Tema is a harbor town in Ghana, where I have a home. The route I take to church in Tema takes you up a little hill, and when you round the corner at the top of the hill, you face the Atlantic Ocean. The view is fantastic. You then come into Sakumono, a fishing village, on your right. When the fishing boats come onto the beach, women buy the fish and then sell it by the wayside in the village. I tend to stop there to buy fresh fish from them, so they know me very well. Sometimes, if they haven’t seen me in a while, they phone and say, “We’ve got your favorite fish! Can you come and buy it?”
When I’m at the outdoor fish markets, which line the shore of the beach, I sometimes have the opportunity to talk to people about God. I don’t see people as poor and deprived; I see the love of God expressed in everyone I see, and in every action. Many of the women in the village go to church, and they know when I stop in the village that I’m either going to church or coming from church, and they occasionally ask me to pray for them. For instance, they sometimes don’t have enough fish to sell because the fishermen haven’t brought them fish yet, or they have so many fish that they don’t know if they’ll be able to sell all of them. The fishmongers aren’t necessarily educated, so I talk to these women about God in ways they understand. I tell them that God, divine Love, “always has met and always will meet every human need” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 494).
When I’m at the outdoor fish markets, I sometimes have the opportunity to talk to people about God.
