Jesus sends out his disciples, “Go on your way, carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.” Well, Lord, how about this -One purse, three bags, two pairs of sandals waterproofed shoes and an extra pair of sneakers? These among many other things are what I carried with me on my trip to Ghana in northwest Africa with Episcopal Relief and Development June 19-26. I had such a great detailed packing list in comparison to Jesus’s nonexistent one for the disciples. Jesus does not want his disciples to be distracted by stuff so they can move freely as they spread his message of peace, as they proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. Most of all I think he wants them to know that they can trust God to provide everything that is needed as they spread the Good News. This was a good message for me to remember as I prepared for my trip and as I became immersed in the experience of it.

I had been invited to take the journey to Ghana with 7 other church leaders from throughout the country along with some of the national staff of Episcopal Relief and Development, to see first hand what ERD is doing in Africa with the money churches so generously donate to care for God’s people. Most of us know that ERD is one of the first organizations to respond with aid when there is a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti or the oil spill off the gulf coast. This work is the relief part of their mission to heal a hurting world but much of what I saw on this trip was the strength and consistency of their development emphasis. ERD is a ministry that helps us to live out our baptismal covenant in many ways but the primary promise I saw being lived out is, “respecting the dignity of every human being.”

ERD heals a hurting world by going into small communities throughout the world and first of all listening to what people need, not telling them what they should do. Then they provide the tools that communities need to become healthy, independent and strong. Particularly this July 4th weekend it is good for us to remember our own call to use our freedom to empower others, to use our gifts so that others may live more fully and freely into who they are called to be.

On the first day of our journey as we got ready to set out , we all stood together waiting. I shared a quote with our group from John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley – “A journey is a person in itself . No two are alike and all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless…..we do not take a trip, a trip takes us.” And the trip did take us to places outward and inward that I didn’t expect, and ultimately to the place of realization that when God’s people join together to fight poverty and disease, it really makes a difference. As we traveled from one end of Ghana to another over the course of the week, riding in vans, small planes, staying in a number of hotels, packing and repacking, leaving things behind – the items I had stuffed in my bags “just in case” became less and less important.

You may think that a group such as ours from the U.S. might be the agents of the message “The kingdom of God is near” but the reverse was true in many ways as that message of hope was proclaimed to us over and over again in the witness of the people we met in Ghana and through the amazing work of Episcopal Relief and Development in partnership with the Anglican Diocesan Development and Relief Organization. Many times these days we hear about conflicts between Episcopal and Anglican because of differences. But when we realize that the church is really about joining together in ministry to spread God’s message of peace and hope, when we get busy changing lives, differences fade into the background. When the gospel guides our vision and our actions we become free to join in an interdependence that is incredibly life-giving to all those involved. This is what I saw in the partnership of ERD and ADDRO over and over again throughout the week. It both humbled me and gave me a sense of pride to be a member of God’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.

For years many of us have been supporters of ERD. I knew their work was good but I left Ghana realizing that it is truly amazing. Take for example the staff of the ADDRO office They are all local residents and they work hand in hand with ERD in Ghana. There are just about 10 of them. In May of this year this small committed group enlisted 11,000 volunteers and together installed 600,000 mosquito nets in little homes throughout the countryside. They didn’t just drop off the nets. They also provided instruction on how to use the nets to prevent malaria. 600,000 nets- not in a year, not in a month but in just one week! In the north of Ghana, the poorest section, infant mortality had been at 96% It has dropped to 53% due to malaria prevention with mosquito nets. As the work continues I know that number will keep dropping.

On another day of our travels we were driving down the road in our van and saw a group of about 12 women dressed in brightly colored clothes tilling a field and joyfully singing. They were planting nuts. At first we watched them from a distance but we couldn’t stay away, for their spirit, their singing drew us in. We learned that the words of the song they sang meant “Let us unite and develop ourselves.” One of the women whose name was Adolzell owned the field. She was able to buy it with a small loan through ERD. “What will you do with the money you earn, Adolzell?” we asked. Adolzell told us she had six children and she would use the money to pay for her children’s education – A woman empowered -Hope for the next generation. The kingdom of God comes near.

After lunch we went on to see a school for those with disabilities that ERD supports. People who are deaf and blind learn skills so they may live independently. We then hopped back on the van drove a little further and met Grabba a 28 year old man who cannot speak or hear but has his own furniture making shop because of the skills he learned at the school.

That same day we saw the place where eggs are incubated and hatched into chickens that are given to people who can then feed their own families and earn money by selling eggs to others. They become self sufficient and grow in a sense of dignity and freedom. So many of you have purchased chickens mosquito nets and other life changing gifts from the ERD Gifts For Life Catalogue and given them to family members as gifts. Each time you have done this you have been a part of the kingdom of God coming near, the kingdom of justice and peace where people have enough to eat and a sense of hope for their lives and the lives of their children.

I met so many people who impressed me through their warm welcome and willingness to share, people who had little but seemed to understand on a deeply spiritual level what stewardship means. The person who touched me the most in this regard was Bishop Emmanuel of Tamale. He is from the northern part of Ghana, the poorest part. We all crowded into his tiny little office which was smaller than one of our rest rooms down the hall. It didn’t even look like an office. It was clear that this diocese had very little money. We talked about many things. The love for his people was so very evident in Bishop Emmanuel, especially when he tearfully told us of the young women of his diocese who are dying of AIDS. They were not statistics to him . He referred to them as his daughters. He also related that when his community was devastated by floods the help given by ERD helped his people tremendously. It was because of ERD’s example, he said, that he felt called to send what money he could from his diocese to Haiti when the devastating earthquake hit. This diocese has next to nothing. I have never seen a clearer or more moving example of grace, gratitude and giving than I did through the humility of this servant leader. In that cramped little office as individuals from many different places huddled together there was a sense of shared pain, intimacy and belonging that I can’t really describe – the kingdom of God had come near. One Lord, one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all. We don’t all need to be the same. It helps me to see that Paul’s words to the Galatians are relevant for us today because he in essence tells us that differences are nothing, circumcision, non-circumcision, Black White, Anglican, Episcopal – nothing …but a new creation….a new creation…. Now that is everything. As we are sent on our way let us work for the good of all in the service of that new creation, and watch…watch…. the kingdom of God come near.