Day 1

From Amy's Point of View:

What an adventure I had in Ghana today! I will give everybody the highlights:

1. Running Out of Gas:
This is a new first for me. I haven't been in a car that has ran out of gas in a long time.....and this was in a VERY crowded street in a country I am new to. We were stuck in traffic and all the sudden the car stopped. After sitting there for a few minutes I asked what was wrong. My friends told me that we were out of gas. We then sat at the side of the road while many people passed by on foot and by car until a friend came and bought us gas.

2. Signs of Ghana
Now for those of you who have read the blog of when I went to Uganda, I can't help but fill you in on some of my new favorite signs in Africa.
-Day of Grace Rasta Do Hair Salon
-Double-F Pharmacy- Would not want to get medicine there, would you?

These are my only two new ones, but my eyes will be peeled tomorrow to update readers on new discoveries.

3. Visiting School in Ghana
I went to an orphanage and a school today. I will be volunteering at the school when I am not assisting Kelli with her project. I loved the orphanage and my heart broke for the kids that were there. I saw one little girl who was just brought to the home that was suffering from malnutrition and looked close to losing her life. Again it brought me back to why I am so passionate about helping the poor in Africa. There is something about looking at a baby starving to death that changes the way you look at what we are given in America and what we can do to be a blessing to our country and the world. This image will stick with me for the rest of my life. Although I was drawn there, I noticed there were already 8+ volunteers working there for the summer. I went to the school and many of the children had never seen a white person before. They wanted to learn English and are getting ready to teach phonics to the kids. They were very excited about me coming and said that they had plenty for me to do to help. The kids were amazing and I can't wait to spend some time there!


4. Tribal Dancing Festival:
This is perhaps the most interesting thing I have ever been to in all my African travels. This is a tradition that the Ashanti Empire in Ghana has every year. The priests of the empire dance and thousands of people come and watch the event. I have never been somewhere with so many people moving so fast. There were hundreds of dancer performing all different types of ancient dance. The friends that I met in Ghana that were with me told me that this was "black power."

I sat back and watched the people get so excited when a man was changing leaves into money (never got close enough to see it, only heard people shouting). They started a stampede and were chasing after the man and screaming.

I kept thinking how sad this was, but how I can often compare this to my life and the lives of so many people I know. The people in the crowd were so excited about something that could never satisfy them. They were chasing after things that could never give them the life that they could have if they were walking with the Lord.

The second thing I saw was a man that was carrying water on his head, but the water would never fall out of the basket, even though the basket had holes in it. The people were shouting that the water was not coming out and were jumping up and down so excited by this event. Again it humbled me and broke my heart to think that in John 7:38 Jesus spoke to the woman at the well and said, "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." These people were so excited about this event and this 'black power" that was keeping them from experiencing the Living Water, which is Jesus Christ.


5. Being Able to Talk about my faith with my new friends in Ghana!

I woke up this morning and asked the Lord to give me an opportunity to share my faith today. Before going on this trip I asked that everyday I would be able to share Jesus at least once. God already answered my prayer and I am excited to see what the Lord will do in the hearts of my new friends!

I have been BLOWN away by the hospitality and the kindness of the Ghanaian people. They have made the trip enjoyable so far. I would recommend coming to this country to anyone!!! This day has been filled with eating fried bananas, drinking coconut juice right out of the coconut, festivals, friendship, and having my heart opened once again to how the Lord is moving on this continent.

Please continue to pray for the Lord's Guidance on our trip. Kelli will update the blog tomorrow she is too busy doing banking stuff! :)