Face To Face

Seth left his home and his country at a young age thinking he had no family left. Then the phone rang…

Seth grew up in Ghana, Africa, the son of the polygamous tribal King. His mother was from another country and could not marry his father or raise their son. Seth was passed around to his father’s other wives who had children of their own. He rarely saw his father and he never saw his mother again. He was unwanted in every home he was shifted into.  

Seth left his country at an early age. Feeling unloved and unwanted he was driven to make something of himself, then return and prove to them all that he was somebody, not a nobody!

He studied to be a seaman. He spent the next 40 years working on the sea. He worked hard and became a helmsman piloting the largest ships and visited ports around the world. 

But he never had a place to go home to. He lived on whatever ship he was working on.  

In a crazy turn of events he survived a shipwreck on the open sea then took to the land for the first time. Homeless, he found his way to the Union Rescue Mission in Skid Row, Los Angeles. He was not an addict but he had a real desire to learn more about God and study his word.

Just recently Seth became the first URM graduate of The Urban Ministry Institute which Deed and Truth sponsors at the mission. It took him 8 years but he has completed the course and I was privileged to hand him an award at the most recent URM graduation.

But the best news of all is who was in attendance. As stated, Seth left home at a young age. He had no idea what had happened to his mother. Then one day about four and a half years ago the phone rang. The person on the other end of the phone began to tell him a story about the two daughters his mother had birthed after she was sent away from Ghana and back to her homeland in Togo.  

The woman on the phone was his sister whom he never knew existed. She was in Togo but said that he had another sister in the United States in the city of Charlotte, NC. He and his sister in Charlotte (Veronica) began to communicate via a video app and they have talked every day for the past 4.5 years. But they had never met in person.

Last month for Seth’s prestigious seminary graduation, Deed and Truth contacted Veronica, and unbeknownst to Seth, flew her out for Seth’s big day. When he saw her in person his mind couldn’t register what his eyes saw.  

They enjoyed the entire weekend together and he also got the bonus of meeting Veronica’s daughter, Josephine, his niece, who came with her. It was remarkable to experience and to share in Seth’s joy.  

A huge “thank you” to one of our Deed and Truth donors for helping Betty and I make this dream a reality for both Seth and Veronica. It became the greatest day of Seth’s life, meeting his sister for the first time, Face to Face!