It is so strange how ten hours on a bus and one border crossing can make such a difference. I was under the false impression that because they were right next to each other, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana would be more similar than they were different, but this wasn’t the case. Our life in Ghana brought many changes.
One of the first things you notice when entering Ghana is the sheer amount of goats that wander the streets. Apparently goat is the most common meat eaten in Ghana. Another delicacy that is a little less easy to “swallow” is how much several of our hosts like cat. Even after several conversations explaining that I will try almost anything once, they were not convinced that we were adventurous enough. Unfortunately, the cat didn’t happen, but I did get to taste goat and maybe it was the preparation at this particualar place but it tasted almost like a pork rib, only better!(Trip Advisory: if you are ever in Ghana, Red Red is a must! It is black eyed peas cooked in a tomato based red sauce but the real gem is the fact that it is designed to be eaten with fried plantains. It was a team favorite. One more tip, if you ever have the opportunity to eat ground nut soup {peanut butter soup}, have it with the rice ball instead of Fufu. I could talk about food for a while so for more on that shoot me an email ;)).
Africa time is much less prevalent in this country and things seem to be more prompt…well at least our taxis were…occassionally. However, our hosts quickly learned that the easiest way to create a go-with-the-flow American is to keep them fed or at least have access to halfway decent peanut butter. We fortunately did not have to cook for ourselves this month and really enjoyed getting to experience alot of the local foods being made for us. It did not taken long to adapt to the Ghanian way of life. You quickly become used to carrying buckets of water all hours of the day because the indoor plumbing doesn’t actually produce running water. It just becomes a routine waking up for a few hours every night and trying whatever works to cool down enough to go back to sleep because the breeze doesn’t seem to find the open windows. The power went off at least once a day whether we were in the city or miles away up two hills at our compound. My first tent experience was rigging a string from my curtain rod to the bar on the closet in order to hang a mosquito net big enough to cover my bed. It quickly became evident that this was less to keep out mosquitoes and more so to deter lizards and very large spiders that crawl in through the open windows. I am very happy to report that I have only had three encounters with rodents so far. One was a dead mouse under a car on our ministry route in Ivory Coast, a dead gutter dweller and another was a very large, whole grilled rat being sold on the side of the road where we buy water here in Ghana. That is where I had to draw the line of foods I would taste at least once. The streets were one of my favorite parts because there was only about one main paved road through town. The rest of the time you were climbing dirt hills, taking side alleys or walking through what is most likely someones yard.
There was something about Ghana that with all of its complexity, intriquicacies and differences, something about this country emodies beauty. I was personally unprepared for the lessons and encounters this month brought, but the Lord showed Himself so much in the minor details and used even the seemingly hardest parts of our stay to further solidify a part of His character. This month was very lonely for me. For one reason or another, closeness with my team proved to be difficult and created a huge space for homesickness. Wifi was very spotty and hard to come by which made me realize just how much an email from home or seeing the faces of people I missed really meant to me. This coupled with the desire to truly be present and understand this new country’s culture became a little overwhelming. But in the Lord’s graciousness, while sitting in these emotions, one of the things I noticed within the first week of being in Ghana was the people’s openness and very relational nature. It was clear in our hosts and ministry partners but most evidently in the children. I think back to the first morning waking up in our compound when I planned to enjoy the morning breeze outside and spend some time with Jesus. That lasted about 10 mins until the three year old, affectionately known as Baby Jake, one of many kids who lived with us, spotted me and changed quiet time to snuggle time. This picture was a foreshadowing of how most people in Ghana responded to our presence.
After getting past the astounding number of goats, the next thing that you notice in Ghana are the churches. They are everywhere, along with at least 50% of the billboards advertising religious conferences, guest speakers or services to attend. We were honestly all a little confused as to why we had landed in a country that seemed so evangelized. But as we began talking to our ministry partners and had a few days to experience evangelism, our team began to realize that many of the people knew who God was, but didn’t fully understand the extent of the sacrifice Jesus gave to bring us into an intimate relationship with the Father and the freedom that relationship brings. Essentially, we were in an African America. Immediately, as is human nature, we all began to have a heart of comparison. Comparison to Cote d’Ivoire, comparison of belief foundations and scriptural interpretation, ideas of how we were going to do things or make the best use of the time we had. Then, after a full week of being in Ghana, during the first church service we all shared together, I felt a prompting to just stop. Stop comparing, stop planning, stop assuming and just listen. This began a prayerful dialogue of the Lord giving me a perspective of being slow to speak and quick to listen. The further I felt from my team and the more homesick I got, the more opportunities arose, and the desire increased to really press into forming relationships with people here. The beauty of their passion for knowing people and being known, the extent to which they revere the worthiness of God and how much we should owe Him, and their gratitude for intentionality and willingness began to pour out. The Lord took loneliness and formed relationships, He replaced confusion with a desire to understand and learn, and in the end He restored what was broken.
For me, Ghana will be the place where I saw John 6:35 become real for me. A running joke from the two coaches we did the basketball ministry with was that I was constantly snacking or at least had a plan for when and how I could get a snack. In this verse, Jesus talks about being the bread of life and whoever goes to Him will never hunger or thirst. This month caused me to really have to cling to Him for fulfillment when sustainment wasn’t able to be supported by the typical avenues (community, conversations, encouragement etc) or in moments when it felt like the spiritual and emotional thirst for His sustainment was almost physical. And in the midst of that, there was Ghana, beautiful country and beautiful people. I will forever treasure the friendships that formed with the basketball coaches even after they realized I had no ability to actually play and an exstensive discussion with a church member on theological differences that resulted in a comment on how I would always be welcome in that community of believers. Some of my favorite moments though, was the small groups I and rotating team members got to have with the youngest boys at the basketball court whose ages ranged from about 6 to 13. To see the progression from the beginning of the month from boys who could barely sit still or remember the different story each day, to boys that told the Bible story, sat up straighter when they were told they carried power and authority in the Kingdom and were willing to close out the group in prayer. These are moments I will forever treasure from Ghana.
