I SURVIVED!!!!!!!!!
My second day, umm my schedule is that I am up at 5 am. Study, prepare, pray. Begin teaching at 9 am to noon. Lunch break. Teach again to 4 pm. Supper break. Teach again to 8 pm. Clean up, evaluate, write reports and re-group till around 11 or 12. Pray again and then drop into bed.
Our meals are simple. Maybe toast and egg (mixed with something) for breakfast; peanut-butter sandwiches and fruit; for supper rice and chicken, rice and chicken and more rice and chicken. I hope there appears something else soon! We, Americans drink filtered water and only filtered water, because our bodies can't handle the germs and the worms in the water. Once in a while we have a malta, or a mineral (pop or soda in American).
The noise level is really high here. The Ghanaians speak softly but there must be something in the air that causes sound to travel and travel. We hear the rooster from down the road start at 4:30 am and go to 7 am. We hear the church two blocks down singing praises at 6 am. We hear the traffic 3 blocks away. Maybe it is because the houses are so close together that the sound bounces off or something.
I bartered today with a peddling salesman selling jewelry and stuff. It was fun. I got his prices down to 1/3 of what he was asking.
All the neighboring children came out of the woodwork for Joseph's story again today. They were 1 1/2 hour early and it was chaos; but we survived. And the kids learned something about God's care and protection through Noah.
I taught about Israel's cities connected with Jesus' ministry. Topography of the land and the crops, farming tools, farming methods, and how to find heavenly truths in the parables about the harvest and God's Kingdom. We discussed parable after parable. I didn't realize that there were so many! And it is amazing that just by wrestling with how to teach it bi-culturally-I am understanding it much deeper for myself
It is such a blessing to be here! Last night when Pastor Reinke told me he received emails in response to our updates (and who sent them!), I was in awe. Thank you people! Your emails encouraged and blessed and empowered me more. You are all like Aaron and Hur holding up Moses arms to allow God's army with His Word to press on with power and accomplish its purpose. Our leaders are being inspired by God's truth and are growing in their skills to share the salvation message to others. Again thank you.
All for today. God bless!
Pat.
Wednesday- 3rd day of leadership training!
The day started on an interesting note. We are staying in a missionary compound owned by the ELCG (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana). It has a real floor and 5 rooms and a kitchen. Don't have much in the kitchen though. Maybe a couple of knives, forks and spoons, a few glasses, a few bowls, two sauce pans--not much more. Definitely no microwave! We do have a refrigerator--which is a blessing in this hot weather. We only have experienced one power outage and that was relatively short. It has been a challenge feeding about 20 people each day with just a few things. But God does make it happen. We do have bathrooms with running cold water, which has also been a challenge for your morning shower. Ice-cold water just doesn't sooth sore muscles as well as hot. Tonight, I had some time of luxury and heated up some hot water and sponged the water on slowly. Oh, boy--my muscles jumped with joy! They began to loosen up and it was so relaxing. First hot water for ten days. Great!
We have a parrot and a peacock here. They are so noisy. The peacock sounds just like someone yelling, "Help!" I have jumped and ran to help for 4 days now; you'd think I could train myself not to respond--hopefully soon. The peacock acted strange this morning; we watched for a long time. It made laps around the truck. Again and again for over an hour. Later, we looked at the truck and began angry because it looked like the peacock scratched all over it. It however was some kind of peacock spit and it wiped off: but Pastor Reinke threatened to shoot it next time it has a love affair with the truck.
Supper, I spilled all over my clothes. How inspiring! Was able to complete a wash of clothes, but nothing ever dries here. You put it out on the line for days and it’s still wet. You make a spill on a table and wipe it off and it still is wet. One gets used to it.
Teaching has been rewarding, frustrating, exhausting and motivating--all at the same time. Sometimes the students understand a deep concept and I rejoice. Sometimes a concept, which should have been taught and learned at a young age, a concept that I assume they all have-they doesn’t have and that saddened me greatly. It is like they are sheep without a shepherd knowing the shepherd is near but can't see him. I can understand more deeply now Jesus' feeling of grief when he looks at sinners. Our verse for our evening devotions was, "Jesus wept". Oh, how we, too, weep over those who don't understand the fullness of Christ for them. These people need a shepherd daily to teach, guide and encourage them in their faith. We are here only a short time. It will be difficult to leave knowing that there will be so much "unfinished business". But trusting in the Lord, to send more trainers in the future is our daily prayer; along with keeping their faith growing toward a fuller maturity.
I'm still teaching parables connected with Jewish culture and Jesus' words. Today, harvest parables; tomorrow food parables (milk, water, bread, etc). God is really giving me so much more understanding of these comparison stories here than ever before. Because the Ghanaian culture is so similar to Jewish culture in the year 100 AD; it has been easily to find corresponding examples from Ghana to incorporate in the discussion of Jesus' parables.
We had an even bigger 'mob" of children for their evening story time. It gets larger every day! Praise the Lord!
So many people in and out yesterday. Much "business" done in between teaching. God helped us use the time wisely. I even had time to talk with a clothes maker who brought some shirts to sell. I found the perfect Ghanaian shirt. Cost me 60,000 cedis. A real bargain at the American rate of $6.00.
The night ended with a wet towel fight between Pastor Reinke and Joseph. I never did find out if there was a winner; but from the sounds of their laughter-they both had a fun time.
This weekend, I will go to a village and meet the chief. They have special customs that I will need to follow. We will discuss land for a future deaf church. On Sunday, right now the plans are that I go to the deaf school about an hour from here and teach Bible stories for a few hours and experience their setting and learning mode. Monday, it will be back to teaching the leaders again. No time off this week and that's ok because even though it is tiring-it is rewarding and motivating despite the pain and sore muscles from standing so long! And just once in a while, I sneak a 10-minute rest period alone in my room, allowing God to refill me with His power and grace.
Thanks for caring about the Lord's work in Ghana.
Keep up the prayers!
Pat
Day 4 -Leadership Training-One full week in Ghana already! Two to go!
Everyone had a hard time getting up this morning. Slow start to a fully packed day. I taught Law and Gospel analysis and foundations of doctrine. My class is getting full. (So is Pastor Reinke's class -both have doubled in size. We had lots and lots of questions and it was amazing-I felt empowered by God and was surprised at the clarity of my answers! The students thank me very day for enlightening them more with God's truth. And they are excited to pray, pray often in class during the day and pray specifically for me to have the wisdom and skill to teach what they need to learn.
The noon hour was busy. I finished a report and missed lunch again. Oh, well. The afternoon went well teaching Jewish culture and the application of Bread and Water in the scriptures. We then started a deep discussion on the Lord's Supper, doctrine and application. There were a few signs of their misunderstandings in worship last Sunday and I wanted to address them. Wow! Did we have a discussion. The students' mouth dropped open when a few of their beliefs were nullified through the scriptures I showed. It was interesting that they believed that they could only get the Lord's Supper on Sundays and only in a church. After showing them Jesus' words, they still wondered if I was telling the truth. Not having the personal experience of seminary training and not a called pastor who serves Lord's Supper, I requested Pastor Reinke to assist. He also provided scriptural proofs and applications. It was exciting, students from the pastoral and evangelists training came in and also had experience in explaining the practice of Lord's Supper, who to give it to, when and reasons for such actions and the need and benefits of Jesus" body and blood.
Broke for Supper. Missed food again. I was preparing and setting up for a leaders meeting with officials from the Ghanaian National Church on the possibility of buying land and building a deaf church and deaf university to continue training the deaf in different professions. Many people are praying for this to happen especially the deaf evangelists. Now having experience in the field, they have experienced the need and the workload. They want to train up more workers and serve more areas. Having been here only a week and still learning and struggling with some of the Ghanaian sign-I had the challenge of interpreting for the deaf the hearing peoples' talk. It went ok, though I missed some because I could not hear their soft voices. No complains-I guess I will live.
Finished that meeting and five minutes later after rounding up my students, I began my evening class. Seeing a deep need in their understanding to Jesus' death and resurrection, I focused on that. We set up a timeline and studied the events of Holy Week, especially, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. You could see in their eyes they did not know the story well. They watched, asked questions and hopefully now have a little better understanding of the price Jesus paid for their sins. At 7 pm the lights went out-no electricity again. We got out the flashlights and continued with class in the dark. It was a nuisance not to have the light. But we managed with the one flashlight in each classroom. The Word of God scattered the darkness of the room; and hopefully continues to scatter any darkness in their souls.
Oh boy, there is so much that we need to share with them. The people here are so friendly, and kind, treating me like royalty. Every place we go, I, a white woman am given the seat of honor and am waited on. It is a little awkward when I am so used to doing things myself, to step back and let them do things I do everyday in America-but is considered too mundane for white woman to do in Ghana.
I've had some trouble with the Malaria pills. I continued to be dizzy and sick for hours after taking them, so I change it to take at night and things are much better. I however, now have developed a terrible rash on both arms and now on the ankles. Looks like bug bites too but is a reaction to something. It could be the medicine, it could be the food, and it could be anything. It sure itches a lot and at night it really drives me crazy I don't' sleep well. Please pray for this problem to resolve itself and not getting any worse.
I think we have a better system and clean up at night is getting quicker. I finished by 9pm tonight. We planned to go to the Internet Café to send our emails; but we had visitors welcoming us and giving us advice on ministry in Ghana. So another day, another possibility.
I need to prepare lessons for the deaf school on Sunday, so will "sign off" for now. God's blessings to you all and give thanks today for all the little things in life; like being able to rinse your toothpaste with water from the sink, being able enjoy air conditioning, being able to wash clothes and expect them dry before Jesus comes, and even the luxury of a Burger King's sourdough bacon cheeseburger!
My mind and body screams out to the Lord, "The need is so great---HELP!!!
Tomorrow, another day, another challenge-but with the Lord all things are possible and what He wants accomplished will be accomplished! Please Lord, help me not get in Your way, but instead help me to open up myself to depend fully on you and trust you alone for the power to teach, for the power to witness, for the power to survive the challenges that the day might bring. Lord, tomorrow is all yours. I'm not going to worry about it-I'm going to bed.
Good Night all!
Pat