0:05 And I'm going to switch this before I hit the stream button to me. All right, here we go. Checking my camera. Okay. All right, here we go. Wendy and Donovan were on a mission trip once. We are here live on a Saturday afternoon. We're talking a little bit about missions and what it means to go out and do a mission trip, going across the world, and what kind of problems, what kind of issues, what kind of things, miracles even, that happen while you're on them. And let's do a little live switching here as we're doing this live to see if we can bring Donovan and Wendy back in here.
1:01 Hi, Donovan. Wendy, how are you? Good. Hi, thanks for having us. I heard that you guys had quite a trip just recently over to Ghana, right? Yep. How did that all start? But more importantly, at first, what were some of the issues that you ran into while you were over there? So in Ghana, there are police checkpoints. And so it's not like typically here in America where police are in their vehicles waiting to see if you're speeding. The cops are literally sitting on the sides, and you have to stop. And at one point, we were stopped, and they pulled us off to the side, and they knew we were from America, and they had us there for probably 20 to 30 minutes. And by the end of it, they ended up taking most of our money before they let us go. Yeah. Yeah, that was a hardship for sure. So you got all your money taken, basically, that you had on you at the time.
2:01 And then what made you decide to come all the way out here? I mean, how did this whole thing start, right? Because I thought maybe that you wouldn't lose all your money if it was for a reason. Yeah, right. Definitely didn't think that was going to happen. Yeah. I would say, you know, it started with Donovan and I really talking about, you know, about wanting to be more involved in ministry. We used to have ministries that we were really hands-on with. And so we started praying, God, how can we do this again? Like, what should we be doing? And then I had told Donovan, in the ministries we had before, we're usually with children. And I'd never really had the experience where I'd led somebody through a salvation prayer. And we were just talking, just the two of us. I was like, I would love to lead an adult, you know, somebody that's solid in their decision.
2:51 Towards Christ in a salvation prayer and help someone really find Christ. And that night I had a dream. And in the dream, it was just what I had told Donovan. It was just me and this man. And I'm telling him about Jesus and he's readily accepting it. And then I'm leading him through the salvation prayer. And in my mind, I was just thankful that God heard, you know, the desire of my heart. Cause I hadn't even prayed about it. But what really stuck out to me was the fact, the fact that he had extremely dark skin. And so where we're from, you don't really get a lot of dark skinned people around. We do have some, especially at our church. There's a lot of different diversity there, but I don't know that I've ever dreamed about a dark skinned brother that I can remember. So I just remember waking up and telling Donovan, I had this dream. He was like, oh, that's great. But we just thought like, oh, it was sweet.
3:44 God heard us. And then a week or two later, somebody had contacted me off of Facebook after seeing a video of mine. And he asks me if Donovan and I would be willing to come to Ghana to lead a two week evangelistic series, sorry, a six night evangelistic series. And I was like, um, that's really far away. I don't know if that's what we were thinking. We were more like praying, like, what can we get involved in? Who can we support? You know, what can we do with our money? Yeah. We're thinking locally. There was no, at least in my mind, no thought that it'd be something overseas. Especially going. Yeah. And we've had dealings in the past with people in other countries that ended up being scams and just wanting to get money and lying to do so. So immediately this was like a red flag. Like, hold on. Who is this guy? Yeah.
4:36 This does not feel right. We've been through something like this before. So we're basically talking and praying like, okay, Lord, how can we legitimize this? Yeah. Well, I, so that morning Donovan was like, let's pray about it. And so I'm praying and I don't say this often, but I was praying. And I have the kind of faith where if God asks me to do something, it's not the best thing to model, but I will ask God, prove it. Like, if this is really you, I need to hear it time and time and time again. I need to know for certain that it's from you. It's like Gideon prayer. Yeah. And so I was praying and I said, God, if this is really you, I need to know, like, you need to make it crystal clear. And it may sound crazy, but I heard in my head, Isaiah 50. Five, five. And that doesn't happen often, you know? And so I'm like, is this my own voice?
5:27 What's going on? Is this really God? And I honestly didn't even want to turn to the scripture because I'm like, am I going crazy? And Isaiah 55, five says, surely, uh, I will call a nation unto you or wait, what does it say? Isaiah 55 is surely I will call you to a nation you've never known and a nation that you've never known. We'll run to you. And it could have said anything, but the fact that it, you know, involved in another nation going to a nation and then responding, I was just like, okay, I think this is God telling us to go. Wow. And we just did a video on this channel about the dangers in hearing God's voice. And I think this is a perfect example of one time when someone would actually hear, because I've had this happen to me before, but it's never been for somebody else or, or, you know, I'm going to tell the world about something that God gave me.
6:22 It's always been, this is for you. Come closer to me or spend more time with me or, or directing to a Bible verse and you looking up and going, well, that's confirmation. Wow. That's exactly what I was thinking about. And so that, that's, that's fantastic. And so what happened next? It was amazing. Yeah. So, you know, as I'm realizing maybe this is what God's doing with us, maybe he's really sending us, we kept praying and then that, that dream just kind of flooded my mind. And I was like, okay, it's a dark-skinned brother gave me the scripture. Maybe this is what we need to be doing. And so we contacted a couple that we knew had gone to Ghana before that was at our church and they have, they set up churches there. They have Bible workers there. So they were like, Hey, you should get ahold of pastor Nicholas who actually goes to our church now. And he's from Ghana. So they're like, you should validate this guy, have pastor Nicholas, check him out, make sure he's legit before you start anything.
7:18 And so. I don't know if you want to share about that part, pastor Nicholas. I mean, so we sent the gentleman claiming to be a pastor in Ghana. We sent his information to our pastor here in America, who was from Ghana. And he said, yes, I know him. I was a teacher at the school that he attended when he was a student. Now they had never met face to face, but he knew who he was. And so that right there, I mean, that, that, that gave us enough assurance to say, okay, Lord, if this is what you have planned, let's do it. Yeah. Now it got crazier because not only did the couple who told us to ask our pastor, not only have they been to Ghana, um, and our pastor who's from Ghana, but our pastor here in America, who's from Ghana is a big name actually in the Adventist community in Ghana.
8:09 Yeah. He's done ministry for years and years on TV. He, and this is kind of going back, but he's been going, he's been in America for several years. But his desires for his people and the gospel message to go further in his country in Ghana. And so when we told him about this and we told him, well, he's invited us to go, he immediately was just so thrilled because for him, this was answered prayer. He's like, I don't know how I'm going to help my people back in my country. And now God has just called these two Americans who are at my church to go. And it wasn't him asking us to go. Wow. Yeah. At one point he actually said, this almost feels like a rebuke because I've been kind of waiting for God to move, not knowing what to do.
8:58 And here I could have been asking you all this time, but I told him, you know, I hope you don't feel that way because now we all see that God's orchestrating it. If you had asked us to go, we might've considered it, but the way that God moved all these details together, it just, you know, solidified that, yeah, this is what we need to be doing. So it was amazing. And Nicholas actually worked with. Pastor Abraham the entire time for like six months planning everything. He, um, he contacted three translators that were there with us, literally like our body guards. They never left our side. And these are, um, young men that he had mentored for years. So, you know, full of the Holy spirit, really strong in the faith. And then he contacted another guy to have Bible workers come out to this small village with us. There were like 30 Bible workers.
9:47 Yeah. And, um, they did. Yeah. Like the grunt work. They actually went out every morning and met with the people of the villages and invited them out to the event. And I mean, everyone wants that personal invitation. So it was really a lot of the work that they did before the missions trip even started. It was coordinating electrical, you know, all the media technicians, musicians, the Bible workers, uh, everyone to set up the areas, um, cooks for all these people that are coming to do this series. This is a seven day series, uh, in a town called also when, so, and, uh, there's an Adventist church, which is where the pastor there who was inviting us. And so they ended up orchestrating three different sites. These are outside sites with a podium and a big projector, uh, speakers, microphones, the musicians at three different locations in this town.
10:45 Wow. So they, they, when they do ministry, Yeah. They're serious. I mean, they really want to get it fully involved. And the whole idea is to make it, um, appealing for the people in the areas. Yeah. And so the Bible workers, uh, end up going out each day, uh, in the morning, they get up early, they have devotions, they pray for God to lead them to go and speak to people, whether they're at school or they're working or, or just at home and invite them each night to the series. So what we were asked to do. Um, is just preach, just give the message. And so that, that's, that's like the only part that we, we had in this, whereas there was almost a hundred people working in the sidelines. Yeah. Doing the hard work. For the seven day series. Yeah. In this town. And, and it's not like we flew into a big city and we were in the big city. Yeah. No, we. We're a tiny village. We flew into Accra, which is the capital. We ended up flying to Kumasi, which is another big city.
11:48 And then we drove. We drove six hours into the interior of Ghana. Down some dusty dirt roads with crazy potholes and traffic everywhere. And the police checkpoints that we had mentioned. So how did that happen? Cause then you said that the police took all your money, right? So in Ghana, um, pastors are for the most part, very respected by the police. Yeah. So like the pastors. We picked, there were two pastors that picked us up and when we rode with them, they were dressed like pastors. You could tell they were pastors. So every time we get stopped at a checkpoint, the police would instantly ask them, okay, pastor, where are you taking these white people? He would explain, we're going to an evangelistic series and they would say very well, they'd say, God bless. And they'd let us go through. Um, but after our series was done, um, we wanted to, before we came back to America, we wanted to go, uh, see Cape coast.
12:49 Um, and kind of some touristy areas, just the, the, the, we had, I think two days before we were coming back and when we were there, our pastor was with us and one of the translator who was with us the whole week, he, we were helping him get back to his village and since we were there on, on a vacation, he wasn't dressed like a pastor. Oh yeah. So we went through a checkpoint going to a little touristy area and we had gotten through all checkpoints. No problem. But this time, and you could just tell, I mean, everyone was being stopped at this checkpoint that just seemed like there was tension. And as soon as they stopped us, uh, he took the, the police officer asked for my ID. He took my ID stuck in his pocket. Oh, yeah. Like he wasn't going to give it back. He walks away, tells us to pull off to the side. So our pastor and our translator get out and just go and talk to him.
13:42 And we sit in the car for probably about 20 minutes and they come back and they get as much money as they can. And they go back and 10 minutes later, um, we're allowed to leave and they bring my ID back. Just the pastor and our translator, the cop never came back. They just went and sat down. But they were saying like, they're literally just trying to intimidate us. So just hold, you know, hold tight. Don't worry about it. We're going to, we're going to deal with this situation. You'll be fine. And then they came back to the car and got all the money that they had. And we were like, what are you doing? Like, take our money. And they actually did not take any of our money. It was all of their money, which is even worse. Because, you know, they don't make a lot of money there. Right. And I mean, this is a pastor and a translator. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about that for a second? I'd like to know what you mean by they don't make a lot of money there.
14:31 You, you told me a little bit last night about that. Well, the man who's our translator, his name's Anthony, and he actually has an incredible story. And what was really significant in my mind was the fact that he worked extremely hard, got a PhD and paid. Well, he's working. He's working on his PhD. So he has a master's right now. But he paid for all of his schooling by working on the streets. So all of it, extremely hard work while he's going to school. And so now he almost has his PhD in language, but he's a high school teacher. And the story of how he got that job is also miraculous. Yeah. It's not like anybody can just become a teacher. It's really, really hard to get jobs there. And so he makes $300 a month. A month. A month. That's it.
15:20 And he has to pay for rent, utilities, everything that we do as well. And it's not like prices there are cheaper. It's $4 for a mango. American dollars. Wow. So things are very expensive there. And he actually has a bunch of siblings. He's the oldest. And he has two of his siblings living with him so that they can work and go to university and to take, you know, some of the, the burden off of his mom. So they live with him. And he's trying to get married. And trying to save money to pay what's called the bride price, which is like $5,000. And so they just kind of live in this really awful cycle of work really hard and pray and beg for the golden opportunity. Yeah. So he did get the, like the fact that he's a high school teacher is the golden opportunity, but still that doesn't cut it. There's no way he could get married on this income. And so he right now is trying really hard to start a farming business so that eventually he can just start a farm.
16:19 So he's got a small family, a side hustle in order to get married just to continue with life. So he's trying to get married on this income so that eventually he can just start a farm We don't know Ghana's economic or governmental system very well. But just from the time that we were there and the people that we met who live there, a lot of the Bible workers that I met, they have degrees, bachelor's, master's. Yeah, almost all of them. Even the hotel that we stayed at in the town, one of the managers there, I was just kind of talking to him one day and I asked him, you know, you know, is this, is this where you're from? He says, no. He says, no. got my degree in like environmental science or something like that i said what can you find a job and he's like no i can't i've been searching for several years and i cannot find a job yeah in our region anywhere um so this is just the he became a assistant to the manager at the hotel and that's just what he's been doing until he can find a job and we heard this a lot i mean even when we went to one of the universities in the capital uh they were telling us computer science degrees engineering degrees and i said you know are there prospects for a job when you get out and they said not really but we don't have a chance is to just keep going to school to try to get a higher degree to then try to like outshine other people that are applying yeah but that takes a lot of time and money and so you know we think america has it rough but i think until you really go to some of these things world countries and see how hard people work just to scrape by right you realize how really blessed we are here i just told donovan this morning ghana ruined me i have a hard time spending money now on things that i would have been like oh yeah that's not that much now i'm like wait a minute this would go so much further in ghana like wow it's really changed me yeah yeah so i mean overall the the seven day series that we had it was it was incredible to see how hard people work just to scrape by right you realize how really blessed we are here i just think it's really important to see how hard they worked because like the real soldiers of this spiritual campaign were the bible workers and many of them were students like college probably late teens early to mid-20s and um they had they came from hours they had to take bus rides they don't have vehicles they don't have their own cars yeah six to eight hour drives you have to pay their own way to come all this way for you know eight nine days and they it was a lot of it was hot where they were staying there was no ac they and they worked all day you know washing to win souls in a bucket literally yeah we'd go there early in the morning to pray with them before they went out into the village to talk to people to invite them to the night sermon um and when we'd get there in the morning some of them would be finishing breakfast others would be washing their clothes in buckets so they had something clean for the next day and they came all that way not even knowing if there was going to be food like literally use the money that they had in their pocket and they were like oh my god i'm going to go to church i'm going to go to church just to come and they're like thrilled thrilled to be a part of something like this and they come and i mean they're eating very you know minimal food but they're not even thinking about that they're just wanting to be a part of it they were even really amazing they were even a bit frustrated at the end on the seventh day we ended on a sabbath um because there were people that they had talked to all week that did not come to any of the nightly series and we had we had ended it on that sabbath but they said if we're going to go to church we're going to go to church if we just had a couple more days yeah we could probably get them yeah to come or to accept christ and the burden on their heart i mean it's the opposite of laodicea like they just had such a hunger to tell people i mean even the there there's a gentleman they call 3 a 3 a.m who rallies all them and get and coordinates all of them to come to these evangelistic sites all over when they do these um and he would constantly tell them souls are perishing yeah he would just motivate them like we have a mission right now our reward is in heaven yes and the way that they live even at a young age was so inspiring yeah i've not seen that here in america truly oh wow so you spent seven days in ghana and so was it seven days we spent uh two weeks two weeks yeah so the the preparation before we were in the capital of accra that
20:39 was several days and then we made our way to asa winso in the interior it's more of western north region of ghana we were there for eight or eight days eight days and then we made our way back to the coast for a few days before we came back just to do a little sightseeing yeah yeah yeah wow so what else is there was there anything else that happened while you were there that um we didn't discuss oh man there were a lot of miracles yeah and i say miracles it's not like these grandiose healings or anything like that but the biggest thing for me like donovan was saying is seeing how the people would respond so you know in the in the dream that i had i was giving uh jesus to somebody and they responded but when we were there they had signs you know with a posters up around the the little village about us and the other man that came with us so people were expecting us to come but anytime we would go anywhere it was like you were a celebrity and the very first night we got there okay i'll say this this is one little miracle i get carsick really easy and so the first time that we drove from kumasi to asa winso i was i thought i was gonna have to have my driver pull over and i was just like praying all time like god help me i don't feel good i feel so sick and then i had a really bad headache and i'll say that the enemy has often attacked anytime i step into ministry it's always with migraines and i was really was the first night of the series and I was supposed to speak first. And so I'm like, God, you got to pull me through this. Come on, Lord. And I felt so nauseous and so terrible. And we get there and there was maybe an hour until the series was supposed to start. I'm like, okay, I just want to go to the room and just, you know, chill out and freshen up and then I'll be okay.
22:36 And the women's ministry comes and does this whole like song and dance for us and hands us flowers and drapes these things over us and welcomes us with this huge like parade. I just started bawling. I like I couldn't fight it. I'm just bawling. And then we had maybe 20 minutes to get ready. And then this whole marching band comes. What? Yeah. And we're like, what? And so they're like, yeah, we're gonna lead you to the site. And it was maybe a quarter mile. It wasn't very far from the hotel to where we were going to have the site. And so we just start following this marching band. And by then it's getting dark. And this, I mean, they literally paraded us through the streets for the first night. And it was just like the scripture that God gave me. People were just coming out and like, what's going on? And like magnets to us, they would see us and they would just fly. And like kids were, you know, trying to touch our hands and following us. And so there was this parade and then all these people just following us to the site to hear the word of God. And I don't think it had anything really to do with us. The pastor, I did say when I arrived at the site, some little child was like, it's an angel. But I think it's because of, you know, I have white skin and in the pictures that they see angels are white and probably my light hair. Isn't that sad though? I mean, cause I don't believe that angels actually have a skin tone. Yeah, I know. They're probably like golden, like heavenly bodies, but yeah, they just associated us with that. And then they have a word. Um, Oh, Oh, Brony. Oh, Brony. Yes. White man. That means a white man or a foreigner or a foreigner. And so whenever they see an Oh, Brony, everyone just comes. You're like a magnet. Cause they're like, why are they here? Especially in small villages. Oh, okay. Because some of these kids and young adults have never seen a white person before. So it was like, you know, God could have called anybody to this mission. I think any white person would have done, you know, I don't think it was anything special about us. Exactly. That's the whole point is there's nothing special about, yeah. The fact that, you know, they invited us over the pastor knows that it draws people, but the whole point was the message. I mean, we gave the very basic, basic message every night from the Bible. And we even had pastors from other, uh, evangelical churches that came to the sites to listen, which to listen to what we had to say. And that was incredible. And like I said, there were three sites and one of the sites was led by, um, one of the, um, one of the translators that came. And he had, I think during the week invited people to accept Christ and had, I think at least, I don't know, seven or eight baptisms just during the series as we were going. Um, but by the end on the seventh day, and this is all God's leading and working through all these people that came and, and, and, and worked so hard to the spirits leading there ended up being a total of.
25:42 In one day, I think there were 45 baptisms and we got to go to the river and they lined up the men and the women. And this was even more amazing to me because it's a dirty river. I mean, the area that we went into, it's where the animals go down to drink. And so it's, it's not a sanitary place and people don't swim in this area. This is the first time that they've gone into a river and gone underwater. Yeah, because we were baptizing them and they weren't, there was some apprehension of going in the water because they're just, that's a fearful thing, but they were so excited to accept Christ and have this new life. It was amazing. It was incredible to see their joy. And after they came out of that water, they were so happy. Yeah. We had teenagers that wanted to accept Christ. And we had a gentleman that was probably in his seventies. I think he was like upper eighties. He could. He was very old and had a cane. He could barely get down there, but he was just so happy. I cried like a baby. It was, I mean, I've, Donovan actually got to baptize the first couple of them and I'm all crying, but it's just all of them. It's like seeing their joy and they go through such hardships. So there was one lady who secretly came to the meetings and by the end, she wanted to be baptized. And so of course we're like, yes, let's get her baptized. And her name was Fatih.
27:10 And she, it was from a Muslim family. And so when she shared her decision with her family, they literally kicked her out of the house. And the Bible workers went back to her house with her and tried to share with the family. You know, we're not here to threaten. We're not going to cause any harm. Her faith really doesn't change anything. And they just refused. They kicked her out of the house. And so one of the elders in the church allowed her to come and live with him. And so one of the things that God has really led us to do is we're starting, what's called Ghana Mission Project with Pastor Nicholas and one of the elders that came with us on the trip. That was another miracle that God allowed him to come. And he really helped support us in leading the series because we'd never done anything like that before. And he was well-seasoned. So him coming was such an answer to prayer, but we're starting Ghana Mission Project. And one of the things that we're doing is providing this lady with training and a new sewing machine so that she, she can eventually support herself and not be a burden on this elder. And I think that's the main reason why God wanted us to go. Like you go on a missions trip and you think, man, I'm going to do all these things. But I think the biggest thing that changes is you.
28:25 And for me, I know it's the fact that I don't really look at money the same. I realize how incredibly blessed we are just because we're American. There's this book that I read some time ago, and it talked about how if you are from America, regardless of what middle, lower, upper class, you're in, if you just living in America puts you in the top 10% of the world's wealth. And that is because even if you're dirt poor, you still have access to clean water. You still have places that you can go for food, like food banks, you have shelters you can go to where over in Ghana, if you don't have food, you just starve. There actually, somebody went there to start a food bank and it lasted maybe two months. And then it just failed because there were so many people that needed food. And they couldn't support it. And so we don't realize that when we live here in the land of plenty, or like we call it Laodicea because we feel like we're wealthy. We don't need anything. And so a lot of us are really stagnant in our faith because we're comfortable. I don't want to be that way. I really don't want to be comfortable anymore. And I'm willing to give stuff away if it's going to help bring other people food. I mean, food, the things that we take for granted every day. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's still a lot of other miracles that happened. And there's still a lot to be done there in Ghana. And that's what we've learned. We went on a missions trip. We can check that box because that's what we asked for. Now, this has become a lot more. And this is going to go on until Jesus comes back, we believe. Because the elder in our area that came with us, Elder John Skeet, he's been to Ghana several times.
30:11 He's been working. He's been working there for the last 20 years. And he's a full-time evangelist. And so he had, before we went on this trip, he had just got back from the Philippines doing a 10-day evangelical series. And so he was not planning on going anywhere. And this was another miracle is we're not full-time evangelists. And so we've never done this before. And he is, this is what he does. He already had all the sermons prepared. The lessons, the beautiful, beautiful PowerPoints and presentations. And he was actually saying, like, he needed to go back to Ghana at some point. He wasn't planning on it this time. But when he found out we were going, he was almost like, I wonder if that's God telling me to go to Ghana. And at first he was like, I am tired. I just got back from the Philippines. Yeah, I don't think I can do another trip. But he realized we needed help. And God knew exactly what to do. He just had to get it in his heart. And he said, okay, I'm going. And he went and he was such a tremendous blessing, just like our pastor, Nicholas, who is from Ghana, who is our pastor here in America, the same thing. Like the way that he worked over here, making phone calls, everybody, that he was talking to conference leaders and all these people that could coordinate and rally to this site. We knew God was working. And another miracle story, the day that we were headed there when she got sick, one of the translators coming, he was in a van that he had paid for to make the six-hour or four-hour journey. I can't remember how long. He ended up getting in a bad accident on the way. It was so bad. He showed us the pictures, the whole side of his car where he was sitting, the whole side was smashed. The window was smashed. There was glass all over his seat. He didn't have a scratch.
32:04 And they actually, what happened, the truck that was coming towards them, the trailer detached and slammed into them. Oh. And then they pulled off the road and he said that they actually ran somebody over. They collapsed and had to go immediately to the ER. And then they're trying to get everybody to go to the doctor. And he's like, I got to get to the series. So he literally just brushes all the glass off and then goes. And he made it right on time so that he could translate that night. Oh, wow. It was amazing. And then he told us that that night, the entire week, he had really poor sleep. And that night he slept like a baby. He was like, God really supplied. Wow. And protected him, like really protected him. He could have died. Yeah. I mean, it was bad. Yeah. One thing that was really amazing for us was we had bought a projector to go knowing that we were going to need it at that site. But we had talked about how it would be nice to leave it there for somebody because, you know, it's hard to get projectors. They're expensive and America has better products. So we bought it and brought it with. And we're like, we're just going to leave it for the ministry there. And we really got to know Anthony, Tony, and literally we both fell in love with him. He's like our little brother now. But we were just talking with him about what he does and the little ministries that he does. So him and the other translators, they take the Bible studies that we get, you know, for the Bible studies and they don't have it in their native language. So they've taken it upon themselves to translate these studies into their native language, but they do it all for free. And so it's hours and hours and hours.
33:41 It's a lot of work just so that their people can get Bible studies and nobody's paying them for this. It's all volunteer. So that's a big part of his ministry. And then he holds Bible studies. And so we were talking to him about everything and he said, yeah, I've been praying for over a year that somehow God would supply me with a projector. And we're like, oh man, that's where it's going. And he literally, he was with us during the trip. He was like our bodyguard, but he came with us to the coast. And then we dropped him off in his, in the village that he was living in. And then when we were saying goodbye, he had like tears in his eyes. I'm like, try not to cry. He just became family so quickly. And I think it's just the spirit of the Lord. You know, when someone has a spirit of the Lord, you just instantly love them. And yeah, especially because he wasn't raised Adventist. And his conversion story into the Adventist faith is incredible. And it only happened in 2018. And he is working. The whole time to do the Lord's work right now. And they have the same belief as us. Like there's not a lot of time left. And we need to get as many people out of Babylon, or people who don't even know about Christ, into the kingdom. And God's going to use us, but we have to be willing.
35:02 I didn't want to go to Africa. I really didn't. But when God says go, you got to go. Because if you refuse to listen to those subtle things, you're not going to be able to get out of it. Those subtle urges, those little whispers by the Holy Spirit, and you do that long enough, you're not going to hear them anymore. And I think that's what people really need to learn from this. And that's what I'm learning still, is when God calls you. And sometimes, a lot of the time, at least for me, if it's something you don't want to do, that's probably what God's calling you to do. Yeah. Yeah. Can I just jump on that real quick? I think that's a super important point because I don't want to steal you guys' thunder at all, but I went to Czech Republic just recently. And I was literally, the day before I left, I was watching the sunset on my porch with my wife. And I told my wife, who doesn't like flying, she doesn't like going anywhere, she said she's not going to go this time. So I was going by myself. And I said, you know, I don't want to go anywhere. I don't want to go anywhere. Why can't we just stay home, watch the sunset, be happy? I don't want to do this. It's an important message I had. And I think it's super important. But I was tired. But at the same time, I got there. When I got there in the moment, I'm like, this is fantastic. This is really what needed to happen. And I was amazed at how well it was put together, how much work many people had done to get this whole thing going. And I was really humbled because who am I to say I'm not going? So much work is being done. And God has done all this work ahead of me. And here am I just feeling meh. Why do I want to do this? So I feel you. Yep. Yeah. I mean, that's exactly it. When we saw all these people and what they're willing to sacrifice, our translator, another story, he was working and he wasn't able to take time off to come to the series. And he wanted to so badly, and it burdened his heart. And his boss, he just saw that and he asked, why are you sad? And he said, God has called me to do this work, but I can't take time off. And the boss said, you know what? I don't want you to be sad. So you're going to go. Just gave him the time off when he didn't even have it.
37:29 Yeah. It was like against their school policy. They're only allowed to take two days off and he let him take four. He was like, just go. But you have a story similar to that. So when we went to Ghana, we actually, he didn't have enough. Paid time off. We'd taken too much time off throughout the year. So I was like, maybe we should just ask for unpaid leave because we already bought the tickets. We're going to have to go. Maybe they'll just have to excuse you. And that's not even in our policy. I mean, that's like special. And I'm thinking, oh, to go to Africa to do an evangelistic series. I don't think that's within the special realm of the policy, but my boss is incredible. And he said, no, if you need that time, take it. Just do it. And you're not just someone that goes around the country or works an easy job. You're focused. Exactly. So I'm a project manager for a civil engineering firm. Yeah. Engineering. Yeah. So this is. Yeah. So I mean. A lot of the projects, he's kind of the pivotal point. So if he's not there to line up all the details, they're kind of at a standstill. So not only did his boss offer to give him paid time off to go, but he also did his work for him while he was gone.
38:40 Oh, wow. And he's third in the company. He's vice president. For him to do my work as a project manager, it was incredible. It was so humbling. And just another sign that God was working the whole thing. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's not going to be easy. It never is going to be easy. Don't expect it to be easy. There's going to be hard and rough moments. And we've talked about there's even more. We could go on for another hour. But overall, I think. The biggest message is for people to pray, to continue praying, pray without ceasing, just like the word says, and do the work. Yeah. We can pray and we can read our Bible. But if we're not willing to go to do the hard thing, then God's not going to use us. But he'll find someone to use. He will. Yeah. You'll get left behind. Yeah. Also, I would say ask. Ask for a mission. Yeah. Because that's what I started with. We just asked, Lord God, we want a mission. We want something, that we can really help with. And God was like, here you go. I've been waiting for you to ask.
39:47 I mean, maybe we would have gone last year if we'd asked before. I don't know. But when you ask, expect big things. Like God is going to orchestrate all the details. He's going to work it out. Yeah, you might be a little afraid. Yeah, there might be trials and hardships. But honestly, those trials, those end up becoming ways for God to show his power, for him to move. Yeah. I want to say something about that, too, real quick. There was one person one time that told me, they said, asking is not something you're supposed to do. I said, God said to ask. He says, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened. And they looked at me and said, that's only talking about God. You should only ask from God. I said, where does it say that? When you're knocking, you're not just knocking on God's door. When we're seeking, we're not just seeking God. We're seeking others to bring to God. So this is talking about God. This is talking about God. This is talking about God. Not only talking to God, but it's talking about the world. This is Matthew 7, 7, by the way.
40:45 Yeah, yeah. And so I think this encompasses more than just talking to God. We have to get out there. Yeah. We have to be public. We have to, even if we are a bit introverted, and I am a bit introverted, we have to step out of our comfort zone because this mission is so important. It is. Yeah. And honestly, if we make it to eternity, we have all of eternity to sit back and relax. There is no more salvation. There is no more salvation story when this world is over. This is the time. And that window is getting narrower and narrower. We're running out of time to share the gospel. And souls are perishing. Souls are perishing. That's the mindset. It's true. It's true. So now's the time to be giving all of our effort and asking God, what more can I do? I did this. Lord God, what's next? Show me what's next. Yeah. Go bring it. Amen. Amen. Well, would you close in prayer?
41:38 Absolutely. Absolutely. Father in heaven, we come before you. And we praise you. We lift your name high because you are worthy of all worship and honor. We thank you, Lord, because you have poured out your Holy Spirit. And so we ask that you would please humble us, Father. Help each one of us, all those that are listening and watching. Help us, dear Lord, to submit to you, to be willing to do the hard things, to go to those hard places and to do the work that you've called us to. You've said to everyone, go and preach the gospel. We can do that here at home in our workplace. We can do that, Father, overseas. Just lead us, each one of us, and help us, Father, to honor you, to glorify you, because Jesus is coming soon. And that's what we're looking forward to. Help us, Father, to be ready. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
42:27 Amen. That's it for the day. God bless and have a great rest of your weekend. And we're clear.