work. Just as you can be a small part of this mission, nevertheless a vital part! If many join soon, lives in Ghana will be impacted by our service; maybe just in time for some.
If 62 people give $25 a month, 40 people give $40 a month, and 9 people give $100 a month, the mission will begin in earnest! Not a few large contributors, rather 111 people joined together by love and common purpose.
June 23, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
The past few weeks God has been working in a number of areas in my life. First, He is God alone. You may be thinking, a “missionary” and this is what God is teaching him! I have to laugh too:) God has specific things to accomplish through this mission that I would not have thought of, cannot do by my own strength, or on my own. In short, He is God, my role is His servant under His authority.
Why is He impressing this on me now? The question I get the most is, when are you leaving for Ghana? I started to feel the burden of making it happen now. It is reassuring to know that God is in control and will send me when He is ready. It is good for me to be small, to be weak, and to confess I cannot make it happen. In this way, He will get the glory and weave many more lives into the mission that I could even imagine.
Also, He has been insisting that I fulfill my role as a missionary NOW and to stay in the PRESENT regardless of location! I have to chuckle again. God keeps it simple for me, “Joe, just be the person I created you to be; boldly love Me and people in your life today, honestly and openly with gentleness and respect.”
God has a plan for you too. He wants to lead you today and meet all your needs, so you too can accomplish what He has planned. As you pray about your role in this mission, please don’t be over-burdened; God is in control. God may want you to participate financially (I believe if you read this He wants you to pray for this mission). If He does, it won’t overwhelm you; rather your financial sacrifice will bear peace and joy with eternal rewards beyond your imagination.
June 22, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
40 Days of Love Women’s Group gather at the Budd’s for Garage Sale.
Garage Sale gathering at Marsouns.
Yard Sales for Ghana Mission! Thank You to all who participated!!
Can you DEPARTMENT STORE!
Cloudy and drizzling, but folks still came and spent over $1000 total!
June 15, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
I can’t believe it is June 15th already! I had arrived in Ghana, one year ago. It is hard for me to put into words of my desire to help Ghanaians. My strong desire to return to Ghana is rooted in God’s call for me to specifically go there and my love for others.
I want to express God’s and my love for others by meeting Ghanaians’ physical needs and by sharing my hopeful faith. It is exciting to have to wait to go too, in a way. This time has been a special time of suffering and learning for me: to walk with God in a manner that requires me to really lay down my plans for Him to benefit others. He is teaching me, particularly, about interdependence; I cannot fulfill my calling without you.
God did not make me self-sufficient (even though I have tried to act like it at times), but He has purposely made me weak and dependent upon you. God ways are so beautiful. He gives us each talents, skills, and a personality, to do wonderful things, but not one of us can use them totally independent of others help. Think about it, what person has achieved anything worthy in life totally on their own? We all build upon and enable each others’ work.
So here I am preparing to go, while waiting patiently for others to hear and join God’s call; by giving of themselves whatever God asks, though it maybe painful and contrary to their plans too.
June 8, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
Thank you for your continued prayers and for remembering these in your prayers:
Continued good health of Rev. Johnson Asare and his wife Lydia, leaders of Center of Good News. Also for good health and well-being of the staff at the Center of Good News as they are on the front-line delivering much needed help.
Personnel support for this year’s Kids Camp.
Africa 2009 Conference: Building Trainers for the Future, that it is well attended and meets the need of African church leaders.
Construction of the new Women’s Training Center and Orphanage in Tamale goes according to schedule and safely.
Short-term missions teams, that will be going to Tamale, for travel safety, good health, and that they grow in the Lord during their trip.
Mission preparations and support to go well. For me to patiently wait for God to accomplish the many things he wants to accomplish in others and myself through this preparation phase.
Thanks for remembering us in your prayers!
May 29, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
We just finished 40 Days of Love (a group of us men) which caused me to expand my understanding and practice of loving God and one another. I am realizing that real love is not based on or dependent on the “idea” or “feelings” of love.
We found that love is action, it is practical. Real love is sacrificial, it interrupts our agenda and plans for the day. Love that is alive accomplishes what others want, not necessarily what we want. Love waits for others, it is gentle and kind, it is full of goodness, purity, and carries others peoples burdens. Love never fails to believe and have hope. Just trying to practice a couple of these principles consistently with close loved ones is daunting; is love supposed to be a burden?
Now here is the big rub. God wants us to love Him with ALL our heart, with ALL our mind, with ALL our soul, and with ALL our strength. God also wants us to love others the same as we love our self. God wants us to love our neighbors too. God even wants us to love our enemies! I admit it, I can’t love God and all these people according to God’s expectations!
Really, my natural inclination is to love myself (I’m an expert at that), however if it suits me or is not too much a bother, I will love family members and others, at least for a while, until I get tired or they disappoint me or I get lazy, or or or…. It’s just that I’m a finite being with limited energy, time, resources, and imperfect capacities–mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. Doesn’t God know this about me?! So why does He still demand we love Him and one another with all that we are to His expectations?
Jesus. In my new life through faith in Jesus Christ, I have paradoxically found the time, energy, resources and capabilities to love as God loves! No, I am not perfect by any means, but I know for a fact that God loves through me. I do not take any credit, other than say Yes Lord have your way!
Do you want to experience true, intimate, and eternal love? Ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today, put yourself under the loving hand of Almighty God. Daily submit yourself to God, give him your all, He will give you His all! Apart from Jesus we can do nothing!
May 22, 2009 - Posted by admin - 0 Comments
In times like these we really need each other. Our common enemy would like nothing better for us to isolate in our pain, whether economic, physical, mental, or emotional. We need to think counter intuitive by sharing our problems with one another, then help each other with action, not just words.
Our enemy wants us to be divided by using our current circumstances. However, our God is using the present hard times as an opportunity for us to Unite in Love! It is sad to say, but we humans just don’t see the great need for each other when times are easy and everything is going our way. Sure, we have OUR family and friends that we extend our self too, somewhat; but when it comes to really sacrificing for another human being, we normally wince and fall back.
So lets all make the decision to be strong and courageous: really watch out for each other, really listen to one another, and to submissively depend on God to meet a hurting person’s need through us.
If we choose not too, we forfeit the most satisfying life possible. A life that will one day end here on earth. It is a fact, our days are numbered. Are we building a life that produces temporary or eternal rewards? Whether you believe it or not, we each will stand alone before God to give an account of our time on earth.
