I’ve always had a passion for helping people in need and became involved with Touch A Life through divine appointment at a business dinner with the organization’s co-founders, Pam and Randy Cope. After hearing Pam and Randy share about Jantsen’s Gift, Pam’s memoir, and the beginnings of this amazing organization, I knew I had to get involved. As the former Managing Director of the High Road Agency, the team there and I were able to help increase awareness of Touch A Life through our marketing and social media strategies in 2018 and 2019. Several of the High Road Team, myself included, had the privilege of visiting Ghana in the fall of 2018. I have loved getting my wife April and our two boys Ethan and Truman involved as I shared stories about the work Touch A Life was doing and the ways in which High Road Agency was helping spread the word about that work. We are currently serving at the Care Center in Ghana as teachers for the first semester of the newly formed school on site.
My dad once was given a one-question test in school. The question was simply, ”Why?” Children around him began to write down their responses so they could be first to turn the paper back into the teacher. My dad simply wrote,” Why not?” and turned it in. When the day came for the teacher to return the graded papers, she handed my dad’s back to him with a big A+ at the top. She whispered to him, “Not the answer I was expecting, but great job, Robert.”
Several times over the last couple of months I have been asked, “Why are you moving your family to Ghana, Africa, to work with Touch A Life as they start a school at the Care Center?” My response has become a variation of because God has called us to go. It’s not hard to fall in love the first time you meet these amazing children at the Care Center. As I left Ghana in September 2018, after my first trip, I knew I would be back, but I never truly believed I would be living here for an extended period of time with my wife and two sons. When God calls, we have two decisions: We can be obedient or we can be disobedient. Our family chose to be obedient to the calling, to step out of our comfort zones, and to love without reservation. You see, God didn’t need the Bunches to help start a school. He has allowed us to be a part of the process, honored us to be additional sets of His hands and feet here, and blessed us by giving us HIS amazing children to love.
It takes a village to raise a child is an old African proverb (we all have heard it before, I am sure) — it means it takes an entire community of people to help children grow in a safe and healthy environment. We are seeing the results of this firsthand each and every day. When the people that love Touch A Life are asked the question “Why should I help?” they respond with their own versions of “Why not?” Why shouldn’t we be the ones to help provide the right home for these children? We all have been called to love others for who they are and where they are.