Ghana Rock 2012: fundraising goal!

I spoke with the City of Refuge Ministries yesterday, and finalized our fundraising goal for Ghana Rock 2012. To rescue eighteen children from Lake Volta and house them at CORM for one year we will need to raise (drum roll please) $50,400. Now, if you're anything like me you probably have a big knot in your stomach wondering how on earth we are going to do that... but here is the wonderful part, we aren't. God is. 

James 1 talks about hearers vs. doers. How those who hear the word but forget are like a man who looks intently in a mirror only to walk away and forget what he looks like.  Then he switches gears to talk about the doers who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being no hearer who forgets but they do something crazy... they act. The end of verse 25 is so beautiful because it says that those doers who act and don't forget will be bless in their doing. 

Beth Moore summarizes that section of James 1 by saying, "It's not until the hearing turns into doing that believing leads to blessing." She goes on to say that the "doing" James talks about can look vastly different. For some, it can be planning a concert, for others it can be attending said concert. For Abraham the "doing" was unwavering in belief and still giving glory to God. I don't know what the "doing" looks like in your life, for Ghana Rock the doing right now is fiercely relying and believing in Jesus to bless us in our act. And believing leads to blessing, right? 

Continue to pray for Ghana Rock, we definitely appreciate it! 

See you May 18th (eep!), 

Madi 

God's Abundant Grace.

      Grace. An undeserved gift. What did we ever do to deserve the grace of Christ? Nothing. The thing is, it is all we need to be saved. No amount of good works can purify a mans sins in God's eyes. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-, Paul writes, "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." I was spending time reading the word this week and stumbled upon this verse. It took my breath away. God uses weakness to showcase his abundant grace in our lives. 

       Lately the Ghana Rock team has been plagued by hardships in the way of funding. Were we not working hard enough to get our name out? Were we not making connections with the community well enough? No. It has nothing to do with that. We were thinking too much about what we had to do, rather than what God can do. This is our weakness. Through this weakness, God showcased his abundant grace by giving us blessings. Completely undeserved. 

       The whole idea behind the Ghana Rock organization is grace. If our Lord and Savior came and died for us, then the least we could do is show some compassion and grace in others lives, whether it be saving child slaves in Africa or helping a friend. No act of grace is too small to go unnoticed. 

“Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

Go forth and spread the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

-John Dockery

Salt of the earth.

This past summer a man named Louie Giglio told the story of Ghana Rock at a summer camp. Thousands of high school students heard the way God used nine teenagers to help end child slavery. Louie saw what God did through Ghana Rock and how sharing it would only enhance God’s greatness and inspire people to do something they perceive as hard to make a difference. 

The ironic thing about this is that talking about Ghana Rock makes me uncomfortable. The story of Ghana Rock is so much of who I am, that I’m afraid by telling it I’m coming across as arrogant or self glorifying. What I never realized is maybe by not sharing this story, I’m doing exactly what I was trying to not do. Putting too much emphasis on me, and not enough on the amazing thing God did. I didn’t understand that if I told the story with my heart, in the right place, it had no possibility of coming off as anything except how it was meant to; glorifying God. 

A few weeks ago I experienced how Ghana Rock’s story inspired a complete stranger. I had the opportunity to go to the Passion Conference this year. Passion focused on one cause; freedom. Their goal was to be part of the abolition of the 27 million slaves in the world. With over 44,000 college students there, it seemed like a miracle to even find the group you came with. Some how in the sea of people I managed to meet a girl who came to Passion because she heard Louie speak at a summer camp. She said he talked about a girl who planned a concert to raise money to end child slavery (seriously, this happened). She was so inspired by the story she wanted to come to Passion and be part of the freedom movement. I mean, honestly, could anything be more humbling than God using this story to begin a new one? 

I’m certain God could use the story of Ghana Rock for His glory despite if I share it or not. In fact, He already has.The question I’m asking myself though, is if we are supposed to bring glory to God... why am I not sharing it? A few weeks ago our Pastor talked about being salt and light from Matthew 5:13-16. He talked about how salt does nothing if it’s still in the salt shaker. Tim Keller put it this way, “I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand corn on the cob without salt on it. When I have eaten a piece of corn on the cob that I really like, I put it down, and what do I say? ‘That was great salt.’ No, I say, ‘That was great corn on the cob.’ Why? Because the job of the salt is not to make you think how great the salt is, but how great the thing is with which it’s involved.” 

The point of me tell the story of Ghana Rock isn’t so people think how great I am, but they think how great my God is. 

So, I will... 

Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all peoples. 1 Chronicles 16: 24 

-Madi