Easter in Ghana…

Friday March 25 was Good Friday while Sunday March 27 was Easter Sunday. In Ghana, 4 days marking the death and resurrection of Christ (good Friday – Easter Monday) are celebrated as national holidays. Thus, government workers get those days off to celebrate Easter, schools close and kids get to spend time with family.. Because of the long break and weekend, most people travel to see family and also do some sightseeing.

I came home to my parent’s house on Friday after my shift at the Ankaase hospital to spend the Easter holidays with my family. This is the first time in almost 12 years of celebrating Easter with my Ghanaian family. It’s been an amazing experience of re-witnessing the Ghanaian way of celebrating Easter.

On Good Friday, some people wear black in remembrance of Christ’s death on the cross. Traditionally, Ghanaians wear black or red to attend funerals. This is the reason behind the black attire on Good Friday. On Easter Sunday, church services are filled with congregants wearing white attire signifying that Christ is risen. Due to the large number of people traveling to their hometowns, some villages have fundraising to boost local capital and use those funds for local developmental projects.

My family had a very good Easter. There was no egg hiding or candy from the Easter bunny but there was plenty of delicious Ghanaian meals.  I traveled with my dad to Bedaase and Oyoko to visit two churches on Easter Sunday. My US home church in Lexington, First United Methodist (Andover campus) traveled to Ghana in both 2012 and 2013 for a vision (eye) clinic and church planting mission. In 2012 we conducted a vision clinic and evening services at both Bedaase and Oyoko. In 2013 the church visited only Bedaase. This website, “http://andoveringhana.blogspot.com/ “provides detailed information on the projects that were carried out during those trips. The church built a pavilion for the Bedaase Methodist Church during the 2013 mission trip. This pavilion has been very instrumental in that church’s growth. The purpose of my visit was to worship with them and evaluate needs. It was a very blessed and fulfilling trip.

The pavilion for the Bedaase Methodist church. It provides a place for worship on Sundays.



Members listening to the Easter message by the caretaker. A third of the flooring has been completed.



Construction in progress for Oyoko Methodist Church's children ministry (Sunday school). The adults have a place of worship


Work has been busy as usual. On Thursday March 24 I trained a portion of the outpatient department nursing staff on vital signs, its importance and accurate ways of obtaining such data for quality patient care. A physician assistant also helped in the training by providing vital information on effective triaging that leads to better patient outcomes. We are grateful for the opportunities to help others provide better patient care.

We hope that you had a blessed Easter celebration. God richly bless you :)



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