Jesus reigns in Ghana =)

Hi everyone!

Everett has given me a great opportunity to share on this blog about my experience in Ghana and how I saw the Lord moving there J Most of this is from my previous blog entry about Ghana but I definitely feel privileged to share about it again on a blog like this one J

To be honest, I was very nervous before going to Ghana. Among concerns about safety and health was a concern that I would not have an opportunity to fellowship there at a church. I wasn’t going to Ghana for missions. Instead, I was doing some consulting with a student team for an NGO called Humanity World International. But thankfully, I was able to go to 2 churches during my time in Ghana: International Centre Gospel Church – Calvary and a backyard church right across from our house.

I found out about ICGC- Calvary by meeting one of its members, Kedmond Kobie. We met him and his sister while walking around our neighborhood and I found out that he was a Christian who regularly attended ICGC. Excited, we exchanged numbers and made plans to go to church the next day. Kedmond is one of the friendliest brothers in Christ that I have ever met and he has a great smile that would light up an entire room. He was very easygoing, hospitable (he insisted on paying for all the taxi rides to and from church) and would always call on different days to ask how we were doing. It was truly a blessing to meet him and I know for sure that it wasn’t an accident that God brought two brothers in Christ together during an evening walk in Ghana.

During service at ICGC, it was clear that ICGC-Calvary was a very charismatic church that had a lot of passionate members as well as a beautiful praise team. The praise team knew how to praise the Lord and we sang a mix of Christian praise classics as well as some hymns. Their choir was amazing as well, and one of their songs (I haven’t figured out the title yet but I will!) ended up being a song that I have listened to repeatedly on my computer. Although it was hard to make out what the preachers were saying at times, it was very obvious that these people loved God and their passion was evident through their praise and their prayers.

The next Sunday, I went to the church right across from our house (which I discovered after coming back from ICGC). It wasn’t held in a typical church building, but rather in a large tent. There were about 30 plastic chairs in the tent and the congregation was a bit smaller than that. However, all of that didn’t matter once service started. There were two short sermons, one given in Twi (and translated into English); and one given in English (and translated into Twi). Both were extremely good and I was reminded through the sermons about the importance of spiritual disciplines such as prayer and fasting. Worship songs in English and Twi were also sung throughout the service. When the congregation sang in Twi, I was reminded of my time at a church in Nepal two years ago. Even though I did not know what was being sung, I enjoyed seeing people of different tribe and tongue praise the same God that I worship. It felt the exact same way in Ghana when the congregation was praising God in Twi and the joy that these people had for the Lord was evident =)

Besides my time spent in church, I wasn’t sure whether there would be other opportunities to worship. Fortunately, ICGC was having a week of the prophetic and I was able to attend on one of the nights. As well, reminders of the Lord’s goodness and sovereignty were extremely abundant in the places I didn’t expect. For example, some of these reminders came in the form of stickers that the Ghanaians would stick on their cars, such as “The Lord is my Shepherd” and “Keep on Praying”. Others came in the form of store front names such as the “God is Almighty” butchery. One Ghanaian symbol that I saw repeatedly was “Gye Nyame”, which means “Except God, I fear none”. No matter where I turned, I was able to find reminders of God and that was something that I was extremely grateful for during the trip.

We also managed to visit Manna Mission Hospital, one of the many faith-based hospitals in Ghana. On the hospital’s plaque, it was stated that the hospital was started by people dedicated to providing an “effective blend of compassionate medical care and the gospel of Jesus Christ”. To this day, the mission statement of the hospital is “Christ centered compassionate medical care, effective evangelism and strategic community health development”. How amazing is that? The hospital served as a great encouragement and reminder to me that my faith and work doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t) be separated. Rather, both should be done together.

All in all, my time in Ghana was a true blessing from the Lord. It was good to be constantly reminded that He is present everywhere on this Earth, whether I feel Him or not. It was also good to remember that all people of different races and different tongues are able to praise the one true God; because of Jesus’ atoning blood made available for everyone. God is good all the time and all the time, He is good; and I feel very, very blessed to have been able to see God’s goodness and how He is moving in Ghana =)