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August 27, 2010
Finding God in Ghana
As exposed sewers hugged every street side, the air weighed heavy with the smell of feces, urine and rotting garbage. The landfills were all full to capacity, so piles of trash rode the waves in ocean and came in with the tide every evening to rest on the shore. Heavy rains made traveling nearly impossible on the red clay roads that were shaped with abrupt dips and tight curves. Electricity, indoor plumbing, and gas were not things to rely on- they came and went with each unexpected day.
And yet, in Ghana, God was still a good God.
As children as young as twelve were called out of their classrooms and sent home if their school fees were not paid, and as men returned home from a week of hard work with $70.00 to provide for their families, in Ghana, God was still a God who met all their needs.
As babies in hospitals were pronounced dead by doctors who did not have the accessibility to oxygen tanks, in Ghana, God was a still prayer hearing and prayer answering God. As some families lived in one room homes and were without an indoor kitchen and indoor bathroom, and as some parents were only able to give a cup of water and a portion of white bread to their children for dinner, the Ghanaians worshiped a God who had blessed them beyond measure.
My experience in Ghana gave me a new understanding of humility. To be thankful, the Ghanaians taught me, had little to do with what things you possessed, and had everything to do with what God you believed in.
If you believed in a God that was on the side of the poor, in a God that came to liberate those in bondage, in a God who was divinely present with you at all times, then joy was yours. If you believed in a God that promised to supply you with enough strength to meet every challenge, then each new day was a gift. If you believed in the same God that the Ghanaians held close to their hearts, you were free to experience the beauty and simplicity of life.
Ghana redefined my definition of Ministry. Now, I understand ministry not only as an opportunity to teach, but more so as an opportunity to learn. Ministry is no longer about “fixing” the problem or finding a new solution, but it is instead about helping to manage by making a sincere contribution. Ministry is now understood to me to be a time to be silent and to listen. Ministry to me is investing myself in my neighbor to the point of vulnerability-to know intimately the reality of their challenges and know deeply the source of their hope.
With my Ministry Fellows Project complete, I fully realize how much this experience will impact the way I think theologically as I continue to reflect, reconsider and redefine. As I continue to work towards my Masters of Divinity at the Chicago Theological Seminary, I will go into this next academic year with lessons from Ghana fresh in my mind.
Ultimately, this experience will help me broaden the way I prepare for my vocation and strengthen the way I engage the church as a prophetic voice for disenfranchised children around the world. Clear to me now is the concept that my role in ministry has nothing to do with a romanticized version of leadership that calls me to go out and help those who couldn’t make it without me. Ghana has empowered me to embrace my call to be an orphanage/at-risk youth missionary as a calling to be humble, to be vulnerable, and to be prepared to give myself away to the needs of the least of these.
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