Sing Out For Peace

Saturday September 15, 2012 was the annual Sing Out concert at the National Theatre here in Ghana, and to coincide with the election, this year’s theme was Sing Out For Peace. I found the concert to be very unique and creative. The purpose was not only to celebrate the goodness of God and his grace upon the nation, but to also use it as an opportunity to let all the political heads declare peace throughout the coming election. The program consisted of peace messages from representatives of the different parties and different gospel or Christian acts: Selina Boateng, Kofi Sarpong, Monarch’s Praise Choir and America’s very own Deitrick Haddon as the headliner.

            
One important detail that surprised me the most was the amount of young people that showed up for the concert. It was great to see a large volume of men and women around my age at a concert celebrating Jesus Christ. Everyone was dressed veryy nice (they made me feel under dressed in my jeans and nice shirt). Once the concert began, the energy was amazing. The atmosphere reminded me of being at a Beyoncé concert. Only instead of singing “Single Ladies” we were rocking to “He’s Able” and Ghanaian Christian music. Everyone was up on their feet dancing the whole night (especially during the Ghanaian songs). I hadn’t heard too much of Deitrick Haddon’s music at home but I brushed up on it a little before the show. He is a very energetic performer. He was very similar to Tye Tribbet, maybe even more enthusiastic. However, I think it’s safe to say that a Deitrick Haddon concert in the U.S. would definitely be different. I feel like Ghanaians display a very unique kind of energy and he was able to feed off of that and just go crazy with it. I’m definitely grateful for chance to go and experience that.

            Overall, I really enjoyed the concert. Afterwards, I had some time to reflect. We are living in trying times, especially In light of everything happening with U.S. international relations and the current conflict over “The Innocence of Muslims”. We need peace around the world now more than ever. The sad part is that there’s not much we can do but sit back and pray about it. Pray for tolerance, love and protection. Ghanaian politics are still influenced by tribal and ethnic divides, but the country is still stable and people are trying to come together. We need to be respectful of other's practices and beliefs. I hope that one day we can all just get along.

James 3:18 says, “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace”.