From Pat:
Greetings from Ghana!
Days in are going fast! Saturday we drove 6 hours to Kumasi. Some parts of the road, I wondered if it was road or if we were in the ditch! At the rest stop, I was shocked as the restroom, was in operation as a paid toilet. It cost us 1,000 cedis to use the “water closet” (as they call the bathroom). It means it was only 10 cents. But a paid toilet—someone thought up a good business enterprise that will never close.
We went to Deaf Church in Kumasi on Sunday. Remember deaf time! Supposed to start at 9 am. We started at ten with 5 people and by the time we finished at noon, we had a whole room full. Surprisingly mostly young deaf under 30. Deaf Church was held in a stone open window/open door school classroom with no paint, nothing on the wall and with a 1930 blackboard and a piece of foam for erasing! It was raining all morning. With the rain coming in through the window and the drips from the ceiling above my head; it was truly memorable. With such poor conditions, God was still there! We were worshipping and hearing God's word with our eyes! They people were joyful and thankful for being able to worship together as a deaf
community. The evangelists took turns with parts of the service that included many Ghana culture traditions. Many were eager to start their studies on Monday. Sunday afternoon we studied and prepared lessons and classrooms. Still working late into the night setting up everything and praying for God's blessing to bring people on Monday for classes.
On Monday, 9 am (starting time) and no one there. Doubts arise in my mind. What does God have in mind. Oh, Pat—you of little faith! Just wait and see God work. We started at ten. One class had 3 men and the other class had 2 men. By noon time, we had 12 people. By supper time, I lost count—It was overflowing in both classrooms. Joe had taught a huge group of hearing children from Ghana about God creating the world and loving them. They were so
excited! They clapped and shouts and smiles everywhere. Imagine 40-50 children under the age of 8 all siting on the floor hearing about Jesus—some for the very first time. Joe taught in English (some children learn English in school) and had an interpreter, Elsie, translate in the TWI language. It was fantastic!
It is now 10 pm. and we still need to clean up and prepare for teaching all over again! It is quite challenging to teach and learn Ghana signs at the same time. Some signs are the same; some are close to American sign language and some are totally different—so my mind has to really think about a lot of things—especially how to teach God's Word clearly and in a way that they full understand and apply in their teaching of friends and family. It (my mind) is on high overload. But it feels good!
Our classes this week are for adults who want to become church leaders and teachers. We are teaching really deep concepts. Pastor Reinke is teaching about sermon study, outlining and preaching. I am teaching about Daily life in Jesus' Time with connections of Scripture interpretation, especially the parables. It was tiring. Ten hours of teaching (mostly on my feet!). I thank God for today; for blessing our students with deeper understanding and blessing me with His words and power to teach and present the Gospel to them. This is the day that God has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it. And then collapse in bed.
Pat
From Joseph:
Hey from the place where rain makes lakes instead of puddles.
Today was a short day. All we did was travel from Accra to Kumasi. Now you think a long drive like that would be boring for most people. But for us it was fun, except some of the scenery didn't change one bit. All along the road there were people selling stuff. Those people will try to get you to buy things. And some of these things you really don't want to buy like grasscutter (think rat except bigger). I really think I could get use to driving in Africa. All you got to do to let someone know your there is honk your horn then go by, it would be their fault if they get hit because you warned them you were there.
I am starting to hate rain now. There are puddles everywhere. And these are not your average puddles. These are down about a foot puddles so these are not the ones you want to take your truck though just for giggles.
The showers here are COLD. They are freezing right in the morning. So all you do is give a little yell when the water first hits you. Plus it's a good wake up call...sorta.
The church service is waaaayyyy different then in America. Their church here is a small classroom. The windows, well I wouldn't exactly call them windows. But they are, they really put the wind in windows because there is no glass. The floor is made of mud cement once you get past the dirt on top of it. The ceiling is made of mud cement to. Don't get it wrong or nothing because I haven't been here for 7 years and its still standing so they must be doing something right. The church services last about 3 hours. Now that may seem a little boring just to sit there for 3 hours straight. But seeing them do the service isn't boring. They move around, they get you to stand up a lot, you walk to the offering plate, and the Lords Supper is different a little to cuz they don't use the thin wafer things they use a little chunk of bread but it doesn't really taste! like bread. The wine is different to cuz this stuff doesn't have a weak taste to it.
Some of my fun this trip kind of got burned out...because I discovered Pat isn't afraid of lizards or geckos. DARN!!!!!!! O well I'll just figure out another way to make her life less boring.
We got a neighborhood peacock that comes around every once in a while. And then theres the parrot named Grettle. Grettle talks a little bit its kind of fun some times just to sit there and say words she can't.
They have a basketball hoop here. So I can practice basketball and soccer.
The internet is so ssssllllloooooowwwww here!!! I think I got the Palmer Syndrome... get frustrated at the computer while the stuff is loading for bout 20 minutes, grrrrrrr.
They don't have that much different food here then in America. It's about the same except with a different name and a little bit of a different taste. Like they have frosted flakes but here its just called frosties and it has the same tiger on it. But the box has a lot more then just one language some times.
Well I got a lot more to tell you but I m going to save that for a different day cuz I don't want to give away to much of what Africa is in just 2 letters. Cuz that'll be boring and boring isn't really my strong point... except if you get me up really early or if I am really tired.
Well adios, farewell, good bye, c ya. Just pick one or if you got a different one use that. Well anyway tootle-a-loo
Joe Reinke