Feeding Monkeys and Other Miscellaneous Fun Stuff!

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to visit the Kumasi Zoo. It was a great time together as a family. They have borught all the animals from the Accra Zoo, while it is under renovation. The zoo wsa not crowded, and the best part was that you could very close to the animals. For example the crocodilla pit was open, if a person wanted to they could climb right inside. THe monkey cages where open and a visitor could buy bananas to feed them. The girls loved throwing bananas to them and watching them do tricks.

Dad and the Girls outside the Zoo

One of the Monkeys enjoying some food we gave him!

Tick-tock, tick-tock, Captain Hook would not like this guy!

Patty with the girls.

The girls really liked this guy. He is the oldest male that the zoo has. He did not want to do any tricks, but he was quite friendly. His mate, an old female monkey, was quite funny. After we handed her a banana she acted just like kids in the States do. She peeled it, removed all the treads, cut off the ends, and then picked out the black spots. No kidding! She most get a lot of them to be so picky.

That day we also went to a fun restaurant. The restaurant is a food court style place and it is the only one that we have in our city of about three million people. It has a ice cream stand, pizza place, burger and chicken place, and a place that roasts chicken. But the thing that our kids love the most is that it has a small playground. It is like a mini-version of something someone would see in a McDonald's in the United States.

Ella drinking some Moroccan Coke

This is Patty's favorite meal at 'On the Run'. It is seamed rice with roasted chicken strips. The small plastic cup is filled with what everyone here puts on rice, it name is 'shito'.

About two weeks ago we had a work day at the school building that we use for Bible studies. The kids are on break, so it is a good time to gets things done. While at the school, one of our neighborhood kids caught this baby chicken. Its mother was not to happy, but the kids had a great time looking at it!

Ella, "The bebi ticken, picked mee!"

And finally, every three weeks we have a time to play football 'soccer' with our teenage guys. It is a good time for our teen guys to get their energy out, and for our girls to mix with community kids and learn Twi.

Ella loves close-ups!



Carey always likes to teach the kids new games. Ring-around-the-rosy it a new favorite in our community now. It is nice to she hear learning to community. It take a lot of patience and effort for her to get her ideas across. Most kids her to not understand English at all, and Carey only knows a little bite of Twi at this time. So it is a great learning time!

Our 3rd Baptism Service

Today we had our third baptismal service. We had two men that where baptized. The service before hand went very well. The spirit in the singing time was wonderful, and we had many people in attendance. It was nice to have most of our believers together this morning.

Here are a few family pictures from before church.

This is the vehicle that we used to go to baptisms.

The first man that was baptized was Robert. He was invited by his 'wife', who is friend of Martha, a women that we have written about before. After attending for months now, and after finishing our salvation Bible study, he decided to get baptized.

Please pray for Robert, he attends faithfully on Sunday morning, but has a job as a night security man, and cannot attend the evening meetings. Pray for his 'wife'. He has been able to pay the bride price and the money for his nine month old son. He had been separated from his 'wife' for months, while he was trying to get the money to pay her father. While in the Northern part of Ghana, Alice, his wife, became very sick. Please pray for her and the baby to regain strength, and to come to a saving understanding of Jesus Christ.

Robert's Baptism Pictures

The second man that was baptized, was named Isaac. Isaac is a young community college study. We meet him through Kofi Nkurmah, a young Baptist university student, that used to help me translate. After meeting him, and having him attend a service, Andrew started a salvation Bible study with him. Andrew had the great privilege of leading him to Christ. Since then he has attending very faithfully on the Sunday services. Also he has been able to hep will visitation, and translation in some of the church activities. Continue to pray for him, and for some of his friends that he has been able to bring to services.

Isaac's Baptism Pictures

Purposeful Chaos- A Discription of a African Youth Activity

Tie-Dye
In the tie-dye we can see,

the way that Africans think things should be

Vibrant hues, going here and there

Seeming chaos everywhere

From the traffic jams to the clothes we wear

Tie-dye thinking is everywhere

This colorful pattern covers everythings

To the outsider's eyes it seems obscene.

But Africans like this random theme

And I am here to show what it means

And to the outsider that sees confusion

In this poem I offer a solution

Now do not let your self conclude

Though tie-dye's pattern seems undefined and crude

That this pattern has no plan,

This lie in no way will stand.

For in the tie-dye we can see,

Through its wild visual harmonies

That with each twist and turn it takes

Somehow it a pattern makes.

Though the one that views the strings,

Does not know the final look of things,

He is sure that when the end is near,

The whole pattern will become quite clear,

And though each cloth, has no mate,

He's certain unknown beauty is its fate

And from this cloth is meant to be

A lesson learned by you and me.

It wants to tell us that life was meant to be

Lived in a pattern of originality

No two patterns were made alike, it's true,

And so it is with the lives of me and you.

Let the designer make the plan,

The God, the Creator, amd Maker of each man.

Let Him tie, fold, and color each part

According to the dictates of His heart.

And like the tie-dye, we can't see

What His plan for our lives will be,

But we can trust that in the end,

A beautiful pattern will be made by Him.
___________________

Tie-dye seems the perfect way to describe our Friday night youth activity. It was fun, bright, exciting, and filled with purposeful chaos. It was at times ordered and decent, but I will admit, most of our game times fit into this last description.

Most of the teens here have never been to our style of youth activity. (Most churches here have youth meets, but the schedule is made up of all preaching and speaking in tongues, or drumming and dancing). We have many 16 to 18 year olds that have never been to meetings where a person comes and plays games!

After stating this fact, it is easy to understand why the youth enjoy them so much. Last night we played three games. Big-Bowl Hand Soccer, Big-Ball Volleyball, and Dodge ball. As, my new missionary partner has learned, simpler new games are best. If a game has complex rules it will be hard to play, and harder to enforce.

The last game that we played, Dodge ball, is our wildest game. The youth explode in energy and laughter. We always maintain control, and no one gets hurt, or offended. But, it was interesting for me to watch my co-worker as he tried to watch his side of the court.

He was the typical Western game player. He was getting frustrated that everyone was coming in and out of the game, and that the rules where only being followed in a minimal way. He did not understand that I was not so concerned with having a winner, but that the teens had a chance to enjoy themselves, and use up all their pent-up energy. Dodge ball is one of those times in our activities that are purposeful chaos.

Overall the activity was great. We had about 40 teens in attendance. They where able to hear a clear message about the ways Satan seeks to blind them, and where invited to church.

Here are a few psychadelic pictures for the reader from the activity. Sorry, our ligthening ws bad, and only our night setting would work. The long shutter delay created all the motion effects,but I figure it fits with the post!

To Fast or Not to Fast, That is the Question?

That was a question that I was asked yesterday. Last week Friday marked the start of Ramadan for Muslims around the world. Last year right after Ramadan, Inusah made his decision to become a follower of Christ. This will be the first Ramadan that he faces not being a Muslim.

Since that time, Inusah has been baptized, helped at times with visitation, attends weekly Bibles studies, and has been abandoned by his family. They have not officially called a family meeting and removed him from the family, but they have refused to help him in anyway.

This last few months Inusah has seen that he will have to fend for himself if he plans on going ahead in life. He has always dreamed of being in the military, but without monetary help from his family, it will be difficult for him to pay the application fees. So, Inusah has gotten a job.

As an American reading those words, that does not sound like a very big deal, but here, it is another matter. Currently, we have about 50% un-employment in Ghana. So that means that all employers know that they can get labour cheaply, and that they can have their labourers work many hours, because if the person does not like the arrangement, there will be others that will come in time and fill the gap.

The job that Inusah has gotten is at a lumber mill. He starts work at 5:00 in the morning and works for 12 hours, with a 1 hour lunch break. He gets paid weekly, and receives 3 Ghana Cedis a day, which is about 2 dollars.

I have been very impressed with Inusah and this decision. It would be much easier for him to just yield to his step-father's will, and then ask him for the money. But, he has decided to obey the Lord and take the hard road. Most people in Kumasi will not take these jobs. They say that it is too much work for too little pay.

Back to Ramadan- as I was saying, this is Inusah's first time as a Christian. For those readers that do not know what Ramadan is, it is the Muslim holy month in which all Muslims fast from sunrise until sunset. This month is supposed to teach them how it feels to be a poor person, and also is believed to have power to forgive (abdicate) all the sins of the year before. Ramadan is a central part of Muslim life. Even Muslims that do not live like Muslims at all the rest of the year, fast for Ramadan.

For Inusah this was a big question. He asked if he could fast, but just do it for the Lord Jesus Christ? I told him that the Bible says that we cannot let our good be evil spoken of. If he fasted, even in the name of Jesus, his family and friends that are Muslims would just see it as a Muslim act, not a Christian act. Then he asked me how he should act. To this I told him that he was blessed by having a job. He would leave before dawn, so even as a Muslim he would be able to eat, and when he was at work, he could freely eat. I mainly warned him that he did not need to cause strife with his new found liberty. He did not need to break the fast in his family's presence, that would not be a spirit of love. The Bible commands us to deal in peace with all men. He needed to be a testimony, but in such a way that it would praise Christ.

Please pray for Inusah. Though he wants to do right, it is very difficult. He is the most independent African that I have met. This helps him, but it also makes it difficult for him to open up about his problems. Pray that he will be able to stand as a Christian during this Ramadan time. Pray that he will follow the Lord and continue to grow closer to Him. Please pray that the group of believers will be able to embrace him as a new family and help to strengthen and encourage him.

Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare- This term has come to mean more and more as the years pass. For most people working in the 'Christianized' parts of the world, these words are relocated to a very small box. Even growing up in a family that read many missionary stories, and learning from parents that had an holy appreciation for the subject, I have to admit I did not understand the extent to which spiritual warfare happens in our world.

I am not saying that we do not have our share of spiritual wickedness or warfare in the states, but in the United States everything is neatly labeled, classified, and swiped under the rug of modern society. Here in Africa, everything is raw. Just like our foods, or spiritual conflicts, have not been refined, repackaged, and made into bit sized, palatable pieces.

One of the thing that I have come to love about Africa is it natural, robust flavor. But, with this undiluted ascept comes the more intense forms of spiritual warfare. This is what the missionary comes to face. He needs to accept it as God presents it in the Bible.

God allows these conflicts to strengthen the brother, increase our faith, and allowed Christ to be glorified. But, if we do not take these times of conflict seriously, or on the other hand, make them larger than the power of God, then the war will be lost, and opportunities squandered.

The occasion of this writing has arisen from a few reminders that we have been given about the need for prayer and spiritual power in the work here.

As we arrived at the Bible study on Sunday, we where meet with the oppressive sounds that where coming from another meeting in our school building. The people at the other meeting had been saving money for a speaker system, and had purchased it this last week. (If the reader has the mental picture of a small radio and cd player in mind when he reads these words, he is greatly mistaken. Rather he should picture speakers that would be suited for a rock concert of 45,000 people, and these speakers being used for a small room with about 10 people). The affects were instantaneous. The sounds begin to reverberate off the ears, the hearts begins to palpitate, and the pulse quickens. The soul cries out in frustration, and warfare beginnings. I have been amazed with the reactions of the flesh at these times. The spirit of the whole compound in filled with the oppressive undulating music and noise.


In our six years since we have arrived in Africa we have learned to deal with these conflicts. The Christian has to pray, (many times asking God to allow the electricity to be cut, so the noise will stop), asking God to work despite the difficulty. I have learned that when a missionary enters a service with this kind of conflict raging, and he is weak spiritually, it is close to impossible to see any work for the Lord done.

So, we had to try to sing in the spirit over the noise, and preach very loud to be heard over the music. We are blessed that the people have not started to use this new system for their times of speaking in tongues. For a missionary in Africa, that knows the Lord, the times that people here 'speak in tongues', can be very oppressive. Tongues speaking sounds like a hum of a large bee hive, which is the mixed up sounds of mumbling, screaming, and groaning. Many times the hum is intermingled with loud roars of the most beastly nature. Many times when I have passed groups of tongues speakers, I have felt the hair on my flesh stand up. The spiritual presents is quite oppressive.

This is all stated for this reason. The missionary must face many spiritual conflicts, and prayer and faith are the only things that will lead to victory.


The other reminder that we received this week was from one our our new converts Dora. Dora was raised traditionally, and after coming to Christ, her family told her that her son would die from disease, because they had forsaken the gods. Dora's son's name is Amos, and he is about 7 years of age. She has be praying for him, and it seems as if the family has been pray to their gods against her son also.

In the last month every weekend Dora son has become seriously ill. He has been vomenting, having fevers and suffering from sicknesses. At first my wife and I supposed that he was suffer from the cold rainy season, as so many other children seem to do in June through August. But after our meeting with Dora, this last week, we believe it might be more. We do not seek to give satan more than he is do, but I know that the family is seeking every spiritual means possible to destroy Dora's testimony with her family. If he where to get sick and die, or if he stays sick and keeps Dora from church, then they win a great victory.

These battle for the faith, hearts, and minds of African people cannot be won with education and information. They must be won with prayer and His working in clear ways in each person's situation. So, please pray for Dora, and her son. Pray that God touches his body, and shows to everyone involved His love, and might! Also pray for the Sunday Bible that God will give liberty inspite of the oppresive attacks.

(Note- all the pictures in this blog are taken from a Baptist photographer's website- each is from Ghana- if the reader likes the photos, they can be purchased from his site at http://gallery.williamhaun.com/main.php)

African Mediators

Well, I have taken a new step as an African missionary. Today, I was called upon to fulfill a very important African role. At church tonight I preached about anger and relationship restoration with your family members and neighbors. During the invitation time I told the people that if they had hate in their hearts, or unresolved conflict with others, they needed to get that right. Either they needed to use the African method of an intercessor with their unsaved family, or go to the person personal if they were born-again.

Well, after the service, while talking with the people, one of the teen boys asked if he could talk with me. When he pulled me aside, he told me that he had had a fight with his father that day. He had disobeyed his father's wishes, and he wanted me to mediate for him.

So after I told him that I would be his mediator, I had the opportunity to pass through another cultural door that I have never been through before. I will give the reader a basic sketch of the procedure.

I went to the house and asked to see the father. We made all the formal greetings, and after this I told him my mission for coming to the house. I told the father that his son knew that he was wrong and wanted to seek forgiveness. To this the father told me all the offenses of the son. After this I told him that the son knows of all these offenses, and wants to be reconciled. To this the father asked me to call the son. Then with the son in his father's presence, I told the son what the father had said. From this point, we spent the rest of the time resolving the conflict through the mediator.

See, the mediator in African conflict is very important. When two people have trouble, they do not deal with this one on one. They need a mediator. This mediator has great power: he can mend wounds, create wounds, and even delay healing. Basically in African culture, the mediator is the channel for all communication. He goes to the offended party on behave of the offender. The mediator listen to the problems of the offended, and brings them to the offender. Then brings the request for forgiveness to the offended. After this he brings the warning from the offended to the offered, and adds his own warnings with it. Many times he seeks to confirm, in the guilty parties mind, the important of him changing his actions. After the guilty party makes confession, then the mediator workers on behave of the guilty to soften the anger and punishment of the offended.

This whole process is very thick with cultural meaning, interaction, and protocol. I learned many things from taking part in this process today. Though many times in a setting where the mediator is not Biblical minded this role of mediator can be abused, and many times does not resolve the deeper issues. But, even with its flaws, it has amazing power to open the door for further discussion privately between the parts and the mediator. If the mediator will follow Bible truths, he could use his role, to greatly help and teach the people involved in the conflict.

In the end, the whole event is a great opportunity to help people understand Christ and His eternal ministry. For he is our mediator. He goes to the Father for us, bearing our sin and guilt. Without Him, the Father would never hear our voice, and we could never seek forgiveness from Him.

(Note- all the pictures in this blog are taken from a Baptist photographer's website- each is from Ghana- if the reader likes the photos, they can be purchased from his site at http://gallery.williamhaun.com/main.php)

A Missionary's Take on Social Networking

I guess this entry comes from my recent decision to stop the social networking site Facebook. I never thought that it would be an action of contention. I was not trying to move mountains or start a revolution. I just wanted to get off, become unplugged.

A reader might ask the question, "But why leave such a wonderful invention? Yeah some people abuse it, but it is such a good thing if used rightly!"

I have to admit for some people out there, social networking might be a blessing. For example, many people living far away from friends and family can use it to stay in contact. But to answer that question, I will have to give the reader some understanding of our life here.

Here in Africa, social networking is not something that a person does through a machine, but something that they do with people. In Africa everything is about people and interaction. When a person walks outside their home (many times here a room), they see neighbors. They stop and greet them; say hello; ask about their families. When a person goes someplace they sit in a taxi or tro-tro and it is filled with people. They smile, greet, contact. At every junction and taxi station, the place is filled with sellers, drivers, hawkers, basically...people. A person here has a life that is filled with social networking.

When a missionary goes to the market, he talks to a seller, and they chat before purchase. When he lives his life, that life is full of daily contacts. Smiles, greetings, small bits of news, little things that contact him to the whole community. It is personal, not sterile. Here a person knows his neighbors and lives in his community.

Now, what does this have to do with the States? Well, here I was, living in this land of personal contact, and I was about to return on furlough. The funny thing was that I was not excited about the toys, food, and stuff of America, but the people!

I was excited about being with them, talking to them, fellowship with people that I felt had a common ideal and thinking. But, I have to admit I was shocked when I returned to the States. The best way to describe it would be to take the reader to the scenes from Wall-E, the Disney Pixar movie. I jumped into this world of the Axiom 500. Everyone was running around with their PDAs, Ipods, and cell phones. They where chatting, texting, twittering, and passing by all the real people around them.

I would go to public places (like the mall, grocery store, library) and try to greet people like I learned to do in Africa. I figured it was polite. They are people. I should be nice. But, they always had in earphones or were looking at their cell phones. At times I would greet people, and they would stand shocked for a few seconds, as if not sure what to do. As if they were searching their social databases for a proper response to this intruder. They would mumble a hello and return to their "social community."

I was overwhelmed at times with the detached feeling of America. No cashier at the register, but a crisp computer voice to greet you at Walmart. (I was shocked to hear people say that they liked these lines so they did not have to put up with cashiers). Just swipe the card at the gas station. It seemed like everything, everywhere possible was replaced with a monitor instead of a face. I mean, even at my bank they do not have tellers anymore. They have screens that you talk to, because someone might rob the bank!

I remember the first month that we lived in our new house. I had the idea of an old American community (this is what Africa is like now). Children playing in the yards; kids riding bikes; neighbors having cook-outs. But, I was shocked again. Everything was so quiet. The only time most people saw their neighbors was when they were getting out of their cars or mowing their lawns. Kids played outside, but never far. I am sure that there are goods reasons for this (a person never knows anymore if their neighbor is a pedophile or not). I would walk down the road for walks at times, and the place was like a tomb. We would take our kids to the local park near my wife's family's house or at the park in Northern Michigan, and we would be the only people there. The hundreds of thousands of dollars of playground equipment would just be sitting there most days, empty. If we had such stuff in Ghana, they would have to sell tickets to limit the amount of children that would play on them.
In America everyone was always at work, and when they were at home, they were getting ready to go somewhere, or sitting behind their fences, or "socially connecting" with someone.

I am not trying to be critical, just honest. I do not think we have realized how far we have gone. I remember thinking that I was glad to be in America, so I could reconnect with people that I had not seen in a long time. But, it was amazing to me. When a person tries to have their children play with their friend's kids, they cannot just come over and chat, they have to set up a play date. If my wife wanted to come over for coffee, her friend would have to check her PDA. Now, I know people are busy in America, but at what??????

The facts I read tell me that only 9% of Americans' incomes go to pay for food and water. Housing is next after that. Here in African 80% of our income goes to just our food. Here we have no running water, washing machines, dryers, dish washers, cars, and our electricity is not constant, but in spite all these hardships that add hours of work to our shcedule each day, we still have time to talk, connect, and be with people.

My wife washes all her clothes outside by hand, and our dishes in a bowl in the backyard. All the meals we eat are made mostly from scratch, taking around 1.5 hours per meal. She teaches our children at home. We do not send them to a public or private school. It takes a full day to buy our groceries. As for me, I walk to most of the places that we visit. Pastor Andrew and I probably spend two hours a day in transit, taking buses, taxis, and walking.

I am not complaining or boasting at all. I want the reader to understand that the average person here lives a life just above the level of an Amish person in the States. The point is simply this: if we are so busy, why did the American Time Usage Survey of 2008 say that the average America uses 26.55 hours (yes, over one whole day) a week watching television, e-mailing, doing arts and crafts, and texting. I know we are busy people, but the question is, "Busy doing what???"

The truth is that each person needs to ask God what He wants them to do with their time. I have learned that as a missionary, Satan wants to steal all the time he can from me. I fight all the time with making time for what I should do. I always seem to make time for fun, movies, and relaxation. The whole point is this: I wanted to stop Facebook, because it was not a good use of my time.

I want to leave this blog with this thought:
The idea came from one of the notes that a Christian wrote me on facebook. When I told everyone I was leaving and why, this is what he said.
"I do not have time to read a blog. I am just too busy. I figure the only way that I can keep up with you is to read your status line every once in a while!"
When my wife read this, she asked me an interesting question. She asked, "If he is so busy doing everything that he has to do that he cannot even spend ten minutes every few weeks to read a blog, do you think that he prays for us?" Don't get me wrong, my wife was not being critical. She was just curious. (By the way, this was his status line on facebook that day -- "I am bored of the TV and computer, guess I will go lay in the pool!")

This question got me thinking. If the average person is on the phone, ipod, and computer as much as it seems, when do we have time to pray? If every free moment we have, we use to pull out our phone and drop a line on Twitter or Facebook, when do we have time to pray? meditate? witness? No one is trying to be overly spiritual here. We all struggle with praying and keeping our minds on God. But, here is the question: does all the multi-media stuff really help us or does it just distract us?

As for me, I have decided to un-plug. It is not wrong to use the stuff, and no one's spritiuality should be judged by the use of it. But, I do think that when we get to Heaven, none of us are going to wish that we had been on facebook more than we were.

Our Flood! (Number 243 roughly!!!!)

Ok not really flood number 243, it is just that we have lost count after five. Wednesday morning my wife wake up early and was hoping to steal away to her desk to get some work done before everyone got up. But when she put her feet on the floor she heard "splash". She looked down to she about 2 inches of water cover about half of our room floor.

We had had a flood. Ella had been playing with the faucet in our bathroom. It is an extra one that we use to hook-up or washing machine. Our water is normally off most of the day and comes on during the night and remains on until mid-morning. So, when Ella played with the tap, no water came out, and she left it on.

So after we all went to bed, at about 2:00 in the morning, when the water began to flow, the water began to fill our house. So after about 4 hours it filled one bathroom, two bedrooms, and a hall way. Good thing our house is made out of concrete, and there is never any structural damage. We just scoop up the water, take it to the drains and turn on the fans.

Needless to say, this was not a fun thing to wake up to. Wakeing up to two inches of standing water in half your house is not to fun, and does not bring a lot of happy thoughts to the mind.

But, God has a way of working on you. After about a half hour of scooping, vacuuming, and fuming, the Holy Spirit was able to brake through. He kept bringing this thought to my mind... "In everything give thanks, for this is the willing of God, in Christ Jesus, concerning you!" To which I would say, "I don't want to be thankful, what is there to be thankful about?"

To this question, He gave me these thoughts. Here is the list:

1. You have a house that can be flooded.
2. Your kids picked-up their room last night instead of this morning, so few of their books where destroyed.
3. Your missionary friends bought a Hoover Vacuum, and you do not have to do this by hand now, but get to suck up most of the mess.
4. You have people that attend your services, that every time it rains, their house or rooms flood.
5. You have money to replace things that are destroyed, some people do not.

So what else was there to do, but be thankful! Everything has a reason, and everything works together for good. I am glad God just allows me to be with Him during the trip.

Here are some pictures from the flood.

New Creatures in Christ

Part of this post is borrowed from Patty's blog.

Today I wanted to tell you about some of our new believers and ask you to pray for them!

This is Joe. He is an Asante. He is 14 years old and in junior high school. He was one of the first people that accepted Christ near our meeting place. He faithfully attends every Sunday morning and evening. He was also one of our first converts to get baptized. He has started reading through his Bible with the church reading program. Please pray for his spiritual growth.

This is Dora. She is a Kasina, from the northern part of Ghana and was raised in an animist home. She was raised worshipping idols and going to the "witch doctor" if there was a problem. She found no peace or fulfillment in this so when she moved to Kumasi a few years ago, she decided to attend church. Sadly, she found no peace there either. She tried many churches, but felt like most of them were no different than what she had been raised in - the music was the same, the thinking was the same, the attitudes were the same. The only difference between the churches and her old ways were the use of "Christian" terms for everything! Even though she has never been to school, she bought an English Bible and started teaching herself to read with a little help from the Indian people she worked for. John met Dora while inviting some girls at a sewing shop to come for the Thursday night Bible study. She started coming to the Thursday night study, and we began witnessing to her. She accepted Christ and was baptized. Her employer recently moved to the other side of the city so she now lives very far from the meeting area. She still faithfully attends every Sunday morning, but cannot come to any other services because of the distance. Please pray for her to get a job closer to the meeting area, and please pray for her continued growth.

This is Martha. She is a FraFra from the far north, near Burkina Faso. We met her through a bus driver we used during a missions trip last summer! The bus driver quit coming, but Martha didn't! She struggled greatly with fear, a common problem here, until she accepted Christ as her Savior a few months ago. She has not yet been baptized, and right now she is very sick. Please pray for her health, and pray, too, that she takes this important step of obedience at the end of August.

This is Fred. He is half Asante, half Nzema. He is a student at the city's Community College. He was raised in a Convention Baptist church, but had never heard the way of true salvation. He accepted Christ a little while ago, but is really struggling with baptism. He is heavily involved in a Charismatic Baptist Church, and it will be a big step to break with them. He loves coming to the Bible study, and he goes out witnessing every Saturday with John and Andrew (our co-worker). Please pray that he will let the Lord work in his life, and that he will follow God completely, even though that means breaking with his old church.

This is Richard. He is Asante. He has been attending all three Bible studies weekly for six months. Richard was Andrew's taxi driver. He decided to stay one week and listen, and after he told us that he had never heard the things that we talk about before. He has attended the church of Christ for years, but had left after feeling no peace. Richard speaks English and Twi very well, and has been successful in live. He has his own home, is married with three sons in school, and owns his own taxi. We began to pray for him to receive Christ. The main fear that we had, was his church back ground. It seemed that he was learning new things, but pride was seeming to keep him from admitting that he was unsaved and ignorant of Christ completed work. Well, finally after finishing some salvation studies at church, I decided to take Richard aside privately two Sunday nights ago.

To make a long story short, after about 45 minutes Richard accepted Christ as his Savior. Had had done most of the talking, (if the reader knows me, this will amaze him). Basically he told me of all the wonderful blessing God had given him in his life, and at the end, he said, "If God has been so good to me, I have only one thing left that I can do, ask him to be my Lord and Savior". So he did. Please pray for Richard, he seems to be at peace now. Pray that he will be willing to be baptized in five weeks.

Would you please pray for these people? Yes, they are new creatures in Christ, but Satan does not let go easily! Even though he can never take them to Hell, he wants them to live a life of defeat here on earth. He doesn't want them to grow or bring others to Christ. He wants them to "forget that they have been purged from their old sins" (paraphrase of II Pt. 1:9). All of these people carry much baggage already from their past. Pray that they can "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Pt. 3:18).

Our Visitor at Church

Well, we have experienced another first as missionaries. Sunday morning, we had a great time at the Bible studies. Almost all our people attending, and there was a great spirit in the meetings. We also had the blessing one of our taxi drivers attending. He drivers for us each Monday when we go to town. Mr. Owusu-Bempa is a retired forestry officers, that has bought a car to use for money for retirement. He has become good friends with our family, and it was a great blessing to see him come to the studies.

But, in the midst of all this blessing, we where able to notch another experience off on our missionary belt. Right in the middle of our first hour Bible study a dog watch in the school room. At first it just sat under a desk, but then after about 2 minutes it started to bark. When one of our young men tried to shoo the dog out, it reed back, started barking, and acting very strange for a dog here. Everything stopped, and everyone started running away form the dog, because they understand that it had 'poison', that is the local way they call rabies here.

I figured it would be better for me to get bite as apposed to others in the Bible study. A couple men, keep trying to pull its tail to get it to go out, and I was afraid they would get bite. Most would wait to go to the doctor if they had been bitten, and have little money to pay for doctor's bills. So we got one of the really big rocks that we use to keep the school doors open, and chucked it at the dog. That did the trick! Being crazy, he did not know where it was coming from, and ran away.

Patty told me that it tried to get into their Sunday school room, but she locked the doors. Finally the other 'church' that meets on our school block had the joy of it visiting them also. The pastor had to chase it off with a stick. So in the middle of our really good Sunday, we had a lot of excitement.

As my uncle Mark Sommer jokingly reminded me, if we had remembered Philippians 3:2 "Beware of dogs..." maybe we would have been more prepared. So if the future I might need to remind our prayer partners to remember pray that we have no rabid dogs visit our Bible Studies in the future.