Our first day!

Our first day in Accra, Ghana has been an absolute
whirlwind, and it’s not over yet. We flew in early
this morning, and I didn’t get any sleep on the
plane, although it was an excellent flight. We
stumbled through the primitive airport waiting for
our turn to be processed by immigration. Bro. Mark
befriended a local (a USA resident coming home after
20 years) who taught us the proper response to the
ubiquitous Ghana greeting, “Akwaaba” (“Welcome”),
which is “Medawe,” or “thank you.”
 
We boarded a very nice private bus, driven by a
member of Calvary Baptist Church (the church we are
helping). We went first to our hostel to meet our
hosts, freshen up and settle in a bit. Then we went
to the church for a meeting on what we’d be doing.
The pastor was delayed by what I think was a
government group who insisted on using church
property for a meeting. He arrived late after we had
time to greet other staff members, and we all went to
– get this – a Chinese restaurant! It was pretty good
but very hot. Then we were able to have a very good orientation
meeting with some of the staff ministers. During this
meeting we got a review of cultural decorum – ranging
from the handshake-snap to not crossing your legs. We
also learned about the structure of their church –
one huge downtown church with ELEVEN Sunday services,
if you count the separate children’s and youth, and 8
(I think) outlying mission churches. The total people
served were over 7000! I felt sorry for the minister
at this meeting because, at this point, several of
us, myself included, were dozing off. He understood,
though, and said we’d feel better in the morning.
 
We then went sightseeing all over Accra. The most
notable thing we did was to get out at a touristy
market. At first it was a little creepy because all
the vendors would run up to you trying to sell their
wares, which were wonderful – Wooden jewelry,
clothing and textiles, and what Bro. Dave and I were
looking for…Djembe drums!!!!!
 
We got to jam with some guys, Dave and “Slow,” for
about 20 minutes and had soooo much fun! The rest of
our group was looking at other things and never saw
us. I really hope we go back to the same spot and get
some video!
 
Our guide had recommended we not carry cash this time
and just look, which was a good idea because of all
the crowding. But if I had had the money with me at
that point, I would have that drum!!! I’ll have one
before we leave, for sure.
 
Greg Stafford told us on the bus later that he had an
interesting conversation with some of the vendors
about a wooden mask they were selling, reflecting the
“fear of God.” Greg asked if this was a tribal,
pre-historic image or a Christian era one, and they
said the former. We had a good conversation about how
this reflects what is said in Romans 1:20 – “His
eternal qualities and divine nature have been clearly
seen…so that men are without excuse.”
 
We will be back to this area later to do street
evangelism. The people definitely act differently
here, but they are all quite kind and want to make a
connection.
 
Our last stop before the hostel was a grocery store,
which had all kinds of interesting imported goods.
I’ll have to get a couple things to bring back home
when we go back. (We’re planning some lunches we can
take to villages we will be visiting.)
 
I’ve made it past dinner. It’s about 8 p.m. here and
I’m about to take a shower and collapse. It really
does seem like that’s the right time. Weird.
 
I still feel like I’m on the airplane. ;)
 
More tomorrow. Pray that our harvest is plentiful
when we actually start our mission work.
 
-C

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