Back from Ghana!

Greetings to all! We returned safely home this afternoon. Here is a little update with our last couple of days in Ghana.

Sunday was our last full day in the village of Helekpe. We went to church in the morning, where the camp kids were able to give their camp testimonies again. After church, most of the group went hiking up the mountain right behind Kurt and Barb's house. It is called Adaklu Mountain and is the tallest free standing mountain in Ghana. The climb takes about 3 to 4 hours roundtrip. Amber and I chose to stay back at the house, along with a couple of others, to get our packing done. It is custom to yell once you reach the top platform of the mountain, and so a couple of hours after the group left, we were able to hear them yelling and cheering. I couldn't see where they were standing, but it was fun to be able to hear that they had made it to the top.

We also visited the local seamstress to pick up some skirts that we were having made. I think our girls alone gave her a month's worth of business! She did a great job - we purchased fabric in Ho last week and took them to the seamstress to make skirts. She can copy any exising skirt that you already have, and she is happy to make headwraps with any extra fabric that she has. For a couple of the girls, she even made little handbags with the extra fabric - it was very creative and a nice surprise. We all enjoyed going to visit her and to see what she had made for us.

The evening church service had a lot of us shedding tears. Barb put together a slide show from camp and also another shorter one from our trip to Wli Falls. All the Ghanaian youth enjoyed seeing their pictures - the people here, particularly the children and the teens, really love to have their picture taken. After the slide shows, we (the GBC team) were invited to share some thoughts. That really got the tears rolling! Afterwards, we all went around exchanging hugs and posing for lots of pictures with different people. No one really wanted to leave, and I could not stop crying. Finally, someone turned the lights out at the church and that was our cue to head home.

Once we arrived home, several of the youth continued to hang around and talk. They stayed outside and sat on the doorsteps and around the yard and just chatted. A few of us adults were sitting in the living room talking and it was great to hear the chatter and laughter. Kurt said that it was so unusual for the Ghanaian kids to hang around so late (usually they go to bed by about 8:45, and they stayed well past 10pm), but he was encouraged to see it because it meant that friendships had indeed been formed. No one wanted to leave the house!

The GBC kids did such a nice job leaving many of their clothes behind for the people in the village. Some of them even had piles ready to give to specific kids that they had bonded with or where they saw a particular need. It was really heartwarming to see how freely they gave of their personal belongings.

On Monday morning, we got up early and took the suitcases down from the Mathews' home to the main road, outside Pastor George's house, where our tro tro (bus) was waiting for us. Several of the Ghanaian youth showed up to see us off, so it was another round of tears and hugs and goodbyes. While all of us were excited at the thought of getting home, seeing our families, taking a nice hot shower, etc, it was very difficult to leave all of our new friends behind. Each one of them has touched our hearts and changed our lives. I never imagined that I would want to go back, but I truly would love to be able to go back and visit them all again!

We finally finished our goodbyes and headed out. On the way to Ho, there is a spot in the road that has a huge cement block that you have to drive over. As the bus went over it, we got a little bit stuck and heard a very loud crunching noise. The driver got out to take a look, then we continued on our way. Occasionally, we would still hear a very loud noise that we knew could not be a good thing. Thankfully, we were not far from Ho, and once we reached the paved road, the driver stopped again and got out to assess the damage. It turns out that three out of the four u-clips on the rear axle had cracked. The driver had one spare with him, so he replaced one. Then, he had someone else drive him into town to get the other parts and returned to replace the others. All told, it probably delayed us about 45 minutes, and we were very thankful that the Lord answered our prayer for a quick and minor repair!

We reached Accra shortly after 1pm and made our way to the cultural center, a huge, artisinal marketplace. There, we split up into groups and spent close to two hours wandering around and bartering with the different vendors. There was so much to look at; I think we only got through a very small portion of the market. Kurt helped us get the hang of the bartering, and gave us several good tips. I think that most of us really enjoyed the bartering. I didn't think that I would like it at all, but I actually had quite a bit of fun going back and forth with the different vendors. I was very pleased with my purchases, and Jim was very pleased to carry them.

After we finished our shopping, we headed over to the airport. We had dinner at a restaurant called The Landing, just outside of the airport. We walked in to be greeted by air conditioning, the first we had experienced since we arrived in Ghana. They also had fairly nice bathrooms with flushing toilets and running water! It was very nice to be able to wash your hands in a sink with running water again. The dinner was interesting - it took quite a long time to get our food, and they brought each dish out as it was ready. The first two people to get their food finished eating about an hour and fifteen minutes before the last person received their food! It took about 2 hours for the last one of us to be served. Most of the food was fairly good, although a few dishes could be described as interesting. I'll just say that a cheeseburger in Ghana tastes different than a cheeseburger in America.

After dinner, the bus drove us to the entrance of the airport where we unloaded all our bags. Mr. Sannie, the same person who helped us with our arrival, was waiting to help us again, and it was just another blessing that the Lord gave us. He breezed us through check in, security, and immigration, and we found ourselves waiting at the gate within about 40 minutes of arriving at the airport. He made things so easy for us, which helped us to relax a bit.

The flight from Accra to Frankfurt was fairly uneventful. Other than being really cold on the plane - and we're not sure if it was so very cold or if we were just having trouble re-adjusting to air conditioning - it was quite comfortable. I personally was able to sleep about 90% of this leg of the trip. When we arrived in Frankfurt, things went very smoothly with one small, minor hitch. As we passed through security just outside our boarding gate, the security personnel saw something of interest in Jim's backpack. Turns out he forgot to check his small pocketknife and had it in a small pocket of his backpack. They pulled him to the side and had to call security to come over and write up a report before they would let him proceed to the gate! Thankfully, they did not make a huge issue of it, and after taking his knife and writing up their report, let him go on his merry way. I, of course, stayed as cool as a cucumber throughout the entire process.

We had another comfortable flight from Frankfurt to Dulles. This time, we were all spread out over the plane, rather than sitting close together in the same area. Somehow, the adults and a couple of the kids ended up in the front and the other kids all ended up in the back of the plane! I got up several times to walk back and check on them. Most of them were able to rest for at least a little while on the plane.

We were able to get through immigration and customs at Dulles very quickly, and all of our luggage made it safely except for one piece, which was left behind in Frankfurt. We were able to make arrangements to have that piece delivered when it arrives. Then, as we exited the customs area, our families were lined up cheering for us, and it was hugs all around. We got in early enough that we were able to make it around the Beltway with no traffic problems at all, and we were very thankful for that.

Four of the youth and at least one leader were craving Chipotle for their first meal back, so several of us headed to the Laurel store after we returned. It was nice to see how excited the kids were to be back and to see their families. And they really enjoyed their meal, too!!!

Now we're home, and we are thankful to be here. Thank you all for your prayers as we traveled. Please continue to pray for us as we adjust back to our normal lives. We want to take our experiences in Ghana and not let them be just a memory, but to change our lives. We promised these kids in Ghana that we would lift them up in prayer and not forget them, that we would try to come back. We must keep that promise and pray for them as much as we can. I believe that we had an impact on their lives, just as they did on ours. I believe that we were placed in each others' lives for a purpose that only God knows, and I just pray that each of us would be able to discern God's will for us coming out of this trip.

Please also continue to pray for the Mathews family, who poured out everything that they have to us while we visited, and who pour out everything that they have on a daily basis to the people of Helekpe. It was humbling to see their ministry there, and one of the best things that we can do for them is to keep them in our prayers.

I will take some time over the next couple of days to post some pictures from the trip, now that I am back to broadband internet!!! Thank you all for following along on our journey. God has richly blessed us with this opportunity.