Wednesday, April 6, 2011

God is so good with details!

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful baby girl born in Ghana with a deformed hand. Her father abandoned her and her mother was told to kill her. That is just what it means to be disabled in Ghana. Her grandmother was strong and decided that the the girl had a pretty face so she spared the baby's life and raised the child herself. The baby was named "Linda" which means "beautiful.

The girl grew up knowing that her life had been spared and knew that God had a purpose for her life. To everyone's great surprise she married and began a business selling Bibles from door to door. Linda's husband found work in Israel and would send money back to her. Linda would invest the money into more Bibles and little by little expanded her business. Today Linda has one of the largest Christian Bookstores in Ghana and employs 18 people. She has had 4 containers of Christian books and Bibles sent from the US in the last two years.

Meanwhile back in Weyers Cave, Virginia, ETS was busy buying 1440 Bibles to send to Ohene Kumi (one of our ministry partners in Ghana.) We were able to buy brand new Easy Reader Bibles with soft covers for about 2 dollars apiece. Ohene has a Bible discipleship ministry to thousands of school age children in Ghana, Togo and Liberia. We had no trouble securing the Bibles from our vendors but the problem was in finding economical transportation to Ghana.

ETS learned about Linda and her shipment through Biblica and arrangements were made to send the 40 boxes of Bibles to Accra. ETS willingly took on the cost of the Bibles and shipping because of the generosity of our donors and the caliber of Ohene's ministry.

The Bibles arrived in Accra March 11 and arrangements were made to pick them up from Linda's store. On March 16 we received an email from Ohene telling us that there was a $750 clearing charge which included transportation cost as well as customs duty. ETS was prepared to pay that amount till we received this email from Ohene on March 23rd.

Dear Keith,
I have received word from Steps to Christ Book Store that we do not have to pay anything on the boxes of Bibles that you put on their container. They checked us out and found the great extent of our discipleship work in the schools and phoned us that we should not send any payment and even if we have some more Bibles for the School Discipleship program that they would take it on their next shipment.
Ohene


What a might God we serve! How like our God to meet and surpass our expectations. Who knows if God spared Linda's life years ago in order to form a working relationship with Ohene to evangelize and disciple school age children of Ghana. "Far be from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you." I Samuel 12:23-24

Please continue to pray for Ohene Kumi and his ministry.

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

The ETS Staff

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