Hilarious

Today I was telling the story of the most unusual Ghanian church service I attended. It was a small church where almost everyone was related. I came with my friend, the nephew of the pastor.
The sermon was about "marriage problems," which I very quickly realized meant singleness. Considering that most of the people there were my age, I'm sure the topic was relevant, and considering they were all related, I'm sure it was a problem trying to find that perfect someone in church. However, the pastor had an interesting take on the matter. According to him, we were supposed to pray about the person we were interested in right before bed. Then if we went to bed and dreamt about that person, that was the devil trying to fool us into thinking God wanted us to marry them. But if we saw fruit in our dream, that meant our marriage would be fruitful! I'm sorry, I thought that was the most hilarious thing I'd ever heard. For the rest of the time in Ghana, I was making fruit jokes... I"m sorry, I can't marry you because I didn't see fruit... that's you're problem, you didn't see fruit, etc.
Then, when I had to introduce myself at the end of the service, the pastor asked me if I was a Christian. I said yes. Then he asked me if I was married! I could see the guys side of the church leaning forward with anticipation. I was like, yeeaahh, hoping somehow it wouldn't compute. Then the pastor asked me if I wanted to marry a Ghanian! I suppose he was thinking that here was a young woman with a "marriage problem" and that God could answer my prayers there and then, but I didn't see it that way. I was like, maaybeeee, again trying to melt into the floor. With the help of the friend I had gone with, I managed to get out of that church without too many problems, and saw the humor of the situation later. I believe I told him that that was definitely the most memorable time I had been introduced to a church! Why is it that all my Ghana stories end with a marriage proposal? Oh yeah, because I got one every other minute!
Until today, I considered this story hilarious and loved telling it. My friends loved hearing about it too. However, today I was convicted. I always mentioned in the story that it's sad that these people actually take this sort of thing seriously, but I never went any further than that. But today I remembered that almost anyone, saved or unsaved, who goes to Ghana wants to visit a church service. African church services have a reputation for being incredibly lively and fun, and people like to go see them. Most of the people I was with wanted to go to one at some point during the trip, even though I was one of the only Christians there. I spoke with one girl who had gone to this particular church the week before I had. We were sharing stories about our experience, when the girl said that what horrified her was that those people actually believed that stuff. And I agreed with her. But today I realized that she wasn't just talking about wacky dream interpretations or using church as a matchmaking opportunity, she was talking about Christianity in general. It's highly likely that's the only church she's ever attended.
See, that church service wasn't funny at all. Ghanians have an incredible opportunity to draw unsaved tourists from all over the world into their midst and share with them the gospel. Instead, at least this one slanders God's name and makes Christianity into a joke for them. This isn't just some crazy belief, it's a serious problem.
This realization made me realize again that I might be the only Bible people will ever read. Every time I do anything, I"m representing Christ to them, and I want to give the an accurate representation. And I also realized that I need to pray for the Ghanian churches, that they would be convicted of the reality of Christ and be used by God to share that conviction with people from all over the world. Imagine revival starting from a tiny African country nobody's ever heard of!