Of Churches, Classrooms and Sleep Deprivation

I think I am an open-minded person. In fact some of my more liberal rantings cause my Ghanaian friends and colleagues to shudder and groan. Okay, to be honest, I tend to keep these to myself especially at work. Being open-minded means that I think I am pretty tolerant of other religious beliefs. I do not want to turn this blog into rant-central but after being kept up last night by religious zealots, I feel I have reasons to whinge.

There is something that I just don't understand that happens in my country Ghana. That is , the conversion of school classroom blocks into churches once schools out .Granted not every church has a building and individuals wishing to fellowship and share the word of God cannot be prevented.

I myself am fortunate enough to attend a church that has had a church building that dating back to the "Gold Coast" so maybe I am just being churchist.

The fact of the matter is that I live next door to a junior secondary school. So,as would be expected each Sunday there are about 4 different congregations meeting in different classrooms from 8am to12 noon. In other words, one is privileged to fellowship from the comfort of your own living room!

My beef however is the inexplicable midweek all-night sessions similar to what happened last week and this week. Almost everyday from the time I got home at 8pm to the time I woke up at 4am, my Christian brothers and sisters were still fellowshipping! On a Tuesday night? Don’t any of them have work on Wednesday???? Doesn't this also affect the productivity of our great nation? Sometimes I wake up at 2am to hear the strangest sounds emanating from the school. Are these really church meetings?

Two years ago, the illustrious citizens of my ‘hood decided to revive the neighbourhood association. With vigour and energy we met and shared our grievances…it was great while the association lasted. At one meeting, an elderly respected member of the community stood up and raised the issue of being kept awake at night with the church all-nights… To my shock and horror, the chairman of our blossoming organisation told him that next time he is bothered, he should make a solo trip over to confront the church in session and ask them to pipe down…Was he kidding? In Ghana? Tell a gathering church to keep the noise down? Did the old man want to be cursed and branded the spawn of Satan? I was bemused…Needless to say the ‘hood watch thing soon collapsed and we have been left to our own devices with bumpy roads and all-night church services…*Sigh*