Book review: Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough

Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough: A Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts by Elmer L. Towns, Regal Books, CA, US; 1996

I repeat my disclaimer: I’m not an expert in fasting and I think I would pass away if I ever tried Moses and Jesus’ 40-day fast. Leave it to the fast-perts!

I’ve read several books on prayer and fasting, most of them borrowed from friends. I was searching for something new and different sometime last year and I found Elmer L. Towns’ book at the bookshop. I’m glad I bought it even though I’d never heard of Elmer Towns at that time.

Towns gives several definitions of fasting, with insightful historical backgrounds to fasts. Based on Isaiah 58 he classifies fasts using 9 biblical characters and their aims for going on a fast. So there is the Saint Paul fast for major decisions, the Widow’s Fast for helping the needy, etc. This categorization was refreshingly new to me. At the end of each fast chapter, Towns gives helpful guidelines to steer the reader to make definite decisions and take purposeful notes. This has been useful for me, although I must say that I still have a looong way to go.

I know this is such a brief book review... but that's the point. To get you to buy or borrow and read the book! :)

I highly recommend reading Towns’ Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough: A Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts, if you’re seeking to enrich your experience in this discipline of grace.

Now I leave you with a quote from the book:

“If you say you will fast when God lays it on me, you will never fast. You’re too cold and indifferent. Take the yoke upon you.” –Dwight L. Moody ----Page 212.

God bless ya,
Lady Akofa.

Note: I hope to answer Stephanie's question in my next post.

Adventures in “Nkↄm Kyere”

As a kid, I was a skinny, underweight girl who had to be coaxed, scolded and beaten to eat her food. I simply didn’t like to eat. Not until I went to the boarding house in secondary school. The food often consisted of two ladles of rice or less, to my dismay. There was no food to waste like I did back at home those days. I remember the first vacation, I came home and savored the homemade groundnut soup and like Oliver Twist, asked for more. It’s said that you sometimes don’t value some things until you’re deprived of it for sometime. It was then that I began to appreciate and value meals. And today I do enjoy my meals, although my friends still think I’m a bit picky about what I eat. Ahem... let’s just say, I’ve improved?

But I do want to discuss another perspective: abstaining from meals for spiritual purposes. Yep, I’m talking about the ‘glorious’ spiritual discipline known in English as ‘fasting’. Before I go any further: I make a disclaimer, I’m no expert in fasting, I’m just sharing a few thoughts on my experiences so far.

I like the way “fasting” is expressed in my mother tongue. We call it, “Nkↄm Kyere,” transliterated as “hunger engage.” Pronounced, "N-korm chI-rI." One engages hunger as a discipline for a higher purpose. I remember a friend used the expression, “putting my stomach down; sacrificing my stomach for prayer.” These expressions in no way suggest passivity; one has to take on this activity. See the image above? At the time of taking the picture, I was... uurm... heavily pregnant with mangoes. Hehehe! :) But there is a reason to periodically "put my tummy down".

When I started fasting, it wasn’t out of a personal conviction rather I fasted along with my Hall (Dormitory) fellowship group. It was a once in a month call to fast mid-week and meet at lunch time in the Hall Chapel to pray. Those were incredible times of student corporate prayer as God showed up in power and we, in exchange, were spiritually nourished.

I remember the terrible ways of breaking my fasts; sometimes eating roasted peanuts and banana, other times eating too much solid food to break the fast as if to make up for all the food I didn’t eat during the day. Pathetic wasn’t it? Oftentimes, I woke up the next day with stomach aches knowing very well I would have been better off had I broken my fast with juices or porridges instead of solid food. If the advice from the great Christian authors didn’t deter me from such foolishness, experience has definitely taught me better.

It was more difficult to keep on with this discipline on my own when I left school. Since then fasting hasn’t been a steady practice but a seasonal spurt. I remember one work day, I purposed to “put my stomach down.” I had to go for an impromptu meeting out of the office and there was this secretary bringing in trays, tea cups and lovely pastries. I simply forgot when I saw all the goodies and helped myself. Oops! And this is not the only time I’ve slipped. But the fallen toddler always rises up again to walk, isn’t it so? So do I, grace being on my side.

I’m wondering, do Christians really fast at all as a personal discipline? Or are they just silent (Matthew 6: 16-18) about it when they fast? What has your experience been? I don't want to start a bragging discussion about who has fasted longest and what not, so just think about it, you don’t have to comment.

God bless ya,
Lady Akofa.

I thought I was done….

….but I’m not done with my mango blog series yet. Can you stomach just one more post about mangoes, pleeeeeaase? Imagine a BIG, cheesy, toothy, molar to molar smile from Mango lady. :)

After lamenting on the slow mango season, which is so, well this weekend, 3 mango trees decided to go on a speedy ripening session over the weekend. Talk about overflow. I spent Saturday morning and afternoon distributing mangoes to friends, only to come back to see that more had dropped on the ground, waiting to be picked up. Neighbourhood people came knocking asking for mangoes. We are only happy to give them away.

See this full bucket…



... and there was another one too.

At church on Sunday, one of our teen neighbours delightedly thanked me for the mangoes… she said she ate 6 at a sitting. Knowing that there were several children in her household, I packed lots for them. I remember, one of her little brothers badgered me a few weeks ago, asking if he could get ripe mangoes. So it was a pleasure to knock on their door late Saturday morning with a basket full of mangoes. I can only imagine the sheer delight when they saw the fruits after I left. My pleasure!

My mom’s lunch after Sunday church service, yesterday consisted of this… tea and two slices of toasted bread. No big deal, it's normal for my mom to eat light after church service. But desert? A bowl full of mangoes. I laughingly told her that it seemed her desert was more than her lunch. Sometimes, just mangoes is supper for me and my mother. The other members of the house do like mangoes but they are not as passionate about them as my mom and I, I think.

Talk about Mango Fever!

I’m hoping to blog next about refraining from food, including mangoes. … Sssssh… Gasp! How can I ever part with mangoes when they are in season?

Up with Mango Flu, not down with Swine Flu,
Lady Akofa. : )

Note: I’m not promising that I’m done with the Mango blog series; there might be more stories to tell sometime soon. Sorry, but… ahem… but… I do looove mangoes, so bear with me!

Yellow Mango Story

I intended getting some pictures of yellow mangoes as promised as a sequel to my Green Mango Story and ended up doing fun self-portraits in front of the mango trees. : )

Look at this fruit basket….



…. it used to be full and overflowing at last year’s mango season. This year the harvest has been slow, so it’s not uncommon to see a lone yellow mango amidst plenty green ones, like this:


Now to the fun picture…



Here ends my mango blog series for now. : )

God bless ya.
Mango lady.

Green Mango Story

Did I tell ever you, I looove mangoes? Then let me say that again... listen well.

"I heaaaaaaaart mangoes!"

Alrigh-dee. You really didn't have to listen to me, although you might want to see some mango shots from my home sweet home.


Can you see this picture above? That's our border wall with one of the mango trees leaning towards the wall. So that particular corner has been a source of fun, contention, prank among neighbourhood kids who love to throw stones at the this tree in hopes that one of the spotted yellow mangoes will fall on their side, outside the house. But you'll never know whether your shot will be successful or not, in the first place.

A few months ago, my mom asked the gardener to pick up all the stones the house, some of which are leftovers from house construction materials. Those stones are now in front of our gate.... really, we don't know what to do with them. :) I guess a few of them will find their way back, until we properly dispose of the stones.

One day, I was back from work quite early and I met two kids standing, looking at this tree for yellow mangoes. Harmless. As long as they are able to get what they want, they can continue. After all there are 6 other mango trees inside the walled house. So I rang the bell waiting for the door to be opened so that I could enter.

But then one of the kids walked up to me with super confidence and said, "Madam, I threw a stone and my mango has fallen inside. Let me go inside and get it," as if he had every right to claim that one mango. My mind was like, "Hahahaha! What a comic scene! He really thinks he has a right to the mango!" But I smiled and allowed him to go inside the house grounds with me and wasn't at all bothered that he picked from the ground more than he had worked for. After all, this is just one time, I don't think he will be back again.


We lived in our previous house for some 20 plus years and it always brings some good memories when I think of those days. We had incredible neighbours and great relationships with most of them, some of which are still flourishing, although we the kids have grown up and have busy lives of our own, and have all moved out of that old neighbourhood. Today, when there is an occasion, we try to honour the invitations and celebrate together. There is nothing good as observing the faithfulness of God in a family friend's life.

We didn't have a mango tree in our previous house compound. There were 2 mango trees, if you ask me, malnourished and heavily in demand by some notorious kids, including yours truly. Where were the trees? Standing at the borderline of where 4 houses intersected, so it seemed like nobody really claimed ownership of them. But the boundary lines were clear, we knew who the rightful owners were.


Although they were malnourished trees, they were a source of a competition and chidish squabbles as to who would get the ripe mangoes first. And woe betide you if you didn't live in one of the four houses and you wanted to claim the fruit of any of these 2 mango trees. Hahaha! :) In our teens, we somehow lost interest in climbing those trees in search for fruit. You know teenagers have constantly changing interests, right? "Yeaaah...," that's sounds like a teenager's disinterested response. :)

Anyway, there is something I learnt from the book of Ruth and from my not-so-90-day Bible reading challenge about God. God has a soft spot for widows and orphans, the needy and vulnerable. And he wants us to remember them as well. I wonder whether the universal Church is living up to this calling today? Had not Boaz allowed Ruth to glean from his farm, I wonder what other hardships Ruth and Naomi would have had to face? And that love story? It would never have happened. But thank God for wise men.

And for me, although lil Mr. I-have-right-to-the-mango-that-has-fallen-inside-your-compound appeared audacious and mildly rude, I knew that he clearly didn't have money to buy a single mango at the market. And besides, we have several trees and often times give the mangoes to friends and family. We can't eat them all.

But I'm glad the lil' boy dared asked and he got even more. The TNIV calls it "shameless audacity." Thinking about it now, I wish somebody had videotaped that interaction between me and lil' Mr. Audacity. He was incredibly confident that he'd get want he wanted.

Next time, I'll post pictures of ripe, yellow mangoes. Stay tuned!

God bless ya,
Mango lady. :)