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What did we have for dinner today?

Organic chicken, served with Yam that has been pounded to make “fufu”, together with a soup made of onions, tomatoes and red pepper.

'pounding fufu'

For dessert we had fruit salad from our garden
- banana and papaya -
but unfortunately no mango as it is not in season at the moment!

'our bananas'

'our papaya'

Good luck, bad luck

ZUGUSUG BI LOORA, ZUGUBIEGU N – LOORA

The above Dagbani proverb literally means, 'good luck does not spread, bad luck spreads'. The interpretation of this proverb suggests that we don’t often benefit from other people’s good luck, but we are often affected by the bad luck of others. And this seems to be our experience over the past two weeks. It has been a chain of sicknesses and illnesses which we pass on to each other as a ‘true family’. It all started like this, Samuel had very bad malaria (3+) while Abukari was away in Tamale arranging for maintenance work on our vehicle. It was therefore difficult to get Samuel to the hospital as he was too weak to sit on a motorbike (quite readily available). Finally a local taxi was arranged to convey Joke and Samuel to the hospital whilst somebody took care of Micah in the house. The doctor was shocked that there were so many malaria parasites in Samuel’s blood. He was instantly given a malaria treatment by injection and then later on another infusion was given at our house by a nurse who had come from the hospital. We chose to have him treated at the house rather than have him admitted to the hospital because at this time of year especially there are a lot of mosquitoes about. He has been on quinine for a week now and is really doing well.

Next Joke started to get bad headaches and stomach upsets that really drained her energy and joy. Just after that Abukari found out from the laboratory that he had malaria. And during the middle of last week Micah developed a high fever. Since we were so scared after the experience with Samuel, we immediately started to treat him for malaria but after two days his fever had not gone down. We took him to the hospital for a blood test and no malaria parasites were found, instead he had rather a low HB, but he was prescribed another malaria treatment. However, we were really concerned as his high fever was persisting so we consulted a missionary colleague who is a nurse in Accra (about 700 km distance from where we are). She recommended an antibiotic and praise God, Micah’s fever went down. So it has been several weeks of medication and nursing as we learn to feel each other’s pulses and take each other’s temperatures.

Yesterday (10th June) we again went to the hospital for a malaria test. Samuel and Micah both still have malaria and were prescribed different treatments. Please continue to pray for complete healing.

'the two youngest patients!'

Praise God:

• for our life and the ministries that we are involved in here in Ghana.


• that our health challenges are normalising now.
  

Please pray:

• for our continued strength and health.
• for health personnel in Ghana; the numbers of doctors and nurses are far too low so the work pressure is very high, especially in the rainy season when people fall sick with malaria frequently.

Snakes Again!

This time a visit to Samuel’s school class! Every Friday morning I (Joke) go into Samuel’s school (North Eastern Christian Academy, Yendi) to help his class with craft activities.

As you can see from the photos, they are all busy cutting and pasting.

The final result - beautifully coloured snakes!

PRAYER AND PRAISE ITEMS

Thank God for:

• The opportunity for Samuel to attend a school in Yendi.


• Water! For over a month no water flowed through the pipes in Yendi due to a failure with a transformer for the pumping station. Fortunately, we had just enough water stored in our underground tank to see us through.
  

Pray for:

• Samuel and Micah as they both grow and develop – physically, mentally, spiritually.


• For good rains - even though the rains have started early, there has not yet been enough to start the main farming of maize, which people largely depend on for their daily food.
• Continuous co-existence between Muslims and Christians, as many Muslims are opening up to the Gospel.
• Comfort for one of our American missionary friends, Kim and her two sons who lost their husband and father last Friday (15 May) in an accident with an exploding gas bottle (see here for more info).

Friends and family

'playing outside with friends'

'Samuel and Micah with their grandfather and uncle in Tamale. They were all dressed up for a traditional gathering'

Snakes!

The rainy season has started. People always look forward with anticipation to this season. The rains bring a refreshing coolness after a long period of heat and dust. But more importantly they are a sign of hope for food; at this time of the year food stocks from the previous year’s rainy season are about to finish. As soon as the first rains fall, you especially see men early in the morning wearing their old clothing and heading towards their farms. Some use bicycles, while others walk. The two tools they always carry are a cutlass and a hoe which is an iron shovel attached to a curved stick with which they plough their land. However, working on the farms is not without danger. During this time many farmers are bitten by poisonous snakes and sometimes this can even prove fatal.

Even in our home we sometimes find very thin poisonous snakes which are able to enter houses under the doors. We had an incidence of this during the past week when one evening we saw a snake in the house and were able to catch it before it had an opportunity to hide in a corner somewhere. This was really fortunate, as Micah loves little creepy crawly creatures like worms, crickets, spiders. He regularly catches them and then shows them to us, full of pride at what he has been able to do! There is not a lot of difference between a long worm and a small thin snake in Ghana, so we’ve now made sure that all holes where a snake might try to get in have been closed.

We are also regularly visited by people with snakebites. This happened twice last week. The first man was bitten on his hand by a thick short snake. The snake was hiding in his yam seedlings. He was able to shake the snake off and kill it and then came to us with the dead snake. The second man was weeding on his farm when he was bitten on his leg by a snake.

"the short thick snake"

Why do these people visit us? A missionary who worked with our church in the past introduced a “shocker”. A “shocker” is a small tool which we can make locally. It is able to produce electrical shocks around the snake bite which neutralises the poison as long as the treatment takes place within about one hour of the person being bitten. The cost of this treatment is about 1 euro which covers the purchase new batteries needed for each “shock”. A treatment in the hospital costs between 50 and 150 euros!

"the shocker"

"applying the shocker"

In many villages where we have a church, we have introduced the “shocker” and of course we ourselves have one for people in our neighbourhood. The “shocker” serves, first and foremost, as a lifesaving gadget but it also gives us the opportunity to build bridges for evangelism; a word of encouragement, a short prayer, something to eat or drink or medical care if the treatment with the shocker is not sufficient..... giving many people pause for thought........

PRAYER POINTS:

Praise:

• Thank God for the early start of the rainy season

Prayer:

• for a good farming season
• for protection for the farmers


• for funds to make more shockers (each 'shocker' costs about 10 euros but they are sold to the villages for 5 euros)
• that through the love and compassion of the 'shocker service' people will be attracted to the 'Main Shocker' (Numbers 21:8)

Peace!

'Tamale Mosque'

Some of you might remember that in April 2006 we wrote about Rahman. At that time he came to visit us in Yendi. When he was quite young he learnt to read the Koran in Arabic. Besides that, he also studied parts of the Koran. Therefore, he could lead prayers in the Mosque and people visited him to ask for advice in times of trouble and he received the title called ‘Malam’. Because he has been given that title, family and people from his community owe him a lot of respect. Over the past few years he has been involved in a dialogue between Muslims and Christians. Abukari and Rahman are cousins and good friends and Abukari visits Rahman regularly. When Rahman visited us about three years ago, a newly built Mosque was inaugurated in the village in which we live and as a pastor (working among Muslims) Abukari was invited to join the occasion. He went together with Rahman. During the speeches the preacher referred to Christianity a number of times. After the ceremony was over, Rahman expressed his surprise about this; ‘why did they not preach Islam and morality rather than warn the people against Christianity?’ This started a long discussion between Abukari and Rahman. They talked for a number of hours during which time they read and referred to passages of the Koran and the Bible. Rahman finally told us that within Islam he misses the real joy and peace the Christians display and that therefore he wants to become a Christian. It was a real breakthrough; for over five years we had prayed for him. It was also a breakthrough because he was so deeply rooted in Islam and because of his position in his community. Since then he has faced opposition when people have got to know that he has become a Christian.

Since that time Rahman has been secretly attending Church and at the same time observing the Muslim prayers in the community Mosque just to keep peace with his family, friends and the larger community. During these years of hide and seek a lot of things have happened. Although Rahman tried to hide his new found faith from family members and friends, his new life in Christ soon began to betray him (2 Cor.5:17); many friends have come to ask him why he is behaving differently these days. His answer has always been simple, 'it is Jesus'. Some of the friends who heard of Rahman's response were quite embarrassed and did not take it kindly, so they decided to incite the community against him by broadcasting or spreading the news of his conversion for their own selfish ambitions. As it says in Philippians 1:17-18, "The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposed that they can stir up troubles for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice”. While Rahman was still trying to hide his faith in Jesus, people in the neighborhood were laughing at him because they heard he was a secret follower of Jesus and of course by his fruits he was a different person.

'after prayers in the Mosque'

Just this last week a senior Imam, who coached Rahman in his Islamic studies and practice when he was young, heard the news. He decided to visit Rahman with three other Imams. In their interrogation, Rahman affirmed what they heard to be true. The senior Imam in his early fifties began to cry and wail uncontrollable, in the midst of his wailing this was what he said, "Even if you were irresponsible and a drunkard it would have been better than becoming a Christian." At the end of their meeting one of the Imams borrowed Rahman's only Bible.... Having gone through all this, Rahman has now decided to officially and openly break the news to the family this next week. He has also made up his mind to start fellowshipping with a Church (with a lot of Dagomba Christians) in the community. Rahman urgently needs your prayer support and encouragement to soar through these unprecedented storms.

PLEASE PRAY:

• For Rahman to be able to stand and be bold to the pressures of the family and community.
• For his wife Samira who is not comfortable with the situation and thinks it is disgraceful.
• Pray that many Dagomba people who have seen the light will be encouraged to embrace it regardless of the storms.
• Pray that Rahman will find friends who will help him in his Christian journey.

Discipleship

'the members of the church at Sakpe'

Sakpe is a community in the Yendi municipality that we have recently reached with the Gospel. Before their acceptance of the good news of Jesus Christ the majority of these people practiced syncretism (trying to combine different religious beliefs). We visit them regularly to teach them the basic concepts of the Christian faith to set the foundation right. Whilst discussing Bible passages the people raise many questions that are very important to them, even to the extent that some of these issues were real barriers preventing them from accepting the Gospel. These are some of the questions they asked:

• How can somebody really die to save others? Within the context of the Konkomba and Dagomba people, they think that Jesus might have made this arrangement (dying on the cross) so that he himself gains something through it - for it to be a selfless sacrifice is difficult to understand.

• If I die, who will perform my funeral? This is extremely important to the people in this area. Culturally, when somebody dies, the person has to be sent off well so that the person's spirit will join the ancestors. If the funeral is not performed well the spirit of the person 'hangs around' causing all kinds of misfortune. When somebody becomes a Christian, family members and people from the community (non Christians) do not want to perform the funeral since they believe that the deceased is unclean. It is therefore very important to assure those new believers that the church will take up that responsibility and even more importantly explain that their spirit will go to God.

• Can I still marry more than one wife? Most Dagomba men marry at least two women which is accepted culturally and also because of their Muslim faith.

• What do I do with my three wives that I married before I became a Christian? We generally encourage them to maintain their wives, to take good care of them and of their children as they have already made that commitment.

• Can I use traditional medicine when I am sick? Also an important question. Some traditional medicine can be used without any problems (like herbs). However, sometimes a traditional healer will ask the sick person to perform sacrifices and the blood of an animal is used as a means of efficacy. If that is the case then that medicine cannot be used.

• Can I have juju (a supernatural power) to protect myself? Again, these supernatural powers can only be used if animal sacrifices are being made and it is therefore not acceptable within the church. Moreover, when one becomes a Christian the highest Power (God Himself) is the one who protect us.

Thinking about all the questions the people raised it made us realise once again that after people come to faith in Christ they need to be taught regularly. We cannot just take it for granted that they have understood everything by becoming Christians. There are thousands of people like the community at Sakpe whose salvation 'depends' on our response and commitment to the words in Romans 10:14, 17, 'How, then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?...Consequently faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.'

'because nobody within the church can read at present they use a hand wind tape recorder with cassettes to listen to the Word of God when they meet and there is nobody around to teach them'