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.