Thank You...!

Laci and I just wanted to say thank you to all of our friends, family, and colleagues from around the country who have kept up with our journey to Ghana. The blog statistics show that there have been more than 400 visits to view our blog page. We appreciate all of your emails, phone calls and long distance prayers from all up and down the east coast from Massachusetts to Florida and all the way out to the west coast of California and even in the Caribbean. Tomorrow (Thursday July 19th) we will be traveling to Komasi which is about a 4 hour drive from Akropong. We plan to leave the church at 6am. Gifty one of our personal chefs said that she would be gracious enough to pack us a breakfast and lunch. Gifty and Anoni, our other personal chef have both been great and have gone above and beyond their call of duty! But in reference to Komasi --it is the area where the actual Kente Cloth is made and is known as one of the places you don't want to miss if you come to Ghana. We are planning to meet up with Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright's (Pres. Obama's former pastor) tour group in Komasi tomorrow and join them on their tour. It should be very interesting and I hope to take some more good pictures and videos. But early this morning I went to lead worship at my 7th and final school. It was at the junior high school across from where we live--but down a very large and winding hill. The children were so engaged and had so much energy at 7:30 in the morning!!! Ironically, as I sat down to type this blog a young man on the computer next to me turned to me and said "that was great this morning what you did with the children". When I thanked him and asked him who he was he said he was one of the teachers in the classroom today. It is definitely a small world! But lately I have been running into quite a few students as we walk through town who will see me and then start chanting some of the songs or phrases I taught them when I visited their particular school. They particularly like the Jesus Rap and even some of the teachers are saying it now. But as long as God gets the Glory! Later today we also visited the School for the Blind (which has about 300+ students) and got a chance to meet the director, the assistant director, and other staff--they truly have a heart for their students. While we were there the director asked some of the students to sing a song for us. It was very touching. We also took some time to tour the school and at the end went into their shop to buy some of the jewelry and crafts that the students had created. Afterwards we stopped by one of the all girls high schools which has an enrollment of 1,600+ students. We spoke to the chaplain of the high school and he said he is the only chaplain on staff (bless his heart) for all 1600+ girls plus he is a biology teacher! He said it is a lot of work but that he loves what he does. Before dinner we stopped back at the church and stopped in to meet with the Women's Fellowship Group. There were about 35 women present. Popa Nyarko formally introduced us to the group (even though we've met many of them already)and apologized since we were supposed to visit with them the second week we were in town but our schedule was so busy. Yes, I can't believe we are in our 7th week! Popa Nyarko asked me to greet them in English which I did. He then added some additional comments in the native Twi language which we didn't understand. When all of the women laughed Popa Nyarko said that he just asked them in Twi to inform him if any of them had sons because he was looking for husbands for Ann, Laci, and I. Well, maybe we shouldn't have asked him to translate (smile)for us. In any event, they were glad that we came by to visit with them. We didn't stay too long because Popa Nyarko wanted us to go with him to visit a woman who had recently lost 2 daughter's and a son. Losing one child is I'm sure heart- breaking enough but 3 is as she stated -was "very difficult to imagine that it would ever actually happen to her". When we arrived at her house I realized that it was actually one of the homes that we had visited about a month ago when we accompanied the nurses to visit the sick and shut-in. During our visit we found out that this woman's daughter had just recently got married in the last 6 months and then died unexpectedly. Since her sister and brother had also died recently, the family made a difficult decision to not tell her right away about the loss of this daughter as well. Now that she knows she says that she will just trust in the Lord because He is the only one that will get her through this. But she kept thanking Laci, Ann, and I for coming with Popa Nyarko to visit with her during this difficult time. We prayed and sang with her for about 15 minutes. As she sang the familiar hymn "Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine"--you could tell that she was as she stated trusting in the Lord to get her through this difficult ordeal. This visit was a vivid reminder of just how precious life is! Thankfully, she was not alone but surrounded by her sister and a few others who were also there to comfort her. Afterwards, we left her house to head back for dinner and as we got in the car, I asked Popa Nyarko how many funerals are scheduled for the end of the month and he said the number is now up to 6. But, as I said in an earlier post that number could go higher before I have to preach on July 28th. I will trust that God will give me the right words of comfort for those families on that day. Well, my time is almost up on the computer so I will close here and try to update the blog with new pictures after we get back from Komasi and we will also be going into Accra on Friday so that we can update our visas. In the meantime, blessings to all of you...Love, Lisa and Laci

Kindergarten Parade

On Tuesday I was walking down the street and heard someone call my name. It turned out to be one of the teachers we had met last week. She and other teachers had brought all of the kindergarten students from their classes into town to march, chant, and sing--with different signs and even had a group of the boys playing drums. In the pictures (after I post them) you will see their signs stating such things as "Better Education, Poor Health=Poor Performance, Do not Learn to Litter and We need much Attention!" They were all very cute and serious about what they were doing!

A Period of Peace in the Community

A long standing tradition in the Akropong community happens from July through September. I don't recall the actual name of it but basically it is a period of 40 days where the church and pastors have agreed to honor the requests of the chiefs and elders to have a time of quiet. This means no celebrations or noise which includes not having funerals. I was scheduled to preach a funeral tomorrow but since no one was registered I will preach on the last Saturday of July (28th). I was told that there were 3 people who needed to have a funeral but that number could possibly change. According to this traditional agreement this will be the last funeral until September here in Akropong. If someone should die and need a funeral they will have to have it in another village or even in Accra the capital city. After the 40 days of quiet there is a series of celebrations including a celebration at the Kings Palace. So, it is a huge deal every year. There are other particular do's and don't during this time period but my time on the computer is about up so I will have to share that later...

Twins in Ghana

I found out that there is a very interesting perspective about twins in Ghana. We have been told that over the years that twins were killed when they were born because some believe that twins are a curse. Being a twin myself, I found this intriguing and started to ask questions. You will see a picture of a set of twins posted below with the other pictures. I also met someone named Maya who is also an identical twin. Maya and her sister started a Non Governmental Organization (NG0) to help twins. They have been on TV and the radio to try to educate people about twins and to help the twins who end up on the street. Maya stated that the mothers of twins are believed to have special healing powers and that many people have come to Maya's mother to get healed. Another young church member shared with me that even today some families don't want people to know they have twins because of the stigma of twins being evil spirits. Due to this ongoing belief among some in the community, young mothers of twins end up homeless on the street. Through their organization, Maya and her twin go into the streets to help these homeless twins and their mothers and also host different programs and solicit donations to help get these twins scholarships for schools, clothes and other necessary resources. Before we leave Ghana we are going to meet with Maya and accompany her on one of mission trips into the streets of Accra.

Botanical Gardens

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit the Botanical Gardens in the village of Aburi. It was my first time seeing an actual nutmeg tree and a shea butter tree! The park itself had a variety of beautiful plants and trees which I will also post on the blog this weekend.

School for the Deaf

The other day we visited the junior and primary schools for deaf children. We had the opportunity to meet the director and one of the assistants at each school. We were hoping to spend some time over there but they are getting ready to take exams and depart for the summer. However, I will post some of the pictures of the children in a few days.

Pounding Fufu

In one of the pictures below you will see Laci and I pounding and turning the fufu. It takes a lot of work and yes my finger did get pounded one time by the big stick. Fufu is one of the Ghanaians favorite dishes as I stated in an earlier post and now we see how much work goes into it!

One More Celebration!

Once a month we help the church with a process they call "Speaking". During this time church members come in to pay their tithes, get a receipt, sign up to participate in communion, and meet with the pastor or associate pastor for prayer. Myself, Ann Elyse, and Lukata (and even Laci) have rotated to help out with these different duties. On Friday (June 29th), however, we each took time to meet privately with several of the members who came in. We prayed with them about their personal situations and offered advice and words of encouragement. They were all very appreciative and I look forward to spending more individual time with different members who share many of the same concerns as we do back home in America. After we finished we went to Popa Nyarko's for lunch as we always do. But they surprised Laci with a birthday luncheon--jollof rice, grilled chicken, spicy goat soup, fried plantains, I think a salad, and even cake and ice cream. About 20 of the church members and staff showed up to celebrate with us. After so much food I think we were all ready to rest and go to sleep! On Saturday we participated in another funeral and on Sunday at church a cousin of the deceased came up and introduced herself. Popa Nyarko had us stand up and said we were visiting from Princeton, NJ, so she wanted us to know that she was also from NJ although her she grew up right here in Akropong. She then invited us to come visit her in Accra for dinner where she is living right now. We plan to definitely go see her before we come back to the states. Well my time is up on the computer... until the next time... Lisa