The following is from Andy Poe, our team photographer.

 

I'll just say it:  "God works in mysterious ways."  As you know by now from all the past email updates on this trip, God is always working behind the scenes to orchestrate people, places and events for the advancement of His Kingdom.

 

Yesterday, Roy and I traveled out to see a medical ship that has worked along the Volta River for many years.  As we drove out of town, we asked for directions and each person we asked gave us a different path or road to follow.  But each of these detours brought us closer to where God wanted us to be.  We finally drove down to a boat dock to see a large ferry parked quietly.  Here we came upon a lone security guard guarding a deserted parking lot and the entrance to the ferry.  We talked with him and learned that his name was Joseph, and he also told us we needed to travel farther down the road to find the medical boat.

 

We told him why we were in Ghana and why we traveled many miles deep into the African bush.  Roy then asked Joseph if he knew Jesus.  He said he did, but as we walked we continued to ask him questions. Roy asked, "If you died tonight would you go to Heaven?" He again answered, "Yes."  Roy then asked what he would tell God when He asked why he should go to Heaven.  "Because of all the good things I've done in my life," Joseph answered.  We both knew that the bible did not teach this as a way to Heaven, because "all have sinned and come short of the Glory of the Lord," and "the wages of sin is death."

 

Over the next ten minutes we shared the Gospel with Joseph and then we asked if he wanted to pray with us and accept Jesus as his Lord.  He paused for just a moment and said, "Yes."  Standing in the empty parking lot, Joseph prayed with Roy and asked Jesus to come into his heart.  We shook Joseph's hand, took his picture and gave him words of encouragement.  We also agreed to return the next morning with a new bible and contact information so Pastor Lartey could direct him to a church in Ghana that teaches the bible. (We did go back on Saturday morning and gave him his bible.  He replied, "You have done as you promised!  I thank you so very much.")

 

After leaving Joseph and a few more wrong turns, we finally found the lost Medical Ship of the Volta River.  Here we talked to another security guard, who this time was guarding the Presidential yacht that sat silently beside the Medical ship.  With no one around, we got a quick tour of the Medical ship and the Presidential Yacht.

 

Later on Friday night, we returned to a village on the river, where Roy preached the Gospel to over 500 people.  Standing in the dark, hazy moonlight glow, hundreds of people gathered around to watch the Jesus film and hear the Gospel.  With campfires burning and cooking fish in the distance; many more bowed and prayed to receive Christ as Lord.  What a day!  And what a project we have been a part of.

 God does work mysteriously.  From the Presidential Yacht of Ghana, to a security guard named Joseph, to hundreds of people along the Volta River hungry not only for fish, but also to hear the Gospel, God guards, guides and directs our paths and our steps so that His work goes before us and His word never returns void.

 

Andy Poe