Made it back safe and sound saturday night! Sorry for the delayed update, but this is the first time I've been on the computer since I've been home. Finally starting to get settled down....
I just wanted to make sure anyone who hadn't heard yet knew I made it back ok. The trip was utterly amazing, but it's certainly good to be home. I'll definitely have some final musings and whatnot to put up either later to day or tomorrow now that I have a chance to catch my breath and to look back over the entire experience. More to come....
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Almost There...
Just a couplemore days til I'm home! This trip has really been amazing in so many ways, and I hope this has helped share a bit of it with you. I definitely want to write some more reflective-type things to be able to share some thoughts and some of the ways in which this trip has stretched me and helped me grow; but time at the internet cafe is always limited, so I'll just have to keep sticking to the basics for now.... But there will definitely be some more to come when I get home and have the luxury of being able to sit down and have the time to write a bit more in-depth stuff lol....
So, let's see, where did I leave off? Everything's starting to blend together lol.... Okay, i'll go with tuesday: tuesday was kind of a day off, so Andrew and I went out for a bit and had a great morning and an... interesting... afternoon. Rather hectic, i guess. Perhaps more on this day later....
Wednessday we met as a team to just have a bit of devotional time since we're nearing the end of the trip here. Andrew and I led the devotional, focusing on looking back (at our time in Ghana and what we've done and had done for us here) and looking forward (to what this trip is going to mean in the context of our lives back home). It went extremely well (easy to lead with such an all-star cast of participants, too). There was a ton of good stuff and I'll be sure to share some more about it in the future as well.
Wednessday night we made dinner for our host family... eventually. We decided to do pancakes and bacon and jell-o for desert. Rich and Gina loved it (they were especially entertained by the jell-o lol). And preparing the food was quite an adventute in itself -- we didn't have quite the same tools as we would have at home, but we eventually made it work. I'd say about every 3 out of 4 pancakes was good enough to serve (we threw the rest away, just to be clear lol). 75% is passing, I guess. We'll take any victory we can get lol.
So, let's see, where did I leave off? Everything's starting to blend together lol.... Okay, i'll go with tuesday: tuesday was kind of a day off, so Andrew and I went out for a bit and had a great morning and an... interesting... afternoon. Rather hectic, i guess. Perhaps more on this day later....
Wednessday we met as a team to just have a bit of devotional time since we're nearing the end of the trip here. Andrew and I led the devotional, focusing on looking back (at our time in Ghana and what we've done and had done for us here) and looking forward (to what this trip is going to mean in the context of our lives back home). It went extremely well (easy to lead with such an all-star cast of participants, too). There was a ton of good stuff and I'll be sure to share some more about it in the future as well.
Wednessday night we made dinner for our host family... eventually. We decided to do pancakes and bacon and jell-o for desert. Rich and Gina loved it (they were especially entertained by the jell-o lol). And preparing the food was quite an adventute in itself -- we didn't have quite the same tools as we would have at home, but we eventually made it work. I'd say about every 3 out of 4 pancakes was good enough to serve (we threw the rest away, just to be clear lol). 75% is passing, I guess. We'll take any victory we can get lol.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Road Trip(s)
Hey! It's crazy that things are going to start to be wrapping up.... I can't beleive I only have a few more days. I'll be home on saturday night....
I just wanted to write something real quick about what we've been up to the past couple of days. On Saturday we went to a Navs conference in Tacoradi, another major city which is to the west, past Cape Coast. Now, as to exactly how far away it is, I'll have to do some "conversions." To just get from Accra to Tacoradi, if it were in the U.S., it would take maybe about an hour and a half. But as it it with the roads and the driving in Ghana, it took us about 4 hours to get there and 6 hours to get back. And we were in the city for like 3 hours (by the way, the conferenece was on "living and discipling among the lost," an element of the Navs' mission statement). So yeah, long day lol.
Then on Sunday we went to Church with Rich again and had a least a little bit of free time in the evenening.
And on Monday [yesterday], we went to go see a dam/manmade lake (the only one in Africa) that's about 2 hours away to the northeast. It was the birthday of one of the other host dads, so he had the day off and was able to take us up there (the city is called Akusumbo). The scenery was really, really pretty. Definitely a contrast to the cities we've seen for pretty much the entirety of our trip. There were mountains and trees and lake and fields. It was really cool. I'm glad we got to see that side of the country as well. (It's kind of closer to the images that come to mind when you think "Africa" -- at least for me lol.) And by the way, I'll definitely be getting pictures of all this stuff up once I get home....
[And this morning we got to gloriously sleep in a bit for like the first time in a week and half or so -- it was much-needed and much-appreciated lol.]
I just wanted to write something real quick about what we've been up to the past couple of days. On Saturday we went to a Navs conference in Tacoradi, another major city which is to the west, past Cape Coast. Now, as to exactly how far away it is, I'll have to do some "conversions." To just get from Accra to Tacoradi, if it were in the U.S., it would take maybe about an hour and a half. But as it it with the roads and the driving in Ghana, it took us about 4 hours to get there and 6 hours to get back. And we were in the city for like 3 hours (by the way, the conferenece was on "living and discipling among the lost," an element of the Navs' mission statement). So yeah, long day lol.
Then on Sunday we went to Church with Rich again and had a least a little bit of free time in the evenening.
And on Monday [yesterday], we went to go see a dam/manmade lake (the only one in Africa) that's about 2 hours away to the northeast. It was the birthday of one of the other host dads, so he had the day off and was able to take us up there (the city is called Akusumbo). The scenery was really, really pretty. Definitely a contrast to the cities we've seen for pretty much the entirety of our trip. There were mountains and trees and lake and fields. It was really cool. I'm glad we got to see that side of the country as well. (It's kind of closer to the images that come to mind when you think "Africa" -- at least for me lol.) And by the way, I'll definitely be getting pictures of all this stuff up once I get home....
[And this morning we got to gloriously sleep in a bit for like the first time in a week and half or so -- it was much-needed and much-appreciated lol.]
Friday, August 7, 2009
Would You Mind Taking a Quick Survey?
The past few days have ended up going extremely well. There was some initial doubt about what exactly we'd get to do after the first half of our team left, but we were trusting God to come through for us and give us some opportunities and He certainly has. We met on Monday to just get together as a team and spend some time praying as well, and to try and see what we'd concretely be doing for the next few days. We ended up deciding that we were definitely going to try and do something with the Freshmen at the university, since they would be registering/starting to move in this week.
So both the remaining Americans and some of the Ghana Navs met at the university (U of Ghana, at Legon) on Tuesday to discuss how exactly we wanted to go about this. Some of the other guys from the U.S. offerred an approach that they usually use to help get new people involved at the beginning of each year: they simply make up quick Navs-related surveys and basically just going around asking people if this would mind filling out the survey. It's really short, starting with real basic stuff like what are you studying, where do you live, etc., and broad questions like "Do you believe in God?; the Bible?; Have you heard of Jesus?; Who is he?" Stuff like that more or less. And a few questions asking if they'd be interested in joining a Christian group (like Navs), joining a Bible study, or meeting one-on-one with someone. Basically just if they'd like to talk about this kind of stuff more. And if they do want to hear more or start coming to some Navs stuff then there's a space at the bottom for them to put down their name and contact info, and then people can follow up with them.
So we decided to try something of that sort and made up our own quick survey. Of course, the way the we went about things was a bit different than it would have been in America too. For example, a question asking a Ghanaian if they believe in God is beyond superfluous; that's just a given. And people in Ghana are, in general, much more hospitable than in the U.S. Pretty much anyone you try to start a conversation with will take the time to talk to you (where from what the other guys were saying, in the U.S. people just keep right on walking by you 95% of the time). So the plan was basically just to strike up a conversation, help them with anything they may need (they are Freshmen after all lol), ask them to fill out the survey real quick, and just tell them a bit about Navigators along the way.
We went to the university both on Wednessday and Friday (today) to do this, and it went extremely well. We split up into groups of like two or three people and went to the various halls where the Freshmen were registering and whatnot. Almost everyone was very receptive to us
and a good number were definitely genuiniely interested in getting involved with Navs. Between the two days we got back something like 160 surveys. Pretty ridiculous. Especially considering that Navs at the university is currently around like 50 people. And I would roughly estimate that about half the people would legitimately like to get involved with Navs (which is really a phenomenal percentage for that kind of thing). The whole survey thing was new to me as well (at UC Navs does stuff like helping freshmen move in and giving out water at the beginning of the year), and I think each group went about things a little differently lol, but it worked out really really well overall.
It's actually a really exciting thing to see Navs at the University of Ghana poised for that much growth. I'd say they're looking at at least a 100% increase in the mere size of their group alone. It's really cool to see what God is doing at the University of Ghana, and even more awesome to have gotten to play part in it. I'll be anxious to see where things go for them, and any prayers sent in their direction would definitely be great as well.
(And by the way, we got to beach it up on Thursday again -- at LA beach lol. We went with some of the Ghana Navs this time, so it was a great chance just to get to hang out with them some more and have some fun. And we got to ride the tro-tro there too, the Ghanaian mode of public transportation; it's one of those like big 15 passenger van-type things -- except with like 20 in them, of course. Oh, Ghana. lol.)
So both the remaining Americans and some of the Ghana Navs met at the university (U of Ghana, at Legon) on Tuesday to discuss how exactly we wanted to go about this. Some of the other guys from the U.S. offerred an approach that they usually use to help get new people involved at the beginning of each year: they simply make up quick Navs-related surveys and basically just going around asking people if this would mind filling out the survey. It's really short, starting with real basic stuff like what are you studying, where do you live, etc., and broad questions like "Do you believe in God?; the Bible?; Have you heard of Jesus?; Who is he?" Stuff like that more or less. And a few questions asking if they'd be interested in joining a Christian group (like Navs), joining a Bible study, or meeting one-on-one with someone. Basically just if they'd like to talk about this kind of stuff more. And if they do want to hear more or start coming to some Navs stuff then there's a space at the bottom for them to put down their name and contact info, and then people can follow up with them.
So we decided to try something of that sort and made up our own quick survey. Of course, the way the we went about things was a bit different than it would have been in America too. For example, a question asking a Ghanaian if they believe in God is beyond superfluous; that's just a given. And people in Ghana are, in general, much more hospitable than in the U.S. Pretty much anyone you try to start a conversation with will take the time to talk to you (where from what the other guys were saying, in the U.S. people just keep right on walking by you 95% of the time). So the plan was basically just to strike up a conversation, help them with anything they may need (they are Freshmen after all lol), ask them to fill out the survey real quick, and just tell them a bit about Navigators along the way.
We went to the university both on Wednessday and Friday (today) to do this, and it went extremely well. We split up into groups of like two or three people and went to the various halls where the Freshmen were registering and whatnot. Almost everyone was very receptive to us
and a good number were definitely genuiniely interested in getting involved with Navs. Between the two days we got back something like 160 surveys. Pretty ridiculous. Especially considering that Navs at the university is currently around like 50 people. And I would roughly estimate that about half the people would legitimately like to get involved with Navs (which is really a phenomenal percentage for that kind of thing). The whole survey thing was new to me as well (at UC Navs does stuff like helping freshmen move in and giving out water at the beginning of the year), and I think each group went about things a little differently lol, but it worked out really really well overall.
It's actually a really exciting thing to see Navs at the University of Ghana poised for that much growth. I'd say they're looking at at least a 100% increase in the mere size of their group alone. It's really cool to see what God is doing at the University of Ghana, and even more awesome to have gotten to play part in it. I'll be anxious to see where things go for them, and any prayers sent in their direction would definitely be great as well.
(And by the way, we got to beach it up on Thursday again -- at LA beach lol. We went with some of the Ghana Navs this time, so it was a great chance just to get to hang out with them some more and have some fun. And we got to ride the tro-tro there too, the Ghanaian mode of public transportation; it's one of those like big 15 passenger van-type things -- except with like 20 in them, of course. Oh, Ghana. lol.)
Monday, August 3, 2009
A Slip of the Tongue
In the rushed confusion that was the end (~last paragraph-ish) of my last post, I realized (/Fr. Mike pointed out -- thanks lol) that I phrased something in a way that I quite shouldn't have. When I was talking about the vast generosity that Rich and Gina specifically had shown us, I said that I only hoped we could "repay them in some small way." While I didn't even mean financially, I realized looking back that even in any context this "hope" is rather ridiculous. We can't repay them. Ever. Not really. And coming from the American mindset that we do, this is kind of hard to accept. We have a you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours philosophy, and the Ghanaians just don't even entertain this mind set. Auntie Linda is an American missionary who has been working in Ghana almost 30 years now, and she told us all something in our first days here that we have all found to be more than accurate: "You can't out-serve a Ghanaian." And you really can't. Give up. Don't even try. Instead, just be grateful, thank God, and love them back.
That's really all they're doing with us. They just live their lives with an attitude of love, and never think twice about doing whatever they can for us. What an amazing picture of the Gospel in action, of a living and breathing Christian community. As I've said, we've experienced this love and generosity to an even greater extent with Rich and Gina, who've taken us into their own home. Just getting to spend time with them has been quite a gift, and all we want to do is to be able to show them the same love that they've shown us, all to the greater glory of God. Easier said than done -- perhaps. It really doesn't even need to be that complicated. Just "wasting time together," as it is put in The Little Prince, is sufficient. Like I said, we're never going to be able to match what they've done for us anyway. We just have to be OK with showing them love in the ways we can, and just thanking God for them.
It's quite a lesson in generosity and love. They have given to us in ways we can't possibly repay, and thought nothing of it. We (or I at least) may claim to give without a second thought at times, but often we just lodge it in the back of our mind, even if unconsciously, a sort of "kindness-coupon" for us to cash in on later. My time in Ghana has definitely opened my eyes even already to this amazing attitude towards love and service. Just do it. No need to question, to think twice, or to calculate the ways in which this might come back to us. Just do it. They truly live this aspects of their lives out as Christ has called us to, and seemingly without even thinking about it. Truly inspiring.
Without cost you have received;
without cost you are to give. --Matthew 10: 8b
Also, I'd like to take a moment to again extend my most sincere thanks to everyone who has supported me both spiritually and financially for this trip. Your help and support has been invaluable, and I'm so glad you could share this experience with me. I pray for God's blessings for you as well. And also, in light of all the thankfulness I've shared about Rich and Gina, who have helped to take care of me and Andrew over the past 19+ days, I'd like to extended a disproportionately small yet heartfelt thank you to my parents, who've been taking care of me (as well as a different Andrew) for 19+ years. Thanks for everything Mom and Dad. I love you.
[P.S. Props to anyone who recognized the heading of this entry as the title of a C.S. Lewis essay. lol]
That's really all they're doing with us. They just live their lives with an attitude of love, and never think twice about doing whatever they can for us. What an amazing picture of the Gospel in action, of a living and breathing Christian community. As I've said, we've experienced this love and generosity to an even greater extent with Rich and Gina, who've taken us into their own home. Just getting to spend time with them has been quite a gift, and all we want to do is to be able to show them the same love that they've shown us, all to the greater glory of God. Easier said than done -- perhaps. It really doesn't even need to be that complicated. Just "wasting time together," as it is put in The Little Prince, is sufficient. Like I said, we're never going to be able to match what they've done for us anyway. We just have to be OK with showing them love in the ways we can, and just thanking God for them.
It's quite a lesson in generosity and love. They have given to us in ways we can't possibly repay, and thought nothing of it. We (or I at least) may claim to give without a second thought at times, but often we just lodge it in the back of our mind, even if unconsciously, a sort of "kindness-coupon" for us to cash in on later. My time in Ghana has definitely opened my eyes even already to this amazing attitude towards love and service. Just do it. No need to question, to think twice, or to calculate the ways in which this might come back to us. Just do it. They truly live this aspects of their lives out as Christ has called us to, and seemingly without even thinking about it. Truly inspiring.
Without cost you have received;
without cost you are to give. --Matthew 10: 8b
Also, I'd like to take a moment to again extend my most sincere thanks to everyone who has supported me both spiritually and financially for this trip. Your help and support has been invaluable, and I'm so glad you could share this experience with me. I pray for God's blessings for you as well. And also, in light of all the thankfulness I've shared about Rich and Gina, who have helped to take care of me and Andrew over the past 19+ days, I'd like to extended a disproportionately small yet heartfelt thank you to my parents, who've been taking care of me (as well as a different Andrew) for 19+ years. Thanks for everything Mom and Dad. I love you.
[P.S. Props to anyone who recognized the heading of this entry as the title of a C.S. Lewis essay. lol]
Sunday, August 2, 2009
A Day at the Beach
In a stark contrast to the past few weeks, the last few days have actually been quite laid-back.
Friday we literally did almost nothing the entire day -- we thanked God for actually giving us a chance to be bored for a moment for the first time in our entire trip lol. Andrew and I got to sleep in a good amount for the first time since we've been here, and spent the day mostly just hanging out, talking, and reading.
Saturday was jam-packed, juxtaposed nicely with the lull of Friday. Rich and Gina took Andrew and me (and their baby daughter Rinna) to a beach which was about a two hour drive from Osu, the part of Accra we're staying in. The beach (called Bojo beach, I believe -- not that it really matters I suppose lol) was really cool; it's actually an island. The shore-side is maybe just 1000 feet from the mainland, but it was extremely cool nonetheless. You get to take a boat over to the island/beach, which is a fairly decent size and has areas to swim (the waves were huge!), play volleyball, or just hang out, and has an area that serves food as well. [And by the way, even though there's a "beach" like five minutes from our house, it's sadly really more of a garbage dump; thus the journey to get to a nicer section of the shore.
And today (Sunday) we got a chance to go to church with Rich (Gina's had to stay at home with the baby lately). It was a really neat experience. The church has a main service, and also a youth service which is made up of kids mostly our age (in university of close to it). And Rich himself actually leads the youth service, which he explained he just recently started. It was cool of get to "see him in action" lol. He's a really smart guy and the amount of dedication he has to not only living his faith but sharing it with others is quite inspiring. I'd say there were a little less than 40 people at the youth service, which lasted for about three hours and consisted of praying, singing, bible study, Rich speaking, and just some general fellowship. Everyone was extremely welcoming to me and Andrew (as usual lol), talking to us after the service and checking to see if we'd be back next weekend.
And then later in the afternoon we attended one of the neighborhood Bible studies that Rich leads (he's a busy man lol). This one was actually a children's study. I guess for the past few weeks they've been going over evangelism and how to talk to people about the Gospel. So today was spent mostly just doing a few "trial runs," with the someone taking a role of an unbeliever and another kid coming up to talk to them and get to run through the course of the conversation. It's really an impressive thing to see these kids (maybe around 10-14, mostly) going through this process and telling the grand story, reciting the verses, and keeping their cool - for the most part lol. But the important thing is that they're learning -- and moreover just doing it at all. [The Nkum mission at the beginning of this trip was really the first time I had even done that type of thing myself. That was definitely an experience in itself, and something I'll talk about at greater length a little later....]
More than anything in the past few days, I just want to stress how blessed I feel to have had Rich and Gina take us into their homes and into their lives. Their generosity and attitude service have not once ceased to amaze me. I remember distinctly the first night Andrew and I arrived, when they sat us down at one point and told us how they were willing to sacrifice for us while we were here. It's an amazing thing to hear and what's even more amazing -- though at this point not at all surprising -- is that they really live it. Just all the little things they do for us. Andrew and I more than anything don't want to be a burden (an attitude that many would most likely share), but they don't even think about it that way. It's their honor and thier joy to serve, and we've just had to learn to let them. I just hope we can pay it back in at least some small ways. The time we've spent with them has been great. The beach is a fine example too. They set aside the day to spend with us, paying for everything along the way and thinking nothing of it. We took time after first arriving on the beach to read the Word together for a little while. Getting to read the Bible with them like this and to pray together as we have on countless other occassions has really been great; it's really amazing to see how their faith pervades their life and for us to get to be a part of it. They've been great. Simply and truly.
Friday we literally did almost nothing the entire day -- we thanked God for actually giving us a chance to be bored for a moment for the first time in our entire trip lol. Andrew and I got to sleep in a good amount for the first time since we've been here, and spent the day mostly just hanging out, talking, and reading.
Saturday was jam-packed, juxtaposed nicely with the lull of Friday. Rich and Gina took Andrew and me (and their baby daughter Rinna) to a beach which was about a two hour drive from Osu, the part of Accra we're staying in. The beach (called Bojo beach, I believe -- not that it really matters I suppose lol) was really cool; it's actually an island. The shore-side is maybe just 1000 feet from the mainland, but it was extremely cool nonetheless. You get to take a boat over to the island/beach, which is a fairly decent size and has areas to swim (the waves were huge!), play volleyball, or just hang out, and has an area that serves food as well. [And by the way, even though there's a "beach" like five minutes from our house, it's sadly really more of a garbage dump; thus the journey to get to a nicer section of the shore.
And today (Sunday) we got a chance to go to church with Rich (Gina's had to stay at home with the baby lately). It was a really neat experience. The church has a main service, and also a youth service which is made up of kids mostly our age (in university of close to it). And Rich himself actually leads the youth service, which he explained he just recently started. It was cool of get to "see him in action" lol. He's a really smart guy and the amount of dedication he has to not only living his faith but sharing it with others is quite inspiring. I'd say there were a little less than 40 people at the youth service, which lasted for about three hours and consisted of praying, singing, bible study, Rich speaking, and just some general fellowship. Everyone was extremely welcoming to me and Andrew (as usual lol), talking to us after the service and checking to see if we'd be back next weekend.
And then later in the afternoon we attended one of the neighborhood Bible studies that Rich leads (he's a busy man lol). This one was actually a children's study. I guess for the past few weeks they've been going over evangelism and how to talk to people about the Gospel. So today was spent mostly just doing a few "trial runs," with the someone taking a role of an unbeliever and another kid coming up to talk to them and get to run through the course of the conversation. It's really an impressive thing to see these kids (maybe around 10-14, mostly) going through this process and telling the grand story, reciting the verses, and keeping their cool - for the most part lol. But the important thing is that they're learning -- and moreover just doing it at all. [The Nkum mission at the beginning of this trip was really the first time I had even done that type of thing myself. That was definitely an experience in itself, and something I'll talk about at greater length a little later....]
More than anything in the past few days, I just want to stress how blessed I feel to have had Rich and Gina take us into their homes and into their lives. Their generosity and attitude service have not once ceased to amaze me. I remember distinctly the first night Andrew and I arrived, when they sat us down at one point and told us how they were willing to sacrifice for us while we were here. It's an amazing thing to hear and what's even more amazing -- though at this point not at all surprising -- is that they really live it. Just all the little things they do for us. Andrew and I more than anything don't want to be a burden (an attitude that many would most likely share), but they don't even think about it that way. It's their honor and thier joy to serve, and we've just had to learn to let them. I just hope we can pay it back in at least some small ways. The time we've spent with them has been great. The beach is a fine example too. They set aside the day to spend with us, paying for everything along the way and thinking nothing of it. We took time after first arriving on the beach to read the Word together for a little while. Getting to read the Bible with them like this and to pray together as we have on countless other occassions has really been great; it's really amazing to see how their faith pervades their life and for us to get to be a part of it. They've been great. Simply and truly.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)