Pray.

Know this, when ANYONE asks God to respond and rise to the occasion, GOD will always RISE ABOVE your expectations to show Himself loud and clear.

I don’t know what the other fellow staffers have been thinking of as we have all been preparing our hearts for this time…

but I know I’m being flooded with emotions.

I’m excited for the time with those that I serve alongside.  I’m looking forward to hearing their hearts for our students. I’m ready to be challenged and stretched even more. But with that readiness, comes a sense of fear.  When God challenges those who serve them (which he does so often) it is never easy or painless.  With all that God has blessed us with as a ministry, He has called us to set the bar even higher for next year and that will be evaluating all that we do for Him to make sure it is effective.  Anytime you begin looking for areas of improvement, things are going to be uncovered that are exciting and yet eye-opening.

There’s the thing though, the exciting parts are great, but the eye-opening parts can be a bit painful and difficult to bare.  I KNOW there are areas where I serve within the ministry that will be eye-opening; areas where I know I desperately need to work on to make better- but it still makes talking about it and acknowledging it hard to do.

On the other side of the spectrum, there is this feeling that can only be described as the same feeling I use to get as a kid the night before christmas….PURE EXCITEMENT FOR THE UNKNOWN!!! As we spend this time away, we will be looking at Detour’s past, present, and future to see what God hold’s in the future!  This will be incredible- we need prayer for clarity, peace, and affirmation during this time.

“ Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”Just a few days ago I was reading this in Jeremiah 33:3- At the time I didn’t know what God meant for it- but now….as I am sitting here tonight- ANTICIPATING ALL THAT GOD WILL REVEAL IN THE NEXT TWO DAYS- I am amazing that I serve a God who would be so good to give a lowly sinner like me anything, much less “great and unsearchable things.”

See you guys on wednesday and I’ll tell you ALL about it!!!!

If you are familiar with blogging, you know that there is an archive of your written blogs, those posted and those drafted.  I have a graveyard of drafted blogs.  Haha….maybe that means I struggle with commitment to a complete thought.

Maybe it means that I like to write out my thoughts, but I’m afraid for others to read them.

Or, maybe, I just never hit the “post” button.  Whatever the issue is, I plan to get to the bottom of it.

Truth is I really want to share my heart about things, I just haven’t made my blog a priority.

Anyway, let me bring you up to speed on some things!  Here is a run down of what’s been going on in the world of Emily O.

March: Post Africa, my brain was complete jello, thinking about all that I had seen and heard and felt for those of Ghana.  God has shaken my soul for them. I’m still praying for what all that means for me, Emily Ondish, and what He wants me to do about it.  I got back in the groove of things at work and finished up a MAJOR PROJECT that Jonathan and I had been working on for a few months.  We took the idea of “Re[Act]” and translated it into a teaching curriculum for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.  It has now gone off into the world of webinars and will be online for other churches to watch, download, and teach to their students and leadership.  What an opportunity!  I know it was certainly an answered prayer!  Fast forward a little more to Varsity Road Trip.  We took a few of you to Myrtle Beach, and though it wasn’t the large group we usually take places, I was so thankful of that time with just a few girls.  I praise God for the chance to just get to sit and listen to their hearts about ministry, their struggles, and the things of our God that they wonder about.  The heart of a young lady who has given herself over to the Lord is so refreshing to take a peak at…I absolutely loved that short, but sweet time I had with the girls!

April: I can promise you that this was the fastest month of my life.  I can remember taking a look at the calendar to see April 1st and then blinking to see May 1st.  So much has happened in a few weeks…but again, here is the run down:

-We had Easter- this is my FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR- Its another open door to continue to share Christ with my family!  -Spring Fling/Easter Services was AMAZING!  I love seeing the community draw together and we certainly saw that happen!  –The Cross Point Center launched to a 2nd service and we are already seeing tremendous growth even in just a month.                    - Detour took a great group of Seniors to CFAW- Liberty;s College for a Weekend- and rocked out with Toby Mac!                            -Detour, on that same weekend, partnered with Topsail’s emerging YoungLife to throw the first banquet in raising support for a Topsail High School YoungLife club!  That banquet raised about $10,000!                                                                                                  -Detour partnered with Port City to put on the first ever DODGEBALL FOR HAITI                                                                                        -My husband, Matt and I, celebrated 6 MONTHS in our marriage.  And let me just take a quick minute to give a little credit where credit is due.  My husband Matt is amazing!  I rarely, if ever, mention him on this blog, but He is a huge part of my life, a huge part of Detour Student Ministry, and an incredible man after God’s heart.  He is my partner and my soulmate.  He’s such a giver and servant for the Lord.  I know that he would blush knowing I would even give him this plug, but he is incredible and I couldn’t thank him enough.  I thank the Lord daily for a man like him in my life, he pushes me to strive for what God truly calls me to.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        -And while all of this has been going on, I have been in three weddings (the last of which will be May 22nd: Matt and Liz…WOOT WOOT).

Its been an absolutely crazy season in my life…which is NO EXCUSE for not sharing on here, but still gives a little insight as to whats been going on.  May is almost half way over…and before I know it, I’ll be glancing back at another month that flew by…I can’t make any promises, but Ill do my best to process it all out through this page!!!

Our spare bedroom at home proves my point.  I returned from Accra and walked in our front door at around 12:30am March 3rd.  I dropped my oversized carry-on and my gigantic purple suitcase in the floor in that room.  And, that’s where it has stayed.  Sure, I unzipped it, pulled out the some of the dirty clothes and a few things here and there.  But for the most part, it has remained untouched.  And with it is a journal of thoughts and lists of names whom I know and met while we were there.  It’s not like I don’t WANT to share the rest of the stories I heard, or contact those who have a piece of my heart still in Africa.  It’s definitely not that I don’t care about anything that I was completely unworthy of being a part of.  Every day I have walked by that room and said to myself, “I should really get that mess in there figured out and put away.”  But every day comes to an end and I still have that pile of things to deal with.  It’s definitely frustrating for me, but I’m realizing more and more how I struggle with unpacking painfully convicting moments.  Obviously, the trip was not just ONE MOMENT but a series of blows to my perception of God, myself, my place in this world, and life in general.

I don’t know how to explain it, but basically, I feel like my mind has been downloading/filing away all that I saw, heard and experienced.  I mean have you ever been a part of something that completely transformed your way of looking at life?  Completely redifined all that you knew and understood to be real? That may be the only way to really explain all that I have been thinking about over the last few days.  It’s amazing how 11 days can take a toll on your mind, your life at home, and your body.  Not to mention the spiritual heaviness that you experience and the fact that your mind is always on alert, ready to speak truth and love.  Last year I definitely felt overloaded, but this year was a different experience for sure- added responsibility, deeper insight, and more accountability to come back and share it all.

So where am I at today?  Still figuring it all out…still penning all of my thoughts on paper….still putting the puzzle pieces back together.

Bare with me…it might take a little time before it all comes out.  But that is the goal.

What helps you unpack?

We are at a place where we can see that our time here is coming to an end in just a few days. I am flipping through my rolodex of thoughts, perceptions, and assumptions of this trip realizing just how often God will do exactly what He wants, regardless of what your desires may be. This trip has certainly been that sort of case.

If I think about how I can sum up this trip, I am reminded of the line, “It is not a sacrifice unless it hurts.” Sure, it was difficult to pack up and leave the comforts of my home country. That’s a given. It was tough saying goodbye to my husband whom I just married for 11 days. We celebrated our 4 month anniversary through a skype conversation. It was really hard finding the finances to fund the expense of this trip (going overseas is never cheap). All of those things are trivial though. They are momentary. None of them are things that I sacrificed that would leave me hungry, thirsty, abandoned, or even homeless. They wouldn’t take away the only things I love. All that I lost was a few days in the little box that I call my life. They were no sacrifice at all.

In Accra, sacrifice means going without food so that you can over a cold drink for a complete stranger.  I have seen these people offer something that they know they would never be able to regain.  They give not because they were going to get something in return, but because it is a part of their DNA.

Sacrifice is losing your job because you have professed to be a follower of Christ and your employer is Muslim.

It is being cut away from your family because you chose not to follow the path often taken and refused to pray to a false God.

It is losing the imperative support of your community because you accepted a faith that was not ingrained in your every move from birth.

I have not sacrificed. Matter of fact, I don’t know when I have given something to another person, that had left me hurting, going without, or lacking anything.

The believers of places like Nima, Mamobi, Kumasi, Abusaki, and many others, have seen and felt REAL sacrifice like that which the bible describes.

You know, we are to be LIVING sacrifices.  If I gauge sacrifice on what I have done, I have not truly experienced it because it hasn’t hurt.

But I WANT to.

I have seen them in the streets. They are faces with names, families, stories all to their own.  They are small, tall, young,, brave, experienced, inexperienced, afraid, outspoken, shy.  It appears that their value in themselves is centered in on whether they are able to achieve a marriage that will sustain them and a man who will never abandon them.  In Ghana they are not seen as equal, or highly regarded.  They are but mere possessions and objects to obtain.  Their eyes are dark, filled with fear, loss, and anxiety.  They are daughters.  They are sisters.  They are mothers.

THEY ARE WOMEN.  They are, each one, beautiful.

In Ghana they line the streets, selling from cramped wooden shacks and overcrowded stands to make pennies to contribute to their family income.  I have wondered, is their someone out there who truly loves them? Cares for them? Gives them a gentle word?  Are they married? Widowed? With child? Were they left alone?  Have they lost a child?

They have a story, of course, but they stay so quiet and unmoving that it is hard to know much.  So their stories are left to be drown out by the overbearing noise of calamity and chaos within their city.  Though their stories may be there, they are silent accounts of what  the world has left them with.

I have seen them, stranded with children in a city they don’t know well, left to fend for themselves against the ugliness of human cruelty.  Men, maybe even strangers to them, have been heavy handed to them on the streets leaving them wincing and crying out in pain.  But I have seen no one jump to save them.  I have seen them with no self respect, selling themselves on the streets because they had no other way to survive.  I have seen girls we would deem as babies pregnant with babies of their own.  For many, if not most, they feel their in no choice for their actions.  No choice but the path they have chosen.  And for some, there really isn’t.

Most people would be startled by these scenes, their skin left crawling and their minds unable to shake the images.  For me, I can’t seem to get their faces out of my head.  Maybe they will be with me forever.  I hope so.  I don’t want to forget.

What a day it has been… My mind has been running in circles over and over the sights and smells and sounds of all that we have experienced today. There is so much to download, but I will only share one story with you because I am so tired.

Spiritually, today has felt like a ton of bricks. Its strange that even though the items in my bag have not increased, its weight seems heavier and heavier with every step I take. I am guessing that this is what they mean when they say that missionaries begin to carry the weight of the people who they minister to on their shoulders. If that’s the case, I feel like my back is breaking.

Isn’t it interesting though how we think that it should be missionaries carrying that weight…it must be MISSIONARIES that take the word of Christ out to the streets, IT MUST be missionaries that give out bibles and do crazy things for God. But what about everybody else? Goodness, if we waited for only the missionaries to take care of the world, it would take an eternity to get anywhere. What about if we asked God to PIERCE OUR CALLOUSED HEARTS for those around us? Make us missionaries in our own communities? I have truly been burdened and convicted of this, even myself, to dismiss opportunities because they should be allotted for a missionary, but if we are not being missionaries in our own country, if we are not seeing the obvious needs right in front of us here in America, why should we be even given a chance to go halfway across the world to spread the name of Christ?

Just an idea….what do you think?

Of course it is a name that we would never hear attached to a face in America, but when I hear the name “Gifty” my mind is in constant motion for a girl from a tiny little portion of Accra. She lives in the inner segment of an area called Mamobi. The area is very over populated, crowded, and lingering with the scent of poverty and yet she smiles. Her smile lights up no matter what is going on or how bad things have been. Behind her smile is a story.

It’s just last September that her mother passed away. She had been very sick for a long time, and because of the poverty that she had no way of being relieved of, she was unable to get the medical care that she desperately needed. Medical care is a luxury to us in America.

In America, if we have a cough or headache or backache or chest ache, we immediately make an appointment to see our doctor. Sometimes, it is even less than these things that will cause us to go running after a physician who can “fix” us. In Gifty’s life, there was no chance for a healing, for her mother, nor is there little chance for her to receive care because she can rarely afford a decent meal.

And yet she smiles.

When I think of all that this 13 year old girl has gone through in half the span of my own life, I feel terrible because I haven’t even experienced a fraction of her pain. But that is the story of nearly every face in Mamobi. Behind their eyes is something that none of us can begin to understand from afar. It takes time for them to let us in and to share with us all that God has taken away, given, and gifted.

Gifty, an impoverished girl from Mamobi who is fatherless, motherless, and has not a penny to her name, has offered one of the greatest gifts to her neighbors and those within her city. She offers them a smile.  When I am around her, I realize just how often I frown.

I can only pray that God will allow me the opportunity to meet many more like her.

Today is the first of many that we will be here in Accra, walking the streets and sharing the good news to the people. It is amazing how little changes when you are away from here. Those things that stifled hope, are still very apparent. In Accra, the air is heavy with sadness. It is not a thickness that can be removed by wind or by the passing of winter. It’s a heaviness that looms over the people. The air is thick with war. War in a spiritual sense, not necessarily a physical sense. You can smell it- a pungent scent that stings your nose. You can hear it- the tongues of those praying to a God that doesn’t exist. You can feel it- it is the chill that runs through your spine. All around us is spiritual warfare in the air that makes it feel thick and heavy.

What is more is that those who have lived in it all of their lives are not aware of it. It is a poison that slowly devours what little opportunity for loyalty or zeal that one may have for Christ. I can’t begin to even fathom what it must feel like to carry that sort of weight on my chest. It could keep anyone from taking the breathe of fresh air that Jesus Christ can provide… and many don’t because they do not see that they are suffocating.

Just got in last night at 9:45ish…I will post more for everyone as soon as we get back in tonight- but for those who were just worried about our well-being- We have made it and are doing great!

Church starts soon- AND I AM READY!!!

God’s gonna do something big!