Ghana. Just wow. Ghana was one of my favorite months. We started off the month at the cutest hotel for a few days for debrief, before meeting our hosts. Debrief is a few days ‘off’ from ministry where we meet as a squad and discuss our months, check in with how we are doing emotionally, get poured into by our leaders from back home, and hopefully get a little R&R in between. We usually have them every few months but our first one was after month one!
We then left with our team to a little town called Keta where we met our hosts and people we would be doing life with for the next month. Our hosts were absolutely amazing and made us feel like we were at home. Especially for me because Angie is originally from California, not too far from where I grew up. When we arrived we also had 3 other American missionaries with us that were also from California. It is crazy how much just being able to relate to familiar restaurants makes you feel like home.
We spent the first ten days going to schools and helping out the missionaries with their mission, since they were only there for a short time. We taught, danced, blew a ton of bubbles, and just loved on as many kids as we could. During the second half of the month we were able to help with the school that our hosts own. We helped mix concrete to build a wall, and then were asked to paint a mural to which we responded with a resounding YES! The painter is me was absolutely stoked and it was such a sweet reminder that God really knows our hearts and what we love. There were about 6-8 of us that were a part of the painting team and everyone else continued to do ministry in the schools. We also were really close to the ocean and able to spend a lot of time with the kids there, which filled my heart more than I realized I needed.
Ghana taught me a lot about love and grace and God healed so much of my heart in such a sweet way this month. I have way too many pictures to post, but hopefully this gives you a little glimpse into what life was like!
This was a resort near our hotel that we were able to go to for the day to use their pool. Let me tell you after a month of living in the bush, I was pretty sure I jumped into heaven as I dove into the water.
At our hotel, we were able to take dance classes with the local people who worked there. They were some of the nicest and funniest people I have met, and insanely good dancers!! That African beat is something else, and I loved every minute of it.
If you are wondering what was up with my hair in the last picture.. here you go! These were the lovely ladies we met that spent hours with Paige and I putting a weave into our hair. The lady on the left is the wife to one of the taxi drivers we had. They were the sweetest couple and helped make our spontaneous dreams come true. If you thought I was sassy before, you can ask my team what happened after I got this done… haha! Sadly it only lasted about 5 days before the ridiculous sweating and itching took over and I had to take it out. You can’t tell by this photo, but these ladies were some of the sweetest, funniest ladies we met and treated us like queens. I would do it again, just to hang out with them.
Pastor Doe was incredible with these kids and they absolutely ADORED him. He and Angie were our hosts for the month, and just showed us what selfless love looks like. He always seemed to find the energy needed to love these kids so well. This was the first school we had gone to and these kids did everything they could to be close to him and to us. This resembles what many of our days looked like going to schools, teaching them about Jesus, and just playing with them and building relationships.
Liv and I are the worship coordinators for our squad this year and were blessed enough that our two teams got to spend the month together! We partnered with Amari and were able to worship with the kids! We played a lot of music this month and sang and danced almost every day. This was my absolute favorite, as singing and dancing make my heart come alive and getting to do it with these amazing kids is a gift I will forever be grateful for.
We did a LOT of dancing. Good thing this is right up my alley! This day we had gone in to one of the villages to teach at the school. I usually signed up for teaching music. Many times it was just assigned to me, which seems to happen a lot when you carry a guitar around.
These kids are obsessed with bubbles. I mean understandably, they are pretty fascinating. I only feared for my life a couple times, so I would call it a pretty normal bubble blowing experience.
Whether in the village or the town, the desire for bubbles remained the same.
Seriously… All the bubbles.
This day we walked out to where one of the villages was supposed to get water from. It was quite a journey already, but when we got there, there was no more water left because it was dry season. So the villagers had to walk several miles to the next village just to find water. We learned so much about the difficulties people go through every day just to survive.
We were fed the most amazing food by our hosts here in Ghana! What is particularly special about this spoonful of food is the spoon! My amazing brother Jonathan, actually carved this spoon for me out of a block of wood before I left for the Race! He wanted to give me something I could take around the world that I could actually use. How cool is that?! Here is my photo proof that, YES, I actually used it and it was awesome!!
This is a very common meal we had (even though we had the most variety this month). Rice and chicken!! I don’t remember what this sauce in the rice was but it was SO SO good! If it looks like a ginormous portion of rice.. that’s because it is! I ate as much as I could and was still losing weight like crazy this month.. hello Africa heat. #sweat24/7 Also having someone else cook for you is such a gift that I am currently missing during the last few months of ATL. (I’ll explain ATL in future posts!)
This was one of our friends we were helping to build the walls. We would mix the concrete and he would stand on this makeshift scaffolding and plaster the walls. It was amazing how innovative and creative people are. These guys were some of the hardest workers I’ve ever met and knocked out this wall in a day, so we could start painting!
This is my profile picture for my new construction worker ad. I’m a pro now. Available for hire.
Katie and I were STOKED to finally start painting and unleash our creative sides. Dream come true!!
I spent most of my time on the bamboo stalks. Which was very poetic, because God had been using bamboo to teach me a lot this month about what He is doing in my life, and how to trust him. Also discovered my love for painting murals. One more random thing I get to add to my resume!
This was the floral side of the mural! The pastor’s daughters also helped us with this one and it was such a sweet bonding experience to be able to paint with them!
African fabrics are GORGEOUS. Here is just a few of the skirts we received this month! I have so much fabric, either purchased or gifted to me that I actually had to mail it all home, which I cant wait to wear again in the states!!
We found a tire swing. To which I discovered that if you let someone push you on it, you will also find joy. I forgot how much I love swings! It really is the little things in life that put all the big things into perspective.
These are some of the fishing nets that were used daily by these fishermen. It was really an incredible experience to be a part of, and I was amazed at the strength of these people pulling in these nets every morning. It gave me a beautiful visual of what it must have been like when Jesus walked the earth and called his disciples to drop the fish and be fishers of men.
What started out as a quiet team night of worship, turned into a community event of worship with The World Race Singers, which is apparently our new band name. I’ve always dreamed of being on a giant poster… Never thought my first one would be in Africa. Watch out world, we’re coming for ya. 😉 #Africafamous
These lovely ladies cooked for us all month at our host’s house!! They were some of the nicest, sassiest, funniest ladies I have come in contact with thus far and constantly had us laughing. We got to form the sweetest relationships just hanging out with them all month. They also are AMAZING cooks. I don’t know how we got so lucky!
I learned so much this month about the sweetness and kindness of God’s love and affection! I pray I get to go back someday, and am forever grateful for the friendships and connections we made this month!
It’s time to go to Togo!
*My fundraising deadline has been extended, but I am still in need of a lot of help!! I need to raise $1,933 more dollars by June 30th to stay on the Race! Please consider partnering with me and donating! I can’t do this without you! Thank you so much for all of your love and support thus far, you have no idea how helpful it is knowing I have a strong community back home 🙂
