Day 3 A Day of Worship and Celebration

Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

Church service Sunday morning started at 7 at Methodist Church Ghana Wesley Cathedral, Adum-Kumasi where Pastor Casely recalled recording his father speak some thirty years ago. He presided over the service with the local ministers, reading the gospel message from Luke 12:13-21. The message, focused on the question "Who is Jesus?", considered John 14, 1 John 1:1-4, 2 John, and 2 Peter 1:16-18 to answer the question. The spotlight was on Dan Green until the nearly 3 hour service concluded. *

Pastor Casely giving benediction during worship service

After a quick eggs, toast, and beans brunch, we loaded the SU (Scripture Union) truck with Bibles to


Loading boxes of Bibles for Bible Dedication Ceremony

be given to Yaa Asantewaa girls senior high school. In a ceremony featuring guest of honor Her Excellency Dr. Mrs. Ernestina Naadu Mills (former First Lady of Ghana from 2009-2012), 1900 Bibles were given away so that every girl in the school now has a Bible in their possession. It is the former First Lady's initiative to get a Bible in the hands of every senior high school student in the nation. We were blown away by the magnitude of the Bible dedication and presentation (Ghanian secret service for former First Lady, parades, impressive children's choir, stack of Bibles given out, media*). Osofo (Pastor) Casely gave the closing prayer and benediction after our team handed out the Bibles to the young ladies. We learned a joyful lesson about what it means to reap what we did not sow (check out John 4:37-38).

Happy girls waving their new Bibles in the air!

A quick dinner, featuring spicy Ghanian food, was followed by a second orientation session about Cultural Differences led by Uncle Jude Hama, former Director and current CEO SU. Rest time...

*If interested in viewing either the Ghanian Methodist church service or the Bible dedication ceremony, try tuning in to Ghanian local TV and look for Daniel Green's shining face front and center. Don't bother trying to find him in the team picture with the former First Lady however, he didn't want to steal the spotlight from Her Excellency.


Ghana Team 2013 with Her Excellency-notice Dan G. missing Dan S. looking for Dan G.

Day 2 Kumasi Road Trip

Jeremiah 31:10 Hear what The Lord has to say, O nations. Proclaim it in the faraway lands along the sea. Say, "the one who scattered Israel will regather them. He will watch over His people like a shepherd watches over his flock."

Ghanian Pizza-Yum!

We woke up to a breakfast of eggs and toast and a wicked grape juice that shocked even Casely and Kwame when they tasted it. We spent that morning in orientation, being introduced to the ministry of Scripture Union by Uncle Kwame. We were treated with Ghanian pizza as we left Accra. 11 of us piled into the 15 passenger van with our luggage headed for Kumasi.

On the road to Kumasi

 The typical 4-6 hour drive through various villages, across miles of unfinished road construction (you won't hear us complain about road construction in the states again!), with countless close encounters with head on collisions, ended up extending to a "record-breaking" 7 hour drive.
Another reason the trip took so long was due to the flat tire we got around hour 6.

Flat tire

Some may call it convenient, we call it divine that we found ourselves next to a tire repair shop at the time of our flat tire, along a dirt portion of the road in a small village. This led to our first encounter with the youth of Ghana. At least one marriage proposal later (no names will be mentioned...and it may have been more than one proposal, we couldn't tell what they were saying in their native tongue and broken English) we finished the drive to Kumasi. We went to bed early because we had to rise early for church the next morning.


New friends on road to Kumasi

 



Day 1- Easy Breezy... Almost

Sorry for delay of the blog posts...WiFi  has been consistently inconsistent everywhere we go! 

Joshua 1:9 Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. 

Easy breezy...The arrival to Ghana for the majority of the team was pleasantly uneventful.  After an hour delay leaving Dulles, we were concerned that our connection in Frankfurt was going to be tight. However, just as we walked off the plane they opened a new security line just for us so we had plenty of time to catch our Ghana flight.  

Ghana Team 2013 before departure from Dulles Aug. 1

 

Almost...Two things have never happened to Osofo Casely before happened during this trip-leaving passport at home and traveling on a different flight as the team (due to mission work in Malaysia following ghana) really was in God's hands and worked out for the best. Pastor Casely who always arrives for international flights hours ahead of time decided this cushion wasn't necessary this time. When he went to counter to check in he couldn't find his passport. After checking around, he calls home and sure enough he left it there. His son, Zikomo, quickly ran into action...literally meeting his mom, Angela a mile from their house so she could drive back to BWI and give the passport back to Pastor Casely. With 2 minutes to spare, he made his flight. 

Pastor Casely before departure from BWI on Aug. 1

Another (minor) incident concerned the mysterious luggage bag missing when we arrived in Accra. We repeatedly counted 11 checked bags (as a team we counted at least a dozen times), and apparently there was a 12th bag en route only discovered by Pastor Casely. He went to the airport and picked it up the next day, no one recognized the bag at all. Surprising to no one, it was checked in under Dan Shackleton's name.

Upon arrival in Ghana, Kwame Adu and Comfort from scripture Union greeted us, took us to eat, then transported us through they busy streets to Yiri Lodge, on the campus of the university of Ghana. 


Yiri Lodge near Accra, Ghana

 

From here to the Nations...

Greetings Everyone! 

Welcome to Bay Area Community Church's Ghana Team 2013 Blog! In our blog we hope to share with you our short term mission trip (journey) to Ghana, Africa in a way that Glorifies God. Our team of 7 individuals will come together to serve in ministry with Scripture Union to reach the youth of Ghana.  During our preparation and team building meetings we explore serving as "going on a treasure hunt."  We are committed as a team to participate in discovering treasures...treasures that have previously been hidden from our eyes. We have great expectations of a Great God to open our eyes to find treasures of how He is at work in a different culture. 

If you are reading this blog, it's probably because you have a connection with BACC and/or with one of our 7 members. And, you (family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, classmates, teammates, others) are most likely reading because you have a vested interest in our short term mission trip to Ghana.  To you we collectively say THANK YOU!!!! We are humbled and grateful for your support in all the forms in which it has been given: prayer support, financial support, affirmation and encouragement, travel advice and information, the list goes on and on.   We appreciate you and we hope that you will be encouraged by our blog.


As of this first blog entry, the count down to departure is 1 week, 2 days. (We leave Aug. 1 and return Aug. 11)

In preparation for our trip, if our team comes to your mind and heart we ask that you join us in praying for safety(physical, emotional, and spiritual) and pray for us to engage in the treasure hunt by...

• walking with humility
• embracing affirmation
• living with vulnerability
• practicing flexibility
• living as students
• working as servants
• speaking as storytellers

During our stay in Ghana, we hope to make blog posts every other day so check in with us as we discover hidden treasures together! 

In Him,

The Ghana Team 2013