Day 10: Back to Accra – Wake Up, Travel, Preach, Repeat

The only way I know what day it is, is to scroll up on the word document I am composing all of this in. All I know is it has been a long trip, but we are over the hump and there are less days in front of me than there are behind. I’m getting excited to be home! Not that I am unhappy to be here doing what I am doing, but the comforts of home and being with my family sound so nice.

There was a storm last night, it was very loud on whatever kind of roof the hotel has. I am glad this is the first time it has rained. If it had rained while we were in Ouaga…oh my. I can’t imagine walking to the church in that mess. I would have probably left clothes in Ouaga because I would have been certain they were destroyed.

The storm didn’t bother me much. I was awake enough to realize 1) there was a storm and 2) the rain was really loud on the whatever-type-of-metal roof. Then I fell back to sleep.

We were leaving fairly early in the morning for the airport. This is the cycle, preach, go to bed, wake up early and travel. Bro Jeffrey doesn’t trust African airlines, so he wants to be early. I just want to sleep.  Check in is between 8:30 and 9:30, why get there at 7:30? The brother comes for us at 7:30. I am just fatigued I think. So fatigued that it took around 3 hours to feel ok this morning. I had heartburn and I haven’t been able to find my papaya pills since leaving Ouaga.

We check in for the flight.  After about an hour, Bro Jeffrey looks up at me. “Why did we get here so early??  This was too early, we could be relaxing at the hotel.”

No words, just no words.

You can’t help but love Bro Jeff though. I don’t know of anyone who gives as much of himself for the people. Sometimes a little wisdom though and he would have to use less of himself to do the same thing!

The plane is an hour late. We were called to go through security “the formalities” as the woman on the announcement said.

The flight was good. A bigger plane than I expected. It is only a one hour flight.  I mostly doze through it, except to drink my pineapple coconut beverage and eat my crackers.  They settle well in my stomach. Praise the Lord.

I strike up a conversation with a man from Denmark at baggage claim. He was in the North doing journalistic work on child marriages, and something about witches in the remote villages. I tell him I’m here for preaching and he comments on how it should be “good business” for me here as it’s a very religious country.  I inquire how he handled the heat and the food, if he had stomach issues or not. I mention I have been up and down on food/stomach issues.

He comments on how if I have stomach issues prayer should just handle that right? The man is obviously a skeptic. I said, “this is true, I believe God has really been helping me.” He retrieves his bag and is gone.

I wish I had the chance to tell him the things Bro Jeffrey had been telling me about as we waited for the plane. About how the Message has been changing lives in the northern section of Ghana just like where he visited. About how these bold men of faith have been raising churches in those areas. About how God has been transforming the lives of young girls who would likely be pregnant as teenagers (married or otherwise) but instead learn that God wants them to remain pure until they are married. About how the Word of God is going in there, and helping people to even be more successful in their lives because they are not bound to evil ways that suppress the people any longer! No longer are they offering their last goat to some dead idol when it should be used to feed their children. How God has been breaking evil traditions that are keeping the people in poverty.

I wish he knew of the young people that now live with these Northern pastors because their families have turned them out because they deny their former faith and believe that God sent a prophet. Turned out, mostly because their families are looking for an excuse to have less people to feed. I wish he knew of the fathers and uncles of these young people that cursed the pastors, tried to fight them in every possible way, only to find that ten years later, the child they turned out of their home is the only one who will help them today. The only one with the means, and the only one with the heart to do so.

I wish he knew of the supernatural things that have happened that I can even remember to write down, I should have recorded Bro Jeff! The healings, the deliverances, the stories of power over demons and darkness, and God always making a way in spite of great oppression from many different religions. (Let alone the raising of the dead in my own church back home!)

But no, you’re right Mr. Denmark Skeptic. God isn’t real because the preacher from the US has a queasy stomach. I’m sure he thought he was all smart and laughed to himself as he left the airport to go write his article for some British news organization about how bad things are in Africa, and I’m sure he’ll write about how maybe somebody should do something to help these poor people.

Lunch

Bro Samson picks us up at the Accra airport and we go to his house for lunch.  As you’ve learned by now, eating is such a chore, I don’t even want to.

Please, just let me eat the bread rolls and laughing cow cheese I have. It’s all I want and no one will let me!!

There is chicken, rice, bean stew, yams, some other stew – the table is set for an army.

How much do they think an American preacher can eat?

Certainly not as much as Bro Jeffrey.  Where does the man put it all?  Bro Gilbert was teasing Bro Jeffrey a few days ago about his trip to the US.  “Most brothers go to the US and they come home fat, but Jeffrey has been there three times and he never gets fat!”  I can’t believe he doesn’t get fat in Africa!

I had some chicken, rice, and bean stew.  The beans are really quite good.  Oh, I wish I could eat more.  I restrain though so I don’t hate myself.  An hour later, I start feeling much stronger. Was it that I needed food, was someone getting through to God and praying for me, or was God touching me because of my testimony to Mr Denmark?

Either way, it’s so good to feel better and stronger. I believe I can really preach tonight!

After a short rest at the hotel I went to the reception area and made a general nuisance of myself until SOMEBODY got some internet working. Ok, all I did was just sit/stand there until they figured it out. I called my family, since we hadn’t talked in a couple of days.  How did people do this without the internet before? So blessed.

Bro Samson picks us up at 6PM. The people here are very nice, love the Lord, and mostly know English.  It’s so helpful when people respond to you at least as much as the interpreter.

I wasn’t sure what to preach, but bowing before the Lord in the pastor’s study, I finally settle on Relationship or Nicolaitanism. I just can’t get over how important I believe this concept is. I must preach it.

And so I did.

After the service I greeted a lot of the people and made one poor little girl in her mother’s arms shriek in terror and cry. It is probably my hair color.

Now we are back at the hotel, where I write down my thoughts until I am tired, and then sleep.

Because we’re getting up at 5AM (when pastor Stephen from Takoradi *might* be here by, we’re not sure) to be ready for the trip to Takoradi. So we can beat traffic, and get there early so I can rest before service.

And so the cycle begins again

Next Ghana Post: Day 11 – What do you think of Africa?