Monday morning was supposed to begin with a visit to a local mosque. Tamale is the Muslim capital of Ghana so there are many mosques throughout the city. Unfortunately there was a bit of miscommunication and the sheik was not expecting us. He and a local imam came onto the bus to greet us briefly before we continued on to one of the villages.
At the village we saw where we would be spending the night. :) As we walked over to see some of what the women do during the day I acquired several children that attached themselves to my hands! The women were filling large bowls with dirt and carried them on their heads to a new compound they were building. Several of my team members joined in to try it, but I couldn't figure out a way to politely wiggle my hands free from the children. One of my team members saw my dilemma and came over to take the childrens' hands while I tried carrying the pot on my head. I was too nervous to take my hands away with the bowl full, but was pretty descent at it with the bowl empty!
Next we saw where they were cooking some bread and such. It was pretty good. The bread was really thick and almost had the consistency of potatoes. From there we visited with some of the men of the village who were hanging out at the "butcher's." We were able to present the Gospel to these men and then Dayna and I worked with the children. We shared our testimonies and prayed with the kids before singing several songs with them . . . including teaching them the YMCA! ;)
We left the village for a while and went for lunch at the pastor's house. There was another event scheduled for us at the church that night so we were able to rest at the pastor's house for a while. The event that night was with the youth. It was so great! Several members of our team shared testimonies and then we heard some from of the youth. We were quickly carted off along with some of the youth from the church to the village. After setting up mosquito nets and mats, we attended a traditional ceremony of dancing in our honor. Several members of our team, including myself, joined in the dancing!
Afterward we were able to share the Gospel and pray with many of the people for healing. Although there were several people we prayed for, one little girl sticks out in my memory. She was maybe four years old and had a horrible fever. As I held her in my arms I began to sweat from the heat coming off of her. It was difficult to hear her raspy breathing and see the weakness in her. We prayed earnestly for God to heal her and are believing for a full turnaround from whatever sickness she is suffering.
Then it was time for sleep! I was so tired, the hard floors didn't bother me that much. I think what shocked me more than anything else was that although I was sleeping on the floor under a mosquito net in a village, I was also sleeping in a room with an electric light and fan and next to a tv and awesome stereo system! Not every village is fortunate enough to have these luxuries, but it was quite a surprise for us. Oh! And the wake up call of goats who came into the courtyard to see who we were was also rather unexpected. I was able to get a couple hours of sleep before we got up at 3:30am our time to begin the long journey back to Accra. Praise the Lord we were able to stop off at the hotel we had stayed at before and take showers. Then came goodbyes to Pastor Abraham, his wife Anafa, and several of the youth from the church.
On the way back to Accra we once again stopped in at Nana Yo's house in Kumasi for an amazing lunch! We arrived in Accra around 7:30pm and have spent the evening resting before enjoying our final day in Ghana tomorrow.
Prayer Requests:
- Continue to pray for everyone who has helped us along the way. That the Lord would bless them.
- Pray for those we have been able to speak to and pray with while here.
Praises:
- Safe travel back to Accra!
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