The Difference Jesus Makes

It is hard to try to squeeze an experience like a mission trip down into a few thoughts. I find myself consistently reliving some of the amazing things we saw God doing while we were in Ghana. The impact of Jesus in the lives of people was amazing to see.

While we were there, we had a chance to spend seven days in a village in central Ghana.  Gulubi Quarters is just north of Lake Volta. It is a village of about 2,000 people. By American standards, it is definitely third world. The streets of the village were dirt. The housing was simple block buildings with metal roofs, or mud huts with thatch roofs. Most of the people in the village worked on farms or in the fields, growing what they needed to live on, and selling some for a meager income. Most of the kids we interacted with during the day came from the huts along the streets of the village. They had very little. We saw no toys or dolls or hardly any bikes. We rarely even saw a soccer ball. They were happy to see us, and we were glad to spend time with them.

In this village, we stayed at the Pastors’ home. It was in a cement and mud home on the edge of the village. It had a wall around it, electricity, a kitchen, and its own outhouse. It was not modern, but it is very nice by the standards of Gulubi Quarters. In our compound, the 27 of us that had traveled to the village slept indoors or in tents within the compound walls. 

Each morning, six to eight girls from the church in the village would come to the compound. They were there to help take care of us as we worked on the new building. They carried water to the compound from the water tower in town. It was a half-mile walk, and they walked it six to eight times a day. They helped with the cooking and the cleaning up after we ate. Many times, there were two different meals served for dinner – our American stomachs could not handle the variety of foods that are a part of their normal diet in Ghana. They would sweep the whole compound every day. Since everything around us was dirt, it is amazing how much gets tracked in by 27 people in a day. 

It wasn’t until closer to the end of the week that I began to notice the difference. Our girls were well fed, well dressed, well mannered, and a lot of fun. If you would have closed your eyes, their banter sounded like any group of teenage girls here in America. They had plans for higher education and careers. Their whole countenance was different from the rest of the teen girls in the village. They were positive and uplifting and joyful.  The girls in the rest of the village didn’t act this way. They were not well dressed, not well fed, and most were taking care of 1 to 3 of their younger siblings. 

I wondered if our girls were some of the “rich kids” of the village. But Austin, our lead missionary, described why their life was different than most in the village. Their parents were first generation Christians. The difference we were seeing in the lives of these girls is the difference that one generation of Jesus can make in a home.

In that region of the world, the families worship tribal gods. Chickens and goats are offered as sacrifices to appease their gods or ask for favors from them. People who barely have enough protein to survive find themselves giving away what little they have to pacify their “gods.”  

It is a very male dominated culture. The fathers in families are able to spend what the family makes in any way they choose. If they want to take care of their family, they will. If they want to take care of themselves only, the family goes without. 

When fathers become Christians, they begin to take care of their families seriously. After a few years of not sacrificing the family food source to the village gods, they begin to amass goats and chickens… good protein and good sources of income for the family. Within a few years, when the father’s attention turns toward loving their kids there is good for the kids to eat, new clothes to wear, and even the possibility of higher education. 

You see, the gospel just doesn’t impact our spiritual lives. It impacts all of our life. What God does for us and for a family is more than just offer forgiveness, salvation, and grace.  The gospel shows us a new way to live. The good news that God brings just doesn’t make our eternal outlook for life better (and that is no small thing). It makes the outlook for this life better… in every way. 

And so I wonder:  what difference has following Jesus made in your family? 

The change that matters may begin in the small decisions made each day. Families can be transformed from places of argument to places of agreement. Families can become places that build each other up instead of criticize and label. Families can be places where faith is encouraged instead of ignored. Families can become places where fathers and mothers are living for the good of all, and not just for their own interests. Parents can actually see their kids live lives of deep faith. Kids can have a whole new outlook on life because God changed the character of their mom or dad. The change that God is accomplishing in our lives will affect generations of those who come after us. 

We get more than salvation. We get a new life. David wrote this in Psalms... I read it in my devotions while I was in Gulubi Quarters. Listen to the words… NLT Psalm 27:13 Yet I am confident I will see the LORD's goodness while I am here in the land of the living. I laughed as I reread that verse the next day. I cried by that evening as I realized how much difference Jesus can make with girls in a village in the middle nowhere in Africa. In one generation. 

This is the difference Jesus can make. 

Andy