Follow Cory during his year-long missions trip in Ghana at coryinghanablog.wordpress.com.
Someone asked me the other day if I’ve been gone for three months now, and that sounded about right. The interspersion of excursions, six hour drives and day long work trips with the much more usual lethargy inducing boredom of a 9-5 has given me a perception that I’ve been in Ghana forever. I watched a video of Anthony Bourdain eating an In N’ Out burger and could only dream of what that could possibly taste like. But I don’t really remember. Maybe In N’ Out isn’t as good as Shake Shack? Who knows. Memory is such a fickle thing. But no, it hasn’t been three months, even though it feels like it should have been by now. It’s been two.
But two months is a lot of time to see a place with open eyes, even if you don’t quite understand. I see the country side streaking past me, lushly green, beautiful and untamed, as we drive through town after town. Boy after boy, selling the same baskets of tomatoes as the next, trying to make money to pay for school supplies. A community gathering together, talking, thinking, how to make the future a little more certain, a little bit brighter. A historic white castle, where the darkness of humanity gave rise to the subjugation of its brothers, while men and women of faith worshiped God with church bells above and shackles below.
These are all just images swirling in my head. With time and immersion, the process of seeing to understanding will come. But what I do understand is how I felt when I saw the Lake, I was in awe of the sheer beauty and almost incomprehensible size of that man-made reservoir. And then I was silenced by the realization that the beauty was a mirage and the lake is the dwelling place for an insidious injustice that has taken captive so many. It’s a humbling thing, to come face to face with injustice and to be able to do nothing about it. To feign tourism and excitement when your eyes meet the eyes of silent hopeless despair.
But there is hope. God is faithful and justice is coming. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
While memory might be fickle, I am certain that at the end of my time here, my memory of this place will not be something that comes and goes. It will not be a romanticized view of a thriving and up and coming African nation (even if it might be one), but something so much more concrete. It is a beautiful country filled with people as diverse as anywhere in the world. And there are people filled with hope who have given their hearts for a future that is better than yesterday.
Anyway, thanks for all the support and prayers. A couple personal prayer requests… 1) That God would stamp out any discontentment that might be starting to grow, this is born out of my longing for food if you couldn’t tell by the fact I was watching a video of someone eating In N Out; and 2) that I would continue to grow in patience and love. THANKS!
