But the apostle Paul never required a visa

Our Ghanaian friends' visitor visas were denied once and for all.  They will not be coming to Canada.  At least not yet.  I am grateful for everyone's encouraging messages reminding me of God's perfect timing (I plan on passing the same encouragement on to Pastor Charles and co.). 

One friend reminded me of how the Apostle Paul's plans didn't turn out and how he was arrested, shipwrecked, and all kinds of fun stuff, but God had a reason for all of it.

My first response? Lucky Paul, he didn't have to deal with bureaucracy. 

But then, think about it, Paul totally dealt with bureacracy.  If you read about him in the book of Acts, you'll see that he, in fact, WORKED the system.  Sure he was arrested, but he threw his weight around making sure that his captors knew he was a Roman citizen.  Hello!  Were they aware of who they were flogging?  He challenged the Sanhedrin that their accusations against him had to do with questions about their own law.  Then instead of shutting up and accepting his freedom, Paul demanded to appeal to Caesar.

So this is where I am on this: it's time to challenge the system. 

I wrote a friend who works for an international organization to ask for her help.  She brings over Ghanaian workers and students to Canada often.  I asked her if she'd ever had any problems with visitor visas.  She said she has never had any issues with the woman and students, but she has been trying for three years to bring over a pastor despite the fact that their organization has provided the same documents of support as they do for the woman and students.

Peter says that he still reserves hope to have our Ghanaian visitors here in the near future.   He had an interesting conversation with the visa officer which revealed that Pastor Charles was turned down because he is a pastor.  It would seem that his vocation is not well-regarded.  (The conversation about the status/reputation of pastors in Ghana would best be left for another post.)  We have legitimate international organizations agreeing to support these visitors, and yet the applicants' title of "pastor" trumps all other evidence, despite its credibility. 

Peter's conversation with the visa officer is not over.  We have to bulk up our application and try again.  We have to question the Sanhedrin High Commission about their own law.  We will not shut up.  We are appealing to Caesar.

Ask, seek and knock for visas

Last Sunday our very own Pastor Rick spoke on persistent prayer from Matthew 7:7: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."  He defined the three terms of prayer as follows (taken straight from the sermon notes):

Asking - openly coming before our Heavenly Father with requests

Seeking - asking, plus effort

Knocking - asking, plus effort, plus persistence

I think it's safe to say we are at the knocking phase for this visa dilemma. 

It looks like our efforts are producing some results in that the High Commission in Ghana has agreed to hear us out.  A step in the right direction.  We are now praying that this Very Important Phone Call between the visa officer and Peter Culyer (or John-Mark as the case may be) will take place within the next day or two as we are down to the wire.  We are also praying that our words will be well-received.

With just a week till departure date, our knocking continues!

Bead Aid Stand

I started this post a couple days ago, but it was seriously turning into a book... or an idea for a book.  It was all about African aid and kind of heavy and stuff.  It was too long and making my head hurt.  So I saved it under "later" and will probably never look at it again.

But I still have to tell part of the story.  It the start of a discussion, which I plan on processing/developing sooner than "later."

On Friday, my daughters decided to do a sidewalk stand a la lemonade, except with Ghanaian beads.  They have been begging me to go to Canada's Wonderland and are tired of hearing me tell them, Do you know how expensive it is?  The jewellery stand was the best way to shut me up.

They worked really hard to make bracelets and suncatchers and organize it, including signs and price tags.  Then they dressed the part in their Ghanaian clothes.  The response to their mini-business was great and people stopped in just to buy a piece of adorable. 

What about this triggered my writing a novel?  Well, when people read the sign, particularly the "African" part, and then found out that the beads were actually from Ghana, they'd ask, "So what's the cause you're raising money for?"

"Ummmm.... Canada's Wonderland?"

[Click here to read more...]

Fasting and praying with other believers helps even more

We had a big response from people willing to spend the day fasting and praying for the Ghana Partnership yesterday, but due to the nature of the last minute invitation and the long weekend, among other legitimate reasons, it was down to four of us who got together to pray as a group.  (Thank you to those who participated both in body and spirit!)

That's when I got a proper perspective.  Peter Culyer, our missions director, had made contact so quickly yesterday with a real live person at the High Commission that his wife, Maria, pointed out that it was supernatural, perhaps an answer to our prayers.  During the course of the evening, after we broke our fast with a lovely meal, we talked about the microfinance program and how it has taken off and is a "success."  We talked more about Ghana and how we saw progress there; more than the advancement of projects, we saw hope of Christ in people's lives. 

You know, as I have come back to Canada and returned to my home culture with a new perspective, I have felt overwhelmed with the lack of hope here. Maybe even moreso than when I first went to Ghana.  It shocked me to see my culture who is for the most part living without God, who doesn't seem to feel the need for God, who is even trying to deconvert people from their belief in God.  As a whole, things look pretty grim over here, but when I meet and pray with like-minded people who have committed themselves to following Christ and loving others, the hope burns bright. 

I must spend my time this way to see where God resides and is at work.  It was true in Ghana, it's also true here.

Writing a letter always seems to help

Dear Ghana Partnership,

You and I have been well-acquainted for a while, but I have a hard time defining our relationship.  A few years ago, when you were just an idea, our church prayed about you and thought about you and then prayed some more.  We prayed and thought so hard, you eventually became a reality. 

You are now the name we attach to everything we do involving our ultimate goal to unite our church here and our sister church in Ghana, as well as all those little goals in between.  From sending that naive couple to Ghana to photocopying sign up sheets for volunteers, all donations, expenses, envelopes, banners, t-shirts and blog posts get your label, "Ghana Partnership."  I thought you'd be happy about that.  We could have named you better, I'm sure.  Maybe you're bitter about the fact that it sounds like you were created in a sterile office at a board table with a globe as the centrepiece and not in the hearts and souls of a group of passionate people seeking to do God's will.  Of course the latter is true, we just lack creativity.

To be frank, you have been a frustration to us from the get-go.  It seems like everything we tackle with you as the headliner either fails or gets extremely altered so as to be unidentifiable in its origin.  I am struggling to understand why this is.  And I am not alone in this sentiment!  We have people everywhere asking, does it have to be so hard? 

As we speak, John-Mark, Peter Culyer and Mark Webb are working diligently to recover from your latest trial, denied visas for our Ghanaian visitors, despite meeting every requirement possible.  We had letters of support, notarized documents, passports, fees and paper all lined up.  Our ducks were in a row!  And still, an arbitrary refusal.  Now we write more letters, fill out more forms, pay more money, and hope for better results.

My father suggests that you are an instrument to help fine-tune our faith.  Ghana Partnership, is this true?  What brilliant lesson is God teaching us through you now that we haven't learned 100 times over since you were birthed in our hearts?  Just read the entirety of this blog!  How many disappointments do we have to endure until we know we are on the right track?  Honestly, at times I feel like it's a sadistic game of playing "hot and cold" to find the "prize."  I keep hearing "Warmer... Warmer... WARMER... WARMER!  [pause] Cold." 

Do I need to say it?  I. Give.  Tell me where the blasted thing is.  

My brother-in-law, Rob, tells me that often when we have struggles, we already know the right answer.  Those times where we want to vent about our problems under the guise of wanting advice are really just ways of finding justification for our actions.  He told me this at a time when I was talking about you.  Let me say that I believe it does help to get things out of our system in order to find direction or support, but, fine, okay, we should know (or can find) the Godly response.   

Then there's the part about carrying it out.  It's never just a one time deal, then wrap-up party, but a continual process.  Two steps forward, one step back even.

One Godly lesson I learned in Ghana, and keep geting new opportunities to practice, is found in Psalm 112:7:  "[S]he will have no fear of bad news; [her] heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD."

I have to tell you, GP, if it weren't for words of wisdom like this, I might have given up on you a long time ago.  But I have high hopes for what you can become and how you can reach people for the gospel.  More than that, I have to believe that it's through these struggles that we are bolstering our testimony so that at the end of it we'll say, "LOOK and see what the Lord has done... in US!" 

All that to say, whether or not you were intended this way, you have become an instrument of fine-tuning for the church, and for me personally.  You, Ghana Partnership, are forever part of who I am. 

So there.

Sincerely, Loreli