In January, Cross Fire welcomed two new Ghanaian teammates, Elvis Kafui Doe and Matthew Abudulia, to join them in their overseas ministry. Youth Encounter looked forward to welcoming Elvis and Matthew as members of the 2003-04 Cross Fire team, but unfortunately, was unable to obtain visas in order for them to serve with Cross Fire in the United States. Believing in their call to ministry, Youth Encounter made arrangements for Elvis and Matthew to join the Cross Fire team upon their arrival in Ghana. Please enjoy the following paragraphs from members of the now-complete Cross Fire team, as we celebrate their ministry and praise God for joining us together with our brothers in Christ, Elvis and Matthew:  
 
 
Matthew Abudulia
Hometown: Tema, Ghana
 
Matthew Caninham Abudulia is an African from Tema, Ghana who has completed his secondary education. Matthew is at the moment pursuing Theological training with the intention of becoming an Evangelist. Matthew is a motivational speaker and has been in youth leadership for the past six years. Matthew enjoys working for the Lord and is very much interested in youth. Matthew shares, "I want to improve my relational ministry skills with the youth in the church and the people outside the church."
 
 
Elvis Kafui Doe
Hometown: Tema, Ghana
 
Elvis Kafui Doe calls Tema, Ghana his home where he is a member of Trinity Lutheran Church. He has served the church as youth leader since 1995 and is the National Sunday school coordinator and the  Greater Accra Regional Coordinator of the Lutheran Media Ministry in Ghana. Currently, Elvis is a student of Theological  Education By Extention(T.E.E.) where he is training to become an Evangelist. He enjoys working with the youth and the Sunday school department. He wants to learn and improve his evangelism skills to support and help develop the youth ministry in Ghana and he looks forward to seeing people coming to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. "God means everything to me," says Elvis, "He is my Father, my friend, my king, my life, and my provider. Life without God is meaningless."
 
The following are excerpts from the Cross Fire team’s Overseas Journal:
 
“We arrived safely yesterday in Ashanti Region to begin the first part of our tour. Hark, the voice of Jesus crying, Who will go and work today, fields are white and harvest waiting, who will bear the sheaves away? Loud and long the master called, rich reward He offers there. Who will answer gladly saying, ‘Here am I, send me, send me.’
 
I’m very excited being on team because I’ve been preparing to join team for almost two years now. Matthew and I have been refused visas several times but all the same God has made it possible for us to be with our teammates. I deem it a great opportunity to be called to serve God in Ghana and Nigeria. Due to the fact that we were not at training in August, we are compelled to go an extra mile. Interestingly, my teammates are great and as a result I’ve learned a lot within this short time. Today, we had four programs and during the programs we had the opportunity of sharing the Word of God with about seven hundred people. It’s our prayer that the grace of God will see us through our tour successfully. To God alone be the glory.”
 
Elvis Kafui Doe
 
“Bawku and Tempielim, Ghana… I still struggle in grasping the reality that I am in Africa… that if I were to place myself on a globe, to even imagine where I would find my finger pointing. Yet every day brings little reminders of where I now am… the shapes the trees take, the rutty red dirt roads and harmattan horizon, distant rhythms in the night-lit lands of Gbintiri, little children calling “obruni” and “bature”, and the untimeliness of a days’ events.
 
Today the children laughed as they played with a Slinky for the first time. And they laughed as they watched me try to use their toy, an old bicycle tire, as a hula-hoop. They laughed as we sang. Praise God that wherever he leads, there He is. And praise Him for a simple cross scratched on the wall of a one-roomed, tin-roofed church in Ghana.
 
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things! And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.”
 
Joshua Vandercar
 
“So many people have written and asked me where we are and what it’s like. Today we are staying in the coolest place yet. It’s a local hotel, but each of the 7 rooms are mud huts with thatched roofs. We have a room off to the side for bathing, a bucket of water for washing, and only solar power for a small light in our room. It seems like everywhere we go something else is taken away, making life harder, more fun, and making us a little more creative! I used to always say, “I need _____” or “I have to have ______” (fill in the blank with running water, electricity, a fan, cold water, whatever) and I really thought I did. Yes, life is very different without electricity or having to filter all our water. And it is harder for me, who has grown up dependant on washing machines, refrigerators, and flushable toilets. But the experience to have no choice but to live without modern conveniences has been priceless. I am not just surviving here, but I am truly living and enjoying it. I do thank God for running water or cold pop from a restaurant, when we can get it. But more often I find myself thanking Him for my water bottle of warm clean water, the bread we are able to buy everyday at the market, and the billions of stars I can see every night because there is no artificial light to block them out. Just when my light goes out, God’s lights come on. I’d take starlight over streetlights any night.
 
As I lay here tonight, I wonder where everyone is. My family is 8 hours away, still in school or at work probably making plans for this weekend. Both the Watermark teams are probably getting ready for bed, like us. Kindred is in South America doing a program looking forward to this evening, and New Dawn is somewhere just staring their day. Most of the Captive Free teams are setting up for events or lock-ins this weekend. And here is Cross Fire, enjoying a few quiet hours before bed, playing cards by flashlight, writing letters, or just enjoying the drop from 110 degrees down to about 85 or 90. Life is always going on somewhere. My day is over, another person’s day is just starting. Psalm 121 says God doesn’t sleep. He’s guarding us from the sun by day or the moon by night. So wherever you are when you read this, God is awake and ready for you, even though I’ll probably be asleep.”
 
Becca Leaf
 
“We drove to the Boakye Trom Secondary/Technical School, where our contact, John, is a science teacher. We did a program for about 150 high schoolers. From there, we drove to the nearby Dunyaw Nkwanta Camp Prison. That’s right: Prison. It was pretty surreal to drive down the bumpy dirt road. I half expected it to be like something out of a movie. I didn’t know if they would come out of their cells, like in “Shawshank Redemption.” Or maybe they would be working outside like “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” I also expected the inmates to be very, very scary and intimidating. The Lord was about to show me a thing or two about my assumptions.
 
The men were outside, lined up neatly on benches. As soon as we started to sing “Yeda Waseo”, a spiritual song in their native language of Twi, they all joined in, giving us the most moving rendition of the song that we’ve ever heard. 110 Ghanaian men and 6 obrunnis (white people…a/k/a: US!) all praising God with one language and one heart. It was breathtaking.
 
It shows the difference between circumstances. The children we sang to at the school seemed to enjoy our program, but did not appear interested at times. These men in prison, with nothing but the clothes on their back, seemed to really treasure our time together, just as we did. Their enthusiasm was contagious, their smiles enormous and joyful. At the end of the program, the head officer said, ‘When we were hungry, you fed us… When we were thirsty, you gave us a drink.’ The words of Jesus, used to remind us that we are here to be His ambassadors. We are here to lift Him up and glorify His precious name! Words to inspire us to press on, even when we don’t want to. And how amazing it is that those very words could have been said by us. For it is those men who fed us that day, acting as a reminder that, no matter what our circumstances, we can give praise and be thankful to God for His tender mercies.”
 
Clay Mark
 
Click here for more information on Cross Fire and our four other International Teams. And keep an eye out for full newsletters with stories from EACH MEMBER of Cross Fire, coming SOON to the Youth Encounter website!