October

 

Greetings on a lovely morning! The house is quiet. The children are off to school, Kenny went to do banking in Cape Coast. I love my mornings of quiet where I can just tick things off my list for the day while listening to an audio book or music or just in silence with my own thoughts. Life has found a happy routine where the days fly by too fast and we crawl into bed tired. I know it won't last but we will make the most of it while we can.

When I went through the pictures from the last month I decided if I sent them all to you, you would think we just look at sunsets and the beach. But actually it is a sign of normal life where nothing exciting happens. Or the exciting things aren't things pictures can capture. The above pictures are taken along the main road along the beach. They are putting in a sea defense wall out quite a ways in preparation for the four lane high way that will eventually go through here. It is a pretty big gap between the sea wall and what the shore was. The area behind the sea wall makes a lovely protected place to swim. It is shallow and protected but still gets some waves. Perfect for swimming in our boys minds.

All of us dream and Kelsey has dreamed for a long time of starting a sewing school for girls when she is older. She was so pleased when a friend asked her to teach her. They often spend time Saturday afternoons under the tree sewing and talking. She is very motivated to get her school work done early and then her chores around the house done so she can take her sewing machine outside Saturday afternoons. Austin built her a table out of an old door and scrap wood and it is a very pleasant spot.

Austin is farming Ghana style, with a little bit of US gardening as well. His first planting of cassava is so tall every storm blows it over. The US sweet corn has a few scraggly stalks but the native field corn is growing beautifully. He has been harvesting a tomato almost every day and just brought a cabbage head in. It is still small but was starting to rot. Maybe the worms got it? The pumpkin plant has been growing and growing. And giving flowers and more flowers. But very few pumpkins. I think the first one started growing now. Someone just told us there is a bug or ant that goes in the flower and eats it off. Gardening feels much harder here but it is such a good project for boys!

The boys have been begging for a puppy. So when a neighbor boy knew of puppies in the village, Kenny took them to pick one out. She was scared and scraggly with scabs, fleas and ticks. But a bath, food, and much loving, especially from Brent, and a week later she looks much better. Our other dog is very jealous but she also gets very bored so hopefully they become good friends yet.

Several weeks ago a former missionary contacted us. Their pastor friend in Ghana had a church member, a 14 year old girl, that was sick and the family was out of money to pay the hospital bills. Could they help? They raised some money and asked us to visit her and give them the money. Unfortunately she died that night. This family had buried another child 6 months before so it was extra heartbreaking. Last Friday, Kenny and I attended her funeral. The above picture is her classmates praying. I would have loved to go around and give them all hugs. At Ghanaian funerals there are always people that seem very callous and unfeeling and then there are those that truly mourn. The girls in her class truly mourned their friend. 

A funeral for a child is a one morning event compared to the two to three day long funeral for an adult. They did view the body which doesn't always happen with a child or young person. But what an unorganized time of pushing and shouting, weeping and crying. A fight broke out behind us when a drunk man was out of control and was hustled off. A young man brought him back later with an arm around his shoulders to keep him on his feet. The mother was carried to the house. The father helped to a chair in the back corner and people gathered around him to comfort him. We are very aware that we are outsiders in these situations. We didn't know the family and only briefly met them before this but were asked to be there to represent the ones who helped financially. We were also there to be a calm and steady light for Jesus. But sometimes I had to bite my tongue and keep myself in my chair. While everyone was singing together, waiting for the body, a group of young men came with their "clinkers" and were singing their own songs and dancing in front of everyone. I wanted to go over to them and say STOP! this is not allowed! This is not proper! These people are grieving and you are making fools of yourselves. But I didn't. I prayed instead. Eventually they actually started helping to sing the gospel songs we were singing although the clinking and dancing continued. I told Kenny later, At what point do the elders tell the young people to stop? At what point do they say, Pull up your pants and either be respectful or leave? The longer we live here the more we understand we are wired different then they are. But we also have more questions. Like, what looks like honor at a funeral service to this culture? What would they see as a proper funeral? I'm waiting for the right person and the right time, but I have so many questions!

 The pastor did a wonderful job of leading songs instead of the normal loud music. (He is a pastor of a very sound, Biblical church). He did well to preach both here and at the grave, even though people wouldn't settle down for a while, he kept preaching!!

After everyone else left for the grave to bury, Kenny spent some time talking to and praying with the father. Sitting for hours through all the commotion was worth it for this moment of prayer and giving him our condolences. We did go to the grave and arrived not long after everyone else. Their graveyards are typically a plot of bush and before we could see the grave we heard the shouting and arguing. They were trying to lower the coffin in the grave but a young man was holding on to it. He was pushed back and moments later Kenny saw him laughing with his friends. They put on a huge show of grief with no real feeling behind it. Again, I have many questions. And a huge burden. Sometimes on a Sunday morning when we see many, many people dressed up and headed to church we wonder. Why are we here? These people know about God. They have many, many churches. But then we are reminded, many of them are still lost. Many are seeking and many don't care. In the US, in Ghana, anywhere you go; many are lost. We knew what funerals are like. But it felt like the reminder we needed of the work there is to be done.

More beautiful evening pictures! 

The salt flats. Notice the bands of color in the sand? It is different layers of crusted salt and sand. And maybe other minerals as well?

I love trees against the sky. They are majestic and peaceful. Delicate and bold.

As mentioned before the evenings have been beautiful! This is the road to church. We were walking home after cleaning it one evening.

Sometimes we feel God at work and we just wonder what will happen next. We also feel Satan at work and we wonder what will happen when we stand on what looks like his ground and push back. Kenny has been working on making relationships in the villages on either side of us. He sat in one village and played a card game with a boy and then a young man. He watched a former vo-tech student push coins into a slot machine for a while and then he strolled over to chat. He then told Kenny he needs to go to Elmina. The village is out of alcohol and his dad supplies the whole village. We knew this, we know this young man. We walk by these slot machines all the time. But suddenly it feels like God is saying, What are you going to do about it?

For weeks Kenny planned to visit the village behind us but he always got busy or it rained or..... He just didn't get there. Finally he prayed, Lord, take away whatever is holding me back from going. The next day he went. He met a man who had a wonderful testimony of how he was addicted to drugs but is now free and a Christian. It was a blessing to Kenny to hear his story and a reminder of what God can do in these situations that look hopeless.

There is a weekly Bible Study that another missionary started, Kenny kept it going but is now handing it over to Marvin Zeiset. Last week one man asked, Is it wrong for me to get drunk? Marvin showed him the verse from Proverbs about wine being a mocker. They stopped to pray with these men that they could be free of this bondage from alcohol. God is working in that village and it is a privilege to get to see a glimpse of it!

I hope you can get my point of these stories. God is at work. May He be glorified! We are also very weak at moments. We know we are fighting a battle but there are times Satan strikes a blow to us and we stagger. There are days Satan says, who do you think you are? I know who you have been and what you have done. We are so thankful for our prayer warriors. We feel them and need them.

Last evening I sat in our yard between two neighbor girls and helped them with their homework. A neighbor man had come to visit Kenny as well so the talk ranged from algebra and schooling to respecting our parents and if a Christian holds a grudge. These are the moments that make living here worthwhile!