First Holy Day

Monday, October 02, 2017
Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana
Services on the first holy day are scheduled to begin at 10:00 am. Our ride to services is to be provided by Daniel Bottah, a local member here in Kumasi who owns a car. Daniel arrives quite late due to traffic troubles in getting to the hotel. But the feast site is only a few minutes away so we arrive with five minutes to spare. Daniel is a math teacher by trade and his wife is a nurse.  They have two daughters, ages 9 and 3, and just added a newborn son, Adam.
The brethren are warm and friendly with broad smiles. They shake hands and nod, but unless asked do not give their name. Interesting cultural issue I suppose… Most everyone is already seated for services. The hall is full with some overflowing outside the building. We meet a few of the local pastors and take our assigned seats in the front. After sound checks, moving of lectern and retesting the sound, services begin at about 10:15.
There is no accompaniment for hymns today, so the song leader sings the last line of the hymn (like the pianist would play in the States) and then the congregation starts the first verse. Many song leaders back home would be way too self-conscious to ‘solo’ like this! The Africans have come up with their own variant melodies for some of the hymns. They do the best they can. I can see the value in providing a recording of a choir singing our COGWA hymns so they can hear how they’re supposed to sound. It would make learning them much easier. I hope in the not-too-distant future we can do this for them.
When we spoke yesterday, Mr. Dima was concerned that the brethren here were not used to two services on the holy day with a lunch in between. His fear was that if we broke for lunch, many would not remember to return for the afternoon service.  So the decision was made to have back-to-back services, then provide the holy day meal the brethren in the US had funded.
To speed the morning service, we decided not to translate the Twi sermonette and sermon into English since Pam and I were really the only ones who needed this. Mr. Plange sat next to me and would summarize from time to time to keep me up to speed during and the sermonette and announcements. I was asked to say a few words and then Mr. Dima gave the announcements and the holy day offering was collected. White envelopes were handed out before services to place your offering in. Since baskets were not available, the offering was collected in white plastic garbage bags. Makes due in a pinch! Mr. Plange gave the sermon. We took a five minute African break (30 minutes) and started the second service. 
Both the sermonette and my sermon in the afternoon service were in English.  Mr. Plange translated my sermon into Twi. It is a difficult way for me to speak – saying two or three sentences, then pausing to have them translated for the audience. When I have this kind of translation, I tend to speak in ‘sound bites’ rather than longer thoughts. And since some of the sound equipment was delayed in arriving, we shared a microphone – like Paul and John (McCartney and Lennon of Beatles fame, not the apostles!). Because the microphone stand had not yet arrived, I held the microphone as I spoke, then leaned it over to Mr. Plange for the translation. We seemed to get a pretty good rhythm going. I spoke on seven key characteristics of the Millennium. 
Near the end of services the caterer arrived with the holy day meal. This, for most, will be the nicest meal of the Feast – and maybe their year. The meal was jollof rice – a specially spiced rice dish – with a piece of fried, spiced chicken on top – or buried under the rice. Each meal came in what we might call a Styrofoam clam-shell take-out container, held closed with a rubber band which also held a fork and napkin. The two cups of spiced rice and chicken was a real treat and very filling. We ate with a few of the pastors and one of their wives. Unfortunately, since it is awkward to eat in church chairs, the brethren had been instructed to take their lunches back to their residences to eat, so we didn’t get any pictures of the meal actually being eaten! But I guarantee it was! Many thanks to those who contributed to make this special meal possible for 570 of your brethren in Ghana!
At the end of a long, very hot day we returned to our hotel and it was time to get cleaned up. Our little bathroom has a sink, toilet, mirror, and small bathtub – all are pink in color – indicating the relative age of the fixtures. The tub cannot be plugged, so the shower is the only option. The shower is not built in, but a hose with a wand at the end. It is supposed to be mounted on the wall so you can stand under it and be sprayed upon. But the hardware to suspend the spray nozzle has long since been broken, so the hose lays on the bottom of the tub until you hold it with one hand to rinse yourself. Tonight Pam turned on the shower, got all soaped up, when the water then completely shut off. Nothing like standing in the shower all soapy with no water to rinse with. I got a few ounces of water out of the sink to half-rinse the facecloth, but not enough to do much. So Pam finished her “shower” by simply wiping off as much soap as she could. No need to towel dry! She maintained a wonderful attitude during the whole thing! Funny thing was, a few minutes later the water came back on and I had a great shower! Pam was not laughing!  :-)
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