Ghana

This weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Ghana for four days with ten other people from Mercy Ships. We had an incredible weekend, exploring most of the country in just 2 days! It was a very busy few days, full of tons of fun and adventure! Thankfully the Lord kept our whole group safe the entire weekend and the trip was much less eventful than my previous weekend excursion to Possotome. The group included my close friends Bonny Jean and Chelsea, both from the States, and Michelle from Canada, as well as Paul from the UK, Laurel from Australia, Tillman from Germany, Grace and Todd from the States, and Belinda and Mariechen from South Africa. At 4 o'clock on Friday morning, we all piled into a big van and drove nearly 12 hours through Benin, Togo, and finally into Ghana. It was a long drive, but the weekend was completely worth it! The country was absolutely beautiful and much cleaner than Benin. The first that we all noticed was the lack of pollution and abundance of fresh air! It felt amazing to be able to take a deep breath and not feel like your lungs were slowly turning black. Another wonderful difference between Ghana and Benin is that in Ghana everyone speaks English! I did not realize how much I missed being surrounded by my own native language.

We had a busy 4 days full of tons of stories, so I will try and outline the highlights as best I can...


No Pictures!!!

one of the first things we learned on the trip is that officials do not like to have their pictures taken, especially not at border patrols. we pulled into our first border station around 6 o'clock Friday morning where we all climbed out of the car to begin filling out the first of many sets of paperwork. Dear Chelsea decided that she would take a picture of the border station to begin the documentation of our trip. As soon as the camera flashed, guards swarmed towards her yelling at her in French. They demanded for her camera and told her the pictures needed to be destroyed. She tried to explain to them that pictures can be deleted from a digital camera, and showed them that she had deleted the picture she took. The guards were not convinced and took the camera from her, telling her she would need to go to a different station to settle the matter. At the other station, she again showed the guards how she had deleted the picture from her camera, but they still were not convinced. Finally after lots of arguing, Chelsea got her camera back, though as we pulled off the guards were all quite frustrated in having lost the battle.

Obama Obsession!

Throughout our trip we realized how obsessed the Ghanian people are with President Obama. There were Obama billboards, Obama cookies, and Obama t-shirts everywhere! We even saw one vendor selling Obama boxer shorts! Their was more support of the American president in Ghana than of even the Ghanian president. Every place we went, if someone found out a few of us were from the States, they immediately cheered "Obama! Obama!" The people of Ghana are convinced that having Obama as the President of America, their own country will benefit immensely. It was unbelievable to me how fervently the country supports Obama.

Waterfalls, a rock, and a three trunked tree...

On Friday, we travelled out to the eastern region o f Ghana to explore the mountainous regions. We visited two waterfalls, the Akaa waterfall and the Boti waterfall. Both were breathtakingly beautiful. After the waterfalls we began our intense hike to see the Umbrella rock. The Umbrella rock is an interesting rock formation in the shape of a mushroom, or umbrella. It took nearly an hour to hike to the rock, climbing through a cave and up and down walls of rocks. By the time we reached the end we were exhausted, but the view was amazing! For about 30 cents, we were able to climb a ladder up on top of the rock, where Bonny Jean, Chelsea, and I had fun taking lots of pictures. After the rock, we had another short hike in the hot African sun to see the three trunked palm tree. The tree was very unique, having split off into three trees but with the same base. We then began the long exhausting hike back past umbrella rock, back through the caves and rock walls, and all the way to our van. After our day of intense hiking, we drove to the Ghana Botanical Gardens where there was a giant festival. The gardens were packed with visitors, including some Ghanian royalty, all flocking around groups of African dancers. After walking through the gardens and enjoying their beauty, we sat in the garden area of the restaurant to eat a Ghanian dinner. By the time we sat to eat, it was pitch black outside, so we ate our dinner by candlelight -- which was probably all the better so that we could not see what we ate. I was told that some of the pieces of fish still had teeth and eyes, thankfully my piece contained nothing more than the spine.

Our God is a prayer-answering God!!

As we headed back to the hotel in Tema, we had to drive down a huge mountain. Due to the festival, there were several cars driving down the same mountain. The highway had two lanes going each direction, twisting and curving down the whole way. Suddenly, we saw to our left another big van speeding down the road, winding in and out of traffic, swerving from lane to lane. The van came extremely close to hitting us -- if it had we would have been thrown from the side of the mountain. Everyone in the van immediately thought it was due to a crazy driver, so we prayed together that no other cars would be in danger of getting hit by that van. Less than two minutes after our prayer, the traffic slowed way down. We saw on our left the van completely stopped, all of the people from the van on the road jumping, screaming, and rolling around on the ground. After a few moments, we realized that they were all praising God! It turns out their brakes had gone out at the top of the mountain and they had lost complete control over the car while careening down the mountain. Miraculously they did not hit a single car, which seemed completely inevitable. After our prayer, their van came to a complete stop! They had not reached the bottom of the mountain, they were still on an incline, but the car had stopped on its own! It sent shivers down my spine to see God so clearly answer our prayers in such a direct and immediate way.

Suspended over the forest!
On Sunday we rode four hours out to the Kakum National Park. At the park, their is a canopy walk suspended forty meters over the ground. While I am not too afraid of heights, I am extremely afraid of feeling unstable at great heights, so walking across 1 1/2 foot wide bridges high above the trees was definately a way to face my fears! The view was absolutely beautiful, and once I made it across I realized that the experience really was not all that frightening! It was just incredible to stand so high above the trees and see the beauty God has created from a totally different perspective.









The Fall into the Slave Dungeon
yes, it is true. I did fall into a slave dungeon. No worries, we were walking on a tour into the slave dungeon anyways, my clumsiness just helped me to reach the destination a little bit quicker. Everyone around me frantically hurried to help me back up and make sure I was alright, but since a couple of my friends new that I have had plenty of experience tripping and falling, they just stood there and laughed, knowing I would be alright.
After our trip to the Kakum forest on Sunday, we drove to the Cape Coast slave fortress. The fortress was a beautiful building with an incredible view over the ocean, but knowing the depraved reality of what it was built for dampened the mood of the place. Seeing the dungeons used to hold innocent African people before taking them to their new destination brought a new perspective to the horrific practice of slave trade. We also walked out the "Door of No Return" and down the path the slaves were taken, seeing the last view thousands of slaves saw of their homeland.
While it was very interesting to see the fortress where such an awful practice was contained, it was difficult to ignore the prejudiced remarks of our tour guide. At one point, he was telling us about how the church was built right on top of the slave dungeon. He then claimed that this was just further evidence that white people do not truly know God or how to worship him. He continued to say that even today white people do not know God because we only worship for one or two hours on Sunday mornings, while the African churches worship God for four or five hours. It hurt to know that this man was still blaming African slave trade on us and that he would so bluntly state that fact while we were standing in front of him.

Arrested by the Ghanian police!
well, threatened to be arrested at least. All over Ghana, the police are stationed at different points on the highways. If they want to pull you over they simply wave their hand and you are expected to stop. Because our taxi was from Benin, and the Benin plates were quite obvious, we were required to stop at every police checkpoint. After reviewing the drivers license and papers allowing him to drive in the country, the police would continue to look for something wrong with the car. At ever stop, the police were different. Some police were just looking for good conversation, so we would chat for a bit and they would let us go. At one stop, the police noticed all of the young white girls sitting in the back seat. Paul told the police he could marry Bonney Jean, she just needed to get back home to learn how to cook first. After promising he would pray for her every day until she returns, the officer let us go without a complaint. Another officer was happy to chat about football, convinced that Chelsea was really named after the Chelsea football club. But sometimes there are those officers who only want money. One such officer pulled us over, and discontent about the fact that he couldnt find anything wrong, asked our driver to get out and show him where the fire extinguisher was contained in the car. When he climbed out to open the trunk, the officer noticed that he was wearing flip flops. Apparently in Ghana it is illegal to drive a car on the highway while wearing flip flops. The officer asked us what kind of a bribe we would give him in order to forget the offense. Upon telling him that we would not give a bribe, the officer told us our only option was to go to court. He gave us a court date and told us we were under arrest. He kept making contradictory claims, trying to get us to pay him a bribe rather than sending us to court. After a long argument pointing out his contradictory explanations, the officer angrily handed back our papers and told us to leave. We were all grateful to be let go for free, but shocked at such obvious corruptness in the police system.

Finally, after 12 hours in the car on Monday, we arrived back at the ship. It was a long and tiresome trip, but well worth it.






me with a piece of fresh coconut straight out of the skin

bonny jean and i walking the canopy walk with no hands

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective..." James 5:16

As I've been writing my blog, I've been hoping to keep everyone at home updated on what I have been doing here. However, in focusing on what I am doing, I have forgotten to include the things you all can lift up in prayer. I thought I would just write a quick blog to mention the things I personally need prayer for and what the ship as a whole needs.

First of all, I am leaving with a group of ten others to go to Ghana for the weekend. We are leaving at 4 a.m. Friday morning and will return on Monday evening. We have our cab drivers and overnight arrangements all made, but I would appreciate if you all would pray that everything goes smoothly. We are especially praying that we do NOT have a repeat of last week's adventure to Possotome. We will be visiting some of the most well known landmarks in Ghana, including a big waterfall. While the sites we are visiting do not require as much hiking as what some of the past groups have done, it will still be physically demanding. In the past couple weeks my knees have started bothering me while I run, so I am also praying that I am able to physically complete all of the hiking we need to do without any knee trouble.

Second, Mercy Ship's is sending the advance team to Togo on Monday so that they can begin to do all the preparations needed before the entire ship comes to port. They will be making the necessary connections, scoping out the area, working with the government for their help, arranging water and trash services for the ship, etc. They make all of the logistic arrangements so that when the ship arrives in Togo we just have to sail into the port and everything is ready. We are praying that everything goes smoothly and that they are able to make all of the arrangements without any trouble.

Finally, we began praying this morning in our devotions for the Togolese elections. The elections take place at the same time we are scheduled to arrive in Togo. The elections create the potential for lots of unrest within the country. We have been told that in the past, only those from Togo are in any danger and that we, as outsiders, should be fine. However we would still like to pray that there is as little fighting and danger as possible! If there are riots in the streets than the ship will go into lockdown, not allowing any crew off of the ship. If the danger is too great, then the ship will not go to Togo, but this is not expected to be the case. Although it is still over three months before we go to Togo, we are praying that the transitions will all go as smoothly as possible.

Praise His name with dancing

In Psalm 149:3, David writes “Let us praise His name with dancing and make music to Him with tambourines.” This weekend I was given several opportunities to really see this put into practice. I have known that in the African community dancing is an important part of worship, but this weekend I saw how this stems from an incredible rhythm possessed by all of the men, women, and even young children. To witness them praising the Lord with these gifts brought chills to my spine several times this weekend.

On Saturday, I went with a group of people to the prison in Cotonou. Every Saturday a group of Mercy Shippers go to fellowship with the inmates and bring the joy of the Lord into the dark and depressing place. In Benin, the legal system is totally corrupted, causing great despair among the prisoners. The court claims someone guilty until they can prove themselves innocent in trial, but no one cares to put in the time or effort to arrange a fair trial for every person convicted; therefore, of the 2,000 prisoners in the Cotonou prison, less than 500 have had a trial. All it takes to be thrown in prison is one person’s complaint to the police. It could be years before the person is then given the opportunity to prove his or her innocence to the court and thus be set free. Because of this reason, many of the people in the prison are angry, bitter, and hopeless about their situation. When Mercy Ships comes into the prison, our group is divided up and sent with three different groups of people: one with the women and children, one with the teenage boys, and one with the men. I chose to go with the women, the most bitter group of them all. In previous weeks, the groups have led a worship service among the women, but there has been such a presence of animosity and spiritual oppression that the services could not continue because no one would participate. Instead, we each went off and talked and prayed individually with the women. My friend Chelsea and I sat and talked with a woman named Mme Marco for nearly an hour. Mme Marco spoke no English, and Chelsea spoke very little French; therefore, I had the most difficult time in the conversation, attempting to translate for both. She shared with us her story of how she came to be in prison after being unjustly accused. She said that she is supposed to be released on Friday and will go home to work in the boutique she owns with her daughters. She gave us the phone number and address of her shop, and Chelsea and I plan to visit her soon. Although it is quite possible her story of innocence is not true, Chelsea and I plan to visit her shop and continue get to know her.

After our long conversation with Mme Marco, Chelsea and I joined a couple other friends in a small room with a teenage girl, a couple young mothers and their children. Even through the language barrier, we were able to laugh and talk for a long while. They began to compare each of us to a celebrity based on our hair color. After informing my friend Bonny Jean that they thought she looked like Celine Dion, they asked her to sing. Thankfully, she and I knew a few African worship songs which we began to sing for them. They got so excited and began to sing and dance with us! It was incredible to see how even in the dark hopelessness of prison, these women found joy in worshipping the Lord with us!

On Sunday, I attended church at the Hospitality Center, where I sat with a little three year old boy who had had surgery on his right hand. Before the service began he had snuck a small instrument and brought it to his seat to play. The instrument was a gourd covered by a beaded netting, a popular instrument found all over the streets here. After returning to his seat, he showed me the instrument and began to play it in perfect rhythm! Because of his cast, he could not play it against his hand as it is normally used, so he instead beat it against his little arm. Once the whole congregation began to worship, he then stood up on the bench and began dancing! He danced perfectly to the beat of the music, closing his eyes and just feeling the rhythm with his whole body! Everyone around me stared in amazement at this little three-year-old dancing and praising.

Later Sunday evening, I attended the worship service held on board the ship. A group of African girls performed a few for us in the service, where I was yet again amazed at their ability to dance. The group contained about twenty girls ranging from about five years old to fifteen years old. They performed three dances for us as a thanks for the work Mercy Ships is doing in their country. While their steps were not complicated and their form was far from perfect, I remained completely awed by their incredible ability to feel the music. Every one of them, all the way down to the five year old girls, moved every inch of their body perfectly in time with every beat of the music – just like the boy in church and the women in the prison.

I am continually amazed at how dance and worship are integrated into every fiber of the people here. While I have witnessed their dancing and worshipping the entire time I have been here, it did not strike me until this weekend how incredible it is that God has blessed them with such an amazing gift, and that they then use the gift to praise Him with all of their hearts. By expressing their emotions through dance, their love for the Lord is so visible. How incredible would it be if we could all daily display such an open and joyful love for our Lord on a daily basis, whether at home, work, school, or sports? A love and joy not hidden by insecurity or fear of looking different, but a love that is expressed by praising God with the gifts and talents He has bestowed upon us all as His children?

This is my little friend at the hospitality service goofing off earlier in the week. This is the same boy that played the instrument and danced for us during the Sunday morning service! Sorry it is sideways, I'm not really sure how to fix that...