Ghana GO Trip Prayer Calendar: February 23rd

The entire team is blessed to have people praying over this trip and I wanted to share with everyone our Prayer Calendar for each day we are away so friends and family will know what exactly to be praying for based on our agenda/itinerary.  Thank you for your prayers over this mission and for all those participating.

Orientation to Manna

We will meet with Pastor Ablorh and some of the staff today. Please pray as we settle in and prepare our hearts for the coming days. Pray that our team has unity, humility, and only have hearts for God’s work.  

Men’s Fellowship Meeting and Micro Finance Group Meetings
Pray as we have these meetings that they are Spirit led. Pray we are able to assist and advise with any situation they may present.  Pray that we listen to their needs. 

Ghana GO Trip Prayer Calendar: February 22nd

The entire team is blessed to have people praying over this trip and I wanted to share with everyone our Prayer Calendar for each day we are away so friends and family will know what exactly to be praying for based on our agenda/itinerary.  Thank you for your prayers over this mission and for all those participating.

Delta flight (Amsterdam to Ghana) 2:05 p – 7:55 p

• pray we are able to get through customs without problems
• pray we have safe travel to Manna Mission

Ghana GO Trip Prayer Calendar: February 21st

The entire team is blessed to have people praying over this trip and I wanted to share with everyone our Prayer Calendar for each day we are away so friends and family will know what exactly to be praying for based on our agenda/itinerary. Thank you for your prayers over this mission and for all those participating.


Delta flight (IND to Detroit)
5:30 p – 6:47 p
Delta flight (Detroit to Amsterdam)
10:25 p – Friday 12:10 p


Pray for:
1. safe travel
2. no lost luggage
3. no problems w/passports
4. pray we are able to sleep well on the plane
5. pray the team is able to connect & prepare our hearts for what God has planned for us

I'm heading back to Ghana!

I spent a significant amount of time over the past year sharing thoughts and stories about my experience leading up to my trip to Ghana, West Africa this past March.  As I indicated in the posts after I returned, the experience and the people I met through the mission trip had a profound impact on my life.  More importantly though, I really felt that because I was obedient to his calling, that God used me in some great ways that have helped me to grow personally, spiritually, and even professionally as the lessons learned have helped me grow as a leader as well.

How I tried to describe my last trip to Ghana...

Apparently, God's not done with me yet in Ghana because I am heading back to Ghana in February 2013 with another Global Outreach team from Northview Church.  My role will be a little different this time as I'll be one of the team leaders this time - I look forward to sharing what this difference means and how it impacts both my preparation and overall experience over the next couple months.  Tonight was our first meeting as a team, and although not everyone was able to make it, I left the meeting excited about what God has in store for our group.

Northview's partner in Ghana, Manna Mission, is a place filled with wonderful people who give their lives to minister to and love the people of Ghana.  I look forward to returning to West Africa to work alongside them to serve and help some of my Ghanaian brothers and sisters in need.  I will certainly be blogging and sharing the experience this time as well, so I hope people will follow along and be praying for the entire team, and the staff at Manna, as we prepare for this short term mission trip.

More to come....

Learning from & Challenged by my Boys

I don't pray with my kids nearly as much as I need to, truth be told it's probably a statement about my overall prayer life and an acknowledgement that it is an area I am constantly working to improve.  Having said that, I am daily encouraged by my two youngest boys in my own prayer journey.  

As I previously shared, the boys have taken to remembering Noah and Joshua from the village in Ada, Ghana each night in their bedtime prayers.  Three months after returning from my Ghana trip they remain faithful to their commitment to lift these boys and their families up each night.  What is even more encouraging is to hear their prayers developing and changing.  What started out as simple petitions to 'please bless Noah and Joshua. Please protect and bless their families.' have evolved to include details they are feeling led to pray for or references from their own daily experiences and thoughts about how our friends in Ghana may handle the same issues.  Topics from rain storms to school to family to sunday school lessons have come up in prayers.

So, I'm blessed that my boys are teaching me, reminding me, and challenging me to continue to pray for Ghana and many others outside my daily circle of interaction. Through my boys I am witnessing the personal and spiritual growth that comes as a result of this type of behavior!  How awesome and inspiring is that?!

On the note of remembering to pray for Ghana, Northview Church is sending another small group to Ghana this week. I wish I was part of this team, but I'll remain behind as one of the many praying over their trip.  Please join me in praying for Matt, Chris, and Jenny and that they would have safe travels, remain healthy, build relationships, and that they would have the courage to and be open to being used by God for great things during their time in Ghana.

REFLECTIONS from Ghana #5: Community through Mission

We've been home from Ghana for 2 months now and I am really missing my fellow GO team members.  I was very moved by the amazing people I met in Ghana and the lessons learned from them have had a lasting impact on my life.  I was also deeply impacted by the amazing people that were part of our GO Team and I served alongside.  As our team leader reminded us throughout the week, there is nothing quite like your first mission trip and I am certain that the same sentiment applies to your first team as well.

We left Indiana a couple months ago as group of people connected through our common church and a few Saturdays of training and team building.  Twelve days later, we returned to Indiana as a team forged through mission and shared experiences.  I witnessed first hand the compassion of the women on the team who visited with each patient at the hospital just to let them know that someone cared for them. I was humbled to watch doctors and business leaders give of themselves to serve and help in any way they could. Through each day and experience I felt the connection to and my bonds with these people growing and strengthening.

A month ago, I heard our Outreach Pastor at Northview, K. Paul Maurer, describe our bond as a team as "community through missions" and since then I have continued to process what that means and how it really has impacted me. What I believe I have learned is that while we began the journey as individual members of a larger community (Northview Church) we saw common purpose in a mission trip. However, through the experiences of the mission trip and serving alongside each other we've come home with our own sense of community.  Greater than that though is that I believe this is an excellent formula - a biblical formula - for building stronger relationships with my family, friends, and co-workers.  We are called to serve and through obedience alongside people who are important in my life I believe God can continue to bless these relationships and help us grow closer as we serve others and ultimately serve Him.

As for the GO Team, Paul says it best in Philippians 1:3 - "I thank my God every time I remember you." I look forward to our future opportunities to serve together and continuing to build our community through missions.

REFLECTIONS from Ghana #4: Living a Life that is "All-In" for Christ

One of the blessings of this Ghana trip was getting the opportunity to meet and serve alongside the staff and students of Manna Mission. These amazing people are dedicating their lives to mission work and to sharing the love of Jesus everyday - they were great examples for my of what it means to live a life all-in for the sake of Christ. There was no doubt in my mind where their priorities were, they were focused clearly on serving Christ by loving others.

GO Team and Manna Mission Team in Ada

As I spent time with these people, I found myself questioning how someone would view me if they came from another place and observed my life or worked alongside me for a week or so. To be candid, I wasn't excited about what I immediately felt when trying to draw some comparisons. These people work for a mission, after all, and help to care for the sick and needy. Some of them have had opportunities to leave Ghana and pursue a life elsewhere that may have led to greater earthly riches and success, but they have chosen to stay or return to Ghana for the sake of helping others. How on earth could my life really compare to their all-in life?


As I wrestled with this, I got defensive in my self-talk: "It's easy to live like that when you don't have as much" or "I can't do this full time, I have a family to provide for" or "I just don't have those same skills and gifts". As I tried to reason with myself and wrestle with this feeling that I was falling short in my comparisons, I began to see more clearly that it wasn't about comparing my life to someone else's but about how I am allowing God to use me - period. Living all-in for me, will likely look different than it does for my brothers and sisters in Ghana because God has called me in a different way than He chose to call them and rather than comparing the differences in our lives I should be celebrating them.


God has blessed me simply by where I was born. There is nothing like visiting a remote African village to wake you up to that fact! While I have felt called to serve on this short mission trip and I am certain more in the future, I do not feel a calling on my heart to be anywhere else in the world on a full-time basis. I can conclude from that, and take comfort in knowing, God wants to use me here, where I live, each and everyday. My daily mission field is my family, it's my friends, it's the people I work with and interact with each day. I needed to be reminded that I need to be showing God's love to these people everyday, it's part of the challenge I returned home with. I wasn't given the same skills and gifts as others because I am meant to be used in different ways.


I don't have to work for a mission or church to live everyday of my life with an all-in attitude. I am striving to be open to and aware of the opportunities God is placing in front of me each day to apply the talents and skills he has blessed me with to make a positive difference in people's lives. He has blessed me with the life I've been given and it's my responsibility to use this blessing and love others - that is living all-in!


Galatians 5:13-14 (NLT)
¹³ For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.¹⁴ For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

REFLECTIONS from Ghana #3: Mission Minded Children

Now that I've been home from my very first mission trip for about a month, I've had the chance to spend some time reflecting and really digging into what I've learned from the experience.  These Reflections from Ghana are what I feel are the major themes I have taken from this trip and collectively may give insight to the Part 2 of my previous post Why Ghana? 


As I have stated several times, I have hoped and prayed that one of the ripple effects of my own decision to serve on a mission trip would be that it would create a change in my own children's perspective toward outreach. It wasn't that they have been adverse to outreach and missions, but I want to build-up a stronger attitude of service as a guiding principle within our family values.


I have already written about the First Ripple from my trip in a previous post when my son Caleb decided to go on his own mission trip this summer - a decision he made while I was preparing to leave for Ghana.  His decision to go was the first ripple, but the real impact of this decision will certainly show itself during and after his trip.

Noah & Joshua

Another ripple has been my kids simple awareness of others less fortunate than themselves.  When I returned home from Ghana, I shared with all the kids some highlights from our day in Ada Foah and how I met a couple boys, Noah and Joshua, that I really connected with.  Noah was quite the character and very outspoken - borderline rude at times - while Joshua was very quiet and just wanted to walk with me and hold my hand.  There were characteristics about both of these boys that reminded me of my own sons which is probably why I connected with them both so easily.  After sharing these stories with Caeden and Kyron though, Caeden had the idea of praying for Noah and Joshua.  That alone made me proud that he would think of doing that, but it was his idea to pray for Noah and Joshua every night before bedtime that was awesome. "Dad, let's pray for them every night until you go back and see them again!" So, each night since I've been back, Caeden and Kyron take turns praying that God would "Protect Noah and Joshua and bless their families in Ghana."  Pretty simple stuff, but it sure sounds powerful coming from your kids.


These are great first steps, but I am compelled to continue to find ways in which my kids can learn to be more mission minded or more service over self (to steal a phrase from a great organization).  International mission trips would be amazing experiences for each of them, but there are a lot of things we can do as a family in our own city that I want us to be open to as well.  I've recently stepped forward to take on more leadership opportunities with Kids Against Hunger and Northview's efforts to partner with KAH.  As a family we've done these packs in the past and had lots of fun serving in this way, but with more leadership responsibility I hope to help get my kids even more involved in an area of service they have already connected with.


Anyways, I look forward to continuing to share in the coming months how these ripples continues to spread out in our family and we work to become more mission minded on a daily basis.  

REFLECTIONS from Ghana #2: Blessings through Surrender

Now that I've been home from my very first mission trip for about a month, I've had the chance to spend some time reflecting and really digging into what I've learned from the experience.  These Reflections from Ghana are what I feel are the major themes I have taken from this trip and collectively may give insight to the Part 2 of my previous post Why Ghana? 


Without a clear sense of purpose in why I was going to Ghana, but absolute conviction that God wanted me to be part of the GO trip, I started the journey with a  commitment to being obedient through the experience and I prayed that God would give me the strength to say “Yes” to every door that was opened for me to serve.  It didn’t make sense that God would send me 6000 miles from home to say “No” to opportunities He presented.  If I was to experience everything He had in store for me, it was only going to come through surrendering to His will and plan.  What I didn’t realize in saying that prayer - but should have – was that God would answer by giving me many opportunities to say “Yes” in situations that pulled and stretched me personally and spiritually in ways I wasn’t expecting.

Playing with kids in Ada

I boarded the plane with anticipation of serving, serving, serving.  I did a lot of that, but through all the serving I found myself receiving even more.  God was blessing me because I was being obedient to His calling.  He blessed me with the opportunity to serve my fellow team members, to pray over the sick and needy, to assist in serving hundreds of people through medical clinics, to play with kids hungry for any attention, and he blessed me with the experience of praying with others as they made the decision to accept and follow Jesus Christ!  It was awesome! If that wasn’t enough, he also took skills and knowledge he has developed in me over my professional career and put it to use.  I was able to work with Northview’s Outreach Pastor, K Paul Maurer, and co-facilitate a Leadership Workshop for the Bible School students and pastors; met with administrators of the new College of Nursing at Manna Mission to advise on enrollment management issues; and God even used me to deliver the message during the Wednesday night church service – another first time experience in a long list from this trip.  Each of these experiences had a major impact on me personally and spiritually.  Had I not surrendered and said "Yes" each time I was offered the opportunity, I would have missed out on many life impacting moments.

God used the trip to demonstrate how great and mighty He is and can be on a daily basis in my life.  Each day abroad brought a new spiritual high and another example of how much my heavenly father loves me and wants to bless me, if I will continue to be obedient.  I believe whole heartedly that he returned me 6000 miles to my family and my home to continue to provide me opportunities to say ‘Yes’ to what He calls me to do and as a result continue to bless me. 

REFLECTIONS from Ghana #1: It's all about LOVE!

Now that I've been home from my very first mission trip for about a month, I've had the chance to spend some time reflecting and really digging into what I've learned from the experience.  These Reflections from Ghana are what I feel are the major themes I have taken from this trip and collectively may give insight to the Part 2 of my previous post Why Ghana? 


When I boarded the plane at Indianapolis International, I really didn’t know WHAT I would be doing in Ghana.  I had no doubt that God wanted to use me on this trip, but HOW God would choose to do that was beyond my understanding at that point.  Simply boarding the plane was another step of obedience I was taking and I prayed that I would continue to be obedient during the trip.

I could write for several pages about the experiences I had in Ghana and try to explain the profound impact each day had on me personally.  If I described the entire trip as a mountain top experience for me personally and certainly spiritually, each day was simply a journey from peak to peak within that mountain range.

When we returned home, one of the common questions I kept getting asked by friends and family was something to the effect of “What did you do?”  At first I was processing this question as though people were looking for some justification for why I went.  I wasn’t shy about sharing that I really didn’t know the answer to the question ‘Why Ghana?’ prior to leaving (see my previous post). So I think there was some anticipation from friends and family for what I discovered through the trip about indeed, ‘Why Ghana?’

So I started answering this question my first couple weeks back in a justification mode, explaining the trip as a series of activities and the impact I believed came from those activities. 

Then while reading my bible one night, I read I Corinthians 13.  Most of us are probably most familiar with verses 4-7 (Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous….) Verses 1-3, however, have been key in my processing and discovering the answer to the question: Why Ghana?


1 Corinthians 13 (NLT)

¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Everywhere we went, the kids flocked to my friend Sam.
She was a great example of showing LOVE to others.

After I read and reread this chapter (and specifically those three verses), I realized that I had been answering the question in the wrong context.  It wasn’t the stuff we did that was important, or the results of our actions and activity that really mattered.  It was the LOVE we shared with the people we met.  It was our willingness to let Christ’s LOVE shine through us that I needed to be telling people about. As I continued to process this information, God supported this truth through my own favorite moments.  It wasn’t the acts of service that stood out to me as my strongest memories but the time playing with the children in Ada, or sitting in the dirt talking with John in Ada, or building relationships with the bible school students, or praying for the miracle of a child with Linda in Swedru.  These were the moments and many others that were not about a special skill set I brought to the team, but about just spending time LOVING these amazing people.  My teammates have confirmed this as most of their special memories are about those LOVE moments. God blessed me – the entire team - through these moments.

So, as I continue to process the life impact of only my first GO trip, 1 Corinthians 13 is helping me see more clearly WHY GHANA.  It’s also serving as encouragement and justification for why I need to continue to participate in GO trips and why we should ALL step forward and answer the call to serve with great confidence.

I held myself back from experiencing these blessings years earlier because I doubted my biblical knowledge to be effective on a mission trip. Or I told myself I didn’t have the skill set to work in a medical clinic or help build something for someone else as part of an outreach.  What I continue to learn from I Corinthians 13 though is that none of that stuff matters.  LOVE, my ability to LOVE others and share Christ’s LOVE is all that matters.  God wants to use all of us in this way so much that he hard wired us with the ability the LOVE.  So I hope that we can all find encouragement and motivation to be willing to GO again or for others to GO for the first time - We all already possess the single most valuable skill set needed for a mission trip – the ability to LOVE!

We're back!

We’re just passed 48 hours back in the states and the entire team seems to be re-adjusting to life after our Ghana experience.

What an AMAZING trip and experience!

I can’t express how much the thoughts and prayers from friends and family were appreciated while we were away.  The entire team was well aware that our partners in this mission trip were praying for us throughout our time abroad.

"How was your trip?"

Unfortunately, I was never able to get my iPad to connect to a Wifi signal while in Ghana, so blogging became pretty difficult.  Over the course of the next week, it’s my hope to post a few entries to share stories and experiences from the trip.

In a nutshell, the trip was a huge success!  Between work at the hospital, the church, the school, and the medical clinics in southern Ghana the team was able to positively impact several communities, many individuals, and continue to build the relationship and partnership with Manna Mission. 

Personally, I feel like I have grown and been impacted in ways that I am still trying to understand and process so that I can apply lessons learned through the experience into my life.  I have been asked a hundred times over the past 2 days “how was your trip?”  At this point I can’t completely describe it for anyone, but I’ve been trying to in simple short phrases, I’ve been sort of a walking tag cloud since I got back. 

Stay tuned….

Ghana: We made it!

Well, it took more than a day for us to get here, but the entire team arrived safely in Ghana today.  All of our luggage made it and we flew through customs pretty quickly.

Those members of our group who are returning to Ghana for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 7th time are thrilled to be back and those of us who are experiencing this trip for the 1st time are is awe of this place.  Awesome people who greeted us so warmly that their spirit and happiness to see us gave each of us renewed energy after a long trip.


For those of us from Northview, it is exciting to be here and see the tangible impact the church's financial contributions are having at Manna and their ability to reach the people of Ghana. The schedule is still getting set for the remainder of our trip, but I know tomorrow starts early with some business meetings.

God is certainly doing great things here, we can see that already as we tour the mission and the hospital.  Please pray that each team member is able to apply his/her unique skills to this trip, positively impacting the lives of the people we are serving.

Why Ghana? (Part 1)

As promised in a previous post....


My decision to apply to be part of the GO (Global Outreach) Trip to Ghana with my church began about a year ago.  Sitting in a Starbucks with my good friend, Bill, he told me he had decided to go on a mission trip and that he had always felt a calling to Africa.  The opportunity had presented itself for Ghana, and he had stepped up.  He was just weeks away from the experience.  My interest was piqued and we continued to discuss his planning in the weeks leading up to the trip.  While he was away, the whole family consistently prayed for him and the team.  During this time, I fielded lots of questions from the kids, especially the younger boys about where Bill was and why he was there.  The mission seed had been planted.

When Bill returned he described the experience as ‘life changing’ and told me I should really consider going on my own trip.  Although I was admittedly interested, I wasn’t sure how serious to take him because I don't have any skills I had stereotypically associated with mission work - I'm not trained in medicine and "handy' may be one of the last adjectives used to describe me.  Bill encouraged me to consider it and the seed was watered.  

Over the course of the following months the watering continued.  God kept placing outreach opportunities and messages in front of me.  Our church, Northview Church, is very externally focused and promotes serving others as part of our church’s DNA.  This really connects with me because Marcy and I have long talked about wanting to make sure our kids grow up with the value of serving others and try to involve them in community service activities several times a year.  I’m not certain if my ears were more tuned to the message or there was indeed an increase in the number of sermons emphasizing outreach, but it began to feel as though God was emphasizing the importance of this part of my Walk much more. 

As some of those outreach doors opened, I recognized them and walked through in obedience.  In conversations with family, digesting sermons, and talks with friends I began to realize that as Christians we are not called into missions, it is an expectation of ALL who follow Christ – that’s what the great commission is.  The call will come with specific location and time. 

Through this discovery and over time, God began to work in my heart to accept the reality that I could be used on a mission trip.  At the same time he continued to place the topic in front of me in various ways:  Co-workers I had never spoken with about my faith and relationship with Christ began to approach me and ‘out-of-the-blue’ share details about their personal walk and their personal explorations into mission work; My boss and good friend resigned his prominent position to pursue opportunities more focused on mission and outreach through his church; my new boss encouraged me to find ways we could do more service oriented activities with our employees,; other friends and family went on their own short term mission trips; and my own brother announced that he is actively working to enter the mission field fulltime – he’s just praying and waiting for his call!  In addition to Bill, there were now others talking to me about the potential of specifically a Ghana trip in my future. Crazy ‘coincidence’ but I still wasn’t entirely convinced that a Ghana Trip was for me – I’ve never even traveled outside the country before! Surely there was some place closer to Hamilton County (my bubble) God wanted me to use me!

In the early fall, my friend Bill returned to Ghana for a second trip and we talked even more about the second experience and his own growing commitment to the outreach efforts by the church.  Once again, our family regularly prayed for Bill and the others on the team, which resulted in more conversations about our family serving others and reaching ‘beyond our bubble.’  The kids were really starting to connect and embrace this!

Then came a mountaintop experience for me, The Discipleship Walk – a spiritual retreat through our church.  I went into the weekend with no expectations and just prayed that God would speak to me through the weekend and that the Walk would enrich my relationship with Him.  So, I began listening and processing what I heard.  Without going into real detail, the weekend felt like it was built specifically for me and to help me accept that God wants to use me in Ghana.  It also became clearer to me the connection between a mission trip I would go on and the impact it could potentially have in the lives of my children. I began to see that God could use my own experiences in serving others to impact my family in a way that may have a lasting impact on my kids as they grow and become young adults with their own growing relationships with Jesus.  If they saw their dad taking a bold step to follow Christ wherever he would have me go – that would be a powerful example for them!  I also thought back to those bedtime prayers for Bill and the conversations I had with the kids in those moments.  I was moved to think that if a friend’s step in faith to follow a calling could have that impact on my kids, how much greater could my own example be?

As I listened and participated in the retreat weekend, my conviction that God was calling me to Ghana continued to grow.  I lost all doubt when one of the speakers shared about his faith journey and how serving in Ghana on a mission trip had been a defining experience!  My mind and heart was immediately drawn to the conclusion that I needed to take action and respond to the calling God was placing on my heart. 

Eight months ago, I could barely tell you where Ghana was.  Today, the seed that was planted a year ago is in full growth mode.  I am 26 days away from one of the most exciting personal and spiritual adventures of my life – I am certain of this.  I also am certain that I don’t yet have the complete answer to the question, ‘Why Ghana?’ This story has been my experience on the front end of this journey - Part 1 of the complete answer.  I look forward to writing Part 2 in a few weeks, but am also open to the likely possibility that even then I will not have the complete answer, as God will certainly continue to use this experience to impact my life well beyond the actual trip. 

Please join me in praying that God uses the work I am part of, and the relationships that develop as a result, to have an equally (if not greater) positive impact on those we go to serve.

Peace.

Countdown to Ghana: Fear of the Unknown

While I would certainly use words like 'nervous' and 'anxious' to describe some of the emotions I am feeling about going to Ghana, I am not feeling any 'fear'.  My kids, however, are not really certain what to expect and they are somewhat fearful of the unknown.  So, I've been trying to share pictures, videos, and stories I find or are shared with me in an effort to help them visualize and understand a bit more about the place and people of Teshie and the surrounding area.

Below are a couple videos from a 2010 Northview GO Trip in case anyone else is interested.

Ghana Medical Clinic March 2010 from Northview Church on Vimeo.

Ghana Team Medical Mission Trip from Northview Church on Vimeo.

Countdown to Ghana: A Life Changing Experience? I Hope so.

I can't tell you how encouraged and appreciative I am of the positive feedback and comments regarding my upcoming trip to Ghana.   Over the past couple weeks as I have shared the news of the Ghana trip, the overwhelming response back is some sort of statement about the trip being potentially life changing.  People have shared stories about friends/family or themselves having the experience of an international mission trip as a mountaintop moment in their lives.  Awesome stuff!

I have mixed feelings about hearing this and tend to over analyze some of these comments - part of me even wants to reject them, if I'm honest.  I mean, I want to have expectations of how I can grow personally and spiritually from this trip, but at the same time this trip isn't about me.  Is it selfish to hope to have some personal growth from a service/mission experience?  Maybe this is my naiveté showing itself in relation to mission work.  What I know is that I want to go and serve and help in any way that I can, and am avoiding setting any expectations as much as possible.  I am also, extremely humbled to even have this opportunity to reach so far beyond my bubble to be part of building meaningful relationships between my church and Manna Mission.  So when I hear about mission trips being life changing events, I am processing those comments as the experience of serving others in a part of the world very different than my own and building relationships with those people that will last far beyond 12 days in March has the potential of being life changing. I get excited about that potential.

The other lives that I pray are changed through this experience are within my own home.  This trip has been topic for great conversation in our home.  I want this to be a mile marker in my kids' lives that they can point to and say "Well, Dad has gone on mission trips so I should really consider it as well."  I think every parent wants to set that positive example for their children, so I hope this experience will be a good example for them.  My challenge through it all will be helping them to really experience it, even though they won't physically be there with me.  I anticipate lots of journaling, pictures, and videos but if anyone else has some ideas I would love to hear them.

I am going to Africa!

Ok, I guess it's safe to say that I've jumped in the deep end here...  I have been writing the past few days about my resolution to do more for others and I am taking a serious step in faith to follow what I believe is a calling.  I have never been on a mission trip before and my only travel outside the country has been a cruise to the Bahamas (even then I was probably only off the ship for a couple hours).  Nothing like *starting small* when venturing out into something new! ;-)  Seriously though, this has been a trip that has been on my heart for almost a year.  I'll explain more about how and why this trip in a future post, but here are the details....

Just in case you didn't know where Ghana is

I am heading to Ghana, West Africa on March 8th until March 19th as part of a Global Outreach Team from Northview Church.  The GO Team consists of 15 people - physicians, nurses, students, social workers, therapists, business professionals, and out Outreach Pastor will also be joining us.

We are in the process of planning some medical clinics, teaching and educational seminars, business seminars, and other outreach events. I am not certain where or even what exactly I will be doing there yet, but I am going with an open heart and mind to do whatever I am called to do.

Northview Church has a great relationship with Manna Mission in Teshie, a suburb of the capital, Accra.  I am really looking forward to this opportunity to go serve and help to continue to grow the relationship between Northview and Manna.

So, that's my big news for the day! My goal is to blog leading up to the trip so those following can go through the experience with me and know how they can be praying for me and the rest of the GO Team.  So, if you haven't done so already, sign up to follow the blog with either option on the left side of the page or follow me on twitter where I will post links back to this blog.  MUCH more to come....