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!
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