Team Updates

This was it…our final day. The excavation team worked a full day and they left the pond in Teselima with the project complete and the machines in wonderful working order. The build/teach team spent half of the day in Babator and were able to paint most of the exterior of the church, finish up renovations at the school, and sort out all the teaching materials left.

A few of us stayed in Carpenter to finish organizing the materials left here in storage. In the afternoon, many of us headed back to Teselima to see the work the excavation team had done since our last visit there. It was great to see both machines working beautifully together.

Tonight in our closing ceremonies, after our fabulous dinner eaten outside, and after watching the soccer match on a borrowed TV, some team members spoke on behalf of all of us. Phil praised the Ghanaians for their part on the team, noting that they rose earlier than the rest of us to fuel up and prepare the machines, and admiring how well and how quickly they were able to replace the bulldozer chain considering they did it all ‘by hand,’ with no fuel pumps to fill the tanks and no air compressors for powered wrenches.

Joyce encouraged and blessed the teaching team for all of their efforts and true investment of themselves to the challenging task at hand, and Pat thanked Abraham and his hospitality team for the amazing job they did feeding us three hot meals every day, cleaning up our living quarters each morning, and working so hard to get our very dirty clothes ‘whiter than white,’ scrubbing it all by hand and hanging it out in the sun all day. Joe praised the build team for their hard work that effectively touched the village in three areas: the church, the latrine and the school. Gifts were exchanged and it was such a joy to see each Canadian team member in awe of the beauty and forethought that was put into each gift. We missed Brenda’s presence these two weeks, but David and the NEA team did a wonderful job in her place!

Luggage is packed, weighed and sitting in the gazebo for its early morning pick up. We board the bus with ‘breakfast to go’ and start our way back to Accra. Please pray for continued health safety on the roads. Pray that as we watch the landscape pass by through the windows of our bus, God will remind us of the lessons learned. We are all aware that we are soon returning to life and business as usual three weeks away, but we rejoice in knowing that back here in Ghana, there are wonderful pastors and friends lifting us up in prayer as we do what God has called us to do.

May you too be encouraged and blessed for holding down the fort while we were away, and holding us up in prayer. Thank you all!

Kim

A little rain in the morning didn’t dampen our spirits any, and it cleared up before we arrived at Babator. Our morning commute started with a lovely ‘pick-me-up’— literally and figuratively! We picked up some ladies in Bamboi. Most were able to squeeze into the back of the cargo truck that also contained many of our team members, suitcases of school supplies, tools, and the ingredients for an afternoon village feast for approximately 1000 people (a 650lb-ish live cow and the giant cooking pots that would soon contain him). Three of the ladies came onto our bus. Language barriers limited conversation with them, so they began to sing for us and being that many songs were in English, we tried our best to join in with them. They were the perfect diversion as many of the teachers were in their classrooms for the last time, feeling happy-sad: happy to bring our students through the Fun Day activities that Heather led us in organizing and excited to present gifts to all the children, but sad as we faced the fact that this was our last day in their classrooms, and after tomorrow, most of us may not ever see them again.

Despite a crazy Fun Day with gifts to give and receive, tears flowed from both the Ghanaian and Canadian teachers and many students as well. Those tears were pushed aside for a while once the drums started beating, the feast was served, and the dancing started. Heartfelt thanks was expressed beautifully by the chief, including an African proverb, “Although the oceans are vast, they still accept every single drop of rain,” describing the fact that although they know we Canadians have much and their gifts and attempts to express thanks may seem quite small, they still offer them to us in hopes that we accept them. The teachers themselves brought forward a gift of yams, which we humbly accepted, honoured to receive them knowing that that of the four, only two of them are paid and the other two are ‘putting in their time’ as they complete their teacher training.

The construction team was not able to paint the exterior of the church due to the threat of rain, so thankfully some of them helped us run the Fun Day activities, while others watched the butchering and food preparation process. The foundation work at the latrine was continued, renovations continued at the school, and more finishing details were done at the church.

Back in Carpenter and Teselima, the excavation team continued to work and now the have all the equipment up and running beautifully, ready for another day.

Thank you for offering to donate some snow to fill the fish pond! We know Teselima would love it. Today there was a little water in one corner of the pond due to the early morning rain, and the young villagers were seen playing in it.

Some token gifts we brought are packaged and ready for our team party tomorrow evening here in Carpenter after a short work day. It was requested that we begin the party earlier than usual so that everything is wrapped up in time to watch the Africa Cup final game together. (Go Ghana!)

Today truly was a day not one of us will ever forget. Thank you for all your support that enabled us to experience it!

Kim

Today some of our loving teachers shared tears through our lunch break and at the end of the day when they reflected that today was the last full day in class for them with the children who have made their way into their hearts. It has taken a lot of nightly preparation, daily energy, constant creativity and enduring patience as they struggled to find the most effective and enjoyable ways to teach while crossing the language and cultural barriers we faced. It has been an incredible blessing to have so many of our teaching team experienced and passionate about their role, and also to have the Ghanaian teachers embrace having us in their classrooms, eager to join with us in making the most of our time together.

After we spent some casual time this evening in David and Brenda’s home, the teachers were making final preparations for the twelve-station playday activities the entire school body will enjoy tomorrow with the help of some of the village women! Mid-afternoon tomorrow, our Babator team and the entire village will enjoy a meal together. It’s very exciting!

The building team has painted two coats on the interior walls and all the roofing is complete. The latrine foundations are rising out of the 8-foot deep hole that was dug. Several team members have taken on the task of making school benches and school maintenance projects. The new window and door frames required due to termite damage were built earlier and installed today after classes were dismissed. It was wonderful to see a couple of the teachers joining in with the demolition.

The excavation team continued to learn from ‘the best school’ of real-life mechanical challenges, but should be ready to return to Teselima with the dozer to complete the final touches on the pond. It’s a dry pond at this point until the rainy season begins, as the old well area has not produced water.

Insightful Amy suggested a theme song for the excavation team, who are using CAT machines. Sing with us: “But the CAT came back the very next day. Yes, the CAT came back. They thought it was goner. But the CAT came back. It just wouldn’t stay away.”

Through this time, our team members have experienced highs and lows, but continue to pray that we finish strong, leaving behind a testimony of grace, hope and love, bringing glory to God in all things.

Kim

The commute to Babator was incredibly interesting today. Three abrupt stops on the dirt road had us witness a school boy catching and killing a grasscutter (groundhog, a delicacy for Ghanaians); the toss of a yam into the moving cargo truck resulted in our team administrating some first aid care to a team member and later in the day a moving apology to the group; finally, our Ghanaian pastors and volunteers jumped out of the truck from every direction to chase a monkey into the forest! (No, they didn’t catch it, but the effort was enjoyable to watch.) Let’s just say ‘We aren’t in Ontario anymore!’ and everyone is doing well. Thank you for covering our travels in your prayers.

In Babator, the church continues to progress with the parging complete on the inside and it is ready to paint possibly tomorrow; the latrine foundation walls are going up; and the teachers enjoyed Braden entertaining the children in music and song once again.

In Teselima, the dozer worked for a good part of the day until it was brought back to Carpenter to begin the process of having the new chain installed, and the excavator ended a productive day with a hydraulic line leak. As David shared tonight, the blessing of all of these challenges are that they create ‘the best school’ for increasing the knowledge and confidence of the Ghanaian operators and mechanics as they work through these challenges as a team with Phil and Glenn.

Did they hit water today as we prayed? They certainly didn’t hit a gusher, but apparently there were some signs that there may be some water there. They will see tomorrow what has come of the work in that area. They will be finished the pond tomorrow and moving back to the Carpenter area to finish up the repairs and getting to some other projects David has in mind.

All is well, especially with our Ghanaian friends as Ghana won the soccer game tonight against Nigeria and they are headed into the finals on Friday against Libya. Go Ghana!

Thank you for your continued words of encouragement and prayers. With the hot weather, hard work and team dynamics, we know we need them each and every day! Thank you for standing with us in this work.

Today was a scorcher: 40 degrees on the thermometer with intense sunshine. Our JK/SK teacher, Frank, asked Joyce and I about “sunbathing for Vitamin D”. This was something he had heard during his lectures last weekend and he wondered what “sun-bathing” could possibly be! He was also wonderful explaining some cultural issues we deal with.

Ebenezer shared today that although the village chief does not share our faith, he helped clear the land for the church and is excited for it being built. It is known that where there are Christians in a village, the village develops for the better. Quite the testimony!

The roof of the church is six sheets of tin from being complete; the interior walls are all parged; one exterior wall is about two-thirds complete; and the latrine foundation was started.

In school we learned that our JK/SK children love spiders. It was fun to see the Grade 2 class marching around the school yard with tambourines, and to see the large smiles and hear the thrill of the Grade 3/4 class as they ran out of their classroom with their pinwheel craft today! The area school supervisor paid us a visit today and praised the work we were doing.

The excavation team had another ‘weak link’ to take care of with the track chain, but a good six hours of work was done with the dozer. Barring any additional delays, Phil expects the pond in Teselima may be completed tomorrow so they can take care of another couple of projects that David has in mind.

We expect everyone to be back on site tomorrow and are praying for continued good health and strength to finish strong. Phil asked us all to pray that as they finish up the pond, they hit water where there used to be a well, as this would be a real blessing. It would ensure that when the pond fills in the rainy season, it will never run dry. He gave us permission to share this request here so that you can join us in praying for this!

Thanks again for your comments!

Kim

Today several of our construction team were working up high in the rafters finishing the framing for the roof to ready it for the tin to be installed tomorrow. The interior walls were being parged, and tomorrow our team will start to work on the latrine.

Teachers were back to the classrooms reestablishing any routines that they had put into place last week. We were all surprised when a young lady came across the Black Volta by canoe with a gift of yams and dried fish from her father, a parishioner from Yaara who heard we were there.

Phil and Glenn returned late tonight due to the fact the dozer track chain failed once again after a couple hours running, and it took until after 7 tonight to get it running once again. New chains will arrive tonight, but will require a full day to install, so please pray that this last repair will hold so that Glenn can run these last days.

After dinner, the teachers gathered to continue organizing the play day we are having on Friday, and we hope to have some of the Babator ladies help us that day. We are hoping that this will be the opportunity to develop a relationship with them as we haven’t had a real chance to up until now.

Your comments and posts are REALLY appreciated. Please continue to pray for good health, workplace and commuting safety; that the equipment will run well; and that more than anything, we leave behind a beautiful lasting impression of Jesus’ love and provision.

Finishing well,

Kim

Everyone seemed to enjoy the opportunity to sleep in a little this morning. We, along with the peanut truck full of the Carpenter congregation, traveled up to Tinga to worship in and commission the church we had built in 2012. Tinga has a new chief that David had not yet met, so to respect traditions we went to his home to introduce ourselves, and at the end of the service we awaited permission to leave the village since he had indicated he wanted to see us again before we left. He sent his linguist to offer us gifts of eggs and guinea fowl, which added to the gifts from the church of yams and a very healthy-looking goat.

Jacob preached from 1 Peter 2:4-5, challenging us to trust our God the Creator, the Almighty, our refuge and fortress. He is the Living Stone: above all (money, poverty, presidents,…) and we can trust Him.

The afternoon was spent relaxing. Some napped, some played soccer against the Ghanaian pastors (who let us feel good by keeping the score tied), and some toured the village of Carpenter. Local resident David, who was a volunteer on our last build, recognized Jacqueline and proudly introduced his family to her.

At dinner David Mensah taught us a new song, and created a healthy competition by scoring how well each table could sing it. After dinner, the teachers were busy preparing for Monday’s lessons and really appreciated the willing hands of the building team members who helped staple and cut out shapes for them.

It really is a wonderful blessing to see how our team has enjoyed one another in play and in work. Again, your feedback and encouraging posts posts were well-received by your loved ones! Thank you! We are all well and ready to face the coming six workdays. God truly is our provider — physically, relationally and spiritually.

Feeling blessed,

Kim

In Teselima, the bulldozer ran for a couple of hours before it had another challenge that the mechanics felt needed parts, so we expected it wouldn’t be running again until late Monday. Phil and Glenn fortunately were able to improvise, fixing it within an hour so it is ready to roll again on Monday morning!

In Babator, the trusses went up on the church building, and after Monday it will be ready to install the tin roofing materials. The villagers continued digging out the latrine, so we hope it is ready for Monday as well. On the way home from Babator, the team shopped in the Bamboi market, escorted by the pastors to get the best bargains.

In Carpenter, the teachers who spent the day sorting the store room had a very long day and were encouraged to see all of the support our past teams have had with the bounty of school supplies future teams will have to work with. Doris had the privilege of teaching chef Abraham how to make the coconut cream pie she is famous for back home. Although the ingredients were modified due to what was available, it was absolutely the best we had ever tasted. Even the Ghanaians who traditionally don’t enjoy desserts and sweets gave us a thumbs up when they tasted it!

The evening ended with David joining us under the gazebo to plan next Friday’s village meal celebration. After Braden returned from jamming on the drums with Joseph, a keyboard player, he led us in “choir practice” with his guitar in preparation for tomorrow’s church dedication service in Tinga. (That’s the church we built in 2012!)

Thank you all for posting your notes, prayers and comments of encouragement. When team members hear the names of their friends and loved ones commenting, the biggest smiles come over their faces. As we try to keep cool, we really appreciate all of you back at home keeping our driveways clear of snow!

Kim