Wednesday, July 29, 2009
A Taste of the Town
About half our group is heading out on Friday, so we took yesterday and part of today to actually do a few tourist-y things....
The main event of yesterday was a canopy walk. We took a bus (a very small, very crowded) bus to Cape Coast, which is to the west and takes about 3 - 4 hours to get to. We arrived at Kakum national park for the canopy walk, which proved to be quite exhilirating. The entire tour is about an hour long, about half of which is spent doing the actual canoopy walk (you kind of have to walk through/up a trail first to get there. So, for the canopy walk, envision a bunch of wooden planks strung together from one tree to another, suspended from a rope bridge type contraption which hangs from two steel cables about a hundred feet in the air. yep. It was really awesome. There were about seven of these bridges, which went from one tree to another (with a tree-house-like platform at each) and wrapped around back to the started. Rather freaky, really fun.
We were going to try to take a tour of the old slave castle on Cape Coast as well, but it ended up being too late. We did get to stop there for a few minutes though and just look at the outside. And we were about a hundred feet from the ocean too, so we had some really cool views. (Some of us also may have gotten a bit soaked by one particularly large wave that crashed up against the cliffs... about that....). Then we took the four hour bus ride home, got back nice and late, and went to bed. [By the way the road to Cape Coast was the most annoying thing ever -- like every 1000 feet there are two sections of these things half way between speed bumps and rumble strips, but with all the worst features of each lol. just part of the experience lol.]
Then today we went to Accra mall (which is pretty much just a normal mall) for a few hours. Andrew and I are staying right in the city, so everything we've seen so far has been more of the market place vibe, whereas this was an actual indoor mall. It's about 20 minutes away, so we took a taxi to get there. (Me and Andrew have become quite the city-slickers, experts at bargaining with cab drivers lol. We got there today for 4 cedis, or a little less than 3 dollars.) I got a soccer jersey and a shirt that's of the local style (kind of loud-patterned button-up shirts). That'll probably be the extent of the souvinirs I get for myself lol. We also got some well-earned pizza at the mall lol -- we've been sampling the local fair they whole time we've been here, and experienced our share of interesting meals lol (a combination of yams, rice, or plantains with a peice of meat/fish along with this kind of mix of vegetables and this orange oil is usually the normal building blocks for a meal, give or take. then there's fufu. no comment. and i'm pretty sure I was eating intestines last night... probably better not to know lol.)
So tomorrow our team leader is meeting with the country leader from Ghana to discuss the trip and future plans for this same type of trip. We've done a ton of good so far (more than we realize I think), but of course things can always get better. Then the first half of the group ships out firday morning. That'll be really strange....
But we're really hopeful for some great things to come in the next two weeks for the remainder of the team. We'll be praying that we God lets us really do some wonderful things in this second half of the trip, and we've got a few cool prospects. I'll let you know what we decide for sure (we'll probably get going at the beginning of next week)....
The main event of yesterday was a canopy walk. We took a bus (a very small, very crowded) bus to Cape Coast, which is to the west and takes about 3 - 4 hours to get to. We arrived at Kakum national park for the canopy walk, which proved to be quite exhilirating. The entire tour is about an hour long, about half of which is spent doing the actual canoopy walk (you kind of have to walk through/up a trail first to get there. So, for the canopy walk, envision a bunch of wooden planks strung together from one tree to another, suspended from a rope bridge type contraption which hangs from two steel cables about a hundred feet in the air. yep. It was really awesome. There were about seven of these bridges, which went from one tree to another (with a tree-house-like platform at each) and wrapped around back to the started. Rather freaky, really fun.
We were going to try to take a tour of the old slave castle on Cape Coast as well, but it ended up being too late. We did get to stop there for a few minutes though and just look at the outside. And we were about a hundred feet from the ocean too, so we had some really cool views. (Some of us also may have gotten a bit soaked by one particularly large wave that crashed up against the cliffs... about that....). Then we took the four hour bus ride home, got back nice and late, and went to bed. [By the way the road to Cape Coast was the most annoying thing ever -- like every 1000 feet there are two sections of these things half way between speed bumps and rumble strips, but with all the worst features of each lol. just part of the experience lol.]
Then today we went to Accra mall (which is pretty much just a normal mall) for a few hours. Andrew and I are staying right in the city, so everything we've seen so far has been more of the market place vibe, whereas this was an actual indoor mall. It's about 20 minutes away, so we took a taxi to get there. (Me and Andrew have become quite the city-slickers, experts at bargaining with cab drivers lol. We got there today for 4 cedis, or a little less than 3 dollars.) I got a soccer jersey and a shirt that's of the local style (kind of loud-patterned button-up shirts). That'll probably be the extent of the souvinirs I get for myself lol. We also got some well-earned pizza at the mall lol -- we've been sampling the local fair they whole time we've been here, and experienced our share of interesting meals lol (a combination of yams, rice, or plantains with a peice of meat/fish along with this kind of mix of vegetables and this orange oil is usually the normal building blocks for a meal, give or take. then there's fufu. no comment. and i'm pretty sure I was eating intestines last night... probably better not to know lol.)
So tomorrow our team leader is meeting with the country leader from Ghana to discuss the trip and future plans for this same type of trip. We've done a ton of good so far (more than we realize I think), but of course things can always get better. Then the first half of the group ships out firday morning. That'll be really strange....
But we're really hopeful for some great things to come in the next two weeks for the remainder of the team. We'll be praying that we God lets us really do some wonderful things in this second half of the trip, and we've got a few cool prospects. I'll let you know what we decide for sure (we'll probably get going at the beginning of next week)....
Monday, July 27, 2009
Another Quick Story from Nkum...
In what I believe was the last village my group went out to visit while in Nkum, we saw some really encouraging things.
This village was one of the much bigger ones we had visited, relatively speaking, but less than 100 people or so; and they seemed relatively better off as well. Most of the people in this village we already believers in Christ (as were some of the other people we had encountered, who had been visited in years past). So we just decided to offer them some words of encouragement, or advice, or scripture or whatever came to mind. There were probably about 20 or so people listening intently and it was a great chance to build them up in their faith journey, since they don't often get the chance to hear things of this sort. So we probably spent about a half hour or so with different members of our team (both American and Ghanaian) sharing with them.
I (as well as some others in our group) noticed in particular this one older gentleman who was sitting towards the back of the group that was listening to us. He was frantically, intently, and eagerly taking notes of everything that each speaker was saying, making sure he got the reference for every verse or passage someone mentioned. It was a really neat sight to see.
And it stirred to mind Acts 17: 11, where it speaks of the Bereans being more noble than the Thesselonians because they not only recieved the message eagerly, but checked the Scriptures everyday to see if what Paul was saying was true. And that's exactly what this gentleman was doing on behalf of his village. Here were people who were not just eagerly receptive to whatever came out of our mouths, but they were genuinely interested in looking into it further, in double checking it, in talking about it more, and in taking it to heart. Their eager faith and desire for spiritual growth rooted in the Bible was truly impressive.
[P.S. I'm going to try also to not repeat any of the stories that Andrew is sharing so that you can get a bigger picture of things. He and I are staying with the same family, so we've spent like at least 90% of the trip together. So check out hios blog too for some of our other adventures and sights lol.]
This village was one of the much bigger ones we had visited, relatively speaking, but less than 100 people or so; and they seemed relatively better off as well. Most of the people in this village we already believers in Christ (as were some of the other people we had encountered, who had been visited in years past). So we just decided to offer them some words of encouragement, or advice, or scripture or whatever came to mind. There were probably about 20 or so people listening intently and it was a great chance to build them up in their faith journey, since they don't often get the chance to hear things of this sort. So we probably spent about a half hour or so with different members of our team (both American and Ghanaian) sharing with them.
I (as well as some others in our group) noticed in particular this one older gentleman who was sitting towards the back of the group that was listening to us. He was frantically, intently, and eagerly taking notes of everything that each speaker was saying, making sure he got the reference for every verse or passage someone mentioned. It was a really neat sight to see.
And it stirred to mind Acts 17: 11, where it speaks of the Bereans being more noble than the Thesselonians because they not only recieved the message eagerly, but checked the Scriptures everyday to see if what Paul was saying was true. And that's exactly what this gentleman was doing on behalf of his village. Here were people who were not just eagerly receptive to whatever came out of our mouths, but they were genuinely interested in looking into it further, in double checking it, in talking about it more, and in taking it to heart. Their eager faith and desire for spiritual growth rooted in the Bible was truly impressive.
[P.S. I'm going to try also to not repeat any of the stories that Andrew is sharing so that you can get a bigger picture of things. He and I are staying with the same family, so we've spent like at least 90% of the trip together. So check out hios blog too for some of our other adventures and sights lol.]
Youth Camp Yo
So, we just got back from the youth camp earlier this afternoon (Monday). I'm writing now from some random internet cafe in Accra lol. [Which we got to by way of taxi -- Andrew and I have become quite proficient in our bargaining with the drivers lol.]
The Youth Camp was a really good experience overall. It was made up mostly of people our age -- either in university, just before, or just after. It was interesting to get to see the way they run things: on one side the way they have things set up is very similar to the way they are at the Nav conferences in the US; but at the same time much of the substance/presentation, etc. was very much different. There were some speakers, some Bible studies, some workshops, devotions, singing, games, entertainment, and food. It's funny that the last sentence still perfectly the way things would be at home too, but there's a lot different -- kind of. It's hard to explain some of the subtle distinctions over the computer, but I'll try to at least give a small idea....
Their praise and worship is extremely genuine and really neat to get to see and be a part of. Most of the time when they pray in groups, instead of kind of speaking up one at a time as we usually do in such situations in the US, they just all pray out loud at the same time. It's really cool to hear the room kind of just swell up with the sound of a group of people softly praying out loud all at once. One other slight difference is that they seem to spend a lot more time working straight out of the Bible even in talks and presentations and such. Whereas I'm used to speakers interspersing stories, comments, ruminations, etc., they for the most part just jump from scripture to scripture. It can be good, but personally it was a bit exhausting the first day, with me being used to more of a variety of style. Friday morning I was literally reading the Bible for like 6 or 7 hours stright. The Ghanains like to go straight to the Truth....
Again, it's kind of hard to explain the diffences not in person, but it really was a great experience overall and the stuff they're doing at the camp really was awesome.
One thing that was a bit different from our very few expectations was just how thriving the Ghana Navs ministry is. I (and most others on the team) had gotten the impression that Navs here could really use our help and we would kind of have some leadership role in the camp. But we ended up being participants just like everyone else present for the most part. It's kind of cool to just be able to jump in with another strong community of believers and just be able to live alongside them. While some of our methods of practices may be subtly different, we're all working to know Christ and make him known; it really does feel like one big Christian family (-- again, the fact that the Ghanaians are so incredibly welcoming and friendly plays a big part in this).
Some of the same people whom we went to Nkum with for the missions trip were at the camp (as both officials and participants), so it was also really great to know them going into it and to get to spend some more time with them. We also got to share with the other pepole at the camp (about 80) what went on in Nkum for a brief while on Sunday night. I shared some thoughts and two quick stories, the one about giving the woman and her son a New Testament, and one about this one older gentleman in one of the bigger villages [see next entry....].
The Youth Camp was a really good experience overall. It was made up mostly of people our age -- either in university, just before, or just after. It was interesting to get to see the way they run things: on one side the way they have things set up is very similar to the way they are at the Nav conferences in the US; but at the same time much of the substance/presentation, etc. was very much different. There were some speakers, some Bible studies, some workshops, devotions, singing, games, entertainment, and food. It's funny that the last sentence still perfectly the way things would be at home too, but there's a lot different -- kind of. It's hard to explain some of the subtle distinctions over the computer, but I'll try to at least give a small idea....
Their praise and worship is extremely genuine and really neat to get to see and be a part of. Most of the time when they pray in groups, instead of kind of speaking up one at a time as we usually do in such situations in the US, they just all pray out loud at the same time. It's really cool to hear the room kind of just swell up with the sound of a group of people softly praying out loud all at once. One other slight difference is that they seem to spend a lot more time working straight out of the Bible even in talks and presentations and such. Whereas I'm used to speakers interspersing stories, comments, ruminations, etc., they for the most part just jump from scripture to scripture. It can be good, but personally it was a bit exhausting the first day, with me being used to more of a variety of style. Friday morning I was literally reading the Bible for like 6 or 7 hours stright. The Ghanains like to go straight to the Truth....
Again, it's kind of hard to explain the diffences not in person, but it really was a great experience overall and the stuff they're doing at the camp really was awesome.
One thing that was a bit different from our very few expectations was just how thriving the Ghana Navs ministry is. I (and most others on the team) had gotten the impression that Navs here could really use our help and we would kind of have some leadership role in the camp. But we ended up being participants just like everyone else present for the most part. It's kind of cool to just be able to jump in with another strong community of believers and just be able to live alongside them. While some of our methods of practices may be subtly different, we're all working to know Christ and make him known; it really does feel like one big Christian family (-- again, the fact that the Ghanaians are so incredibly welcoming and friendly plays a big part in this).
Some of the same people whom we went to Nkum with for the missions trip were at the camp (as both officials and participants), so it was also really great to know them going into it and to get to spend some more time with them. We also got to share with the other pepole at the camp (about 80) what went on in Nkum for a brief while on Sunday night. I shared some thoughts and two quick stories, the one about giving the woman and her son a New Testament, and one about this one older gentleman in one of the bigger villages [see next entry....].
Tomorrow we're going to take a day trip with our team and some Ghana Navs friends to Cape Coast to see the old slave castle and to walk some canopy bridge [?] or something of that sort lol. After that, the about half of our team will be leaving on Friday -- which is really had to beleive. I guess the trip is somewhere right around halfway through as of today. So the big parts of the missions work is over now (the Nkum mission and the Youth Camp) and we'll have to see exactly what the rest of us end up doing in the last two weeks.... We're thinking of maybe trying to help out at an orphanage in or around Accra... we'll see....
God bless from Ghana!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
It's Ghana Be Great!
Check out Andrew's blog too: ghanabegreat.blogspot.com
Hopefully between the two of us you can get a better idea of what's going on lol.
Hopefully between the two of us you can get a better idea of what's going on lol.
In the past week I have...
- bathed using just a big bucket and a small bucket
- equaled or exceded my drug intake for the entire year to date
- been (kind of) lost in the city at night
- been (kind of) lost in the jungle at night
- seen a goat dragged on its face
- slept under a table
- used my pants as a pillow
- been a player in a football match that drew almost the entirety of the village to spectate
- been to the beach(/garbage dump)
- washed my own laundry -- by hand
- seen 2 white people who weren't with us
- seen the truth behind the wisdom Auntie Linda (an American missionary who's been with Navs in Ghana for a while) offered us: "You can't out-serve a Ghanaian"
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