A Grand Adventure: What if our world's leaders were truly selfless?

If, for a US college student to go to Canada for a leadership conference, it meant taking an over filled bus, leaving 5 hours late because the company was unreliable, and sleeping overnight at the border because you arrived at 6:30, half an hour after it closed (it opens again at 6 am), do you know anyone who would make the journey? I’m not sure I do. But I know 4 Ivorian students who did, to go to Accra, Ghana. I had the opportunity of going with them.

In the US, 1 in 3,700 women die in childbirth. In Africa, 1 in 16 women die in childbirth. Half the children I know quit school at the age of 8 or 9 because their parents needed them for housework or selling food, clothes, or themselves on the streets. The University in Bouake hasn’t been running for 5 years because of the war. Right now, because several professors live in Abidjan, when one comes to Bouake they have classes for a few days, then not again for several weeks. The inequalities in health care and schooling are far greater than we can wrap our minds around. What would Africa look like with Godly leadership?

There’s an organization called the HuD group (www.leadershiphuddles.org), a not-for-profit movement, which started in Ghana, with a man named Dr. Yaw Perby. Currently living in Montreal, he runs training sessions for young people in several countries, with a mission to, “engage hearts, enlighten heads and empower hands of Emerging Leaders for global impact and God’s glory”.

”You can’t tell me that you love your people so much that you’re willing to kill them,” yelled Dr. Perby, emphatically, to a room full of students from Cote d‘Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Benin. In Sierra Leone, innocent people were asked, “do you want long or short sleeves?” That meant, where should I cut your arm off? In Cote d’Ivoire, rebel factions threw bombs into church courtyards, to try and rile the people against Allasane, a Muslim, when Gbagbo (a said Christian) refused to leave office. 3,000 people died because one man had too much greed. Africa needs leaders who will give their lives for their people. This continent’s issues often feel like Goliath, and the youth are as small as David. But Jeremiah, Jesus, and Samuel all heard from God when they were young. Contrary to the popular belief here in Africa, life doesn’t start at 40. A girl from Sierra Leone, Christiana, stood up at the end with tears in her eyes and said, “we don’t need leaders for tomorrow, we need them today!”

With statistics like, “it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a genius”, and the Beatles played 1200 times before they got big, the crowd was charged to start early, walking in Godly principles, and seeking God’s purpose for them in their countries. For, “it is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young,” Lamentations 3:27.

“The kings of the gentiles lord it over tem; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you shall be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves,“ Luke 22:31.

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of this past week, I sat in a guest house at the University of Ghana, with a small group of students from Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, and Benin, plowing through workbooks and sharing our own experiences. One of the Liberians, Sartu Doe, told me that his family stayed through the entire war. In fact, at the age of 12, he saw his own father shot before his own eyes. Yet, he came all the way to Ghana because he believes that he can be part of turning his own country around. Are you getting this???

For once, I understood everything (because they speak English in Ghana), and I often translated for my friends from RCI, assuring them that I knew their struggles, first hand. I understand better now why Jesus often answered questions in parables. I found myself translating concepts like “bearing fruit” by painting a picture of a grapefruit tree. And everywhere I went, people were encouraged when I told them that I learned this much French in a year. I remember one night, when I was laughing and chatting with Mai before bed. One of the Ghanaian leaders came in and said “Stephanie, you’ve only spoken French for a year? That’s amazing.” My friend Timothee told me that he was proud to be my friend.

But perhaps the greatest joy for me of this trip, was to hear my Ivorian friends introduce me as American by nationality, but Ivorian at heart.

Timothee later told me that he said this because he saw me share in this experience with them, awful bus trip and all, accepting everything as it came. Then, the last night, we all shared about our countries conflicts over the past year. My team talked about our recent civil war: the numbers who died, people in Abidjan who were trapped in their houses with 2 loaves of bread and a sardine can, and the frustrating paralysis that students faced - unable to do anything to stop it. Then someone turned to me and asked how I saw it. And with surprise, I realized that I had been in the country during the conflict, I had experienced the frustrations of a society whose banks were closed for 3 months and people had no motivation to work. But knowing my Ivorian friends and family like Timothee, Mai, Pierre, and Tenan reminded me that, despite what the news portrayed, life went on as normal. And today, I want to see this country rebuilt as much as they do

If you would have told me, back in October of 2010, that I’d be traveling to Ghana with 4 Ivorians a year later, I would have laughed. But with God, all things are possible.

We know, “He is able to do immeasurably more than we all ask or imagine, according to his power, that is at work within us,” (Ephesians 3:20). So, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful,” (Hebrews 10:23). So that others will say of our lives, “(Steph), a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son,” (Romans 1:1-3).

Pictures from are Ghana adventure:

Pierre, Tenan, and I