Welcome to West Africa

I just spent a month (April) in West Africa with Dennis Hilman. We went to Ghana, Togo, and Liberia. Here is the trip in pictures! Dennis' thoughts on the trip can be found at www.foreignmissionnewsblog.blogspot.com.

Ghana

On Good Friday after our service, we visited the Liberian Refugee Camp where Amanda and I volunteered in 2010. There weren't many people left who I knew, but it still felt a bit like coming home. The refugees here cease to be refugees as of June and must integrate into Ghanaian society or go home to Liberia.

Easter morning service on the hilltop. These are some of the kids from the local congregation.

Easter Monday picnic! This seems to be the tradition at most churches in Accra. The “Botanical Garden” we went to was packed! It was a good day though: food, drums, volleyball, etc. 

These guys drummed and sang for almost an hour. At one point there was a crowd of almost 50 people singing along!

Togo

We weren't in Togo long—and mostly just for seminars. This was one part of Dennis' seminar in the little thatched church we were using.

On Sunday I ended up teaching Sunday School. There were tons of kids! Here I am singing a song with them. :) 

The group of kids I taught...you can just see Karen Goddard in the background! A lot of them are holding paper whales...we did the story of Jonah and made whales as part of the lesson.

Liberia

We spent most of our West African time in Liberia. A day or so after arriving in the capital of Monrovia, we were off to Zwedru—normally a 11 hour trek on bad roads...unfortunately it took us 34 hours and three different vehicles! Here's the first one that got left under the mango tree on the side of the road.

These are some of the kids that belong to the couple we stayed with when we finally arrived in Zwedru: children, nieces, and nephews of Christian and Patience Bowah. I think I finally got the names, ages, and relationships figured out the day I left! From left to right: Angel, Evon, Ezekiel,  Michelina, and Princess. Michael is at the bottom. Michelina and Michael are both the children of Christian's brother Michael. There were also two older boys (sons of Christian's brother Gilbert) who were both named Gilbert.

Some of the older boys playing football. No, I didn't play, but I did play kickball with the kids once...and managed to mangle both feet. Not badly, but they hurt for a few days. The kids were playing without shoes, so I did too... I think I need to toughen up my feet.

Christian, Dennis, and I on Christian's motorbike! Christian and Patience's house was only really accessible via walking or motorbike. There's just a small trail. However, amazingly, when we first arrived the taxi actually drove right to the house! Whenever we took the motorbikes after that we marveled at how the car made it!

The local congregation is building a new building! :) You can see the old one is a bit, well, old! It didn't take them long—four days from nothing to the full roof up! This picture is from day three.

This photo is in Monrovia. Monrovia is built right on the beach. I couldn't leave without at least visiting. I love the beach!

I'm now in transit from Ghana to the Philippines. I should arrive in the Philippines on May 2nd...and will meet a team from the USA on the 3rd.