Location: Yorbo Sedzro, Fongbe-Dzogbedzi
 
WOW! What an amazing day of ministry in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord! I have never experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in such a way as I did today. The "Main Event" of the day was our visit to Fongbe Village.
 
This was a village that Kodjo (our friend/Pastor/Contact) knew had long been rejecting the church. They had even burnt down previous buildings that people had set up as churches, largely because the chief of the village was very anti-Christian. Today, however, we were welcomed into the village by the Chief. After he told us about the difficulties they had been experiencing—such as bad water, sickness, poor roads for trade—he said that we could go ahead and present our "program" for the people who were in the Town Center. Unfortunately, the guitar had just broken a string and our instruments were packed away, so we just sang some songs "a capella"—probably one of our weaker musical presentations. But we did sing in Ewe, the local language, "I Need You, Jesus" and "We're Gonna Sing for the Lord", and the people really enjoyed the songs and wanted to perform them for us to make sure they had learned them correctly. We had an awesome time jumping, dancing, singing, and celebrating with them.
 
And then came time for me to deliver our "message." At this point, I prayed that God would speak through me and that the Holy Spirit would work in the hearts of these people and I spoke about John 3:16, salvation through faith, God being active in the village. I don't remember much else, but after we finished, the chief talked with his advisors for a while and then suddenly decided to offer us—the Lutheran Church—a large amount of land in the village to be used for building a church, school, or any other necessary buildings related to our ministry. Kodjo was very surprised and happy. We were all very excited as well. It was an amazing moment! The village was now officially opened to the church! Not only that, but plans were set in motion to begin an active ministry at the location donated by the village to the Lutheran Church.
 
We proceeded to the spot of land they offered and went through a ceremony in which we planted a tree to symbolize the birth of the new church. PRAISE GOD! I am in awe of how He used our weak voices and feeble words to stir in the hearts of these people a passion for His service. The Chief explained that God was in control and He could do nothing against God. Because God gave them this message, He was certainly going to do what he could to offer whatever resources he could to promote the growth of God's church! He spoke like a true man of faith and I am sure that this new church will indeed be formed and grow into a place of amazing ministry. And God allowed us to be here at the starting point! What an enormous blessing and honor—and what a humbling experience to be used by God in such a great way. His strength is TRULY made perfect in weakness!
 
Want to read more about what God is doing through Youth Encounter’s International Teams? Read each team’s newsletter! Simply click on the links below:
 
For Cross Fire to West Africa:
 
www.youthencounter.org/teams/pdf/CrossFire_News.pdf
For New Dawn to Hong Kong and Malaysia:
 
www.youthencounter.org/teams/pdf/NewDawn_News.pdf
For New Vision to Australia:
 
www.youthencounter.org/teams/pdf/NewVision_News.pdf
For Rainbow of Promise to India:
 
www.youthencounter.org/teams/pdf/Rainbow_of_Promise_News.pdf
For Watermark to Denmark:
 
www.youthencounter.org/teams/pdf/Watermark_News.pdf