Impressions after the mission trip

I realise my blog is not always very descriptive. So I hope pictures and videos will become available soon in a central place from all of us to be accessible for all to see. We're working on that right now, and I will let you know with a blog post.

 

Also, I though it would be good for me to finish off this series by adding some final impressions.

 

The most striking thing you see when you travel around Ghana is the difference in living standards with back home. We didn't even really experience that first hand, because apostle Odai took such excellent care of us.

But the conditions we saw in the villages around us were just like medieval Britain – "Tudor England", Tom remarked, and that really is spot on. It sets you thinking as to what lifted the West out of these conditions, and what the answer really is. I had a conversation with pastor Andrew about this, and his opinion definitely is that there needs to be such a change of heart in people so that they don't look out for number one, but compassionately go and help these people, just like missionaries and Christian charities did for the West in creating orphanages and schools, the first educational institutions all being run by Christian volunteers. So I guess that is what we were all doing there.

 

Education and skills is definitely something that needs to be imparted to these people. It is good that pastor Odai is building schools.

 

On a health side of things, water wells are the key. Clean water is the only thing that will improve living conditions for these people and improve their health. Yes, it is good that we showed Jesus' love to these people for one week by bringing them medicines, and that is all that can be asked of us, but in a month's time, everything will be back to normal.

The preventative approach to medicine is, as the NHS has realised, more cost-effective than treating arising illnesses, and needs to be given just as much attention as taking care of disease. That Pastor Odai is building clinics is part of the plan to treat the illnesses when they arise. Ghana needs both more medicine and water wells.

 

Pastor Odai is an amazing man. He lives each day as though it is his last and has appropriately named his work "Maranatha Ministries", Hebrew for "Jesus is coming soon". He really doesn't sleep a lot and neither does his entourage (poor Alex). 4 or 5 hours rest is a good night for them.

Even though he has started this ministry from nothing, is charismatic and is very much the central guy everyone looks up to, there are some very important things to point out about him. Firstly, on Friday night, when he told us his story, Alex said how he had worked for other ministers before apostle Odai, but the big difference is that this person isn't interested in a big car or big house, but in using his money for the people, something you just don't find, he said.

Secondly, he also has no problem with handing over authority. He plants churches wherever they go and they get their own pastors. He has plenty of assistant pastors who take meetings for him, and when we came he was always keen to get us doing as much as possible. If you are a Christian, Jesus will work through you and you don't need to be a special man of God.

This is the biggest thing that pastor Odai does. He pushes you into the deep end which makes you "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Pe 3:15, NIV)

 

Other impressions? Ghana is full of red dust everywhere and full of mosquitoes too. You don't always see them, because they are quite small ones. But as soon as you open a car window they come flooding in and the rest of the journey random hand claps can be heard all around you in the desperate struggle between man and mosquito. Having studied malaria at med school for a bit, I had wondered how exactly this disease can be so endemic, as it needs at least two mosquito bites to be propagated. The answer is this big quantity of the insects.

 

 

Comments to the blog have now been added. They needed my permission first, which I didn't realise. So comment away!

Day 8 and 9 - 30 and 31/07/09

Day 8
We had our last clinic this morning. It was back somewhere in Accra, in one of the poorer neighbourhoods. The houses were closely built together. We held it in an some administrative building of some sorts, instead of a pole barn church.
It was a bit more stressful today because we were under a bit of time pressure.

When we finished, again people became really pushy to get the mosquito nets and sadly there wasn't enough for all of them again. They still hung around until we were in the buses.

All the drugs we haven't used will be used for a medical mission with a church doctor in August.

In the late afternoon they took us to an Accra market for an hour. Every seller was desparate to get your attention, and once they did, they wouldn't let you go for at least 10 minutes until they were sure you had seen all the goods in their stand and in their friends' stands. Perhaps I should have been less polite. And some of us were better at haggling than others, shall I say - fortunately I was using my parents' money.

In the evening, as a special occassion, we went to a Chinese restaurant. The Americans would be leaving straight after dinner. So when we finished our meals, there was lots of picture taking for at least an hour after. Pastor Skip Nicholls said a word about not forgetting God's finger in this week: how He brought us all together for this medical mission for reasons beyond us.
Pastor Odai then took the word to thank us again for coming, because it is an encouragement to them that God is working. He also told us a story of what he learnt from a missionary when just a child always stuck in his mind throughout his life. He said that what we did this week, the picture of white men building a clinic, the clinic itself, the picture of white men coming with medicine and the water wells would forever stick in the local chidren's minds and be memorials to God's love for them. Arguably, this is even a better legacy than all the physical stuff we accomplished this week.

After waving the Americans out, Alex told us how it all began for him during the drive back. He is one of the worship leaders for pastor Odai and has also been the driver of one of the 3 vans that took us everywhere this week - often in a middle lane our drivers invented for us so we would make more progress. Alex joined pastor Odai's ministry when he was looking for a father in the faith as a young Christian. Back in 1997 pastor Odai asked him to help him when he didn't have a church yet or anything. They would just go out into the bush (I think by foot) and start preaching. The area of the guest house was still bush then. He admitted it was very hard in those early days, but apostle Odai just kept telling him "Don't look at today, think of tomorrow." One night however, it was all too much and Alex packed his bags and ran away - he came across a man he knew however, they talked and helped Alex realise again that pastor Odai was a man of God.
He also told us about he miraculously received the two cars he has ever had, once by tithing for it in advance, and once by selling his old car and giving all the sale money away as an offering - two months later he received the exact amount of money he needed for the car he wanted, which would have been 5 years' wages.
Financial wishes and issues seem to be more prevalent in prayers and sermons in Ghana, but let's not dismiss it, because these are the real issues of the day for these people, and it is a really practical way of God showing his provision for these people.

Most of us then went back to have a good night's rest, or to sort out all the left over drugs into bags in an orderly manner. But five of us decided to go to the weekly Friday night all night prayer vigil.

Day 9
We got there at 12 am while everyone was already praying. Pastor Odai, as ever, with only five minutes warning, got us to say something to the church about how our week had been.
Later on in the service, he asked for testimonies out of the congregation. One lady came forward. She lives with a voodoo-guy and is not a regular church goer. This was her second time in church. After pastor had interviewed her, he prayed for her. He was standing about four metres away (and she had her eyes closed, praying), when he made one hand gesture. She fell to the floor and started rolling around. All the other pastors surrounded her to cast the spirit of voodoo out of her. During more prayer, more and more people around the church would suddenly fall over, sometimes screaming.
I don't really know what was going on, but it looked pretty genuine to me. Pastor Odai saw some of our bewildered faces and came over to explain that the spirit of voodoo was very strong in these people that were on the floor with the pastors around them.

This voodoo business is something we perhaps don't understand in the West. I was aksing pastor Odai's wife Valerie about this earlier in the week. She said that the voodoo can really hinder the ministry sometimes, causing accidents to transport etc. I asked if this was just because people believed voodoo could affect them, but she said no, this was what voodoo does. However, if you're grounded in the Word, it doesn't affect you, she said.

In the bush, this is the main other religion found if there is any Christianity at all. For instance, in Kwasi-Tintin, the half of the village with the water well we dedicated was the Christian half, but there was a voodoo half to the village further back.

We got back to the guest house at 4 am.
At 6 am we had breakfast and left an hour later.

Correction of the day #1: "God is good" in Twi is "Nya me ye", not "nya me de" as reported on day 5. Who writes this stuff up?

Correction of the day #2: I saw there were some unwanted email footers that had crept onto the blog and have removed them. I also got some of the dates wrong in the titles of the blog posts. Because of the sparse availability of the internet, I was never able to see the actual blog site, but had to just satisfy myself with updating the blog by email.

Honorary mention of the day: Faith Purkis, Rosie Booth and Mel Sharpe. I realised I hadn't really given them the credit they deserved, when a family member mentioned it to me upon arrival. They were seeing patients, just like the two doctors, and were a great help to the whole team: Faith with her midwifery experience, Mel with her paediatric skillz and Rosie with her orthopaedic nursing.

Day 7 - 29/07/10

I want to concentrate on telling you about the conditions in the villages today.

The medical team went to a village called Kwasi-Tintin this morning. First thing, we were given a little tour round the village. Pastor Odai took us into a villager's house - without allowing them to tidy up first. The 'house' happened to be one room, 12 by 12 feet, in a semi-detached mud hut. In it were a washing line from side to side, clothes and pans along the wall. It houses two parents and 6 children. There is no mattress or bed, just one straw mat they lay on the floor at night time. It wasn't smelly and the mud floor was swept relatively clean. One can't imagine how everyone fits in there.
Outside the houses seem to have a barrel for the water they fetch from somewhere 20 mins walking away. I didn't visit it, but others did. It was some sort of natural point where water collects. In spring it dries up. The water they collect from it looks very dirty and the barrel had flies all around it.
Pastor Odai said how these conditions show that generation upon generation, everything will stay the same except for some one pulling alongside them and pulling them up.
We saw another room/house slightly smaller and with some sort of bed structure for a village pastor with his wife and three kids. This one was smelly and less clean. I hit my head on the door post on the way out - it's what happens when you're tall.

A "shower" in the village is a straw enclosurer where you can pour water over yourself.
Here and there are people cooking things on outdoor fire places and there are chickens and goats roaming everywhere.

During the outfield clinic one of the first things we saw was a man with a grossly enlarged foot. There were whitish growths affecting his sole and ankle. Again there was one person with enlarged thyroid ("goitre") and there were slightly less malaria cases. When at the end we handed out malaria nets a mob formed of people just desparate to get their hands on one.

Right by the pole barn/church we held the clinic in, there was a metal pump structure set in new concrete, all wrapped up and finished off with a ribbon. We dedicated this newly made water well in the afternoon. About 7 elders appeared (they looked quite old and were the only ones wearing robes) and half the village gathered round as pastor Odai filmed the event and interviewed Dr Morris and an elder before ceremoniously cutting the ribbon. Some people got on the pump and for the first time since Kwasi-Tintin was founded in 1913, the village had clean water. The joy that erupted was unanticipated. Kids and adults sprinkled water on themselves and started carrying some of us on their shoulders. Four lads picked me up and carried me all around a field and back.
Then a double mattress pastor Odai had ordered for the first couple's room we saw was fetched, complete with two yellow pillows. Understandably they were over the moon. I know I'd be if I received two Winnie the Pooh pillows for free!

The Americans among us had raised a lot of money for water wells. The whole drilling, finding water and constructing a pump undertaking costs about 6000USD. This clean water really is the most important thing. It is far more sustainable than a one off field clinic and will improve conditions immeasurably. As mentioned on Saturday, it reaches a lot of people. If 1000 in one village and it affects 7 settlements, then 7000 individual's lives will have been transformed altogether.
I am going to leave a space here for you to take a moment to think about how much this gift of clean water will have meant to these people.

(...)

The construction team finished all of the back roof today and a third of the front roof. Only four people are having to stay behind in the Okyeman hotel to finish off tomorrow, while all the rest of us are travelling back to Accra. I am typing this up on someone's blackberry in the car as we speak.
Tomorrow we are going to hold a clinic in a fishing village near the city. Reportedly it has the worst sanitary conditions of all. The people who have been on the construction team all week will now also have an opportunity to see what goes on with the other team.

The crusade service tonight still saw an altar call response of perhaps 50 people, this time almost all adults, all very heart-felt I thought. There had been testimonies from [American] Belinda (like Saturday, to the youngsters), me, my mum and Mel, and Jesse preached on the freedom the gospel gives.

Day 6 - 28/07/10

The medical mission was held in a place called Adeiso today, very near the crusade ground. Again there were some very needy people. We got through 240 people today, probably a record so far. Generally, we try to see mothers with children first and Fiona does a great job of controlling the crowd and keeping things orderly.
There are never a lot of men. Pastor Love talked to some locals who said the men get up early to go to work in the fields and come back at noon to rest for a couple of hours before leaving again.
Apart from all the malaria, eye problems and waist pains, there were a lot of respiratory tract infections. Special cases today were Graves disease (bulging out thyroid gland and eyes), a diabetic woman with early peripheral neuropathy and retinopathy, and a little child with hydrocephalus. This is when the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord is obstructed and can't circulate freely, making the poor child's head swell up to twice the size. The sad part is that it could easily be fixed surgically with a shunt to reroute the drainage, but that we can't do anything about it here ourselves.

The locals are very friendly. I played football with them yesterday, but quickly ran out of puff in this climate. In Adeiso today too, everyone asks if they "can be your friend". Then they ask for your contact details.

They've also been teaching me more Twi today, such as "Obruni" (white man/woman), "beebeeni" (black man/woman), "Eh tee sei" (how are you), "e-yeh" (fine).

The construction team said today was even hotter than yesterday, then already the hottest. That makes today the hottest-est. They made good progress on the roof.

The crusade service tonight included Mark Whitcombe's moving testimony, Dr Ola's about how his life was miraculously preserved twice, Claire's account of how she became convicted of sin and Faith Purkis' testimony which started off in similar conditions to the ones we see all around us now.
Sometimes I have been guilty of writing off the OT as something that wasn't applicable now. But Dr.Morris got up and pointed these people here to the hygiene and food laws in Leviticus. It had never occurred to me before how practical that part of the bible suddenly becomes in a third world country.
Of course there was lots of dancing, worship and handkerchief waving again. In the middle of the tent you could see the dust starting to fly up. At one point, pastor Odai invited all the singers from among the missionaries and "the choir from Peniel" to come up and sing. When ten of us got on the small wooden stage, it decided enough was enough and gave way under our feet. I knew those frusli bars were a bad idea. No one got hurt or anything and we sang "Lord I lift your name on high" and "You are good (we worship You)" led by Jesse.
It can be difficult to keep the attention of the crowd, especially the children, when speaking after all that dancing. So there's a need to keep the messages punchy and to the point. Matt Reid was preaching and did a good job of making the gospel as concise as possible. There was an altar call with even more people coming forward than yesterday and then a call for prayer for healing where we all helped pastor Odai and his staff pray for individuals. At the end he arranged bibles for people who didn't have one and quite a number wanted to be baptized on Sunday too. There were also 15 voodoo converts who will burn their voodoo relics today.

Word of the day: "The Worminator" aka Jill. She goes around and gives all the children toffee sweets with deworming tablets before they see the doctors.

Conjugation of the day: "To be" in Twi.
Me ye - I am
Woo ye - you are
Onnu ye - he/she is
Yay ye - we are
Moo ye - you are (plural)
Wom ye - they are

Day 5 - 27/07/10

Today the medical team went about their business in a different village. They reported that today they saw even more, and worse, cases of malaria.

The construction team continued their work under guidance from Prince. Today was probably the hottest day they have had to work in so far.

Meanwhile, a few of us went to a morning healing service in pastor Odai's church. There was a lot of prayer and worship as usual, broken up by firstly, Matt Maguire's testimony to the whole church (!), Scott's amazing testimony of how God gave him a second chance after a suicide attempt, then Dan Rees giving a sermon (!!) and pastor Love preaching about psalm 40; how God brings us out of "the miry clay."
Just like He did yesterday, when our van really was stuck in the miry clay. And the more you wriggle them tires, the more you get stuck - you can't pull yourself out.

The attendance wasn't great on a tuesday morning, but that didn't matter because the service was. Out of that already smaller congregation, about ten people attested that they were converts from islam and four others that Jesus had delivered them from drug abuse. One lady testified how God had healed her from gall stones. On her fourth ultrasound, after being prayed for, her scan was clear. The doctors, disbelieving, ordered her back on a later date for another scan and it was clear again!

After the service we set out for a long car journey to outside Accra, to a little hotel called the Okyeman Palace Hotel. It is closer to the building site and the crusade site and will be our home for the next two nights. I would describe it as a typical little African hotel - think Last King of Scotland if you've seen that film. I'm lying here on my bed with the ceiling fan rattling away, trying to do its best to give us some relief from the hot air both inside and outside.

This evening then was the first of three nights of crusade. It is held in a marquee with open sides, somewhere near a main road in the outback. There was singing and dancing with lots of excited chidren as well as adults that even a powercut temporarily submerging us into total darkness couldn't stop. Did I get involved with the dancing? Of course I did!
This time dr. Morris preached, Tom shared john 8:34-36, and Julia McGahon gave her testimony, including her miracle healing from chronic fatigue and the gift their second child was. At the altar call perhaps 200 people came forward and we all went among them to pray with them. It was great to see so many people hungry to receive Light and Life in their lives, many of them also children with the biggest smiles you'll ever see.

Phrase of the day: "Nia mia deh" - "God is good" in Twi. If I've remembered well. The placing of the spaces is totally arbitrary.

Day 4 – 26/07/10

Today the different teams went to their respective locations. The
medical team went to a village supposed to be around two hours away,
twenty minutes away from the construction site. We got lost however
and spent more than an hour driving to dusty red tracks in between
corn fields instead. At one point our van got stuck in the mud!
However, miraculously only 20 metres further up the road was a big
steam roller going about his business, whatever that may be on an
isolated small muddy track. It meant that we could be pulled out
quickly and soon we were back on the road.

We were able to help many needy people today. There was a lot of
malaria and eye conditions (conjunctivitis from the dust and
cataracts), urinary tract infections, welts, boils and worms. All
children were dewormed. Then also there were some interesting cases of
hydrocoele, cephalohaematoma, lipoma, Down's, blindness and cleft
palate.
Halfway through our work we were treated with fresh coconuts. It was
absolutely delicious to drink and eat.

I thought (read: pastor Love thought) it would be a good idea to let
other people write up something for the blog about their experiences
in the different teams. I agreed with myself. So here are Dan about
the microloans and Mr Whitaker about the construction team.
"This morning Skip and Keith visited the micro bank to train the staff.

Micro Bank is a non-profit organisation that issues loans and offers a
savings facility to those who would usually be refused elsewhere, or
more likely, to those small business owners who would never think to
use a loan or a savings account.

Skip and Keith covered basic principles on time management and client
relationships while also spending time sorting out general office
issues.
The staff appreciated their help and were enthused and motivated as
they grasped the vision that pastor Odai and Skip have for the bank"
Dan Rees

"The medical mission building is next to a pole-barn church a few
hundred yards outside the village of Noka. Our task has been t fit
timber rafters and finish with a sheet metal roof of about 100 square
metres. When we arrived the block work was almost ready (!) and we
were heartened that a local carpenter, Prince, was going to guide us
through the process.
The building has a porch area, general clinic area, two consulting
rooms and toilet facilities. It is in a great location, slightly up a
hillside, and within easy reach of several other villages.
The team are in excellent spirits, despite the heat and occasional
waiting to know what to do. There are no brackets, no bolts – it is
just four inch nails into everything – and lots of saving by hand.

The first day (Saturday) we had an avid audience of barefoot
youngsters (aged 7-9) watching all that we did – from a distance –
until at our lunch break they closed in on us! Delightful smiling
children full of fun and mischief – their mission is to collect our
empty water bottles –
no doubt to be filled and sold!

In England we would clothe a building with scaffold before ever
attempting roofing work, but the technique here is simply to walk
around balancing on top of the walls! Most of us bottled out, so we
built a number of wooden ladders to work from. The local pastor [in
charge of one of pastor Odai's churches] pops in each day to encourage
our labour.
Three days and we should have it done."
Rob Whitaker

Phrase of the day: "Is that a leopard?" It turned out to be Rosie
emerging from the bushes. Perhaps the pink skirt should have given it
away earlier. I am desperate to see some wild animals before I leave
Africa. Something like a leopard, lion or elephant. Even a warthog
will do. Animals other than ants and turkeys.

Coming up: Tomorrow we're leaving for three days to stay in
accommodation closer to the building site, before returning on
Thursday evening. The internet may be even less accessible there. The
medical team will move around each day to different villages. Tomorrow
morning there will also be a healing service and in the evening the
crusade will start for the next three evenings.

Day 3 – 25/07/10

Sunday means church, whether in Ghana or in the UK. There are two
consecutive services here in the morning and both are in English, but
one has translation to Gha and the other has translation to Twi. These
are the main two local languages spoken here. Pastor Skip preached in
the first service, but he spoke for longer than expected, so there was
no time for testimonies anymore in the first service. What a shame.

In between the two services, there were little Bible study groups
spread around the church grounds, which were led by most of the adults
from our delegation.
Meanwhile, the rest of us went out to help with Sunday school for the
younger ones. We taught them songs like "the love of Jesus is so
wonderful" and "God's not dead (NO!)" before Tom and I brought a
little ARK-style sketch we prepared on Friday. Using a crow hand
puppet, affectionately named Accra the Crow (some members of the
two-man team will dispute this, preferring the name Jo the Crow
instead), we talked about the creation story – that God made both the
UK and the different looking Ghana, and His plan for salvation. With
no physical ark to hide the puppeteer behind, as we do in Ark bible
club, Tom came up with the brilliant idea of stuffing me in a sleeping
bag. "So it will look like the crow is perched onto a rock", was the
justification for the climate-unfriendly sweaty torture I was made to
go through, all the while holding up my right arm and speaking in a
crow voice. Fortunately, I was but suffering for the gospel.

Later on, the Sunday school descended into positive chaos as we gave
out balls and colouring books with pencils, while the second church
service was going on. My dad and Mel gave their testimonies during
that service.

Today was a very special day. It was Matt Maguire' birthday, both in
the physical sense and spiritual sense of the word. Last night pastor
Odai led him to Christ and this morning he shared his testimony around
the breakfast table after the "happy birthday"-rendition. He shared
how God led him on a path through substance abuse and the lack of
fulfilment of all material riches, imprisonment and relationship
turmoil to Ghana here today, arriving as a non-believer, but now
forever changed by the reality of God because of the simple love and
hospitality the Love's showed him when he was working on their house,
where he first heard about this mission trip. "Their surname really is
appropriate," he said. Nothing is more exciting than to see someone
recognise that life is empty with Christ and that Jesus really is the
answer for them. This afternoon he was baptised in the Atlantic Ocean,
together with Jill Woollett. The local hotel lent us their clean strip
of beach for the occasion.

This evening then, there was a worship service. All different age
groups would come up and sing and lead the church in worship. It was
fantastic. There were even three little boys that came up to do some
extraordinary dancing. It was moving, inspirational, there was
hanky-waving and dancing, and it was just a time of rejoicing in the
goodness of God, culminating in a rendition of "No Jesus, no life" on
the tune of Bob Marley's "No woman no cry", which really set the whole
church alight. What more can one ask for?

Word of the day: "Sea horn". One of pastor Skip's points of advice
this morning was to "not eat all your seed corn", so you save some to
plant the next harvest. For some reason I understood and noted down
"sea horn" instead, wishfully hoping that all would make sense soon
enough. I blame the crackling speakers.
One good metaphor pastor Skip used was how he observed of a fly
struggling to get out against a closed window until it fell exhausted
to the floor, while all the while there was a big door just a couple
of feet further; we have to make sure we're seek and do God's will,
because He has the big picture.

Coming up: A full work day tomorrow for both teams.