Things I Learned in Ghana: Lesson #3

The emphasis must be on Jesus!

Signs all over Ghana say:
Glory be to God Pharmacy
Halleluya Saloon (should be salon)
Jesus Saves Coffin Shop

Sign proclaiming God in hopes of abundance are all over the country. People believe that if they name there shop after God, he will in turn bless it and make them successful. Some truly want to proclaim Christ Glory but the majority are in it for what they get out of it.
In the same way those who practice Voodoo or other African tribal religions cast spells on their stores and shops with the same hopes; that if they appease their gods it will bring them success.

Unfortunately, throughout Ghana and Africa, the Prosperity Gospel has taken root to the point that the lines between Christianity and Tribal Religions are blurred. Jesus has been turned into an ATM machine. Some people (pastor’s included) come to Church on Sunday and give in hopes of being blessed and then go visit their local witch doctor during the week and pay for a spell to bless them.

Many churches have decided that it is easier and more lucrative to try to please their congregations than to teach truth.

I have seen very little in the way of teaching on repentance, obedience, worship and service in the Ghanaian Church.
I am also seeing a lack of the most important thing to Christians and the world. JESUS! What Jesus did, in coming to earth, taking our sin upon himself and dying for us. And the way Jesus taught us to live in severely lacking in the Church in Africa.

Last year Francis Chan (Check out his website on the right) came to Africa for a pastor’s conference. He preached Jesus to these pastors and hundreds of them came forward to for repentance, because these pastors hadn’t even been taught much about Jesus, Love and being a Servant. Much of their training had come from US Televangelists and the message that God wants you to be rich.

I have been so blessed this year to be able to teach a fundamentals class to at Manna Bible School and also a class on Jesus. It was awesome to see light turn on for the first time in these young pastors and pastors-to-be lives when they started understanding what the gospel really is about for the first time.

At the same time it has caused me to spend more time studying the bible and ensuring that I am firmly grounded in the truth.

Please pray for Ghana that the Gospel will come to life in a new and real way and that true repentance and Christ Seeking will ensue.

Things I Learned in Ghana: Lesson #2

Getting robbed stinks, but …


We are in Africa.
We live among the people.
We don’t live in a community surrounded by other Western families; no we live in the town. Because of this we stand out and our house has become a target for some of those who have less than honorable intentions.

This year we have had 2 break ins.
The first happened while we were at work. Someone broke through a back door with a pick ax and went through the house. They found a stash of cash which I’m sure made them happy and they also took … our iron. They ignored our TV and DVD player and DVDs and IPod, but they got our iron.
I was upset. I wanted the Marines to start guarding our house. I wanted helicopters and spot lights and electrified fences. I wanted justice. I wanted to feel safe.

Then a few months later while we were away for the weekend celebrating our anniversary we were robbed again. This time there was no money for them (we learned a lesson). This one was more classical TV like robbery. Everything was trashed there was on the floor. Our bedroom door as kicked in and all and they got our IPod this time, and believe it or not they went for our new iron. But left it in the living room (true). But my reaction was a little different. At first I was irritated (expected) I called my good friend/boss/mentor Doug Ehrgott and fumed a little, but then I got over it pretty quick. In fact as Becky and I spent our Anniversary cleaning the mess we had a great time and figured our room needed to be cleaned anyway.
So what had happened between the first and second break in?

Well for me Matthew 6:19-20 really started to come to life for the first time in my life.
Jesus says “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (NIV)

I had read the verse a million (exaggeration) times and understood what it meant, but had never lived the verse before. I had never had it seep into me.
The 1st breaking really helped me understand the fact that the stuff on earth really doesn’t matter. It’s the treasures in heaven that matter.

So what are treasures in heaven? To me it’s people, others, YOU. See “stuff” will be abundant in heaven, wont really matter, they’ll even use gold as pavement. But the people who join us as The Bride of Christ, see they are the treasure. That’s what I (and you) am supposed to be pursuing. Helping fill the Kingdom with others.

Who would have thought that a break-in, would motivate me more to have an impact for The Kingdom?

Things I Learned in Ghana: Lesson #1 (reprise)

I've have another thought on this. Read the post below if you haven't yet and try this link.

My thought:
"If you can't see your blessings, change your perspective." - Steve Kinney

This is a letter from my friend Josh who just returned from South Africa.

http://thehaffnerhome.blogspot.com/2008/04/below-is-letter-from-our-cousin-josh.html

Things I Learned in Ghana: Lesson #1

The Roads of Ghana are notoriously bad.

First you have the traffic, and even when it’s light, doesn’t follow any sort of rules. For example one day we were driving down a 2 lane road that was a little backed up. Before I knew it my fellow drivers had turned the road into a 4-Lane with 3 lanes going one way and another going the other way. I’ve seen countless number of “infractions” which would drive a visiting traffic cop crazy, let alone me with my constant “conversations” I have with other drives.
Secondly, the infrastructure in Ghana is well below our standards in the U.S. When it rains many roads are closed because they are simply impassable. Pot holes are everywhere on the few roads that are paved and a large number of the other roads have simply been created by vehicles trying to get to where they’re going. These are called “bush” roads.

One day last November while at a pastor’s meeting we where going around the table saying what we were each thankful for. When it got to one of our senior pastors, Dean, he said he was thankful for the roads in Ghana.

I was floored, I couldn’t believe what he had just said and I wasn’t the only one. He had lived in the U.S. He had traveled on our amazing Interstate system and seen pot holes fixed when they sprang up. Of all the things to be thankful for, why was he thankful for what I thought had to be one of the worst things in Ghana?

He went on to explain that he had just returned from the D.R. Congo. It seems that the roads there are similar to the one in Ghana, but as you travel between villages there are armed bandits all along the routes who demand payment for passage and if you don’t or can’t pay terrible things can happen to you. So with that perspective, he was thankful for the roads in Ghana.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. What was a curse to me – the roads of Ghana – where a blessing to someone else. So who was right? Was I right because I knew that there was something better out there and as long as I had my eyes set on what could be (US Roads) the roads in Ghana were bad. Or was Dean right? He had seen the great and he had seen the worst so when he saw where he was and yet he found blessing in it.

Think about Peter, James and John who got to see Christ in all his glory during the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28). They got to see and experience the great, the awesome, the perfection of Christ Glorified, yet didn’t stay there.
Then the same disciples experience the worst of humanity as they ministered out into the world.
The disciples, having experienced the great and wonderful, didn’t sit around and complain because what they had wasn’t as good as what was happening on the mountain top, though Peter started to when he was up there, but the writers of the Gospels, nicely say ”He didn’t know what he was talking about.”
No, they went out and served and found blessings wherever they were at. It didn’t have to be the best to still be a blessing.

Remember that nothing on this earth is the best, that will come in due time.

I’m still chewing on all of this and there are a ton of lessons that come from Dean’s simple statement “Thank God for our Roads in Ghana.” What do you think? Leave a comment or a lesson learned. I’ve made it easier to leave comments no longer do you have to sign up.

Christ '08

Even here in Africa I can’t get away from the constant election coverage. Whether it’s web pages or discussions with our American friends or Africans wondering my opinion of Obama, McCain and Clinton, I just can’t escape it.

This morning I read a story on Indystar.com about campaign staffers. It seems that these people quit there jobs, which can be almost anything, to help their candidate get elected। They spend months traveling the U.S. telling people about their candidate, getting people registered to vote, making sure people vote, making phone calls (I have a parent and in-laws in Florida who were inundated with such calls.) and so on, with the hopes that it will all be worth it and their candidate will be elected.

So what’s in it for them? Well they believe in something about their candidate. They think that he or she can really make a difference and change the world and when a new president is elected he has hundreds of positions to fill in every conceivable area. There Depts. of Defense, and Agriculture and even one called the Department of the Interior (whatever that is)and more that need to be staffed.

The article made me think about some of the first campaign staffers (if I dare call them that).

Travel back with me 2000 years or so to the little nation of Israel. The people of Israel wanted change in there government. They were under Roman rule and they had spent a number of generations during there history under oppressive rule of some sort or another, but they were sure it was going to end. They knew one day a great leader would arise, a leader who would give them hope and a future. He would become king and rule with great authority. They saw the Messiah as a politician.

So this is the background that Christ entered into. His Disciples where sure he was going to overthrow Caesar and kick the Romans out, and that when He finally set up His kingdom they would rule beside Him because they had helped him from early on. It here that the story of Matthew 20:20-28 takes place.

The mom of 2 of Jesus’ disciples brings her boys up to Jesus and says basically “When you become king let my boys be your right and left hand men.” To which Jesus replied “I am not like all the rest of the people out there. If you want to be great in my Kingdom, you must be a slave to all.”

Can you picture it here these disciples are, they quit their jobs, there going around the country with this man that they know is going to be king someday and their hopes are that they will be rewarded and be big men at the Temple Gates when Jesus drops the bomb shell that greatness wasn’t going to be a cushy corner office with all national holidays off, but rather the lowering yourself to a point where you considered yourself below everyone else.
I can’t see many campaign staffers today sticking around long if there candidate tells them, “Oh by the way, after I’m elected, I’m going to need you to be the official pooper scooper for my dog Mickey.”

But these disciples of Christ kept following, watched there “Candidate” die, arise again leave them and they stilled kept on abiding by his words of being slaves to all. They where imprisoned, boiled alive, and even killed because they got a glimpse of the Kingdom.

One campaign staffer said something to the effect of “I do this because, this might be the only time in my life that someone like this comes along and I don’t want to waste the opportunity.”

It got me thinking about my own life and what it means to be on God’s campaign trail. Jesus is our once in a lifetime candidate. I don’t know how much time I have to get the word out and I know that he has already changed the world and he’ll change anyones life who allows him to be there King.

The great thing is that Jesus has already won and there are still positions open on his staff.

I don't know much

It was a few years back that I finally realized I didn't know everything.

Amazing, huh? If you knew me for 10 minutes you would have known that, but it took me nearly a quarter of a century to figure out. So I guess I'm a slow learner.

From middle school on I had the notion that I was right and those who disagreed were just wrong.

The sad thing is I messed up a lot of great opportunities and ruined a lot of great relationships. But the good news is God's Grace is renewing and more opportunities have come along that I've seized and I love the relationships I have now.

It wasn't until after a number of these failures and a general apathy from people that I figured out that I didn't have it all figured out.


Around the same time God brought into my life an amazing man who has opened up my mind to the idea of being a life long learner and to go along with that a life long server (maybe more on this later).
His name is Doug Ehrgott, currently the Local and Global Outreach Pastor at Northview Christian Life. What Doug has taught is that as we become more and more aware of what we don't know it opens up room for us to learn more.

I am not blogging as an expert on anything, but just as someone whose just figuring stuff out. In the future maybe I'll write about Working in a Different Culture. What I'm learning about Leadership, Love, Marriage, Friendship, Serving. And of course I will blog about what God's teaching me about Himself.

I hope you enjoy this blog and if you have any thing to teach me feel free to comment.