Brain Freeze & Illness: Day 5

I woke up feeling a little stuffy and my stomach a little noisy, but in the beginning it was all just a little…nothing to put me out. As a result I stayed sleep through breakfast and woke up and rushed out to meet Mr. Corpening because Pastor was sending a car for him to go to a meeting and said I should come to watch. We drove through Accra….again, quite different than Cape Coast…city, city and more city. We picked up Pastor somewhere where he was have yet another meeting and then drove to Data Bank where we were to meet with Ken Ofori-Atta, the founder of the bank who was also named the among the world’s top financial people under 50…I think the only one in Africa. Anyway, they got to talking their jibberish…lol…investments, banking, products, partnership…you know, all of the stuff I slept on in classes at Temple…yeah, those. It turns out Ghana is quite rich in resources, just with not a great deal of people to advise them and/or partner with them on how to use those resources to theirs and their countries benefit. Unfortunately, Rev. Soaries and Mr. Corpening wanted to me to get it more than that so they just keep asking me questions in the car after and explaining things over and over…and never gave up either. “What was the meeting about in 25 words or less?” “Explain what types of investments Mr. Corpening does for a living.” On and on till we got back to the hotel. The other group had gone off sightseeing and shopping until we were to meet them later. There we sat and had lunch and talked more business talk. My brain was fried trying to make sense of it all. But what I did know was that it was important to know. Ministry is more than just a pulpit and laying on of hands. Jesus wants us to get involved in the practical. The earth is the Lord’s and fullness thereof…not just Sunday mornings and empty words. Rev. Soaries thinks it’s a travesty that seminaries don’t require business courses….as a result, we have a lot of messy churches, bad budgets and Christians that can’t go out into the world on another scale. I agree…cause I didn’t even do a lot of business in college…and I have an advertising degree!

After we set out to the University of Ghana for the Inauguration Symposium for the University College of Agriculture and Environmental Studies. When we got out of the car, King Okyenhene arrived. He is the King, who wasn’t a King when he was a member of First Baptist over 10 years ago, who then became a King and moved back to Ghana to carry out his duties. Take a look at the pictures, his vestment was amazing…real gold he had on too. Though the person carrying his staff told us the staff wasn’t gold…just everything the King had on. There were drums playing and people dancing and people everywhere surrounding him and carrying an umbrella to put over his head. Of course. Rev. Soaries was right next to him. And we walked with the King inside the lecture hall. Rev. Soaries went up to the front table and me and Mr. Corpening went in the audience. The whole event lasted 2 ½ hours. Rev. Soaries prayed and the King spoke as well, but there was a whole agenda around the theme, “Sustainable Environments for Quality of Life.” Finally First Baptist came…but it was over. We were already downstairs at the reception…me, Mr. Corpening, the King, the King’s wife and Rev. Soaries of course! Lol. People came around to shake the King’s hand and take pictures and there was still music playing and dancing going on. We rejoined the crew…well, I rejoined the crew…Mr. Corpening stayed with Rev. Soaries in his car to drive to Koforidua to our next hotel. I grabbed some of Rev. Soaries’ sinus spray because my sinuses were stuffy and achy, and got on the bus to try and get some sleep. AND THAT IS WHEN IT ALL BEGAN. Whatever I ate at lunch…I think it was some salad they say, because it was washed in the water here…it completely messed with me the entire dark and bumpy 2-hour ride up. And that was the story for the rest of the night. I had some Sprite because no one told the Ghanaians that Ginger Ale is a good investment and headed to my room where I would be sick (no details) for the rest of the night. By 4am, I had nothing left in me and finally went to sleep.

*SORRY THE INTERNET IS SO SLOW SO I CAN ONLY POST A FEW PICS. WILL GET THEM ON FACEBOOK FOR YOU AND POST MORE WHEN WE GET BACK T ACCRA*