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.