My Transformative Testimony - A Call To Missions

I serve as a missionary with the Team Expansion church planting team in Ghana, West Africa, teaching Bible lessons, and helping train church leaders involved in Church Planting Movements among Unreached People Groups.

Mike Squires teaching Malaria prevention in Africa

My Childhood in Humanites

When I was 12 years old I decided the purpose of my life was to help people. One way to do that was to serve as a Peace Corps agricultural volunteer in West Africa. I started studying West Africa when I was 12 years old, it has always fascinated me.

Son of a librarian and social worker, and nephew of an environmentalist, I grew up in libraries, surrounded by information, and studying the geography and history of every country in the world. This training prepared me to serve as a resource person: inventorying, gathering, processing and disseminating ideas, information and resources.

The Death of my Parents

Over the years 1975 and 1976, when I was only twenty-two, my parents died. The emptiness inside deepened. I realized that I needed something more stable to anchor my life. Reflecting upon their lives I have tried to use their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.

Interest in God

I became somewhat interested in God to add additional meaning to my life. However, I didn't become a Christian because I didn't have a Bible in a translation I could understand, and no one invited me to church service, Bible study, or youth group. All in all, I felt insecure due to my parents’ divorce and that they couldn't be counted on for emotional support and encouragement.

I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer 1977-80 in Mali, West Africa and then later in 1988-94 in Togo, West Africa.

Saved by God through Missionaries

I myself am a product of the foreign mission field. Missionaries led me to Christ in 1978 while I was 25 years old serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in the town of Gao in the Sahara Desert of northern Mali, West Africa.

Since receiving Christ in to my life I have known peace, the security of God’s love, and the promise of eternal life. I have found the spiritual resources necessary to face the many difficulties of life. This transformed my life by revealing my purpose, that God created me to serve Him by having a positive impact in peoples’ lives, that it was God who called me to Africa before I even knew Him, and that I will never be the same because of these things.

Mike Squires teaching The Role of the Christian

My thinking has been transformed to understand that God created each of us to love and serve Him and our fellow people as agents of change and transformation, the Great Commandment and Great Commission, despite obstacles. That I must study why people behave the way they do, and what can be done about it, how changing our attitudes changes our behavior. That you cannot always change your external circumstances, but you can change how you perceive and react to those circumstances. That transformational development focuses on reconciliation of broken relationships with God, self, others and creation; and that teaching transformational development in a community leads to community transformation.

My Calling into Missions

One way I show my gratitude is by serving as a missionary myself. Since 1994, I've worked to mobilize others for involvement in missions. Missionaries served as role models during the nine years I served in secular community development. My involvement in mission churches was the equivalent of an apprenticeship, an on-the-job training in how to serve as a missionary in African villages.

In total, I have served in West Africa for 21 years: Nine years in the Peace Corps Mali and Togo; six years in Togo at the Lutheran Church in Missouri Synod; and six years in Togo with the Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Team Expansion Ghana works closely with the Wycliffe Bible Translators in local language media to spread the Gospel, so I am able to use the same skills I used with Wycliffe.

Transformation for Africa

I partner with God to help transform people’s lives. We bring encouragement and emotional support, giving the people of Africa hope. This results in their lives being improved both spiritually and physically. We also teach the people how to work together to solve problems starting with training leaders.

Mike Squires training African church leaders in leadership skills 

People have a great need for effective leadership in rural Africa. So I came to Africa to teach community development to budding leaders. The transformations that took place in Togo include:

• hearts changed
• people learned how to lead with character
• people brought to Christ
• churches built
• communities went from nothing to something
• and people learned about AIDS and other physical threats

Mike Squires teaching AIDS prevention in Africa

This training and mentoring has led to previous co-workers becoming the president and secretary of the national church, and the church becoming an independent, self-governing partner church. They are carrying on the work in Togo, freeing me to serve across the border in Ghana, about 250 miles from where I served in Togo for 16 years.

My vocation is teaching people how to work together to solve problems, and the villages of West Africa have many problems to solve, so I feel quite needed there.

Thank you for reading about the story of my personal transformation.