Megan Redd, one of Virginia Baptists' Venturers serving in collegiate ministry at Cornell University in New York, recently emailed the glocal missions and evangelism team at the Virginia Baptist Resource Center to describe her recent student-led mission trip to Ghana.
June 10, 2007
We are in Ghana. This morning we went to two churches to present our True Love Waits/AIDS Awareness program. We have two more programs this afternoon at two villages.
Megan Redd
We are arriving at the first village and are immediately mobbed by children shouting, “Broni! Broni!” (white person). Some men in the village are setting up tents for people to sit under while we make our presentation. It is so hot. There are many people gathering around. They are curious about all these white girls.
We are praying as we prepare to present our program. We have already presented it three times since arriving in Ghana and, counting the one we are about to do, we have 15 more presentations. We are also praying that God will make this fresh for us, because it is fresh for these people.
We open with introductions. Immediately afterward we begin our first skit, “Johnny in the Street.” Except we are all girls so today it's “Kelsey” in the street. We say a few lines and then pause as Pastor Robert translates into Twi. The point of this skit is to illustrate that protection is not 100 percent effective against HIV and other STDs. Kelsey was having fun playing in the street but Mom made her wear protection so she would be safe. But even though she's protected, she still gets hurt when the bus hits her.
This is followed by a human timeline. The timeline illustrates the small wait until marriage compared to a lifetime of doing things God's way in marriage. We follow this with a dramatic conversation about the way God designed men and women and how by doing things his way we not only obey but we also keep ourselves safe emotionally and physically. After all, God does know what's best for us.
This leads to questions about HIV/AIDS. We follow this with another skit, “Love Letters.” It seems that Angela, Jillian and Kelsey have all been seeing the same guy but they didn't know it until they realize he wrote them the same love letter. This gets a lot of laughs.
Now comes the hardest part. At each presentation we share our personal testimony—why this topic is important to us. Why did we come all the way from America to share this? What has God done in our lives—whether we have stayed pure or whether we have strayed from him and found our way back by to his grace?
Up to this point none of the other girls have felt comfortable sharing, so I have been sharing. But this afternoon, Angela steps forward. She has never done this before. In the weeks leading up to this trip, she has been so scared to share a part of herself with these people. But she can no longer ignore God's Spirit leading her to share. As she tells her story I can hear that her words are not her own but God using her. She is not only offering her personal story as it relates to marriage but she is sharing the gospel message. I am so proud of her.
We close by allowing time for questions. There are many questions, but one stands out. The chief of this village stands. We wait as Pastor Robert interprets for us. “If condoms do not work 100 percent of the time, why do people keep bringing us condoms?” I am not sure what to say. Finally, I answer honestly, “I don't know. But that's why we are here because we do know that God's way is best and you can stay safest by waiting for marriage and doing things his way.”
We feel like celebrities as we are rushed back to our car and it is surrounded by children. The people here had never heard about AIDS. It is our hope that they not only learned about that disease but that maybe someone won't be able to forget the message of Jesus.