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....

Faith, Family, Health, & Job

I missed my Wednesday morning Bible study at Northview today in order to participate in the very first Prayer Fellowship meeting at work.

My employer, Harrison College is not a faith based institution, but we have a work place culture that centers around the values of Faith, Family, Health, & Job.  Harrison College recognizes that all four are important in an individual’s life and is supportive of employees finding a healthy balance between commitments to their Faith, Family, health, and their Job.  I could share numerous stories about how I have personally experienced and benefited from this awesome culture, but until today I would be challenged to identify intentional actions around Faith within the work place and outside of 1 on 1 interaction.

Today was just about sharing.  It was a bit surreal at first though, to sit in our training room without laptops and projectors front and center, but with Bibles in hand and a sharing of stories and testimonials – opening and closing in prayer.  Although I sat quietly through most of it, inside I was very excited to be participating in this first meeting. Just being there was a blessing and an energetic start to the day.

It is uncertain yet, how these meetings will evolve, but I look forward to them continuing and growing.  Our first meeting had 11 participants, but I am sure that through word of mouth the participation will increase and these morning fellowship meetings will flourish. I am also excited that our next meeting will give me the opportunity to begin to share and walk our group through the same Leadership study we did while in Ghana.  It's amazing how that mission experience continues on today!

I am thankful that God has placed me in a job with an employer that acknowledges my relationship with Christ as the central part of who I am as a person, leader, and employee.

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 Will Follow

This song has been part of the worship list each of the past couple weeks.  I have heard it dozens of times before, but it is speaking to me in new ways recently.

Pillow Pets

This weekend I had the privilege of serving in an outreach activity at Northview that was focused on the Super Baskets of Hope program.  7000 baskets are being prepared for hospitalized children in each of the NFL's 32 cities.  Our part in this was bagging and tagging 7000 Pillow Pets to go in each basket. It was a very cool experience to write notes to these children and package them with these Pillow Pets, knowing that a sick child will receive it as a form of comfort and encouragement.

The most amazing part of the experience for me was the connection to Jake McConohay, a little boy from our church who passed away last year after his own battle with cancer.  Jake's aunt gave him a Pillow Pet that became a source of comfort during his treatment and thinking bigger than himself he thought other sick kids would benefit from having their own Pillow Pet.  Jake had a vision of giving children in the hospital their own Pillow Pet and he worked toward that vision and goal as a 7/8 yr old.  Months after his passing he continues to make an impact in children's lives through this effort.  It was shared with us this weekend that over 500,000 Pillow Pets have been donated and distributed, as part of Jake's goal, on a global level!

My heart breaks for his parents for their loss of a child, but they must be incredibly proud to see their little boy's vision continue and see the legacy he has left behind.  I saw some kids wearing t-shirts this weekend that said "Jake's My Hero" and I couldn't help but think I need to get one in Adult XL.

December Days - 12.3.10

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is the music of the season.  In fact, I am a big believer that it is completely acceptable to listen to Christmas music anytime of the year. Admittedly though, it doesn't start to dominate my iPod until after Halloween.  That may seem a little early for some people, but why limit great music to just a few weeks out of the year?

So, understanding how much I enjoy Christmas music you can then understand my anticipation for tonight's Christmas concert at Northview Church.  It certainly helped build the excitement for the event knowing that Marcy was singing in the concert as well.  Kudos to the whole worship team who put on the concert.  The music was great and the technical elements were equally impressive, just check out the opening number for a sample of the evening: