Today was an extremely frustrating day. I spent the entire day in people’s offices trying to arrange the details and itineraries for my next 6 days in Accra. After hours of dealing with politics and bureaucracy I have at least ironed out details for tomorrow. The next 5 days are still up in the air.

Tomorrow I will be going to Frankadua, the village where the Baptist Vocational Training Center is located. This Center helps to rehabilitate Trokosi slaves into society after they have been freed.

Trokosi, or ritual servitude, is an old cultural tradition found mostly in the south eastern part of Ghana in which virgin girls are offered as slaves to fetish priests (voodoo witch doctors) to atone for the sins of the elders in the family. It was outlawed in 1998 but there are still an estimated 2000+ women and children enslaved. I will share more about this evil practice and what the Ghana Baptist Convention is doing to free and rehabilitate these victims after I return from the Center.

Please pray for me tomorrow as I travel to this village. Pray that God can help me to put today’s frustrations behind me and be used by Him to tell help the stories of these women whose lives He is changing in amazing ways.

The Sharpes are working with the Hausa of Cote d’Ivoire and had been invited to a Muslim Hausa family’s baby naming ceremony in Abidjan. I went along with them but we arrived too late and missed the ceremony. However, we still had a great time visiting with the family and meeting all the neighbors.

The mother had given birth to twins but the baby boy didn’t make it. Before leaving they let us pray for them and their newborn child.

Pray with us that God can use the Sharpes’ friendship with this family to lead them to know Him. Pray that this baby girl will grow up healthy and strong and also come to know Christ and His love for her.

Also, I’m going to cheat a bit and make the above image my photo of the day. I figure it is a nice segway back to color photos after the last several being black & white.

Sunday morning I went to two different churches in Abidjan. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mamprusi of Nalerigu’s main crop is corn. Right now they are harvesting a lot of it and you will find huge mounds of corn husks laying around town. Just like kids play in piles of leaves in the fall in the US, here the kids play in the piles of dried corn husks.

Deron Meilstrup has been living in West Africa with his wife Mary Beth for 2 years. Deron is a counselor serving on the Member Care Team and Mary Beth is the region’s media strategist.

I’ve been working with the Meilstrups this week in Abidjan and interviewed him about his background and the work he has been doing all over West Africa. You can listen to the 10-minute interview below:

Interview with Deron Meilstrup – October 27, 2007
You will need to right-click and choose “Save Target As…” to download the mp3.

Read the rest of this entry »

Emirates has a flight from Dubai to Abidjan that stops briefly in Accra. I took that flight to get to Abidjan and back on this trip. Even though it was the cheapest option it is a really nice flight! It only lasts 45 minutes and they give us a meal. The seats each have a video monitor and you can watch the ground under the plane or the sky in front as you take off, fly, and land. On top of it all the plane is huge and there is hardly anyone on it so I get a whole row to myself. If only they flew to Tampa…

I love cheese. Not Velvetta. Not “American”. Real cheeses like Brie, Camembert, Roquefort, Bleu d’Auvergne, Muenster. Some people call them stinky. I call them delicious.

Being in Abidjan this past week has allowed me to get some real French cheese and eat it on real French baguettes. Today I bought a huge chunk of Bleu d’Auvergne – probably the best semi-soft blue cheese in the world. I’m in heaven.

I seem to be on a black & white kick lately. This is a woman in Abidjan from the Hausa people group. My church in the US has been engaging the Hausa in Cameroon.

This photo was taken in a small dark room with no windows and a single light bulb for light. Being able to take shots like this in those situations really makes me glad that I invested in a good flash and diffuser.