African Rain…

So I’ve been here for nearly a month now, and so far everything is going well. I have settled into my room and back into the rhythm of life here. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been really getting into the work there is for me here. My official role is “personal assistant” to Faithful and Mary Biney—the directors of YWAM Ghana. This means I do a lot of letter writing and sending e-mails and various other computer work, which if you would have asked me not too long ago whether I would want to do that, I would have responded with a resounding “no”. But the amazing thing that I’m really coming to realize is that when you go where God has sent you, the more you throw yourself wholeheartedly into the work He has sent you to do, the more you enjoy it, and the more passion you begin to have for that. Of course, along with office work, there are other things I’m doing, just the other day we got to visit the “Save Them Young” orphanage. We took vitamins to the kids, checked the progress on the building of a kitchen for the orphanage and got to spend a little bit of time just hanging out with the kids. I really loved it, but as with all my other experiences in orphanages, the biggest problem is that I don’t want to leave when it’s time to go, but would much rather just stay and hug all the kids and love them. I’m hoping that as time goes on I’ll be able to spend more time there. Here are a couple of pictures from that trip:

This boy on the left came up to me as soon as we got there and held out his arms to be picked up (I of course obliged), the girl in the other picture held my hand the whole time I was around. You can see why it would be hard to leave, they’re just so precious, if anyone in the world needs to feel the love of God it’s these little ones who have been left alone whether by choice or circumstance. But I think that when faced with injustice and sadness in the world around us, ultimately people have three basic responses: 1—they find the problem to be something that is either out of their control or none of their concern and so they do nothing; 2—they find the problem to be so overwhelming and see it as so large that they can’t possibly do anything that will really help or don’t know where to start and so they do nothing; or 3—they see the problem and respond in any way they can, no matter how “small” the amount of help they can give may be. It seems to me that too often people fall into the second group which to me is the saddest group to be in. You want to help in some way, but you’ve convinced yourself that whatever you give can’t solve the problem so it’s better not to do anything at all. But that is not the life of love that Christ has called us to. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” (Mark 12:30-31a NIV) He didn’t say that we should only love our neighbors if we have enough money to solve all the problems they have, or that we should only love them if we can heal them. He simply said to love them. Furthermore, Jesus teaches that whatever we have done for the “least of these” we have done to him. So if all we can do is take the time to hug a child or talk with someone at a soup kitchen, then that is also a service unto God. I think that we need to be careful, however, that we do not simply do these things because it is a service to God, but we need to look into our hearts as we’re doing them. We need to check our motives, is this simply something I am doing because I was told to do it? Do I really care about the people or is this only to make myself look good? Ultimately, the entire message we are given by God can be summed up in one word: Love. We are to Love God and Love others. Unless that is what is pushing us on, all of our pursuits will be meaningless no matter how “good” they seem on the surface. Paul illustrates this truth when he says that “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NIV) Now I don’t want you to misunderstand me, I am not saying that everyone should pack up, move to an orphanage and just love the kids there, that’s simply not realistic and it wouldn’t be productive. Even the apostles were not all in ministry to the same people. We’re not all called to show God’s love in the exact same way, but we are all called to show His love. So if you can do nothing else or you don’t have a clue where to start, then I think the best place to start is with prayer. You can pray into situations that you hear about, but have no control over. I feel certain that if you are praying and asking God for opportunities to show love to others, He will not only give you the opportunity, but He will give you more of His heart and more of His love for those He’s sending you to. I could give many examples of how often God does this for His followers, but since this entry is already longer than I intended, I’ll give only one. A dear friend of mine recently moved into a new community and, in what I think was an unexpected side effect of her new job, was given the chance to interact with a certain group of people who are generally looked down upon in American society. In a recent email she told me how the more she was able to spend time with them and simply care about them, the more she realized how much she loved them. The God we serve is more loving than we can think or imagine, and we need simply to ask and He will pour into us His love for those around us.

I’ve also been given the opportunity to speak to some of the students at Fountainhead Christian School, the first (perhaps of many) time will come this Friday—speaking of which, I would appreciate prayer support in selection of topic and the usual hurdle to be covered of me speaking clearly so that my accent doesn’t get in the way of the message. As always, it is only by grace that we can do anything :-)

As you probably noticed, I titled this entry “African Rain”. Right now Ghana is in the tail end of its rainy season. For those of you that know me well, you know that one of my favorite things is a good rain storm, and I’ve certainly enjoyed hearing the rain fall here. However, there are some negative effects from so much rain all at once. In the northern regions of Ghana (Northern Region, Upper East Region and Upper West Region) there has been some pretty intense flooding that has resulted in the destruction of crops, lands, property and loss of human life. Now on top of the damage and pain that has already come from this kind of flooding, there is fear of a Cholera outbreak in the affected areas (not only northern Ghana, but also in Burkina Faso, Niger, and some other countries where the rains have lead to severe flooding). Please pray for those who live in these areas, as the situation has continued to worsen almost daily.

One final note in closing…I was able to go last weekend with the current DTS on their “fun time”—a day of recreation and just having fun with each other. We went to the beach and it was my first time to really go to the ocean here, although I’ve ridden past it in the car many times. Even though it was very rocky, and the jean capris I wore were probably not the best for wading, I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to walk in the water. I’ve officially stepped in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean now :-)

Amsterdam in five hours or less...

Amsterdam in five hours or less…
Well, I am on my way to Ghana, haven’t arrived yet, but have already had a mini-adventure. As some of you know I had a five-hour layover in Amsterdam before flying on to Ghana. I was informed by friends that it doesn’t count as “being in” a country unless you actually go somewhere and do something. I had no intention of leaving the terminal, let alone the airport as we began our descent into Schiphol International Airport, but then I found out that this airport had baggage lockers, and a train station in it, and was only a 15-min trip from Central Amsterdam. So, for the first time in my life, I decided to ditch my paranoia about leaving during layovers, and set foot on European soil (also a first for me). I have to say that I loved my 2+ hours that I spent walking around the city. Granted you can’t see that much in such a small amount of time, and the prices were too high to be able to eat most of the places I passed. But I was able to see the canals and old buildings and fun stuff of that nature. I also saw more bicycles than I have ever seen in my life…I really think that if you took the sum total of all bikes I had seen in the past 26 years, that number would pale in comparison to the plethora, the multitude, the whole big mess of bikes I saw today. I had no idea that the Dutch loved the bicycle so much…but now I know and knowing is half the battle. One other thing I did during my time out on the town was to pay an exorbitant amount (18 Euros!) to buy a pass on the Canal Bus system. I almost didn’t do this (because that’s entirely too much for me to be spending on this trip for as little use as I was going to get out of it), but in the end it came down to me REALLY wanting to see Anne Frank’s House (Anne Frank Huis). I’m glad I did, because let’s face it who knows if/when I’ll come through Amsterdam again? I didn’t go in because the line was reeeeeallly long, it even wrapped around the corner, and as I said before I was in a bit of a time crunch.
I think the thing that surprises me the most about this little excursion is the fact that, if the same situation had occurred a year ago, I don’t think that I ever would have made the decision to go out and have a look around. Unless there was someone else with me any fleeting thought of leaving would have been quickly squashed by my practical side—that would be the side of me that sees pretty much every single possible negative outcome, and decides that the risks far outweigh the benefits of deviation from the plan. In fact if I had been with a friend and they had suggested going out, I probably would have been the “Voice of reason” and once again would have given in to timidity and not taken the risk.
So the next question I have to ask myself is where does this confidence come from? Sure I didn’t have much to fear with language barriers due to the fact that almost everyone in the Netherlands speaks English, but still I don’t think that is necessarily what would have made me nervous in the first place. Again I think that it is very much a question of confidence. Ultimately I think it comes down to knowing where I fit in the world around me, to having a knowledge of what God has placed in me and is preparing me for. During my DTS one verse seemed to stand out to me. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.” The truth is that timidity doesn’t fit into the plans God has for our lives. God intends for us to be bold, to have confidence in the abilities that He has placed within us. How can we be worried and timid when we know that before He created the foundations of the Earth, he had plans for us? I think that far too often we fail to grasp just how much God cares for us, which leads so many of us to believe that maybe He cares for creation as a whole, but would He ever take a moment to make real plans, and furthermore to instill in us what we need to see those plans come to pass?
I don’t think that it is coincidental that during the commissioning at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Sunday (the very day I left), the beginning verses of the book of Jeremiah came up.
“The word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’ ‘Ah, Sovereign Lord,’ I said, ‘I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.’ But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a child.” You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord.” ~Jeremiah 1:4-7~
If God is for us, who can be against us? I find that simply knowing the truth—that God cares for me personally—has gone very far in changing the way that I view not only myself, but the world around me as well.

~Rachel~
p.s. sorry this is over a week old...sometimes internet connections fluctuate here. will try to get something new up soon :)