(A Blog Post from Mike)

What is important in life? Is it our comfort? Is it having fun? Is it having a great career where you have great accomplishments? These are thoughts I’ve had on this trip.

If you know me, you know that I retired from Caterpillar last August after 34 years in engineering with the great company. At 56 years old many of my friends, colleagues, and family wondered why I would do such a thing. When I left Cat I sent an email to my colleagues explaining what I planned to do in retirement. It had things on the list like “play an extra round of golf each week”, “be a house husband”, “become an elder in my church”. But I think possibly the most rewarding and possibly most important thing on the list was this……. “Take my 16 year old daughter on mission trips around the world.”

Joanna told my wife Robin and I years ago that she feels a call to be a missionary. As I sat at my desk in my office at Caterpillar the last few years thinking about retirement, I thought how awesome it would be to help her figure out that calling in terms of “what and where.” And knowing that my heath is still with me (somewhat), and Joanna (16) would not be with us long (off to college in 2 years), I knew the window was short if I wanted to do that. You may not understand this, it may seem strange (I’m a strange guy after all), but I truly feel like God put that desire on my heart a few years ago.

This trip has done nothing but confirm that one of 10 bullet points on my list of retirement tasks was just the right thing.

Whether she becomes a missionary or not is between her and God, but being on this trip with her has been precious!

These people of Ghana are incredible! Their beautiful smiles are etched on my brain! They are so welcoming, gracious, and hungry for God’s word! It struck me as we were sitting in a remote village in Northern Ghana waiting to show the Jesus Film just how precious it is when a people group that is hungry for the word of God will do almost anything to hear it! As we were pounding nails into the mud wall of a house to hold the screen, people in the village of 100-200 people were assembling in chairs to watch the movie. I thought, “these are not the only nails they would see tonight”. They would see the precious love of God for them in Jesus hanging on the cross for them. These hungry souls would see Jesus feeding the 5000 with just a few loaves and fish. They would see Him raise from the dead! Just thinking about that and see them sit and wait in anticipation made me want to cry! There we were in the dark pitch black of night. Stars in the sky were beautiful that night. You could just sit and stare at God’s creation and it was beautiful enough! But they came for more! And then something else happened, our host “Jesus film rider”, Clement, forgot the micro SD card that had the film on it! We had the projector, we had the screen, we had the crowd (almost everyone in the village), but we didn’t have the movie! As Clement hopped on his motorcycle to race back to Chereponi to get the movie, there we were sitting with over 100 beautiful Ghanaian people waiting to see the movie! I wondered to myself…….” would they actually wait the 40 minutes it would take Clement to get back?”

Well I was blown away…..not only did they wait, they let one of the local pastors lead them in a praise song in their local language. Now in the crowd were a mix of Christians and Muslims. But everyone sang! And to my surprise, the singing actually drew a few more curious folks to the gathering! And they waited the 40 minutes! All of them!

I thought……”In USA, would people wait 40 minutes to see the movie they came to see at 8:00 pm?”

But these people were hungry! It’s so incredible to see a people like this! It has changed me.
The fields are truly ready for harvest! You just have to find them!

I really think Jesus told us to go to the ends of the earth because that is where the fields are the readiest. And it’s so so so exciting to see it! It really makes you feel alive, truly alive!

It’s worth the long trip to see!

And finally, getting back to the question I asked at the beginning…..What is important in life?

Well, I can see that it is not our comfort…..Riding in the backseat of Ray’s pickup on the dirt road from Tamale airport to Chereponi for hours over dirt roads with potholes so big that I bounced until my head hit the ceiling 4-5 times and my step counter went over 20,000 steps showed me that! As an aside, the joy Pete got every time my head hit the ceiling made me wonder if he was aiming at the holes in the road! But my 56 year old body just barely made it through the experience with 3-4 Advil from Beth! It really confirmed my decision to retire early. Not sure I could do that ride in 10 years!

And what could be more fun than watching Pete “MacGyver” frappee up a battery bracket for the truck battery to hold it in place for our 14 hour drive back to Accra using a bungie cord, electrical tape, and a plastic water bottle?

But honestly, I cannot think of something more important than bringing the Bread of life to those hungry for Him! And I cannot thing of a more precious experience to have with my daughter than to help her flush out her calling in life!

It’s been an amazing trip! Thanks so much to Pete and Beth for inviting us!

Thanks so much to Ray for driving us! Thanks to Clement and Cyrus (Jesus Film riders) for going before us to prepare!

And finally, thanks be to God for letting us help Him feed the hungry!

Where will God take Joanna and me next? I cannot wait to see!

We will go!

May He get the Glory!

Amen

P.S. For you Caterpillar folks, please rest assured that the local dealer is doing a great job in Ghana! There are Cat machines all over this place building new roads (sorry Pete)! However, the Chinese equipment is here too! But Cat still has the majority!