Week 1: Building a Vision

I can hardly believe the first week has come and gone.  In somes ways it feels like a whole year has gone by due to how far we've come.  This week has been filled with sweat, dirt, cement, drinking water, fanta, sunscreen, more sweat, and mangoes.  We were able to help pour cement and lay concrete blocks with mortar.  The walls are starting to rise....

God moved in ways I can't explain to you.  To work hand in hand with men who are trained to do this labor-intensive, everything-made-by hand buildings is a little intimidating at first.  Add in the language barrier and the racial divide, and mixing in isn't that easy.  However, by the end of the week most knew all of our names and waved at us with big smiles on their faces as they saw all of us pile out of the van each morning....

God laid on my heart one man in particular named Rasheed, a Muslim man from Togo.  He looked like he walked straight out of ancient Egypt with the bottom of his eyes lined in dark charcoal.  If you've ever communicated with someone and used no words at all, you can picture what much of our time together was like.  Very timid at first, by the last day he came on his day off to say good-bye.  His neck had a huge scar across it which kept us all guessing for 4 days until he was asked about it, which he then said was from a car accident.  The uniqueness of his exotic appearance caught my eye and getting to know him was for me the biggest part of this week.

Another man named Ebeneezer spoke English fairly well and always wore a Dr. Suess looking hat with the colors of the Ghanian flag striped around it.  Many of us got to know him well and found he was a Christian seeking to make money in his trade before moving on to the next phase of life.  His work ethic and patient teaching spoke for itself.

As the final day came, we were able to take a 30 minute break in order to teach these guys American football.  One of the team members was the quaterback for the Air Force Academy and the contruction workers loved him.  During the football game which resembled soccer with your hands, the unity of these two groups was fully revealed.  What an amazing week.  We left after being presented with Ghanian scarves made the the famous Kenti cloth from Ghana.  But what we left with a better understanding of what it means to be made by one Creator, one Spirit, one God.  The relationships formed is what we were looking for and it is what we found.

Tomorrow we begin week 2.  The rest of our team arrived tonight at 6pm.  We then went over to a missionary couple's house and met up with the doctors from Ecuador as well as an artist sent from his church in the jungles of Ecuador.  We will see what God has in store for us.....

Thank you for your prayers....I can feel them and know that they are being said.  There is much here to distract from the glory of our Creator.