A Bell, A Hundred Peppers, and the Last Night of Preaching

Bro. Ruckman spent the last night of the conference holding a hand bell like it was the most natural thing in the world, ringing it once at five minutes left and then long and loud when a man's time was up.

The piano player had tried the same job the first two days, but he was not comfortable interrupting some of the older pastors mid-sermon. So today the bell took over, and it turned out to work just as well.

We had ten messages today, the most of any day so far, on this third and final day of the 2026 Ghana West Africa Pastors and Workers Conference. It was a long day of preaching from start to finish, and Pastor Reno and Pastor Triano closed it out tonight.

While the men preached, Laura and Mrs. Angie were in the kitchen slicing habanero peppers, over a hundred of them, to help the kitchen ladies keep up with the meals. Laura wore gloves, but a hole opened up in the thumb partway through, and her thumb has been burning ever since like she grabbed a hot pepper bare-handed, which she basically did. Mrs. Angie skipped the gloves altogether, and both of her hands are still feeling it too. Praise the Lord, it is getting better for both of them.

Lunch today was fufu with light soup and beef, and I enjoyed every bit of it. The kitchen ladies have worked hard all three days of this conference, and meals like that do not happen by accident.

The sermons tonight were some of the best of the week, and I find myself more excited about the work here every single day. Tomorrow there is one more small service in the morning to say goodbye to everyone before the conference officially wraps up.

If you want to keep following along with the rest of this trip, you can find every post at consfords.com/connect.