I didn’t know it was Ghana be this hard to leave.
And no, I’m not going to apologize for my shameless pun (or rather, puns-I’ve been doing this all month) because it’s just too good to pass up. Every. Time.
Let me give you an idea of what this month has been like:
Monday-Friday, we’d have breakfast between 8 and 9 AM, and then we go to the church for a short session of worship and a short message prepared by a fellow Racer. We pray for the day.
Between noon and 1Pm, we’d usually be back at the hostel we’re staying at, and we’d eat lunch and loaf around (or at least, there was some loafing going on in Esther and I’s room…) until about 2:30-3 PM.
Then we’re back out again until about 5 or 6. We’ll have dinner and team time, sometimes an evening workout.
If it was Tuesday or Friday, we would eat dinner at the church and stick around for Bible study or the prayer meeting, meaning we’d get home around 8.
Saturdays have started early, with either prayer, or church fitness group. I think a couple Saturday mornings ended up getting cancelled, so we just had ministry in the afternoon and evening with the youth service.
And then on Sunday’s, we were all at the church for the first service at 7, breakfast during the Twi language service, and then serving as teachers, ushers, worship leaders, etc during the second English service, (which somehow goes on so much longer?) and we’d head back around 1 or 2 PM.
We’ve gotten 2 half-days off each week: Wednesday afternoons and Sunday afternoons. A couple times, ministry was randomly cancelled because of a rainstorm.
We had one full day off, and we spent the whole day adventuring! We went to the exact center of Ghana, a Catholic monastery, and some incredible waterfalls (we were going to go to a village of monkeys, but the monkeys were gone when we got there…but we found some Germans). My little nature-loving heart almost exploded.
If this month sounds exhausting to you: it was. I crashed every night around 9:30 or 10PM, an average of about 3 hours earlier than usual. Also, in an unusual turn of events, I started getting up at 6:30 every day for quiet time and then, usually, a workout. (6:30 AM, guys; I knew the Race would change me)
I leave Ghana exhausted but so full.
Ministry looked like many things: visiting campuses, walking around different areas of the city, teaching the middle/high school-aged Sunday school class with Jon and JJ, going to a primary school, going to a boarding school, more walking around the city…
This month, I magically, suddenly was put in charge of like, 30 3rd graders for a morning with Katie J. and Emily. We played “heads up, seven up”, and sang songs in Twi and English. They were in the 2nd week of school with no teacher, so we had no lesson plans, varied English abilities, and thirty pairs of big brown eyes alight with expectation. It was one of my favorite days. The next two times we went to the school, a few of my third-grade friends found me and taught me dancing games.
This month, I sometimes felt more like a salesman than a Jesus-follower, and that was a struggle I had with the street evangelism/ church-building ministry we had. But then I would have these sweet moments where I was reminded that I’m not selling Jesus to anybody, but just loving them-sitting, listening, praying.
This month, I was following; I’m learning to follow Jesus’ lead and not expect him to follow mine.
This month, wherever we went, and I really mean everywhere, little voices shouted to us, “Obronii!”, the Twi word for “White person.” I’m an Obronii, too, funnily enough. And I can probably sing you about 5 different rhythms they would call to us as we passed. Kids would drag each other over, pushing to see who would touch the funny-looking Obroniis. I will miss hearing the sweet chirps from windows, houses, and sidewalks: “Oooobrooooniiiii!!” Should the kids learn a thing or two about racial identifiers? Eh, probably, but I don’t care; every time I turned to find the child calling to me, I was met with giddy smiles and waves. It was like a game, and I played it almost every day for a month and never got tired.
And as busy as I’ve been this month, my ministry hosts had to have been every more so. Pastor Eben, Pastor Charlse, and Pastor Prince all have their own ministries (Charlse pastors a branch of Elim City in a different part of Sunyani and Prince is the youth pastor) and in addition to their work, they drove us around and accompanied us during ministry, always ready to translate. They are such sweet, encouraging men of God who sacrificed so much of their time to spend with us. Their knowledge of and dedication to the Word was inspiring, and it was so cool to see these men absolutely transformed by the Spirit when they taught.
A favorite moment of mine: on the way back from the waterfalls, Eben pulled our big van over on a lonely, middle-of-nowhere African road and let us pile out into the pitch-black night to look at the stars. I am so grateful for that moment, the night sky was so beautiful! And then we hit a crazy rainstorm and had a very wild ride back on the hills, which Eben handled like a pro.
Another favorite moment: Eben let Esther and I PUMP Taylor Swift on the stereo in the van one day. You could consider it a formal introduction to T-Swift, really. He turned the volume down during “Picture to Burn,” and was like, “Wait, you like this because she’s insulting him??” (This poor man probably wondered why all 16 girls knew every word and were singing, “I hate that stupid old pick-up truck you never let me drive!” At the top of our lungs).
Many youth from the church went around with us, too.
One young man went with us Every. Single. Day. Emmanuel is 15 and starts his first year of senior high school soon, and chose to spend his last weeks before school with 18 silly Obroniis. Every day, he went out tirelessly with us. And I swear, his resting face is a smile: a big, contagious smile. You can’t see him and not smile, I promise. It’s like the opposite of an RBF.
Anyways, I don’t know any 15-year-olds like him. I wish I did; and I would love for the teenagers I know to meet him and learn from his servant heart and joy. I’m writing this on the bus from Sunyani to Accra, and he’s actually a few seats behind me; we didn’t think we’d get to see him after yesterday, but he came this morning with our breakfast. After he’d helped us load up our bags, he called his mom on a whim and asked if he could ride the 8 hours on a bus with us today, go with us to the airport, and then bus back tomorrow. And she said he could! So we get to spend some more time with our new little brother, and we are all pretty stoked. The smile on his face, the simple joy he has from being with his new friends a little longer, makes my heart ache.
I think we could all learn a lot about service and love from Emmanuel. (Also: he made a Facebook group for the 18 of us, plus him, and it’s called “Best Friends Forever”–I ALMOST LOST IT. “Precious” is the only word that describes this boy.
In addition to our ministry hosts, we had all three meals cooked for us! Pastor Eben, Hamdia, and Mama Matilda brought us food and smiles every day. Guys, I only lessened my bread intake like, a week ago (my attempt to exercise portion control before I get to Asia…because we all know my that’s not going to happen with Asian food).
Maybe this is getting too sappy-but what I’m getting at is, Sunyani is not easy to leave. There have been tears from us and from our friends, and I think there will be more tomorrow as we say our final goodbyes to Eben, Prince, and Emmanuel.
The month has been full and tiring, but God has made it so, so good. It’s hard to describe the level of respect and love I have for our hosts. And try as I might, I don’t think I could describe the beauty of the sunsets and lightning storms I got to see every day.
It’s only Month 2. I’m leaving this beautiful city, this beautiful country. God has brought me from Alaska, to Africa, and now, soon, to Asia. I didn’t know it would be so hard to leave, but it gives me such hope for the next 9 months. I’m as excited to meet and love more of the body of Christ as I am sad to leave the friends I’ve made in Sunyani.
Thanks for reading! We’ll be traveling the next couple of days to NEPAL! I’M SO EXCITED! This is our all-squad month, meaning all the K-Squad teams will be reunited and feeling so good for a whole month! We’re kicking off with a squad debrief, so some of those cool people that loved on us at Training Camp will be with us for 5 days! (Insert heart eyes emoji).
See you from Asia!!
