Ghana Trip Journal: Day 5 Part I

This morning we were up early to head to church with Mark. He attends the International Central Gospel church located in Accra. When we drive somewhere in the car, it is always my opportunity to take in the sights. This morning we left the hotel at 6:30am, and the city of Accra was already up with the sun.
I saw tons of people walking to church. You can tell when they are going to church because they wear their traditional African garments sewn from vibrant, beautiful cloth. The only time they dress like this is either for church, weddings, or for some sort of celebration. We also saw a lot of soccer athletes out for their morning run, and there were numerous soccer games going on in various dirt fields. There is also this one stretch of road that we have driven by a few times now, and this morning we drove by it again on our way to church. It is about a ¾ mile strip where the homeless live. Mark calls it the slums. Every time we drive by it I get a huge lump in my throat. This morning as we drove by I saw a mother cuddled up, asleep with her small son. They were sleeping right on the ground under a thin and worn blanket. They were two of about 75 people on this strip. The strip is right along the side of the road, so these people are not hidden at all. It’s interesting because in the United States it seems like the homeless are somewhat hidden away from us – living by rivers, under bridges, or back in trees (or maybe this is only the case in Iowa). Here in Ghana the homeless live right on the shoulder of the road. I force myself to look every time because I don’t want to become numb to it.

Well, we finally got to church and boy was I ready to hear from God this morning! And, let me tell you, these people know how to worship! I thought that Jesus might come back at any moment because with a 2000+ congregation singing and shouting and dancing so loud for him, I thought for sure He would want to come and join the party. I think this church had about 3 different overflow areas outside, plus the regular seating, plus the seats upstairs. And, this crowd was just for the first service. Apparently I wasn’t the only one ready to hear from God. There was also another second service still to come which Mark said would bring in another 2000 people. The preacher gave a powerful sermon entitled “A Fresh Start” which was in line with the celebration of the New Year. I took notes, and here is my favorite excerpt of what he said:

God’s forgiveness prevails when we repent of our sin. Sin brings guilt and weighs us down. It takes away our confidence. We cannot function fully in our life when we carry our burdens of sin. But, through God’s forgiveness we can have confidence to come to His throne. The assurance of God’s presence in our life banishes fear and timidity. With confidence in God we can embrace life. Real life. And, we can embrace it with excitement. Life is sweet. No, we are not ignorant of the problems of the world, but we are also not ignorant of the power of God to redeem and save. When men abandon you, God will be there. God is coming! Help is coming! Don’t run away from your problems. Don’t cry yourself to sleep at night because help is coming, and it is from above. (Psalm 32:1-2, Hebrews 4:15-16)

After the sermon the preacher prayed and gave the opportunity for any who had not asked Jesus to be their Savior to do so. Those who had never put their trust in Jesus before had the opportunity to go up front and pray along with the preacher. There were about 150 people that made the decision to give their lives to Jesus this day. It was a beautiful sight, and I had to take a picture.

One thing that the preacher said to this group that really stuck in my mind was that a life lived in faith is like a walk. You take a step, and then another step, and another. Each of these steps forms your walk. He told them that putting their faith in Jesus was the first step to a new life. The old has gone. The new has come.

I also did find out today about someone who actually is doing something about the trash problem. Across from the church grounds there is an area (behind the slums) that used to be a refugee camp. It is no longer used for that purpose, and when it shut down there was piles and piles and piles of trash left everywhere. It literally stretches about ¾ of a mile of just trash and junk.

Well, the preacher of Mark’s church decided to do something about this area. He purchased this land and he is now in the process of cleaning it up. He has hired people to go through the trash and pick out the plastic….

Which is then cleaned. These girls are cleaning and scrubbing off the plastic pieces.

Then it is recycled. These piles of bags are waiting to be picked up for recycling.

I was glad to hear of someone doing something about this trash issue which frustrates me so much!

Here are some more pictures that I took from the car on our way back to our hotel.

This is how the women carry their babies:

I don't know why I took so many pictures of people carrying items on their heads, but I just find it fascinating that they have the balance to carry these huge loads!

Those are oranges that he is selling right on the median of the road.

After some lunch we then made our way over to the basketball courts where the Kingdom Hoops Ghana team was going to have their first game as Kingdom Hoops! I took a TON of pictures, so I will let these paint a picture for you:

The court:

The team warming up.

So far, one on-looker. Also, that is the scoreboard in the background...a chalk board. And, notice what the hoop is being held down by...concrete blocks!

The surroundings. There are always random goats everywhere. Kind of like you see cats running around in Iowa. In Ghana there are stray goats. At least I think they are stray.

You can't tell in this picture, but she has a baby strapped to her back.

Mark & Jake talk over strategy before the game.

Giving the game to the Lord! I LOVE this picture!

This bench was the only seating in the whole place (except for some tree stumps).

Half-time talk.

Jake downs some bagged water!

LOTS of onlookers now. When there is something going on in the town, people find out!

Meanwhile, during the game, some kids started a soccer game on the side of the court. Notice that many of them play in their BARE feet! I don't know how they do it!

Well, during a time-out, Jake decided to go and give these boys a speech about how they should be practicing basketball, not soccer. :)

I couldn't hear what he said, but I imagine he told them that basketball could take them places they've only ever dreamed of. :) Then he gave them a basketball.....and they fought over it!

Jake also chatted with this little boy name Prince.....

Prince is 11 years old, very well spoken, and knows English (which means he is probably in school). He told Jake that he wanted to come to America and go to school, and he asked for Jake’s phone number. Jake gave him his number and Prince called Jake every day after that, and has called numerous times since we’ve gotten back home. He keeps saying that he wants to come here to go to school. Jake is working on finding him a host family situation, so I’ll have to keep you updated! Prince was a really sweet boy!

Well, Kingdom Hoops Ghana ended up losing the game! Bummer! The boys were so bummed too because they really wanted to put on a good show for Jake. Hopefully Jake will get to see many more Kingdom Hoops Ghana games in the future. Here is a good team picture:

After the game, Kofi (our adoption representative) picked us up at 5pm to head to the eastern region where Samuel lives! I was SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got Kofi’s car loaded up with our luggage, said goodbye to Mark for a day, and then hopped in, brimming with anticipation of what this part of our adventure would be like. We chatted with Kofi for a bit, and then, get this, Kofi said we would be meeting Samuel and his family TONIGHT! AHHHH! I had no idea! I thought the plan was to meet them tomorrow! Of course I became even more excited at that point, but then I started getting nervous. At least I had a 2 hour car ride ahead to emotionally prepare myself!

The drive to the eastern region took us up a beautiful mountain. We had the windows down and Kofi had some American Christian music playing…the first song he played was My Redeemer Lives by Nicole C. Mullen. I sat there in the back seat taking in the fresh and cool mountain breeze, thinking about little Samuel. I got this huge lump in my throat from trying to hold back the tears – I wanted to pray that God would have the meeting to go well, but I was speechless. I just felt very still sitting there, almost frozen. All I could do was sing along to the music in my head and that was about it. Tears of excitement and happiness welled up in my eyes as I continually pictured what it might be like during that first moment of meeting Samuel.

As Kofi’s tiny car inched us along, it was then that it hit me that this car ride up this mountain was an exact representation of how our adoption journey has been. Here we were, slowly slowly slowly going up this mountain, blindly following twists and turns, traveling through overgrown trees, completely weighed down by our baggage (literally – Kofi drives a tiny 2 door Volvo sort of car and we had 3 full size pieces of luggage somehow jammed in the back….the car could barely go 30mph). And yet, I knew that if we could just stay on this path, up the winding road, it would lead us to what God had for us. On top of that mountain was Samuel’s village. We would finally see his face. And I would finally be able to breathe. Every detail of this trip up this mountain has been exactly how our adoption journey has felt. In this journey we could never see where God was leading us. There have been twists and turns and disappointments. There have been emails full of bad news, unexpected happenings, and trials that have completely weighed us down in this journey. It has been an uphill climb the entire way. And, still, who really knows what is ahead. Only God. But, as we went up that mountain, I knew that at the top was Samuel’s village, a place where we could rest, and breathe. We would finally see what we had been climbing for!

And, you are going to hate me, but I am going to have to continue from this point on Monday! Sorry but this post is getting really long and I have about 3 more pages of thoughts written from this day. On our trip we didn’t bring our lap top so I hand wrote my journal and it’s taking me a little longer than I thought it would to type it all out and post corresponding pictures! I need a blogging break over the weekend, but at least you already know some of the details about our meeting with Samuel, so I am not really leaving you hanging! If you haven’t seen that post of our first meeting with Samuel, you can click here to read it. More on Monday!