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compiled
by Maurine Jensen Proctor
Read yesterday’s
article from Safe Journey about the moving faith of the people of
Ghana here.
Meridian Magazine’s
Editorial Team will be in Ghana for the temple dedication, taking
you to a front row seat at this remarkable, history-making spiritual
milestone. With scores of photographic images by Scot F. Proctor
and personal interviews with African missionaries and Saints, you
will be able to feel the energy and excitement as the light dawns
in what used to be called the dark continent. See these articles
next week on Meridian—reporting from Ghana.
Early
in the morning of February 16, 1998, President Gordon B. Hinckley
visited a prospective temple site in Accra, Ghana and later that
day told 6,700 Saints assembled in Independence Square, “You’ve
gone a long time without a temple. When I was here five years ago,
we tried to find a place to build a temple. We didn’t find
anything and we didn’t say anything to anybody…This
morning we approved the purchase of a beautiful piece of ground.”
The 3.6 acre site is in a residential neighborhood on one of Accra’s
main thoroughfares.
President Hinckley told
the Saints that the temple would take several years to complete,
but said, “When it’s completed you won’t have
to travel all the way to London, or all the way to Johannesburg,
to have the blessings of the Lord.”
The LDS
Church News (Feb. 21, 1998) reported, “For Joseph W.B.
Johnson, news of the temple is something he has waited 15 years
for. He is one of the Church’s pioneers in West Africa, having
in 1964 started a congregation patterned after the Church after
he read LDS literature and the Book of Mormon. He and others in
his unofficial congregation were baptized after the missionaries
arrived in Ghana in 1978. Brother Johnson said that he had a dream
several years after he was baptized that the spirits of people who
had died asked him what he was doing for them. ‘What could
I do?’ he pondered, not having access to the temple. ‘Now
we can start doing the temple work for those of our ancestors,’
he said after President Hinckley announced the temple.”
A “Green
Beret” Assignment
 Not
many days after this announcement, Elder Pace was called by one
of the senior Brethren and asked if he would be willing to take
a “green beret” assignment. There was no need to tell
him where it would be, as years earlier on a trip to Africa, he
and his wife, Jolene, had both had the distinct impression that
some day they would live and serve in Africa.
Elder Pace described
the living conditions for them in Africa, “Our home in Accra
was beautiful and as comfortable as one could make it. I came to
refer to it as the world’s most expensive camper. The reason
for this is that water had to be stored in tanks outside. We had
a three-filter system for our water. The first one took out the
solids, the second iodized the water, and the third took the taste
of iodine out of the water. We had a septic tank that would back
up once in a while. Tanks of butane gas were brought in to run the
stove. We had a diesel generator for electricity, since the city’s
power was on a cycle where it was on for twelve hours and then off
for twelve. However, the generator was strong enough to run the
home’s air conditioners and our comfort level was therefore
high. As long as all of those things were working, life was very
pleasant—until you left the house. And yet repairs were constant.
“The biggest frustration
was the telephone. Whenever it rained, the phones wouldn’t
work. Heavy rains brought floods inside the house and septic tanks
backed up. The construction of the house left much to be desired.
Nevertheless we felt guilty living in such opulence as we started
to mingle with the locals.
 “We
brought several appliances from home, which ran on 110 volts instead
of the 220 that is common in Africa. To get along we therefore had
to purchase several converters. We brought a hot-air popcorn popper
which shook our confidence in being very creative with converters.
Every time we plugged it in it would blow a fuse and send out sparks.
One of the first things we bought was a fire extinguisher for each
floor. We had been told that if a fire broke out, the house would
burn down before the fire department could arrive. We came to believe
that because of what we saw with the police department. If you have
a problem requiring police attention you have to go pick them up...
“The day
after we arrived some Church employees took us to the market. That
was a culture shock. As soon as you get out of the car you are besieged
by people either looking for a handout or selling something. You
have to fight your way into the store. Once you are inside another
shock awaits you. These are not Super Targets. They are about the
size of a Seven Eleven. They have quite a few imported commodities,
and you are thankful to see something familiar once in awhile, even
though it is very expensive. Occasionally you will discover something
like Aunt Jemima’s pancake flour and shout for joy. You shout
until you get home and discover that the weevil have invaded it
before you got your chance.”
In Ghana, a
mosquito bite throws you into panic that you might get malaria.
Shopping is a continuous adventure. Every fruit or vegetable must
be scrubbed with bleach before you can eat it. Travel is tedious,
delayed and unreliable. The stifling heat and humidity enervate
you. Chapels are cooled by fans, but they usually don’t work
because the electrical power fails.
Frustrating
Delays
The people are wonderful,
but the physical conditions are often grueling. But by far the most
difficult challenge for Elder Pace was the government opposition
to building the temple. The groundbreaking was delayed again and
again because the temple had not been approved by the city planning
commission, a process which was met with considerable opposition.
“Related
to the delay in the temple approval process,” wrote Elder
Pace, “were other manifestations of opposition. The papers
were preparing to run an article entitled ‘The Mormons Are
Coming.’ One of the subsections of the article was ‘Why
the Mormons Teach against Christianity and How.’ We marshaled
our public affairs people and tried to have it nipped in the bud,
but in the end we were unsuccessful.”
The temple approval process
was a roller coaster. Elder Pace wrote, “On June 29 [1999],
we got the best news about the temple since President Hinckley announced
it a year and a half earlier. My journal reads: ‘We had a
letter handed to us that said the temple had been approved contingent
on a couple of minor concessions on our part. We are holding back
getting too excited until we are sure what it means.’
“A day later: ‘We
had a meeting with our architect and a member of the planning commission.
It looks like the letter is for real and we can start as soon as
we are ready. The pressure is on our own people now to get bids.
We still may be three months away, but at least everything is in
our control. This is very exciting. We also got news that we will
be piloting a family history project that will allow work to be
done from oral histories. This will allow the most humble of the
Africans to take their ancestors to the temple by just knowing names
and relationships. This will be an exciting couple of years the
way things are coming together.’
“And then
only two days later: ‘When I got home, Carl Champagnie came
to the house all discouraged because he had just left the planning
committee and had been given another letter that was to supersede
the letter we got last week. This letter stated the temple was to
be excluded from the plan. He was so discouraged. The committee’s
shabby treatment of our case is matched only by their lack of professionalism.
We keep trying to rule out discrimination against the Church, but
we can’t see any other reason for this.
“’We have
all been a little down due to the new temple problems. I see no
alternative than to keep fighting. That piece of ground just seems
so right. If we abandon it, we assume we will have a very difficult
time finding another acceptable piece, and even if we located one
we have no guarantee it would be approved if indeed our problems
are political.’
“A few days later:
‘We had a meeting with our attorneys and architects this afternoon
on the continuing saga of getting the temple approved. The latest
version is that the mayor was not in the meeting when they sent
out the letter last week and he was upset they didn’t consult
him and sent out the second letter. We decided to have the attorney
and architect meet with the mayor and try to resolve the question
as to why we are having these problems. Once we know the real reason
we are being refused we can prepare an appeal. If that doesn’t
work, we will be going to a higher level.’”
By August 31, the Church
was appealing to the highest authorities in Ghana for approval.
Elder Pace wrote in his journal, “We understand President
Rawlings, Vice President Mills, and the mayor of Accra are meeting
to discuss the temple. I don’t know how we could get at a
higher level than that. In my opinion we have now done all we can
do… I’m ready to leave it in the hands of the Lord.”
“At
War with the Adversary”
“Earlier Elder
Pace had given a devotional to the Church employees where he spoke
of the opposition that often comes when a temple is built. He said,
“’We have been at war with the adversary as far back
as our premortal existence. We are in a war now. Opposition to the
work continues.’ I then quoted President Wilford Woodruff:
“’There
are two powers on the earth and in the midst of the inhabitants
of the earth—the power of God and the power of the devil.
In our history we have had some very peculiar experiences. When
God has had a people on the earth, it matters not in what age, Lucifer,
the son of the morning, and the millions of fallen spirits that
were cast out of heaven, have warred against God, against Christ,
against the work of God, and against the people of God. And they
are not backward in doing it in our day and generation. Whenever
the Lord set His hand to perform any work, those powers labored
to overthrow it’ (Deseret Evening News, 17 Oct. 1896).
“I also quoted
at length from George Q. Cannon, who spoke on the same theme:
‘Temple building brings increased power. Every foundation
stone that is laid for a temple, and every Temple completed according
to the order the Lord has revealed for His Holy Priesthood, lessens
the power of Satan on the earth and increases the power of God and
Godliness, moves the heavens in mighty power in our behalf, invokes
and calls down upon us the blessings of the Eternal Gods and those
who reside in Their presence.
“’I
fully believe that when that temple [Salt Lake Temple] is once finished
there will be a power and manifestations of the goodness of God
unto this people such as they have never before experienced. Every
work of this kind that we have accomplished has been attended with
increased and wonderful results unto us as a people—an increase
of power and of God’s blessings upon us. It was so in Kirtland
and at Nauvoo; at both places the Elders had an increase of power,
and the Saints, since the completion of and the administration of
ordinances in those buildings, have had a power they never possessed
previously. . . .
“’Every temple that we build excites additional hatred,
increases the volume of opposition, the volume of hostility and
the threatenings of the wicked. Every temple that we have thus far
completed—and every temple of which we lay the foundation—has
been another testimony in favor of God and has brought strength
to the people of God in enlisting the hosts in the eternal world
upon our side; but at the same time there has been stirred up, from
the very depths of hell, all the damned.
“’Satan and
his legions unite with their agents upon the earth in an endeavor
to destroy this work and to do everything in their power to obliterate
it from the face of the earth; hell is enraged at the work we are
doing; hell is stirred up at that which we are accomplishing. Satan
sees that which he dreads, . . . and seeing this he is determined
to exert every power, every influence that he can muster for the
purpose of preventing the spread and growth of this work.
“’Satan rages
as he views his domain trenched upon, his captives delivered, and
the souls of men wrenched from his grasp by the labors of the living
for the dead in and through those sacred ordinances that belong
alone to the Gospel of the Son of God, administered in holy places
by His chosen servants and handmaidens. And it must not surprise
us if the rage of the arch-enemy of mankind increases and his emissaries
grow more relentless and cruel, more brutal and inhuman in their
efforts to stay this work, as the number of temples increases and
the thousands of Israel go in thereto to minister the ordinances
of salvation for their ancestors and departed friends.
“’He
[Satan] understands very well that if the children of men will enter
into such holy buildings and receive the ordinances there administered
and be faithful thereto, his power over them is lost forever, and
his kingdom must go down. The struggle with him is a desperate one.
He wishes to retain his supremacy on the earth—the territory
he has usurped and over which he held dominion, by all the trickery
and violence of which he is capable, for so many generations. God
designs to overthrow him, to break his power and to have His children
live for one thousand years free from his domination. Great issues
are involved in this struggle; but God’s Kingdom will triumph,
and His people will be freed from the thralldom which Satan seeks
to impose’ (Gospel Truth, 366).
“After sharing
those statements, I said: ‘I wonder if we realize the magnitude
of this time and this place. We come to work each day and get into
a certain routine. Soon we will see the ground broken for the temple
and we will watch it go up. Will we fully appreciate and comprehend
the magnitude of the moment?
“’When that
temple on Independence Avenue is dedicated it will be like an atomic
bomb has been dropped right in the middle of Satan’s stronghold
in West Africa. It will be the most significant thing that has affected
West Africa since the atonement and resurrection of Christ. It will
be the beginning of the end of Satan’s hold on these countries.
“’In addition,
think of the thousands of years some of your ancestors have been
waiting to have their temple work done. I can assure you there are
those on the other side of the veil who are more excited than we
are.
“’I hope
we understand what a pivotal time in the history of West Africa
this is. For some reason we have been chosen to be laboring in the
vineyard at this significant time. We need to make certain we remain
worthy of the trust. Those in this room have been blessed for the
time being to spend nearly every waking hour in bringing to pass
the Lord’s purposes. I hope we will never lose sight of that
eternal perspective, even when we are in the middle of some duties
that may seem a little mundane. We should be the happiest employees
in all of Africa.’
“That presentation
was the genesis of talks I would give throughout all of West Africa
in 1999. It became a battle cry to the Saints to make certain we
were all awakened to the magnitude of our responsibilities as members
of the Church in Africa.”
Tomorrow: Meridian
brings you the third and last excerpt from Glenn L. Pace’s
Safe Journey, An African Adventure, called “Euphoria.”
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