Before I Start

This week I am going to be posting a lot on Project: Ghana and hopefully I can break up all the info into smaller posts to space things out a bit. If you don't plan on reading any of my other Project:Ghana posts this week, please at least read this one.

Before I start in on all the plans, I just wanted to share something on my heart. And, that is that I have been praying that I will be able to present all of this in a way that glorifies God. Afterall, He was the one who started all of this, stirred up our hearts, led the way, and has guided us through this for the past year. It is not by our own means that we have done this, but it is God who has worked out every single detail. The way I see it, all that we have done is prayed about each decision, and obeyed in the areas in which we felt God’s lead. Anyone could do this. It’s as simple as obeying and praying and having faith that God has a plan. As I was trying to formulate my posts for this week, I kept coming back to all this, and I have been praying non-stop that these next posts will all point to God.

I don’t believe it ‘just happened’ that a year ago this time we went to 9am church service to work in the nursery, but were told they had enough workers so we could instead attend the service. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that during that particular service our church showed a video clip update on the Zambian orphanage they had started, and it didn’t ‘just happen’ that I felt a 15 second out-of-body-experience of God impressing on my heart His plans for our family to adopt a child from Africa. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that as I prayed and cried and prayed and cried about this that the next morning when I woke up and read from my usual devotion book, that the exact spot I had left off at began a section entitled ‘Stepping Out in Faith’. Furthermore it read ‘faith is stepping forward as God directs, even when we don’t know what the outcome will be. It’s doing something bigger than ourselves – so big that we are dependent on God and not on our own strength and ability.’ And, it didn’t ‘just happen’ that in this exact excerpt the example given was 3 paragraphs about a man who cared for orphans. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that the next day on a whim I emailed an old friend to pray for us about possibly adopting – only to find out in her return email 1 hour later that she and her husband had just began their own international adoption journey in Ethiopia, but they hadn’t told anyone yet. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that the next day I received the usual bi-weekly email from Focus on the Family highlighting their book of the month: Ten Things to Know when Considering Adoption.

Once we decided to adopt from Ethiopia, it didn’t ‘just happen’ that during our first homestudy appointment our social worker ‘just happened’ to mention her special Ghana adoption program at least 15 different times. And, it didn’t ‘just happen’ that after our appointment was over that she stayed and talked with us about it for another hour and half. As we prayed about a possible program switch from Ethiopia to Ghana, it didn’t ‘just happen’ that the next day as I flipped off JJ’s movie I saw an ESPN special highlighting The Right to Dream soccer program in Ghana, Africa. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that Jake felt moved to look into it and 3 months later was on a paid flight to take a tour of the RTD facility to see about extending their program into basketball. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that while Jake was in Ghana he saw Nana Yaw playing in a game, went up to him afterwards and mentioned that if he ever wanted to come to the U.S., Jake would help him. Nana Yaw didn’t ‘just happen’ to be visa-ready and it didn’t ‘just happen’ that his mom had been constantly praying for years that he would have the opportunity to school in the U.S. as she had back in 1979. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that the adoption of Solomon fell through. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that a guy named Mark (a bball coach in Ghana) googled basketball programs in the U.S. and found Jake’s program listed. And, it didn’t just happen that Mark called Jake late one night, knowing none of Jake’s previous trip to Ghana, to see if Jake would be interested in helping Mark’s players come to the U.S. for educational opportunities. And, it didn’t ‘just happen’ that Mark is now our go-to-guy in Ghana who has worked his tail off the past month to identify land for the facility, and who will now be partnering with Jake for the facility in Ghana. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that we were asked to help with a gala for an orphanage in Nigeria where we met Bernice, who is from Ghana. It didn’t ‘just happen’ that Bernice’s family still lives in Ghana and takes in orphans and children off the street. And, after two failed attempts at identifying children for us, it didn’t ‘just happen’ that our social worker began a partnership with Bernice’s family in Ghana to locate a child for us. And, tomorrow, you will find out the next and possibly biggest thing to date in my mind that did not ‘just happen’.

And so, my hope from all that rambling is that you will see I don’t believe that chain of events ‘just happened’. To some, it may seem that it was all just a coincidence or should be down-played. If another person experienced these things, it may not feel the way it felt to Jake and I. But, I know that God lives in the hearts of His people. And, I know that He reveals himself in the most unique, personal, and touching ways, if our eyes are open to see it. In my heart I know that these things didn’t ‘just happen’ but that God orchestrated the entire thing. I know that I couldn’t have planned out all those things even if I had tried. I know that God has a plan for this country who’s people live on less than $1 a day. A country who’s children consider 1 meal a day a far-off dream. A country that has no free education. I am sharing about Project:Ghana because it is becoming a big part of our lives. I am sharing because you might know someone who knows someone who knows someone that could go on staff at the facility. I am sharing because God is amazing and loving and faithful and forgiving and unchanging and compassionate and the one true God and powerful and and in control of all things and I hope that you can see it.

And, now, with all that said, I feel like I can begin to share the vision of Project: Ghana….starting tomorrow. :)