High Fives and Hit the Rocks

Wow, what a week! We returned from Swedru yesterday morning and it was an amazing experience. A ton has happened over the last few days and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

It started on Thursday morning when we all met at the Navs Office to pray before we headed out. The goal was to be on the road by 10am. So, by 1pm, when we finally rolled out, all of us had some first hand experience with what it means to operate under "Ghana time." The trip was a long one, we didn't get to Swedru until probably about 9pm, but it was a big relief when we finally did arrive.

Swedru is the closest city-type area to where we actually were. We were actually living in a village about 30 minutes from Swedru, called Nkum. A decent amount of people live in Nkum, but it is very primitive. We all slept on pads on the floor and used buckets of water to wash ourselves in the bathing area, so we were definitely roughing it a bit. But the people that were hosting us were so generous; they did anything they could to make our stay comfortable and we were very appreciative.

One thing that keeps hitting me is how eager the people are to help us. There was a girl who lived in the home where we stayed that insisted on fetching my water for me every night when I showered and she even gave me her flip flops to wear in the shower because I didn't bring shower shoes. No matter how much I'd say that I could take care of it, she would insist on helping. And everyone is like that here. People don't see it as an obligation to serve visitors. They consider it a privilege. That's a really impactful thing to see.

On Friday, we were up by 6:30am. We ate, prayed, relaxed a little bit, then headed out to visit some of the villages in the surrounding jungle. We had guides take us around and show us where people lived. Sometimes we would cross streams and need to take our shoes off and roll up our pants. This was the real thing, kids. When we came to the little villages, which are actually just a few houses together where one family unit lives, we would greet them, explain who we were, and then ask them some questions about themselves. Some of the people were Christians and some had never even heard of Jesus. If they were Christians, we would pray with them and encourage them a bit. If they were not, we'd ask them if we could talk to them about our faith a little bit. People were always very eager to hear from us and, again, very welcoming. The first day, I saw many people put their faith in Christ, which was a very exciting thing. I even got to pray with one guy, Steven, as he made that decision.

We walked miles and miles the first day and I was exhausted, but it was so worth it. That continued on the second and third days, and the fourth day we had an outdoor service and invited people from other villages to come. More people put their faith in Christ on each day.

Another cool thing that was sort of a longitudinal experience of the weekend was playing with the kids. They were fascinated with us and I would play with them for hours at a time. They wanted high fives all the time, and when I showed them how to "hit the rock," they got pretty excited about that, too. I'm not kidding, I probably gave out thousands of high fives and hit the rocks this weekend. Wow, they were a lot of fun. On the last night, at the outdoor service, one little guy just walked up to me with his blanket, curled up on my lap, and fell asleep. Aren't kids awesome?

Ok, so there are about a million things I could tell you about the past week, but I can't write it all, so I'm going to give a condensed list of most of it and you can ask me about it when I get back, if you'd like. In the past week, I've...

- seen a 2 hour trip turn into a 9 hour experience
- gone back to a pharmacy school sleeping schedule
- marched through the jungle for hours
- prayed with people that don't speak my language
- eaten foods I can't identify
- thrown children in the air for hours at a time
- learned helpful phrases in Fanti from children
- unknowingly learned inappropriate phrases in Fanti from children (whoops)
- showered in the pitch black with a bucket
- met new friends every five steps
- embarassed myself in soccer (football)
- met an African village chief
- shared the gospel at a bar
- seen men accept Jesus at a bar
- seen the stars the way God intended for us to see them
- attended the most passionate church service I've ever seen
- eaten peanut butter soup

So it's been pretty awesome. Ok, until later. We're off to the youth camp tomorrow!