Nkum!

Wow. Wow. Wow.

So we just got back yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) from a mission in and around a village called Nkum, located a bit outside the city of Swedru. The whole experience was truly remarkable and definitely outside of anything I've seen or taken part in before. Again, all 12 of us from the US were there, along with another 15 or so Ghana Navs. This was the mission trip of the mission trip, to give some context.

We arrived in Nkum after dark (the sun sets around 5:45 this time of year) on Thursday, after a long [cramped, hot], but still enjoyable, bus ride there. We were all staying at the house [ "house" ] of this one family. The part we stayed in was one big room, which was kind of where we hung out anytime we were inside (which wasn't all that often lol); there were a few small rooms attached, each with a few beds. The girls all slept in one room and a few guys in the other, but most of us just slept on the floor in the main room, moving a few pieces of furniture to the sides to lay down some sleeping pads. The first day we basically just settled in and then went to bed.

The second day, similarly to the remainder, started nice and early -- around 6:30 or so (which I of course loved -- factor in the time difference and that's when I'm usually going to bed lol). We were quite the spectacle in village. All the children flocked toward where we were staying, and I (and some others) spent the majority of the morning playing with them -- tons of fun.

Then around noon we set out to do what was to be the heart of our work, going around to talk to different outlying villages about the Gospel. It was really incredible. You talk about the hypothetical village in the African jungle where the inhabitants have never heard of Jesus, but it's just an idea -- I never thought I'd get to see such a thing myself. We split up into two groups, around a dozen each, a mix of Ghanaians and Americans, and headed out into the bush with our respective guides and translators. Most of the villages we went to had less than ten people with the exception of a few; between the two groups we visited around almost 30 villages. Most of these people knew very little about Jesus, if anything (I'd say the average response was that they recognized the name, and then that was about it...). We would simply tell them we wanted to talk with them about Jesus and then briefly and simply explain the Gospel along with any other relevant scripture or comments that came to anyone's mind. Virtually everyone was very receptive to what we had to say, and many came to accept Christ. Really amazing to be a part of. I also talked with children in some of the villages (which was usually just a small handfull at a time). And some of these people had been visited the past year and accepted Christ, so we just offered words of encouragement and prayed with them as with the others.

Saturday went much the same as Friday. One really cool experience I had was in one village -- which was really just one family -- where they had just heard the gospel for the first time and subsequently accepted Christ into lives. We had actually already just left the village, and I was probably about 100 yards into the path (behind most of the team) when one guy on our team who had been saying goodbye and whatnot came running up behind me to catch up. He told me how he had been talking to the woman and her son and how they wished they could have a Bible to be able to read (but we hadn't brought any along because we didn't have a ton with us and most of the people we're visiting aren't literate -- at least in English). But I had an extra New Testament in my bag, so I was able to run back and give it to the woman. It was a great feeling. You hear people say it's often better to give than to receive, but when it's a gift like that, the feeling's even more intense -- talk about the gift that keeps on giving. Plus this New Testament happended to be the one that Navs had given out at the beginning of the year, and it was really cool to think that it had made it from welcome week in Cincinnati to a tiny village in the Ghanaian forrest that had never seen a Bible before.

Sunday we also went to a (very interesting) (and long) church service, and talked to people in town later that night. And Monday we spent kind of just hanging out and then held a crusade at some other larger village that night (think "revival" type thing -- but on dirt soccer field instead of under a tent lol). Then we packed up and headed back to Accra on Tuesday.

There's a lot more to say, but I've got to go. One other thing that really hit me was then real poverty of Nkum -- suffice it to say our house with our host family in Accra now seems like a luxury suite. We also got to know a lot of the Ghana Navs really well, which was great.

We head to the Youth camp tomorrow, which should be great (kind of a retreat/conference for high school/college students). I probably won't be able to write again til after that (it ends Monday morning).

Everything's still extremely well. And I thanks everyone again for their prayers for us and continue to request them as well. Thanks a ton. Till next time.

In Christ,
Matt