He takes notes, shoots photos — and preaches
AMSTERDAM — Seven time zones and 5,000 miles from home, Erik Tryggestad got an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Erik, The Christian Chronicle’s international writer and assistant managing editor, was asked to deliver the sermon at the Amsterdam Church of Christ.
Edward Acquah, minister of the congregation of more than 100 Ghanaian immigrants, extended the invitation to preach as Erik and I greeted him in his office.
A veteran of international reporting, Erik came prepared that Sunday — with not only his notebook and camera but also a sermon tucked in his Bible just in case he needed it.
On a rare joint-reporting trip, Erik and I had flown all night from Dallas to Amsterdam the day before and then taken a train to Antwerp, Belgium, to meet up with missionary Paul Brazle and high school mission groups from Oklahoma and Ohio.
With an interpreter translating Erik’s sermon into Twi — a language spoken in Ghana — my colleague praised the evangelistic fervor of his African brothers and sisters.
“No matter where you are in the world, you build new communities of faith,” Erik said. “I find myself in aweof the faith that you have.”
I found myself in awe of my friend, who has reported from places as farflung as Cuba, El Salvador, Guyana, India, Liberia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. In all, Erik has filed stories from 25 countries in eight years with the Chronicle.
One of his most treasured possessions is a pair of sneakers that walked on four continents — North America, South America, Europe and Africa —in a single calendar year. The shoes, now mostly brown, are enshrined in his closet, much to the chagrin of his wife, Jeanie.
Erik and I boarded another plane that Monday to our ultimate destination: Accra, Ghana. As part of the Chronicle’s “Global South”project, we spent the week reporting on a partnership between a Christian university in Texas and a sister college in Accra. Unable to resist making more international contacts, Erik made side trips to neighboring Togo and Burkina Faso.
While Erik was in Togo, a group that included Abilene Christian University President Royce Money, ACU board member Deon Fair, ACU business professor Brad Crisp and I traveled to the Village of Hope orphanage.
We also visited a former slave castle on Ghana’s coast and toured Kakum National Park. The rainforest north of Cape Coast features a130-foot-high canopy walkway suspended between trees. Supposedly you can observe different species of birds and butterflies from the canopy. But all I saw was a whole lot of ground far, far below!
Coincidentally, we were in the small African nation at the same time asthe leader of the free world. President Barack Obama’s trip to Accra created a traffic nightmare in a city with plenty of logjams on normal days.
The day of Obama’s speech to Ghana’s parliament, we drove by the U.S. Embassy. Brad took out his iPhone and snapped a photograph of the sign, unaware of posted warnings against taking pictures. Within seconds, Ghanaian police, armed with rifles, came running toward us.
They escorted Brad out of the car.
Fortunately, he soon returned, having deleted the photo to the authorities’ satisfaction. We all enjoyed a hearty laugh and promised to keep the international incident as quiet as possible.
BOBBY ROSS JR. is Managing Editor of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at [email protected].
