What shop do you work at?
“God Only Knows.”
This can be more literal than it seems.
It’s hard to keep a straight face when passing shop after
shop bearing eccentric names such as Jesus Above All Trading, Jesus is Saviour Repairs,
God Lives Bar, Trust Him Always
Food Spot… On a shopping spree around
the nearest town, Shama Junction, you can get your hair done in Hebrews 13:8 hair salon, get a dress
made in As God Wills boutique, and
get buried with God’s Time funeral
services.
Shops, road names, T-shirt slogans; God is everywhere in
Ghana.
It's a given that a Ghanaian believes in God. The question is:
how do they worship him? Catholics, Methodists, Pentecostals, Anglicans,
Baptists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are well represented. Even Mormons can be
seen roaming the odd town in their white shirts and rucksacks. American guitar
worship songs are all over the radio stations, and the streets are filled with
billboards advertising the latest “awakening” or “spiritual journey” offered to
a lucky few thousand worshippers.
Muslims make up around 15% of the population, co-existing peacefully
alongside Christians in a way which would make the UK envious. The remainder
are believers in the more traditional religions of Africa, with their spooky witchcraft
and wizardry.
More significantly, there isn't an atheist in sight. To countless Ghanaians, God is real and he actually matters; church is not
just something they do. Without God their lives don’t make sense, and he gives
purpose to their impossibly tough work or mundane routine - no matter how poor
they are. It’s pretty humbling to see, to be honest!
Sunday's are sacred days, markets are quiet and everyone is in church. This morning the students at my school were up bright and early in their
pristine Sunday whites, cheerfully going about their business with an extra
spring in their step. The school holds a lively service for all denominations,
involving some of the more disturbing elements of charismatic African worship. It is always entertaining and amazing fun to be at – no snoozing in the sermon
here! There is enough singing and dancing to make you dizzy.
Ghanaians love dancing. It's not unusual to see spontaneous dance
troupes begin in the street, for no reason other than there is a drum or loud
radio playing. And this is no awkward nightclub dancing we’re talking about here;
it’s more dad-dancing, if anything. Don’t get me wrong – the dancing is
incredible. But there is no shame in dancing badly, thankfully for me! It’s
just for some reason Africans always look unbelievably cool when they are doing
it.
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| Beach shindig |
In church the dancing is more restrained, however, but with
the same tap-dancing footsteps and extravagant arm movements, moving along to
everything from local tribal songs to an upbeat “Abide with me.” It's a work-out for
both soul and body, and the congregation leaves church gasping for water with sweat
pouring from their brows (me included.)
A change of outfit is needed pronto, which
is something of a recurring theme for me here - I’m currently going through an
average of 3 changes of clothes per day!
It’s exam time at school this week. Needless to say, there
has been an added urgency to morning prayers.
