Mission trip to Ghana creates reflection at home
Staff writer
After spending nearly two weeks serving near Buipe in northern Ghana, Jennifer Bush returned to Peabody with sore muscles, lingering effects of sun poisoning and renewed appreciation for the power of community.
What stayed with her most was not the work completed or the distance traveled. It was the people.
“The people of Ghana,” Bush said. “They had such a peace and a joy that surrounded their community and their relationships with one another.
“I keep looking back over the people, thinking about them and wondering what it is that draws that out in them and how to draw that out in myself.”
Bush traveled with a six-member team from Newton Christian Church to serve alongside missionaries in Ghana.
Much of their time was spent in a village near Buipe, southwest of Tamale, where the team worked on agricultural and community projects.
The group built pig paddocks, working from about 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Afternoon heat made later work difficult.
Another team member painted inside a house, and the group left money to help replace the roof of a young villager’s home after it was damaged by a thunderstorm.
Some of the village’s teenage boys helped.
“They just couldn’t understand why we would sacrifice our time like that for them, for their village,” Bush said.
One of the most memorable people Bush met was a Christian cultural chief responsible for preserving Gonja traditions, including tribal dances and older ways of life. He translated the Bible from English into Gonja and recorded an audio version.
“Meeting that person and seeing his work, that’s no small feat,” Bush said. “That’s hours of interpreting and making sure he had the concepts correct.”
Bush also saw evidence of the Farming God’s Way program she had hoped to support. Although harvest had not yet arrived, fields planted using the conservation-based farming method appeared healthy.
The trip was not without hardship. Medication Bush was taking before the trip made her highly sensitive to sunlight, and she developed severe sun poisoning that caused painful swelling and flu-like symptoms. Her hands swelled so much she could not wear her wedding rings. Swelling in a leg caused a scratch to reopen.
“I still went outside and did the work,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let that stop me.”
Bush was surprised how modern parts of Ghana were, especially the capital, Accra. After the team missed a flight, members spent time there and saw shopping centers, western-style clothing, and Fathers Day celebrations much like those in the U.S.
Food also left an impression. Cheese was imported and not readily available, pork was difficult to find, and meals were made from scratch, often heavy in starches and carbohydrates.
Bush joked that one of her first meals after returning stateside included bacon. But the biggest difference, Bush said, was the pace of life.
“They don’t have calendars like we do,” she said. “Their day-to-day life is very simple. They’re around family. They’re in community. They’re sharing that with one another.”
The lesson is one she hopes to bring back to Peabody.
“If we can put more of a focus on emphasizing relationships within our community, then we’ll be able to not only strive but move forward,” Bush said. “If we can just put aside the petty differences that we have as a community and work together and be a community, then we’ll be able to strive and thrive.”