Always Looking Forward

[JFK Airport, New York] — James McLean and I had an uneventful overnight flight from Accra.  We landed this morning in New York at 4:45am and made it through the immigration process in record speed.  We are thankful to be back on home soil, yet at the same time our entire team has already expressed some sadness in leaving our dear brothers and sisters in Ghana.  Those dear friends are some of the dearest in my life.  I hope you will remember to join me in praying for them daily.

These great servants of the Lord work in extreme circumstances without the benefit of much of the modern conveniences most of us have grown accustomed to.  While on the field we foreigners sometimes complain about the heat and the dust.  We lament when the electricity goes off and the water stops flowing.  The heavy rains and the scorching heat give us one more reason to vent. These conditions are daily circumstances in Ghana.  Some of our pastors there serve in places that never have electricity and running water.  The live in rugged mud houses that are illuminated by simple kerosene lamps.  There water runs only as fast as the legs of the person fetching it.

We complain about the bumpy roads as we travel by Land Rover to the project sites.  Our brothers there travel on foot, bicycle, or motorbike to their places of service.  Most of our pastors have the responsibility for numerous churches, which are separated by miles and miles of this terrain. One pastor walks seven miles to one of his churches that is completely inaccessible by vehicle.

As you think on these things, please … please pray for these dear brothers.

Another project has come to a close and we were all greatly blessed to participate in the harvest.  We are, however, not looking back to what has happened (albeit great), rather we are looking forward to our next ministry event scheduled for September/October of this year.

I want to take this opportunity to once again express my deepest appreciation to all who worked on this project.  The American team members of Jeff Andler, Craig Barker, James McLean, and Andy Poe join me with a heart of gratitude for each person who has prayed for and followed us through our blogs.  Blogs, which would have been non-existent without the efficient and extreme work of ministry assistant, Julie Wozniak.  Julie is an equal part in this ministry with everyone of us.  I am thankful for her heart and spirit in making this information available to the entire world.  Each day when we gather in a village in Ghana there is a beating of the “gong-gong” or a blowing of the “horn” which signals the fact that something big is about to happen.  When people hear these sounds they are encouraged and excited.  In many ways this is what Julie does for us.  She sounds the “gong-gong” for all of you to know that something exciting is happening.  Thank you so much for reading these blogs.

Let me end by saying that in all of life we need to be constantly looking forward to what is ahead of us.  A song that the pastors in Ghana begin each day with says this:  “Yesterday is gone. Another Day has come, Do something new in my life, O Lord.”  So may our prayer be each day.