Jennifer Bement's Testimony:

I have been very reluctant to write a testimony considering that I cannot really put what I have experienced into words.   But now I feel as if I have to.  In order for everyone to fully understand my situation, I will have to give a bit of my history.  

Honestly, I didn't become Christian until about a year and a half ago when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.  I was raised to be a very skeptical person and it became difficult to have faith in anything as I got older.  Seeing my mother in so much pain and still keeping her faith brought me to God almost instantly.  

I attended Queens University full time while my mother was having her treatments although there were times that I felt as if I couldn't bear any more stress.  The second semester I had registered to take a class on the Middle-East. Because the class exceeded its capacity I was randomly (!) placed in a class on Sub-Saharan Africa.  It was not random - God placed me in that class to show me exactly what I am supposed to do with my life.  I was astonished and disgusted with the politics and human rights abuse all throughout the entire region and continent.  Being a idealistic college girl, I felt like I was supposed to do something about it.  

At the same time I was almost done with my degree in English and didn't want to change my major so I could obtain a degree that would earn me the respect I would need to make the changes I wanted to.  Summer started and I couldn't forget what I had learned.  It was the most frustrating internal conflict I have ever had in my life. I just flat didn't know what to do. So I prayed constantly for a good couple of weeks.  I asked God to just show me what I am supposed to do – for Him to give me a sign because I was with my hands in the air.  Shortly after praying one day I was driving down Providence Road when I got stopped at a red light.  I looked down at the car bumper in front of me and it had a sticker that said "Human Rights" in big bold letters.  I know it sounds really nutty, but I knew it was the sign I was waiting for.  From that point on that I knew I was supposed to change my major and dedicate my life to Africa.  

Not even two weeks afterward I was at St. Margarets talking to Mother Jane when I looked behind her and there were picture of the previous Ghana mission trip.  She gave me what information she had and told me that there would be a trip in October.  I got Frank’s number and called him five minutes later.  My dad then took it into his hands to make sure I went on this trip. He made sure Frank knew about my interest and got me signed up.

A couple of months later, when Archbishop Justice came to St. Margarets to meet with the team at dinner I had decided that I could not go because my professors did not want me to take the time off.  God had different plans, of course, and at dinner it was announced in front of the entire Parish Hall that I was going!  From that point on I knew that I had no choice, it was in God's hands.  

As the trip came nearer and nearer I became more and more excited.  When the semester started I let all of my professors know that they had no choice but to let me have the time off to go so they were forced to be okay with the idea of me missing two weeks.  
Before I knew it, I was on a plane to Ghana.  To sum up my experience in a nutshell - I need to go back there.  Every time I have a quiet moment I think of Ghana and all that comes with it, I think about everyone that I have met and all of the people I prayed for.  I think about the goats running around the villages and the children begging to have their picture taken.  I pray for everyone there especially all of the people we treated at the medical outreach.  I have now seen and experienced so many things that I never realized existed.  

I came to Ghana believing that I knew everything there was to know about Africa.  I came back realizing that I only knew of the bad and that there are so many wonderful qualities that textbooks and articles ignore.  Yes, there are a lot of problems in the region, there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed but although they lack the things that we believe create a developed nation, they possess things that this superpower (the U.S.) lacks indefinitely.  They have a depth of faith in god that I have never experienced before in any church in any state in this nation. God performs miracles openly there to show the unbelievers – the fetish worshippers – that He is the one and only God. 

God wants me to go back and I have no choice but to kneel and obey. I cannot wait to return and see my new brothers and sisters in July!

                                                                                    Jennifer Bement
                                                                                    November 25, 2006

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