Church visit blossoms into project to construct entire orphanage.

DAVID PERLMUTT

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Maybe it was the glint in the children's eyes that grabbed friends Matt Garrett and Jeff Miller on their first visit to Ghana in 2000. Or perhaps it was the embrace of Ghanaians that kept them going back.

Whatever it was, they'd go home wanting to help.

In June, the two led a group of Americans to the coastal town of Keta and broke ground for The Father's House International Orphanage that will keep 16 girls and 16 boys.

"On the initial trip we were just a couple of knuckleheads going to Africa to see what we could do to help," said Garrett, who works for a Charlotte mortgage company. "I'd never been on a mission and had never even thought about going to Africa.

"It just felt like something we were supposed to do."

Their story has moved many who want to help. Miller and Garrett have raised $20,000 from donations -- they'll need another $80,000 to finish building, furnish and staff the orphanage. Others have volunteered to go to Keta and hammer nails.

And next Thursday, Bethel Presbyterian Church in Cornelius is giving the orphanage a third of the proceeds from its annual barbecue and silent auction.

Their story began in 1999, when they attended a "Catch the Fire" church conference in Toronto, Canada, and met a Ghanaian pastor named David Banini.

Afterward, Miller and Banini wrote and called each other. Nine months later in July 2000 Miller and Garrett found themselves on a plane headed for Ghana, where Banini oversees 40 churches.

"We just hit it off instantly," said Miller, who was a Charlotte masonry contractor for 24 years before moving his family to El Dorado, Kan., two years ago. "We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We weren't connected to any umbrella group, or church or mission group."

They bought Banini a car, an Opel, to replace the bicycle he rode church to church. And they made more trips to Keta, each time seeing the need to help the children.

They always felt the embrace.

One morning, Garrett asked Banini if he had a banana his breakfast.

"Five minutes later a child came running in with a batch of bananas,"he recalled. "David apparently was out of bananas, but instead of disappointing me, he sent this ked to town to get some."

One time, Miller told Banini that he admired a shirt he was wearing. The next morning, the shirt was freshly laundered and lying in Miller's suitcase. "You've got to be careful not to point at things you like," he said.

On a flight home in 2004, Miller thought of the orphanage.

He immediately called Banini and told him to find land they could buy. In no time, Banini called back with news of a woman donating eight acres for the project. Soon Keta's mayor offered to build a road to the land.

"The churches are getting involved and we're finding it doesn't matter if they're Baptists or Presbyterians," Miller said. "It's people laying down doctrinal disagreements and agreeing that something needs to be done to make the world a better place."

Want to help?

The barbecue and silent auction at Bethel Presbyterian Church will operate from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. next Thursday. The address: 19920 Bethel Church Road in Cornelius. Cost: $8 for a barbecue plate and $9 for a pound of barbecue.

If you want to make a donation to the orphanage, make checks to The Father's House International, c/o Bank of the West, 405 N. Main St., El Dorado, Kan., 67042. For more information about the orphanage call Matt Garrett at 704-905-0947.

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