The Grace House

We are excited to introduce Meagan Erickson.  She joined us in Ghana last February as a volunteer at Great Mission International.  Since then, God has laid out the plan He has for her life.  Join the journey with her at THE GRACE HOUSE.  

March 1^st, 2013, I first stepped foot in Ghana, my plan was to live in an orphanage for three months and then go home. Little did I know, God had very different plans for my life. After about three weeks, I was calling Feeding the Orphans asking them if I could stay longer. So I made more plans and decided to stay for 10 months. I loved Ghana, the people, the colors, the sounds, everything was new and exciting. Let me tell you, this only lasts so long. Living in an orphanage with forty children and being the only volunteer was not the easiest. Every day wasn’t beautiful or exciting anymore, sometimes it honestly sucked!  I was tired, hot, dirty, and if the power went out one more time I just might burst into tears. This is when The Lord started asking more of me. He wanted me to go a little deeper, struggle a little more, and break a little more for Him. He was weighing on my heart and letting me feel glimpses of His plan. For a long time before I had the courage to say anything out loud, I felt God pushing me to work with young women and girls. I started to dream and think of a future, but what could I do? I was leaving in December. But then Feeding the Orphans asked me if I would like to stay indefinitely, and I didn’t hesitate.

So God was changing my plans again, but my plan was still that I would live in the orphanage. But God wouldn’t stop pushing me. He was weighing on my heart that He wanted a home for girls in Ghana, and I was the person He had chosen to find those girls who need Him. I decided to tell my plans to Feeding the Orphans, but I wasn’t sure how they would take it. Of course, they were willing to support me 100% in whatever God decided to do in my life. It wasn’t long and we were ministering to youth in one of the markets in Accra. These children have run away or been kicked out of their homes. They sleep on the streets, fight, steal, prostitute, and live a generally rough life. It wasn’t a pretty ministry, but these were the ones who needed Him more than ever. Two nights a week another volunteer named Kate and I were ministering to the young girls who were living in the market. We built relationships and trust with four girls, and it wasn’t long until The Lord was telling me, “these are the girls”.

Two of the girls who are both sixteen were already many months pregnant at the time when we met them. It wasn’t long until another admitted to us that she was pregnant as well. I knew that these were the girls whom The Lord had chosen. But I planned that I would wait until I had been in Ghana for one year, and then go home for three months and try to raise funds for a house. Well, as with most of the things I plan, God had a different one. One night while showing the Jesus film in the market, Gloria, our newly pregnant girl suffered terrible abuse at the hands of her boyfriend. As the other kids in the market looked on as if that sort of thing was normal and happened all of the time, I rushed to pull her away. As I did she was wailing and falling on the ground. She wanted to abort her baby. She knew her baby’s future was as bleak as her own. She had no money, no education, no home, she couldn’t take care of a baby and no one was helping her. I knew then that God’s plans meant now, I couldn’t make more of my own plans.  Instead it was time for me to fully submit to His plans. I immediately called Feeding the Orphans, and although I told them that the girls positively could not live in the market anymore, I was afraid.

In six days I return to Ghana, and I move two of the four girls into a home. People keep asking me if I am ready. I never know how to answer this because, no, I don’t feel ready. I am afraid. But I choose to believe that The Lord has chosen me for a specific purpose. That He will give me absolutely everything I need to make Him known in these girls’ lives. To give them a hope, not only for their future on earth but much more importantly, their future with The King.

I am weak, and I cannot do this without The Lord, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”(2 Cor 12:9) The Lord has blessed us with a most beautifully, underserving grace. Not just me or the girls, but all of us. For this reason, the name of the house is, The Grace House. I am sure much like the orphanage, the beauty and excitement will wear off. I know The Lord will try to push me deeper, ask more of me, and break my heart a little more for these girls. But I also know that I will be surrounded perfectly in His grace, and that is enough for me.