My husband, Buzz, and I were privileged to go to Ghana, West Africa recently with a group from Child Evangelism Fellowship. CEF is in 182 nations of the world working to evangelize unchurched children. While in Ghana we visited several villages where Good News Clubs meet weekly. What a wonderful sight to see 100-200 children packed into a room to hear about Jesus. At one village a funeral was going on outside the open air building where the children were seated. Amazingly they seemed oblivious to the noise of the music and the crowd. They sang from their hearts, quoted their Bible verses and listened intently to the Bible lesson. Looking around the village we saw tiny shacks held together by pieces of corrugated tin and boards, no electricity, running water or toilets. Despite the amenities that we take for granted the children were all clean, scrubbed and happy. Older children were holding smaller, younger children and you could tell this was a normal occurrence. We could not help but take notice that none of the children posed a discipline problem. Good News Club day was a special day and all eyes were on the teacher who was sharing the “Hidden Treasure of wisdom and knowledge”… Jesus!
We met Pastor and Mrs. Kang, the Director of CEF in Tema, Ghana. The Kang’s, who are Korean, came to Ghana as missionaries 30 years ago. They lived in one room when they first came and now by God’s blessing have established a teaching institute and God provided funds for a building for the purpose of training CEF workers. The Kang’s are only able to return home to Korea every three years to visit their children and grandchildren because of the expense of travel. When we arrived they had just returned from a visit in Korea. Pastor Kang said that while there his heart really wanted to stay in Korea and just retire. God woke him up in the middle of the night and clearly told him that he was to go back to Africa for the remainder of his life. Life in Africa is worlds apart from life in Seoul, S. Korea but the choice is clear when God speaks!
Wherever you are today serve God! Don’t let your life slip by serving only your wants and desires. Life is truly short and one day we will all stand before God and it may be soon.