A Sobering Moment

October 17, 2010

This day caught us both off guard, but it was yet another day of the Lord confirming his will for our lives. The day started out as any other day, but we knew that one of our good friends from Ghana, Hilary Nicol-Lewis was speaking at our church, Meadowbrook Community Church. We were looking forward to Pastor Hilary speaking that morning, but before the offering was taken, our friend's dad, Dr Keith Hendrie, shared a testimony on how God had used him for over 25 years while working as a professor in Uganda, Kenya and other countries throughout central Africa. His testimony for so powerful, that once again, I knew that God was calling me to something bigger than myself. He was calling me to separate myself unto Him. He was calling me to leave the world and cleave to his Word. Both Dr Hendrie's testimony and Hilary's message left me wanting more. To give it all up and submit to the will of God. I was so overwhelmed with God's desire to use me, mold me and make me into the man of God that He can use for eternal significance.

After the morning message, we had the opportunity to pray with Dr Hendrie. He was sharing on his experiences and I knew that God was speaking through him, and all I could do was start to cry. He looked at me and said, "You'll do that a lot in Africa." Dr Hendrie prayed over us and commissioned us to do his work. I sensed the powerful hand of God on our lives in a very real and tangible way.

After Dr Hendrie returned home that week, I had the opportunity to give him a call and chat about formal seminary education. I've never been formally trained and the Lord spoke to me and said that His desire was for me to get some formal education. I've been involved in college campus ministry for 10 years, but I've never been formally educated. He shared with me that he believed that education was a very important foundation for ministry, after all, the disciples were trained for 3 years by Christ himself. It was around this time that I applied to and was accepted into the Ministerial Credentialing program through Global University.

With Hilary Nicol-Lewis

That week, we invited Pastor Hilary to come and share at Fusion our college ministry that we coordinate. As he was sharing, I sensed God wanting us to go to Africa on a mission's trip. At the end of the talk that night in the basement of our home, Hilary invited Fusion to come to Ghana to minister and serve through Youth for Christ International. There was an overwhelming response from all of the students and so we prayed about it and decided to go. For Jenn and I, we felt like this was the perfect opportunity to test the waters of ministry in Africa.