When children’s author Jane Efua Asamoah was a young school girl growing up in Ghana, she was given the assignment of writing an essay which she titled, Myself. In it, she answered questions about herself such as: What is your name? How old are you? Where do you live?

Years later as an adult, her mind would refocus on the questions in that essay as she sought to find out who God is, and come to know Him personally as a result. 

Jane learned to pray as a young child with her mother. Her mother was an active Anglican Church member who lived her faith by serving the Church in any way she was able. She believed her children should attend with her every time the church doors opened. Jane recalls that Tuesday was her only day off from church. Wednesday was mid-week service, Thursday was Bible study at a neighbor’s house. Friday was prayer meeting and Saturday was spent cleaning and preparing the church for Sunday services. Sunday the worship service lasted several hours; and then her family remained until everyone had gone home, her mother then gathering the robes of the priest and altar boys. Monday was spent washing and ironing those. 

“I grew to hate church,” Jane laughs now. “I couldn’t wait to leave home and be free from all the chores that going to church involved.”

But even when Jane finally left home to attend high school (most high schools are boarding schools in Ghana) and college, going to church was so ingrained in her that she found herself joining Bible studies and prayer groups and hanging with Christian students. “I didn’t really understand what I was doing though,” Jane explains. “It was a way of life I had learned from my mother and I felt obligated.”

The church-going routine continued after Jane married. She had grown up in the same town as her husband. He had been a childhood friend and playmate. Their friendship blossomed into love and marriage, and after he came to the United States to study medicine, Jane joined him here in 2009.

But as time went on and Jane became the mother of three sons, she began to question her faith more and more. Things came to a head after the birth of her youngest son. Who are You, God? Why do I worship You? Can I know You for myself? These troubling thoughts plagued her as they battled their way into her mind. As if God Himself was answering, the idea of her childhood essay came back to her. It was as if she had just written it. God seemed to be encouraging her to ask the same questions to God about Himself as she had answered about herself in the essay.

This was about 2016, and also about that time she heard things from TV evangelists that influenced her in her quest. Particularly while listening to a sermon by Joseph Prince, Jane was moved to take up his suggestion to get into the Word herself. “Jesus said, ‘Come unto me you who are burdened and heavy laden,’” Prince said. “Don’t take my word for it. Open the Bible and let it teach you.”

Jane says she took that literally. As she asked her questions, she found the answer to each in Scripture. For example, she felt silly asking God what His name was. Of course everyone knew it was God. But as she began to read Genesis, she saw that Moses also had asked God what His name was. And God had answered. Jane began to realize that God had many names, each with a particular meaning.

When she asked God how old he was, she learned the concept of Alpha and Omega—an ageless God who has always been, and will exist forever. 

What is your favorite food?—and the answer came in Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well in John 4, followed by a conversation with His disciples when they came upon Jesus and the woman. “We have food for you,” they told Him. 

“But I’ve eaten,” He told them. “My food is to do the will of God,” which baffled the disciples much as it would have Jane, previously. But now she was beginning to get her answers which led to a personal realization of Who Jesus is. That He is God, that His work led Him to the cross which alone provides salvation, and that through finding Jesus, Jane now knows God. 

Now instead of the heaviness of obligated church service, she works joyfully and enthusiastically wherever and for whatever God calls her to do. “God has His own way of giving us assignments,” she laughs. 

For Jane that began at University in Ghana, where she studied Sociology and since has acquired a Master’s degree. She has spent time as a social worker/intern and later clinician in emergency rooms in hospitals in various cities where she and her husband have lived. This has given her insight practically and spiritually, but she also has felt God calling her to a different vocation. She always loved journaling—the idea of writing your innermost thoughts and nobody reading it. It was easier for her to write what she felt than to speak it. When she went through the period of asking God questions, she wrote all of that down. She would even wake up in the night and write.

This surprised her. Never before had such things interrupted her sleep. She shared her writing with a friend who thought it was very good. “Please write a Bible study for women in my church,” she told Jane. So Jane did. And she loved doing it. She decided that when her family moved to Roanoke in 2019, she just might start a writing career. But God had other plans. Covid struck, schools closed, and she began spending more time with her children and thinking about teaching them about spiritual things.

Then one day her brother asked her to contact his pastor back in Ghana to thank him for something; and in that conversation with his pastor, she mentioned how parents don’t take the time they should to teach their children, delegating it to church programs and Sunday School teachers instead. The pastor asked Jane to talk to his wife and maybe start a Bible study about parenting at their church in Ghana. After all, during Covid, everyone was doing meetings using the internet. Soon Jane found herself conducting a Bible study with women in a Ghanaian church from the parking lot of her son’s school—so that she would be ready to pick him up when his school dismissed. 

One of the topics discussed during the study was how hard it was to read the Bible—long pages in small black print, let alone trying to explain it all to a child. Jane explained that she used a Bible with larger print and illustrations for her children. That year at Christmas she decided to buy a copy of that Bible for every woman in the study.

In January, the Ghanaian pastor called Jane to ask if she could send more Bibles. What has grown from this request is a Bible drive that has sent hundreds of copies of The Action Bible to Ghana. Raising money for this project has become a passion for Jane, as her website, gemsforgenerations.com, quickly informs its visitors. Jane sees the Bible project as a “great joy to partner with other believers in leading children in the ways of Jesus.”

Leading children to Jesus and equipping parents to better do this, has become Jane’s main focus. She actively blogs on this topic. Her blogs are found on her website Gems for Generations. There Jane also describes the meaning behind the bird depicted in her logo. She writes, “The Sankofa bird is a Ghanaian (African) concept that symbolizes the importance of looking back at our past to create a better future….a reminder that we shouldn't forget where we came from or the knowledge that was passed down to us. The egg in the bird's mouth symbolizes gems of wisdom for the next generation. That same idea appears in Psalm 78 of the Bible, where we are urged to pass on God's wisdom to our children.” 

Even though Jane has written three books for children (preschool and early elementary level), they too, are tools for parents to use to teach their children about God. Each answers questions children may ask concerning God and in a relatable manner for children, the mom in each story gives practical answers from Scripture. Patrick Noze has added compelling illustrations for each book to hold children’s attention.

My Mommy’s Name Is Mommy discusses the many names of God. After the young child in the story becomes lost in a big store, he is found by a store clerk who asks what his mother’s name is so she can make an announcement on the store’s intercom. But the boy only knows his mother by Mommy. This leads to the fact that God like Mommy, has other names. An activity at the end of the book asks children to identity other names for God.

God’s Unblinkable Eyes begins when the young boy in the story wants to have a staring contest with his brother. His mom takes this opportunity to talk about God’s eyes, and all that God sees all the time. The book effectively explains the meaning of omniscient in a way children will understand. The back of the book lists Scriptures used in the telling of the story.

In The Mysterious Fence a mom and her son take an evening walk and play a game of “I Spy.” As they come into view of an invisible fence in their neighbor’s yard, their conversation turns to an invisible God, Who has left multiple signs of His existence in full view of us. The young boy ponders these things as he goes to sleep later that night, and thanks God for His magnificence and power as He cares for the universe and the creatures in it. 

Consider Jane’s books as you buy presents this season for the children in your life.  Visit Jane’s website, Walmart, Target, or Amazon for more information on how to obtain them. And stay tuned for more books in the future. Jane is still full of new ideas, and ready to write more. Like Joseph when interpreting Pharoah’s dream, Jane realizes that whatever God wants her to write, will get written. “I can’t but God can!” she says emphatically. “I just love it. I feel like I started to do this to teach [moms and kids] but God has used it to teach me. So much.”