Fire Hydrant Experience

Today we mark the halfway point in our journey here in Ghana, Africa.  The people.  The food.  The experiences have proved to be more than I can communicate in a blogpost.  The overused cliche "drinking from an "fire hydrant" applies to all of us. I was given the opportunity to preach last night in Oyoko where the Ghana evangelists are attempting to plant a church.  They do this by having a group like us come and do social services by day and then have "crusades" by  night.  The crusade is an open air service of music, video presentation of the scourging and crucifixion of scene of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ", preaching, and then an altar call where new converts or those who re-dedicate their lives are gathered together so names can be taken for the follow up visits later.  So far, Manny's father, Joseph Otsin, has planted close to 200 churches throughout this area of Ghana.  This recipe has proven not only successful but prolifically so. But back to the preaching.  The difficulty of speaking with a translator is keeping your train of thought (which is tough for me all the time anyway!)  You say a sentence or maybe just a clause and the translator, who was Joseph Otsin last night takes off.  The second difficulty I found is that preaching in Ghana is a passionate and rather loud affair.  So there I am speaking in a calm and measured way and Joseph goes off like I gave the altar calls of all altar calls.  Then the fun began.  What did I just say?  Where was I going with this thought?  Is anybody understanding?  Breath Todd. Breath!  Then I am reminded that the Holy Spirit is involved and that I am called to remain faithful not worry. I don't know the number and wouldn't even want to guess, but many raised their hand at the end of the evening to follow Christ and re-dedicate their lives and a new church began to birth in front of our very eyes.  And the fire-hydrant experience continues.  More to come later.