Medical and Gospel Mission to Ghana

By Andrew, Belinda, Felicity and Charlotte Love

In July, Andrew Love, his wife Belinda and their two daughters Felicity and Charlotte joined 13 others from Southern Hills Baptist Church in Tulsa, United States on a mission trip to Accra, Ghana. Their host church in Accra was Maranatha Power Ministries, led by Pastor Francis Odai. There were four main elements to the trip: a medical mission, business training seminars, outreach to rural villages, and drilling for water.

Extreme Poverty

The first medical clinic was run in a fishing village on the outskirts of Accra. To say the conditions were deplorable does not adequately convey the horrific scene that surrounded the area assigned for the clinic. Dirt, filth, open drains, litter and extreme poverty could be seen everywhere and the stench was unbelievable. Numerous little alleyways with mud or wooden dwellings branched off the main street. Everywhere people were milling around trying to sell something, anything, in order to generate a few pence or cooking around open fires in the middle of the lanes.

Voodoo was much in evidence; we passed a group of priestesses who were not exactly thrilled at the presence of Pastor Odai and his team of white foreigners! We also saw the area designated for voodoo sacrifice.

Malaria Screening and Gospel Message

In the middle of all of this, a large awning was erected by a team from Maranatha, with a seating area underneath so that those waiting to be treated could do so in relative comfort. Tables were set up so that patients could have malaria screening, and paper records were generated including details of heart rate, weight and symptoms (this is where our daughters Felicity and Charlotte spent most of their time). All of this information was then provided to the doctor and nurse team (David and Phyllis Morris) who worked tirelessly seeing one patient after another without let up.

As the crowd waited, the simple Gospel message was shared with them over a megaphone and each was prayed for, before treatment. These clinics were repeated when we went to the villages in the bush, where with more open spaces, the conditions were actually much more favourable and easier to work in.

During the week, five clinics were conducted and over 600 patients treated. It was a thrill to see so many being helped but there was also a great sense of sadness for those whose condition was beyond what we could do and for those we had to turn away at the end of the day.

Business Principles Workshop

While the medical team was at work, a much smaller team ran some workshops at the church to talk about business principles and try to provide practical advice to help generate income and growth. Skip Nicholls, who has done a fantastic job in pioneering a micro-loan programme, raising funds over the last few years so that small loans can be made to stimulate local businesses, was in charge of this side of the mission. It was so encouraging to hear testimonies from various members of the Maranatha church community who had received these small loans, subsequently repaid them but in the meantime had used them to help grow their businesses. Drilling for Water

Water or the lack of it, is a big issue in Ghana, and this is particularly true in the rural villages. We visited the water source in two different villages. Both of them were a similar size – no bigger than a small pond full of algae-green coloured water. This is what they use to drink; it is not clean but it is all they have.

Southern Hills Baptist Church had provided funds to dig a well and we were able to see the drill arrive and eventually hit water at almost 300 feet. The people of the village gathered to watch and there was much smiling and gratitude for the gift of clean water. Renditions of the chorus “God is so good, He’s so good to me” in a field outside a Ghanaian village put into perspective what we take for granted every day.

Pastor Odai

Pastor Odai is an inspiration. He is totally committed to what he is doing and works almost round the clock. His home church base is in Accra but his primary focus is on mission to the rural villages; many have not been reached with the Gospel. His vision is to establish churches in these villages and schools so that as well as teaching the ways of God, the children are given the chance to have at least a basic level of education.

We visited a number of villages where churches and schools have already been established. Some of the church “buildings” are constructed from a simple wooden frame with palm leaves for a roof and a dirt floor. Others are in the form of a pole barn with a metal frame, corrugated iron roof and no walls. In one village we visited, one of the ladies was converted at a crusade. Her husband’s conversion followed and the two of them literally begged Pastor Odai to establish a school and church in their village. So in came Christianity, and out went voodoo.

Commitment to God’s Work

The crusade took place over three nights in the village of Krabokese. It was very moving to talk to the team from Maranatha in Accra, who had spent two weeks prior to our arrival living in Krabokese, promoting the crusade by walking miles each day to surrounding villages, preaching and encouraging the people to come. It was humbling to see the accommodation that they had used for those two weeks as they prepared the ground – a mud walled store house where they slept on thin mattresses on the floor. After their day’s work was done they prayed into the early hours of the morning asking God to open hearts to His message. Their room had no light so they needed to wait for dawn before they could open their Bibles to read. There were no bathroom facilities whatsoever so the team had to wait until sundown before washing themselves under the cloak of darkness; this was commitment to the work of God at a level we had not seen before.

Crusade in Krabokese

The crusade itself was conducted in a large field in the middle of the village. Many came and I imagine that some walked some miles to be there, others were brought by bus or truck. The dancing during the singing was quite a sight – at one point the dry earth produced a cloud of red dust that took some time to settle after the dancing stopped!

There was no big-name preacher, just a group of Americans and Brits, each of whom was prepared in their own way to share something of their knowledge of Jesus Christ. Many of the villagers responded to the message, and there were testimonies of healing and deliverance. Now Pastor Odai wants to establish five more churches, one in Krabokese and four in other local villages. From the church base, schools will be developed and those with no hope will be helped and lifted up.

The American-British mission team was made up of a wide variety of different personalities and ages but each made a unique contribution and we all learned from each other. The week was a huge challenge in many, many ways and made a significant impact on all of us. We all received far more than we gave and we are so very grateful to God for the opportunity of serving in this way.