MISSIONARY UNFAZED BY TRIBAL WAR, ILLNESS

Raising hogs wasn't exactly a popular pastime in the Rev. Carl Rockrohr's hometown of Milwaukee. Malaria was not a concern. And hardly anybody worried about getting caught in the middle of a tribal war in which one side was armed with poison arrows.

All the above are now very much part of life in Ghana, West Africa, home for the past two years to Rockrohr, his wife, Debbie, and their three children: Paul, 6, Jimmy, 5, and Becky, 3.

With all that, Rockrohr says, "I feel privileged to be (there). It feels like the Pentecost."

The Pentecost signifies the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles after Christ's resurrection.

The 32-year-old Lutheran missionary and his family returned to the United States prior to Christmas for a five-week personal leave.

The Rockrohr family will be honored with a service of farewell at 3 p.m. today at Hanover Lutheran Church, 2949 Perryville Road.

Debbie Rockrohr, 32, is the daughter of David and Carol Roth of rural Jackson.

Ghana, a country about 1 1/2 times the size of Missouri, is sandwiched between Togo and the Ivory Coast on the Gulf of Guinea. The Rockrohrs' mission is located far from the sea and the developed southern region, though. They minister to the Konkombe, a tribe living in the savannas of the north.

There, all roads are gravel and the town of 1,000 they live in, Gbintiri, has no electricity or running water. About 100,000 people live in the region, which has no other churches.

Because the roads are so bad, Rockrohr reaches them on a 175cc Yamaha motorcycle.

The Konkombe are farmers who raise corn, millet, rice and yams and make their own implements. Their villages are very much extended families where work is done communally.

Polygamy is the norm, Rockrohr says, and as many as 25 people may live in a single mud house.

The church's mission is to help the nationals establish their own church. Beyond Sunday school lessons, the package includes assistance with church planning, literacy, building clinics and providing health education for women, well-digging and improved farming and livestock technologies.

"They have people with great faith," Rockrohr says. "But sometimes they don't have the resources."

Many of the traditional crafts made in Ghana bear a symbol that means: "Except God, nothing is possible."

His reference to the Pentecost is a feeling shared by the elders of the church, who do most of the teaching in the region's 130 different villages, Rockrohr said.

"To me and to them it seems like when the Holy Ghost first descended. For the Konkombes the Christian Church hasn't been there ever before. The Holy Spirit is coming there for the first time in the history of their people."

The Konkombes' traditional religion fosters the belief that dead ancestors exert great power and influence over the daily lives of the living, who in turn continually make animal and alcohol sacrifices to them.

They also believe in juju, black magic to give protection from enemies or help find a mate.

"They are afraid of many different things, and they're looking for protection and success in life -- just like everybody," Rockrohr says.

He said his message is that Jesus Christ was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Some villagers have halted the practice.

Just before leaving Ghana, Rockrohr baptized more than 1,300 people in 12 different services.

The family lives in a solar electric house that affords them some common Western luxuries and they eat a mixed American-West African diet. The children are educated by a retired missionary who also was an elementary schoolteacher.

Debbie, who has a master's degree in religion from Concordia Seminary, is the mission's financial officer, head of hospitality -- a crucial role in the culture -- and acted as the village's only nurse when the clinic closed down for eight months after the war.

There have been many trials. Last February, the family had to evacuate their mission and head south when a bloody two-month tribal war broke out. Ghana only became a democracy in 1993 and power struggles have ensued.

"The Konkombes were looking for more representation in the government," Rockrohr explained.

And sickness has been a constant companion. Everyone in the family has had malaria many times.

"A couple of times when the kids got sick we just didn't know," Rockrohr said.

But the past two years have taught him that everything is in God's hands, he said. "Even when things are bad, if you believe that it's OK."

Rockrohr has committed to spending another eight years in Ghana. He considers himself fortunate to know what he's going to be doing well into the future and to believe in it so wholeheartedly.

"These 10 years, if that's all I did with my life, that would be a good life," Rockrohr said.