There is real challenge with cell phones here in the bush of
Ghana. The cell phone is the only communication for most with the outside world.
Though these people are poor in the world’s standard, they have cell phones and
are on them several times each day. When I first came to this community I could
not believe the lack of cell phone etiquette these people had. Over the months
we have experienced leaders who during church have stepped off the stand to
answer a ringing phone. Yes, I quite remember a Branch President who during the
Sacrament had his phone go off and he answered it with his normal voice “Hello”
and then walked off the stand out of the meeting talking on the phone. No one
was disturbed or even felt as if something was wrong with this picture. At the
end of the Sacrament portion, the members were going to wait until the branch
president came back in if I had not told a councilor to carry on with the
program as outlined on the agenda; just that the president had taken the
program with him and no one knew of the program- we waited for about 2 minutes
and then he walked in and we proceeded with the service. I have been on a
crusade since that day to teach etiquette to our leaders and members. It has an
uphill battle but we have seen improvement, small small. Yesterday, while
visiting the Asuom Branch, I witnessed the blessing / curse of my efforts over
the months. During a testimony from one of the members, a cell phone began to
ring. A sister had forgotten to mute the ringer and she was digging in her dress
and wrap to find the phone. The branch clerk stood up and walked back to the
women who just found the phone as he arrived by her side, (it was playing
Yankee Doodle as the ringer) and took her phone from her, shut off the phone,
and put it in his pocket and walked back to his seat on the front row. No one
said a thing or made an issue over the actions of the women or clerk. I thought
“is this what I have done to preserve the reverence of our meetings?” Towards
the end of the meeting, there was another cell phone that began to ring, this
time the young man caught it before the whole tune of Beat It by Michael Jackson had completed. He turned it off and yes,
the clerk stood and walked back to the young man, reached and took his cell
phone without any further words or gesture. The clerk put it in his pocket and
walked back to his seat. I quizzed the clerk after the service and he told me he
believed they had a serious problem with these cell phones during their
meetings so as a Branch Presidency, they decided to collect all phones when
they would go off and then after an interview with the President, after the meeting
block was completed, he would return their phones. They had announced the new
policy for 3 previous weeks so all would realize the importance of turning
their phones off or on vibrate during meetings. It was working with some but
there were others who have not been back to church since their phone was confiscated
during a meeting. All the way home I pondered the policy and intent of the
District Presidency and the implementation by this Branch President, and decided
that some issues we must be exacting while others we may want to continue to
instruct and teach rather than force or embarrass our saints. O what webs we
weave when we use our influence and position to be heavy handed, rather than to
use gentle persuasion and love.
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