(I really prefer to have photos to accompany my blogs, but I don't have access to my pictures right now.  I write this with the understanding I have with myself that I'll be posting an accompanying photo later.)

I realize that I didn't give a very thorough explanation of what we're doing in Ghana.  I hope to remedy that now, even though this is at least 3 blogs worth of material.

One of Paul's students this past year comes from Ghana, where his father Theo is the founder and president of Theovision International, a ministry committed to recording the entire scriptures in all indigenous languages of Africa.  So far they've completed about 90 languages, and they currently have 28 different projects in progress.

These audio Scriptures are sent into remote villages where groups of people will gather to hear God's word.  They are also broadcast on the radio in 15-minute segments for those who have access to a radio, and cassette tapes are instrumental for missionaries who are planting churches among previously unreached people.

Theovision recognizes that because more people in Ghana use radio more than any other media, it remains a very powerful tool in spreading the gospel.  For that reason, they offer radio training seminars whenever teachers like my husband are available to come.

When Paul began to learn of Theovision, we recognized that the work here is one of the very best applications of a medium so easily tainted by the world.  It is this passion for gospel ministry that Paul hopes to instill in his students at Moody, so it brings us great joy to meet these remarkable people and assist them in whatever way God enables.

Paul is teaching 12 days, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., 1:30 to 4:00.  The African men, some of whom have been broadcasting for many years already, have received him enthusiastically, and God's hand is visible in the material Paul is presenting.  Praise the Lord for His grace!

But that's not all.  This next part is almost my favorite part.

God has ways of providing so neatly for specific needs, and Paul has a knack for discovering them.  For instance, Theo sees the value of being able to broadcast as a part of Theovision itself, and was looking for a way to secure a transmitter.  Paul thought he would ask the engineers in Moody Broadcasting for what they could tell him about transmitters, and as it turned out, they had one sitting unused in a closet, and they freely donated it.  It was even internally adaptable to a 220-volt power supply.

As exciting as that was, Paul still had more in mind: he wanted to complete the package by providing a broadcast studio "in a suitcase", as he put it.  Our church had a surplus in the missions budget at the end of our fiscal year, and they were happy to partner with this ministry when Paul told them about it.  With that money, Paul was able to get an audio mixing board, a 2-CD player, speakers, two microphones and stands, plus all the necessary accessories.

Additionally, he purchased a field recording package that includes a device that records to a flash drive.  (For the uninitiated, that means that the audio is stored as a digital file and can be transferred to the editing computer with a simple click-and-drag of the mouse, rather than old method of dubbing it in real time.)  Pretty snazzy.

Paul's favorite purchase out of all of this: a $3 bag from the thrift store that holds everything in the field recording package as if it were made for it.  It's just icing on the cake.

Incidentally, that "studio in a suitcase" actually took up several suitcases, which probably comes as no surprise.  But get this: our suitcases weren't opened either in Security at O'Hare or at Customs in Ghana!

Well, you can understand why I would say that to be in the middle of God's work of providing so well for His people is to be in the middle of pure joy.  The amazement and wonder on the Asares' faces was priceless.  What an unexpected provision of expensive equipment made even more costly by its unavailability here in Africa!  We were so happy to serve as God's hands in this situation.  The joy and gratitude brings tears to my eyes.

Who knows how God may use this experience in our lives, in the lives of the men attending this seminar, in the lives of those who hear God's word for the first time?  Praise the Lord!  It is for His glory.

We arrived safely and are settling in.

Internet hook-up is slower than what I'm accustomed to, so it takes more effort to blog.  Even so, I still plan to update often.

Paul started teaching today.  In the required suit and tie.  In a classroom packed with men who were cold with the air conditioner on.  When it's 85 degrees and humid.

He was pretty sweaty.

And now he needs to use this very laptop computer, so that's all I have for today.  But I wanted to get something up, at least.

from Ephesians 2:

19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Thank you for your prayers!  God demonstrated His providence once again:  the passports and visas arrived this morning.

But while we were still waiting, Paul and I were contemplating the sovereignty of God.  I had identified the history and potential for a false pattern of thinking that in general, "If you aren't careful, you could end up thwarting God's will from happening!"

In our case, because we didn't leave a large enough time buffer for dealing with the Ghana embassy, we could have been the cause for preventing God from doing a much needed work in Africa!

But the error lies in the fact that God works all things according to His will (Ephesians 1:11).  Even Satan himself is subject to His authority (Job 1), and carries out only that which he has permission to do.

So if we didn't get the passports and visas in time to leave according to our schedule, it would seem to us that Satan had triumphed for the time.  However, we would have recognized in our soul that God had a larger purpose in mind.

Through God's multiple provisions for this trip, however, we had plenty of reasons to believe that His hand of blessing was with us.  It was just a matter of waiting and preparing ourselves to chronicle a testimony of His faithfulness and our dependence on Him.

So it came as a huge source of amusement to find in my e-mail box yesterday a devotional based on Jacob's experience with the Angel of the Lord.  It opened with this Scripture:

    I will not let you go, except you bless me. –Genesis 32:26

Of course I immediately recognized that my situation does not in the least resemble this context, and that's what made it so funny:  "Okay, Lord!  I bless You!  I bless You!  (Can we go now?)"

Yep.  Yep, we can.  Bless the Lord!

from Psalm 28:

6 Blessed be the LORD,
         Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;
         My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
         Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
         And with my song I will praise Him.

Our passports and visas are in Washington, D.C. at the Embassy of Ghana, and despite leaving many, many phone messages, Paul has not received affirmation that they are ready to be sent overnight to us.

We are scheduled to leave on Sunday.

Will you please pray that our visas and passports will arrive very, very soon?

from I John 5:

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Thanks to the generosity of the Moody Bible Institute Alumni Faculty Travel Endowment Fund, Paul will be able to spend 3 weeks this May for the purpose of teaching radio production to Christians in Accra, Ghana.

And thanks to God's provision for our family, we will all be going with him!

This is the second missions trip we've been able to make as a family: in 2003 we went to Guatemala for 8 weeks while Paul filled in for an old college friend while he and his family were on furlough.

The conditions in Guatemala were easy: we lived in our friends' otherwise vacant home, the high-altitude weather is like spring every day, and Paul's class load was light.  When he wasn't teaching, we would be out and about, appreciating the country's indigenous countryside and culture.

This time will be a little different: the weather will be very hot and humid.  All five of us will be guests in a home.  Paul's teaching load will be much more intense, and we'll have to fit a lot of culture appreciation into 3 weeks.

But who's complaining?  Not me!  We're thrilled to be blessed with this opportunity, and we pray that God will get the glory.

And to think that this is only possible because we have the freedom to homeschool.  Praise the Lord!

from Deuteronomy 4:

 9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, 10 especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’