Questions and Answers – 12

What made you decide to go to Africa?

OK, I have a confession to make: growing up, I’d always considered Africa to be among the least interesting cultures of the world. Egypt, Persia, India, China, Greece, Rome, England – these locations had fascinating histories and alluring possibilities. But Africa? Nothing there but grass skirts and drums and – oh yeah, zebras, lions, elephants, giraffes. But you could go to any zoo for that, and skip the visit to a continent that swarmed with tsetse flies and reeked of malaria and yellow fever!

“Have you ever thought of joining the church’s mission committee?” asked my friend as we shared supper at our church’s 2004 Ladies’ Retreat. (My friend ended up moving to the mission field herself with her husband and their children just a few years later.) No, I’d never even really thought of the fact that our church had a mission committee, let alone that I could join it; but it seemed all I needed was an invitation, for suddenly I found myself on the committee!

Our mission chairman and his family had lived in Ghana for two years in the 1990s, and he planned a mission trip to Ghana Dec05-Jan06. As the committee helped him plan, his excitement became contagious; and as he challenged each of us to pray about being part of the short-term team, I found to my surprise that God wanted me to go. Seven of us ended up going, and as we flew out, the men on the team all knew exactly what they were going to do for our 2½-week visit, while the women on the team had absolutely no idea what role we would play. All we knew was that God was calling us to go, and so we went.

Well, the trip was beyond all expectation, to make an understatement, as God worked in and through us. As I was leaving, Pastor Tirumbu invited me to pray about coming back for a year.

I did pray, and that is why I’m ending 2009 in Ghana. Praise God for using a link of little events to bring about this current term of service! May He be glorified in all. =)