Capturing the Spirit of Liberia

Hope these pictures find the reader enjoying their Holiday season. With the workload of this holiday time, I had decided not to post here the last few days, so I wanted to leave some photos that I have found online this last week. Enjoy. Will be back to blogging soon.

These photos are taken by photo journalist, Glenna Gordon, she currently lives/works in Liberia. She seems to be a very talented photographer. Her blog is found at http://www.scarlettlion.com.

Man with tuba in Pharmacy- part of the city symphony

The odd one out

Shoes anyone?

This is recess time

Plantian on the way home from the farm

Smily Face

The Young and the Old

Read the Words on the WALL!!!!

Hair Cut Time

Football all the time, no matter the limitations

Some guards just have to find something to do!

Welcome to the internet cafe

The bass player for the Liberian symphony!

Last, but not least, West African Pirates!

Snippets and Thought Provoking Facts

Found these three graphics on the Internet. They are interesting. Many times while traveling in the States people at churches ask me if I know a friend of theirs in a country in Africa. To which I ask what country they live in. Most often the reply is a country in Eastern or Southern Africa. Most people do not grasp the immensity of the continent of Africa. This first graph helps to see its size. When a person asks a missionary if they know a person that lives in say, Botswana, when they live in Ghana, it would be like asking someone from Maine if they know a person that lives in Tijuana. It is not to likely that they know hem, but a good missionary learns to smile at these innocent question, swallow a sarcastic answer and say no.


The second is just a amazing grouping of little known facts about Africa. It is interesting to me that it covers all sides of life here.

The last might make some groups like UN Aid or Feed the Children mad, but after six years of living in Africa I have discovered sadly that most aid groups should be relegated on a level just above TV evangelist. This is by means no condemnation of all groups, nor the temporary workers. Many short term workers are sincerely trying to help, but it is clear to see that most NGO's, aid groups, programs just put a bandage on a heart attack. This is not to mention the almost immoral level of bureaucracy that accompanies most UN works.

Youth Activities and Sunday Programs

The first of December the Bible Study had its last youth activity for the year. Most activities are held on Friday nights after the kids help cook supper and are free. This allows most of our young girls to attend, but since it means that it must happen after dark it really limits our games, since we have to use the school rooms.
This activity, the youth had a field day. The group was limited since the girls were greatly limited in their attendance, but most of our young men came. They had a great time. The Lord blessed the group with an over cast sky, so that it was not to hot.

The big balls that the church bought are a hit! I try to do inexpensive games, or games that cost no money at all. There was three-legged soccer, big soccer ball games, like steal the bacon, and even water sachet tossing. (Water balloons are very expensive here, but they have small plastic bags that are easy to fill, and work great!)

One of the warm up games, was called frozen t-shirts. We split the guys into two groups. Gave each team a t-shirt that was frozen solid. The first team to pull it apart, and put it on someone won. It was so funny to watch this game. Ghanaians hate cold and ice, so it was really funny to watch them. Everyone was laughing and shouting.

Here is a picture of one of our team captains putting on his frozen shirt. Everyone was laughing when he started shivering.

On Sundays we have started to teach through the Bible story by story. The newest part of this has been adding flannel pictures. It has greatly aided in the story telling and preaching. It has been very exciting to see people get excited about hearing these stories. Each week people are eager to see the next piece of the puzzle.

Currently we are praying that these stories will help to lay foundation blocks for people to build their new faith upon. Many people overseas take for granted the Bible knowledge that many Westerners have. Here in Ghanaians people have sporadic Bible knowledge at best. Teaching the Bible in order and in story form, greatly seems to aid the Christian worker in help people to understand that ideas and beliefs of the Bible.

Baptisms

On the 6th of December the Bible Study had its fourth baptism. There were three adult men that where baptized. The first was a man named Dennis. He has been attending meeting off and on for almost two years. In the last year he has become very faithful and attends almost every Sunday morning. About ten months ago he came to the realization that his old church was not teaching correct doctrine. After finishing his "Way of Peace' Bible study he accepted Christ. Then quickly told us that he wanted to be baptized. Pray for him to grow in Christ, and find a good wife to marry.

The second to baptized was Bismark. Bismark attends meetings with his wife and son. They are very faithful. Bismark was raised Catholic, but after arriving in Kumasi he quite attending. After Dora invited his wife, they began to attending services. After God worked greatly in his life, including healing his son that was at deaths door, Bismark became very serious about the things of God. After finishing our "Way of Peace" Bible Study, he trusted Christ. He made a hard decision to be baptized, since the Catholic churches here are very rich, but he did not flinch when he felt it was God's will. Please pray for his wife. She attends, and my wife is studying with her. Please pray that her religious background will not harden her to the gospel.

The last to be baptized was Nat. He is a young community college man, that chose to join our church. He has attended a church called, "Deeper Life", which is a form of old holiness church. After many months of talking with Nat, Pastor Andrew felt that he was truly saved, but had not been baptized. Nat has been born again for about five years. He knew he should be baptized, but had not official joined the Deeper Church. Please pray for his growth and victory over sins in his life. He is desirous to grow, but has confessed to some besetting sins.

Also pray for the new groups of believers that will start baptismal class in the new year. Pray that some that have finished classes already will make the decision to join our group.

Patty visitation partner, Gifty, has traveled. Currently she is seeking a replacement. We are praying that maybe Dora, the lady pictured, or another lady from the studies will join my wife to spread the good news.

Over the River and Through the Jungle, to the Capital we go...

We normal only go to the capital for government paperwork or to pick up teams that visit us on missions trips, but this last week our family took a family trip to buy gifts for Christmas. We left on Monday morning via government bus that departed at 5:00 in the morning. Think Grey-hound with African movies and music minus the bathroom.

Monday we arrived about noon. After checking into the Baptist guest house. We headed out to the town. We went to the mall. The Accra mall is our only mall in Ghana, and one of only three in West Africa. It is really nice. It has nice stories like: Shop Rite, Game, Mr. Price, etc. These will not make much since to our American friends since all these are chain stores from South Africa. After a few hours of shopping we headed back to the guest house for relaxation and play. The guest house has a play ground that our kids and our friends kids played on for hours. (These late nights with mosquitoes, landed Patty with malaria, but after 6 years of not getting malaria, it was hard to remember it is still here, but that is another story)

Tuesday our friends watched out kids so that we could go shopping for our kids. I think that I never got as many gifts as these kids! On Wednesday, we watched their kids. So in the afternoon the kids where loaded up in a taxi and we headed over to Churcheese. The couple that takes care of the guest house told us about it. It is a mini-Chucky Cheese. They have a play land with ball pit. There is a mini-merry-go-round, and some games. The kids loved it.

After playing for about two to three hours the kids where ready to eat. They had great fried chicken and fries. Mom and Dad got to buy food from a new sandwich shop. We had shakes and smoothies with gourmet sandwiches. It was a really nice treat!

Then Thursday our kids said good bye to the Guest House Snowman and we headed back to Kumasi for our Thursday night Bible study. We where able to finish most of our shopping and had a great time of relaxation.

Decking the Halls

Living in a tropical climate, we have learned that it is important to deck the halls early. Luckily I grow up in a family that decorates the day after Thanksgiving. We have continued this tradition as missionaries here in Ghana. Our decorations make their debut the end of November and stay around until New Years... though we might even extend this if we can manage it!

This year we had our greatest challenge, two Christmas trees. The second year that we were in Ghana, our Christmas tree (a ultra slim blue spruce pine from Target's after Christmas sales) was sent to us and it has been the center piece of our Tropical-Winter Wonderland ever since. This year we are able to buy a massive Christmas tree from a local store. It towers to a height of ten feet (I had to talk Patty out of the 12 or 14 foot models, since they would not fit in our apartment).

The girls jumped out of bed at about 5:30 in the morning jumping on our bed wanting to decorate. Out came all the boxes. Luckily because of a trick that I have learned (thank you Mr. Allen) there where no tangled lights. This is very important, though we do not put them outside I do want the house covered in lights. If we hung out all those different color lights outside, all the neighbors would think we have started a bar, since they are the only people that do that here in Ghana.

After getting up the two trees and stringing lights the girls put on my Santa Claus outfit they bought me last year for Christmas. Thy must have thought I needed to loss some weight. Just before lunch we started all the Christmas music. Thanks to Amazon mp3 online we where able to get all the classics this year, like: "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth", "Santa Baby", "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas", and "Michigan Christmas". Once we hit the play button these tones ring through the house from Thanksgiving to New Years.
We try to mix in our local flair with our Western Christmas. The girls love when we decorate our two elephants as Mr. and Mrs. Claus. We even bought a large hand carved Africa Father Christmas.

The center stage of our family room is my wife's collection of Nativities. This photo is of a Ghanaian Nativity that we bought in the capital. Currently she has 17 different Nativities, they come from Ghana, Lebanon, Kenya, America.

When we finally have the whole thing finished on Friday night, we are tired but happy. For the next month we get to enjoy the tinkling lights and holiday cheer. As our missionary friends told me last week, "there is just something special about Christmas on the mission field".

Jumping into Fall Leaves- The MK Way!

Growing up in the northern part of the mid-west of America, I grow up with four seasons. But one thing that is really true about Ghana is that it does not have the four tradition seasons. I think that my wife and children miss fall the most. (This could not be said of me, since I do not miss the raking, heating bills, and other nice things that come with the season, though I do like the trees).


One of the things that Carey remembers most about her year back in America was jumping in the Autumn leaves. Always around Thanksgiving time, she starts to ask us when the leaves will begin to fall. We do have a few that do loose their leaves. The almond trees that grow here, loose their leaves each fall. They all turn a bright red and gold at the same time. Then about a week later they start to grow their new leaves.

Since the almond tree (white-mans ground nut, as they call it here) has huge leaves, it is fun for the girls to walk in places that have a lot of these trees. They love to crunch on all the leaves and kick them in the air. Since most of these trees grow in public places, it is quite interesting to see the looks people give as they pass by and see our kids laughing and jumping in the leaves.
Though we do allow the girls this time of fun, we try to limit their frivolity a little. About two years ago Patty discovered a great way for them to get their leave jumping urge out without the public spectacle. Patty cuts most of the bushes in our yard and normally has a very large pile once she is finished. After finishing one day, she had the great idea to letting the girls jump in them. They where not dried, but they where still great to jump in.
Since that day a family tradition was born. So now each year around Thanksgiving the clippers come out and the leaves are piled up. The kids love to play until they are exhausted. (The pictures are from this year's leave jumping extravaganza! Carey and Ella love to ham it up for the camera).

Giving Thanks!!!

This past week has been a great time to remember and be thankful for all that the Lord has done for us. Though Thanksgiving is not a Ghanaian holiday, we try to celebrate the holiday anyway. Our family believes that it is good to teach people to count their blessings. So each year we invite people from our new Ghana family.

Here are a few things that have been a blessing this last week. I am going to mix in a few of our Thanksgiving pictures so that the reader can see our Thursday activities.

1. This last week we had the blessing of leading two people to Christ. Mensah has been attending our Bible study for about six months. On Saturday of last week we where able to led him to Christ. Also on Tuesday of last week, Pastor Andrew and I where able to led a young lady named Mary to Christ. She has attended for about three months. This was very encouraging, and was a great way to start the week of Thanksgiving.

2. Water Supply- The longer that we have lived in Ghana the better the electricity has gotten, but that is not true of the water. Most days our water flows from about 2:00am until 9:00am. That is of course on the day that it does flow. Because of these facts we have become quite good about our water consumption. We have 5 buckets that we fill twice daily. They are used to flush the toilets, put water in the sinks for washing dishes and bathing. Each adult gets one bucket and the girls split one. But, this last week we had a great blessing given to us! Our landlady decided to put two large water containers on the roof. (Each one holds about 2,000 liters of water each). We have one outside, which is wonderful, since even if the water is off for a week, we can still get water from this outside tank. But, since our landlady put these tanks on the roof, we have constant water in the house. We can flush the toilet after every use (YAH!) and even take showers. (I have learned to like cold showers here). Basically while the water is flowing, these tanks refill each night, when the pressure is good. They hold enough water that once the water is off again (normally for 4 to 5 days), we still have water in the house. We are very happy. Now we have almost constant water!

3. Little blessings- Since we have moved here, we have learned to really enjoy little blessings. Things that would be normal or even go unappreciated in the states, become exciting here. This is one of the perks of the mission field. Here are three, OK, four blessings. A. Ritz crackers. They never have these here, but a few weeks ago Andrew and I walked into a store while out visiting, and what do you know, there where boxes of Ritz crackers. They where even fairly cheap. So we snagged a couple of boxes each. They where great with my wife's broccoli casserole that she makes for Thanksgiving. (That is another blessing, a farmer has started growing broccoli here, so we do not have to buy expense imported broccoli now!) B. Stove Top stuffing- a small shop had three boxes of Turkey Stove Top stuffing this year! We bought them, and have been able to use two so far. The Ghanaians loved it at the party! C. Summer Sausage- My sister sent this to us! Not sure how she fit this huge thing in the box, but she did. We are very happy to get to eat this little blessing on New Year's Day. D. Last but not least our Turkey! It is a blessing to be able to buy a local turkey that was large enough to feed all those people and still have leftovers!

4. The Thanksgiving Part- We had a great time! We had a total of 12 people at the party. It was the best party that we have ever had. It was so much fun to eat together and share the meaning of Thanksgiving. After we had games and Pumpkin Pie! (Yes, this is another blessing- they grow here only during the fall months, and Patty makes a WONDERFUL homemade pie!)

These weeks have been filled with blessings! And today I want to say to God, Thank You! I hope that all those out there had a great Thanksgiving weekend too.