Beyond Our Borders

Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.     1 Chronicles 4:10 (ESV)
  

Johnbull and I founded City of Refuge Ministries in 2006 with a hope to help the most vulnerable in Ghana (check out this video from our first ministry exploratory trip to Ghana). In 2007 we were introduced to the issue of the fishing kids on Lake Volta and then in 2008 we opened the Freedom Center in Tema...for the next two years we traveled between our home in South Dakota and the Freedom Center in Ghana. In 2010 we moved our family to Ghana...all this while our vision was very limited...our primary focus was on the children who lived in the Freedom Center and those who we were working to rescue from Lake Volta. Our hearts hurt for the Single Mothers and we reached out to them the best that we could.

Shortly after we moved to Ghana in 2010 Autumn, our Director of Education, also relocated to Ghana and our focus quickly became the education of the children. Our focus continued to be limited...totally dependent on God but all of our goals and objectives for the most part remained within our borders-the walls of our ministry. 

Over the years God has broken our hearts more and more with the things that breaks His heart. Our vision has expanded as our foundation has been made solid in Him. 

The beginning of this year we felt very strongly that there was a realigning happening...which is very interesting when there are only a handful of people in leadership. It's like..."Okay God, we are with you in this but I seriously can't be spread out any more. If you want to use this ministry to do more then you have to send more people!"  We felt Him urge us to create structure...even to create structure within outreach arms of the ministry that didn't exist...how is that even possible? We started working on it...in faith that He was at the helm of this great vision. All the while praying for God to send the right people to work with City of Refuge. (Matthew 9:38)

We started dreaming with God. The first thing that He did was bring a sweet friend to help us capture our dreams in a very organized way. We began to look at our Child Sponsorship program and how much more impact this ministry could have on the community that we serve. After several meetings and lots of dreaming Impact ONE was created...a ministry that will not only impact the children but the child's entire family and ultimately the community. THE QUESTION WAS WHO IS GOING TO MAKE THIS MINISTRY A LIVING BREATHING OUTREACH TO THE COMMUNITY? And... GOD BREATHED HIS BREATH OF LIFE INTO IT!

Within just a couple weeks a team of three Ghanaian Missionaries - all graduates of the University of Ghana- took on the challenge of Impact ONE! Three young men who are very passionate about Jesus and all have a desire to see the Kingdom of God be established in Ghana. Over the next couple months we will introduce to you more about Impact ONE and ways that you can get involved in this ministry...beyond our borders. 

Pictured: Stanley (CORM's Director of Program Development), Tyna (FRIA Leadership Team Member and Adminstrator) and Leonard (CORM Administrator and Impact ONE Leadership Team Member) - Not Pictured Collins (Impact ONE Manager - Leadership Team Member)