How We Started

Our ministry in Ghana started with one small American family, living in rural Iowa, who obeyed the Lord’s leading to adopt an orphan from Ghana.  That first trembling step of obedience happened in September 2008.  What this family didn’t know was that the impact on many, many more lives hinged off them obeying this first initial instruction to adopt.  The adoption completed in 2010, but it didn’t turn out to be the end of the work that the Lord wanted to do.  It was actually just the beginning.  One child had been helped in Ghana, but now this family’s eyes had been opened to the many more in the country who still needed help. 

From there, through a series of divine orchestrations and relationships that can only be attributed to holy set-ups, in December 2010 this family was further led to a little village in the Eastern region of Ghana called Asikuma.  And an interesting thought rose to the surface.  What if they planted themselves here – built into this community and invested in lives over time?  What would God do? 

Well, it turns out - a lot.  And He did it through emphasizing from the very beginning to establish mission on relationships – to be loyal and consistent in the lives of those being served, and to pursue individuals in order to press them onward toward the truth and revelation of Jesus.  That’s discipleship.  It’s a long-term investment in one life at a time.  And that has, and always will be the founding principle of our work.

Over the past 9 years, this long-term investment in a community unfolded into developing a mission campus in Asikuma complete with a children’s center (home to orphans ranging in ages from 2-17), school (over 300 students enrolled from various communities in and around Asikuma), women’s center (young girls are selected to enroll in a two year course to learn a specific trade, with the long term plan of finding them a job), and volunteer house (where volunteers from all over the world come and stay to serve on campus).

Our children’s center in Asikuma opened in September of 2014, and we currently have over 30 orphans living under our full-time care at the center.  Each of these children come from vulnerable situations.  Some were abandoned and neglected, some experienced the death of a birthparent which changed the whole course of their lives, some have been rejected due to the stigma of having HIV/AIDS, some have severe medical or special needs in which living family members are unable to provide adequate care.  Behind every face and name is a unique story and circumstance, and by the grace of God He chose to include us into the story of these precious lives to help.  We help by providing care for basic needs, education, medical care, love, attention, a safe place to recover and grow, identification of God-given gifts and talents – as well as the opportunities to fashion and form them, and the assistance into a hopeful future.  Some of our children are adopted into loving families.  Those who are not are given assistance by Royal Promise to thrive in the country of Ghana by attending high school or University, to learn a skill or trade, or they are given aid and support to find employment. 

In 2015 we opened a second mission center on the outskirts of Cape Coast, Ghana in the community of Nkanfoa.  This center was birthed as a result of the Lord leading us to a drug house and standing face to face with the tremendous need of helping women stuck in prostitution, and men and women battling drug addictions.  We wanted to offer them a safe place to remove themselves from the temptations of that lifestyle, and to recover and reorder their lives on a relationship with the Lord.  This facility happened to be laid before us at just the right time and it served as a rehabilitation center for a few initial years.  Over time, the vision of this center has transformed as we’ve followed the Lord’s leading to redirect our focus on orphan care in this area of Ghana as well.  We currently have seven children living under our care at our Cape Coast Center, and have established a good working relationship with social welfare in this region.  As we redirect our focus in this area, we expect to be taking in more children to our center in Cape Coast as funds allow.  Our future hope is that our campus in Cape Coast can become as life-giving and helpful to the community as our campus in Asikuma has grown to be. 

In John 12:24 Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Our work in Ghana started with one family, choosing to lay down their life to help one child.  And in God’s upside-down Kingdom, that dying to self turned into multiplication.  We, Royal Promise, are the result of one changed life producing many changed lives. 

We know it well: changing just one, can change everything.