Day 13-14 – Agona/Takoradi

I expressly tell Bro. Jeff, “when we get to the border, we need to know exactly the address we are staying, last time you said ‘use my Paga address’ and since we weren’t going to Paga, I get sent to the office.”

“Ok Ok” He says.

Well, he doesn’t know the address, and the immigration officer helping us fill out our cards says “you live in Ghana? Just use that address” so we use that address.

I hand my card and passport to the man behind the desk

“where are you going?”

“Takoradi”

“Why are you putting Paga on your card?” And a bunch of other intelligible words of increduility.

Back to square one…

“I TOLD YOU not to do this”

Well, I didn’t know the address, I thought Bro. Jeff did, so he was working with the immigration officer helping to fill out our cards. Had I looked at it and seen Paga, I would have freaked out on him BEFORE the immigration officer freaked out on me.

Bro. Jeff made some phone calls to get Bro. Stephen’s exact address, and we filled out new cards, and finally our passports were stamped and we were on our way. Well, that is, we crossed the “border” and waited for Bro. Prince to pick us up.

Bro. Prince arrived after a half hour or so and conveyed us on to Agona, which is about 30 minutes west of Takoradi. They placed me in a hotel to rest, and they went on doing some errands and things. This hotel is near Bro. Prince’s church in Agona, and tomorrow, I will be going to a different hotel in Takoradi.

So, using a little bit of my 1 GB international plan, I called AnnaMay and generally relaxed throughout the day. I spent most of the day reading. I brought “The Count of Monte Cristo” with me on this trip and I’m so glad I did as it has been a welcome diversion through my many “sit here and rest at the hotel”.  While I’m thankful for the rest as all the travel and preaching is pretty hard on my body, it is a bit boring at times.

The hotel is the worst I’ve stayed at so far, but it is sufficient. The AC is doing its job and it is generally clean, although I did request my bedding to be changed. I’m not sure if I unwittingly killed a mosquito on the sheets, or what the cause of the red spot on the sheets were, but I could see nowhere on me that seemed to be bleeding and did not feel any fresh mosquito bites, so the blood was not mine!

Ew.

Bro. Jeff is not really happy with this hotel. They don’t have internet, and it’s not really great. He says to me “next time we will have to plan which hotels at each place.”  Really?  Bro. Jeff, really?  You see, we have been having a running joke most of this trip that Bro. Jeff always takes things “as the situation presents itself we just trust God”. Now, I admire his faith greatly, but I also know he could make things easier on himself by “trusting the grace of God to help you plan now” instead of trusting God to help you get through that for which you did not plan. So there we are sitting together and Bro. Jeff starts talking about how we should have planned.

I looked at Bro. Jeff and said. “Bro. Trevor, you are probably right we should have planned this better, but now the situation is upon us and we are just trusting the grace of God to get us through this.”

He started laughing but got up and left me and told me I should be preparing for service.  Good times.

After many pages of “Monte Cristo” I turned my attention to the evening service and to enquire of the Lord His will for the topic. I started listening to a message and communing with the Lord.

I’m starting to feel the toll of almost two weeks. My body is tired. My mind is fine, I’m sharp, but I can feel that my energy is dwindled down. A fatigue of sorts I guess. We drive almost literally across the street to where we park to take the foot path to the church, it isn’t far, but if you’ve never walked a foot path in Africa, it’s just a bit different to a Midwestern American!

This seems to be the most English speaking church I’ve been to on this trip. Their song service is ALMOST 100% English. I felt to bring a message entitled “The Coming Supernatural”, but I felt led to cover the back pages of my notes first. I had not even GOTTEN to back pages of my notes for most of the services here in Africa. Maybe page 3 of 6 or 7 is all I’ve gotten to.

Since the Abidjan meetings I have felt a greater zeal to proclaim balanced doctrine on who Bro.  Branham was.  I did this in Abidjan and I felt to speak some about it here in Agona. I think it makes a difference for the believers to hear what the prophet said about these things, and to see my stand on it. Perhaps it will keep them from being dragged with every wind of doctrine that may come along.

Before preaching I sang the newer version of “Lord, I need you” and as I sang the first line, I could already hear young sisters start singing along. We rejoiced in the song and proclaimed our hearts to God. It was likely not very good for my throat though! I can feel my voice starting to weaken and get a little raspy.

The service went very well, Bro. Prince came back to the pulpit yelling “Powerful, powerful, powerful!” and he was so excited he proceeded to give me a bear hug and try to lift me up!

It didn’t work.

Bro. Prince is quite a bit smaller than I am. As powerful as the sermon may have been, Bro. Prince got nowhere in picking me off the ground.

It was funny and awkward at the same time. Bro Prince is a very enthusiastic brother. I like him more the more I get to know him. I’m glad that everyone enjoyed the sermon, and I trust it strengthened and affirmed them in their walk with the Lord.

We returned to the hotel and had some nice “red-red”, which is fried beans and plantains, with some chicken. It was quite tasty, if a little bit heavy.  We transferred some of Bro. Jeff’s pictures and videos to my laptop, and he departed for the night.

Around 5AM, it sounded like a hurricane was coming.  The power knocked out for a few minutes, and then a tremendous sounding wind came with rain. I got up and looked out the window, expecting to see trees laying over sideways. As I looked, it barely looked like anything was happening. I guess it sounded worse than what it was, due to the materials used for the roof and the lack of good sealing of cracks at the windows and doors and such.

The hotel called my room around 9 and asked “Do you want Milo (chocolate milk), Tea, or Coffee?” At this I remembered the scenario outside of Accra where the waitress asked what I wanted for a beverage with my breakfast.

“Sir, what would you like as your beverage?”

“Juice” she said, “yes, I can bring you juice, but what beverage?”

At this point, I struggled my natural inclination to say “Juice.”

“Coffee, tea, or Milo? Which beverage would you like?”

“Coffee, please”

Not that I had any intention of drinking it that day, but I inferred by her words and body language that it must be thought quite impossible to bring breakfast without one of these three requisite “beverages”.

I never got the juice that day. She never brought it, and I hesitated to ask for it again.

So back to the morning at hand, the good man at the desk of the hotel calls and asks, “Do you want Milo, tea, or coffee with breakfast?”

I said, “Coffee will be fine”. I bit my tongue and didn’t ask for juice.  Would it have done any good?

Maybe a half an hour later there is a knock at the door and the man brings me the tray with the standard egg and bread, with some fried vegetables. I thanked him and he left, and I began to look over my plate and my “beverage”. He brought Milo and tea, but no coffee. Sometimes, I have no words to describe Africa.

After breakfasting, I let Bro. Jeff know I was ready to go, and he and Bro. Prince came to “pick me”. We drove into Takoradi and were endeavoring to pick Bro. Matthew who had just arrived via bus from Ouaga where we had parted company a few days early. We couldn’t readily find him, so we left to go to a different bus station, but the brothers decided to drop me at the hotel as we didn’t have a whole lot of room left because of the luggage.

We arrive at the hotel and are escorted to the room. The power is currently out at the hotel. They are working on it. Well, what else is there to do but accept my fate graciously?

“The power will be restored, I’m fine, go and pick Bro. Matthew, he has been on a bus for 24 hours.”

Bro. Jeff began to press the hotel man how soon power would be returned? The man said, 20 or 30 minutes.  Ha. You believe him Bro. Jeff? He wants you out of his face!

So the brothers depart and I sit and read by the light of the window. There is a slight breeze and due to the morning rain it is thankfully not too hot. So I sit and read…and dream of the Marriott hotel I know is some 20 minutes away.  The Marriott will certainly have power. As the breeze dies away and it starts getting warmer, the affection in my heart for the Marriott stirs and grows warmer. Three hours pass and no power. The brothers returned with lunch.  I asked when we were headed to the Marriott?

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not staying in a hotel with no power, this is ridiculous. Get a refund, take me to the Marriott. Yes, I know it’s expensive, and I will pay for it, no problem.”

“I will go talk to them” says Bro. Jeff.

“So they can lie to you again? Did you believe him the first time? I knew he was lying as he spoke.”

Bro Stephen’s wife had brought lunch so we went into the room provided as a “restaurant” and she set the rice, potatoes, and chicken stew before me. She did a fine job preparing a good meal for me.

Just as I have finished eating, and am ready to grab my things and walk out of the hotel to show the brethren my steadfast desire to be taken to the Marriott, the power returns.

Bro. Jeff quickly begins turning things on in my room, throwing stuff in my fridge, and turning on the AC.  Great, just great. I had already decided I wanted to go to the Marriott and I had a ready excuse. Now, if I maintain my position, I will only look like a spoiled rotten American.

It’s like 2 in the afternoon, service isn’t until 6. Bro. Jeff sensing my mood wasn’t too pleased at the moment was only too quick to depart saying they would get me for service.  This left me with 4 more hours of reading, preparing for service, and “resting”.

Why do I always get annoyed at the end of the trip?  I resolved to change my thinking and my attitude, but it wasn’t exactly easy.  Not until at least 30-45 minutes of allowing the AC to do its job.

“You’ll come out right if you’ll do right. That’s your duty to God. Think right; That’s your duty for yourself, and you’ll come out right.”

So, it won’t do me any good to sulk about not being taken to the Marriott, or to be aggravated I sat alone for 3 hours without power. Thinking right was my duty to myself, and I resolved to change my thinking.

Finally, it was service time and we left to go to Bro. Stephen’s church. As we approach the church building in the fading all too fast light, I noticed they had proceeded in the building project much more than I expected. The two story structure is almost complete, it is quite large and looks very nice. It is still rough and will need a lot of finishing, but the structure is essentially complete and roofed. I did not expect them to be this far along. Praise God!

I talked about “Leaving the Old Temple” and how Jesus decided to go to the cross at Gethsemane. It was there He died the greater death. No one had to drag him to the cross, because he had already chosen to lay his life down.

As I spoke I talked about the devil offering us the choice to be king of ourselves. I talked about how I didn’t exactly choose to come to Africa. I don’t get to drive, or have control. That it is uncomfortable not to be “King of Me” and do what I please as I would if I were home.  If I were home and I want ice cream, I go get ice cream!  I kept using ice cream as a bit of an example throughout the sermon.

This was too much for one brother, who determined to go get me some ice cream. So after service, he brought me some chocolate ice cream to the hotel. It was so sweet of him to do that. God Bless him for it, it was REALLY good chocolate ice cream.

It did underscore my point though. Even as a brother in Africa goes to get me ice cream, I’m not in control. It’s late, I’m ready for bed, but I can’t go to sleep, because a brother is coming with ice cream finally at 11:15pm.  I have to wake up at 5:30 to head to the airport! I don’t say this to disregard the fine ice cream retrieving brother at all, merely to note the irony of it all. So “King of ME” is definitely not what you are when on the mission field, that’s for sure!

I did tell the people though, that they were better than ice cream. So many friends I have made, and the opportunity to do what God has asked of me, is easily better than ice cream. Because even though God asks us to give him our everything, He doesn’t do this so we will be unhappy. He knows what we have need of and even looks to our happiness.

We woke up at 5:30AM to go to the airport. My original plan was not to preach for Bro Samson on Wednesday night as the logistics of checking in, going to church, returning to the airport seemed too much. My flight leaves at 11:35pm, so technically this is achievable, but it seems like a lot of work.

This is nothing to Bro. Jeff. He is arranging that I will preach for Bro. Samson Wednesday night.  It will be service #14 I have preached in 16 days total.

So here I sit, in another hotel, just waiting for service and then home. This morning I woke up singing the little chorus “I’m going home”. I’m anxious to get on the plane and head home to my wife and family. Really it is ok that we’re going to service.  There are still 12 hours to go before the plane departs. It will be good to have something to do, and as long as I am here and it will be good to have something to do, I may as well preach the Gospel!