Kawume

Only 4 days till Christmas everyone!! Someone reminded me today that I'll get to celebrate Christmas 5 hours earlier than I would at home- that is every child's dream!! Everyone here is excited about celebrating Christmas. Many people are heading home for the holidays, but for those of us here, they have worked very hard to make it a very special time. It has been so unique and an amazing experience to watch how different countries all over the world celebrate our Christ's birth. I'm excited to share those experiences with you all in my next post. :) But here are a couple pics to enjoy until then...

Monday, a group of us traveled to a small village called Kawume a couple hours away. Since June, Mercy Ships has been working with these people, bringing the Good News along with clean water, latrines, and an elementary school. These projects are completed and now the continued care and teaching is being transitioned into the hands of a local Ghanaian ministry here in Accra called Wings of Love Foundation. Both Mercy Ships and Wings of Love are currently serving this village until February when the Anastasis will sail to Liberia.

We packed two Land Rovers and a large bus with volunteers, supplies and food for a Christmas Festival and feast! When we were approaching the village, we kept passing little kids piled on bikes excitedly peddling to get to the program. There were many excited faces and waves as we drove by. When we entered, tents, chairs and a stage were set up... and I was amazed when I turned and saw a huge slide being blown up for the kids. What a great idea! These kids had never gotten to experience anything like that- and it was not long before children everywhere started running to get in line. Christmas music was turned on... and the festivities started!

It was easy to see that there was a great relationship between these people and the missionaries. Greetings were exchanged and people everywhere came to help set up for the message to be shared. Below is little Cooper, one of the missionary kids, who must have been given that duck by one of the local children. I couldn't help but laugh as he came running out of a hut with that duck followed by approx. 100 village children- probably wondering where he was going. His dad made him promptly return it :)

The children in the school had worked very hard to learn Christmas carols and had prepared a Christmas play featuring the Nativity scene. Costumes were brought in for the kids- they did SUCH a great job, and the adults were delighted to watch the children perform.

Below shows a good view of the people sitting under the tents. It was my first encounter with "African time". We started at 9:30 am - and kept going strong till 5:00 pm- no one seemed at all bothered by the heat or time. They were perfectly content enjoying the day together.

Part of the festivities included dancing- lots of dancing and music. I think the children are born with rhythm- as featured here in these two!

Wings of love had prepared an authentic Ghanaian meal called fufu- made of mashed yams, with rice and a spicy tomato based sauce along with "biscuits" ie cookies, and Fanta soda :). We carried the dinners to the tents and distributed them among the people. For some reason, the Lord brought to mind the story of the feeding of the five thousand. Though I know it is different because here He had already provided the food, and we only had a few hundred people gathered. But it gave me a sense of how it must of been for everyone as they had been sitting outside all day listening to the teaching, and how the disciples must have felt as they served the people. :)

Pastor Paul shared the Gospel message once again with the villagers, and time was spent in prayer thanking God for His goodness, His love and for His provision for these people. Afterwards (as shown in the picture above), presents were brought out for the kids. Crayons and Bible readers were handed out to all the children, and even the village chief helped us with distributing the gifts.

An exhausting but amazing day. I have loved getting to use my days off to visit the off site ministries. It has helped to broaden my view of what the Lord is doing among those in various parts of Ghana.

"Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." ~Mark 10:14-15

I miss you all so much! Thank you so much for the prayers, fun packages and emails :) The Lord continues to remind me of His faithfulness, both at home in the states, and here in Africa. Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!