Visiting Yaw

Jake had the opportunity to be the speaker for a men’s conference at Morningside Lutheran Church in Sioux City this weekend. Yaw (our first ever host student from Ghana) is at Dordt College in Sioux Center about a 45 minute drive from where we were, so we swung by to see him Sunday afternoon!

He showed us around campus...

And we loaded him up with some goodies - college style!

We checked out his dorm room where he and his 6'5" roommate squeeze into their loft beds! I laugh just thinking about it! Yaw got us each a crisp new Dordt College t-shirt!

And of course Yaw wanted to show Jake the gymnasium where he will play all his games. We hope to make it up to a game before Christmas!

According to Yaw….

-The dorm food is bad (in fact he is the only one I know who has gone off to college and gotten skinnier!)
-His classes are good, and his teachers are very nice (he’s majoring in business).
-There is one other guy on campus from Ghana!
-No one can pronounce his name there – they call him Ya without the ‘w’. He said they just can’t seem to catch onto his name!
-He walks to church and catches rides to the store.
-His basketball team is picked to finish second in their conference heading into the season. Jake predicts that they will make a run for the NAIA Division II title this year!
-He and Ezekiel (who is back at Gillette College) talk every day.
-He won’t be home for Thanksgiving because of practices and a tournament, but he’ll be home for Christmas!

We are REALLY missing Yaw! Especially, you-know-who!

Home Safe!

Well, Yaw and Ezekiel had quite the adventure in getting home from Wyoming! They started out on Monday morning, and the plan was for them to drive home and get here late Monday evening. However 2 hours into the trip they met up with icy roads and ended up in the ditch. Thankfully they were okay but happened to literally be in the middle of nowhere! A tow truck grabbed their car, but it was totaled. A friendly group of passerbys picked them up and gave them a ride to the nearest town where they stayed the night in a hotel until we could figure out travel plans. After trying options with rental cars and bus lines, Jake eventually decided to drive and pick them up himself. So, yesterday morning Jake set off for what turned into a 12 hour road trip to pick up the guys! They were scheduled to get in late last night, and JJ, Justice and Sam were so excited to see them that they asked to ‘wait up’ for them on the couch.

I hit the hay at 10:30pm and Justice and JJ were still wide awake watching Christmas movies! The guys got in late last night and they were greeted with lots of smiles and excitement this morning!

So glad everyone is home safe! Let the fun begin!!!!!!!

Home for Christmas

Recognize anyone in this photo?

Yep, that’s Yaw and Ezekiel in there! Their team, the Gillette College Pronghorns, just beat their biggest rival - #15th ranked Sheridan College in Division I junior college basketball! So exciting! They are currently 9-3 on the season, with two games left before Christmas break. Yaw and Ezekiel will be coming home for Christmas break on Monday! There will definitely be a house full of people who are anticipating their arrival….

Jayla especially has been SO CONFUSED by Yaw’s departure, and she is even MORE CONFUSED about chatting with Yaw on skype! It will be fun to see her reaction when she sees her long lost friend in person!

College Bound

(Thank you Gerlach family for purchasing all of the college necessities!)


Jake gives some last minute advice....

Oh, are you wondering why Peprah is still here?
I bet you can guess!


Ezekiel & Yaw college-bound

It's a long story, but Ezekiel is actually no longer going to Indian Hills. He is instead headed to Gillette with Yaw and was also offered a basketball scholarship there.

Oh the fun they will have!

Goodbye for now....and Godspeed.

P.S. JJ, you are never going to college.

Yaw's New College Choice

About 4 weeks ago, a new college opportunity came up for Nana Yaw. He was offered a full basketball scholarship to play at Gillette Junior College in Gillette, Wyoming. If you remember, his previous college decision was to attend North Dakota State University as a preferred walk-on for their basketball team. He had also received an academic scholarship for attendance at North Dakota State University. The new offer by Gillette certainly got us thinking and asking God for guidance! Yaw had already been getting all the check-in information in the mail for his dorms, meals, and academic schedule for NDSU! He had been set to go to NDSU for months…..and then…..the new scholarship offer……and then some prayer…..and then some advice from Jake…..and then some more prayer…….and then a few days went by……and then…….

Click Here

And so, Yaw is off to college this week! I can only imagine all of the new adventures just waiting there for him! So, Jake and I are 28 years old and sending our first kid off to college. :)

Also, I am still reminiscing about our time with Yaw’s family. Just have to share these pictures that my friend Stacy took. You can just see their beautiful spirits SHINING in these pics!

She even got an impromptu pic of me and my munchkins! JJ and Jayla were practically begging Stacy to take their picture and it wasn't even our photoshoot! When I schedule our family pics later this year they probably won't want anything to do with the camera!

And I love this one....Nana wanted a picture with the Huxley water tower! :)

A Few Things

God is working. He is working in so many ways in Ghana right now that it’s giving me goosebumps as I type. Check this out….

That would be our Kingdom Hoops team in Ghana with Pastor Randy Jaramillo. Pastor Randy is in Ghana with his family for a 5 year mission trip to plant a church. He is there with a church called The Potter’s House. A few weeks ago, Pastor Randy happened to be walking by the court that our Kingdom Hoops team was practicing on. He decided to stop and play some ball with the boys. And in doing that, he struck up a conversation with the captains of the team, found out about how the team got started, and he received Jake’s contact info. He emailed this to Jake:

My name is Pastor Randy Jaramillo and I am pioneering a church here in Accra. I am from the USA (Texas)...I have been playing basketball with your team and having a great time! I am here in Ghana trying to reach out to the communities to bring the Gospel to them. If there is anything I can do to help the team please let me know...I am here and available. I find playing with them a great opportunity to minister to them; in fact James came to church with me this morning. It almost seems that for most of these kids basketball is their only hope...they are good kids and God can do so much with them….

Exactly. Since this initial email, Jake and Pastor Randy have spoken every couple of days. There is MUCH Pastor Randy can help us with, and I believe God had him walking by the practice courts for a reason that day.

Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. (Psalm 117)

Speakin’ of preachin’, Jake is going to be sportin’ the pulpit at Living Word Fellowship Church in Knoxville this Sunday! They’ve asked him to come share his testimony and also to talk about what God is doing with Kingdom Hoops in Ghana! He will be speaking for about 45 minutes. I know he’s got some awesome things to share. If you would like to come, church starts at 10am and it is located at 321 East Robinson Street in Knoxville.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Yaw’s family. They will be heading to North Carolina for about 5 more days to visit Esi’s host family from when she was an exchange student in the 70’s. Jake and I both agree that it is going to be so strange not having them here. Our house has been bubbling with activity and rich conversation for the past 3 ½ weeks. We’ve laughed, cried, reminisced, prayed, and realized that God has so intricately woven our hearts together. The best part is knowing that this is actually not a real goodbye. It’s just good bye for now. Jake and I can’t seem to keep ourselves out of Ghana for even 6 months at a time, so I am sure we will be seeing them in a few months! Oh, and since everyone keeps asking us if we took them to the Iowa State Fair….the answer is OF COURSE!

At Grandma's

Over this past weekend we took everyone to my mom’s house for some down-home cookin! She and my Grandma split the cooking duties…one of them handled lunch, the other dinner. :) I just have to share some of my favorite pictures from the day! You see, my mom got a brand spankin’ new camera for her 50th birthday….she saved and saved all last year, and then she shopped and shopped until she found just the right one. Turns out she is a rebel. A cannon rebel that is. And it takes awesome, crisp, clear, pictures! Take a look…..

And guess who gets to use her old camera (which has a few years logged on it but is still an upgrade from my little digital)? Yes, yours truly. Thanks mom! I am excited to finally have a camera that takes ACTION pictures! I am going to need it in this crazy house! :)

At the Vanderweide's

We’ve been so fortunate to have lots of friends and family host us for dinnertime over the past few days! !!! WOW, have we gotten some great food and great conversation! On Friday night the Vanderweide family planned a big BBQ for all of us. The Vanderweide’s live in West Des Moines, and they will be Prince’s host family whenever we can get his visa. You can click here to read more about Prince. I can tell you one thing, Prince’s story is not over, and this family is working so hard to continue efforts to bring him here. The Vanderweide’s had some great time to talk with Esi and Nana about figuring out a way to help Prince while he continues to wait for his visa in Ghana. I kind of picture this awesome day when both Samuel and Prince can walk into the Des Moines airport and come down the escalator to a crowd cheering and shouting their names! Oh that would be awesome! Jake and I certainly know all too well the Vanderweide’s pain and frustration over all of this. They too have a bedroom all set for Prince, clothes bought, and all preparations ready for him to enter their lives. They continually speak in wonderment whenever his name comes up. Sitting at that BBQ it was amazing to just look around and notice how all of our lives have become intertwined together - and we know it is not by coincidence….God is really trying to get some work done and He is asking us to be part of it. Well, needless to say, we had a wonderful time at the Vanderweide’s house…..enjoy the pictures!

At the Vanderweide’s we played the game ‘A Minute to Win It’. Have you seen the game show? Well, basically we were separated into teams and we had a series of fun and crazy games that we did to get points! Oh man, we were all laughing so hard!!!!!!!

For the first game, you had a partner and one partner had to throw a ping pong into the cup strapped to the other partner’s head. You had to get 2 balls into the cup in 1 minute to get the points. Here is Yaw teamed up with his brother, Peprah.

JJ gives the game a shot with Daddy.

Even Esi tried it out!!!!!!!!!!!

The next game you had to stack 7 ding dongs on your head and balance them for 3 seconds to get the points! That is Sam's friend Tyran in the tank top, competing against Peprah.


Daddy was the first to get it done!

I didn’t even know this next game was possible! You had to stack 2 golf balls on top of each other and get them to balance on their own for 3 seconds!

And this last game, was hands down the most hilarious of them all! 1 person from each team had a pedometer strapped to their head, and they had to shake their head as much as they could in 1 minute to get the most ‘steps’ logged on the pedometer! The goal was 125 in a minute and most of the guys surpassed that! This video is hilarious! This is Jake, Yaw and Sam competing!



Of course Jayla had to try on Daddy's hat after he was done!

By the end of the night the guys struck up a hot game of ping pong. Apparently Nana was quite the ping pong player back in his day! He challenged Ezekiel to a game!



One of the Vanderweide’s daughters competes in dance and so she has a trunk full of old dance costumes that double as dress up clothes! I think Jayla tried them all on!

Snugglin with Auntie Stacy.

And you know what Jake and I did most of the night? This......

And it felt good!

Down on the Farm

The other night over dinner Nana was asking Jake about farming in Iowa. Since Jake isn’t exactly an expert in this area….ahem….he decided to take Nana to a farm so he could experience it firsthand! So, yesterday we headed out to Mitchellville to Dave & Karen Bruxvoort’s farm. The Bruxvoort’s have 4 boys, 3 of which play in the Kingdom Hoops program. Oh man we had such a great time on the farm! In fact, after the evening was over Esi said it was her most favorite experience so far since being here! And actually, it was a really fun experience for JJ and Jayla too! Of course they’ve been to the country before, but they haven’t really gotten to experience the joys of farm life! Enjoy the pictures!

Chatting with Farmer Dave….

Jayla gets adventurous!

Found a cowgirl hat!

This hangs in Karen's kitchen.

Aku has wanted to swing since they got here last week, and now she finally gets the chance!

The farm wouldn't be complete without an old hound dog sleeping.


Esi checks out the tractor!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nana also sat in the tractor and took it for a spin down the driveway!!!!!


Tree house


My favorite part....this swimming pool!


What a view!

While the kids swam Farmer Dave took Nana & Esi around in his pick-up truck to show them the land and his fields. They also got to visit the Pioneer seed plant and the John Deere distributor. They were gone with Dave for about an hour and when they got back they were full of ideas for starting some farming in Ghana. Jake and I were joking that once they get back to Ghana they will have some farming up and going in about a week! Esi and Nana are very industrious and hard working…..and the wheels in their minds are always turning!

After the tour of the farm we got to taste some good ol Iowa ham. YUMMO! MY FAVORITE!!!!!!



And the perfect ending to a perfect afternoon……a bonfire and some marshmallow roasting!

We had such a GREAT time!!!!!!!!! Thank you Bruxvoort's!!!!!!!!