Thursday, June 18, 2009

Could There Have Been Anything More Distracting?

As many of you may know, I had the privilege to take a team of ten people (8 ladies, one other dude, and myself) to Ghana, Africa. Needless to say, we had a blast as we lived, laughed, soaked in the culture, and built relationships with many loving people. I have just now begun to write about my trip as I have spent the past few weeks since my return reflecting, maybe sometimes too deeply, about my trip. (This trip was probably pretty easy to think about but I ended up taking a hermeneutics class upon my return which rocked me a little as well.) I found myself simply wanting to be alone, and I sensed I was hiding out a little, from the outside world. I apologize to my friends upon whom I imposed my aloofness – I was not ready to articulate my thoughts.

Hence, I want to share a story that touched my heart. It was the last day of street evangelism. And although that is a story in and of itself, I want to speed ahead to the evening of the street ministry. We broke up into two teams of five. We left the North Kaneshie Assemblies of God Church in which we were headquartered out of in the City of Accra to go out into the community and share the Gospel with anyone who would listen. And we were surprised that most of everyone wanted to listen.

Previously, we had gone to homes and people would grab chairs for us to sit in and listen to us share and ask questions about their faith. This act of hospitality shocked me. In contrast, most people in the U.S. would have thought we were Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons and slammed the door in our faces. If not one of these two, if we had asked to talk to them about Jesus they would have given us replies of, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be somewhere’ or ‘come back some other time’. Yet, these people opened up their homes to us.

We went to this one particular home. Our contact, Pastor Ockloo, asked a lady if we could share the Gospel and evangelize as we were from the United States and on a missionary trip. The lady agreed and the chairs came out and we sat down. We had learned the best way to talk to people was to ask questions, as Ghana is 60 to 70% Christian, but many are nominal Christians.
There were four ladies we were speaking with. Quickly, the familiar questions began to fly: “Do you go to church anywhere? You do; okay, where? Describe your relationship with Christ? When you pray, what is your prayer time like?” And the questions continued to roll.

One lady tried to tell us that her cousin was a big wig in the Assemblies of God Church, which was code for, I’m not really serving God right now, I just don’t want to be confronted by you about my lack of relationship. Another lady had a genuine relationship with Christ and we were able to pray with her. And it was at this time the distractions began.

I had to ask myself, ‘Could there have been anymore distractions?’
While speaking with the group of four ladies, a woman who is sitting directly in front of me with her baby in her lap, pulls out her breast and begins to feed her child. Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate her providing her child nutrients and much needed care, but this was a major distraction! I immediately began to encourage myself with, ‘Eyes up, Aaron! Eyes up!’

Look, I’m just sayin’!

And then, as I’m speaking to the lady who is to the left of the lady nursing her child, a teenage girl comes out in nothing but a towel. Nothing but a towel! And then I exhorted myself again with, ‘Bounce the eyes away, Aaron! Bounce the eyes away!’

Now, the whole time we are speaking to the four ladies, the lady who was trying to sidestep our enquiries about her relationship with God by telling us she has a cousin who is big in the Assemblies of God, is about to fall out of her shirt.
I’m just bein’ real!

It seemed that the old school Lost in Space classic television show with the Robot came to life in my mind as it turned from side to side with arms flailing and yelling out, “Danger! Danger Will Robinson!” Except it was a little more personal with, “Danger! Danger Aaron Brown!”

Now, I said that this outreach was memorable. The instances just described is not what made the trip memorable, just to let everyone know.
Then we start to talk to the lady nursing her child. We began asking her if she attended church, and she tells us that she attends prayer meetings. That seemed a little odd that she would go to prayer meetings but not church. As we started to delve deeper, another distraction occurred. A cat starts fighting a dog! Hissing and barking!

Then, some friends of the ladies are greeting them but its loud yelling from about 50 yards! So I’m sitting silently waiting for them to stop yelling. And I’m wondering if we’ll be able to help this lady as it seems we are about to get to something important in her life. And while I’m sitting there, waiting for the conversation of yelling to end, one of the ladies looks at me and said, “We’re waiting for you to speak.”

I was thinking to myself, ‘Whose kidding who here lady?’

If that was not enough, some kids in the street started acting out so the Pastor stands up and tells them what time it is! But we made it back to the lady. And it is she that provides one of the highlights of the trip.

We asked her as to why she went to prayer meetings but not church. Finally, she says through the Pastor who was translating for us, “I had an abortion.”
Pastor Ockloo and I had a side bar about the situation, basically clarifying that she was going to prayer meetings to find forgiveness and things such as that.
I asked her, “Do you believe God can or wants to forgive you for having the abortion?”

“No, I don’t.” She replied.

I then asked her, via Pastor Ockloo, if she knew who the Apostle Paul was?

“Yes,” she said.

I asked her, “Did you know that the Apostle Paul murdered many many Christians before Christ appeared to him and he became a Christian?”

“No,” she replied with a look of surprise in her sullen face.

“If God forgave Paul, who killed lots of Christians, and Paul became one of the greatest Apostles, do you believe God can forgive you?”

The look on her face changed. She went from sullen with a light of life and hope in her eyes. And to my query she replied, “Yes.”

We prayed with her and connected her with the church.

She got up and had a newness of life was on her coutenance.

We connected the rest of the ladies with the Church and with the sun setting, we thanked them for their hospitality and giving us their attention, we left for the North Kaneshie Assemblies of God.

We began to talk amongst ourselves about all the distractions that occurred.
From the nursing mother, the girl in the towel, the woman about to fall out, the cat and dog fighting, the people yelling to one another, and the kids acting up, I told the team the only thing that could have been more distracting is if a car would have come crashing over the wall that was next to us.

Could there have been anything more distracting?

I think the real question is, could there have been anything more amazing than someone finding forgiveness?

(c) 2008, Aaron Brown