A Little Slice of Heaven but We're Not There Yet

Here in the Accra airport Team 2 (plus Todd and Vicki) count the hours until our 10pm flight tonight.  We are thankful for a restaurant with tasty Jollof Rice, some air conditioning, and 5 cedi /hour internet.  It's the little things.

Yesterday, we loved the sea breeze and the lemon Fanta (Pineapple Fanta has been scarce).  On the days previous, there has been the guest house with Stella's good cooking, fresh pineapple, and an air-conditioned common room.

the clinic at the Police Station in Ghana with the gracious people, the air-conditioning, and a flushing toilet,


the village with the smiles and hugs and joy on the children's faces.


There are little glimpses of heaven everywhere.

Yesterday, we spent a very sobering mid-day touring Elmina castle where the stark contrast between the church on the second floor directly over the slave dungeons below pierced our hearts.   Our host, Joseph, observed while the Dutch were singing "Hallelujah, Praise God" above the slaves were below crying out "God Rescue Us".   We have come a long way from the times of the slave trade from West Africa, but our earth is not heaven.  We hurt each other.  We mis-distribute resources.  We hurt.  We cry.

At Elmina we met a couple there from California.  She was a nurse, training to be a mid-wife, who interned in a birthing clinic in a village near Kumasi.   As it turns out, they were staying at the same hotel we were on the coast.  Jason & I enjoyed a long conversation with them.  She described a conversation with a friend, a Ghanaian  who also interned at the clinic as they were talking about heaven.  Her Ghanaian friend described heaven as a place where you could drink all you want without "fetching water" and would never be hungry.  You could eat fufu all you wanted and would never have to pound the cassava and plantain first.  I wonder how that compares to our view of heaven?  I wonder how our view compares to his?

HIghlight Reel for the Internet-Challenged

Our connection here has been very spotty, so we can't upload any pictures (except Casey who is gone!), but we have had a wonderful trip nonetheless. 

Highlights:

1.  Building complete!  The adults were able to worship in their new space, their covered pavilion on Sunday.  The only injury was (I think) Casey's cut which Kate promptly treated with some plants growing in the berm just outside the worship area.

2.  Vision Clinics - We have held four vision clinics.  One in Chirima (I think, but I'll have to double check the name when I have more internet time), One in Bedasse, and Two at the Police Station in Kumasi.  In each of them, we served many customers and gave out every last pair of sunglasses, almost all of our readers (including the ones donated from another mission team here) and about 350 pairs of prescription glasses. Many small celebrations included getting some people to 20/15 corrections and other great improvements.  Some heartaches included a 14 year old boy blind in one eye and almost in the other from cataracts and the MANY others blind from cataracts. 

3.  The Children - We enjoyed fellowship with the children of Bedasse.  On Sunday morning, Lisa Michelle, Vicki, and I taught them stories about creation and how Jesus is the light and we must let his light shine through us to all of those around us.  The kids made candlesticks out of construction paper and we danced and sang "This Little Light of Mine".  We learned that Richard has mad Frisbee skills, Bob can duck duck goose, and Mary can't run around a circle even 1/4 way before getting caught by a barefoot child.  On of my favorite moments included spending time with Faustina, a little girl from Bedasse, as we taught each other words in English and Twi.  On Monday, we talked about Jesus being the vine and about the Fruits of the Spirit.  The kids loved learning the English names of the fruits, and especially loved making fun of my pronunciation of the Twi words for Coconut, Papaya, Mango, and Banana.  Spending time with the children was such a blessing. 

We will post more updates and pictures as soon as we have enough internet access to upload!!
Blessings,
Mary A (and Ghana Team Two)

Ghana Team Update

Team One should be in London by now and team two is heading to the Police Station to do our final vision clinic. We are all doing well and excited to share our stories when we return. Internet has been minimal so we are sorry we have not been able to post much. Yesterday we screened 150-200 people at the vision clinic.
Thank you all for your prayers.
Blessings from Ghana,
Lisa Michelle

United and Holy

Our whole team celebrated our last full day together by worshiping in the pavilion team one built, teaching the Word to the village children, and playing Frisbee with the kids in Bedasse.   God's blessings and provision were abundant in the village -where resources were scarce, smiles were abundant, where rooms were small, hugs were big, where the ground was dirty and the water unsafe, the clothes were clean and the arms were welcoming.

In our team debriefing we all talked about what it would mean to live in community the way the villagers of Bedasse live -in a place where we all rely on each other and fellowship together.  Joe lifted all of our spirits by sharing how in his experience of spending the week with us and hearing our stories, that we, our FUMC Andover community, do have a sense of community, just with an American twist.

We are all so thankful for you and for your prayers and we look forward to coming home and sharing with you what the people of Ghana have taught us about being united and holy as our own community continues to grow in unity and holiness.

Blessings to all!

It's not an accident that you're here

Jason, Lisa Michelle, and I ran into Lane Harvey at the Lexington airport restaurant. It was great to see a fellow Andoverite. Turns out we were all on the same flight to Chicago. We chatted at the gate while Jason, LM, and I worried about whether the delay would cause us to miss out flight to London.

We boarded the plane in time for a miracle to get us to O'Hare in time to run to our connection (flashback to losing Jason in Chicago).

After just a few minutes on board, they kicked us all of the plane and told us to come back tomorrow. The only problem is that coming back tomorrow to fly to Chicago wouldn't get us to Accra in time to get to the village on Saturday. Katy searched and searched but couldn't find a way to get is there in time to catch a flight out to Kumasi on Friday. Lane offered to wait on us and give us rides hime.

Jason decided that we let the less complicated hotel voucher and domestic flight reissues go ahead of us. In the meantime, Lane used his mad flight searching skills to find a flight with 3 seats left going through JFK and arriving in time to catch either the 2pm flight (with miraculous customs clearing speed) or the 4pm standby flight to Kumasi.

When Katy finished with all of the other stranded passengers, we showed her Lane's find. She found it with excitement. LM made a joke that wouldn't it be cool if they happened to be first class seats- it turns out that they were!!!! (Well, business class anyway)

So, now we are at JFK waiting to board our overnight flight to Accra. We have $93 in meal vouchers, no need for a hotel or driver in Accra, and a chance to kiss our babies and walk them to school one more time.

We are all thankful that Lane was there, and we know that if we make it to Kumasi it will have been a miracle, but if we don't, blessings will come from that, too. Where might you find a blessing today in what seems at first glance to be a major inconvenience?

Rejoice in The Lord always; again I will say Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayers and supplication let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Thanks so much for all of your prayers, they really get us through!!

Team Two is Safe in NY

We are safe in NY and will fly straight to Accra tonight. We will meet up with pastor Todd in Accra and fly to Kumasi. Thank you all for your prayers.
LM, Jason and Mary

We didn't make it to Chicago but we did get upgraded to business class from New York to Accra

We love our flight reservation fixer lady!!

TEAM 2 HEADING OUT

Brad, Jason, Mary & Lisa Michelle waiting at the Check-in desk

Erin, Becca, Eli & Caleb saying their goodbyes to Jason and Mary

Eddy and Becky (Mary's parents) being keen observers 

Hopefully with the above leash and cell phone Jason will not get lost....

All jokes aside, plese continue to keep the two teams in your prayers. Team 2 should arrive in Ghana on thursday(4-11-13)  @ 845pm local time. They will partake in Vision clinics and VBS for the children in Bedaase.

Team Two heading out

Safely in Kumasi

After what seemed to be a days journey, 23 hours to be exact, the first team has arrived in Kumasi after spending our first night in Africa at a Guest House in Accra, Ghana.  An early morning taxi ride and 35 minute flight later we found ourselves reunited with Joseph and Stella Otsin and one of our favorite people on the planet, Francis, who will be driving us around for the next few days.

We spent the day sightseeing in Kumasi by visiting the Cultural Center and snagging a few gifts and then we visited the world's largest open air market where the goal was to simply not lose any of our team.  And in our spare time we visited briefly with the Methodist Bishop in Ghana and two of his senior leaders.  All in all a great first day acclimating to our new surroundings.

At debriefing tonight, the team talked about how gracious the people of Ghana are and how great the need seems to be everywhere we turned today.

We are so thankful for your prayers and you letters of encouragement!  Please pray as the second team leaves tomorrow (Wednesday) evening and will be on the ground in Kumasi on Friday.  We do have limited internet access, so things may seem a bit slow.  But we are hopeful of getting greater access to be able to upload pictures.

Yours in Christ,

Bob Duncan, Casey Gooding, Vicki Lanham, Joe Thomas, Richard Thomas and Todd Nelson

The Sending

Chaos descended on the Lexington Airport today in the form of the Ghana team and those wishing them well on their journey.  Much of what transpired was expected.

Manny told tall tales....

 Jason wouldn't admit that he was on the wrong flight....

 But some people surprised us...I got to photograph Vicki's arrival at the airport (sorry, Jan!)

 We laughed and chatted while the kids ran around crazy (all of the pictures of the Aycock/Gooding kids were too blurry to post!)

 There were some new families with us....

 Some seemed excited to see their loved ones off....

 Others stared in disbelief when they heard that the computer system doesn't recognize two "Richard Thomas'"

 But that isn't what gave Susan this look...careful of exploding Mission Mail, there must be some really wild stuff in there....

 Vicki looks on in disbelief and Jan can only laugh, thankfully, we escaped getting arrested by the TSA yet again...

 And finally, they are all checked in and ready to go.

 And, at least two of them, made it onto their connection in London.

I can't wait to hear the rest of the story, can you???

The first team heading out to Ghana.

This is the first team heading to Ghana.

"Eat Whatever Is Set Before You"

Sav's Grill in Lexington, Kentucky
Photo by author

"...eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience" 
(1 Cor 10:27).

A few years back my father in law, knowing my penchant for being a picky eater sat down at the dinner table, opened up to the verse above and began reading.  It was meant as a joke (I think), but he was also making a good point, even if he was taking that verse out of context.  In that part of 1 Corinthians, Paul is instructing the church not to stress out about knowing if certain foods have been sacrificed to idols prior to eating them.  He tells them they can buy whatever they want in the market (where meat sacrificed to idols was often sold) without having to ask first about whether it had been part of a sacrifice.  Like wise he says that if an unbeliever invites you to dinner you can eat whatever you want without question on the ground of conscience.  Ultimately he says this with the argument that "all things are lawful" therefore eating meat once sacrificed to idols is OK.  Paul goes on to say that if we are informed about the meat's sacrificial past we should not eat it, not because of our own conscience but because of the one who offered it to us...they might get the wrong idea about why we are eating it.

We don't really have this problem today.  There aren't many places here in the U.S. or in most of the destinations Americans travel to where one can find food sacrificed to idols.  And my father-in-law was really just giving me a hard time about my selective eating...I think he was trying to get me to eat a salad or something, I can't remember.  But ever since that day, whenever I'm confronted with an opportunity to try a new food I think back to Mary's dad and that verse.  At minimum it helps me to at least consider trying something that I might not otherwise have done previously.  (Though I still don't eat salad, or mayo, or soft white cheese, or sour cream, or a host of other disgusting things).

I had all of this in my mind last year before we went to Ghana.  I wondered about the food and whether I'd like it.  Manny, being Manny, was no help.  As he is apt to do, Manny sprinkled a bunch of tall tales about the food in Ghana with the truth, so that you were never sure what to believe or disbelieve.  The one item most of us were unsure about that trip was Fufu.  Fufu is a kind of giant dumpling like food made from plantains and cassava that is served in soup.  In Ghana they eat it with their hand, tearing pieces off, dipping it in the soup (which may have beef, chicken, goat, or fish in it) and then swallowing the piece of Fufu whole.  That's right, no chewing, just swallowing it whole.  The more Manny talked about Fufu the more curious I became.  As it turned out we didn't have to wait to get to Ghana to try out the food.  There's a West African style restaurant in downtown Lexington and we decided to try it out as an experiment for our American taste buds and stomachs.  I tried Fufu with goat...and it turned out I loved it (even with the pieces of bone that were in it). 

Once we arrived in Ghana I was on a mission to try the real thing.  During that trip I was privileged to be served Fufu twice, one time sharing a bowl of it served with fish with our driver Francis.  That experience has stuck with me, not so much because there was whole fish in the bowl, or because I had a problem with my gag reflex trying to swallow it without chewing (though that stuck with me too).  There is something about sharing a meal with someone that bridges divides between people, especially if it is a cross-cultural experience.  Sharing a meal levels the field a little too.  After all, everyone has to eat.  When you share a meal with someone you are brought into their sphere just a little bit; you are invited in to their space.  Through shared food and conversation a meal is one of the best opportunities to engage in the building of relationships between people.  And that was a large part of what we were trying to do last year - build relationships.

I fell in love with food in Ghana.  And not just Fufu.  Another favorite dish was Jollof Rice, a rice dish served with chicken and this hot sauce made from palm oil that is delicious.  You can also get pineapple Fanta there which is just about the best soft-drink in the world.  I've been looking forward to eating the food again ever since we left.

This past Sunday our team decided to try some food from West Afria so that the "newbies" on the trip could get a taste of what is in store for them.  Thankfully we have Sav's Grill & West African Cuisine (pictured above) here in Lexington.  It was a family event and we even invited Manny.  While the food isn't exactly like what we'll get in Ghana it's pretty close.  I think everyone who had not tried it before liked it.  At least nobody said they didn't...and the kids got massive amounts of ice cream! 

Now that I've had another taste of West African cuisine I'm hankering for some more.  In just a few more weeks I'll be able to sit down with friends old and new in front of a bowl of Fufu, or some Jollof Rice with ice cream or fresh mango and pineapple for dessert.  I can't wait!  In the meantime I'll take some time to remember that verse from 1 Corinthians, and maybe I'll try something new this year...

Jason

Going Back To Ghana!

Children of Bedaase

 

Well, the tickets have been bought.  Andover will be heading back to Ghana in a little over a month!  A few quick details to get the ball rolling on the blog updates...more to follow...

Back in October we posted an update with Details on the April 2013 Trip.  A few things have changed but we are generally following the plan and schedule laid out in that post.  This time around there will be two teams heading to Ghana.  The first team will be assisting the local church to construct a pavilion like structure to be used for worship in the village of Bedaasse.  The second team will be working to assist the local church in the area of discipleship.  We also plan to conduct another vision clinic in the village during our stay.  If there is need and time permits we may assist in other areas as well.

The first team (the build team) will be leaving on Sunday April 7 and will arrive in Ghana on the following day.  The second team (the discipleship team) will be leaving on Wednesday April 10 and will arrive in Ghana the following day.  There will be a built-in period of overlap where both teams will be in country at the same time in order to worship together in the new structure on Sunday April 17.  The build team will fly home on Tuesday April 19 while the discipleship team will remain until Friday April 22.

In the meantime the two combined teams have started meeting as a group once a week to prepare for the trip and get to know one another a little better.  We'd really appreciate your thoughts and prayers over the coming weeks.  Please pray for us as a team, for the trip as a whole, and for the people of Ghana we are going to serve and work alongside.  Your prayers are greatly needed and appreciated.

Be on the lookout for more posts in the coming days and weeks as we gear up for the journey.  As before we hope this blog serves as a way for everyone back at home to "go on the trip" with us.  We'll be sharing our thoughts and concerns, needs and wants, and will post as often as we can about what is going on while in Ghana.  Until then, we remain "Knit together by love."

Jason