“Whoever offers praise glories Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.” Psalm 50:23

September 2023

We had a very special guest come to visit us at our pole barn. His name is Desire Nana. He received a shoe box when he was 8 years old. He was living in Africa at the time he got his shoe box. He is now in the United States attending school. He is what we call a full circle story! He received a shoe box and is now participating in packing boxes himself. He is one of millions of stories of children who have received a shoe box. If we could only hear them all. I believe there is a story to be told by each child of how the shoe box impacted their life. Maybe in heaven I will get to sit down with each one and hear their story. I think it’s possible because we have eternity right?

Desire came from a very large family and they were very poor. They had no running water or electricity. He shared how in their country children are not allowed to express themselves to adults. He and it seems everyone else in the country loves soccer. He had a lot of friends that he could play with. He found that it was a way to express himself. He loved the game, even if the ball they kicked around, was just a sock filled with paper. Every Saturday was game day. He never wanted to miss a game.

Desire’s father was a pastor. As a child Desire attended a Christian School. He remembered at one time hearing the scripture, “Jesus is the light of the world.” Jesus says, “We are the light of the world.” He said, “At the time he did not realize these words were a seed planted in him.”

On a Friday his teacher said, “We want you to come back to school tomorrow morning for a surprise.” He was not told what would be happening. He figured it would just be another puppet play with a gospel message. He had seen many of those before and he was not going to miss out on his soccer game. He did not make plans to go. But he began to think to himself, What if it is something good and I miss out? So he decided to go.

When he arrived at school he saw that the big curtain was up. He thought, Oh no, have I missed a soccer game for just another puppet show? The shoe boxes were hidden under a covering so he still did not know he was getting a gift. He had never had a gift before. While waiting for the gift he was handed a booklet written in his own language titled, “The Greatest Gift of All.” He said, “At that moment if that was all he got it was worth his coming.” In his country there are no books and he loved to read. That book was everything to him! But that was not all. He then received the shoe box full of gifts! He loved everything that he got. There was a light up yo-yo in his box but he did not know what it was. So he left the yo-yo in the wrapping in the corner of his shoe box.

Soon after receiving the box he took it home and set it on a table. One night in the dark, with everyone asleep on the floor together, something happened. That table got hit accidentally and the box fell and out rolled the yo-yo flickering with light! It scared everyone including mom. She said to Desire, “Open it and find out what that thing is!” With the lit yo-yo in his hand, the planted seed words came back to Desire. Jesus is the light of the world and He says I am the light of the world! Those words now lit up in his soul. He realized, I am the light of the world! At that moment the trajectory of his life was changed forever! That became an Ebenezer moment for him.

God met him there and planted in him the plans He had for his life. Desire started translating for missionaries when they would come to share the gospel. One missionary saw something in Desire and said to him,” You need to go get training to become a teacher.” So at a young age he did so and became a teacher. He began teaching the word of God to young students. God can use anything to speak to his children.

An Ebenezer is a God moment when you encounter Him and it changes your life. I am going to be sharing more on this in my next blog.