A LETTER

The other day, I wrote a letter to a friend to catch up. Everyday is so full, and the hurdles with computer issues so many, that writing to everyone has been a challenge. This is just a slice of what I am up to.

I have been wanting to write this email for such a long time. I know you may not feel like it, but you have been a major part of time in Ghana through your kindness, thoughtfulness and your efforts to support my growth.

Most recently, the Dominion series has been a blessing to me. The primary purpose I see in God bringing me to Ghana has been as a gateway to the next level of my life. Being in this divinely chosen environment, I have been facing all of the aspects of who I have been that need to change to become who I am meant to be. Through this process I am being established as a man of faith. Walking in dominion is a critical aspect of this. It is amazing, because I was at ALL of those services, yet I am gaining new understanding. Not just picking up things that I missed, but comprehending things on a deeper level than I had first understood as. Among these subjects has been thinking about ‘fatherhood’ and ‘sonship’. Pastor Meike spoke of the three-fold cord of fatherhood: God, biological father, and spiritual father. See, my parents were divorced when I was quite young. I rarely saw my Dad as he lives in British Columbia. At a young age, I had given up the idea of needing a Dad, figuring my brother and Mom were enough. I also didn’t take on my step-dad who wanted to adopt my brother and I, but the conflict between him and my Dad seemed to require me to reject my Dad and a part of myself to draw closer to him – I would not do either though.

God willing, my brother is about to become a Dad by the spring as his ‘girlfriend’ (not sure what their relationship is) is pregnant and is keeping the child. He told my Dad that he will name the boy Porter is it’s a boy.

The woman of the house that I live in has also sat down with me to have some serious talks about me getting married. She herself has two daughters (4 and 2 years old), who have become like daughters to me. Seeing that has made her insistence even more. The idea of being a husband and a father is amazing to me. It’s something that I am growing into and being prepared for.

So at this time, my understanding of fatherhood is also being transformed.

Reading The Alchemist was also timely. When I began to attend Rhema, I was introduced with the idea of divine destiny. The idea then began to transform into a search: from what is divine destiny to what is my divine destiny? At this point I feel like I am at the cusp of, ‘my divine destiny is…’. So I related to the character in the novel who left everything in search of his “Personal Legend”. As he traveled, he faced challenges that were perfectly designed to bring out his potential and to show him what he already had inside. The challenges were a refining fire, purge impurities and concentrating a character of gold needed to attain those heights that I was designed to soar through.

The fact that the actual treasure was back where he began, made me smile. If he found it before he started his journey, he would not have been expanded and deepened in a way that he could really appreciate it. If he had not known the desert, worked in the crystal store, met his beloved in the desert, communicated with the wind, or survived the war the treasure would have been vanity. It’s like the proverb in the Bible, “a man’s gift makes room for him”. His treasure provided for him, but the greater treasure was the gift itself. The purpose means more than the provision, but the purpose brings provision.

I was speaking with Wendy-Ann a short time ago and she said “God is your number one supporter”. You know, we often think in a way that suggests that God does not want us to do well. It is empowering to know that He desires our great success even more than we ever can. That reminded me of the sentiment in the novel, that when one decides to seek their destiny, the whole universe conspires with them in their favour.

Often, when you finish a novel, that’s it – it’s finished. What I like about The Alchemist is that I was left with something to explore. In the book, there is the concept of alchemy which is a metaphysical science of finding purity and truth. In reality, this science has been studied for thousands and thousands of years (I actually met a man in the countryside of British Columbia that practiced alchemy). The novel said that the essence of alchemy was summarized in a few words carved onto the face of an emerald. I thought ‘what would be written on that emerald?’. I then wondered, if I could leave behind only a few words for generations to have what would they be.

The words that came to me are ‘live love now’. At this point in my life and in this point of my understanding, that summarizes the epitome of living. “Live” is to do, it is action and application. “Love” is the highest path in everything. Love is excellence. Love is truth. You can write with love, mop with love, listen with love, dress with love. God is love, and his ways are being searching. As we grow in life and strive towards betterment in all areas, the highest way we can do anything is with ‘love’. The ‘now’ aspect is about beginning where you are. The past is only experienced through the memory and the future through the imagination – both are for perspective in the only place that we have ever known, right now. No matter how far or close you are to attaining anything, all you can do is what you can do right now. Live love now.

In terms of my position here, work has been gaining momentum. When I first arrived I was taking my time in acclimatizing. I had never heard of a position like I was to fill here. Having never been in Tamale, just meeting the staff, and figuring out what my roll here was to be, it took a bit of time. Just when I was getting started, I got sick…really sick (malaria, typhoid and infections in each of my arms). That took me out for a month. Getting back into the groove was met with one hurdle after another. We were in the midst of rotating power outages, my computer was spoiled, our internet got cut off, our editing programs got deleted (meaning we can’t do stories), our general meetings where planning was to take place didn’t happen, I was considering switching placement to Accra, my workshop got hijacked by students of one of the presenters causing the staff to decide not to attend, I had some misunderstandings with JHR which led them to really question my priorities, I lost my bank card, my three days in Accra turned to six, and the main reporter that I have been working with went from sickness from malaria to a funeral for a friend to a toothache to supposed threats to his safety from the Regional Minister.

Still, I hung in there. I have been able to work around the power outages. My workshops are now clearly for staff only. I have been doing informal one on one workshops. I have found working with Layata, who is much more eager and focused, very productive. I am assisting Farouza with her work. I have called a meeting instead of waiting for the general meeting to happen. I use the internet café (when the power isn’t out). And I have learned to continue rolling forward without getting too concerned when things go wrong: doo bi chain ka labdi nyenga (a man doesn’t take a major step forward to retreat).
I am working at Justice and I am grateful for the staff here. I have some great colleagues and we are developing good friendships. I believe that by the end, JHR will see that their vision and goals are being fulfilled and advanced greatly with me here. It is a journey with a treasure of a new stage of my life at the end, by the journey is also the destination, where the growth along the way is where the greatest riches are being found.

Being out here has given me a different perspective on life. Where I am, English is a second language to most people. While everyone around me is friendly, I came here without any ‘friends’ here. While everyone around me is very understanding, many people don’t really understand me. I would often say things or share observations and I would get blank stares. I was also going through the adjustment to a city that is 95% muslim, where a four-storey building is the tallest in the city, where goats are almost as common as cars on the road, where motorbikes are given the right of way on the sidewalk, where I stand out everywhere I go…to the people around me life in Tamale is how life is, they had no idea of what a contrast I was experiencing. While I have listed some of the differences, the real list goes on and on and on, from bathing, to eating, to greetings.

The opportunity set before was a chance to grow in ways where I could feel at home here. And I do. I think back to the weekend that I left Razak’s house and was staying in a guest house for the weekend before moving into Mr. Fresh’s place. I was there alone. I woke up Sunday morning and I missed Rhema. There was no one that I could talk with that could feel what I was feeling. Walking down the street, everyone would stare at me as a stranger roaming alone in their streets. The idea of seven and a half more months seemed a huge mountain to climb, especially given the burn I was feeling after two weeks. My phone was not ringing with calls from home, and even if it was, it would still be a phone call from someone that was an ocean away. Instead of breaking though, I was blessed.

I could have said that we are never alone, because God is always with us, but that moment made that truth real. It took being placed in a situation where I felt like I was alone to realize how richly He is with me. I can never be alone. Finding that peace brought got strength.

I also remember another realization coming to me when I was in a gas station parking lot in town. Having everyone stare at you, call you “silminga”, speak around you in a language that you don’t understand, along with random people asking where I am from with the intent of ‘being friends’ had been a challenge. I had thought in my heart, I just want to walk down the street without being the centre of attention; I wanted to just be another person, not a walking freak show. The realization that hit me was that when I walk with God I can never be a stranger. The earth is the Lord’s and all that is within it. There is nowhere that God is a stranger, and as His child, placed by Him, I am home. That realization transformed my experience.

That was three and a half months ago. Now at the half way point of my time in Ghana, and I feel at home here. I have made some great friends, work is going well, the city (which had every street looking the same to me) now makes sense to me. I thoroughly enjoy the sky, the land and the people. I am seeing more and more beauty around me. I see the challenges and the impediments that are here too. I see things that the way in life in Canada can offer to people here, and things that those living in Canada can learn from the life in Tamale.

I often think of people from ‘home’ and my heart swells with love for them. I don’t feel like I miss Toronto though. I think it would be selling everyone short for me to miss home. I am not here to miss home. I am here to give and gain all that I am to give and to gain. I love so many people in Toronto, and much of what I am gaining here are treasures that I can share with them. As I am learning about the light I have been destined to shine, I can share with others lessons and encouragement to do the same.

Daily, I look to give and receive the best from the day. I am aware of things to come: going to England, coming back to Toronto, visiting BC, other travels I want to make, and many other goals, but I am not focused on those things. To get where I am going and need to be where I am.

I could continue to write, as there is so much more going on, but that will come. For now, it is Monday and there is much for me to do.

In more ways than you know, your support has been a blessing to me.

Thank You,
Chris