Fundraising update: I am currently at $14,295. In order to stay on the field I will need $15,100 by July 31st and fully funded at $16,617 by August 31st. You all have been incredibly generous and I know God will show up in this. If you or anybody you know would be interested in partnering with me, feel free to share my blog and ask any questions! You can donate on my home page at johnhopkins.theworldrace.org and email at [email protected]. Thank you all so much for reading! I’m playing catch up because wifi was tough in Africa so bear with me while I get caught up on what my team and I have been doing!
For month 2 of Africa we are living in Sunyani, Ghana which is a town of about 150,000 people. Our entire squad of 54 is doing ministry together like we did in Ecuador. We are staying at a local hotel (called guesthouses here) that has A/C so we are blessed in that regard. The food is mainly bread, rice, chicken, salad, beans, and fruit. Their ice cream is really good here also, it comes in a bag that you bite it open and squeeze out.
Our ministry partner this month is a local church called Elim City that was started in 2013. Our main ministry has been to go out into the neighborhoods, get to know the people there and invite them to services at the church and share Jesus with them. The thing that still blows my mind is the continued openness of all the people we have talked to. Muslims, Buddhists, idol worshipers, Mormons, etc. and not one person has turned us away or said they don’t want to hear what we have to say. They may not agree with us, but they will ask questions and have a discussion as opposed to just turning away or saying we are wrong. I can’t imagine the same would be true in America.
For example, we would walk up to a family sitting in their yard, or knock on a random door and the people drop everything they are doing and invite us in. I’m sure being white definitely helps our cause but it is still something that makes you feel so welcomed. They then gather whatever they have and make you sit down, offer you water or what little food they have in their house then we just talk. We get to know their family, ask them if we can pray for whatever is going on in their lives and just encourage them in whatever ways we can. Our main goal is to share the gospel with them of course, but establishing good conversation goes a long way. Here is a picture of us talking and getting to know a family when they invited us to sit with them as they were cooking their dinner over the fire.
One thing I have really enjoyed this month is going to the local schools to talk with the kids. You can imagine the excitement that goes on when 3 vans full of white people show up to your school. We are surrounded almost instantly. From there, we break off into our teams and go around to different classrooms, teach them songs, play games, tell them about Jesus, and mainly just love on them and pray for them. Seeing them so happy makes my day every time!
One day I got the chance to teach some kids baseball. All we had was an empty water bottle and a plastic cap but we made it work, and this kid could hit!
Another day we were out doing neighborhood evangelism and found ourselves being waived into a bar at about 10 in the morning. We were hesitant at first because Christians don’t drink in Africa and we didn’t want to give them the wrong idea about us. We went in and sat down and ordered Coke and told them what we were doing. They immediately gathered the whole bar together and crowded around us and told us they were ready to hear God’s word. This was definitely not the reaction we were expecting. Well, for the next couple hours or so we just talked with them about Jesus and shared stories from the Bible. After a while, a few of the more drunk men got distracted and drifted away but there were a few that were really listening and to me, that’s all worth it. Here is a picture of Coop sharing the word.
Here are some more pictures of our whole squad visiting another school.
The church we are working with this month, Elim City, hosted a kids event one Saturday at the church that we got to help out with. We had bounce houses, face painting, dance competition, Bible stories, and games. There was around 200 or so kids that showed up so it was a successful day. Here I am getting mobbed by the kids.
Here is an example of the generous culture that is just the norm here in Africa. I met this guy, Godfred after church one day and was just making small talk, telling him about our mission here, etc. I told him I liked the shirt he was wearing, it’s called African Wei. He said, “Next week, I’ll bring you one!” I told him that wasn’t necessary and I was just commenting on his shirt but he insisted and told me he was bringing one next week, Sure enough, he delivered and got me a shirt. Not my normal style but not too bad! And the best part is, the next week he brought me matching pants. He told me he just wanted me to have something from Africa to go back and show my friends. He didn’t want anything in return but only to bless me which is just one case out of many our squad encountered this month.
To close, here are a few more pictures of me and my team doing neighborhood evangelism and playing with the kids!
Our squad was supposed to be travelling to Burkina Faso after about 4 weeks here in Ghana, but due to safety concerns in the country we will be staying here in Ghana until we fly out to Europe on July 4th. I will write another blog to update you on what we will be doing with the rest of our of time here, as well as share a couple specific stories that really touched my heart this month so stay tuned! As you are reading this I am most likely already in Europe. Due to wifi being so sparse in Africa my blogs are a bit behind but I will catch you up as soon as I can. Thank you so much for reading and for all the support you have shown me. It is amazing to see just how God works and when He shows up just when He needs to. We have been incredibly blessed so far in our journey and have so much more time to spread love to those who need it most. Thanks again and I will write soon!
