Have you ever been out of the country? My heart’s desire is to travel the world to see the faces of the different races and nationalities I’ve prayed for this year and share God’s love with them. I have been blessed to go to Ghana, West Africa four times. I find when I go there I am the one who comes away from the trip richer. When I’m there, without the distractions of everyday life,I’m blown away by the ways God reveals Himself. One of the ways He always speaks to be is by watching my friend, Eddie, in action.
Eddie Nsafoa is a mighty man of God I met back in 2003. He greeted me with an enormous smile and a holy hug the first time I met him. We instantly became close friends and over the course of that trip he became “closer than a brother” in many ways [Proverbs 18:24]. Eddie is a poor man by the world’s standards. In our country, we say we live “paycheck to paycheck” if things are tight. Eddie lives job to job as a driver and completely trusts God in between. He is the living, breathing example of Mark 12:41-44. He doesn’t give out of abundant wealth; he gives out of extreme poverty and he gives all he has.
On my last trip to Ghana we took gift bags for Eddie and his family. We gave each of them a new pair of shoes, two new outfits, toys and candy for the children, household items for his wife, Regina, and Bibles for Eddie so he could give them away at his crusades he does in the bush. There was a great celebration in their house as they opened their gifts. We were showered with hugs, kisses and blessing, but what happened next was my undoing.
Eddie spoke to his children in Twi and immediately they left the room and went to their bedrooms. When I asked him what was going on he said, “Oh, Mommy, you have blessed us richly. Now we must bless others who have so little.” He sent his children to their room to gather a pair of shoes, two outfits and some toys they had to take to a family in their village who had great need. I was driven to tears. When I asked him why, his response came quickly. “Oh, Mommy, you teach us to do this every time you come and bring us something new. You sacrifice to get to us and bless us so we must sacrifice to bless others.”
Eddie, a pour Ghanaian man, has taught me more about living out my faith than I have ever taught him. He truly embraces and lives out Luke 6:31, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
Today is Eddie’s birthday and so today I pay tribute to a mighty man of God I have been blessed to call my brother and my friend. May we all learn from and live like Eddie Nsafoa, a man after God’s heart!