The scripture from 2 Samuel 6:1-19 is about King David trying to deliver the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. It took King David time to get it right. The Ark of the Covenant is a small oak box that contains two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them. The ark also contains the presence of the Lord. The ark is overlaid in gold. David’s call in life was to return the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem so that it would bless the country of Israel.
The Philistines stole the ark after a battle. The ark had caused the Philistines nothing but trouble ever since they stole it. The Philistines abused the ark by putting it into one of their temples to a pagan God. They returned the ark to the Israelites in a cart pulled by oxen. They were trying to get rid of the curses by returning the ark.
At first, David didn’t follow God’s instructions on the way to handle the ark. He used a cart to carry the ark just like the Philistines. He overlooked the fact that God gave instructions how the ark should be carried. God explained that the ark should not be touched. 2 Samuel 6:5 explains that Uzzah reached to keep the ark from falling out of the cart after the oxen stumbled. Uzzah was struck dead.
David was afraid. They decided to stop in their tracks and not go any further with the Ark of the Covenant. David was not willing to take the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem at that time. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The Ark of the Covenant stayed in the Gittite’s house for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.
David heard that the Ark was blessing Obed-Edom and his family. He decided that it was time to finish the job of moving the Ark to Jerusalem so that the entire Jewish nation could benefit from God’s blessings. God’s blessing flowed from the Ark of the Covenant. David knew his call was to serve God. He also knew that he didn’t do it right the first time.
If all else fails, it is time to read the Bible. David studied up on how God instructed his people to carry the Ark of the Covenant. First, the Ark should be handled with great care and respect. God also wanted two poles to be placed on each side of the Ark. Men would lift the poles which would allow the men to haul the Ark of the Covenant without having to touch it. In this way, David was able to get the Ark of the Covenant to the Tabernacle in Jerusalem.
The Tabernacle was a huge tent. Inside the tent were many rooms. The most sacred room was the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant would be placed until King Solomon years later would build the temple in Jerusalem.
The theme of this month is stories and God’s call. I’ve had the honor to preach at Epworth once before. Now, I am a lay pastor at New Hope United Methodist Church. I am also very passionate about missions. I believe that a church will grow if the members of the church will step out of the doors of the church to serve God wherever God calls them to serve. God’s mission field is right here in Franklin County, in Virginia, on the Gulf Coast recovering from Hurricane Katrina and around the world.
King David knew that part of his call was to return the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem so that God would bless Israel and the people of Israel would have a special place to worship God. He made mistakes along the way. David had to stop along the way. David had to understand more about God before he could continue his call. David finally was able to accomplish the task that God called David to do.
We are a lot like King David. We know that God has called us to service. We try to start on that path to serve God before we fully understand how we are to do the work. We may stumble. We may fall, but we will keep moving along the path to serving God.
Let me share my story with you today. There were many people who inspired me as I grew in my faith. I first heard God’s call when I started as an unpaid “Youth Group Pastor” in 1983. I helped the youth grow in their faith. This was also the first time in my life that I began to give back to God after college. The work with the youth was very satisfying and rewarding, but I didn’t think about turning that experience into a full-time ministry. I began to think more about God as my wife, Susan, and I began to have children in 1989. It was important for us that our children grow up in the church. Our family is active in the church.
In 1999, I read the scripture from Luke 12:48b “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” God blessed me with my wife, Susan, and our four children. God also blessed me with a career with Mobil and America Online which allowed me to retire in 1999. I realized I had been given much and God would demand much from me. I am a steward of God’s wealth and his Word.
I began by praying to God what he asked in return. I started by taking as many daily Bible studies as possible to further learn God’s Word. I studied the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I also prayed for discernment to know the ways that God would use me. I took the Companions in Christ and Disciple courses. I also taught the adult Sunday school class at Redwood United
Methodist Church from 2000 to 2008.
In 2002, I noticed that Uncle Bill Barker had been transformed as a pastor. I asked myself what happened to him. I realized that he had gone to Ghana on a mission trip. I asked him if I could go on his next trip. He asked me if I was serious. I told him that I was serious about going. I went on my first trip in September 2003.
God showed me amazing things on that first trip to Ghana. I learned that if I prayed that God could answer my prayers. I asked Uncle Bill what I would do on the trip. He told me that he needed people to pray while he preached. I met my first witch doctor on a Sunday morning while we were meeting the chief and the elders before a worship service under a tree.
The witch doctor told us that two of the elders were his brothers and that the village of Gbani was his village. As Uncle Bill started preaching, the witch doctor began to give the people the evil eye. The people became afraid and stopped listening to the sermon. I realized it was time to pray. I prayed “God, let the people have the faith to overcome their fear. Let the wind blow and blow the evil out of here.” I felt a breeze. I felt God’s presence overcoming the evil in that village. We took one hundred and fifty people to the river. I helped Uncle Bill baptize eighty-one people in the river. We baptized until our backs ached. I’ve seen God when people are transformed during baptism.
I saw the impact of giving Bibles translated for the first time into the Mampruli language. We preached in a village, Zangum Yakura, where they heard about God for the first time in the 150 year history of that village. I prayed for little children who wanted God’s blessings. I prayed more in a few days than I had prayed in my entire life. I’ve seen God in people who were reading the Bible for the very first time and in the faith of little children.
I came back to America renewed spiritually. I didn’t have a clear picture of God’s call, but it was becoming clear that God had a plan for me. I joined the board of the Henry Fork Service Center. I helped with Phase One of the construction of the classrooms in 2004 and 2005. I raised money and searched for mission teams across the Virginia Conference to come to Franklin County to help build the Henry Fork Service Center. I’ve seen God when you prepare a place for people to serve the Lord in missions close to home.
I have the gift of prayer. I actively visit people who are sick, homebound, or in the nursing home. Many people have been touched by the Holy Spirit when I’ve gone to pray. I prayed for a man with severe pain in his jaw. He was unable to get relief from the UVA Medical Center doctors, but God healed his jaw. He asked me how much the healing would cost. I told him that the power of the Holy Spirit is free of charge. I’ve seen God at home when people ask for prayer.
I did not plan to go to Ghana again until I received God’s call in early 2005. I told God that I did not have a mission team. I told God that I had a family. I told God had never led a mission team in the past. He told me to go now. I asked him if I could go in September, but he said for me to go now. God had an answer for every one of my excuses. The team appeared. The plans were made. I prayed at the altar at Redwood UMC on the Saturday before Easter in 2005. I prayed “Lord, let my words be your words, let my will be your will, fill me with the Holy Spirit, and use me.” It was a simple prayer. I felt the power of the Holy Spirit fill me a few hours later. That was the moment that I knew that God had a purpose for me in my life and had confirmed it with the power of the Holy Spirit. We were in Ghana within two months of God’s call.
I prayed for the nephew of the chief in Bugiya in 2005. He was blind. I thought I couldn’t pray for a blind man, but I did it anyway. I anointed his eyes with oil. I prayed “Lord, thank you for the blessing of sight. We know that in your name all things are possible. By Jesus stripes you are healed.” The pastor held up one finger and the blind held up one finger. The pastor held up two fingers and then the whole hand. The blind man held up two fingers and then said that the whole hand was fuzzy. I asked the blind man if he believed in the power of Jesus Christ to heal. He said “Yes!” I anointed his eyes with oil and prayed for him again. This time, I saw the clouds of the blind man’s eyes part and all I saw looking back at me were healthy eyes. In 2006,
I blessed triplets of that blind man who regained his sight in Bugiya. We’ve seen close to one hundred people receive the answer to their prayers in just one service in Bugiya. I’ve seen God when a blind man can say “I was blind, but now I can see.”
I’ve seen God use me in amazing ways in Ghana over the years. I’ve seen the lame walk, the blind see, and the deaf hear in the name of Jesus Christ. I’ve seen villages turn from Satan to worshipping Jesus Christ. I’ve seen signs, miracles, and wonders AFTER I believed that God was a mighty God. We’ve also seen many people accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior after evangelizing in northern Ghana. Sixty-five people accepted Jesus Christ on my last trip to Ghana in April 2009. We built classrooms in the slums of Kumasi to grow a school from 200 children to over 600 children in the elementary, middle and high school. I’ve seen God when children learn to read and have hope for the future.
We’ve built four churches in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region of Ghana in villages of Sagadugu, Diani, Bugiya and Nabari. The name Bugiya stands for “a place for Satan.” Now, youth from that place sing praises to God at home and around the West Mamprusi District. All of the chiefs of the Mamprusi tribe met in the Bugiya church to try to understand how a church could exist in an evil place like Bugiya. We are finishing the fourth church in Sagadugu where I preached a sermon for the first time in 2003. My Bible fell open to Deuteronomy 28 about God’s blessings. The work has been done with the support of many churches providing mission team members on over nine trips to Ghana. I’ve seen God when people have a place to worship Jesus Christ.
I went back to Ghana in April 2009. We’ve raised over $500,000 to provide clean water in Ghana with the Rotary Foundation, The Carter Center, Ghana Health Services, UNICEF, and Ghana Guinea Worm Eradication Program. Our goal is to eliminate an entire disease from Ghana by 2010. We want to eliminate the Guinea Worm parasite. It is a parasite that lives in the body for one year and grows up to three feet long. In 2007, children were sick with the parasite in the Savelugu Guinea Worm Containment Center. In 2008, the children were laughing and playing in the Savelugu School without the painful parasite! I’ve seen God when children are free from disease.
I’ve learned so much on my mission trips to Ghana. I thought I was going to teach the people of West Africa about God, but I learned so much about faith, hope, and love from the people that I went to serve. I have gone where I was one of the only Christians in a village. I’ve had to overcome my fears and prejudices to be able to go where God sent me. I’ve seen God when I learn from those whom I serve.
I’ve preached after a Muslim man announced our service over the Mosque loudspeaker. I have seen God’s Word come alive. I’ve seen God where people are united in love. Muslims have welcomed us because we brought the love of Jesus Christ through clean water to drink in their community. We dug wells to give safe water to drink to the communities where the Guinea Worm disease was the worst. Giving a thirsty man a drink is the best charitable thing a Muslim can do for his fellow man. I’ve seen God when the thirsty have water to drink.
We usually bring food to villages on our mission trips. In September 2007, a one hundred year flood destroyed all of the crops at harvest time. We drew a map on a piece of paper of the names of the villages to the north, south, east, and west of Walewale, Ghana. We calculated the size of each village. We hired donkey carts and cargo vans to haul the food to over twenty-five villages. We told each chief that the food was a blessing from our church to his village. We also prayed that one day God would bless their village and they would be able to help another village someday. I’ve seen God when the hungry have food to eat.
We celebrated medical equipment and supplies that arrived at the Tamale Eye Clinic and Tamale Teaching Hospital. We worked with Project CURE, the Methodist Church, and Rotary to ship two containers. Redwood UMC paid $1,000 for a needs assessment for the hospital and eye clinic. Rotary paid about $50,000 to ship the two containers. Project CURE collected about $1 million in medical equipment and supplies. The town of Tamale has a population of 500,000 people. We celebrated the improvements to the hospital in early April. The $1,000 investment by the Methodist Church turned into a $1,000,000 project for a hospital in the bush of northern Africa. I’ve seen God in healing the sick through medical care.
I see the power of Jesus Christ here at home. Where two or more are gathered in his name, there God will be also. In October, District Superintendent Bruce Tuttle spoke about a church that needed a pastor. That church was New Hope United Methodist Church in Callaway. I’ve seen God in our local churches.
I understood God’s call in my life for missions and right here at home in the USA. America is a mission field today. I am in awe of God’s ability to use someone like me. In my weakness, God makes me strong. Every time he uses me, I am in awe. I see God touching people. I’ve seen God giving people love, faith, and hope right here at home.
I will go where God sends me. I will do what God wants me to do. I will serve those that God loves. My call is summarized in Matthew 25:35-40: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'” I will continue to listen to God’s call to fulfill his commandments in my life right here at home and around the world! I may not get it right the first time just like King David, but I’ll trying to listen to God’s call until I get it right.
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