Visiting Bro. Samuel's Feb. 19th, 2011

Last Sat. we had a very busy and full day! Serenity and I scrubbed 3 loads of laundry by hand... swept and mopped the house.... scrubbed the shower and toilet rooms... plus made rolls and cookies to give out to our neighbors! We were done by about 1pm! Then at 2pm we all went to visit Bro. Samuel and Sis. Eunice... Rennie and I biked and Chad took a moto with the children! Wow, it only took about 20 min. to go the 3+ miles... instead of 45 min. when we walk there! They were going to teach/show us how to make Fufu! Normally they eat Bankou or "Akple" [the Ewe word for it]... that is the Ewe tribe's food. Fufu is the Ashawnti tribe's food.... and it takes longer to prepare than Akple! So the Ewe's laugh at the Ashawnti's for eating Fufu... because they have made and eaten their Akple before the Ashawnti's have even begun to pound their Fufu!!! It's funny how everyone thinks 'their' food is the best! =) When we arrived at Bro. Samuel's, Sis. Eunice already had butchered a chicken and had it cooking away on a little charcoal

burner... then she added some tomatoes, okra, and squash like veggie, plus some tomato paste and spices [manly dried red peppers and fresh ginger root pounded fine in a mortar and pistol]. That boiled and simmered the whole time the Fufu was being prepared.... First Bro. Samuel peeled a big pile of cassava root and about 3 plantains, cut them up and put them in a pot. Then Sis. Eunice washed them and filled the pot with water and put in on a larger fire with wood... the pot was propped on 3 large stones. It didn't seem like very long and the pot was already starting to boil... then the water started to boil over.... Sis. Eunice wasn't there so her son Raffial [7] runs to the water barrel and dips out a cup of water and runs back to the boiling pot.... lifts the lid and splashes cool water into the pot! Ren and I

are not sure if that is what you're supposed to do or not?? He then backs up a little and rubs his eyes from the smoke... drinks a little of the water he has and then sets the cup down. No sooner had he set it down when the pot started boiling over again... so he runs and splashes more water in it! Ren and I are not sure what he is worried

about... if he thinks the boiling water is going to out the fire underneath then he is splashing more water than what is boiling over in his attempts! =) Not long after the above episode Sis. Eunice shows up on the scene and starts yacking.... when she finds out what Raffial did she scolds him [at least that is what it sounded like]... but he

just kept on grinning as if he knew he was doing the right thing! Finally it was soft and ready to pound... Bro. Samuel did the pounding and Sis. Eunice sprinkled water in the mortar...and sorta turned the 'dough' as he pounded it! They pounded the plantain first... then took that out... then pounded the cassava... but they only did a small amount at a time.... we snacked on the cooked cassava root while the pounding process was going on! =) Bro. Samuel made it look easy... but I'm sure if we tried it we would have blisters on our hands to show for it! Once all the cassava was pounded then the put 2 balls of cassava dough with one ball of plantain dough and mixed/pounded them together... then it was ready to eat! Mmmmm, was it ever good! I think Fufu is much better than Akple! =) The stew was excellant too... Sis. Eunice fished us out the choice pieces of chicken... leaving the feet and insides for themselves! =) We had a very lovely time... I just wish I could speak and communicate more with Sis. Eunice!

Serenity with Raffial

Eating Fufu....

Pounding Fufu...

Update #9... Feb. 10-17, 2011

Kitchen all set up!

Living room...

Our tempory house....

Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus to each and every one of you!

Every day will I [choose to] bless Thee; and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever. Ps. 145:2

We are doing well by the mercies of God! Praising Him for his goodness and grace bestowed on us the last week and a half!

I’m sure some of you are wondering how everything went…. And if we moved on the 15^th or not! Yes, we indeed moved on the 15^th…. And are now marveling at OUR GOD for working everything out for us! I will back up to the 10^th of Feb. We were going about our normal duties…. and plans as if we weren’t moving at all. Because honestly we couldn’t move into another house without paying a down payment first, and we couldn’t pay on any house until we got our money! We didn’t have a phone number for Florence [the owner of the house] to contact her and tell her that there is no way we can move out on the 15^th unless she gives us our money. So we waited and waited for her to show up! And she came late afternoon of the 10^th with her grown son and daughter [who are also from Canada]. She began telling us that we have till the 15^th to get all of our stuff out…. We told her that it is hardly possible! And she began saying that we are going back on our word… we agreed the last time she was here to be out on the 15^th and now we are saying we can’t! Well, we can if you can give us at least some of our money back so we can secure another place. But she said no… the exchange of the keys and the money will have to be done on the same day. We asked that they would come back tomorrow and we would think about what we could do…. To which they agreed to do.

The next day was a long, hard day of waiting and praying that they would be willing to give us $700 to secure a house that is currently unfinished. The owner says that he can be finished in2 weeks… but in Ghanaian terms it could be 2 months. So we are still in a pickle as to what to do… we can’t fit all our furniture in a motel room… and we can’t afford to stay in a motel for that long!!! Chad talked to his friend Godwin [who is currently in Tamale about 12 hrs. from Sogakope] to see what he would suggest we could do. We had also been discussing everything with Bro. Samuel as to what all we should do and how we should do it! Everybody we talked to here said that the law in Ghana is if a landlord ‘sacks’ [kicks] you out of the house he has to give you 3 months to relocate… but we were only given 3 weeks! Godwin called someone he knew that had a house that was almost done to see if she would be willing to rent it to us. She said that she has someone that wants to rent it but is not ready to move in now… so she would rent it to us for 2 months… and tell the guy that it wouldn’t be available until then. AND…. Because she knew Godwin, and Bro. Samuel she was even willing to let us move in without paying first! We promised that when we receive our money on Tues. the 15^th we will pay for the 2 months! She offered for us to come and clean on Mon. and keep the key so we could move in early Tues. morning! Wow! It was amazing to see God at work on our behalf! While Chad was trying to get everything figured out… Serenity and I started packing! We packed up 5 totes by noon… and decided that was enough for one day… and waited to hear more from our Florence. By supper time we had just about decided that she wasn’t going to come after all! But just as we were finishing up supper they showed up! We had Bro. Samuel come because we felt it was best for us to have 3 people to help give accountability and because there were 3 in their group. And we were very glad he was there! In the end they agreed that they would bring the $700 tomorrow Sat. the 12^th so that we could secure another place…. And we agreed to be out of the house on the 15^th! We asked for a specific time that they would come on the 15^th so we knew how long we had to get out. And they said they would come around 12-1pm.

Sat. was busy with more packing plus we needed to do laundry! Serenity got most of the kitchen packed up by noon…. While I made some preparations for a ‘Sweetheart’ supper since Mon. would be too hectic! I had already bought a piece of lace for a table cloth that would fit the table that belongs to the house there…. So I wanted to use that with some tea light candles and fake rose petals! I planned to have baked chicken, mac-n-cheese [with real Velveeta cheese J], California blend veggies [that we had brought from the States], a beet n potato salad, and a frozen peanut butter cup dessert [that was sent to us special for this occasion!]! I love making things special…. So it was a stress reliever for me in the midst of all the dishevel of packing! We waited all day for Florence to come with the promised money… but she never came!

Sun. the 13th dawned a bright warm day! We had a quick change of plans at 7am in the morning! Bro. Samuel and Chad had planned to go to Nugbilebui for the morning service… and the rest of us would stay home. But Bro. Samuel had got a call from the deceased Bro. Paul’s children that they were coming to Sogakope for service to thank the church for their support! So it was quick get ready!!! Then about 8am… Florence, Eureka [her daughter], and Julia all walk in the gate! Surprise! They were coming with the money…. They had been in Accra all day yesterday and were not able to come so they were coming now! Wow! Praise the LORD!!! We went to church with a praise report to give! Bro. Samuel was able to take the money and a written agreement to the landlord of the unfinished house so that he could start working on finishing it!

Mon. was full.... but not stressful! We went ahead and did laundry again so we wouldn’t have so much laundry to do once we moved… plus we weren’t sure if we would be able to put up our clothes line right away! We had decided to move our wardrobes with our clothes in it so that made for little packing up in our bedrooms. About 10am Chad, Bro. Samuel, and Serenity went over to the new house to clean out all the carpenters junk!! While I stayed with the children and did a little more last minute packing! I made a big pot of rice for supper so we would have leftovers for tomorrow… and then we retired early so we could get an early start tomorrow!

Tues. was MOVING DAY!!!! By 6:30am our wooden hand pulling cart arrived to transport our furniture! Chad went with the guy to open the house and help him unload. While he was gone, John, our lorry friend came with his van… and the back seat out to help haul all of our totes, etc. It took two van loads and three cart loads to haul all of our belongings… in only 3 hours with 4 men [including Chad]! Impressive! Elayna was so excited…. She kept saying, “I’m ready to go!” She had her backpack with a few toys and books that we didn’t pack…. And was traipsing through the house ‘helping’! Chace on the other hand was a little worried…. Our stuff and Daddy kept leaving and he wasn’t going along…. He kept clinging to me to make sure we didn’t forget him! Finally everything was out… Chad and Serenity rode our bikes over… while the children and I went in John’s lorry… and lastly the hand cart piled high with furniture! Storm clouds were rolling in and threating to rain…. So we were glad we had gotten an early start! Wow, it seemed like a lot of stuff for this small 2 bedroom duplex! The master bedroom is the biggest room in the house! The kitchen is the next to smallest room [the toilet, and shower room are the smallest J]…. The living room is considerable smaller than the other house and the hall… well it’s about as big as most of our halls in America… but the other house the hall was more like a wide veranda! But after measuring things… we actually fit everything in! The big 6 ft. x 8 ft. shelves are in the living room along with our living room set. The 7 ft. x 4 ft. shelves fit in the hall in between the back door and the window. And the refrigerator, stove, 5 ft. counter, and 7 ft. x 3 ½ ft. shelves all fit in our tiny, 8 ft x 9 ft. kitchen! Yes, it looks like wall to wall furniture… with everything within reach… but it works! J That is if there’s not a lot of people in there too! J It was fun to see how much stuff we could fit into such a small space! Most of the kitchen was unpacked by 11:30… and we heated up leftover rice for lunch [thankful I had that]! Chad, Bro. Samuel, and Bro. Seth all went to the other house by 12 to wait for the landlady and get the money. Bro. Samuel was saying that since they are breaking the contract and causing us so much trouble that she should give us all the money back. But Florence couldn’t see that she was causing us any trouble at all…. And of course, she couldn’t let us live in HER house for free! So she deducted the 2.5 months that we had lived there… but she did pay Chad back for the water bill that we had to pay in order to have our water turned back on. All in all we are grateful that she did bring back the money that she owed us and we can put that towards our next rental house! My dear Hubby was going from one thing to the next all day! The house that we moved into still had to have the septic pipes hooked up… and the kitchen sink pipes put in….. and some ceiling fans installed! They had promised to do all this [minus the fans] on Mon. and they did… but they hooked up the wrong side of the duplex! In the other house the tile flooring isn’t finished… so we couldn’t just move in there instead! After Chad got the money around 2pm…. He and Bro. Samuel went and paid the lady that owns the house we are living in temporarily! Then they bought 3 ceiling fans… and had some electricians come and install them… till they were finished it was suppertime. We had more leftover rice J and just as we were finish warming it up…. The plumber came to hook up the kitchen sink! When he saw Serenity and I in the kitchen… he thought maybe he should wait… but we told him no we are finished you can hook it up! Dear Bro. Samuel, was also here all day helping Chad and making sure everything was hooked up and working before the workers all left! By bed time we were all ready to for a good nights sleep! J

Let me tell you a bit about our new home! We live in a shared compound [I guess you can call it a compound]… with our house, the duplex, on one side and directly in front of us is 7 rooms… all attached in one long house that are rented out. In between, is about 20 ft. of dirt [about a roads width].The apartments do not have a toilet or shower room inside… but around the back of them is a shared double outhouse, and double shower stalls. And out front is an outdoor spigot… to which each tenant fills his/her bucket of water and uses it to bathe with. Around this outdoor spigot there is a mud puddle… to which the children take great delight in! J Our lorry friend John lives in one of these rented rooms. Most of our neighbors are young adults… but there is one 10yr. old girl that lives in one of the rooms… and Elayna had attached herself to her! In fact both of the children have been the neighborhood attraction! Elayna was ‘helping’ one of the ladies wash dishes outside on her doorstep! It will be a good opportunity for Chad and I to speak the language and learn from the people! We know God has us here temporarily for a reason!

Please continue to pray for our Ewe teacher… we were going to have a class today but he called and said that the pain in his left arm/side has become too severe and he was going to go to the hospital! And also pray that we can grasp this language!

You can also continue to pray for our health… we have been very blessed the last several months with good health and we don’t want to take it for granted! Now with rainy season around the corner [we got a tiny little shower last night]… the mosquitoes will be more plentiful and malaria more probable!

Thank you to all of you who have been lifting us up to the Throne of Grace…. We sense your prayers! May Jesus bless each one of you in whatever corner you are serving Him!

Pressing toward the Mark! Chad & Elizabeth and family

Trying to figure out how to fit everything in our tiny kitchen!

The wooden hand cart piled high with furniture!

John with his van [lorry]... and the hand cart... load #1!

Bro. Paul's funeral Jan 28th, 2011

Then Friday was the funeral….. Bro. Paul from Hikpo was an older gentleman that had been in and out of the hospital for several weeks already before he died in December. He had a shining testimony of what Jesus had done for him and Bro. Samuel said that he witnessed to others in the hospital! He was a member at Light and Hope Christian Church here in Sogakope. The village of Hikpo was swarming with people…. An Aunt in the same family of Paul’s had also died and had planned the funeral on Jan. 28^th. So we decided to let the family do Bro. Paul’s funeral the same day…. So the service was a mixture of Pentecostal and Light & Hope! A big contrast! First off we went to Bro. Paul’s family compound and ate Bankou with several different stews, a fish stew, a gineau fowl stew, and a beef stew! The children and I ate with Bro. Samuel’s family in a small room [Chad had run back to the house because we forgot our camera!]. The food was spread out on a narrow bench with all of us sitting on chairs or low stools around it… Elayna was on a chair but couldn’t quite reach the bankou so in her attempt to get closer her foot knocked off a bowl of stew splattering it all over Carolyn and Ruth’s nice dresses!!! And make a big mess on the concrete floor! Sis. Eunice quickly cleaned up the girls and another lady came in and cleaned up the floor… after saving the meat that had fallen [meat is very precious and rare!]. I don’t know if the bankou was exceptionally good or if I am starting to like it!!!! My Husband says I’m starting to like it because it didn’t taste any different to him! It helps to be really hungry too! J After eating we all walked back to the Aunt’s compound where the funeral service was set up. The Pentecostal church had gone all out and had little papers with the deceased Madam Afi printed on it and pinned to everyone at the funeral [about 300-400 people]… plus they had a pamphlet with the order of the service and the different tributes that were going to be read during the service. They had a full band with two sets of loud speakers that made the place literally shake with volume! I was half amazed that the children actually slept for part of the service because we were sitting right in front of one set of speakers and the band! The service went looooong trying to combine two funerals into one! During part of it we went to view the bodies with Bro. Simon… then later with Bro. Samuel and Sis. Eunice, who wanted to get a picture with Bro. Paul. Now in America we view bodies lying down in a coffin…. But here they have them sitting up in chairs… all dressed from head to toe [even wearing gloves on their hands!]…. And covered with flowers and frills! The family members are in there too crying, yelling, and waving their hands in their faces…. It was like they were trying to revive them and were angry that they choose to die [as if they had a choice L]! There was a lot of music/singing and dancing throughout the whole service…. Almost as if funerals are a celebration just like a wedding! Chad says they call it the “celebration of life”! Bro. Samuel lead 3 songs and the band, swaying, and clapping ceased…. Only one guitarist played softly… and the singing was in Ewe… very beautiful and a huge testimony that we were different! Actually, Bro. Samuel, Sis. Eunice, Sis. Grace, Bro. Simon, Bro. Chad, and myself [all that were there representing Light & Hope] did not dance and sway and carry on… we did half-heartedly clap a little but it was a stark contrast to those around us! Finally it was time to put the bodies in the coffins and bring them outside to where everyone was at…. Then all the tributes were read… and more singing and dancing! It was funny to see the same people who were just in there wailing…. Out dancing and singing and having a grand ole time! In the end they had all the family from both Bro. Paul and Madam Afi come forward and they had special prayer for them. Then it was load up in lorries, taxis, and motos and head to another village where Bro. Paul was to be buried! More singing and dancing there… there was drums but no loud speaker back in this more remote village. After about a half an hour of that… it was finally time to head to the burial plot! A short walk on a narrow trail brought us so the concrete vault in which they placed the coffin and after a short speech from the Deeper Life Pastor and a song from Bro. Samuel & Sis. Eunice, and lastly a prayer… All was over! But not yet =) A few more necessary things to do… I’m not sure what they were… but we sat an waited… and elderly gentleman came and shook our hands… then a discussion on how much to give the Deeper Life Pastor… then finally homeward bound!!!! We had left the house at quarter till 10am and were getting home at 5pm! We hadn’t eaten since 11am…. And the children hadn’t had proper naps…. And with tired parents to top it off…. Chad went bought us some rice and chicken for supper!

I should mention some about Bro. Simon. He is a member here at Light & Hope but currently lives in Western region about 12 hours from Sogakope going to school to be a lab technician. He traveled all day Thurs. and arrived in Sogakope late Thurs. night to be here for the funeral. He came to our house at about 8am and ate breakfast with us and then went back to his room to do a few things then came back again to wait for our lorry driver to come pick us up. He has a very calm, quiet, nature about him…. With a love and patience for children…. And he soon had two little friends climbing all over him and wanting him to read books to them! Chace really took to him…. Which was nice because he was a real blessing during the funeral service and was able to hold and entertain Chace without him crying! He came to our house again on Sat. and on Sun…. but he had to go back on Mon. morning. He is now finished with his studies but has to work his clinical there for a year without pay… and sometimes they make them work for two years depending on how stubborn they want to be! We were sad to see him go and pray that he will not lose heart but trust in God!

Bro. Simon with Chace at the funeral.

Prayer for the family before we dismissed to go to the burial site.

Visitors!!! Jan. 18-Feb.1

We have had a jam packed full last 2 weeks…. And I’ll try and give you all a glimpse into our lives here! First off we were sooo excited and thrilled to welcome Conroy & Katrina, Moses, and Zach here on Tues. Jan. 18! We had a ton of fun opening all those totes packed full of treasures, gifts, toys, needed items, and candy!!!! THANK YOU TO ALL OUR DEAR CHURCH FAMILY AND FAMILY WHO SENT THEM!!!! It was lots of fun having visitors for the first time…. A little challenging as a host to know how, and when, and what to do sometimes! We spent a good part of the mornings doing laundry by hand… everyone helped which was a blessing! Katrina, Serenity and I canned 6 quarts of mangos, 17 half-pints of mango/ pineapple jam, and 15 pints of salsa! We also went to the beach one day and spent most of the day there enjoying the ocean waves and sand… and to a slave castle another day! It was fun…. But traveling with children can be a challenge for them to get proper naps… and you Mom’s know that not enough sleep = grumpy children! But overall I think the children did exceptionally well and the rest of us enjoyed the excuse to explore “our” country! One Wed. the 26^th we headed in to Accra and stayed the night at Matt & Janelle Wollmans house…. They graciously took us all in even though they had Conrad & Katie Swartzentruber there for the night as well! We enjoyed getting to know them too! Then Thurs. morn Chad took the crew including Serenity to the bus station to head north to visit with Uncle Ross’s and Preston & Carolyn Oberholtzer [Katrina’s Brother]! I must admit I was pretty disappointed that our family couldn’t go…. But God has a plan and a purpose for everything even if we don’t see it at the time!

Chad talked to Conroy Sun. evening and they planned to catch a bus early Mon. morn and be in Accra by suppertime! Oh exciting…. We thought they wouldn’t be in till late so we had planned to come in early Tue. morn. to be with them before they left and take them to the airport. But… with a quick change of plans we decide to go in Mon. afternoon instead and try and surprise them! :D We got a super early start Mon. morning with the children waking up at 4:30-5am!!! I guess they didn’t like the A/C like we did! J We ordered breakfast from the motel… got all packed up… and walked back home! Put some things away… wrote some thank-you cards to send back home… helped Elayna make little gifts for her friends at Church…. Tidied the house up a bit…. And repacked to go to Accra! We left Sogakope at 3:30 and arrived at the motel at 6:30…. About 5 min. before Conroy’s and the crew! Wow… talk about perfect timing! They were as glad to see us as we were them…. And we all went out for supper together! Tues. we had an enjoyable last day with everyone before they left… we walked around the Accra Mall for a while… then for lunch Conroy & Katrina, and Chad & I had a double date at the food court in the mall… that was a lot of fun! Serenity, Moses, and Zach took the children and got lunch too…. Then we let the children play in a playground there in the food court…. They loved it! All too soon it was time to take our beloved visitors to the airport to fly home… we thought we could go in with them but we soon realized that only passengers were allowed in! So it was a rush of goodbyes then they were off!! We couldn’t even stand there at by the glass windows/doors and wave to see them off before an officer came and told us that we have to stand behind the barracks! [wherever that was? I couldn’t find it!] Till we walked to where our taxi driver had parked and got started down the road again it was 7pm…. We reached home at 9pm! What a welcome sight it was! The children had fallen asleep on the way home and Elayna was still half asleep when we got home that she just laid down on the concrete floor in the hallway and kept on sleeping! We had to wake her to bathe her quick, before tucking her in bed! J

At the Ocean about 45 min. from our house!

Fishermen at the ocean pulling in their net.

Chace at the slave castle

All of us at the slave castle....

Visiting Bro. Samuel's and cooking Bankou and peanut butter okra stew.

Washing...

Update #7 Jan. 3-16

Loving greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. Many, Oh Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee: if I would declare and speak unto them, they are more than can be numbered. I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart. Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified!” Psalm 40:1,5,8,16

We are rejoicing in the goodness of God and for His love toward us! It is humbling to think that our Awesome, powerful, God wants to commune with us and have a personal relationship with us! We read this Psalm this morning and it was such a blessing to see how it seemed to fit our present situation! God is so good!

It has been a while since I wrote last…. And it seems like not much has happened the last while. We did go to Togo, a neighboring country, on Monday almost 2 weeks ago. We had to cross the border and come back to renew our visas for another 60days, till we can get our more permanent paperwork. We had a safe journey there and back! Godwin, our friend from the town here, took us in his car to the border about 1 ½ hours from Sogakope. Since the Capitol city of Togo was at the ocean front we went to a nice hotel/restaurant to have lunch and enjoy the ocean! It was a beautiful place and we really had a relaxing time…. Going barefoot along the sandy beach with the waves lapping at us! The children seemed to enjoy it for the most part too! We left Togo around 2pm and got home around 4pm!

A good part of our time is spent learning the language. We have classes 2-3 times a week and usually have homework and studying to do in between. In some ways it seems like we are advancing fast…. But we really can’t say or understand much more than the simple greetings! Our language teacher has taught us a good many words and is teaching us sentence structure…. And we can form our own simple sentences!! But the key is knowing how and when and where to use our sentences in the proper way and form! There seem to be several little ‘articles’ that can be interchanged and mean one thing in one sentence and have a different meaning in another sentence! Anyway, you can pray that we can figure it all out and be able to understand what is being said! Of course we can read almost anything but we don’t know what we are reading!!! Our teacher thinks that it is fantastic that we can read Ewe in the short time that we have been having classes! Please continue to pray that we can have open, understanding minds to be able to grasp this language!

We are doing well physically…. Praise the Lord! We are enjoying the cooler nights and mornings during the Harmaton season! The Harmaton is dust blown south from the Sierra desert….. it makes a haze of dust out in the horizon that looks almost like fog! So, it does make for a lot more dust in the air and on furniture etc.!

We are all excited to be getting visitors soon!! Conroy & Katrina Martin, and Moses Martin [Chad’s brothers] and Zach Wagner [a young man from our church] are coming and spend a week with us! They arrive on Tuesday and will be with us a week then go north to visit Chad’s Uncle Ross & Aunt Cynthia Ulrich and also Preston & Carolyn Oberholtzer [Katrina’s brother]!

May the Lord richly bless you all this coming week and may you feel His presence dear you!

Learning to wait on the Lord! ~Chad & Elizabeth, Elayna & Chace Martin

Trip to Togo Dec. 3rd

Monday, we loaded up in a friend's car at 8am. This particular friend actually runs on normal time instead of Ghana "time". It's actually funny, because he gets aggravated at his fellow countrymen for their excuses at being late all the time:) We were headed for our bordering Country of Togo. The wonderful surprise came when we spotted the ocean. I could hardly believe our good fortune. Since none of us knew where we were crossing the border we didn't know it was going to be along the coast. Unlike some of Ghana's coast, this was beautiful sand beaches. We got to drive along it for an hour or so, enjoying the cooler breeze and the wonder of God's handiwork. One neat thing I liked was the small fishing canoe-boats that were pulled up on the beach. Seeing teems of fishermen and woman heaving up huge nets, really made me think of Jesus' disciples.... And I was awed that anyone would want to go to sea on such small crafts.

Going through the border was relatively easy, but did take about 2 hours on the way in. We thankfully had Godwin along, plus some other friends we picked up at the border to help us communicate to these French speaking Togoins :) Liz and I were kept busy watching the children, who weren't quite as patient as us older ones. We walked through the border, so I got to watch the streams of humanity that pass there everyday. We were funneled through a board walk, resembling a cattle shoot... and to my amazement some of the officers acted like they were directing cattle. Not really to us, but they would hit, shove and yell in order to KEEP their authority. What really was amazing was that a lot of people would go away smiling even after being shoved rudely. It was also funny to watch some of the women try to "sweet" talk the old man guard.

We boarded a taxi which took us to a really nice hotel restaurant where we ate lunch. The pictures are from there.Right up the hill from the ocean, we almost thought we were in the Bahama's:) Of course we paid the price too... almost not having enough money exchanged to eat a good lunch:) After eating, I was really eager to get my feet in the water, I wasn't disappointed either. Since the water was clean and refreshing!! Feeling like a little girl, I ran along the beach, collected shells, and generally just LOVED it! You've all been to the beach... you know what I mean:)

Serenity Belle

Update #6 Dec.13-26

Greetings to All our dear prayer supporters!

“ And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call is name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted is, God with us.” Matt. 1:21,23

God has been very gracious to us in giving us life and breath and joy to serve Him! We are grateful for His love toward us in sending a Savior to save us from our sins!

We have had several answered prayers this past week…. Thanks to all who have been praying for us! I will start with our language teacher. Bro. Samuel said he knew of a retired teacher who he thought could teach us the Ewe language so one day he brought the teacher to us to see when he could begin teaching us. The dear old man looked like he just crawled out of bed and seemed very tired and quiet… not quite my expectations of a teacher! He could barely squeak out ‘thank you’ when I gave him a bag of water! It turned out that this man was on the list for elections of some sort and was expecting to be elected and wanted to wait to start classes until after the elections, the 28^th of Dec. So after several days of waiting and praying… we were ready to start language class now and the idea of waiting 2 weeks just to see if he is elected and what times will best fit into his schedule looked pretty long! Then Bro. Samuel told Chad that he thinks he knows of another retired teacher that may be able to teach us because this other man is taking too long! J It seemed to us that if he is dragging his feet then maybe he doesn’t really want to have to teach us! So Chad went and met with our prospective teacher on Mon. of last week… and scheduled our first class to start Wed. morning at 9am! Well, you know how changeable Africa can be and it ended up we had class in the afternoon… and had a very enjoyable lesson! (We had to postpone the class because of the “Old Man” Brother Paul, from Hikpo passed away that morning and we had to go visit the family.) Our teacher, Atitsogbui Godwin Kwadzo, is a very enthusiastic teacher and really seems to love teaching! A big answer to prayer…. Learning comes easier if the teacher is encouraging and enthusiastic! He taught us the alphabet and the sounds of each letter…. There are 30 letters and 7 vowels…. But one nice thing is each letter has only one sound so really there is only 30 different sounds! Some very hard sounds and some nasalized sounds… it will take some practice to get our mouth, tongue, and nose to work properly! Thankfully our teacher is very patient and is very helpful in showing us in great detail how to make our mouth and tongue say the right sound! Another thing, Ewe is a tonal language, which means if you make a word go up in the end it is one word and if you go down in the end it is another word. For example, dzo’ with the accent going up means “go” and dzo with the accent going down means “fire”. So it will take very sharp ears to know and hear the difference plus remember which means what! After he taught the alphabet and went over each vowel separately he proceeded to tell us that we can take any vowel and put a consonant in front of it and it will be a word! Amazing! With only the exception of about 4 consonants that only make words with 3 of the vowels. So there are about 140 two letter words and the ones that we have learned so far are all nouns! It was interesting because some of their letters are about the same sound as ours, like “p” for example, and you add “a” to and it makes “pa”. As the teacher was writing it on the blackboard I sounded the word out before he said it…. And he got a huge grin on his face and did a complete circle and said, “Correct O!” “Oh, you can read it! You are learning it very fast!” Very encouraging! We have had a total of 3 lessons so far and we have recorded the alphabet and words that he has taught us and are reviewing them daily. I also put the words on index cards so we can drill each other with pronunciation and word meaning… Ewe on one side and English on the other. We are thoroughly excited about learning and being able to communicate and understand the language and people God has called us to! For me I have such a longing to be able to communicate with Sis. Eunice and other ladies who can’t speak English! Most of the men can speak fairly good English and Chad can communicate well with them but it brings such a smile to their faces when you say something in Ewe! So with God’s help and your prayers we shall learn it!

The other Sunday we had a service in Sogakope in the morning and then in the afternoon Bro. Samuel, Sis. Eunice, Chad and I all went to Nugblebi for a service. The sun was shining so fiercely hot and we had only walked about ¼ of the path to the village when we saw a lorry coming down the narrow one lane path! He stopped and we asked if we could have a ride…. “Sure,” said the driver, “but I don’t have any seats!” We looked and sure enough the seats in the back were all taken out! Only the front bench seat was there but was full with the driver and two other passengers! So we climbed in anyway and sat on the dusty metal floor of the van, thankful we didn’t have to walk the rest of the way in the hot sun! We had another small group of 3 teenage boys and 2 teenage girls plus a handful of children. But they were a very attentive audience except for the two littlest ones who fell asleep! J Bro. Samuel and Sis. Eunice seem so to love these children as if they were their own and you can see the earnest desire they have that each one would walk in the path of God! Please continue to pray for these dear children because some of their parents are not happy that they want to follow Jesus…. And I don’t know for sure but some of them may even suffer from verbal abuse because of it! One time Bro. Samuel asked them if their parent were to say you may not have three meals a day but only one because you have chosen to follow Jesus. What would you do? And they all said, “We will follow Jesus Christ and eat only one meal a day!” What would you do?? Is your commitment to Christ that deep? They would not be doing it to fast as a self-discipline or to be in earnest prayer about something in their life or the life of others… but it would be a devotion to God and a sign that they have chosen to follow Jesus!

Serenity’s birthday was this past week and we tried to make it as special as possible! We had a later breakfast of coffee cake and an ice coffee drink… but to my disappointment my coffee cake got dumped upside down when I was trying to turn it around in the oven! So it was pre-crumbled! We went out to a nearby restaurant for lunch and had fried chicken and yam fries… Serenity didn’t know that ‘chips’ means ‘fries’ here so she got the Jolof rice but it was very spicy with lots of ginger in it! Oh by the way, we waited for more than a hour for our lunch! Till we got home and children in bed for a nap it was quite late in the afternoon! Then we had pizza and a cabbage salad for supper and buck-eye’s and opra creams for dessert! It just wouldn’t be December and Christmas like, without some candy around! J And Serenity seemed to think it was a nice birthday dessert too!

Christmas day dawned much like all other days… warm! J We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and they were delicious even if they were made with white sugar instead of brown sugar in the filling! We had a very relaxed day after we did a bit of laundry and did the normal Sat. cleaning. The children were fighting colds and Chace cut another tooth so they took morning naps, leaving us adults to read and Chad and I to study language! In the late afternoon Bro. Seth came and visited with Chad and they talked some about the language. Then in the evening Bro. Samuel’s family came and we had fried chicken, Jolof rice (made to the best of our knowledge and not as spicy as they make it!), and coke, Fanta, and sprite! Then we served some chocolate chip cookies, buck-eyes, and opera creams with them and they thoroughly enjoyed them all! We weren’t sure if they would like things so sweet but they all said they did with big smiles on their faces!! So we were glad to share a few luxuries with our dear friends on Christmas day!

One more thing I should add…. There was an ‘Old Man’ Brother Paul from Hikpo, a village about 15mi. from here, that had been coming to the church in Sogakope for some time who had been very sick and in the hospital since we have arrived. Chad went and visited him in the hospital once and then he was taken back to his village some weeks back. He had a surgery of some sort and the incisions didn’t heal up but got infected. His daughter was going to take him to the doctor. The morning that she was going to take him, she went to get him ready to go, he had already passed away! He was a strong Christian and I think a big encouragement to Bro. Samuel family because they all took it pretty hard! We don’t know when the funeral is, it may be several weeks from now… the Church and the family will have to get everything worked out! Nothing is rushed in Africa! J By the way, the body is stored in the morgue so it can wait until the family is ready for the funeral!

You can pray for us as we continue language classes…. This week we will have a class on Wed. and Fri. Pray for understanding minds and a good memory!

We are very thankful for all of you who take the time to pray for us and write and let us know! Thank you for all your support! May God bless you!

Rejoicing in our Savior!

Chad and Elizabeth, Elayna, and Chace Martin