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.
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.
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
Mastering Peace for Your Mental Health
Mental health is a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional wellbeing. The state of a person’s mental health affects their emotions, thinking and behaviour. Mental health is important as it affects one’s perspective on life, daily living, relationships and physical health
Why You Should Attend EYO’s Mega Camp
The past 24 years of EYO’s existence has witnessed the transformation of hundreds of youth through the International Youth Leadership and Worship Camps. We have watched how God used these annual camps to help participants identify their purpose, deepen their love for and commitment to God, and encouraged to do more with their youthful lives. Every year since 1995, EYO organized these in-person camps in Ghana for youth across Africa with participants coming from The Gambia, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, among others. In our 25th year of still making a purposeful global impact, COVID-19 has presented us with the opportunity to have our first online camp ever! I bet you didn’t think of COVID as an opportunity for much good, but in this case we consider it totally so because we can have other participants join who hitherto wouldn’t have been able to travel all the way to Ghana for the camp. It’s exciting to know that even without physical gathering – and we understand it has its qualities that can never be replaced – we can still guide young people through this camp. I’d like to share with you some of the things to expect from this year’s historical camp.First, you’ll receive thought-provoking understanding about world evangelization, praise and worship, and prayer – all at the comfort of your home. If you know (or do not know) something about EYO, it is a passion to reach other young people with the Gospel. Prayer and praise and worship are also mandates we hold on to dearly as a ministry. We therefore seek to make all participants realize why they are part of the body of Christ in this time and how they can partake in these important things. Who’s Speaking At Camp This Year? Hear From Some of the Speakers Rev. JFK Mensah will be speaking on the subject, “Christlikeness” I can promise you it will be nothing short of sobering, exciting, fiery, and compelling. We shall also have Rev. Dr. George Arthur speaking on “Praise and Worship“. You wouldn’t want to miss that for all the Netflix series. Rev. George is the bomb! Mrs. Jade Appiah-Lartey will talk about Prayer. That woman is a prayer station. Last but certainly not least, Rev. Ray Mensah will speak on “Is God Serious about Reaching the whole World?” You can’t afford to miss out on all this. Aside the main talks, we shall also have Bible study sessions where we go deeper into the topics treated. I’m excited about Bible study sessions at camp because they are always so edifying with the different perspectives the Holy Spirit leads participants to bring on board. Also, before every talk, we shall have a presentation from different countries. I’ll leave you to imagine how that will be like! The thought of hearing different languages or seeing something from other cultures makes me eager for this camp to begin. In short, this camp is going to bring you a whole package of personal challenge in your relationship with God, your response to what God is doing in the world today, and a fun fellowship with believers from other parts of the world. Have you registered? If no, use this link to do so before it’s too late, and share with your friends too! You can also follow our Facebook, Twitter & Instagram pages for our daily Camp Stories and testimonies.
Missed National YouthWake 2020? Watch It Here!
Once a year annually, Excellent Youth Outreach (EYO) dedicates time to pray, praise and worship and invite the Holy Spirit for revival and restoration among God’s people. This year was no exception. The vent took place on Saturday the 21st November 2020 at the Changed Life Baptist Church at North Kaneshie, with the theme; ‘Understanding The Times’ – Ephesians 5:15-20. It was truly an amazing time in His presence. This event also served as an alumni homecoming as we had amazing performances including choreography and singing by some alumni of EYO’s music ministry. Don’t worry if you missed this event. You can enjoy the full experience by watching this coverage below from our YouTube channel.