The Attack of a Crazy Woman

This last week added another new experience to my wife's list of Africa moments. It all started with our youngest daughter hurting her foot about four weeks ago. She had a puncture wound from a small piece of glass that became infected and need treatment. Each morning about 8:00 Patty needed to pack her up and head off to the hospital for new bandages and medicine.

Well on the particular day of our adventure, Patty set out and had Ella on her hip, since she was not able to walk. As they approached the junction, Patty remember that a crazy woman had been living near the junction for the last few days. For this reason she tried to cross over to the other side of the street. But, just as she tried to do this, a larger truck drove onto the road and parked beside her. There was no were to move. She either had to turn her back on the crazy lady or keep walking forward.

As Patty approached, the crazy woman, (totally unclothed except for a bolt of cloth around her waist) she began to approach Patty. (I might write a post someday about the decent into madness. A person here sees a lot of crazy people, and most of the time they can tell how crazy the person is just by their cloths and actions. Anyway back to the story).

At first Patty thought that she was just going to ask for food, but as she approached, she got a wicked light in her eyes, and reached out to grad Ella. All at once, she was pulling on Ella arm, trying to take her away from Patty. Patty told her to stop, but the woman was not listening. Just then the truck driver drove off, and all the ladies near the shops began to scream and yell. They were all to afraid to help. Patty tried to hit the woman, but she just keep pulling Ella's arm harder. Her was Patty in a tug-o-war with a crazy woman and Ella was in the middle. Patty and Ella were trying to pull away, but the crazy lady was using all her strength! Patty just kept on hitting her and trying to get away.

Suddenly as everyone was screaming and Patty was about to loose hold of Ella, a man came running up. He was dressed in business clothes and carry a leather messenger bag. Well, like David with his sling, he started running and wound up that bag and let it fly. He hit the crazy lady right up side the head and sent her flying.

The man told Patty and Ella to run. At this time all the ladies came over to comfort and she is Ella was hurt. Just then the crazy lady came back. Like a Yankee batting star he line-drived her in the shoulder and knocked her down. The man had to hit her about three times, and finally had to use a stick to chase her off into a distance gutter.

After a few minutes and a few tears, everyone was better. Patty thanked the man and headed off to the hospital. Luckily the crazy lady is gone, and no one is worse for the wear. Patty has had a few interesting experiences over the years with crazy people. But each time we are reminded and thankful for the chance to live in a country were people still help each other and are not afraid to act.

I Spy...

My two girls have some small I spy books that they love. When they are in the car with my wife on Mondays, they love to look at them. I hear her calling out things and then I will hear one of the girls say, "I see it". Most of the time the pages are crammed full of everything imaginable. Each page has a theme, but the things in the pictures are colorful mix of the ordinary and the bazaar!

My life the last two weeks seems to have resembled one of these 'I Spy' books. To say the least it has been full. Life lately has been filled with a ton of the ordinary stuff, and a lot the abnormal also. All this activity has made it very difficult to write any updates. But after two weeks, I thought that I should attempt to talk about so of the things that have happened the last few weeks.

In the last two weeks, I spy... Family Time

-Carey has been study countries of the world. For this reason in the last few weeks our family has eaten food from and dressed up as people from the countries China, Mexico with Holland, Japan and other countries coming on the way.

Ella and Carey really enjoyed opening their mini pinatas!

Also Valentine's Day has come and gone. Though the hearts, pink, red, and white decoration are off the walls. The girls still have fun stories to remember.

I spy... Trips to the Capital with Ella

Ella joined my on a trip to the capital to pick up our paper work that the government had finished. While there we visited Ghana one and only Mall. It was great and Ell loved playing on the playground that they have outside near the food court.

I spy... A major accidents

While on our trip to the capital Andrew and I spied this accident. It was roughly around 7:00am in the morning. The accident had accorded about twenty minutes before our arrival. Two large trucks, one a tanker and the other loaded with dry goods, collided and exploded into flames. Our vehicle was in a long line of traffic that was waiting for the Fire Service to arrive and put out the flames. This picture was taken after about 2 hours of waiting while cars where allowed to pass the wreck.

I spy... A change in decade

Yes, it is try. Just last Sunday I passed into a new decade. Though I am far from old, I am no longer young (in the immature sense, at least I hope not!) Patty and the girls did great. The Andrew family was invited over. The meal was great. There where steaks, potatoes, baked beans, stir-fired vegetables, Coke, pumpkin pie! After about 30 minutes of gorging ourselves, the kids went off to play and the adults all played guitars together.

I spy... Two young boy grieving


Last Thursday one of the boys that attends are services on a regular bases on Thursday nights seemed quiet. After church my wife asked him what was trouble him, and he told her that his mother had just died a few days before. His father had divorced his mother many years and ago and was staying at his uncle house. Now that she was dead, he has no parents to help to raise him. The follow day, Andrew and I went to the family house to greet the family and pray with them. The boys seem to be doing well, but they are grieving quietly.

Also on Saturday I attended a funeral for another boy that attends services off and on. His father had died some months before. Here are some pictures from the funeral.

I spy... Asamoah recovering

This last week we visited Asomoah, and he is seeming to be recovering well. I show a x-ray and scan of his skull this week. It looks as if h has a skull fracture, but the doctor says that the operation will need to be delayed for some months to insure that all the swelling has gone down. Currently he is very open to the gospel and is able to listen well.

I spy... People coming back to church and growing

It has been very exciting to see men and women coming to the Bible Studies. Some have returned after missing for some time, some are new, some are very faithful. It has been such a blessing to see people grow and change.

Here is Andrew with a few of our young men that attend on Sunday mornings.

I spy... The City Road Construction People braking our water lines

At the end of every dry season here in Ghana, there is an unofficial holiday. It is called the Braking of the Pipes! Yes, it is the wonderful time of the year when the City Council send out road machine to fix the roads that have corroded in the last rainy season. Generally this workers, with good intentions, come to our community and start to grate the roads. The only problem is that the Water Company and Road Workers have different ideas about how deep pipes should be. Here in Ghana pipes never freeze, so they are not placed very far into the ground. Normal the lines are run about one to two feet deep. This workers great for normal stuff, but when the road here corrode by rain, it leave only about two inches between the road's surface and the pipes. So every year the same thing happens. The tractors come and put down there blades. In about 30 minutes there are about 10 to 15 broken lines, and water cover the whole road. It is all great fun! The road guys finish the job, the local plumbers come and get money for work fixing all the pipes, and the whole community comes out for the sceptical and free water. After about two hours all the buckets are full of the water that would be wasted, the pipes are fixed and recovered, and every goes home. They all 'eagerly' waiting for next years festival.

Hospitals, Landladies, and Translators oh my...

Yes, this has been a week to beat the band. It has been one of those Wizard of Oz type things, a person has a great adventure, but at the end just wants to click their heals together and go home and rest. (But, I will tell you this, the work we got done, and thing that where acomplsihed, made it all worth while).

We to start... Well the best place would seem to be Monday, since thats the first day of the week. Monday we got a call about a young couple that has been attending our Bible studies on a regualr basis. They are from the north and both where raised in Tranditional beleives. The are very new to Christian ideas, and their families are not happy that they have stopped worshipping their gods. When Dora (the couples sister) called me on Monday she told me that they where at the main hospital in town, and that their son was not breathing or moving. Dora told us that he had been sick on Sunday, and after receiving medical help from a local hospital, they returned home. But on MOnday morning the boy's condition had gotten worse, and so they took himto another hospital. At this hospital they told him that the case was to serious for him, and to take the boy to the main hospital in town. By the time that they reached there, the boy was not breathing or moving.

Bismark and his wife whee for concerned that their son would die. Dora told me that she was praying that the boy would recover. She said that she felt it was Satan fighting against the gospel. After saying this she went on to explai. Basically, when she rejected the family gods, the family told here that she would die young and all the family memebers that would follow her. She said, that it Benedict where to die, the fmaily would come to the parents and tell tehm taht he had died because they had turned away from teh gods. She felt that this was a battle for her brotehr-in-law and sisters souls.

Well, to make a long store short, we got the call at 11:00 pm on Monday, the hospital was closed for visitors unitl 5:00 the next morning. So we had to wait. So off we went the next morning. We where able to catch a taxi and arrive before they opened the gates. We praise the Lord that we where able to comfort the family, adn pray with them.

Basically over the next few days, we where able to visit an perpare food for the family. Overall it was a gerat way to dimistrate the love of Christ. The greatest part of all, is that the medicine and prayers worker, and Benedict has recovered. The fmaily was very excited and keep praising the Lord for his healing power. The whole family was in church on Sunday and we where able to tell all the people about how God answers prayer.

Well, that was part of Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Well, splash on top of that three days of all day visitation, salvation Bibles studies, and walking. We where tried, but had a great time. We where able to speak to alot of people. Not only hav ewe been able to start new Bible studies, we have start these Studies with new trainees. Currently we have three young men that are helping us in our visitation efforts. Saturday of this last week, Inusah and I where supposed to visit is Muslim sister that wants to convert to Christianity, but we ran into a little snag. His house got flooded. Yes flooded! Our rainy season has been quite heavy these last two weeks, and some of our people that attend our Bible studies live, near a large river that flows by Anloga. The river is not properly channeled, so it floods anytime it rains heavely. Well, tha tis just what it did on Friday night. Three of my Bible study boy wake up in the middle of the night with three foot of water in their rooms. Needless to say, they where pretty busy cleaning out the house, not to mention that the river was difficult to pass. So, we did not get to go visiting together, but we did have some intersting conversation as tolked that morning.

Then came the landlady... we have been cleaning our house for about three weeks now, after removing everythig and spraying for cockroaches, into all this mess, feel our landlady. She had returned with her brothers and sister from overseas, because here borther had died. Well, after seeing all the caouse, she seemed a little angry, but Friday seemed to be climax of it all. Basically for about two weeks, all the families in our apartment building have been walking on pins and needles. No children playing out side, no making any noise, just lock the doors and stay hiden when the lady is around. But, Friday the storm came. See, I am the tenet incharge of the house, i make sure everything is in proper order, and to put it basically, things where not up to standard around here. So there I was Friday morning, feeling like a person wearing rudy red slippers, and the women talking to me was angry because my house just dropped on her sister. Get the picture! But, the Lord worked it all out. I learned that the best answer at times is not answer. All the tenants went to their family home on Sunday afternnon, and it looks like everything is all better, for now!

So the week was a fun, intersting, exciting jubble of work, activity, and stress. But that leds us to Sunday. Sunday morning came and went. W ehad three adult men, and one teenager visit. We had a great service. Then after visiting our landladies family, we headed off to evening service. IT had rained and the weather was very cloud here, about 70 degrees. The serve went well, and the preaching seemed to help everyone. But, I have a funny story to relate. I have a young community college guy that helps with translation for me, while my friend Kofi travels during his summer break. Fred, the young man, does a great job, and speaks enlgish and twi well. But, Sunday we ran into a snag. Many times here people will incorporate English into their Twi vocalbulary, giving the word a new meaing, but not with proper unsdertanding of the English words meaning or usage. One such word that has begun to be used alot in Ghana is an MAerica curse word that starts with the letter f. I have be shocked at times to hear people use this word in ther Twi, but each time they seem not to understand the word in it's English context. Well, this brings us to Sunday night. I was preaching about Satan, and that he is crafty, treaty, and clever. I was trying to diiscribe him as our enemy, and during this time, as Fre dwas translating, he used a local English. Twi expression that people use when talking about people that are crafty or powerful. So right in the middle of my sermon, Fred proceeds to say in Twi that satan is... f****** (saying three times for enfuses)! I WAS SHOCKED! Most people took it for it's local new meaning, but a few welled educated and a few missionary where in shock. I have to admit that it took me a couple of seconds to recover from that. So needless to say, I have discovered a area that Fred and I will talk about this week. I really beleive that he did not sin, but I do beleive he needs to be taught what the words mean, and that they should not be used.

So that story tops off the week. It has been a whirl-wind, it will be intersting to see what this week bring around, I am sure it will be exciting.