Generosity of a Child
On a Wednesday night before our trip David Donahue handed me a little gold box. At first I thought it was some kind of toy; it sparkled and glistened and I thought of including it with the “clutch” toys (hackey sacks, matchbox cars, old tennis balls) we planned to hand out to village children. Children in that part of Africa have no toys or personal belongings they can cling to or play with and clamor for anything they can hold in their hands.
David subsequently explained the gold box. It was from Millie Carlton. She had given it to him with instructions that it was for Ghana and it contained her savings and allowance money from the last several months.
Millie
It contained enough to buy two mosquito nets, enough to protect a family of six for the next four years, enough to save the lives of two children in a malaria infested part of the world. Malaria is the scourge of Africa especially in the Sub-Sahara region which includes northern Ghana. Of all the images, remembrances, and experiences connected with the trip to Ghana that little gold box full of a little girl’s allowance money lingers the most vividly.
That money could have been used for personal pleasure, accumulation of material things, or just plain innocent frivolity. Instead it was a sacrificial gift with others in mind. We are reminded of the scripture which, after describing a world of peace, states “..and a little child shall lead them.” Thanks to Millie for her example.
Accepting Christ
Village Worshiping with Mission Team
Another reflection is the effect such a trip has on those who go. We have chronicled a number of accomplishments of the team or more aptly stated, observations made by the team of what the Lord accomplished while we were there. We’ve done this through some of David’s emails and the presentation to the church on Wednesday night. We witnessed whole villages accepting Christ, raising their hands vigorously, joyfully and vocally with amen’s and hallelujahs. We saw the faces of women with small children light up with relief and gratitude as they clutched their new mosquito nets knowing they could make it through the next rainy season without fear of losing a child to the “fever.”
We saw young pastors and church leaders eagerly absorbing Christ’s commandments and teachings and asking questions they face daily that we in the Western World never confront. “When my jealous neighbor comes over at midnight and places a curse on my ground, what kind of prayer do I need to pray?” “If my first wife leaves voluntarily and I am only living with my second wife, can I be a church leader?” These were young men who traveled 35 mi on a bicycle and remained overnight sleeping on the dirt with little to eat or drink, hungry for the Word of God.
New Church
Eddie working on Beale Baptist Church in Ghana
We saw 45 people assemble on a riverbank singing, praying, smiling knowing they were following Christ in baptism, entering the water as he did, buried with him and raised to walk in newness of life. We saw the people in a small village rejoice in the completion of their new church building, a simple structure of mud walls and a roof made from a thin metal with a greater resemblance to tin foil than to tin roofing. Their gratitude was expressed in a dozen yams and a live chicken, enough to feed a family for a week, truly a sacrifice for a people who live from day to day with just enough food to survive.
Children
Village children playing soccer
We saw children chasing after a brand new soccer ball running in bare feet over stones, roots, and garbage colliding with such force that would make English rugby look like a sport for the ladies garden club. We saw children with club feet running on their ankles, pained to know that in the Western World a routine operation at birth would have corrected their affliction. We watched children gather around the storyteller showing them a Bible storybook with amazing pictures, in color no less, and reading the words from the pages. We watched them rub the storyteller’s arms to see if that funny white coating would come off.
Eddie
One cannot witness all this without being changed by it. I asked Eddie what he would say to Lynnette to describe all this. “You can’t describe it; you can’t put it into words. I’m just going to have to bring her with me next time so she can see for herself.” Eddie was a special case anyway and the subject of speculation among the rest of the team about his undue influence on the cook staff. When we arrived in Yendi we were each given a case of bottled, filtered water. We kept this water in our rooms and each day took with us the amount we would need for the day. Of course it was room temperature, even warm.
Tyler donates chicken
However, somehow Eddie left each day with his water ice cold, dripping with sweat, generating no small amount of envy among the other team members. How did he do it? It seemed that he nurtured a special relationship with Tina, our cook. Tina, a bit on the stout side herself, noticed Eddie right away and decided that this tall, thin man needed some special attention, some extra meat on his bones. We observed that he always got the big piece of chicken and the largest dessert and, oh yes, a place in the crowded little refrigerator for his water. Thereafter, he was given the name “Eddie Haskell” and it stuck for the rest of the trip.
Each of us came away knowing we would never be the same and thinking of those with whom we wanted to share the experience knowing it was impossible to do it with words alone. We knew we wanted to return and take others with us. The following is in line with that sentiment and written after my first trip in 2007.
Anointing of the Dust
The dust rose, as though displaced by the hooves of a thousand cattle, and remained suspended along the road, the trail, the path, defying gravity, and refusing to settle or drift away. It covered the sojourners, the missioners. They couldn’t escape it. It covered their possessions. It permeated their facial creases, the crow’s feet and brow furrows sculptured by a lifetime of joy and laughter, anxiety and tears. That their aging faces would register these emotional extremes simply certified their connectivity with the rhythms and realities of life such as joy, suffering, and fear.
Ghana Mission Team
Most of the dust would just wash off. But the residue would react with the glandular ooze of oil and sweat becoming an ointment of opposing effects. It relaxed and excited, soothed and agitated, healed and wounded. It would become a penetrating mix reaching the soul, affirming the purpose of life and confirming for each life a purpose. Fellowship with God in His Son and love for those they created would merge. It would spawn a yearning, even a compulsion, to return to that place to serve those whose bare existence depended on the soil whence came the dust.
They had been anointed and would never be the same.
