Lisa and I just returned from a trip to Ghana. It was a deeply rewarding experience for me, enriching both culturally and spiritually. We were saturated with exposure to Ghana’s historical import… being the first African nation to gain independence from colonization, as well as its ongoing struggle to achieve its vision of a unified, independent Africa, each nation free from international predators and dependent on its own rich natural resources to be what they can be as a people. I explored the roots of my African heritage and resonated deeply with cultural values of unity, community and family which my own community often seems to have lost or had stripped from us here in America. Everywhere the message to us was “Akwaaba”… Welcome home. So, I drank deeply of the experience and immersed myself in my cultural heritage. My prayer was to get everything I could out of this trip. It wasn’t what I expected… but it was more than I anticipated.
One of the most deeply moving experiences was visiting the Cape Coast Castle. Africans captured from all over West Africa were brought here after being marched hundreds of miles away from their homes. They were imprisoned in the worst deprecating and dehumanizing conditions, as many as 200 people crammed into a dungeon for sometimes up to three months at the end of which time they were marched through “the door of no return” out to slave ships awaiting them on the beach, to be taken away never to see their homes or family again. My mind can’t fully conceive the level of suffering or the spiritual anguish my ancestors went through. Millions died in this terrible industry of human suffering.
Our guide asked us to reflect: If you could speak to your ancestor who survived this journey… the marches, the dungeon captivity, the middle passage, slavery in America… what would you say to them. You are the remaining lineage of ancestors who sat in this dungeon and were brought across the ocean, what would you say to them today? All I could think of was to say thank you… If it was not for you, I wouldn’t be here today. Because you survived, a whole people sprang up after you. Because you did not give up hope. You survived. I exist because of you… by the grace of God.
It hit me that this is the message I give my young men here every time I am with them. They struggle through the social and spiritual quagmire of urban life which threatens to suck from them every vestige of hope or joy in life. Keep keepin’ on, I say. Don’t give up, don’t despair. Just keep doing the things you’re supposed to do. Work hard at school. Stay out of trouble. Don’t hang around with negative influences. Don’t succumb to racism and don’t allow your circumstances to take control of who you are. Most of all, remember who you are. You are a child of God. God is with you. God loves you. He is with you, to deliver you. You can make it. Just hold on!
Many of them do… some do not.
We offer a lifeline through organized sports, recreational activities, mentoring, Christian discipleship, and lifelong relationships. I return home with renewed vigor for the ministry God has called us to and the strengthened conviction that this can only happen with the Lord, the emancipation of young Black men in our inner city communities and the single-minded purpose to simply reach out and grab someone’s hand, and help them along the way.
Christ's Children Ministries 