Remember our banquet last October? And remember how we asked you to partner with us to build the first-ever Arm of Hope building? And remember how we got a matching grant? And remember how God provided abundantly?
(*Arm of Hope banquet in 2018)
Well, in 2 1/2 weeks I will be IN GHANA, and I will get to see THIS BUILDING in it’s COMPLETED FORM! In the last 9 months, God has done miraculous things. He provided us with a partnership with the headmistress of a school in the slum that many of our children attend. He provided us with a location above this school on which to build. He provided adequate funds. He provided us with an excellent builder. And He made a way for this building, a dream we have had since the beginning, to literally rise up, block upon block, as a testimony to how great our God is!
(*Completed school room under the new “roof” that holds our Arm of Hope building above it.)
So on July 26 our 6th annual Arm of Hope camp team will fly into Ghana. And two days later, we will walk the winding paths of the community where the children of Arm of Hope live. And those winding paths will lead us to the school room where we always hold Bible Club. But the school room will not be made of posts and aluminum scraps. The school room will have block walls and a solid concrete roof. I will climb the steps to that concrete ceiling, and I will get to see how great my God is as I tour for the first time, our Arm of Hope office, library, and computer center.
I mean, 8 years ago when I first visited Ghana, could I even have imagined all that God has done? Could I have wrapped my mind around 350 children attending school on scholarship and 6 years of camp and a building to call our own?
(*With Elizabeth on the left in 2012.)
I sit at my coffee table/makeshift office in my living room. I call on my team members to help me with tasks I’m not good at. I email supporters and ask them to join the partnership of Arm of Hope. I pray my crazy prayers for help when I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m completely average. I could never have dreamed of all God has done. But then again, He’s definitely not average. He is supernatural! He is sovereign! And it seems He delights in doing crazy, amazing things with and through perfectly ordinary and average people. Like me. Like you. Like any of us who are willing to trust Him.
So when people ask me if I’m surprised that God has provided for our building or that so much money was raised at the banquet or that so many children are receiving education, I say “NOPE!” I’m overjoyed. I’m thrilled. I’m celebrating. But I’m not surprised. Because I believe He can do absolutely anything, and I believe He will continue to do things we can’t even imagine through the work of Arm of Hope, because that is who He is!
Changing lives isn’t an immediate thing. It takes time and effort and patience and prayer. But God is working in and through these amazing young people we are serving in Ghana. Each year I see them growing and learning and maturing. God is working each and every day.
(*Photo from 2018 camp with the same Elizabeth, third from the left, growing into an amazing, young woman of God!)