# Holy Sacrifices Language: en Author: by Ross Ulrich Original issue: The Heartbeat of The Remnant, March/April 2001, Number 2 Source pages: 26–28 Read article: Original PDF: 2001\-03\-remnant\.pdf [The Heartbeat of The Remnant, March/April 2001]() ![A robed figure standing with raised arms\.]() ![Charity African Missions emblem with a globe and outline of Africa\.]() > *“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell\. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident\. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple\.” > Psalm 27:1\-4\.* ## The Offering Up of My Life I would have thought that David, a man of war, may have desired above all else to annihilate God’s enemies\. But no, above all he desired to see the beauty of the Lord\. I believe this is the right priority\. All true service for Christ must flow from a heart enraptured with Him\. How I need more of this “Mary” heart, choosing the one necessary thing, sitting at Jesus’ feet\. It seems to me, that this was the only thing and the most important thing, even in the midst of enemies and battles\. Oh, for a heart that is so set on my God, that I will not lose sight of Him or my desire for Him no matter what the troubled circumstances might be\. ## The Offering Up of the Youth The youth team from the States is here in Ghana since January 13th\. They will fly home on this coming Tuesday, Feb\. 13, Lord willing\. What a joy to see them offer up their lives for service to the King\! They have been such a blessing to all the missionaries here\. Sacrificial service describes them so very well\. They gave my family the week off while they stayed with us and took over so many of the household duties\. I don’t know how we would have made it at our missionary retreat if they hadn’t stepped in and carried much of the load\. They are now in the North, so I don’t hear much of their exploits there\. But God really used them during the week they were here in the South\. They shared programs in 4 different high schools\. One school was a girls’ school and about 1,500 girls came to the service\. The girls on the youth team preached at that school\. We’ve already received a letter from one of the girls who was at that service and was encouraged\. The last program was at a Methodist boys’ school in Cape Coast\. The electricity was off and we nearly canceled the program\. We finally decided to shine the car headlights in the back door, and the team used flashlights to see their songbooks\. The program went on fairly well\. Even without a p\.a\. system the 600 to 800 boys who attended could hear because the acoustics in the huge old chapel were good, and the boys were attentive\. After the service they normally give about 15\-30 minutes for interaction with the school students\. But because the electricity was off and the students couldn’t go for evening study time, we had a two\-hour question and answer session\. The youth team broke into small groups, each surrounded by a mass of curious students, asking serious questions like, “What do you think of Gospel rock?” and “Is it right for a Christian to have a girlfriend?” and “How can you tell if a prophecy is from the Lord or not?” What seemed to be a hindrance \(the light outage\) was really a great blessing\! At first we were pleading with God to restore the power so the program could go on well\. After it was all over and we saw God’s better plan, we thanked Him for keeping the lights off\! Praise God for His sovereign design in all events of our lives\. I’m sure the youth will have many more stories to tell of God’s working in the Northern Region\. ## The Offering Up of a Son Our missionary retreat at Kumasi turned out much different than we had planned\. Our all\-wise God had some very special exercises of faith for Cynthia and me\. It was a blessing to have Bro\. Denny with us again, hearing our hearts and sharing God’s Word\. My brother Roy was also here, which was a special treat, though our time together was short\. Ah, someday we will say good\-bye no more, as we sit down together in the glory of His kingdom and share for all eternity\. Back to my story, which starts even before we went to the retreat\. Our youngest child, Adriel \(19 months\), was sick with malaria\. We treated him with chloroquine and went in faith\. When we got to the retreat he was still very sick, so we took him to a private hospital for blood tests and treatment\. He did indeed have malaria, so they gave him two more chloroquine injections\. He was not looking very good that evening, very pale and lethargic\. The following morning, Bro\. Denny preached on not being offended in Christ, on going on with the Lord even when overwhelmed with circumstances we do not understand\. Immediately after the message, Adriel went into convulsions\! We had never had such an experience before\. Quickly, I asked Bro\. Denny to pray, then we let our children give little unconscious Adriel a kiss goodbye\. Then Cynthia and I hurried across the city toward the hospital, while the rest were having an earnest prayer meeting\. I have never had such a drive in an African city as that day\. The traffic was backed up, as usual\. I didn’t know how I could wait for this traffic to move, so I drove up on the sidewalk with my lights flashing\. How we cried and prayed to God as we drove\! It broke our hearts to see his little body twitching and his eyes blinking involuntarily, staring as if blind\. We told God that Adriel belonged to Him, and that if He would get more glory by healing him, then He should heal him\. But if it would bring more glory to God by taking him, He could take him, because Adriel was His\. It was truly heart\-rending, but we felt the peace of God even as we were rushing across the city with tears running down our cheeks\. We didn’t know how God would answer\. As others have said, “A missionary buries his children many times in his heart\.” Well, we praise God, for he gave us back our “Isaac”\. We marvel again and again at God’s mercies\! That time, the hospital admitted Adriel and gave him several quinine IVs and a pint of blood from our oldest son, Michael\. As I write this, little Adriel is doing fine\. He is a happy little boy full of sparkles and smiles\. God bless all of you who received the hot\-line message and interceded for us through this difficult time\. ## The Offering Up of the National Leaders Please continue to pray for the leaders and the church at Wawase\. We are having indigenous growing pains, and it is hard to know what to do at times\. The financial implications of the church here and our mission being two separate organizations is discouraging them\. We have been trying to back away from financial support \(building church buildings, financing crusades, etc\.\)\. It seems to have taken the wind out of their sails\. It is the old matter of unmet expectations\. We are much to blame by initially doing these things and thus setting a precedent\. Pray that the church at Wawase, especially the leaders \(Elders Joseph Enti and Charles Otoo, and Deacon Alfred\) will not be bitter toward the mission\. Pray that they will put their trust and expectations in God, and that they will take courage and “rise up and build” God’s Kingdom\. I know that the church here can go forward without financing from the mission, but the whole prospect looks very bleak and long and tiresome to those who were expecting the mission to underwrite the projects\. Pray also that God will give me wisdom to deal humbly, patiently and with understanding\. These men are real Christians, but this is a great disappointment to them\. Pray that the adversary, the Devil and his wicked spirits, would be defeated as they try to use this situation to destroy God’s work\. ## The Offering Up of Thanksgiving God bless and eternally reward those of you who intercede for us and the souls here\. Many times we feel the warfare\. I get the feeling that the sundial of time has nearly run out, and Satan is redoubling his efforts\. I cannot begin to find the words to express how we all feel toward you who pray\. I can say as Paul did, “that thanksgiving was rebounding to the glory of God\.” Only eternity will reveal the effect of your prayers on the many circumstances here\. I praise God and draw strength from promises such as Isaiah 59:19, *“So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun\. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him\.”* And Isaiah 41:10, *“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness\.”* And again, Isaiah 43:2, *“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee\.”* All these sacrifices, holy sacrifices, and for what? For the souls of men we all do these things\. In eternity the many offerings will seem so small as we gaze upon *“the Lamb as it had been slain, in the midst of the throne”\.* We will meet our labors there, our works do follow us\. Brothers and sisters, let us hold fast, being unmovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord\. *Servants of the soon\-returning King of kings, the Lord Jesus, of whose kingdom there shall be no end,* *Ross & Cynthia Ulrich and family*