Our Sabbath day began much earlier than we had planned.  About 5:45 am we heard what sounded like staff members moving and stacking dishes outside our door.  This was followed in a few minutes by loud banging over our heads. I opened the curtain to try to figure out what was going on. Much to my surprise I saw a homemade wooden ladder with two human legs at the top. Apparently Saturday at 6:00 am is the time for roof repair! The ‘dishes’ we heard being stacked were actually clay roofing tiles being carried up onto the roof to replace ones that were broken. After about 15 minutes of banging, the sound gradually moved away as the two roofers finished our section and moved on to repair portions of the roof further down along the building. 

Normally we take our breakfast quite late – at eight o’clock – so that we eat fairly close to the time that we will leave for services, knowing that we will not eat again until the evening. For some unexplained reason, we had a knock on our door a little before seven with breakfast on a tray. Rather than say we didn’t want it now and see the food wasted, we took breakfast at our little plastic picnic table on our ‘porch.’ For some reason the staff here has just not been able to get our breakfast preferences correct. After the first day we asked for no fruit for reasons previously described. So we received omelets – egg with a few diced peppers (with far too much salt), dry bread, a tablespoon of canned baked beans in a cup, and sliced fruit. So the next day we asked for scrambled eggs, no fruit, no beans, no bread and a few fried vegetables. We received hard boiled eggs, dry bread, and a tablespoon of baked beans in a cup, and some fried veggies. So today we had asked for hard boiled eggs and fried veggies with nothing else. We received on one plate two almost-hardboiled eggs (more than soft boiled, but not hard – still a bit gooey), dry bread and the beans. On the other plate was scrambled eggs and dry bread. The fried veggies never made it. It has turned into quite a comedy! We’ll see what tomorrow brings as it will be our last breakfast here.  

Services were to start this morning at 10:00 am, so Daniel picked us up on time and we arrived at the site a few minutes later. We started pretty close to on time. The sermonette was given on the topic of Psalm 15 discussing who will be allowed into God’s Kingdom. The speaker was still going strong at the 20 minute mark, so one of the pastors wrote a note and had it carried up on stage to alert the speaker that he was going too long. He was able to wrap things up in the next five minutes and make way for the rest of the service. 

Each day I am asked to give announcements – which means reading the greetings that come from the various Feast sites around the world. The brethren here enjoy hearing from all these ‘exotic’ places in distant parts of the world because it helps them to know that they are a part of something much bigger than Ghana – truly a worldwide organization filled with God’s people who believe the same things they do.  I am followed by one of the local pastors who give the announcements pertinent to the feast here. After special music – which is given each day by one of the groups from various local congregations, I am up for the sermon. Today I try to expound on Micah and Isaiah’s statement about the Millennium, “Neither shall they learn war anymore.” Seeing humans who will willingly turn their weapons of war into implements that will grow food is one of the amazing changes God’s Kingdom will bring.

We finish up morning services and have our usual closing hymn and closing prayer. The emcee in Twi then asked everyone to take their seats and after an announcement of some sort I hear my name – Meester Meers – announced. I look over to Mr. Dima with raised eyebrows and he tells me that we are going to do the Bible Study now and sorry for not telling me earlier! We were supposed to break for lunch and start the Bible Sudy at 2:30 pm. So I dive into my bag, pull out my Bible Study notes and hop back on stage. I spoke on Matthew 24 and the signs that will precede the coming of the Messiah and the setting up of the Kingdom of God.

In the early evening we were able to treat all five of our local pastors and their wives to dinner. Since We had no idea where to arranged such a meal, I asked the local Kumasi pastor, Reuel Dima to do so for us. He arranged a very nice buffet for us all at the Miklin Hotel - located about a fifteen minute drive from the camp. At the appointed time all twelve of us piled into a minibus and went off to the hotel, which looked to be quite a nice facility. When we arrived we even saw four other obruni in the hotel pool!

Our buffet included a green salad that looked like mostly cabbage and carrots, a beef and vegetable dish, red fish in a thick red sauce, fried chicken legs, jollof rice, and potatoes (french fries). While the meal was quite good and everyone ate heartily, the conversation was strained. Everyone seemed quite hesitant to say just about anything during the meal. Pam and I chalked it up to the formal environment, because as soon as we were back in the minibus, the conversations all took off like normal.  

One very interesting thing we learned tonight was that before coming into United and then COGWA most of these brethren were a part of what was called the Restored Church of God in Ghana which came about by contact with literature written by Herbert W. Armstrong.  As they began to learn about the Feast days they began to keep them as best they understood. At the time, their leader thought that 'feast' was only intended spiritually, so they kept the feast days, but fasted each day during the Feast - many of them only eating a small meal after sunset each day and some fasting all eight days! Once they came into into contact and received a visit from Mr Franks and Mr. Horchak, they learned that "feast" was meant both physically and spiritually. They were delighted to learn they could eat when it was time to feast!  It is refreshing to see their desire to do whatever it is they see is proven from the Bible.

Back at the camp the talent show was about to begin. At this point I need to interject something about Ghanaians and music. They really love it - and they love it really loud! Anywhere where music was played, it was played very loudly. At services before they began there was no such thing as background music, but rather hymns played so loud at it made it very difficult to hear another person talk! This seemed to bother no one but Pam and me. Back to the talent show...

This talent show was for adult performers as the children would have their show the next night. As the first singing number began I realized we wouldn't make it very long as the volume was so loud as to almost hurt the ears. I was asked during this piece if it would be alright for the brethren to dance to the music. Thinking of a church dance, I said I didn't see a problem. What followed was a some of the most enthusiastic dancing I've ever seen. I think Mr. Clark will want to work with the local pastors to find a balance between dancing and wild abandon. Later I spoke with one of the pastors and asked him to be sure to discuss this with Mr. Clark on his next visit. 

We took our leave after about 40 minutes and loaded back into Daniel's car in the thick of a rain storm. We got home,  dried out and repacked our bags since we will be leaving right after services tomorrow to begin put trip to Nigeria.