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I grew up in a Christian family in Houston, Texas. I knew Jesus as my Savior from a young age, and we were at church whenever the doors opened. But I NEVER wanted to be a missionary when I was growing up. All I ever wanted to be was a civil engineer. 

Along the way, I met and married Charlie, and we settled in Atlanta, where we both worked as engineers – he in industry and I as a consultant, designing municipal water infrastructure projects. We had two sons, and life was good. We were living the American dream – life in the suburbs, good jobs, juggling our work schedules with scouts, sports practices, and activities at church. 

But early on, Charlie and I had made the commitment to be intentional about our faith, living our lives as followers of Jesus. For a while, this seemed pretty simple – live within our means, facilitate Bible studies at the church, give generously to certain causes – until God upped the ante.

In 1999, close friends of ours, Michael and Claire Mozley, moved to Ghana as missionaries with The Mission Society. Around that same time, I was reading the story in Matthew 25, the one where Jesus separates the sheep from the goats. Being the good goat that I am, I always read that story with a little bit of pride. You see, one of the criteria that Jesus names was, “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.” I did that; water was my business! But that day, God pulled me up short. He clearly pointed out to me that I was not reading the whole passage. “Whenever you do it for the least of these” seemed to have a spotlight on it, as God reminded me that no one in the United States was dying of waterborne disease, (the “least of these” when it comes to water), but His children around the globe were. In fact, 30,000 children are dying every day of preventable waterborne disease. 

The challenge was laid out: what was I going to do about it, given my skills and training? So Charlie and I started talking about working overseas “someday” – when the kids were grown or in our retirement perhaps.

In 2002, our family went to Africa to visit the Mozleys. After we returned from Africa, it was clear that someday was sooner rather than later.

In 2006, when our boys were 12 and 15, and on our 20^th wedding anniversary, we packed up all our belongings and moved to Ghana to start the next phase of our lives as followers of Jesus. It has been the hardest thing we have ever done, and yet we wouldn’t trade these last eight years for anything! At this point, Ghana is our home, and we envision staying there until we retire, unless God tells us differently. 

What our family learned on that first mission trip to Ghana in 2002 was that love is an action verb.  Love is action. It is lived out in the way we show love to those who are different, or not easy to love, or disadvantaged. It is love in action because that is how God loved us. 

People often ask me, “How can providing water, or lights, or a school advance God’s kingdom?”  For me, these projects are not about the physical infrastructure so much, but about love in action and the transformation it brings to a community. 

When rural villages get a school, there is hope for the future. The adults in the community see that their children are not condemned to the same life of subsistence farming and poverty that they experienced, but with education, these children will have a way to break the cycle. That’s love in action.

When the villagers of Fawomanye received electricity, they finally understood what Jesus meant when he said, “You are the light of the world.” They can see that just as their community is now visible in the darkness around them, in the same way, they are to be the light of Jesus to those around them – shining Christ into lives that are darkened by sin. That’s love in action.

It is love that transformed West Mamprusi village where I was asked to take a minister and baptize 20 or 25 believers. When we showed up that Sunday morning in Sagadugu, everyone in the village wanted to be baptized – all 134 of them!

A few months later when I was back in the area, the people of Sagadugu had planted a church in Singini and baptized 100 people. Together, those two churches planted two more churches. The Holy Spirit spread like wildfire throughout this part of West Mamprusi. That is love in action.

There are so many other stories I could tell you. Stories of healings and mass conversions, miracles and hope.

Love is an action verb – how are you going to live it?