Our SIM Ghana team is made up of a mix of people. Some from East Africa. Some from India. Some from England. Some from North America. And some from Ghana. The ones from Ghana work with an organization called Sports Friends. Ben, Josiah and Eric serve with them. I said to someone if there were more Bens, Erics, and Josiahs around, Ghana would not need us. They are amazing and serve the Lord in amazing ways.
Ben and Eric live in the Upper East and Northern Regions of Ghana. They were traveling down to Kumasi to join the rest of us for Spiritual Life Conference (SLC) in July. Ben was ahead traveling with his wife Jacqueline and two of their children. Eric and his family were in a car behind them with Ben’s son.
Here is Ben’s story, in his own words, sharing with our team, during Testimony Time (Parenthesis are added notes for understanding.):
“Before this incident happened, a week to our coming here, every night we would see an accident in our dreams. Every night. We were like, ‘should we continue on this journey or not?’ (going to Kumasi) I said, ‘God you are in charge.’
We left for Kumasi on Monday with Eric following us. It was getting dark as we reached Kumasi. We were still on the outskirts of Kumasi. Then, it happened so fast, I remember seeing a small boy, in yellow, dart out into the road. I tried to swerve from his running, but he ran into me not guessing I would do that. I hit this boy with the front corner of my car. He rolled onto the bonnet and down to the road. I pulled over and was about to get out of the car. I heard this voice, or something in me say, ‘just go, keep going.’ So, I got back in the car, shaking. My wife was yelling, ‘Oh God, why? Oh God!’ People started to come after my car with sticks, pipes, and rocks. They were going to smash the car and maybe hit us inside of it. I have my children in the car!! I had to move on. (Vigilante justice in Ghana is real and active.) I hated to run away, hated it, but I didn’t know what else to do. I saw them pick the boy up and he was unconscious. It was terrible. Some men on motorbikes started to chase me. I am sure they called friends in nearby towns that we were passing to stop us. I had to go and go fast. Thankfully, by that time of night there was no traffic, and I was able to run away without anyone following.
We arrived at SLC late Monday night. We came to talk to Sister Sherri. Eric made it by that time also. Since Eric was behind us, he saw what happened and he could see them pick the boy and put him into a taxi. (To take him to the hospital.)
That night some of you prayed for me and Jacqueline. We prayed in our rooms throughout the night. We prayed the Lord would sustain this boy’s life. I saw the kid fall and how he was lying on the road. There was no way this child would live. Who can withstand that kind of hit? ‘Oh Jesus give this boy life,’ we prayed throughout the night. And again prayed, ‘God you are the giver of life. I don’t care, whatever, I will go thru I will hand it over to let this child live.’
In the morning we ate breakfast and Eric, Josiah and I went to make things right. We prayed and asked God to help and let the process be shortened. I heard cases like this before and sometimes it can take lots of money and it can take more than a year to be settled. So, yeah, God heard our cry. He heard. (Ghana’s justice system is slow and has lots of bureaucracy…to put it nicely.)
God shortened this process. ‘God, have your way we don’t know what to say we know you will lead us.’ And so, when we stepped out that morning, we didn’t even know the community where the accident happened. We passed places and we saw different police check points and kept going and continued the journey. We did not remember where the accident took place. But, I know, like Elijah, somewhere God had Elijah to meet a certain widow. Sometimes we think our help will come from somewhere when we don’t expect it. We were just looking for any police station to go and surrender for the case to move forward. We passed places and stopped and passed. But God prepared a somebody, a policeman…first in history where a policeman sees a lucrative case like this and does not handle it that way. This case is very lucrative. A policeman could easily be able to get something. They pretend to help you, but they know what they are looking for. (bribes) This man with sincerity of heart, we know it was Jesus.
We narrated the story to him. He said yes, he told us it was the next check point where I should have surrendered. I narrated how it was and that we thought it was best to report to our team leaders before we return. He said, ‘ok, fine, no problem.’ Then he started calling other officers with his phone. He used his own phone credit. At a certain point his credit finished, and he borrowed credit and continued.
Offinso is the nearest station, and he is the operational commander and called a commander under him and told him the story. He put it in a way that hid my identity. If, in fact, you declare an identity they will ask to bring that person in to jail and impound the car. And then they must investigate and find the family before they release you or the car. The policeman did not go in that direction.
He called his colleagues. He narrated my story and said I am his friend, took my statement, took the particulars, got phone numbers, and released the car. THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED in accident cases. I have been involved in situations like this and seen cars parked for months/weeks.
They (the police) were helpful. They knew someone to call (from the family of the boy that was hit) about the family. They said they got a call from the family and the boy was still alive and still at the hospital. I just raised my hands and praised and began thanking God. About 30 minutes later they called and said the boy had been discharged. They called the parents, and they brought the boy to meet us. When the father came, he said to us, ‘look this thing, (Ben coming to find them) we shouldn’t bother, it has happened, and he is alive. That is it.’ One amazing thing the father said was that this is his community, and this is the first time an accident occurred at this spot and the person is still alive. Every accident in this place someone dies. They even lost their brother’s daughter before. All other cases people have died. For this child to live…we just have to thank God. When they called him (the father) on the phone that his child was involved in an accident, he knew he would come to pick a dead body. But to his amazement his son was alive. So, as we came to speak with him, he was rather sympathizing with us!
We just know this one, this particular one is of the Lord. God answered prayers.”
Praise God along with Ben for his mercy and goodness. Ben is still in contact with the boy’s family.
Ben, Jacqueline, and their children.