Holidays

Holidays - We love holidays in Ghana. They seem to get better as each year passes. We have been so busy we have not had much time for blogging lately. So here is a pictoral overview of some of our activities the last month.

Thanksgiving...

John little talk about the First Thanksgiving

The kids table
Pin the tail on the turkey

Thomas confused!

Watching 'It's a Wonderful Life' all our Ghanain friend love this movie!

Christmas Decorating and Family Fun

Reading Books Everywhere

Patty's and the girls art projects

Papa Brona! (Father Christmas)

Our little readers

Lego everywhere

Dad building the 'girl's' toys

The tree

A Fundamental Baptist Church Group Meeting-

This was a great time for our people. The were about 300 people their. The people that are in this picture our most of the people from our group that came. It was great for them to here national men preaching the truth and saying the same things they have heard at church.

Tis' the Season...

Tis' the season... for a lot of activity! Between all the church work, government paperwork for Andrew, and holiday preparations, things have been busy. This last month has been full. Two baby namings and dedications at church. A trip to Accra to pick up baby certificates, paperwork, and supplies for the holidays, and stock piling and slaughtering for the holidays.

Yes, that is right, slaughtering. I have been able to add another first to my list of new things experienced as an African missionary. Slaughtering and dressing two turkeys. Our normal turkey seller did not have any birds this year. So she helped us to locate another seller. After traveling way across town, and shelling out a good bit of cash, Andrew and I had two Tom Turkeys in the back of his car just waiting for Thanksgiving day. (The new guys do not do the services of keeping, killing, and preparing that our normal seller does). This meant our kids got the pleasure of not only seeing our live turkeys this year, but also watching the dads slaughter them (well, at least from a distance).

So, for all those that have never slaughtered their own Thanksgiving dinner. Here is our Internet tutorial.

Step One- Selecting the Bird-

We went to a house across town were they raise turkey for sale. This year we choose two. One local turkey (looks like and has the size of a very large wild turkey in the states) The second one a farm turkey (all white and much larger). After selecting your turkey, be prepared to call the owner and to bargain over the price for about 30 minutes. After the said 30 minutes of reasoning, imploring, and talking, then the workers are paid and you get to select the fattest birds.

Step Two- Transportation

After paying everyone and making your cultural rounds of good byes and farewells and so on. Then it is time to tie up the birds legs. (This is after chasing the birds around the compound for about ten mintues). This allows for the birds to be safely placed in the back seat of the vehicle. After traveling for about half the trip, the buyer will then realize that he should have tied up the wings also, since now his car is covered in turkey droppings and feathers from the frightened turkey.

Step Three- The Pot

To pluck the turkey, a person needs the proper pot. In this case a rather large open faced pot, with a lid in order that the water may boil quickly. Our former turkey seller was kind enough to loan us this great pot. Most people will prefer cast iron, but here we make the choice of a nice lead based pot to give it that nice added flavor!!!!

Step Four- Execution

Time for the dirty work. After Tom has eaten his last meal, and prayed his last rights, the pot is good and boiling, and the time is come for ... well you know what. Andrew and I found a nice spot for Tom's last moments were the kids would not watch. So in the famous words of the queen of hearts... "OFF WITH HIS HEAD!"

Note- Turkeys kick a lot and are really strong. So make sure to hold the legs and wings well. Andrew almost got a claw in the face on the second one.

Step Five- The Dunking Machine

This is were the missionary gets his exercise. He lifts the 20 to 30 pound bird repeatedly dunking it in his boiling pot of water. Make sure to cover all the bird, and to scalded your feet with the hot water that is running over the pots lip. This is very important and makes for great story to tell to grand children and at missions conferences.

Step Six- Plucking

This is the fun part. now that Tom is wet and his feathers are scalding hot. Remove him from water and begin to remove all his feathers. This is a good time to call the wife and have her help. About 45 minutes later, you have a nice clean turkey carcase.

Make sure to keep the feathers. They are great for Thanksgiving decoration, Indian costumes, and fake display table items. (Everyone loves when they are told by the missionary that he was given these feathers by a heathen tribal chief as a present).

Step Seven- Surgery

This is not for the faint of heart, or for those that are not totally committed to being carnivores. I am sure that many a vegetarian took a trip to a slaughter house too early in life and therefore have joined the ranks of meat abstainers.

After about 15 minutes the missionary should be elbow deep in livers, hearts, and other entrails and such like.

"I think I got it!"

Step Eight- Clean Up and Packaging

Normal we suggest having running water. So that the reader can wash the dressed bird and his own hands after handling all that poultry, but just to make it fun and to mix it up a bit, on this day the city decided to turn the water off. In the case of this event, let the wives use the remaining boiled water and use it to scald your hands clean and to clean the turkey before packing.

To prepare Tom for his three week wait in the deep freeze, just wrap him in two plastic trash bags, and place him in the freezer.

I hope that the tale about our Thanksgiving preparation has been inspiring and we hope that you will try the Organic Turkey experience for your Thanksgiving celebration next year!

Here are a few other pictures from the last two weeks:

Prayer of Faith

James 5:15 "And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him".

The week has been very busy. Benedicta has been at the hospital now for almost two weeks. After about two weeks of sickness at home he was taken to the hospital with a lot of pain and vomiting. After spending two days in the hospital, I asked the doctor if it might be meningitis. She decided to check for the sickness, and about a week ago discovered that this was his problem. Though this would seem to be the end of the problem, here it is not that simple.

Many people are watching this case to see what will happen. Watching to see if our God is able to heal Benedict. The gospel has been preached to many people that live around Benedict's family and even to some of their enemies. They are all watching to see if the God this family worships and serves will raise him up. If not these people can continue to serve their gods, since they have more power.

The Lord has been working, and Benedicta is getting better. I hope to write another time of the ways in which God has worked. I do have this testimony to give. Today when we went to the hospital, the doctor on duty told me this. She said, "God must hear your prayers, because I do not have an answer for this". At the beginning of the week he was taken to the ICU for children and looked to be getting worse, now just three days later he is sitting up, playing, and laughing, and back in the normal chidlren's ward. God is good.

This whole thing has re-enforced something God has been challenging me with lately. Do I really have faith in God to do what the Bible says. People here need to see a person that has faith in a great God, and faith that works. Faith that believes that God answers prayers. I pray, but how important is it to me to see answers? God is willing to work, am I willing to trust?

Prospective

This week I have spent a lot of time with some of our converts. Bismark and Matilda have been saved and are trying to follow the Lord. This last few weeks their son has been very sick and we have gone to pray for him off and on.

On Monday, their son Benedict was taken to the main city hospital because was vomiting and could not move his legs. After two days in the hospital and many prayers; still nothing had changed. I finally talked to one of the younger doctors and asked if they had done any tests for meningitis. She told me that she was newly given the case, but would see about doing some test for it.

The following day the test came back positive for meningitis. Currently he is in the hospital taking the medications.

One of the amazing parts has been the spiritual conflict involved and also the great grace and faith that has been seen in the parents lives. Bismark told me on Friday that he was very concerned. Some of the people that live in the surrounding area of the new Bible study had said that their were going to curse his family or his wife. He knows that God is stronger, but really wanted us to pray. So after talking to the doctor, we went back to their house. On the way he told us that he was thinking about letting Benedict move to his sister-in-laws house, since he did not want anyone to hurt him again. I have been praying for their faith to hold, so that those that do not want the Word of God to increase will not see this as a victory.

At the house we talked and prayed together. We pray and looked over the house. Here many times when people wants to curse others they will place items that have been charmed in the house or around it. For this reason we checked it inside and outside very well. After seeing that nothing physical was there, we prayed and committed the house and each person living in it to the Lord. We asked God to be pleased with all the things that happened their, and also to make Bismark's family a light to the people around them.

Many people are watching right now. People know that others have claimed to curse the family, so this is not just about a little boy being sick, it is a test to see which power is stronger. There are about 10 adults that have been hearing the gospel in this area, and they need to see that Christ is the Almighty God.

Today Benedict seems to be doing much better. Many people around the world are praying and many people in Ghana are praying.

Yesterday Bismark today me this. When we were talking together he told me that he had to praise God. I asked what he meant and this is what he said. "Well, I was feeling sad about Benedict and asking God why, when I started to look around at all the other very sick children. The one man that has a sick son, that shares a bed with Benedicta (here the hospitals are over crowded and most beds have two children on them at a time), has been sick for months. His father has had to use his own blood for a transfusion and his son cries and is in pain all the time. Other children are crying, shacking, and in great pain. Pastor though my son is sick, he is not suffering so much like these other children. I had to thank God for His goodness." After this he told me a very interesting Africa story to make it clear.

He said, "A man was sad one day. His life was, he felt, horrible. Everything was going wrong. So he decided that the only course of action was to kill himself. After some time of thinking, he resolved that this was what the would do, and so got a rope and began to go out to the bush to hang himself. As he walked along the path which would reach the big tree were he wanted to kill himself he saw a crazy man coming. Up the path between the man and the crazy man was a large mud hole that they would both have to pass over to keep going on their journeys. As the man thought of what to do, the crazy man stopped at the mud hole. There he knelt down and began to laugh and praise. He keep saying, "Thank you God, thank you God", as he knelt down and lapped the water. The man was shocked. Here was a crazy man that had nothing, and could be happy for dirty water, and he wanted to kill himself. The man throw down his rope, and turned around and went home. Life was not so bad after all."

God has given me a lot of good prospective this week. I have seen that everything should be prayed about because people are always watching and Christ's testimony is important. I have seen that God's people no matter how young can learn and see the greatest truths. I have seen that even in the darkest hours, God's Spirit can shine His light of hope into the saddest heart. Lets thank God for these times of proper prospective.

Last Three Months in Pictures

Well, here is our life the last three months in not so many words.

Beef it's what's for dinner... even in Africa (well sometimes)

Here is a the picture I picked out this week for the photo challenge. It was taken near the local slaughter house. The cows are loaded up in trucks and sometimes taxis and brought to the area from the north. Before they are sold on auction for the meat the owners give them over to local cowboys. They are then feed on the surrounding grass to fatten them up. If you would like to see some more picture of our local African cowboys just click here.




I wish I had on hand pictures of the many beef photos that we see here each week (i.e. taxis full of cow heads, Muslim butchers smoking cow tongues, and gaints bulls walking on the sidewalk, and many other gems). I think that I will make this my goal this Friday as I make my weekly trip by the butcher house. Hopefully I will get to post a few good photos next week.

Cultural Tidbits and Taboos

On Saturday our family had another one of those funny and not so funny cultural moments. Patty and I have been witnessing to a lady for some months now. She is educated and speaks English and Twi quiet well, and has been exposed to many foreigners through a job program that she has been a part of in years past, but she is still very traditional in here thinking.

On Saturday we were reviewing the materials that we have covered with her in the past, since she has been in her home village for the last few weeks. The Bible study was progressing well, and Esther (the lady that we witnessing to) had given the girls some paper and pens so that they could draw pictures and color while we had the Bible study.

Esther was listening really well, she seemed to be remember a lot of the material and was understanding new things that she had not grasped before. During this time the girls were have a great time drawing. I had just finished talking to her about the fact that all the gods and things worshipped here, bring a curse though they have powers, because of Exodus 20 and Genesis 3 when Carey walked over to show us the picture she had drawn.

First I want to say that Carey loves princess and fairy tales. She had draw a scene with an ocean and fish and a nice clear picture of a mermaid in the middle of the picture. Just as I saw the picture, my brain clicked, and I saw Esther's eyes get Huge!!!! I sent Carey away nicely and told her to draw another picture.

Then the explanations began. See in Europe and America mermaids are fairytale fodder and at most a superstition of years past. They were believed by sailor to be beautiful things that would help sailor that were throw over board and so on. And modern American has really fallen in love with them since Disney's Little Mermaid movie. And Carey being a total girl, loves all things that have to do with fairy tales and princess and draws pictures of all these things all the time.

But in Ghana, this is not the thinking. In Ghana mermaids are demons! They live in the rivers and lakes and work to curse people and work evil. The queen of the mermaids is Mame Water, and she is a witch and is greatly feared by people. When ever they make local movies here about mermaids and such they always agents of evil and most people think they are tantamount to the evil eye or bad omens.

So needless to say it would be like your pastor coming over and having a Bible study with you, and then the Pastor's kid comes over with a drawing full of pentagrams, and goat heads. Lets just say I was glad that Esther had been around other foreigners. After a few minutes I was able to explain the thing, and was kicking my self that I had not thought of it earlier.

Well, after visiting we got to explain to Carey and Ella why they could not draw pictures of mermaid when they are not at home anymore, or when Ghanaians are around. Carey looked at me and said, "Daddy but that is silly? Why be afraid of that, God protects us!"

It is very interesting raising children of the mission field. They learn somethings so early. The learn many cultures, and beliefs, and have to be sensitive to each one in the right way. But, the truth is that it can be a great help in the future. Missionary kids are one of the few kinds of people that get to learn many different tidbits and taboos from many cultures.