Hello readers! After a little while out of the blogosphere, I have made a triumphant return! …ok, well maybe not triumphant, but it’s a return at least, and that’s a good start right??
So for the past week or so we have been in Mamprobi, another area of the capital city of Accra, Ghana. We are working with Pastor Joseph and Pastor Joyce doing evangelism in the mornings and preaching in the evenings, which makes for a pretty dang exhausting ministry! Usually two of us will go with Pastor Joyce and the other three with Joseph. Surprisingly, I have really enjoyed the mornings of evangelism, especially with Pastor Joseph. His church does a lot of ministry and evangelism in this nearby fishing neighborhood called Chorkor (don’t pronounce the R’s), which is definitely the poorest area I have been to yet on the Race. It is a fairly large area but full of squalid houses and little shops built almost on top of each other. It is crowded and trash and refuse litter the pothole-ridden dirt roads that pass for roads. The children –there are so many– run around the area naked and sandy, as Chorkor is located right next to the beach, and far too many have the distended stomachs that tell of the rampant malnutrition (and the bulge of the belly button, caused by tapeworms). Because of the living conditions and the fact that it is a fishing town, walking through the streets and footpaths is essentially an assault to the nose…the smell from the refuse of who-knows-what is strong enough to actually taste. In short, Chorkor is an echo of Thomas Hobbes’ commentary on human existence.
That is where we evangelize, and fortunately for me, that is where I have seen God move. Each time that we have visited Chorkor I have had great conversations with many of the men there, and I’ve had the supreme honor of praying with some of them as they repented and trusted Jesus Christ for their salvation. So many men and women asserted they were Christians, but when asked what church they went to, they said they did not go to church. In those situations Pastor Joseph would ask me to encourage them to start attending church again, so I usually would speak about the hope and encouragement I find within a community of believers, as well as the fact that at church we can hear the word of God spoken and we can worship corporately.
The thing that struck me the most during those times of evangelism was this one thought: “Wow, this is so weird, I’m talking like I actually really believe this stuff!” I know I know, it sounds strange, but as I earnestly spoke to these men and women about the meaning of salvation and the hope and peace I have found in Jesus Christ, I began to understand how much that really means to me. And when I spoke about how important church is for us, and how we are created for community, I began to realize how much I needed my church community (i.e. my WR squad, especially my team). It has been one of the coolest feelings so far on the Race – to know, in my heart of hearts, that I truly believe Jesus has offered us not only eternal life and salvation through his death and resurrection, but he has also offered us the truly best way to live out our days here in this present world.
In evangelizing to these fishermen, I’ve begun to realize within my own self the depth of God’s grace in my life.
Maybe there’s no better way to find out what you believe or how strongly you do until you have to go tell strangers about it all.
Give it a shot. Try to prove me wrong.
