ghacoe
Before my stay in Tumu, I spent a day in Jirapa, where Mama Elizabeth, the regional director of Ghacoe, resides with her family. Ghacoe is an NGO that ministers to women by equipping them with trades such as bread-making, soap-making and dress-making. Their goal is to empower these women through the gospel and through tangible ways to provide for their family.
Let me be frank by saying that this day was not easy to get through. Up to now, I have shared stories that are uplifting and encouraging to our faith- how trials have been overcome and how transformation has occurred with the power of Jesus. But this time, all I can say, is that I have to surrender to God’s sovereignty, not knowing exactly what to make of my experience.
Most of the women, some widows, are the breadwinners of the family. The men have abandoned the families and so the women have to take care of the children and household as well as work full-time. It doesn’t take very long to realize that their needs are dire and their situation is somewhat beyond their control.
I met a woman whose children can’t come to church because they can’t walk and they don’t have a wheelchair to bring them.
I met a woman who has HIV and doesn’t have enough money to take her monthly treatment with a well-nourished meal.
I met a woman, a widow, who is staying in an uncompleted home with eight children because her landlord kicked her out. She can’t work because a tree branch fell on her ankle and now it’s just swollen and waiting to heal.
I met a group of women at the bread-breaking facility not able to work because they don’t have enough money to buy bread flour and sugar. So they sit, wondering where their help will come from.
I met a group of women that walk eight miles to another town to sell firewood for 1.20 ghana cedis (less than a dollar) and in turn buy a bowl of corn for the same price. If they can’t sell it, they leave it and come back with nothing.
I know this may be an obvious statement to make, but I will say it- yes, there are many needs for the poverty-stricken. The physical reality overwhelmed me and I asked Mama Elizabeth how she deals with the pressure to always have a solution and she simply said, “What can I do?” She knows what the needs are and whose needs need to be met. She’s built relationships with the women. She prays with them, she encourages them. But the means are just not available.
What I witnessed in their hearts is their willingness to work, to succeed, and to provide. They want to be able to buy their children’s school books and pay their school fees. They want to be able to eat a well-balanced diet so they don’t get sick and grow weak. They want to be able to live peacefully in their own home instead of being controlled by a landlord.
After hearing their stories, I’m asked to close the session with words of encouragement. I don’t know what to say. What do I believe in my heart to say? I told them that I am merely a messenger of God. I have come to relay their lives to others. We need to pray and hope that God will bring the means to them- soften the hearts of those who hear of their circumstances and are able and willing to become a part of their solution.
I was encouraged when I met a young German couple, Mike and Matina, who are volunteers for Ghacoe, and committed one year service. They’re in their first year of marriage and they decided to come to Ghana to serve the people.
I thank God that is it not I that must carry the burdens of this world. I accept and believe entirely in God’s sovereignty even when I see such injustices before me. It is He who carries the vision and will for this world. It is He who will call specific people to carry them out. I am grateful that I could even play a small part in the work that needs to be done to further His kingdom.
