My Dad's Birthday, Meetings, Mosque, Checkpoints and AK-47s

Here I am once again wondering where the time is going.  I hear so much about the fall season passing by in a most beautiful way at home while here the temperature has been relatively cool for the last couple of days but the higher temperatures return as of tomorrow it looks like.  I sent a happy birthday note to my dad today.  I pray that he's having a great day...I know that the weather has really blessed him but I wish we could be there to bless him too.  It won't be long and we'll be seeing Halloween and then the next day we'll be at home...in November of all months...wow! 

We held meetings in a far away place and will be going there for a few more times.  It seems a rougher part of town with terrible streets filled with pot holes and poverty that seems far more obvious then the place we currently are.  It actually reminds me far more of the Ghana I knew 20 years ago.  The church we were in has some major problems.  You know it though nobody talks about it and that makes everything more difficult.  I so admire my mom who doesn't let that phase her one bit.  She taught well and everyone of the team did such a wonderful job.  There wasn't even one fan in this open church so once twilight hit the mosquitos came in...made me so glad for the repellant we all wore.  We were doing a sound check when the evening call to prayer at the local mosque started.  It brought so many things to my mind...most of them bad.  Experiences I knew from my time in India that were anything but pleasant...9/11...many things which I think I've kind of buried.  The meeting took a lot of energy but we finally finished and we began our long journey home.  Seeing the difficulty in the lives of so many people, the poverty and every day difficulties that many of us in America know nothing about.  Not the kind of difficulty from not finding a job for a month...no I'm talking about countless people living in barely above homeless conditions.  If there was a winter here I think many would die.  We hit two checkpoints on the way home that brought back even more unpleasant memories.  There were many soldiers and police with their AKs at the ready.  I was relieved that they didn't stop us.  Years ago so check points never were uneventful and could easily lead to arrest.  I think it's better now but none the less those old memories made this a stressful thing especially since my wife and children are with me now.  Here I am in Ghana, God remains able to bring us back as He's sent us out.  Tonight I'm home with Lovely and the kids because Gabby has had the runs for several days.  She's been eating and seems to be pretty much herself aside from that but we didn't want her to have an accident on the long journey to and from that church so here we sit tonight.  Tomorrow I teach in that church so there will be no day off tomorrow.  My prayers for the team that went will continue off and on until they all return safely.  This my friends is a different world.

A Hot Day Without Another Power Outage

I've been sticking to my story as far as not posting when I can't put up any pictures however I find myself wanting so much to express my appreciation for those that have supported me both with prayer and finances.  For those that have given financially to me (you know who you are) I want to say that it's been because of you that I've been able to give more in the offerings then I have in the past.  The custom is to give every service...let me tell you we've had a lot of services and now that they've revamped the local currency it's not cheap to give when we have nearly endless meetings.  That said I feel really good about being able to support what the locals are doing here...they have been wonderful and the work that has been done has been incredible.  We have worked with the people on many levels with praise and worship and not letting a single person out of the room without receiving prayer...no matter how many their be.  If we give prophecies to one then they all get it.  This is exhausting beyond measure and diffcult to blog about since the net is very unreliable and the power is often out...like now...I'm on generator power right now as I type this just hoping we don't have any trouble with that.  Even our days off consist of running out and trying to get food for the household and other things we need.  Going out is a long and difficult process.  The roads here are often not only dirt...even in this their capital city but they are also in need of repare and have huge holes and bumps that make travle dangerous and exhausting.  I want to share more of these things when I get home but for now this is just a note.  If anyone wants to contact me please feel free to leave a comment either here or at my e-mail address at extreme137@bresnan.net.  It's been a bummer with e-mail sometimes not doing what I want.  Sometimes I can send things out but I have to do it differently than before and it's annoying with the slow connection speeds leaving pages needing to be reloaded several times before I can get a message done and sent.  Thanks for being patient...I really love you all who have been supportive.  God bless and keep you!