Good Sunday everyone! It is so weird to think that I have just finished dinner and my church in Wyoming is still in morning services. I do not know if I will ever get use to that kind of thinking.

Well I went to my first Ghanaian church service today. I went to Accra Chapel which is a non-denominational church. I went with Dennis and Joy Madison and their son Samuel, who I am in love with and he loves me too. Too bad he’s only 18 months old. The building is really large with a lower floor and a balcony. The lower floor is completely open on the sides due to the fact that there is no air conditioning. I was not hot at all, however, it is still winter. When the service started there were only about 20 people there. But by the end of the first song service (yes there is more than one) it was half full then by the time the sermon started it was packed! This church has a true blended service. They have a choir and a song leader that start off with about 3 hymns and then out of no where this band appears with drums, guitars, keyboards and a praise team and they started jamming out! They have a power point screen that they use for the words and when I looked up at the screen I could not read it because it was in Twi. All the hymns are in English but the choruses are in Twi. It was so amazing to watch them and listen to them worship. They did it with such a full heart and an open sanctuary. I thought while I was listening to them that if our churches were open like that in the middle of a huge city down the street from a mosque would we sing that loud? Would we pay any attention to it? What difference would it make in our service? I don’t know if it would make any and I would hope that it would not but it was just a thought.

The pastor preached from Psalm 1 about the righteous man and the wicked man. It was a good sermon and straight to the point. Even with that we started at 9:00 and were out at 12:30. It was long but nice. I liked the Pastor he was a really sweet older man.

They pay a lot of attention here to the new year. I could tell from my second day here that it was a big deal but today at church it was really emphasized. Some churches have a watch party for the new year but in the states it isn’t a huge deal. Not as big as say a church super bowl party. Here they had a watch party from 7:00 p.m.- 2:30 a.m. and it was packed the entire night they said! And everything done today was in celebration of the first Sunday of the new year. Every prayer that was said, every song that we sang and everyone tells everyone happy new year on still this the seventh of January. I don’t know maybe that isn’t very unusual to most, but to me it was.

After church we went out to eat at a hotel in Accra. It is a French chain of hotels, go figure, the French in west Africa. It was good. I had a seafood stuffed pancake and it was delicious. The prices still freak me out when I look at things. Like today the restaurant had a buffet that was priced at C120,000. I mean its basically like $12-12.50 still it makes me take a second look.

Yesterday was so amazing. Cathy, a missionary here at Rafiki, use to teach at the girls’ center here on site but they moved her down to the elementary school to be headmaster. She is not too happy about the moved but she knows it is done for the best of the village and is learning to be okay with it. We are going to be teaching pre-school together and so we were talking over our lesson plans. She had given me some fabric to look through and her friend Boki was going to make me a couple of dresses. To get the measurements it was just easier for me to go to her house and let Boki get them there. So we got in her car and were about to leave the village when she said, “I have to go talk to one of the girls from the center, do you mind going with me?” Of course I did not and so off we went. The girl’s name is Josephine and lives way back in the bush. We drove down the road that goes behind Rafiki and ended up getting lost in the bush. It was pretty hysterical. The thing was that Cathy thought that she knew where she was going but in the bush every coconut tree looks the same so landmarks are not very dependable. We came across this village way back and stopped to ask if anyone knew where this girl lived. As we walked up to the people they did not know what to do with us white folks. There were two men a woman and two small boys sitting under a grass port. The woman was preparing dinner for the village in a huge bowl over a open fire, stirring it with a piece of flat plastic. Their faces made me giggle, not out loud of course. I did my proper Ghanaian greeting and we asked about the girl. They knew her and told us what “road” to take to get to her village. We got back in the car a drove for a little longer until we came across two girls that had apparently been selling water on the main road because they were still carrying some product with them. They also knew who she was and told us we were on the right road. After asking several other people along the way we found a boy who said he would run in front of us until we got there and so he did. When we got to her village it was incredible. I had seen it in pictures, but never thought I would see it with my own eyes. The beauty that surrounds them every way one looks. They live in short mud brick houses with grass roofs on them. Most of them make a living selling fruit on the main road that they get off the trees near their village. The village is bigger than I thought it would be. It took them about 7-8 minutes to walk to her house and back. As they walked the people shuffled fiercely to get us proper chairs to set in under a tree where they were. They welcomed us like we were family. Her Uncle Ben, who spoke very good English, came back and told us she was not there so Cathy was just going to leave her a note. While Cathy went to the car to write the note I stayed and played with the children that they had. As I was sitting there I was looking around and there was no electricity, no running water and it was peaceful. All of a sudden I heard a cell phone ring and Uncle Ben pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. I thought I was going to lose it! There I was admiring the simplicities of their lives and they have cell phones. He started laughing and looked at me saying something in Twi. After he got off the phone he looked at me and said “Were you lost a minute ago?” “Yes.” I said. “The village back around there said that there were two white women looking for Josephine and I figure it has to be you because not many white women around here, much less looking for the same girl.” He told the others what we were talking about and we all shared a long laugh. Uncle Ben told us thank you for teaching his niece that we were nice people to do this. It was amazing to actually be in these people’s life even if for 15 minutes. But they actually wanted us to be a part of their life, not just on the outside. It was really special and I will never forget those people and their joy that was present in them.

God is already doing something very special here with me. I can feel it and I do not know what the outcome will be, but I know it will be something big and I am excited to see what it will be.

Fine Evening!

Sarah

Prayer request:
-For the children here at Rafiki, they are getting anxious to start school and we still have another week.
-For the mothers because they are getting anxious for the kids to start school and we still have another week.
-For the peace of this country, that it will remain.
-That the rains come soon, the bush is starting to burn because it is so dry.
-For me that I will continue to grow and be careful to watch for what God wants me to see.