Building Insights from Ghana

I just returned from a great trip to Ghana. I was amazed by all the building going on in Tamale, the fastest growing city in Western Africa.

The majority of the buildings I saw in town were cement block. I enjoyed watching some really gifted masons apply a thin layer of concrete over the blocks for the finished product.

Many buildings in the city were in various stages of completion. There were some I remember seeing last year that didn’t appear to have one new block laid. The grass growing inside them was even taller. Not bad hangouts for the multitude of goats in town.

I asked our guide why the pauses? He seemed surprised at the question. “When we have the funds we build. When we run out, we stop until we have the funds to continue.”

To me, that’s a good picture of ourselves. We go through building seasons—and then we go through some downtime. I go through phases when I take extra care of myself. I eat right, exercise, and get the rest I need. Other times . . . well, you know how it is.

There are times of spiritual building going on in me too, and then there are times when all the workers seem to have gone home. Why is it that most of this construction happens during the lean times?

I heard an interesting story from one of the old timers in Tamale. Back before scaffolding was plentiful, long benches were used in their place, stacked on one another. When you hired builders, they asked, “Do you want a two-bench wall or a three-bench wall?”

I guess if you were short on funds, you could start out with a shorter wall and add a bench later.

Here I go, always trying to build another analogy: Sometimes I erect my own walls—mental, emotional, spiritual. A relational conflict comes and I build a “two-bencher”; fear joins in and I raise it up to three.

I might even take a chance teetering atop four benches should the situation arise.

The beautiful thing about this visit to Ghana, my second (read about first trip here), is that for me walls don’t seem to be necessary. The hospitality and authenticity of the people invite me to embrace their culture and their lives, if only for two weeks at a time.

This is not a knock on my home country. I’m just very comfortable in Ghana.

Our mission team was hosted again this year by Seed Ministry. They “assist schools, villages, churches and other organizations with their facilities, food, clothes, shoes, water wells or Boreholes, educational materials, machinery and basic provisions of life.”

More than that, they train Ghanaians to spread the gospel.

They walk what Jesus talked.

We happened to be there when they were putting the finishing touches on a house they built for a widow and her daughters. The family’s new home is at least a “three-bencher.” And the building process was uninterrupted because Seed Ministry provided the funds.

Over the last year, I’ve donated a month of my time to their work. It’s probably my last trip that far away, but I’ll contribute in other ways when I can.

With numerous churches built for outlying villages, hundreds of Bible clubs started for kids—and much more—I believe what Seed Ministry is building will stand for generations to come.