Processing August 2010 trip: Me and the "little one"

As some of you know, I read a lot on Mother Teresa...because I think she is simply amazing. When she wrote letters to God, she signed them, "Your Little One." (which I think is adorable.) On Monday night, I was brought to a tough question for me on how to I respond to those who ask, "Why don't you do something in the U.S., why do you have to keep going to Africa?" Sometimes I find myself being weak in just saying, "because I have a heart for the people" when I know I am saying it to a critic who doesn't understand the mission. I continually pray that I can speak of a call in strength when I sometimes want to say it in weakness. I was reading the works of Mother Teresa today on how she struggled with her critics, judging her in work with the suffering of the poor and building hospices for the dying. She said that this is the answer she had to her critics: "We all have a duty to serve, and I choose to serve God where He has called me. I feel called to help individuals as people, not to interest myself in structures or institutions." (Whoa...Mother Theresa, you are my hero!)

Her words also reminded me of this last trip to Ghana. She was a woman that planted a lot of structures (hospices, orphanages, etc.) but she is known not for the building but for the love of the people housed under the structures she founded. People who met her and people who will know her by name in years to come will know her not for the structure over their heads, but for the love which it was built. There are so many people that will be touched, loved, healed, and know God under the structures all over the world which are founded by her, yet have never met her. Because she went where she was called and was active, she was able to plant places that focused on people and God's love.

I keep looking at the pictures of the church plant in Ghana from the August 2010 trip with the Lutheran Church of Hope team. On every trip for me, I have always thought of Mother Teresa's words, "Don't give them your money, because it can be got, give them your heart because they need your love." Watching the guys work on this new church plant is probably one of the biggest impacts of any of my trips. I've been apart of the relationship building to reach planting a church, seen the given ground, seen the final result, but never witnessed the process from the ground up. I'm so impacted by having this experience a couple weeks ago...I'm so grateful to be a witness. It breaks me down not for the structure, but for what it represents...the people. Witnessing Mark, Cory, Mike, Ebenezer, Kwaku, Richard, etc., building the structure, knowing the faith building, the hard work, and joy that the mission of building it is so amazing. (By the way, strong work guys...bless you!) While we were there, I couldn't stop thinking about the people, and how that village was there working with our team, and the women carrying the rocks, and those that were just there witnessing the foundation of a structure that would house God's love. For me, it was more than watching team Hope and Ghanaians work, it was witnessing God on the move. I couldn't then can't now stop thinking of what is to come for that community and the people that will sit under that structure. I can't stop praying for the people that will be a God community of prayer, love, healing, joy, and grace. I am in such praise and joy for people who I met there in that village, and people who I may never meet, but know that the possibility of the unity of God's people will gather in growth under a structure of a new church plant. God is amazing!

One last Mother T- She also said, "You can do what I can't do, and I can do what you can't do, but together we can do something beautiful for God." That reminds me of the new church plant, too. As much as I would have loved to grab a tool and build a church, I couldn't--and for multiple reasons. Some were called to cut pipes, dig holes, use such and such tool to put together part A to part B, collect rocks, mix the concrete, build the relationships, knock on so and so's door to invite to church, select the call for the pastor, etc. The beautiful thing is that we each have a part to this amazing new body of church, and together we are all doing something beautiful for the unity of God. I'm so moved by witnessing the "planting" part of this church, to be united in a body that does something beautiful for God. God's love. The experience of God's love...now that is something truly beautiful!

What makes this past team of people so awesome is that we are many parts under one body...thank you for being so beautiful for God!

Laughter in the Darkness

I have become very use to the darkness of Ghana since I have been here. Traveling in the dark, walking along side my fellow Ghanaian in a pitch black sky. No city lights, no moonlight, no distraction of illumination from a porch light from a local home. In Ghana, night is as dark as black can come. Last night, after my visit and teaching with the local town of Ho V/R, I had an experience of joy that I have become familiar with in all my trips to Ghana. My experience was being surrounded with the sounds of laughter of young girls and women. Just as the night had become late, and I was certain that we were all exhausted as we departed, two little girls reminded us all of what is the most important. It was the carefree simplicity of being a child. They reminded me of what it was like to be a girl and look at one another and giggle at absolutely nothing and being in the joy of your best of friends. You see, laughter is my favorite sound of all. It can create a new friendship or renew the day of an old friend. Laughter can overshadow everything and anything. You can be in laughter with another person and forget that there is a whole world around you that is happening. It can replace time as you get in the moment of hearing the laughter of another person. You can simply be in the joy of laughter with another person and create a carefree moment that will be in a capsule of the moment. Leaving last night, the Freedom Hotel van came to pick me up. As I saw those two little girls and all the women surrounding them, we offered them a ride to their road. In the van, all the seats were taken out of the back, so on the floor we went. I was in a van full of Ghanaian women, two girls, and I in the darkness of Ghana. Those two little girls would not stop giggling, and soon before I knew it we were all laughing. In the darkness of the night, I couldn't see their faces and they couldn't see mine, but we could hear each other in our sounds of laughter. I could hear their giggles and feel their joy. It was the best sound the world could offer me at the moment. Between English and Ewe, it was a mutual laughter of understanding. It wasn't laughter that was in the awkwardness of being crammed in the back of a van without seats with two cultures of Volta women and one American woman. It was a unity of laughter that expressed happiness of just being girls together sharing a ride, just being who we are. As much as I love laughter, they did as well. We shared that in common. Leaving them at the end of their road to take their walk home, they were still laughing, but waving good-bye. They were all laughing, jumping, and waving farewell. As we pulled away in the thick darkness, I could still hear their laughter.

A Killer In the Night

Malaria. It is the number one killer of children under 5 years of age in Ghana. On Thursday evening, Sam and I received a call to visit an Accra hospital because his neighbor's child was admitted to the hospital and in danger of losing her battle to malaria. We arrived at the Accra Legion Hospital Children's Ward to find 3 year old Matilda weak and lifeless. As we arrived, her father was also walking into the Children's Ward with a small cooler. I found this different, and assumed he had gone to get food for their family to bring to the hospital. (In Ghana, it is custom to bring your own bedding and food.) In my surprise, it was a cooler with a blood packet for Matilda's blood transfusion that she was in desperate need for. The shocking part of this mystery cooler with the life saving blood, was that it was her father that was the carrier of the cooler container. In Accra, if your child needs blood due to malaria, the child needs in right there, right now. It is the family that has the responsibility to go and search for the blood type of their child that is needed for the transfusion. The hospital will not and does not go and get the blood. They do not go and send a healthcare worker in search of it. They do not make any phone calls to track down the correct blood type. Matilda's father had walked into the Accra Legion hospital at 8pm Thursday evening with a cooler contianing the blood that would transfuse the malaria from her body. Here is the shocker: He walked and drove around Accra for 7 hours going from hopsital to hospital trying to find the right blood type. There is no courtesy call ahead to the next hospital, and the hospital will not allow him to call ahead to find out if there is blood available at a hospital. Its first come first serve, and at any time there could be blood ready. Imagine: You are a parent, you are in danger of losing your child to malaria, and you are sent on a wild goose chase to find the right blood type for her transfusion. I honestly can't imagine the desperation, the fear, and the panic. Here is the next thing: money. It cost a lot of money to treat malaria once you get to the hospital stay, and the transfusion. Not only did he have to go search for the blood, he needed the money to pay for the blood out of his pocket, and the money to pay for the transfusion. The money for blood, he had. The money for the transfusion, he did not. If Sam did not arrive with the money to give this man to pay for the transfusion, this little girl would be in danger. The cost for this little girl in the American dollar was $250. Most Ghanaian families do not have this kind of money. She received her transfusion. Before we left, I held her lifeless little body, her silence spoke volumes of words. According to Sam, a bednet for Malaria prevention cost $9.50 (US dollar). Most Ghanaian families cannot afford this. The Ghana Goverment has run out of subsidy since February 2009 to provide bednets to families. It is hopeful that the subsidy will return in September. This is the desperation of a family in Accra, where there is some chance of healthcare, even if you have to go for the chase for blood and money. Take a story like this to the Voltra Region and imagine how alarming the desperation would be. There would be absolutely no money for a bednet, little chance if any to go to a hospital for medical care. Essentially a child or a family member would die from this disease. This is a preventable and treatable disease.
From this story of Matlida, I am happy to report that as I ate my breakfast this morning, she walked in the door of the Dunya residents. She returned home from the hospital last night. She is going to make it from this round of malaria. She is still very week, but there is color back in her body

Evenings in Akatsi

Posting coming soon

Akwaaba!!!

I have arrived in Accra, Ghana. I'm on my fourth day and it has been a transition to adjust to the culture this time and walk the unknown territory of Accra. I will leave for Akatsi tomorrow and work 3 days with Emmanuel Lokoh before returning to Accra for a day of rest. I will then depart to Ho in the Volta Region where I will spend the week there working. The details have yet to be written, but I am looking forward to the revelation of my journey. I'm looking forward to being back in the Volta, which is where this adventure began 3 years ago. It will be like going home to visit old friends and seek out new faces for an opporunity to create new stories with them.

Todays Generosity Is Tomorrows Future

When I least expect it, friends from my first trip to Ghana, have given a gift to prosper the children of Ghana. A generous donation has been given to be used toward purchasing supplies specifically for children of Ghana. Immediately, I knew where this could be used.
In August, a Head Teacher for a village school approached me with a request. This came only a day after being given a responsibility of developer of another village. He came to me in desperation saying, "Please, please, you are different, you are here to develop our village." The word development stopped me in my tracks. It was a title that I was becoming familiar with. There seemed to be a theme in August, and it was that I was to be a developer, becoming a leader to grow villages of the Volta Region. Using the word, developer, he had my attention. It was this moment, I believed there were no accidents and there were no coincidences. He explained to me that his school had no funding, and he did not care that his salary was low, but that he was passionate and devoted to raising up the education of the village children. He said he had a list and knew what he needed. At the time, we were in the middle of medical clinic, and I wasn't sure exactly what I could do that day. I took my journal out of my backpack and had him write his name, address, and the list of supplies that he needed. Mostly books, chalk, and paper. He said he was worried about books, because he didn't have any teaching resource and the children didn't have any books to be taught from. This made learning to read and education difficult when the resources were not there. He explained that he would be able to lock the resources in his office for safe keeping if the supplies would become available. I could see in his eyes that this wasn't asking for a handout, or even trying to get more than what was necessary. He was a man with true passion and desperation to prosper the children of his village to learn, to grow, and be a growing number that could be the future of Ghana. He was on a mission to get help and he was drawn to my face to get results.
Getting the news today of the funding almost one year later, I knew that Mr. Yorfor would be the right place for this funding to go. My mind goes back to this village, which I will protect the name for now. I wonder if he has thought about the moment that we sat on the concrete slab and made a list together, talking about how to develop his school. I wonder if he thinks that I will ever come back to do something with that list that he gave me. I have thought about him, and the children, and its hard not to look back into my journal and see his list and not want to make that dream a reality for this teacher. It is tonight that I see the reason and purpose of this list in my journal and this teacher approaching me saying that I would be the one to do something about his school. It is almost as if he knew that I had a heart for Ghana and that eventually I would come back. Or even that eventually I would follow through with his address and ship him the materials that his children needed. It is with great honor, to answer the calling for a teacher who approached me and trusted me to do something about the needs of his community. Thank you to great friends, a husband and wife, with a passion for children. Akpe! (Thank you!) You have just changed the lives of multiple children and built the dreams of a school teacher's passion to educate a village. I will go and find Mr. Yorfor in the Volta Region, and we will travel to Ho V/R and purchase the supplies needed for the school...and perhaps a few new soccer balls for a little recess fun on me! Mr. Yorfor will be beside himself when he sees me coming down the path, and he will know what I am coming for. Thank you for transforming a village and building the future of Ghana!

When Social Justice Hits You In The Face

(This is an exert from my article, "Have a Coke and a Smile in a Third World Country.")

Its been four months since my awakening of the injustice and results of globalization of Third World Countries while reading reading N.T. Wright's, Evil and the Justice of God. The insights and thoughts of N.T. Wright opened my eyes to a concept that there is more to be done and to become a change agent and to cast vision for a leadership opportunity to get more assistance to the people of Ghana. After reading N.T. Wrights book, I started researching the Coca-Cola industry, reading about the economics that play into globilization, and lead me to a 20 page stategic plan to take to Global Coca-Cola on how they can take on the role of servant leadership in third world countries. It has lead me to seek out the right people within this industry. Perhaps it will be a dead end, but its worth trying to see if this can be another way to make a little piece of change in this world. It is the, "what if theories" that drive me. What if we partner with Coca-Cola of Ghana and it produces another 61 wells to the Volta? What if children grow to be healthier because of the partnership of clean water? What if all of these lead to less diseased deaths and more lives saved from disease ridden water? The following are my journal notes that sparked the full article and strategic plan to write, "Have A Coke and a Smile in a Third World Country." It is the fire that lead me to book my fifth trip to Ghana on my own to be able to walk the land and keep my eyes open for the loophole that I can bring home with me to make a business plan to profit the Volta Region of Ghana. It is only one of the many reasons that I will go back.

Journal Writing: March 2, 2009
N.T. Wright says that the state of affairs has led to three things that characterize the new problem of evil in this world. First, we ignore evil when it doesn't hit us in the face. Second, we are surprised by evil when it does. Third, we react in immature and dangerous ways as a result. What caught my attention was his first point in which draws me to my own passion for Ghana as part of the third world. Unloading his first point that we ignore evil until it hits us in the face, he states that philosophers and psychologist make out that evil is the shadow side of good, and that its part of the necessary balance in the world, and that we must avoid too much dualism, too much polarization between good and evil. When you pass beyond good and evil, you pass into the realm where might is right, and where anything that reminds you of old moral values, stands in your way and must be obliterated. His example: Nietzsche's philosophy of power and Hitler and Auschwitz…and what stood in the way…the Jewish Community. Continuing…and here is where it "hit me in the face." Wright continues, "But we don't need to look back sixty years to see this. Western politicians knew perfectly well that Al-Queda was a force to be reckoned with, but nobody really wanted to take it too seriously until it was too late. We all know that chronic national debt in many of the poorest countries of the globe is a massive sore on the conscience of the world, but our politicians-even our sympathetic ones-don't really want to take it too seriously because from our point of view the world is ticking on more or less all right, and we don't want to rock the economic boat. We want to trade, build up our economies. "Choice" is an absolute good for everyone; therefore if we offer Coca-Cola and Pepsi to starving AIDS-ridden Africa, exploiting a huge untapped market while adding tooth decay and its other chronic problems, we are furthering its well-being." (Wright, p24) Now, in four trips to Africa and looking ahead to the future, Wright has awaken me and put me on fire for one more area to be in concern for the social justice in Ghana. I'm the first to admit, that there is nothing like doing work in a village, and coming back at night to settle my mind and heart with a refreshing, cold, glass bottle of Coke or Orange Fanta. For one Ghana cedi (75 cents) it is a treat, and as Coca-Cola used to have their advertising slogan, I suppose it makes me smile. I guess the slogan is suppose to state that it gives some kind of comfort as you enjoy a Coke with a friend and share a smile with community and fellowship. I get that. What Wright just made me realize, for every night that I buy a Coke product and every cedi I spend in Ghana, I get to go into my room and brush my teeth with a tooth brush and toothpaste. Then, I go home to quality dental care and a regular check up every 6 months. What does a Ghanaian, or any part of Africa get from having a refreshing Coke in a bottle? A smile, refreshment, conversation and a smile with a friend…absoluetly. However, there may not be toothpaste or a dentist, or the insurance to pay for it when the added sugar that leads to tooth decay. And as I have witnessed in a few medical clinics in the villages, a dentist is well in need. I realize that I was fortunate to be born in the U.S., and that I was born into more opportunity than those who were born into poverty. That my clean shower water alone is cleaner than most Ghanaian villages of poverty will see in their lifetime. Now, I don't think that Wright is pointing out that giving a soda as a choice of purchase to the people in Africa is a mortal sin or purely the axis of evil. Or that it is unfair for Coca-Cola or Pepsi to sell and market their product into any third world community. It bigger and it goes deeper and it can lead us to explore all kind of economic problems and social justice for the third world. The question for Coca-Cola is how is marketing their product to a third world country doing good for the people? When we are talking about marketing to human beings, isn't there more to look at than just the economic profit for the company? People are starving, dying, struggling in poverty, and Coca-cola finds that this population is a market to take over. I could make a list of how many different directions I want to go with this, but for the sake of ranting…there is just one eye opener that I have had while reading Wright. There is Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the same country that there are people who don't have the one Ghana Cedi to purchase one bottle a Coke a year. In the same country where children are dying of Malaria and other chronic problems, young parents die and children are orphaned and hopefully are taken in by someone or they become street kids. Extreme slums, extreme poverty, starving children, water born illnesses, people who can't afford or have availability to medical care, villages without electricity, areas that don't have schools, schools that can't afford books, and this is just the short list of issues. But what alarms me to the top of the list when thinking about these products in the third world, is people that don't have clean water. Not just villages that don't have running water or wells, but HUMAN PEOPLE that don't have access to clean water. I know, I can state that, because I've been witness to the disease born water that fills the bodies of severe poverty. These people have better access to Coca-Cola than clean water. I recently just read an article from the United Nations that they have finally declared that there is a new humanitarian crisis: water. They stated that water needs to be a new humanitarian right to be fighting for. It is a right that every person should have the right to clean water. It is a necessity for living, for health, for a quality of life. I'm not going to go extreme and say that Coca-Cola should pull out of every third world country, and I'm sure they wouldn't dare pull out of a market that makes them profit in the urbanization of these third world countries. My mind thinks win/win situations, a partnership, or taking the bad and bringing good out of it. My drive in this is what should Coca-Cola do with some of these profits in these parts of the world…and should they be part of the effort to plant wells and provide safe water filtration to communities and village schools? The state of poverty in this world is such a vast situation, a major humanitarian crisis that it is going to take efforts from governments, NGO's, the UN, Christian missionaries, so why not Coca-Cola, Pepsi? Why not the rest of the consumer market that globilizes these countries. Now, I did look up Coca-Cola Global. They are joining forces in the UN and the Water Millennium Project…in Kenya. That is a happy start. In one place, Kenya, they are starting water filtration projects. It is amazing, and looks good on their website. One small country in a few village communities is just a dot on the map, and it isn't enough in my eyes. My thought and push is this to Coca-Cola: Why not do this in every third world country that they are selling their product??? Coca-Cola's new marketing slogan is: Happiness. Happiness to me while opening a bottle of Coke in Ghana would be if the people down the street had the choice to choose between a Coke and the filtration of clean water for everyone in that country…and the availability to have health promotion, medical and dental care to care for their bodies. I know we do not live in a perfect world, and it is true that we are broken people that live in a broken world, where there is good and evil, rich countries and poor countries. However, what I do know is that I can spend my time striving to reach justice in a world that is not perfect for what is good and right, serve the poor and be a voice for them to prosper for their basic humanitarian rights.

During the season of Lent, I gave up Diet Coke (and all soda for that matter). In this 40 days of fasting from the refreshing beverage that is suppose to be a can of "happiness" for me in the states, and a glass bottle of "happiness" for me in Ghana, I'm prayed on the social ustice for Ghana and all countries of the third world that there is a strategic solution that can bring the clean water that I have seen bring so many Ghanaians happiness with the gift of new water well. Also, I focussed on how to approach Coca-Cola and Pepsi and bring the questions to them, and ask for help for donation or a movement for them to do their part and start planting wells and filtration systems in Ghana, and encourage them not to stop there, but go to all third world countries that they are marketing and selling their products. The problem is so big, it is going to take us all, and maybe a better part of our own lifetimes to make a contribution to turn around poverty. Our churches, our communities are doing our small part in this world, so why not ask a big, marketable company to join in and come into a servant leadership community and do mission where it is needed the most. This is just day one stuff, and one thought for today. This is just one approach to my mission of saving the world, starting with one person at a time.