The Living Truth Foundation Ministry

 Visiting guest, Carolyn Bouazouni's full travel log :

Carolyn Bouazouni serves on the Social Concerns & Mission Outreach Committee at
  The American Church of Paris, Paris, France.
Carolyn serves as the ACP Lay Leader for the LTFM
 

Recent donation from the American Church of Paris.
This supportive congregation donated the books to begin
the prison library. These were brought by Carolyn.

Read Carolyn Bouazouni's full travel log
 

Ghana trip report: 1 – 5 Jan, 2009

Thursday, Jan. 1:

Flew Air France to Rome, then Alitalia to Accra, arriving around 10:30 pm.  Francis met me right outside customs, and had a mini-bus arranged to take us to Elmina, about a 2 hour drive.  Anna was waiting with a big hug and “Welcome to Ghana!” when we arrived in Elmina at 1am.  They took me to my hotel, “Hiland Court”, a short taxi ride from their house.

 Friday, Jan. 2:

We had an early start at 6:45 am, when Francis and Anna picked me up to go to the 7 am morning devotional service at the Ghana Central Regional Hospital.  The service was held in the Out Patient reception area, where there were around 80 people waiting.  When we arrived, the doctor in charge of the GYN department was already leading singing, then he introduced Francis.  Francis preached for almost 40 minutes (in one of the Ghanaian dialects so I couldn’t understand anything…), then he and the doctor concluded with a few praise and worship songs - one in English.  The people in the reception area were paying close attention to Francis’ message – lots of “Amens” and “Alleluias!” then all joined in for the singing.

Then (which was a wonderful surprise), the doctor, Dr. Ekanem, head of GYN and also Director of Medicine at the hospital, along with a male nurse (Kwee) who is a close associate of Dr. Ekanem, invited Francis, Anna and myself to his office to talk for almost 2 hours.  What a spirit-filled Christian man!  He was very excited to tell me about the daily – and hourly! – miracles they are witnessing at the hospital!!!  Francis and he went back and forth sharing stories of miracles:

-  like the lady who gave birth and was going blind; Dr. Ekanem stopped and prayed for her, laying his hands on her eyes; then he discharged her to go home.  He found out several days later that her sight had been restored the same evening he had prayed for her…

-  or the lady whose digestive system was completely destroyed by disease; the surgeons had cut her open, but there was nothing they could do… so the Dr. and Francis layed their hands on her stomach and prayed for her (I think they did this over several days) – within a few days she started eating again and her digestive system was working – with no further surgical intervention…

-  the lady who was scheduled for surgery but did not want to be operated on; so they prayed for her… and tests the next day showed no further sign of her problem, so the surgery was canceled…

-  the team of US doctors that comes every 6 months to perform specialized operations on kidney/uterus complications during pregnancy, usually having 3 or 4 operations to perform every visit; their last visit there were no patients needing the operation; Dr. Ekanem told them the Holy Spirit had healed all the patients!

-  the lady who was discharging blood for 3 months, who stopped bleeding after being prayed for…

-  the lady whose breasts started bleeding after giving birth (evidently not a good sign), Dr. Ekanem prayed for her and sent her home (against the protests of other doctors present), knowing she was healed… and she was…

It was absolutely incredible listening to their stories – and they are certain that they aren’t hearing about all the miracles that are happening after the patients are sent home.  The doctor was very, very supportive of Francis’ role at the hospital, and has given him complete freedom to roam the wards, preaching, laying his hands on patients, prophesying healing and recovery… Francis and the doctor are on the same wavelength on the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit in healing patients.  WOW.  What a morning.

We went to Francis and Anna’s house for lunch.  They are renting a nice house which is very well suited for his ministry.  There is a large room for gatherings, then 5 other rooms: they are using 1 room for their kitchen (without running water yet), 1 for eating, 2 bedrooms for them and their daughters, and 1 extra bedroom.  They have 2 or 3 bathrooms with toilets, that they have finished since they moved in 2 years ago.  They have very little furniture at this time: 3 mattresses on the floor, a small table for eating, and about 20 plastic chairs, that they use when they have their fellowship time in the main room.  A friend of Francis has promised to send a truckload of furniture from Germany, but so far it hasn’t arrived.  While I was there, the exterior of the house was being re-painted by a group of prisoners with a guard watching them.   Anna told me the prison has a “work release” program, where certain prisoners can work to earn a little money.  She cooks them lunch and pays them small wages.  They were doing a good job.

Friday afternoon, Pastor Victor Kalu arrived from Togo, a 6 hour bus trip away, to come speak at the prisoner’s graduation ceremony from the Disciple 1 program, scheduled for Sunday morning.  He has been doing prison ministry for the past 10 years, after having left the business world… We had very interesting discussions through the afternoon and evening.

Francis dropped me off at my hotel around 10:30 to get a good night’s sleep; Francis and Anna would be praying from 11 pm to 2 am, as they do every night…

Saturday, Jan. 3:

Pastor Victor joined Francis, Anna and myself as we returned to the hospital to visit patients in the wards.  What a morning!!  From 8:30 to 11:30 we visited 6 wards, starting at the emergency room.  Francis talked with patients, listened to their stories, then prayed for healing for them.  We went into wards of up to 6 patients, and took turns praying over them, laying hands on them and speaking words of healing.  Dr. Ekanem joined us in 2 wards as he was making his rounds, and he prayed and led everyone in song as we held hands in a big circle with the patients and nurses in those wards.  Absolutely incredible.  Francis stopped twice to talk with groups of nurses and nurses-in-training, to bless them and encourage them in their work.

Pastor Victor spoke with me afterwards, saying he has never seen an environment like this in a hospital, where they are so open to spiritual input.  Unheard of, he said!  I agreed.  This is definitely not the situation in France and I certainly doubt this is the case in the US.

Saturday afternoon, Dr. Ekanem came by Francis’ house and we had a wonderful opportunity to talk.  He told me he has been called in twice by the hospital administration and confronted for his “liberal use of the Holy Spirit” for healing at the hospital.  His response was “Great!”  He is honored to be criticized for this!! What an amazing day. 

Sunday, Jan 4:

Another very big day.  Today was the prison graduation and baptism ceremony in the morning, a visit to the Elmina Castle in the afternoon (the departure point for slave ships), and a crusade at the nurse’s school in the evening.

The prison visit:  We arrived around 8:30 am, and weren’t allowed to bring in cell phones or cameras, but they let me keep my camera… The guards looked pretty serious with their machine guns, but were very polite.  We went through an outside gate, then into the “walled” compound through a small gate where you had to lean over to get through.  There were prisoners everywhere in the inner compound, wandering around.  There was a roofed, open-air structure where the church service and ceremony took place.  It was filled with prisoners – between 150 and 200 in all.  The guard told me later that the total number of prisoners at the prison was 791.  The prisoners graduating from the Disciple 1 program and being baptized all sat together at the front, on the side – they looked very nice, and were happy about the ceremony.  They all had on new, nicely ironed white shirts, which Francis and Anna had bought for them for the occasion.  I found out later that the shirts had been bought with part of the money sent by the ACP.  Did I mention that 3 of the prisoners were serving life sentences?  There was no way of telling which ones they were; all of the graduating prisoners were happy that day. 

The invited guests included 3 pastors, Dr. Ekanem, Francis’ wife Anna, his daughter, and myself.  The prison chaplain also attended, the Reverend Father Atama, along with two prison officials, one in uniform and one in civilian clothes.

The church service started with music and dancing, which the prisoners really enjoyed– it went on for about 15 minutes.  The prison choir sang, and they was really good!  Francis told later me that the choir director has won awards for his direction of prison choirs in Ghana.

The service included brief sermons by all of the pastors present, including the prison chaplain and Francis.  Then they called for the other guests who wished to offer some words to the prisoners.  Following several other guests, I spoke briefly, telling them that the Bible says that every time a soul is saved / claimed for Christ, that the angels rejoice – so there was a BIG PARTY going on in heaven today over all these disciples giving their lives to the Lord!  (that got lots of “alleluias” and “amens”!)

Next were the baptisms.  The graduates came up one at a time for baptism, they knelt in front of the “altar” and Francis anointed their heads with oil while saying words of baptism to each of them.  The choir provided beautiful background music.  It was all very moving.  At the end of the baptisms, Francis and the Rev. Father served communion to the newly baptized prisoners, then Francis presented each one of them with their own Bible, as a gift.

And finally, Francis put on the table three stacks of books – the books that I had brought to contribute to the prison library.  Well, it turns out they don’t have a library at the prison.  So Francis proposed to the Rev. Father that these books would be the beginning of their library.  The Rev. Father offered gracious thanks for this gift.  Francis said this is just the beginning, and that more books will be coming!

So that was the end of the ceremony; praise music was put on a cassette player while the other prisoners were excused to leave.  The benches were cleared away and soft drinks and cookies were set out for a small reception for the graduates.  During the reception, Francis invited them to bring me their Bibles if they wanted me to sign them, which they did.

The Rev. Father made a point of coming over to talk with me during the reception.  One of his concerns is what happens when the prisoners are released.  Evidently their families frequently reject them, so they have no place to go; companies don’t want to hire ex-convicts (companies run security checks and find out they have been in prison), and the government can’t hire ex-convicts – so they can’t get jobs.  They are totally unable to take care of themselves, and frequently slip back in to their old ways of life and end up right back in prison (60% return after being released). 

There are no such things as “half-way houses” in Ghana.  The Rev. Father is thinking of some type of facility like this, where the released prisoners could work, learn a skill, make a little money, and have a place to stay for awhile.  He even said he knows of some land that someone will donate if the project could be funded.  He believes that animal husbandry would be a good business for the released prisoners to work on, but he had no idea how much such a project would cost.  Francis will talk with an uncle of his, who is a construction engineer / quantity surveyor.  He should be able to get some drawings done and estimated so they can start looking for money.  Francis told me later they cannot count on the government to help out – the money would end up in someone’s pocket…

The Rev. Father is also looking for financial assistance in finishing off the church structure in the main camp, which has its walls and roof installed.  It needs the walls to be nicely finished, 3 doors to be added, the floor needs to be poured concrete (it is currently a dirt floor), a few windows need to be installed in the offices… They are already using the building for church services, so it is functional but not finished. 

What have I forgotten?  Only that visiting the prison was a very inspirational experience, that everyone was really nice to each other, and that Francis is certainly doing a wonderful job preaching the word of God and encouraging people to seek God/Jesus and draw close to Him.  Francis is making a difference in an otherwise negative environment.  The Rev. Father told me when Francis preaches in the new church, that hundreds of prisoners come.  I really felt like I was leaving friends when we said goodbye to the newly baptized prisoners and went back out through the small gate where we had to lean over to get through.

In the afternoon, we took visited the Elmina Castle – the place where slaves were taken and held before being loaded onto the slave ships.  It was a psychologically heavy visit, hearing what happened there – how terribly the people were treated – going down the corridor to the “room of no return” where they were loaded onto the boats through a narrow door – or the “cell of the condemned”, from which no one returned alive.  The Elmina Castle is now a UNESCO World Landmark Site.  The guide asked us as we left to pray that the world will never forget what happened here, and will never repeat the atrocities that were performed there.

Sunday evening, starting around 6 pm, we participated in a crusade at a nurse’s training college in Cape Coast, organized by The Burning Bush Ministry and TLTF (The Living Truth Foundation).  Dr. Ekanem and several of his brothers founded The Burning Bush Ministry, with the mission of evangelizing the villages of Ghana.  The crusade was in an auditorium on the campus, located in the same compound as a psychiatric hospital.  A praise band started the evening to warm up the audience, before the introductions by Francis, and numerous speakers and singers.  There were probably 40 or 50 young people, plus all the organizers, for a total of around 70 people.

Francis’ wife, Anna, sang 2 beautiful songs, including “Amazing Grace”.  She also sang at the prison; she is POWERFUL!!  And his 2 daughters, Kate and Jenny, did a beautiful choreographed dance about Christ’s sacrifice, entitled “It wasn’t easy”.  What a Godly family they have. 

Monday, Jan. 5:

Monday morning was another early morning, as we left for the hospital at 6:45 am.  Again, an hour of singing, preaching and praying was held in the reception area of the hospital from 7 to 8 am, as is done every weekday morning.  The various pastors take turns leading this, and Francis’ day is generally Friday – although they are very flexible to accommodate each other’s schedules.

After the session in the reception area, we found a small office to gather and talk with the hospital chaplain, the male nurse who is Dr. Ekanem’s close associate (Kwee), Victor, Francis, Anna and myself.  They told me that this hospital is known for being able to save patients that other hospitals give up on… other hospitals put their dying patients into ambulances and send them to this hospital. The mortality rate at this hospital is lower than elsewhere.

They shared more incredible accounts witnessing to the spiritual battles going on at the hospital, and the victories being won.  The nurse told us of one night when he was driving home from the hospital and it was dark outside; he saw lights in the sky coming straight toward the hospital, almost like the lights of airplanes – blinking – different colors… then he realized they weren’t airplanes, so he started praying to protect the hospital… then the lights broke up and went off in different directions in the sky… He clearly felt these were evil forces coming to attack the hospital, and that they had been diverted. 

Then Francis told a story of a nurse who had seen an elderly male patient get up during the night and take a bag of ashes from under his bed and start blowing them around the ward… the nurses felt a cold chill spread over the ward.  So in the morning, Francis confronted the patient.  After initially denying it, the old man finally admitted it was true – he had been told to do this at a prayer camp he had attended recently.

Then there was the story of the lady who was at the hospital for no particular reason, and stayed in the halls for 4 or 5 days before she was noticed.  The staff finally realized she had no medical reason for being at the hospital… so they confronted her and she immediately left.  The people telling me this story clearly believed she had been there to spiritually disrupt the hospital…  There was agreement among the people in the room that evil spirits seek out hospitals to attack the weakened patients.  

The chaplain emphasized the importance of interceding on their behalf, and spoke of the powerful role Francis plays in spiritually supporting the hospital staff.  They are truly a team of “prayer warriors” seeking – and obtaining - healing for the patients at this hospital.  It was an awesome experience to hear these testimonies first-hand.

By early afternoon it was time to leave for the 2 hour bus ride back to the airport in Accra.  On reaching Accra, Francis and I had dinner, then at the airport he stayed with me as long as he could until I went through the security check point, wanting to make sure everything went well for me.  My trip home went fine, leaving Ghana at 11:30 pm, transferring through Rome, and arriving back in Paris Tuesday afternoon.  What a great trip.

General comments: 

I really hope the ACP continues to support Francis and Anna in the wonderful work they are doing in Ghana.

Things I was unable to observe during this trip were: 1. Their youth ministry, which was not meeting due to the school vacation.  Francis told me that he and Anna go to the local middle school once a week to meet with the students.  2.  The fellowship / prayer meetings they hold in their home once a week; again, this was not meeting due to the Christmas/New Years vacation.  I’ll just have to catch those on my next trip…

To God be the Glory!

Carolyn

January 15, 2009