Building Our Relationship With God and One Another

Happy Sabbath, everyone! Certainly nice to be back here with all of you. It's been a while.

In retrospect, I suppose it's not been all that long, but it's been a great distance between us, between here and Africa. Mr. Imes was mentioning the piece of tabernacles coming up, and I was looking at my calendar just a couple days ago, realizing I turned around for the next trip in just about one month from now, leaving before the day of atonement for Nigeria. So, you know, you kind of get over one hump and you start looking to the next event ahead, but it's always great to come home and just get settled back in and reconnect with everyone in between the adventure. We do have a little bit of a different format today and setup, and I apologize to Kennewick.

I was scheduled to be there, but I decided maybe it'd be better to flip around the location because I decided to put together a picture slideshow today related to my travels. Often when I come back, people ask, how are people doing over in Nigeria or Ghana? They ask about people by name, but I thought maybe it'd be a good idea today to present some pictures because I get that request as well and try to put some faces to some of the names that you've heard. The title for the message today is Building Our Relationship with God and One Another. Building our relationship with God and One Another. My purpose today is essentially threefold. First, I'd like to focus on the role of the United Youth Corps program that we have here in the United Church of God. I want to focus in on how it functions, what exactly it does, and the benefit that it provides. Secondly, I'd like to put a face again on the brethren over in Ghana on the work that we do over there and the projects that are going on overseas and to hopefully help you have a more direct connection with them and raise an awareness in your mind. And thirdly, I'd like to share with you some of the experiences well that we had at the United Youth Camps in Ghana this year. But before I do that, I'd like to begin with a scripture. So if you'll follow me over to Ephesians chapter 4, and we're beginning in verse 11. Ephesians 4, 11, because again the title is Building Our Relationship with God and One Another, and the Apostle Paul had a lot to say in that regard. We'll just take a look at a sliver.

Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, it says, And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. And the word ministry here isn't a reference to the fact that all the saints would become pastors, it is a reference to service.

And so what Paul is saying is that there have been appointed overseers over the brethren in order to, again, help to stir one another up in this way, the equipping of the saints for the work of service. And notice why. He says, So as we serve and we contribute and we work together for the building up and the strengthening and the edifying of the body of Jesus Christ. Verse 13, so we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And so how we live, how we conduct ourselves on a daily basis, the words that we say, the actions that we take, they need to be according to the example that was set for us in the example of Jesus Christ. Verse 14 says that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things unto him who is ahead Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working, by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. So there is a community that is at work here in the body of Jesus Christ. I think we understand, brethren, that when God calls us into a relationship with him through Jesus Christ, it is very much a personal and a direct calling. That relationship with God is direct. And before God, we stand alone.

And in that sense, what I mean is that God has called us to be accountable directly before him, in our relationship to him, how we respond. In that covenant relationship we have with God, none of us will fulfill that on the coattails of somebody else's prayer or study or faithfulness.

Again, that relationship with our creators between us and he directly. Now, that being said, God doesn't call us to live this Christian life in a solitary way. We're not often a bubble unto ourselves with no contact, you know, just me and you, Lord. God has called us into a community.

And he's called us into a body of fellowship of believers, which Scripture calls the body of Christ.

It is the church, which Jesus Christ is the head. So again, as such, brethren, we're not an island unto ourselves. And although our relationship with God is direct and personal, we have the opportunity through the body of faith to give our lives in service to one another, stir one another up, to edify each other, to build each other up on this common walk of life, as Mr. Wills is talking about, towards the kingdom of God. So that which I'll share with you today was going to be a reflection not only of our individual calling, but also of the opportunities that God provides us in service to one another in a way that builds up the body in love. So if I can, I'm going to try to fire up the first slide for us here today. Now this is going to be a bit of a picture slideshow on my trip to Ghana with the United Youth Corps. And as we get moving through, eventually we'll have to pick up a little pace. I have close to 60 pictures to share with you today, and I'll try not to run too far over time. But this is the United Youth Corps group that attended in Ghana with me this year. To the left there, you recognize Carl Kester. He and Sabrina spent about 10 months with us here several years ago. Of course, you know Ben Light as well. And in the front row in the center, you have the two Novak sisters from California. You have Leanna on the left and Rebecca on the right. And then on the end in the front row on the left, you have Juliana Cattale from Malawi and Lancy Cattale as well from Malawi. Back row by Ben, you have Henry Akins, who's our office manager in Ghana. He's the one who shuttles me around, and I conduct a lot of visits with Henry as we travel about Ghana, and we are indeed good friends. And then on the end is Isaac, one of the young adults from Accra, who assisted in transporting us around as we traveled in two vehicles on the Youth Corps program. Now, this is the Youth Corps group that volunteered their time and resources to serve in this way. The United Youth Corps program is partnered with the Good Works program of the United Church of God, and Good Works backs up Youth Corps with funding and helps these young adults in the church to travel various parts of the world to serve the congregations and peoples in various ways. And that said, this is not a free ride. It's not a cheap vacation to go see another part of the world. There's still a financial investment that each of those who volunteer for Youth Corps have to make on their own. The Youth Corps program pays for half the airfare and all the expenses on the ground, but each of the participants are still responsible for half of their airfare, for passport and visa fees, for immunizations, for malaria medications.

And so, for Youth Corps participants that would go to West Africa, their average out-of-pocket costs will run $1,200 to $1,500. So again, this isn't just, let's go have a good time in a vacation.

These are individuals that desire to actually make an investment themselves for the opportunity to go and serve. I think it's a very wonderful and positive thing. I'd like to read to you briefly from the United Youth Corps website, again just sort of an overview to raise your awareness on the program. It says, during the past 30 years, young people in the Church of God have established an excellent track record of service in different regions and nations. The United Youth Corps seeks to continue this fine tradition. In today's increasingly selfish world, it is especially striking to see young people with the maturity and commitment to live this way of give rather than get. Such examples make an important impact on those who observe them in action.

Participating in service projects is an excellent way to form a character, to learn the joys of giving, and to prepare for further service opportunities. With this in mind, the United Church of God and International Association has begun the United Youth Corps with various service opportunities. Under the heading of outcomes, it says, United International Youth Corps is designed to help motivated and desirous young adults ages 18 to 35 connect with the work of the Church through service. This dimension of leadership will be awakened and directed towards the vision of the coming Kingdom of God in which Christians will be helping rebuild the waste places of the earth and assisting God in serving humanity. Now, under the mission statement of the United Youth Corps, it says, our mission is to help young adults envision and prepare for the coming Kingdom of God. This would be accomplished by helping them to identify with the international nature of the body of Christ and with their role in the work of the Church.

So, as you can see, the Youth Corps program is very much a leadership mentoring program, and it's designed not only to serve others, but also to take those individuals who have a heart of service and help to mentor them as well to go on to further heights of leadership and service in the Church. And so, with that in mind, the programs that I've conducted the last couple years and the groups that I've taken over there has been so done so from a focus of trying to present opportunities to them that would challenge them, you know, maybe even push them out of their comfort zone a little bit in the manner in which they would then be put in a position to serve others. And again, it's a very positive thing. The United Youth Camp ran this year in Ghana from August 13th through the 20th. Most of this Youth Corps group arrived on Thursday before camp, and so we took a few days to travel about and do a few things before the camp program actually began, and I think it was a time that was very well spent. Now, this is the Cape Coast region of Ghana. We fly into Accra, which is the capital, and that's where we have a church congregation in a camp. This is Cape Coast heading west of Accra, and in particular we were heading to the Agona region where we have our largest congregation in Ghana of a little over 100 people who attend there.

Cape Coast is lined with fishing villages, and as you drive along the coast there you'll see people out in their wooden boats fishing. You'll see teams of people on the shore dragging in these large fishing nets and bringing in the catch for the day, and in many ways it's like stepping back in time just to step out on the beach and watch the process there that takes place.

So as part of our schedule before camp, we spent Friday and Saturday in the Cape Coast region. We visited the Agona congregation and saw some of the sites there around the region before heading back in for camp. This is out at the church property in Agona, and you'll recall when I came back from my trip during the spring holy days I talked about the Kasava Mill project that was being started out there on the property, and certain funds have been donated from here in the United States to help get that project going. And so as part of our trip, we went out to the property out there to just kind of see how the progress was coming along and get an overview of the Kasava operation. The point here is to help to generate funds not only for the local congregation but also employ a number of the brethren and from the ladies specifically with jobs. And the Kasava Mill is set up in order to process not only the Kasava that the brethren would grow to sell, but also to help harvest and process the crops from others around the region as well. So it's a way that the brethren can, I would say, use their energies to produce in a way that benefits the church and benefits their families financially in a very positive way. So this is the main building where the Kasava is actually processed. And you can see in the front there what I would call the Kasava oven. And the cooking of it goes on on the back side, but you see from the front side here down at the bottom there's two fire boxes where that wood is loaded in on the front and the fire is burning and heats up through that oven in order to be able to cook and process.

And we'll get a little bit of a closer look at that in a moment. This is the Agona pastor Benjamin Agiaphong. And Benjamin's been essential in the organization of this. In fact, he's the one spearheading it. And here he's showing us one of the portable Kasava grinders that they've constructed. The original plan was to have a bigger on-site stationary Kasava grinder, but as I thought about it, it became apparent because of the other church congregations on Benjamin's circuit that this could be utilized as sort of a traveling operation. So they built a couple of portable Kasava grinders, then that could go out to the crops as opposed to necessarily having to bring all the crops to them. And it opens the field of possibility in that way.

I will have another closer look here in a moment.

This is one of the ladies in the congregation. Basically, we got a demonstration of this whole process from start to finish. And if you look at here, this vegetation that's growing up here behind her is Kasava. And it grows virtually year-round in Ghana. Right now we're getting to the end of the rainy season. So the crop, this current surge has come to fruition. But she's essentially showing us the process. The Kasava root itself is a very tuberous root. We probably would only recognize it here as tapioca. But there it's processed in the flower and used in a number of different ways. But first thing she did was walk over and grab a clump of Kasava, which would be about three, four stalks. And she just ripped it right out of the ground.

And I think our back hurt just observing that. You can see the roots laying on the ground. And she took this machete and started to peel it for us and give us an idea of how this works.

The Kasava is then chopped into pieces and it's loaded into the hopper here on this Kasava grinder.

And the man who's operating it, you might be able to tell there's a board on the backside that he can slide in and out that helps to feed this Kasava down through the grinder. And that belt is driving a, I'd say, a serrated drum, essentially, that's spinning around. Kind of looks like a cheese grater. And as it spins, it's just grinding this Kasava down and spits it out of the chute at the bottom here into this bowl. Again, as you would look at it, it's sort of like a sort of like a mash that comes out at the bottom there. The next process is they take that to a press and they press it tightly and it squishes out a whole lot of the water that would be contained in that. And then following that, they would take it back here to the take it back here to the Kasava oven in order to cook the moisture out of it.

So here we see a couple of the ladies working away. The Kasava is put down into these pans that are being heated on the underside from the fire and with wooden paddles they just keep those, keep the Kasava moving as they cook the moisture out of it. And really that's a strenuous process.

And from start to finish, when you consider all the effort and labor that goes into it to produce this flour that they use for baking, it makes me appreciate the fact that I can just, you know, go down to Fred Meyer or Albertsons and pay a couple of dollars for a bag of flour. But, you know, Kasava is one of their main food sources, especially in the village, and they use it in the production of a lot of the things that they eat on a regular basis. But just simply, these ladies here working, you're bent over, you're moving this around, and there's actually a tremendous amount of heat that's coming up off of those ovens, and you add that to the environment, and it is a bit of a strenuous process.

This is what the final product essentially looks like. Once the Kasava is cooked, it's then sifted out fine, and it's ready to be sold in the market as flour or made into other goods as well. And, you know, again, for the ladies in the congregation, having the mill, having the processor here is provided them with an opportunity to produce something that can be sold by the market, that can generate funds for their family. The men work, and they farm, and in many ways, they cover the expenses of the home and household, but the ladies are really expected to go out and sail and do various things that would cover, for example, school fees, clothing for the children, and other household items. So, in many respects, it's a very positive thing for helping to employ a number of the ladies in the congregation. Right now, there's about 10 ladies working the Kasava mill, and Benjamin's hope is that before too long, there'll be 20 to 30, and so it'll be quite a viable operation.

This very much was a business meeting, so you see Ben Light here, and he's expressing a business principle. Anybody guess what that might be? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and Ben essentially just had a small boy come up and say, here, hold my bird, and he ran off, and we're walking around this whole tour, and Ben's holding this bird in his hand, and eventually he just said, well, what do I do with the bird? And he was able to hand it off.

This just has a point of interest. This is not a snake. This is a line of soldier ants.

You do want to be careful where you step in the village, and apparently something had been spilled on the ground. I don't know whether it was sweet or what it would have been, but apparently the ants thought it was something good to haul back to the nest with them, and it was just pretty incredible to stand there and watch them just industriously work back and forth, and again, you certainly don't want to step into their line of fire, shall we say. Apparently, they bite and they sting, and it's quite severe.

After we saw the Casava Mill Henry, or Benjamin wanted me to meet with essentially the board of directors that had been formed to oversee its operation. Benjamin has three congregations, the one here in Agona, one in Winnebuh, and one in Quonieko, and two men from each congregation formed this board, and Benjamin helps to oversee it as well. So essentially, this is the church hall and the group with which we sat down and had a meeting. The youth corps are there the whole time. They're getting to walk around and see the process and kind of understand, okay, how do these people live on a daily basis? What's one of these operations that we're trying to install here in the church for the benefit of the congregation? And it very much was an educational process for them. I express to the people on this board, essentially, the fact that when people donate funds in the United States, there are times we use it for emergency assistance in various ways, but they also like to see things developed where the funds are used in a way that they're just not evaporated and gone, and you have nothing left to show for it, but use it in a way that they can continue to produce, and to produce income, and to produce good things that would benefit the congregation. So we had a very good discussion about the opportunity now that they had for this to be something to bind their congregations together and give them the ability to work together for their common good. Now, this may look like play, but I assure you it is work.

We just make it look easy.

A big part of the Youth Corps program, frankly, is being able to spend time together, and before camp starts, we need to be together, bound together as a team, and so, you know, just going out seeing the Casaba Mill, doing the other travels that we do, sit and eating meals together, gives us opportunity to kind of gel as a group before we actually walk into the program and work in support of the program itself. So this is just one of our afternoons here following the Casaba Mill. One of the places that we had opportunity to visit as well, and I've spoke about it before, was the Cape Coast Castle. This was actually a slave castle built back in the 1600s, and it was one of the main staging places where West African slaves were then shipped out all over the world. And boats came here and picked up slaves and took them to North and South and Central America and Bahamas and various European places as well. And now it's open for sightseeing tour. Here's Juliana and Lancy, and it's actually quite a spectacular view as you walk across this wall and you look out over the Gulf of Guinea there with the cannons pointed out to sea.

Just a shot of our ladies together. Something that was very positive was the close relationships and the friendships that developed very quickly. And what I would point out as a benefit to the Youth Corps program is the fact that you do travel the world and you do have opportunity to meet people and make friends in ways that you most likely would never have been able to do outside of the program. And so friendships formed up very quickly and connections were made in a very positive way. This is actually down inside one of the dungeons of the slave castle. This was the men's dungeon. They had two men's dungeons there. Essentially, over the course of time, they would bring in and hold as many as a thousand men and 500 women in these dungeons. And this one in particular would hold up to 250 men. And as you can see, it would have been standing room only.

Oftentimes, they spent up to three months in one of these dungeons. That window up there being their only source of light. It was very hot and, frankly, they stood up past their knees in their own waste.

And it was a very gruesome, very humiliating and terrible circumstance and, frankly, many did not make it out alive. And from start to finish, the number of slaves that would come to the slave castle and the ones that would actually walk out the door of no return and get on a ship and then make it to the destination of alive, that was a small percentage that actually made it alive to the other end. But it's kind of a sobering thing to go on the tour and to kind of understand the process that took place. You know, this was very much, in many ways, at least at the local African end of it. It was the blacks selling the blacks into slavery. It would be one tribe that would go out and capture another tribe and bring them in. So it was, and it was supported by many of the local governors there in that region. Interesting, just as a side note, directly above the dungeons down below was a church. And so on Sunday, the pastor would stand up there. He would talk about grace and mercy and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as hundreds of men and women were dying just shortly below his feet. Right outside the walls of the castle, this is one of the fishing villages that is very common to see along the way. Here we've got a number of the boats, and you can see them just being hand-built, very heavy boats along the way. I didn't actually notice until later, until I was looking at this picture, but this boat right here in front, the red, white, and blue is named Psalm 91. In West Africa, you have so many, at least, proclamations of religious conviction and belief. You'll see it on bumper stickers and t-shirts and billboards, and in this case, on boats. Psalm 91 speaks of God as our refuge. You can't be that close to the ocean and not get your feet wet, especially if you consider the fact that how many people can go home and tell their friends that they went swimming off the coast of Africa. So, just a little bit of fun as we were wrapping up our day on Friday. This is a Sabbath in Agona, Sabbath services. Here we have Ben speaking. Ben and I gave split sermons on the Sabbath, and it's a little bit of a unique experience because the sermons are being translated. There, Benjamin Agupong the pastor is translating, and you'll essentially speak a sentence or two, such as I am doing right now, and then you'll pause.

You'll translate, and you speak another sentence or two, continue on, and then you'll pause.

And so basically what it does is it takes a sermon or a split sermon, and it makes you boil it down very tight to the actual point you're making. And here Ben is getting his first trial run at having his sermon translated, and I say he did very, very well. On that day, Ben talked about coming out of the pit of sin and slavery, which we've dug for ourselves. In fact, that God has extended through Jesus Christ the opportunity for us to come out of that pit and that entrapment in that way.

And for my sermon in the afternoon, I spoke on loving your enemy.

Here we have the Kachali sisters saying, once again, we like to encourage the ability to serve wherever you can. And so they came together and sang a very nice piece of special music.

It was actually in their language from Malawi. The interpretation was essentially life that surrounded us with many trials and troubles and obstacles. And yet, God, we look to you as our sustainer and the one who brings us out and the one who sets us free.

To me, this picture is priceless, and it highlights what it is that we're doing.

We're developing relationships. We're making connections. And the congregation was just ecstatic. In fact, everybody in Ghana is ecstatic to have six visitors besides myself to show up and to interact with. But again, these interactions are important. And the children here in Nagona really took to the group, especially the Novak girls. And here we have Leanna interacting with a number of the children. And it was just kind of amusing to watch because this group formed up very quickly. Yet a couple of young children come up to her and say, you know, my name is such and such. And she would repeat their name. And then another one would come up and say, this is my name.

And another one, this is my name. So she would go through and call them all by name as they came up.

And so they kept adding to it and adding to it. And pretty soon she had about 25 children all around her. And she went through name, name, name, name, name. She had all their names. And it was quite incredible. She did the same thing at camp, which was helpful for me. I kept saying, what's her name? But the fact is, interaction is very important. The young people really responded to the visitors that we had on that day. And you see their interaction with Ben Light as well.

And just another picture of interaction here with Rebecca Novak.

Pretty quick, games started forming up. Children wanted to teach them some of the games that they play there out in the village. And so most of the children were forming up and grabbing everyone's hands. And the interesting thing to watch was pretty soon, you see in the background, the ladies, they're all watching. They're wanting to play too. And pretty soon they're forming up in the group and we're having this game going on where there's singing and interaction. And you're not necessarily speaking the same language. Most of these people speak fonty. There's some that speak English, but through the interaction of the games, they really had a lot of connection back and forth.

And it was amusing to me to watch the ladies because when you know what they do during the week in terms of hard work, frankly, it was just fun to watch them laugh and smile and sing as they're going about this. It's sort of like for a moment, the weight of the world is lifted off their shoulders. And even Carl Kester got in on it. And to protect his reputation, I won't show you that video. No, the ladies really enjoyed that. Henry Aikens, after actually we had to break up the party. We were just having too much fun, but after a couple hours it was time to get moving along. And Henry said he was just standing back and watching and he just said, wow, wow, just watching the interaction and the things that took place. This is at the home of the chief of the village of Agona. Maintaining a good and a positive relationship with the chief is important because the chief oversees a lot of what goes on, obviously, in his village. That's a lot of policy.

And Mark and I have visited the chief in the past. And in fact, last time we were there, we took a picture of Mark and the chief together. And then when I was there for the spring holy days, word got around to me that he was wanting that picture. And so I knew I couldn't go back this time without bringing him the picture, so I blew it up and put it into a picture frame. And I brought him that picture as a gift, and next to him there's a shirt that Mark sent with me to present as well.

And afterwards he had to go put that shirt on, and then we had to have our picture taken together with him wearing that shirt. And he said, next time you come, bring me the picture.

So I think I'll be blowing a lot of pictures up. But again, maintaining important relationships in the community is an important thing. So I would call this international diplomatic relations here that we were conducting as part of the youth corps. Sitting on the couch next to him are some of his advisors. And interestingly enough, Benjamin, our pastor there, is actually one of his unofficial advisors. The chief is aware of a number of the United Church of God's doctrines, and he doesn't attend with us, but he's actually spoken with Benjamin about a number of things. And Benjamin showed him some things from the Bible that we believe. And he recognizes Benjamin is actually wise in that way, in terms of seeing things in Scripture that most of the other churches around there don't teach, or none of the other churches. And so because of that, he's actually contacted Benjamin frequently when he's seeking advice on financial things or matters that would affect the community or setting policy. I think it's a very positive thing, especially considering the Casaba Mill operation that it would be a very close and good relationship with the chief.

This is just a dim night shot. Saturday night, we couldn't resist just taking one last swim before heading back for camp. So we drove down the coast and found an area that was kind of protected by a rocky reef, so it kind of tempered the waves and the drag of the surf coming in. And so at least those of us from the U.S. got out in the water, and we're doing a little swimming and body surfing, and we figured the sharks would probably stay on the other side of the rocks.

And of course, we have Henry Aikens there. He was standing by, just looking very anxious, ready to call for help at a moment's notice, but we assured him it was okay.

Carl took this candid shot as we're heading back to Accra. I mean, this lady, if you notice, she's basically carrying the checkout aisle of your grocery store on the top of her head.

You can get Trident, you can get Mentos and Orbit, and I think she's selling washcloths, and I don't know what all she has, but this is just kind of a common glimpse of one of your street vendors that you would have going up and down, and just the level of work that they do on a daily basis. And I'm always impressed when I see them chasing down a car, and they don't spill their load. And I watch the ladies that are selling drinks, which are, you know, bottles of water, bottles of pop, and I told Henry, I think I would have to sell cassava chips. You know, very light, very light, but sometimes it's just incredible to me the amount of weight and the balance that they have as they go about their business. Here on Sunday, we are now arriving at camp, for the start of camp. This is Betty Moselleby. She's the wife of David, who's our pastor in Accra.

She's out there greeting us. Camp this year was held at the Valley View University, and it's the place that we've had to feast the Tabernacles for a number of years in Ghana, and it's a Seventh-day Adventist university, and what's interesting is the fact that on the Sabbath, we were out there doing our activities, and there were other students and individuals wandering about, and they're dressed up for the Sabbath as well, and people that we'd come to know during the week, just in passing, and we could say, well, happy Sabbath, and they'd say happy Sabbath to you.

But the university grounds provided a good opportunity for us to spread out and conduct all the activities that we would have for the camp. Here we have Ben meeting with David, Miss Elleby, again the pastor of Accra, and he was the camp director.

These are two young adults in the Accra congregation. On the left, you have Billy, and on the right is Franklin, and I just kind of point them out to you because they are among our up-and-coming leadership in Ghana. Billy and Franklin give split sermons and sermons, and they speak at the Feast of Tabernacles, and apart from our pastor and another man or two, they're our main teachers in the Accra congregation in Ghana. They're very faithful. They know the Word of God very well, and the doctrines of the Church, and they're really great guys to boot. So, they were instrumental in conducting a lot of the activities for camp and overseeing the organization of a lot of the things that we did there. These tents are from REI. You might wonder how they got there. Over the years, as the Mickelson's traveled over, and loads and loads of gear, extra luggage, and many, many flights over time, but we had actually a total of, I think, six tents that were set up out there that the campers stayed in. Youth Corps staff and myself actually went for the lap of luxury a little bit. We had apartments, which is basically not very many yards behind me as I took this picture. We had small apartments that had air conditioning and a shower, and I just figured it's hard to know what the temperatures will be like.

On some trips, it is very hot, and you're out there, and you're working, and you're serving all day, and not necessarily being adapted to the GONA temperatures. I wanted to provide the Youth Corps an opportunity to at least be able to recover at night, and to have a shower every now and then.

That's a good thing. Dining Hall. Here, this is the start of morning breakfast, and we had 31 campers and 24 staff at camp this year, including the Youth Corps. Breakfast began at 7am, but like I mentioned before I left for camp, I was noticing on the schedule it was 5.30am aerobics, so you don't get that in United Youth Camp in the US from my understanding.

We set our alarm for 5.15am, and we were up and out, and everybody was gone. We said, what happened? They said, you're late. Apparently, they changed the schedule.

So the next four days of camp that week, aerobics began at 5am, so the wake-up alarm was 4.45am.

There is a way to deal with that. The way Ben and Carl and I did was we declared the hour from 6am to 7am to be Starbucks hour. Ben and I brought a bunch of Starbucks Vio with us, and Carl would boil water, and we'd drink two or three cups of Starbucks just to kind of recover before breakfast.

Basically, every day we would have Christian living in the evenings, but after breakfast, we would accomplish checks in the mornings, go about our activities, dinner in the evening, and then Christian living, which took place in the evening. Carl and Ben and I contributed to those Christian living classes, and again, they would be translated, such as Benjamin Agupong is doing there. The biblical theme for camp this year is the same as it was in the United States, which is building your relationship with God. Each day contains specific focus to the overall focus and theme of camp. So as we ran the activities through the day, we would take what would be the daily theme and try to incorporate that into the things that we were doing and to bring it to mind all throughout the day. And I would say that the focus in which the youth corps built the relationships with the campers and the way we all interacted with one another was based on building this relationship with God and each other. So like I said earlier, God is calling us, rather, individually into a relationship with him, and that is direct, but he also puts us into a body of fellowship as well. And through that, we have interactions with one another, and we have to learn how to work together as a team. And so many of our activities at camp, our team building activities, wasn't just something that one person did on their own. It was something that they would have to work together to accomplish as a group. And that team building requires work, sometimes a lot of work. It requires patience and humility, being willing to yield, and esteeming others better than yourself. And again, it's the same for each and every one of us as we function here in the body of Christ. So I want to pause from the pictures for just a couple minutes and just give you a brief overview of each of the daily focuses that we did cover at camp. Again, it ties back into the theme of building your relationship with God. So Monday's theme was God is calling.

God is calling, again, is directed towards the youth, and the point is God is calling you.

The question was, as children of people in the church, do you have a calling from God? And as we understand, the answer is yes. I want to turn to the memory scripture of that day, Acts chapter 2, verse 38 and 39. This is, I would say, the foundation of our relationship and our calling with God. Acts 2, verse 38 and 39, of course, after the Pentecost in which God's Holy Spirit was poured out on the church. Verse 38, Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It says, For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

Now, in this context, those who were far off would have been the Gentiles. They would have been those of the nations outside of the Jews and the nation of Israel itself. They were considered far off, you know, away from God, but the point is, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, salvation can now be offered to all mankind, and they have been brought near through that sacrifice.

But it just simply says, the promise is to you, those who were responding at that point, and to their children, because now, by their response and their relationship to God, they'd open this door of access now for their children to have that calling from God as well. And so, I gave the first Christian living class on that day on the topic that God is calling, and the I Will statement for the day is, I will heed God's call. And again, the focus of the lesson was acknowledging the fact that God wants a relationship with you. Consider that and respond. Tuesday's theme was building with faith, and so each day kind of progressively built on the previous day's lesson, building with faith. And the question was, how do we grow in faith? Hebrews 11, verse 6, is the focus scripture for that day. Let's go there. Hebrews 11, verse 6.

Hebrews 11, 6 says, But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

And so we have to seek God knowing that he is, that he exists, that he's true, that he is faithful, and that he desires us to respond, and he is that rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

The I Will statement for the day was, I will build my relationship with God through faith.

Wednesday's theme was, Pray with Purpose. Pray with purpose. And the question is, what does it mean to pray? And how do we pray? And the staff member, I believe it was Billy, who conducted that session, described how we develop a prayer life and a relationship with God through prayer. Hebrews 4, verse 16, just back a few pages, is the focus scripture.

Hebrews 4, verse 16 says, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by extension of God's calling, drawing us to him, we have access to the throne of God, the throne of grace, to seek his mercy, his help, his intervention.

And again, that relationship is very personal and very direct. So, the theme for the day was, Pray with Purpose. And the I Will statement was, I will learn to pray with purpose.

Thursday's theme was Learn from God. He's called you. You're beginning to respond. You're having a relationship with him. You're praying. Learn from God now. And the question we answered was, How do we learn from God? Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 12 and 13.

Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 12 and 13 says, Then you will call upon me, and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And God's ear is open to the cry of his people. He wants to hear what's on their mind. Verse 13, And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. So, the point is, learning in our life, spiritual learning and growth, comes from seeking God diligently, calling out to him, seeking him in prayer. And God responds to us. And he gives us understanding of his word as well. But this can't just be a casual relationship. Just sort of a, you know, what's going on today, God? This has to be a seeking after him with all of your heart.

And the I Will statement was, I will learn from God every day. And then finally, Friday's theme was, Respond to God. Respond to God. And the question is, what does God want from us?

What does he want from us? Revelation 3, 20.

Revelation 3, verse 20 says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

Reminds me, something that Benjamin does, Benjamin Agupong, when he's speaking, he'll be speaking, he'll be talking, he'll be talking away, and he'll say, Hello? And campers will go, Hi?

And it's kind of a little interaction to know that your audience is still there. And he'd be just speaking away. And if he wants to drive home a point, are you hearing what I'm saying? Hello?

Hi? You know? Okay, I stand at the door and knock. It's like, Hello? Are you there? Are you there?

Are you going to answer the door? Are you listening? Are you going to respond?

I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with me. So God very much wants a relationship with his people.

His son Jesus Christ stands at the door and knocks, and God says, Please open the door and let us into your life. And the I Will statement is, I am committed to having a relationship with God.

Again, that's personal. That's direct. Nobody else can establish that relationship for you. No one else can grow it for you. No one else can pray or study or get you into the kingdom of God on their level of relationship with God. Just personal and direct. And before God, we stand very much on our own, but also he's placed us into this body by which we can edify each other and help one another and encourage each other along the way. So each day we spend time going through each one of these points and directing the campers focus towards building that strong relationship with God.

Here's just a slide of some of the youth corps practicing a line dance that they're going to teach to the campers. Behind them is actually the row of apartments that we were staying in.

Two beds a shower, air conditioner, and a mini fridge. $15 a night. Kind of hard to beat that.

There were two apiece, two people apiece in each of those rooms except for me.

But what I really liked about this relationship with this group as well is it was like family.

You had two sets of sisters and one set of brother-in-laws and this was a very, very close-knit group that interacted with one another and all the campers and the staff as well and very good in a very positive way. Again, team building activities were some of the things that we tried to build into the program. Here they are just kind of in the evening practicing a maneuver that they want to try out the next day. Essentially, somebody sits on a chair and then somebody else leans over their legs and puts their legs out like that. Next person comes along and leans over the previous person's legs and then you all interlock and then you remove the chair. And they have to remain suspended like that.

And if you're really good at it, then they start to walk. And it looks very much like a crab crawling across the ground. That's a typical result. But again, it's a team challenge to see what it is you can do. And obviously, there's a lot of physical strength and interdependency that goes on in that way. So here we have it in practical application. But if you look at the faces, you see there's a little pressure here. Again, team building activities at camp are very important.

Our daily activities included aerobics, obviously, 5 a.m., basketball, volleyball, archery, slingshooting, team challenge, speed away, cycling, beadcraft, and swimming. And the youth corps work all of these activities right alongside the staff from the Ghanaian staff serving at camp. Here's one of the team challenge activities as well that the Novacs had devised.

And it's basically you have to get your whole team to stand on a tarp, and then you have to flip the tarp completely over with nobody stepping off of the tarp. And so it takes a little bit of a exercise by time everybody is standing there to be able to reverse that thing and yet have everybody remain on it. Something we ran into, I'd say around the third day of camp, was leg tramps.

And all I could say is that morning exercises was kind of like boot camp. And so we had our supplements, but a lot of the campers did not have something along those lines. So I sent David out on the third day to buy bananas. And so I'll just buy us a bunch of bananas. And he came back with this huge load of bananas. And we started adding bananas to the meals to try to alleviate some of the leg tramps and spasms that would come up. And I think by the third day, there was some recognition as well that we need not to kill ourselves before the day even starts. Some of the exercises were eased up slightly.

Now here's a few of the young ladies, actually staff members at one of the activities. In the front is Jemima Agia-Pong. She's the daughter of Benjamin, Pastor Benjamin. And then next is Lisa Meselabi, Pastor David's daughter. And then in the back is Margolda, and she ran the beadcraft activity.

Here, Juliana and I and Carl worked with volleyball. And we have a blue team of boys and girls here today. And what we would do is have one session with one team as the other one was conducting an activity. And then we would reverse teams. So we had a blue team and a red team. And it was a combined co-ed team. So you would have a blue boy's dorm and a blue girl's dorm. But when they came together for activities, it was for activities it was combined. So here we are out on the volleyball court. This is actually about a half a mile down from where we were staying.

So our morning exercise routine would be to get up, go out by the tent, stretch out, run half a mile down to here, and then kind of run up this road in the background. And up here is the guard station to the entry of the university. You run up there and then you sprint back up the road. And then we would come out onto this field and we would do about 20 minutes of brutal exercise. And it was invigorating. It was dark, too. That would all be conducted at night. But here we are now with volleyball. This is red team. And something I might point out is the fact that, and it's a I know it's a consideration for the future as they think about it, but our boy-to-girl ratio is a little off. We essentially have two girls, every boy at that camp age group and even younger in the congregations. Here's Ben Light teaching speed away, which as I understand is primarily a Northwest camp invention and sort of a combination of soccer meets football. So these guys are very, very good at soccer. And I say the youth in Nigeria and Ghana could form up a soccer team that would be pretty hard to beat. So they really picked up speed away quickly and enjoyed that as well. And Ben was our primary instructor. And something that was the benefit this year with having the youth corps was all the new sports activities and the different elements that were added to it that were new compared to what they they've had in the past. This is part of the speed away game underway. Cycling was also one of the activities there at camp. Here we have Billy and we have Daniela Moselleby, David Moselleby's other daughter there, and they were participated as staff members of the cycling program. Carl instructed basketball and something that was kind of brought to my attention and it was the same thing that occurred in Nigeria, which was very, very quickly relationships and connections came about. But it was probably not until Thursday that the young people just really start to open up. And they started to feel very comfortable with the staff members that are working with them, interacting. I mean, you're playing together all day long.

And what's really valuable about that is now they're starting to tell you about their life and their circumstances, what it is that they face, some of the questions and the challenges that they have.

And I would just say that's why there is actually a high level of standard as to who would come along on these programs serving as youth corps because in part they are counselors as well. And they need to have the maturity and the spiritual maturity to be able to respond and to try to help in a positive way when certain circumstances might be brought to their attention.

Swimming staff. Four of us from the U.S. were on swimming staff and what uniquely qualified us to be swimming staff was the fact that we could swim.

Most of our campers and staff in Nigeria cannot swim and we actually were able to get a few of them doing so by the end of camp. This is a hotel about five miles away that we rented their pool.

And Ben and Leanna and Rebecca and I spent three hours a day in the afternoon in the pool, which was actually kind of nice. You have the warm part of the day in the water and we would cycle through with the red team and the blue team. So here we are at swimming lessons.

I think this picture was probably taken by the third day. Things got a little more orderly.

First time they came in the water it was sort of like, you know, everybody's going every different direction. Nobody really been swimming before and it was a lot like trying to herd cats.

And you kind of get them in a group and turn around and half your group's gone and they're just splashing and all over the place having a big time. But what was fortunate about this pool was it was four feet at the shallow end and five feet at the deep end and so we didn't really have to worry too much about losing anybody. We were well able to conduct our activities. And so, as I said, a few of them learned to swim by the end of camp. A number of other ones got to the point where they're at least able with a little bit of light flotation, like one of those foam noodles to, you know, stretch and reach and kick and paddle their way across the pool.

Some of their best parts of the pool activities were the games that we would play and one of the competitions was, you know, who could hold their breath underwater the longest. Part of that was trying to help them get accustomed to just having their face in the water. And all the way up until the last day, I was the guy to beat. And I get under there and hold my breath and after a while I started having two or three people beating on the top of my head. And I come up out of the water and have all these cheers, you know. You held your breath the longest, but for those that were beating on me said, we thought you were dead. But so then I decided at some point I just got to wave my hand from underwater. But on Friday, on Friday I was no longer the victor. Marco Polo was also one of their favorite activities in the pool. On the Sabbath at the end of camp, the Accrau congregation joined us for Sabbath services. It was very good to catch up with many of them. And frankly, they were just as excited about all the Youth Corps visitors as the campers.

And so they stayed around for a number of hours after church. There was a lot of good interaction that we had together and a very nice day. Saturday afternoon is when the campers get their electronic devices back. And so then pictures get taken and posted on Facebook by the hundreds.

Everybody wants a picture with you. And what's funny is you come home and you start getting all these friend requests on Facebook. And you don't recognize the name because it's the long African name, not the abbreviated name. And you think, do I even know this person? And you open it up, and there you are in the picture. So I guess I do. But all the staff and campers, you know, connect. And that's a big part of this process in building the connection, building the relationships.

The staff come home. They tell their friends about the experience. They post pictures on Facebook. They have interactions. Other people see and say, hey, I want to go along as well.

In fact, the Youth Corps group was talking about the fact that they'd like to get back together as a complete group and go back to Ghana for the feast, perhaps in a few years. And that is part of the goal. This is a few of the pictures and the interactions that took place.

I always like on the Sabbath, a lot of the ladies wear a lot of the traditional Ghanaian wear. And it's just neat to see different patterns, the designs, and the fabric.

Saturday evening was the dinner and the awards ceremony and the dance to follow. So here they are lining up for the Saturday evening banquet. And it's a little hard maybe to tell by this picture, but again, it's two to one, girl to boy. And so the boys, I say, were living a good life that night. They could walk in with a girl on each arm.

It was just good activity. They danced away into the night. There was a lot of food. There was fun and fellowship and pictures. And this was the final night of wrapping up the fun before camp actually concluded.

This is the next morning, Sunday morning. The campers left early. This picture is of the Youth Corps and of most of the staff members that were from the Accra area. We all get to be very good friends. You build close relationships working together in the camp environment over the week.

And frankly, it was hard for people to say goodbye. There were tears of farewell.

The gals from Malawi in particular, this was a big adventure for them.

Lancy actually had gone to London for seven years for school.

Magiuliana had never been out of the country, never been on an airplane. And they were actually sent, in a sense, sent off by their country with eager anticipation of their report upon their return. And Magiuliana works in the LifeNets office in Malawi.

But I would like to just take a moment and ask you to pray about something. I'd like to ask you to consider praying specifically for our young adults in Ghana, and I would by extension say, in Nigeria as well. In the evenings after the campers would go to bed, a lot of times the staff members would wander over to where we were staying. We would sit out in the evenings and just visit and talk. And one of the most frequent conversations that they would bring up was that of marriage. And a few times I was pulled off to the side and just engaged in conversation about marriage, and specifically about the topic of marrying outside the church. And believe me, it is on their mind almost constantly. If you look at this group, take out the seven youth corps, or the six youth corps and myself. Take out Henry Aikens in the back. Take out Yayara, the young man in the front. What you're left with is essentially the dating pool and a craw.

And frankly, there's very few others. There's a trickling of a few other young adults in the other congregations, but this is about it. In a country where travel is hard to do, travel outside the country.

You know, if we think we have it hard in the U.S. in terms of options, these African countries, frankly, there are a lot of limitations. I mean, maybe not half. A quarter of the people that would be left in that picture are related as well, brother and sisters. And so very much it's on their mind. What are they going to do?

Who are they going to marry? And the questions would come to me about marrying outside the church, and they would actually pull up on their phone. They have the church's policy paper on marriage, and they've gone over that and over that, and they're asking questions. And they ask questions like, would you kick someone out of church who married out of the church?

And the answer is no, okay? But the point is you're not trying to give license to just go ahead and do that as well. But we did have a lot of discussion on that. In fact, David asked if I would come back at some point, specifically on the visit, and take time, and address the issue.

But again, there are limitations. There are some young adults in the villages, but here's the thing. Many of them are not at the same educational level as those from across. Okay, many are farmers, and there's nothing wrong with being a farmer. But many of them are such because it is their only option educationally in many ways. A lot of these young ladies, one is in nursing school. One is studying to be a pharmaceutical tech. One is getting a master's in psychology. And I would ask how hard would it be to take one of those ladies and ask them to marry a farmer from the village, be happy growing your food, growing your clothes, living on a few hundred dollars a year in the village, and a culture where it would not be fashionable for the woman to be the breadwinner for the family.

So again, it produces... there are concerns, there are difficulties, and yet God's people everywhere have always faced challenges. But I would just ask for you to keep them in your prayers. 2 Corinthians 6, 14 tells us not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And so one thing I did mention to them with a level of caution, but the fact that the standard is not the United Church of God.

The border of who is a believer does not stop at the corporate boundaries of the United Church of God. And there are other Church of God groups and other people that we would consider to be believers, those who live according to this word, keep the Sabbath and keep the Holy Days. Yet, you know, that expanding into dating in that way does come with a caution as well that you do need to consider what the circumstances might be and what you might need to walk through before marriage. But again, please just keep them in your thoughts, in your prayers.

They want to do well. They're a diligent group of people. They study God's Word, and yet God built it in all of us, the desire to be married and to have a family and to be fruitful in that way. Final picture. This is actually taken at the start of camp, but here we have all the campers. This is when their shirts were all fresh and clean, and everybody excited and rearing to go for camp. So, I'll just say Ghana Camp was a big success this year. Many comments came in from Camp Director, from many of the staff, and the general consensus was this was the best year of camp in a long time.

And I attribute that in a large part to the youth core participants who were there. They were essential to many of the activities that were conducted, but again, it's the relationships. It's the building up of one another, the edifying of each other, and the body of Christ that made this camp experience so faithful, or so wonderful.

These are faithful young adults and teens, and it's our desire to hold on to them, to bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord, to give them understanding of God's way, and to provide opportunity for them to serve and to lead in the future of the church as well.

So, I would like to personally thank all of you for your continued support, not only for the United Youth Camp, but also our projects that we have going on in Ghana. And you asked often about the people over there, so I would just like to here allow you to see some of their faces and put a connection with the names. I'm also appreciative to the United Youth Corps and what it funds and what it allows us to do overseas. Again, brethren, God has called us into a personal relationship with Him, and through the intercessory work of His Son Jesus Christ, we can have access to God, to the throne of grace. We respond, and yet we're not an island unto ourselves, we are a community of believers bound together, lifting one another up, serving one another in love. We have the opportunity to look for ways in which to contribute in the lives not only in Africa, but right here in the congregation. Let's grow our relationships, let's continue to see how we can serve one another, and let's strengthen each other on our common calling and on our journey to the Kingdom of God.