Ghana Day 7: Sleep Restored!

Air Conditioning.

I got cold last night. So I snuggled under my blanket. It felt SOOOOOO good. I slept very nice and felt much much better. Stomach maybe just a little bit off, but waaaay better than I had been feeling. Sleep was soo good.

Bro Jeffrey knocks at 7:45

“Bro Trevor, they want you to know that you should shower soon. Sometimes the water gets turned off, so if you want a normal shower, you must come soon.”

So I get out of bed, I was mostly awake anyhow, I was just milking it for all it was worth, it felt so nice to have slept so well.

I go to take the shower. The bathroom in this house is very efficient. The bathroom IS the shower or perhaps the shower IS the bathroom? The drain is on the floor, the toilet off to one side, the sink across from the shower head. It is maybe twice the size of a normal shower in the US for all of this to fit. There is no separation between shower and the rest of the room. All just built into one. The disadvantage to this is you are wearing socks, you must take them off before you go to the bathroom or they will surely get wet.

I turn the knob, no water. It is a bucket shower for me! The water in the bucket is somehow cold! I am cold from the air conditioned room! I will not complain though, I’m enjoying cold. It was a refreshing bucket shower.

Breakfast was bread with butter, cheese, orange confiture (like marmalade), orange/mango juice, kiwi, and summer sausage. The brother bought the sausage because he knows we American’s like sausage for breakfast. Sausage is sausage no? I downed my glass of orange/mango juice. Oh, I am feeling so much better in my stomach. Thank you Lord!

Another Testimony

Bro Jeffrey and I were talking some and he mentioned something about Sunday night service to me.

“You know when you were preaching about not coming in the prayer line if you had unconfessed sin?”

“Yes, I was serious, I really hoped there were going to be people who did not come into the prayer line.”

“Yes, Well, when you finished and you couldn’t find me so you decided to sing the song, it is because a sister from our church came to me and confessed that she had been living in sin. She didn’t know what to do.”

It turns out she has repented of her sin, and she came through the prayer line. I don’t know what she may have wanted prayer for in the prayer line, but she has already been healed of the sin hiding in her heart! Whatever symptoms she had surely will vanish in light of the purity of confessing and repenting for sin which would have destroyed her life.

Jubilee Poultry Farm

Around 10 oclock we go to pick up Bro Gilbert so we can see the “poultry” (chicken farm) and the new church land.

Here is a video of the church land and the poultry and our discussions.

You will probably note my attempt at impressions of Bro Gilbert in this video. 🙂 He hasn’t really noticed yet.

We had a light lunch at the poultry. Tilapia, fried plantain, and a pepper sauce. It was nice and light. This is good, it is 100 degrees outside. I just can’t eat much when I’m hot. After some time we depart and head back to the Bro Aristide’s house. We arrive back at the house just in time for lunch! Spaghetti, meat balls, and tomato sauce with fish in it.

“Brothers, uh… are YOU hungry? We just ate at the poultry!?”

“Oh, Frer Trevor, that was just a foundation. We have to build the house now.”

I went and sat at the table, I had a small portion of the spaghetti, but I sure didn’t need it.

African Proverb

We fellowship after lunch for a while. Bro Gilbert tells us an ancient proverb from Burkina Faso

“If an elephant destroys your crops in the night time, he has respected you”

Because if you wake up in the morning and see that an elephant has destroyed your crops, you can yell and scream and talk about what you would have done if it had been the daytime. But if he comes and destroys your crops in the daytime, there is nothing you could do anyway.

There was a lot of laughter and jokes – this is the stuff of precious memories.

Evening Service

Evening service went very well. Bro Gilbert wanted to give one of his younger translators a turn to give him more experience. He was not as good of a translator, but we got by. I understand the need for training, and if I were the young man, I would have been so thankful for the opportunity to help out with the service.

I spoke on “Mixing” and how dangerous it is to mix with the world or with denominations. I tie in the doctrine of Balaam from Revelation 2, along with the end of Genesis 24 and the beginning of 25. I talk of how we want to keep the message pure. I always use the example of bleach and ammonia and how dangerous those two cleaners, it is always a very powerful illustration, even if I have to explain what ammonia is. I’m glad the boys in the third row will not have access to ammonia this evening!

It was a good service, and we had a nice time. I ended by singing in French with them, although their pronunciation was a little different than the French Canadian I learned. ( See video below)

After service the brothers and I had a wonderful time fellowshipping. As the power was out in the house, we weren’t in a hurry to go to the hot rooms to go to sleep. We went through a lot of marriage and divorce scenarios and such things. “It is not easy” Bro Gilbert kept saying during every pause. I enjoyed explaining how I see things to the brothers, we differed some, and they sometimes said “we cannot do that here…” I believe we all had the right objective in the end of course! There was plenty of laughter to go along with it all. The cultural differences we explore, and I mention “that is part of the point of my sermon, where does our culture get mixed with God’s Word?” Should a brother have to pay a dowry for the marriage? Should a pastor require him to do that if they father of the girl wants him to? So many questions, the answers aren’t always apparent. It was very good to understand one another and explore these things.

“Ah…It is not easy”

Below are some videos of after service, and some pictures. I told Bro Francois I can’t wait to praise the Lord together in the millennium. He is the song leader, I love how humble he is and his simple but powerful heart to praise the Lord.

Oh, good news! I was starving after church. I wanted FOOD. That is such good news. I haven’t actually felt hungry since Saturday really. Maybe Sunday morning. The beef stew was delightful tonight, along with my kiwi (a bottle and a half of sprite, and 2 bottles of water since end of service as well). This brother is taking such good care of me. I pray God continues to bless him richly.

Tomorrow we visit a few other places in the city, and I will tell you about it then.