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Ghana

1973

I came in from Ivory Coast and carried the cross from one side of Ghana to the other. Passing on into the nation of Togo.

I received a great welcome for the cross and the message of Jesus in Accra, the capital. I remember preaching a great rally at the huge traffic circle there. It was a great and glorious time in Ghana.

It rained all day and I was wet from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., twelve full hours of walking, preaching, and sloshing through mud and rain. At one point a demon possessed woman screamed, jerked and kicked at me. Every time I looked at her she screamed. I claimed in the name of Jesus, for God to silence her. He did, and she just stood and shook and I preached. At the end, many gave their lives to Jesus. I went over to the lady to lay hands on her and prayed. She was set free. After a final great scream she was fine.

I was preaching and a huge crowd was gathered. As I stood the Land Rover preaching, a man stepped out of a store and showered the crowd with perfume.
Soon the smell was all around us and it was the sweetest crowd I had ever
preached to. The man was very happy that I had come. I was reminded of the
woman in the Bible who anointed the feet of Jesus with perfume.

The cross was leaning against a coconut tree with the ocean waves washing almost to my feet. The waves were white as they began breaking about a hund- red yards from the tree-lined coast. Sharp jagged rocks are sticking up and in the distance the white sandy coast of narrow beach stretches as far as the eye can see. Not a person is around. The weather is cool, and there are coconuts all around. There is no human sound, just the sound of the birds blending with the surf and the rustle of leaves making a most beautiful sound, like a heavenly choir. Surely this is God’s creation making music as only it can. Oh, thank you Jesus for calling me into evangelism, for calling me to preach thy Holy Word to the entire world. I’m not worthy to even hold the Bible, much less preach it. I don’t believe there is another person who has preached in so many different kinds of places in the world.

I have preached in houses of prostitution, homosexual churches, Hell’s Angels’ camps, rock festivals, in bars, nightclubs, go-go clubs, nude bars, on the streets, on sidewalks, on porches, in football stadiums, at automobile races, wrestling matches, dirty movie porno clubs. I have preached in churches, in jails, in prisons, in massage parlors, in Governor’s offices, President’s offices, villages, hospitals, battlefields. I have preached on television, the radio, at ball games, in gambling casinos, bingo parlors. I’ve preached on top of tanks, on an oilrig. I’ve preached at air bases. I have preached at almost any place one can imagine. What a life! If only other people, especially the young, could see the thrill of serving Jesus.

I had a new interpreter today. He was a good interpreter. As a matter of fact, when I preached it seemed as though he were preaching better than I. The only problem was that when he finished preaching he would get in theLand Rover and sit there. I would be with the people talking, sharing, eating and drinking, and when I asked my interpreter what was the problem, he said, “I love to preach and love to share the truth, but you can’t touch those people, you’ll get all kinds of diseases.” He
said, “You can’teat, you’ll get sick, the food is bad and the water is terrible.”

He loved God, he wanted to love God and spread the word of God but he didn’t love the people. I had to let him go in a nice way because I felt he was like most people in the world. They love the word of God, they love God, but they don’t love the people around them.

I carried the cross through West Africa from Sierra Leone through Cameroon. I had a Land Rover with supplies and a bed inside. In each nation or language area I would get a driver that could also be my inter- prefer when I preached. I could stand on the hood of the Land Rover and preach. The driver would go in front for a few miles or to the next village and wait for me to arrive. Should it be a village I would preach. Most of the time almost everyone in the village or town would gather to hear the message and see the cross. Often in a day I would preach to a few thousand to tens of thousands of people. Many hundreds to thousands of people prayed the sinner’s prayer to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and to become a follower of Jesus.

Every day was hot. I poured sweat and had to drink, drink, and drink, not to dehydrate. Sometimes I was in open country but much of the time I carried the cross through bush trees with small farms along the roadside. Then every short distance was another village. I could see crowds of people around the Land Rover looking and waiting for me to arrive. I would arrive, get some water to drink then stand on the hood of the Land Rover and preach. Then I would do a brief Bible study of how to live for Jesus. Then I would sit and rest a few minutes before walking on. People were crowding around trying to talk with me as I rested. Sometime I used the interpreter but often the people who came up to talk spoke English.

In most villages and towns many people would walk through the streets with me. Sometimes I would have hundreds leave town walking and as we got further out of town, we would loose the crowd.

Oh, I loved the people! Often the village people were bringing me food to eat as I rested. My main diet was canned food and fresh fruit. In each capital city I could find a store with western food and I would stock up.

Late in the evening we would park the Land Rover in a village near a house and spend the night. I liked to sleep in the homemade bed we had constructed inside the back of the Land Rover. With the windows open it I had a breeze and all my supplies were nearby. I had a radio and could pick up BBC and Voice of America radio. This was my way of keeping up with the world.

Waiting for me in Accra was my family, Gina, Joel, Joy and Joshua. I just lived each day in the Glory of God and in the presence of people. I remember that almost every night I went to sleep with people gathered around the Land Rover peeking in at me. Ha!

What a wonderful way to live. I walked from dawn until night almost every day. I would lie down and rest for about an hour or so at noon. This helped refresh me and also got me out of the hottest time of day.

God bless the beautiful people.

Pilgrim followers of Jesus,

Arthur and Denise Blessitt
Luke 18:1