Praise and interesting stuff I'm learning

 25/3/11

I’m learning that the status of water and electricity is so dynamic, that I’m no longer going to indicate whether we have it or not.  I’m just praising the Lord for the well and for a strong worker that can carry the water indoors for us.

We visited a medical clinic the other day, International Medical SOS.  This is a 2-bed emergency room with one bed observation private facility sponsored by the Maersk oil company that drills here in Takoradi.  Believe it or not, it’s not too uncommon to see Caucasians in this area because of this business.  There is even a housing area for those who work for Maersk. 

The facility is very clean, has a small laboratory and limited radiology services.  It is staffed by individuals from around the world.  The nurse we met is Ghanaian, the paramedic South African, the clinic manager is a Russian born Korean, and the doctor is German.  They are on 3 month on, 1 month off rotations, and they recruit world-wide.  This would not be open to us as missionaries, however, unless we would pay $2,000 per individual per year.  I do not know if they would assist in a medical evacuation, but they do have arrangements made with two other companies to use their helicopters for evacuation.  There is a Ghanaian air force base here in Takoradi, and unfortunately, they do not allow medical aircraft to land at the airfield, so the helicopter would have to fly the patient to Accra for fixed wing transport.  When I asked about the medical crew that would accompany the patient the answer was a bit unclear, but there is not enough staff at this facility to go with the patient.  I got the impression they would have to get a crew out of Accra, but how all that happens I do not know.  It was an interesting visit, and we hope to visit a local hospital next week.  Our taxi driver’s aunt is a charge nurse at a hospital here, so he wants to introduce us.

27/3/11

It is always amazing to me how small the world of independent Baptists is.  In a city north of us, Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana, there is a team of laborers from First Baptist Church of Hammond.  But there is also a smaller team – the Summer family and the Aaron family.  The Aarons came to Takoradi to visit their friends, the Consfords, this week.  All the local missionary families got together, and we found out that Mrs. Emily Aaron is from the Baptist church in Heber Springs, Arkansas that has been a US sponsor to Dr. Kadio.  She has even been on a medical mission trip with Dr. Kadio!  Of course, this is the doctor with whom I will work in Ivory Coast. 

They have been in country for a little over 2 years, and they are still in the process of learning Twi, the language that is actually best known all over Ghana (far better than English).  When they spoke to people in Twi at church today it was quite obvious that the Ghanaians were very excited to have a missionary speaking a Ghanaian language.  They are further ahead in their language learning than are the Luthers (the Luthers have only been here for a little over a year), but I have still seen this same type of reception when Pastor Charlie speaks Fante. 

There is a young lady that comes to church on Sunday mornings.  Her name is Jifa (spelled as it sounds), she is a Christian from Accra, and is in Takoradi on a teaching internship.  Each Sunday she does an hour bus/ taxi ride commute to make it to morning services.  Her English is excellent, and today as we spoke she told me she is very interested in linguistics.  She has even studied linguistics in a program similar to the program where the Luthers and I studied. 

Jifa explained to me that in British colonized African nations, such as Ghana and Nigeria, the British did not force the nationals to conform to their language or manner of living.  However, in countries where the French colonized they forcefully imposed their language and culture upon the people.  That is why one can be in a country like Ghana where the official language is English, and yet only 50-60% of the people can speak any English (and at that, not necessarily well).  In Ivory Coast, however, one cannot travel that country without speaking French, even though there are over 60 dialects. 

But regardless, she made statements similar to what I heard in language school and from others I’ve met from non-English speaking countries – Americans do not articulate.  We ‘round’ our words, so to speak, and we do not move our mouths when we talk.  Of course, we move our mouths somewhat, but not in a fashion where one can watch the mouth to truly understand the sounds being made.  When I watch Pastor Evans, the national currently leading this church, preach I am captivated.  His entire face is apart of his speaking.  One can watch his tongue and lips form the sounds that are made, and I am reminded of what my teacher in France would say to me so often, “Ouvre ta bouche!”, meaning, “Open your mouth!”

I have a special praise.  It may seem little, but to me it was very sweet of the Lord to hear my prayer today.  KM and I must take taxis wherever we go.  We have one driver that we can really rely upon as he is always on time or calls if he is running late.  However, he doesn’t work on Sundays, and neither do many other drivers.  Consequently, it makes it difficult to find a taxi, especially on Sunday night.  When you find one they usually want to charge you more money.  This morning I told the Lord that I just didn’t have it in me to stay out in the sun trying to flag down a driver and then haggle over the price.  I asked Him to please intercede for us.

When we got to the area where we start looking for taxis there was one right there, ready to pick us up.  He willingly took us all the way to church for the right price, and he accepted a John and Romans.  When we left church this morning, we stood by the road for about 5 minutes when a taxi came, and he even took us closer to the house for the same price.  This evening we were running late because our night watchman came late, so we were trying to get to church on time.  Again, there was a taxi waiting at the road for us, and he took us to church without an argument re: the price.  We actually arrived 10 minutes early!  And once more, after evening church when we are especially trying to get home before dark, there sat a taxi that took us very close to our house without fighting over the price.  Each driver willingly took a John and Romans, and KM was able to give some other passengers the same. 

I think we’ve found one of our opportunities to minister, except I have already learned not to literally point out the plan of salvation written in the back because they will quit looking at the road and look at the book!  That will scare the bejeebies out of you! 

My God is so good to His ‘girls’.  I just wanted to openly thank Him for His goodness to His weary girl today.