Hello everyone!
  
  We've wrapped up our classes last night, I had almost 25 students Tues and Wed, everyone was eager to learn more and asked wonderful questions.  I closed class with the Passion movie and I believe it helped a lot of the students visualize better how much God REALLY loves us and was willing to suffer for us and die on the cross. Pastor Bud wrapped up his Evangelist class feeling confident that the leaders will do a great job leading the church here in Ghana and reaching out to those who need to know about God's love.
  
  This morning Pastor Bud and I had a bit of an adventure as we went with Samson to pick out our goat for the party we had tonight.  Samson and Pastor Bud negotiated with some of the Ghanaians on a good price for the goat, I believe the final price settled was $420,000 cedis (approx $45 USD).  Then we led the cute little (well he wasn't so little) goat to the slaughter house.  I stood and watched them tie the goat up and slice his throat and then throw him into the fire and remove the skin and chop him up in a million pieces and pack him up in a bag for us to take home.  It was quite the experience as it wasn't just about watching all the goats; they also had thousands upon thousands upon thousands and possibly more bulls.  They let them pretty much run free when transporting them from one enclosure to the next.  There were a couple bulls that were, umm, let's say, not in a great mood and I thought people were going to get hurt.  Pasto! r Bud and I were each other's eyes as
we made sure that neither of us were in the path of one of those "crabby" bulls.  On top of being on alert for crazy bulls we also had to dodge vultures as they were everywhere.  Oh yeah, we also got "yelled" at for taking pictures.  So the camera was packed away for the duration of the time that we were there, which totally sucked because just after I put the camera away, there was a man walking with a bull's head and the tongue hanging out.  Would have been a great picture to show everyone.  :o)  It was definitely a true Ghanaian experience, Pastor Bud says, "I will never do that again, that was definitely a one time thing".   I'm glad I can say I experienced it, not sure if I would do it again, but it was definitely interesting and I learned a lot, especially after I was talking to one of Pastor Bud's students, Akorful, about what I saw, some of the guys at the slaughterhouse  were blowing up the ! skins of the cow and intestines and then doing something else to the skins
that I'm not sure how to explain, and Akorful told me and Pastor Bud that it's something that Muslims do, as it's an important ritual for them and the items are of high importance, and of course the area we were in was highly populated with Muslims.  
  
  After we returned from our adventure with the chopped up goat, the students started making Fufu.  It's a long process and requires a lot of teamwork.  I was just exhausted watching them and I didn't have to do anything.  In order to make fufu, they have to pound Cassava and Plantain and knead it together, they use a fufu pounder (which is in another words...a stick about the size of log) to pound them.  The whole procedure took about 2 hours and then they had to cook the goat and make the "stew" that goes with the fufu.  Yeah, if you've read my earlier updates, fufu and I don't get along real well, so I basically took a couple bites to show that I tried it (again and found that I still didn't like it) and then shared my portion of the fufu to the students who wanted more.  :o)
  
  The students gave Pastor Bud and I a gift as a "Thank You" for coming to teach them.  I got a beautiful African style dress and Pastor Bud got an African shirt.  And then we ended the party with a quick reminder that God loves us all and despite all our hardships, it's better to hold on to Him and trust Him.  He will guide us through everything.
  
  Tomorrow, we will begin packing up all of our stuff and get ready to head to Accra on Saturday.  We will also continue saying our good-byes to all the wonderful people that we've had the opportunity to spend time with the last two weeks. 
  
  Thank you all for your prayers and support!
  
  Until the next update...
  
  God's Blessings to you all!
  
  Sara Ann McKinney and Pastor Bud Palmer