Puddles

So im trying harder now to write more often on my blog. This story is good and makes sense for me but I not quite sure how to say it so here it goes. God is always talking to me and others who believe in Him. Today He spoke to me again at youth group. I got there around 2 for worship practice as usual. Unlike usual the porch of the Ike's house was covered in water. This water was in little puddles all over the place. I sat down in my normal chair and then I looked straight ahead all I saw was the outside wall and barb wire and a nasty bush with thorns. But when I glanced down there was a reflection off the puddle. This reflection was one of beautiful trees and a wonderful blue sky. When I saw this I was amazed and knew God was telling me something.

When I saw what I had seen there were many things that He was trying to tell me. First the water could resemble the Holy Spirit in us. We need to see God. Even when we look around and we only see nasty and horrible things (barb wire, walls) we can look to the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit we can see God, a perfect reflection. This situation can also be viewed in another way. We could be the puddles and I would be people around us, watching us. We as believers in Christ have Him in us. We strive to be reflections of Him (like the puddle). Others will see Him through us. But there was an interesting thing about this whole picture.

First that there must be water to start with. None of this would be possible if there was no water. Before we can see God or others can see Him through us is there is no Holy Spirit in us, the living water. Also as time went by and people dogs started walking through the puddle the puddle became dirty with mud and dog hair and the reflection became less and less perfect and beautiful. This is also symbolic of our lives and how even if we have the Holy Spirit we can sometimes get dirty with sin and our thoughts and just the world rubbing off on us. Then we and others can't see God as clearly anymore.

Sorry for the long post again but it took a while to explain it and I hope I did so well so everyone could understand it. It just is more thoughts on God and Him showing Himself to me and others. Just sharing what I had seen and took from it but you all are welcomed and encouraged to take from this what you want. I just pray that I and everyone else will continue to follow Him and be in relationship with Him.

God bless!

Testimony from youth retreat

Sorry but it has been a very long time since I have written a blog and a lot has happened but i think i need to write this down. Last week was the youth retreat and it was a great time to be with friends and in God's presence. I am very grateful for the speakers and worship leader (i don't know how to spell their names) as they lead us into the presence of God and then helped and encouraged us into the presence of God. It was a great experience where many important things happened and I just wanted to write about some of them in this post.

One of the main focuses of the retreat was God's love for us. One of the things that was discussed was that we "know" in our mind that God loves us but we don't really know in our souls and hearts that God loves us. We say "Yes God loves us" but do we really believe it. When this was said the words from a song (I think) came to mind: "Nothing you can do can make Him love you less. Nothing you can do can make Him love you more." Sometimes one of the reasons we cant accept God's love is because we look down on ourselves saying why do I deserve His love. Another reason is that we wonder what we should do for God to love us, since we don't feel His love. The first statement is just the devil trying to take you away from God. But, "the devil is a liar" (Thanks Evans) and he has already lost the battle and has no hold over our lives as followers of Christ. To the second statement, God just wants to say you don't have to do anything but accept His love. This is tough and I am not saying that I always do this but God always loves us the same no matter what we do (good or bad) and by the same it is such a large amount we can't even comprehend it.

The second thing that happened on the retreat and right after was being in God's presence and hear His voice. God loves us so much He always wants to be with us and tell us how much he loves us. This past month I have struggled as I was wandering away from God. This was mainly because I had stopped being in His presence as I got busy with the end of the semester, college stuff, and internal assessments for IB. I had stopped hearing His voice and even when I tried it was hard and I couldn't hear Him. Even during the retreat I wasn't feeling Him as much as I had in years past. But then the second day during the prophetic session someone had a vision of someone locked in a shed and the door kept opening and closing, every time it opened the person would run towards it only for the door to close on their face. This happened several times until finally the door was opened a last time and the person made it out. When the person got out the shed collapsed and the person was free. When she was saying this it totally matched up with something that I had been dealing with since I was probably 13 or 14. I have gone through periods where it really controlled me and then I would come really close to God and go through a period where I thought I was free and then I would be sucked right back in. The testimony really spoke to me and I prayed to God that He would destroy that shack for me. I just felt so free. I then realized that that issue was holding me back from God.

I then began hearing God's voice the next day and it was amazing to be back with my creator! I think that almost everyone has their stumbling blocks and I just pray that God will free you from your stumbling blocks or things holding you back from His glory. Don't try to do it by your own strength (trust me I've tried) because the person didn't knock down the shed it just fell because of God. With this stumbling block gone I was free to enter into the presence of God and he just showed me His love in wonderful ways. This was confirmed today as we began worship at Elim and Daniel was doing a sound check. It was just an everyday sound check and I was just sitting there. But God was using that saying, "Chip I always want to talk to you because I love you." He gave me this picture of Him just sitting on His glorious throne with a microphone saying "Sound check, sound check, can you hear me. Sound check, sound check, I love you." This was a perfect illustration of how I felt. I knew he wanted to talk to me. But I had microphones all over the place. Listening to the world, myself, my feelings and desires. They were all coming in to one big mixing board. I can listen to any one of the microphones at a different volume. Previously I had turned all of the worldly ones up and the one for God all the way down but still trying to hear it. It's impossible. At the retreat one of these microphones was taken away and I realized that I had the others way too loud. It was like giving me a headache. I then promised to try to always keep God's above the others. True there will be some static or feedback every once and a while just as in a sound check but the more you do it the better you will be at just focusing on His voice.

Those are just some of the things that God did for me on this retreat. He rescued me from a HUGE struggle and then encouraged me in my personal relationship with Him saying that He always loves me and always wants to talk to me. I hope that you can learn something from these testimonies and continue to praise God for what He has done for us.

Sorry for the long post but it is a testimony of what God has done in my life becasue of the youth retreat that I had an oportunity to go on.

God bless!

Venice

The second week on our trip we went to the San Marco Church in Venice. This was a very beautiful church in the island city. This visit to the church taught me many things. One of these things was that the people that made these beautiful works of art were very skilled. These were great people that God had blessed with an awesome skill. These people could have used the gifts and skills that they were given for whatever they wanted to use it for. These people instead decided to use these gifts to teach others about God. They made three main domes with mosaics. These domes went from the depicting the Old Testament, depicting the New Testament, and Jesus' ascension, and the Pentecost. This was a great way of visualizing the gospel to those who can't necessarily read. These artists wanted to use their gifts to fill a need in their world. It just makes me think of all the great things and gifts hat God has given me. And it makes me question if I am using those gifts to truly glorify Him.
However this is not all that I got from this beautiful trip. God really wanted me to see how even little details matter. Let me explain: The mosaics by definition are made of little tiny pieces of tile and these pieces make a bigger picture. Without some of the little tiles the mosaic would not be complete. This is also true of the family of God how everyone has a purpose and that these purposes are important to His plan. Likewise the artisans made everything to have a purpose; from the colors to the fact that the book Jesus was holding was closed (He is the Word), to even the direction of the church (entered in the west and went to the east, from the darkness to the world to the brightness of the Kingdom of Heaven – sunrise from sunset). This apparently little things all add up to a beautiful church that is used to further the kingdom of heaven through its artwork. You can see that something so small and apparently useless can be used by God to His glory. While this is a lesson that we have be taught since Sunday School, God wanted to remind me through this trip about the fact that he has a plan for little old me.

God bless!

Switzerland

We are on vacation at last (or were at least)! We arrived in Milan and after a night we drove up to Interlaken, Switzerland, where we stayed in the YWAM guest house there. It was very nice there despite the cold. It was a great change from hot, humid Ghana to cold (to me at least), dry Switzerland. This segment of our trip provided a place for relaxation and some sightseeing. We even got to ride in some ski lifts, which Ken insisted were ‘helicopters’. Unfortunately though we did not get to ski as it is summer (doesn’t feel like it at all). The view was great and it just makes me more in awe of God’s great ability, creativity, and awesomeness. It also reminds me of His kindness because we can talk to the God that did this and He loves us. It’s amazing!

We then continued to Trun (not Thun) also in Switzerland. This is a very small town where my mother’s ancestors lived. It was cool because when they were living here in the 17 to 18 hundreds, the de Caprez family (our ancestors) owned and ran an inn. This in is still here today and that was the hotel that we stayed in. So we were like staying in our family’s house from long ago. That was very cool. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to live there that long ago. It reminded me about how privaledged we are to live in this world. And though I ocasionaly complain about the quality of life in Ghana it is still probably better than it ws for my ancestors who lived here. I thank God for His provision for me and my family.

That’s all from our trip for now but there’s more to come later.

God bless!

We are back!

Finally we are back in Ghana!

We had a great trip in Europe, but it is still great to be back home. God has taught me many things on this trip that He has given me and my family. On this trip I have had a chance to relax, spend time with my family, and even learn some new things.

We didn't have much internet on our trip so I will just write my reflections retrospectively.

More about our trip later.

God bless!

I am a year older

Last Monday was my surprise birthday party at Novotel. It was a great time to spend with my fellow missionaries and some of my friends. I had a great time swimming with Aidan and Eli. They are some special kids and I can't imagine what God has in store for them. I feel like they will do great things like their parents.
I also enjoyed the semi-reunion of the TDG folks (sorry you missed out Davis). It was great to see what was going on in their lives and catch up with them before they go their separate ways. By-the-way thanks a bunch for the bread supplies they went to a good use!
I thank God for the extra year He has given to me. I just hope that I will live this next year in His name and to His glory. I am also thankful to may parents for putting up with me for anther year and for giving a great basis for my faith and helping me through all the tough times. Thanks also to all the others that have played an essitial role in my life like those at DUMC and the fellow MKs I have met along the way. You were a great enfluence and I hope that God will bless you for all that you have done.

God bless!

TDG 07

Three weeks ago I went on a trip planned by the elusive Tatum Downs. The real reason that she had to go to the States is because the trip she planned was too awesome (for the truth see her blog). The trip was rightfully name Tour de Ghana as it truly went all around Ghana. There were only a select few that were brave enough to (willing to) take part in this adventure. These elite people included Margret, Amy, Ryan, Davis and of course me. This trip was a fun, relaxing, and insightful and was full of girl talk (see Margret's blog), long road trips of nonsense games, visiting fellow missionaries, having great worship, learning a lot about God and His will for our lives, and great fellowship.
The adventure began Monday June 18th or something like that when we drove up to Kumasi and lead the Bible Club teaching them about the fruits of the spirit. The kids seemed to enjoy the lesson and especially enjoyed drawing the different fruits of the spirit. We also got to see Ibrahim's new house after walking across the bridge I help build we saw his very nice house that was going along nicely. We then went to Modi Mahal where everyone ate one kind or another curry (I ate naan - it was good). We then slept at the guest house. We then woke up to a breakfast of French toast and a devotion on love lead by Margret.
We then drove to Lake Bosomtwi where we hung out with Lucas and Luiza. I was amazed at how much had changed in so little time since I had been there last. The clinic now has a generator and internet. Their house is coming along nicely along with some of the other projects that they are planning. The ward still has no roof but everything is coming along nicely. It is amazing to see what God is doing with that family in the community where they are. One of the highlights of this section was the worship on the beach with Andrew and Ju. We invited them over to "paradise" (no thats not the name of the guest house i don't think it just was paradise) for a great dinner (everyone had something special I had spaghetti) and a surprise birthday party for Ryan. Afterwards we went to worship our Lord which was a great experience (see the Jernigan's blog).
After this great time at Lake Bosomtwi we went up to Wa to love on the the Russels. This was a great time to get to see them in their field as I had only seen them in Accra. I had a great time with Isaac and Rachel. I learned a lot of things like how to build mightybeanz (thanks Isaac). We also had great worship time with God and I loved "The Gods must be Crazy II" it was funny. We stayed at the guest house in Wa and had interesting conversations there especially at night (I never knew I had so many middle names). On our way (out of the way) we went to see the hippos and fortunatly they were not hungry because the canoes we were in did not look like the safest things in the world. It was a great little excursion until it started raining. That didn't make the excursion bad just different. We got to make a little rain stop in Burkina where we witnessed paddle making at it's finest (Margret and Greg made paddles out of stickes to help get us out of the rain faster). I never knew that a stick improved your efficiency by 10%, thanks Greg for enlightening me.
After the hippos we went on the long and bumpy road to Navrongo and after getting some air of the drainage pipes that were under construction we made it to some of the best cooking in Ghana (according to the others). My favorite meal was the spaghetti. That Sunday we went to two churches. The first church was inducting new officers and so we went to go see them in. The second church we went to was very Ghanaian. Let me explain - it was long. Why does everything in Ghana take three times as long. Sometimes it is good as it gives you time to relax and have time to think and its not so fast paced as the states but sometimes it isn't as fun. This was one of those times. The sermon was very long and in two languages not including English. After some of us had a little nap (Amy and Davis) we went to see the new house for them. It is coming along nice and it will be a great place to live. Later we went to the crocodile sanctuary and to the border which was interesting. We got to touch a crocodile, yay.
After our great stay in Novrongo we came down back to Accra through the Volta region stopping to see moneys the dam and other exciting attractions.
Overall this trip was great with not many things that went wrong except for Margret losing her phone :( It had like all the phone numbers we need but we still survived. This was also a great learning experience. I learned more about my new and old friends including my best friend of all, God. I am extremely thankful to Him for this experience that he has given me and all the things that He continues to do for me and all of us.

Sorry for the long post it was just a lot that we did that week!

God bless!