I’m CSPC member Caroline Badgett. This is how I’m living deeply. 

“We had no plan. Literally none. What started as a planned mission trip turned into a visit to Ghana for some purpose unknown to us. Here’s the backstory: My husband Ross and I learned about CSPC’s Africa mission team at the church’s mission conference (our favorite week!) a couple years ago. We’d just gotten back from South Africa, where our daughter was doing some missions work, so that helped spark our interest. We ended up joining the Africa mission team. Then our nephew married a girl from Ghana, and we sort of latched on to Ghana as an area of interest. Fast forward to last spring: A group of CSPC mission partners came over from Africa, including Sam Boateng, who serves with City to City in -you guessed it- Ghana! Sam stayed with us here in Knoxville, and we just fell in love with him. One of the nicest people we’ve ever met. Genuinely caring- really wants to know about you and a really good listener. Communication was easy because English is Sam’s primary language, and he was just super easy to talk to. We connected at a deeper level than probably any of us expected. With that friendship established, Ross started putting together a short-term CSPC mission trip to Ghana for the end of summer. The idea was to maybe help Young Life Africa organize some camps (or to serve however they could use us) and to see Sam. But we learned pretty quickly that Young Life Africa was also having a big conference over there during the time we were targeting for our trip. Our planning guide kept saying, ‘Don’t worry about it. Come on over. We’ll figure it out.’ But Ross was like, ‘I cannot bring a team of people over here with no plan.’ He was getting very frustrated, about to scrap the whole thing. I felt differently, though. I told him, ‘Let’s not scrap it. I feel like we’re supposed to go. If for nothing else, we’re supposed to be there for Sam. We’ve already told him we’re coming. He’s very excited about us coming. So you and I will just go. We can wing it.’ So that’s exactly what we did and what the trip turned into: Ross and Caroline, on our own, going to Ghana.

The thing nobody tells you about mission trips is that sometimes the ministry isn’t a task- sometimes just showing up IS the ministry. We did briefly go to a Young Life Africa camp way out in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. That was fun- outside the range of GPS, sort of an adventure. The campers and organizers were glad we were there. But the most meaningful part of this trip -the thing that changed us- was Sam and his family. Sam pastors a church- great theology, great training, very rooted in God’s Word. He and his wife Gifty have kids. And from the moment we got there, they all just wanted to be with us. They even invited us to their family vacation- just a couple nights on the beach somewhere in Ghana. I said, ‘No, this is your family time. You’re about to send your oldest off to boarding school. This is your last time with your daughter. We don’t want to get in the way.’ But Sam insisted, ‘No, no. We really want you to come.’ And it was a big deal to them. So we went and we just stayed up late, talked, and hung out with them and their friends. Gifty, by the way, is the total opposite of Sam. She has this big shell around her, and it was hard to crack. And I get it- being a preacher’s wife, everybody looks at you. You’re supposed to be perfect. You can’t really talk to anybody about real things. So I just tried to be a place of freedom for her, a place where she could be real. Moms and wives talking about struggles- just girlfriends, you know? It took days. But by the last day, Gifty and I were just lying by the pool, talking. Just like girlfriends, just like I’d hoped. The husbands stayed away because they could see we were, by that point, close friends sharing meaningful things. And it meant the world to Sam. He said, ‘She doesn’t do that.’ For her to just be smiling and talking like that- it meant everything.

When we got home, I realized there were really two reasons God wanted us in Ghana. The first one is this: It was huge to Sam and Gifty for us to be there. Just to be with them, to encourage them and love on them. And I’d say this is my biggest encouragement to anyone at CSPC who thinks, ‘I’ve got nothing to offer.’ Wrong. You can give the gift of presence. Sam’s used to getting visits from City to City staff to check in on his church. That’s needed- and expected. But when someone shows up just because they care, with no ulterior motive, no transaction at the end- that’s different. That’s what Sam saw in us. He kept telling me I had no idea how big this was: ‘You all came just to be with us. Nobody’s ever done that for us.’ We weren’t there to check on the church. Nothing like that. We were there to invest. To deepen a friendship. And for them, that meant everything. The whole trip, I kept hearing God say: ‘Be still.’ I don’t do that well. I love working, and that’s a blessing. But I felt like He was telling me, ‘There are times when you’ve got to be still and just rest in me.’ And there were moments in Ghana where all we could do was sit, be present. And I started realizing- that’s not wasted time. That IS the work. Americans so often want to make a connection, check the box, and go. Done. Transactional. But that’s not really how genuine, loving relationships work, is it? The second reason we were supposed to be there: to start plans for hopefully sending another group from CSPC this summer. Sam kept saying it would be great if young Americans came over (people in Ghana have deep respect for Americans of any age). And I think that’s coming, too. Besides the official CSPC trip, a friend of our daughter is already planning to take about five people over there. Not as a formal mission program. As friends. As people who just want to show up and be present. Because that’s what Ghana taught us. You have to be intentional and make time for relationships, which echoes the way we’re tenderly seen, genuinely known, and deeply loved by our Lord. It’s all about relationships- with the Lord, with each other. Whether you’re in Ghana or right here in Knoxville.”