In the Waiting

IN THE WAITING By Ato Manful We’ve all had to wait eagerly for something before: waiting for an exam result, waiting for feedback after an interview, waiting for money that has been promised you, waiting for the lady to say yes to the proposal, waiting for your husband to come home to tell him he will soon be a father. What do you do when you are waiting? Pray, sleep, get busy so you can be distracted, check your phone a trillion times to see if that message has popped up, be anxious, fret or bite your nails…? I’ve done all that before and you probably have too. But what should we really do when we are waiting? David, the shepherd-giant-slayer-king, gives some good counsel. He says: Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14. Since David waited for thirteen years to become king after being anointed his word is probably credible. Wait for the Lord As a ministry, we have three big dreams for this year. We want to have effective and efficient systems for doing what we do, we want to clean up our finances and get more financial partners, and we want to have a thriving online presence. For all these to work, we need the Lord to come through for us BIG TIME. Be Strong While we wait we are going to do what we can do: Pray and work our socks off. We are going to push hard. We are going to take trips outside our comfort zone. We are going to be courageous and keep trying. Our strength is in surrender. Take Heart Like David, we know the odds are against us. We are surrounded by skepticism on every side, the enemy has drawn the battle lines for young people and the season we are in is hard. Yet, we will keep believing. Wait for the Lord EYO, a youth ministry, is twenty-six going twenty-seven. We have had years where it has been tough. We have had people who have sacrificed so much to get us to where we are—some you know, some you don’t. While we wait, we do so in thanksgiving for those gallant frontrunners. While we wait, we will keep trying and keep believing. God is going to come through, I know it. We trust in His timing. EYO 2.0 is ahead of us. It is a new wave.

Our Vision- Its Impact

It felt like a cliché sometimes, but the more I thought of it, the more I was convinced it was true. I really had a different understanding of love when I encountered EYO.

Helping Them to Remember God

The Scriptures teaches that even God is not unrighteous to forget. It will be counted as unrighteousness when we fail to remember in God.

The Power of Remembrance

by Mr. Kwesi Oteng-Yeboah And so, I will always remind you of these matters, even though you already know them and are firmly grounded in the truth you have received. I think it only right for me to stir up your memory of these matters as long as I am alive 2 Peter 1:12-13 GNT Remember how the Lord your God led you on this long journey through the desert these past 40 years, sending you hardships to test you, so that he might know what you intended to so and whether you would obey his command. Deuteronomy 8:2 GNT Remembrance is a powerful thing: A old lady sitting alone can be filled with smiles and joy, brimming with life just at the remembrance of past incidents in her life that she is proud of. In the same way, friends can gather and recount old stories and incidents that happened in their High School days, releasing so much laughter and joy, just by reflecting or remembering past episodes in their lives. Just as remembering the good old days can bring about such joy within a lonely old lady and among friends, remembering bad and sad incidents will also affect our present disposition. It is obvious that what we decide to remember (or bring to remembrance) has the power to affect our present state: We could even argue that Remembrance sets us on a course for action. Interestingly, Human beings are very prone to forget and not remember what we need to remember, but rather become fixated on that which we must forget. I believe it is for this reason that the Bible has several verses calling us to remembrance (About 300 verses in all). In these verses we see the call being made by God and His servants to believers and the children of Israel. This is because remembering our roles and responsibilities causes us to act and function well in those roles. People who forget are seen as unfaithful, untrustworthy and wicked… When the Bible says; “Remember the Lord thy God while you are young…” It is instructing us not to forget God and thus not respond or act in obedience to Him while we are still young. It also means to become active in the Lord’s service while we are young. Remembrance will always lead to action. An organization will begin to drift from its mission once the leaders fail to consistently remember the reason for their existence, deliberately or otherwise. We do ourselves a great disservice when we remember not!!! Consequently, as leaders, we put our followers on a course to great harm when we do not employ a system and culture of remembrance in our organizations. One way an organization remembers is by honouring those who have served well, another is by celebrating anniversaries and milestones. And another is to keep the vision and mission constantly on the minds of stakeholders and members. Remembrance will always require effort from us because it is not our natural tendency… It is much convenient to forget most times. However, every effort we put into remembrance releases an overwhelming sense of fulfilment and accomplishment (especially when we remember the right things), which can only be experienced and not described. May we be active and not passive, remembering and not forgetting.

Walking in Excellence

Excellence is about contributing our best to the world while evoking others to do the same. It is about understanding our place and making our mark in the world, as we attempt to make it a better place.

Love- The Foundation of All

We are able to love when we encounter God’s love first. He fills us with His love and then, we are able to love others. But just as God took a step forward to show His love, we too as His followers must show our love to Him and to others as well.

Consistency

I have 3 non-negotiable bedtime routines: reading a chapter of the Bible, doing 30 squats, and making a journal entry every night before I sleep. Recently, I realized that 30 squats a day translated into 150 in a week and 10,950 in a year. Reading a chapter daily meant reading through the Bible every 3.3 years. If I kept at it for 10 years, I’d have read through the Bible three times. I started journaling in an exercise book in 2008. Today I have 40-50 books (Note 1) filled with writings capturing various experiences over the course of my life. These 3 routines are simple; easy to do, and easy to skip. Whenever I’m tempted to miss a day’s 30 squats out of convenience, I remember the compounded loss of skipping consistently. Jesus had a consistent prayer life. Joseph was consistently diligent. Judas was a consistent thief and the Devil is a consistent liar. What are you consistent at? Is it helpful, or it isn’t? What are you consistent at? Is it helpful or not? Until last year, journaling every night was not a habit. I would miss days and try to catch up later. It was tedious, and an inefficient use of time. Commiting to making the entry every night was one of most helpful things I did for myself. Either way, consistency pays. What good habits will you decide to be consistent at? What bad habits will you decide to consistently skip? Remember the compounded reward, and the cost. So let us not become tired of doing good; for if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest. (Gal 6:9GNT)

The Consistency Magic

There was always strong resistance whenever the new music teacher suggested that the organ be moved from the left to the right side of the stage. His argument was that the ventilation and lighting was better there. The authorities would not budge; the organ didn’t either. So he took matters into his own hands. Before morning service everyday he would shift the organ only a few inches to the right. By the end of the year the organ was at the centre of the stage. Another year later, it was just where he wanted it to be. No one complained. No one even noticed it. Small changes made consistently did the trick. Most of us have terrific ambitions. We dream about things and we get excited about them. But a few days afterwards the dream loses flavour and becomes cold. It’s either too big and we don’t imagine how we will ever get it done or sometimes we even start work on it, don’t see any fruit, then quit. Nehemiah knows a thing or two about dreams and ambitions. When he heard that “the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and it’s gates have been burned with fire”* it disturbed him. He felt the burden to rebuild the wall that was about 4km long, 12m high and 2.5m thick. To put it in perspective, it is like building a wall around the University of Ghana with a height like that of a 4 storey building and a width thicker than the height of Yao Ming (2.29m). It should have taken years to complete. But it took just “fifty-two days.” ^^ Because, they were committed to it, everyone got on board and, most importantly, they worked every single day “from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.” ^^^ Consistency is the magic that turns dreams into reality. Do you want to read through the Bible, memorize scripture, become a prayer warrior? Do you want to lead excellently, accomplish a big goal, impact millions of young people? Do you want to become rich, be an expert in a field, win the best teacher award? Then you have to invest in it regularly. In your regular acts of investments don’t bite more than you can chew or bite so small that you can’t even taste. Do only enough at a time, build a routine around it and make sure it is something you can continue at for, say, the next 5 years. Consistency is the magic that turns dreams into reality. My main struggle with consistency is that I give up too early because I want to see the results now! When I was struggling with my Bible reading a wise man told me: “Some days you will feel like reading and some days you won’t feel like reading. Whatever the feeling, read anyway.” That advice was priceless. Today, I loan it to you. *Nehemiah 1:3 ^^Nehemiah 6:15 ^^^Nehemiah 4:21

Excellence

When I was younger, we had quite a number of books lying around our home. Our parents liked that we read quite much. One of such books was about being the best you can be. I only remember bits from that book. As much as I believe that I might have picked up a few gems from the book, I cannot exactly remember the person who had mined these gems and made them available to me- the writer. Society expects a certain standard of people. In my opinion, these standards vary with time and are sometimes difficult to keep up with. Society expects humans to act a certain way in certain situations. Anything below what society projects as the standard is not worthy. Sometimes, society’s standards contradict values. We may have come to a point where we question our achievements based on society’s standard of excellence. However, there is a standard to live by that allows you to be the best you can be by providing you all the resources you need in being the best you can be. Excellence is distinction and exceptional high quality. Excellence is extraordinary. To be excellent is to exude a nature that sets you as the standard. When I think of excellence, I think of Daniel and his three Hebrew friends. As captives in a foreign land, they still resolved to stick with God. Daniel 1:8. In their resolve, they turned out better than all others who had settled for the ordinary (Daniel 1:12-15) In pursuing excellence, we should remember that we were made to be ambassadors of God on earth. Colossians 3:17. In our representation of God on earth, we should do things that give God the glory. Colossians 3:23 makes it very clear that in all we do, we should do to the glory of God. That is an all-inclusive package. Not a “do some things to God’s glory and others to your pleasure” situation. God is pleased with excellence in all things. All, and not some things. He has given us the capacity to excel in everything. He has given us the capacity to excel in managing our time, excel in our relationships with others, excel in our work, and excel in our Our lives are a ministry to God. It is a medium to glorify God. Our service to the Body of Christ encompasses all facets of our lives. A life that glorifies God is not segregated. When we are able to live excellent lives, our lives are a proof our discipleship and are able to draw people into the Light. 1 Peter 2:12 NLT Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbours. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honourable behaviour, and they will give honour to God when he judges the world. In pursuing excellence, we should remember that God is an excellent God. He made us in His image. Likewise, we are capable of being excellent. As Christians, we already are a distinct people. 1 Peter 2:9 NIV But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. We ought to strive towards being the best versions of ourselves, just as God has made us to be.      Phil 4:8 NIV Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. 2 Cor 8:7-8 NIV But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us see that you also excel in this grace of giving.    

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