July 31

I have thought about many titles to give this week’s blog. Such as-Boy it’s a long one. Mold seems to be my friend. Nothing ever goes the way you plan it. Thank God He knows what He’s doing. Culture shock anyone? But I couldn’t decide on just one.

Monday was the last full day with the boys before Kirk and Nicole got home. I went to the Mozley’s and tried to do some Internet stuff. That of course was time consuming. After two hours I had not gotten anything accomplished, so I sat there and I prayed at their kitchen table. I know the Lord wants me to be patient and find Him in ever step, even waiting on the Internet. So I usually bring along my Bible or a book I’m reading and it provides more than enough time to get some of those readings done! Monday I was reading Tony Campolo’s Speaking My Mind. I really enjoy his insight into the mainline denominations hemorrhage of members. Tuesday the Sims returned home from Korea and so at 10:30am we got in the trotro (big white 15 passenger van, standard of course) and I drove us to meet mommy and daddy! We made Kirk and Nicole a welcome home sign crafted out of printer paper and crayons…. Eli and Aidan preciously designed it. When the parents walked out of the airport doors after only missing their children for 10 days, tears filled their eyes as both boys ran while screaming, “Mommy…Daddy!!!!” Writing this it makes me see more clearly how happily the prodigal son was received. It makes me wonder about the delight God has when one of His children come home.

Then Wednesday I left the house at 9 am. Sounds like as soon as the parents got home I was outta there huh! Well there’s some truth to that, but I actually was going into town with Claire and Tatum to get some household items. Broom, mop, and bucket. Nothing too fun. But I have to say I was really excited because I had planned to move into my new house this week. The bed and wardrobe are made and ready to be used. Gifty sowed my shower curtain so I can take a nice cold shower. So after Wednesdays all day, and I mean all day shopping adventure, I went home, ate supper and went to sleep excited about moving to my apartment the next day. Which was my birthday!

I had a terrible headache Wednesday night and got sick in the course of the night. Then on an empty stomach took some prescription headache medicine and then proceeded to have crazy dreams and feel like my heart was going to leap out of my chest at any moment. I won’t take that medicine again on an empty stomach. Which on a side note, I feel like I have been taking A LOT of medicine since I’ve been here. Seems like every day something new with physical ailments comes up. So you can be praying for and of the devils attempts at physical pain to be cast off…Anyway….

So I woke up at 7am July 27th with a knock on my bedroom door to find Gifty, Nicole and Eli entering with a water gun in tow! Yes, Gifty’s idea to come in and give me a couple of birthday squirts to get the day started off right. I love her personality. She’s really funny and hates to loose at Ludu, a Ghanaian game sort of like Sorry. (Side note…we’ve played a good bit the past week…she really hates to loose, almost as much as me. Actually maybe even more!) Since my previous nights sleep was less than restful, I stayed in bed until around 8 am. Then it was time to go to the market to get all the fixings for Fufu! Now nothing turns out the way you want or think it will. Isn’t that the story of our lives? We go to the market to buy a woma and a base. The woma is a piece of wood about 6 feet tall they hold in their hands and pound the mixture of cassava and plantain in the base to make fufu. It usually takes about an hour to pound. They were going to charge us way too much for the fufu pounder so we ended up borrowing it from our landlord. The fufu is like a doughy bread texture with a light film around it. It’s really not much of a tasty item as much as it is a filler to make the belly full. Then you pour a soup, over the fufu. We used my favorite Ghanaian soup groundnut or peanut butter soup with chicken. Now a Ghanaian can eat a bowl full of fufu with soup, I however had four bites and was satisfied with my fufu experience. You don’t chew fufu, you simply pick up some with your fingers, yes soup with fingers is much more fun than with a spoon, and put the fufu in and swallow. It’s not that it’s bad; it just doesn’t have a whole lot of taste. And it’s very time consuming to make. Gifty and Mathew (he’s our neighbor across from us who helps work in the yard) did the pounding. I gave a feeble attempt as a white girl trying to pound the fufu and after four of five pounds I realized yes, I am an obrouni and I’m really not that strong!

Back to the morning market experience I had the best phone call. My first international call coming in…from my Mom! It was only 9:15 am my time, so that means it was 4:15 am Mississippi time. She sang me happy birthday and said that dad was probably going to be upset for her calling without him since he was out at Camp meeting. But it was truly a great surprise!

We finished shopping around 11 am and headed home to realize we forgot the main ingredient, groundnut paste. As we were driving we went through a roadblock and Nicole didn’t have her license, but thankfully the police lady let us go since we were a block from the house. We didn’t even have to pay! Let’s just say there are some crooked cops, not all, but some. We got back in the trotro and headed back into market for groundnut paste and the blessing was we found a stand close to the road and didn’t have to try and find a place to park!

We headed home again and unpacked all of our fresh veggies from the market and I went over to my apartment to get ready to move in!!!! I started cleaning and there it was. Everywhere. Mold. Mold. Mold. And more mold. Not just a little but everywhere on every inch of my bamboo wardrobe and bed. I started thinking, “Did I make an unwise decision on purchasing this and now I’m living with the consequences?” Then I started thinking about the money I just wasted and felt very unsteward like. Then I called Tatum to tell her not to come over to help move in and she immediately looked online for a solution to the mold problem. She and the Mozley’s came over for fufu that night so she gave me the print out for a bleach solution. It was truly a great birthday despite the fact the mold was on the back of my mind. Nicole made a chocolate cake chocolate icing birthday cake and we played charades. I missed celebrating with my friends back home, but it’s neat how the Lord provided people here to celebrate with! By the way thanks to everyone who sent birthday happies! I’m still getting them so it makes for excitement when I go to the post office with the possibility of getting a package!

Friday I was going to work on the mold situation and ended up going with Kirk and Nicole to tape them speaking about mobilizing Ghanaians as foreign missionaries. And speaking of packages we stopped to pick up one that came in. Now to pick up package I have to go into downtown Accra. Very busy. The first time I did this I had no idea where to go. I think I blogged about it. Nicole and I went in and there was the same guy who helped me before. Mr. Molley. I’m starting to build up a rapport with him, so add him to your prayers. Each time I go there I will try and get to know him and Caroline, the lady who helps him a little better. Back to the Sims…They have a vision Ghana is strategically placed in West Africa and can be mobilizers to impact West Africa. They spoke to the Ghana Methodist Lay Conference about becoming mission minded. They used the key word in Acts 1:8 “and.” Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria AND to the ends of the earth. Ghana isn’t exempt from sending those called out…to the ends of the earth. This consumed all of Friday as we left the meeting Friday night we also got a little lost in Accra at night. It was a fun adventure. Everyone was very gracious trying to give three obrouni’s directions!

Saturday was a down day. It was great to relax in the morning. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and just right temperatures. Many people in Mississippi have told me it’s extremely warm there…really plain ole HOT. I don’t think I’ve blogged this yet, but since we’re in rainy season the temperature here is GREAT. It’s been in the 80’s during the day and 70’s at night. Later on Saturday afternoon I used the bleach concoction on my furniture and read a little outside on my porch. (Thanks Sarah/Pat/Anna/Russ Tiff/Alicia for my new book I don’t know which one gave it to me J… God is Closer than You think...I’m loving it!) I ended up crashing around 6ish that night and woke up at 6 am Sunday morning. Sunday was rainy all day. It brought truth to the rainy season. We went to church and this reminded me that yes, culture shock is setting in.

I am constantly reminded of how thankful I am of The Orchard, my home church. However it’s also one of the many issues I think God is brining to light. Sometimes I compare every worship experience to there. See I have realized that I like to do what I like to do. One of these comes out in the fact that I love worshiping God and I connected easily at The Orchard. I know we teach, while on staff I taught this too, that it’s not about us. This is God’s story and we’re not the main character. I’m quickly learning that I know that, but often I don’t really live that way.

I have some culture shock setting in that I dread going to church on Sunday. This is a 360-degree turn from when I left the States. Worshiping at The Orchard was wonderful, for me. I love the people, serving, and the small groups. Not to say we’re exempt from all problems, but I loved going to church there. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with loving where you go. I actually am glad to know there are places that’s it’s really fun. But I don’t want to constantly be comparing and thinking it’s the only way to do worship, because I know that’s not right either. I go to church here, not able to understand the language and it’s VERY hard to give all of me and worship Him. I’m quick to say I’m naïve about some things, but I knew it was going to be a challenge corporately worshiping here. I’m a Gen X, media savvy, get me engaged with the “new stuff” kind of person. So being in a place where traditional hymns, from the Colonial period no less, dressing your best on Sunday morning and screaming from the pulpit are not my idea of exciting worship. So here I am trying to figure out exactly what God wants me to learn. But if it’s not about me then maybe God’s saying learn that I love you and you can love me no matter where you are. Even when you do things you don’t want to do? I know it’s not about me and I really want that to ring true. I have to wonder how many people here are walking with their Best Friend and are growing deep. Then I think that’s really not my call. That’s between them and Jesus. But then I think I must have some responsibility because it wasn’t until God brought me to The Orchard I realized that walking with Him is exciting, creative, hard, fun and exhausting. And He also provided people to pour that into and teach me. So maybe I am here to help a couple of young women continue grow deep. I honestly yearn to see Jesus’ face in every day tasks here. It’s funny that right now it’s hard for me to see His face in the place where you would think it should be showing up the most … on Sunday morning.