Going to church in Ghana

Disclaimer: Sorry for not posting the past few days- It was really upsetting the first two days when I was having internet trouble in the hotel then yesterday I tried to upload photos and 2 hours later without the photos uploading I had lost interest :) So I'll add photos while I have good internet connection at work.

So skipping the past few days, which were action packed as always, today I went to church in Ghana. I picked this church because it's close and on the way to work so I've seen it everyday. It doesn't have walls and looks to be under construction but there are chairs on the floor level and a sign that says 'God Reigns.' Light blue and orange cloth is draped around the 'room' and twisted around the posts- adding some great color.

It's a 5 minute walk from the hotel but the first 30 minutes of the sermon I was sweating like crazy- it made me wonder if this was what it was like for that person in a particular church saying ;) I walked up, hearing the music long before I could see it. I saw another girl walking in so I followed her. We were greeted by a man that wanted me to sit toward the front. My initial thought was 'I don't need to sit in the front' but it made sense when he ended up sitting me next to two other abruni's (white women). It was nice to follow their lead.

The sign outside said services were from 10:30-12:30 so I knew it would be lengthier than usual. So when I got there they were playing music and singing. I was impressed with their drum set, tribal drums, electric base guitar, keyboard and trumpet! It was intense. There was a lot of singing, I think I knew a total of 30 seconds and would occasionally catch on that I was supposed to follow along :) Then they got really exciting with their music and people started dancing. You went up to the front area where there was some space and you danced in the name of the lord. It was really interesting, especially since as a Presbyterian (a.k.a. the 'frozen chosen'), we didn't even raise our hands much during service. There was a lot of this music. Then a lady, who they referred to as the prophecy, her husband was something as well- got up and talked about her son about to marry a girl she didn't like then she did a prophetic prayer and he met a good woman.

Her son ended up leading some of the songs. After a few songs, a lady and a man in blue (later I find out to be the preacher) said really long, eloquent passages from the bible- a type of scripture reading that was really amazing and soulful. At one point they took offering and I heard the lady say this was the first offering so I had a feeling more were to come. I skipped the first one but the other white ladies went up. It was brought out later in the service with only a few people going up and at the very end the prophetic lady said she sensed a few people in the room that didn't know where their next meal was going to come from. A young man with an injured finger and a girl came up- the prophetic lady prayed for them and took up an offering for them and I and the other white ladies as well as many other gave then as well.

Then after awhile they put some olive oil in a dish and prophetic lady stuck her hand in it and put her hand on her head- a sort of self anointment. I'm all for trying other practices but the amount of me that wanted to put olive oil in my hair was pretty slim. She had a heavenly moment and almost fell over and was in deep reverence(?) for like 30 minutes but the sermon went on without her. They passed the olive oil dish around and I saw I could just dip my fingers in it and put it on my forehead so I was okay with that- especially after watching the two white ladies do it :)

*Sorry if this isn't in order, it lasted for 3 hours

Then there was the sermon. It was a passage in Leviticus about a church tax your supposed to pay according to age and gender and ability (the two ladies later explained they think the church is trying to prepare the congregation to collect more funds to continue building the church :) It was funny because in the bible it is put in a form of currency I'm not familiar with, but the preacher said it in dollars (US) and we had to convert it for him into Ghanaian cedi currency lol Then there was a whole segment on how God will give you more and more and more and more. And how God will make you great, great in all that you do (repetition helps for remembering these things). But the kicker was when talking about being great, he talked about being great from birth, from when your head comes out of your mother and then we got a whole talk on how sperm swims and fertilizes the egg. I'm not sure how the sperm ties in but he went there!

It was interesting because it was also being translated into Twi so the preacher would say 'You will be great in your work' and the translator would have 5 seconds before the preacher would say 'You will be great in your family' and so on. I felt for that poor translator!

Oh! I almost forgot- there was communion! So I was thinking they would pass around baskets with loaves, we'd dip it in something and go for it. But when the time came the head guy (I would say preacher but there were like 5 people taking turns leading the congregation so who knows) explained that we were doing communion a little differently. A lot of people get sick from communion so to be safe, we were handed a sealed, clear container, very similar to a small liquid creamer container. It was filled with something red (grape juice I later found out) and it had an extra flap on top with a cracker- kinda like the extra sprinkles container hidden in cake icing containers. I was like 'huh.' This is nothing I had ever really thought of and would have taken communion without a thought but it sounds like that's not the most sanitary route. Then the prophetic lady, who was out of reverence by now, got up and told people to take it and not save it to show people lol I did take mine but had to keep it to take a picture and share! It was so interesting. She said that taking it to show your friends wouldn't do any good, you needed to take it to remember Jesus and God- I'm glad I wasn't the only person in the room that wanted to take it to show others :)

Okay, so I know there's more but this is getting lengthy lol That in a nutshell my friends is what to expect at a Ghanaian church service! Any questions- feel free to post or email juliashuck@gmail.com if you want to ask me anything about my work, Ghana, etc.