Month five is halfway over! What a crazy thing! I’m currently sitting on my bed in Sunyani, Ghana, West Africa. It’s hot, but we’ve got a great ceiling fan that makes the room feel quite nice. Joey, my new teammate, is sitting on her bed across from me reading Love Does. In the room next to me, Brittanee and Mary Jane and Alyssa are waking up, and Katy is in the living room. This is my new team’s morning off, and we are all enjoying a little bit of rest.
My new team has named ourselves Crowned, because we are all daughters of the King. Katy is our team leader, and is from Highlands Ranch, Colorado! Joey from Oregon, Alyssa from Missouri, MJ from Tennessee, and Brittanee is from Washington. The six of us are all still getting to know each other and I’m quite enjoying it.
We are staying in the home of the lead pastor of Elim City Church here in Sunyani. The rest of our squad are all living together in a guest house twenty minutes away. It’s our second All Squad Month on the race, and we’re enjoying each other’s company!
Our ministry here is Street Evangelism. We leave at 7:30 in the morning and get back around 9 at night. The whole squad is bussed downtown and we break into our teams and walk the streets, greeting everyone we meet and making conversation with them. Our goal is to get to build relationships with the people that live here, and we are doing just that!
Yesterday Katy Joey and I met a man named Michael, who is a father of 3 and a husband. He sat with us on his front porch for about an hour, and we shared our stories. He was so excited to hear about us, our lives, but he was more excited to hear why we’d come. Michael knows Jesus, and has a relationship with him. It’s always exciting for us to run into a true believer. I say true because here in Ghana, many religions get mixed up together in a melting pot, and values and beliefs get stirred together. The other day, a man introduced me to his friend Shake, a muslim, and explained that he himself was Christian. Then he said “But, here in Ghana, Muslims and Christians are alike, we share the same destiny.” It broke my heart to understand that this man did not really know the truth about who Jesus was, that he wasn’t just a great teacher, but God in human form. We got to share with him and Shake the gospel, and got to explain that we believed that our God was the only God, the creator of all, and that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were a part of the trinity. It was exciting, but hard to walk away, knowing we hadn’t completely convinced them. Michael, however, knows Jesus, and loves him well. It was only ten years ago that a missionary sat down with Michael and told him the truth, much like what I got to do with Shake. After our conversation with Michael yesterday, we were reminded that even when we don’t see change, seeds are being planted, truth is being proclaimed, and they can’t forget what we’ve told them. Below is a photo of us with Shake.
We’re also getting everyone’s phone numbers that we meet, and leaving them with a pamphlet of Elim City Church’s services and ways to get involved. The Pastoral team at Elim City follows up each interaction we have with a personal phone call, and everyone gets invited to come check out the church service.
Elim City Church. What a joy it was for me to worship with a few hundred Africans, in ENGLISH! Here in Ghana, English is a primary language, along with Trie, and a few others. One of the church services at E.C. is completely in English, and it was amazing. My whole squad enjoyed the opportunity to sit in a service that was in our own language, to worship with people in our own language, and to be poured into in English. This church gets it right, is Kingdom minded, and I’m honored to be working with them this month.
Q Squad is doing well, but has some need for prayer. Currently, there is about 20 of the 57 of us sick with some sort of virus or infection. Ten went to the hospital last night, but the medical care here is… well, for lack of a better word, terrible. They all came back discouraged, with no answers and no improvements. Lots of people are making frequent bathroom visits, many have sore throats and headaches, but really, they just want rest. We’re working on explaining to our ministry hosts that they just need sleep and hydration, but above all, please just be praying that the squad can be healthy again and not get discouraged. We know that we are making the devil shake in his boots, and that he’d like nothing more for us to all be sick and unable to meet people and talk about Jesus. Here is a photo we took at the beginning of the month!
Ghana has stolen my heart. I’m reminded of the joy I found back in Senegal when I was given the opportunity to sit down and tell people personally about Jesus. I’m reminded of why I came on the race, of the power that Jesus has to transform lives. I’m honored to be able to do this, to be free to tell of His goodness. There is no place I’d rather be than here. God has made it quite clear that this is where He wants me, and I know its Ghana be great!
Kinkee is a mashed corn that is pounded, boiled and served with Fish! Here it is after being mashed, prior to being boiled!
This is a selfie I took with some of my new friends, who beat me in a game of Tire Roll. I’m still sore.
These girls are twin sisters who taught me a jump rope game with out a jump rope! They’re fast runners, and sweet friends.
