by Frances W. Rosenau
Today we had the opportunity to visit two schools where we sponsor scholarship students: the school for the blind and the school for the deaf. We were graciously hosted at both schools and introduced to the students.
At the school for the blind, Chet and I had our picture taken with our four scholarship students. At the school for the deaf, the children "sang" us a song and took turns shaking our hands in the parking lot.
The situation of children with handicapping conditions in Ghana is not great. Some children we saw today had been left at the school and essentially abandoned by family. At the same time, there is amazing work being done by dedicated servants and workers. The church and others are deeply committed to teaching the children to be as independent as possible and to live with dignity.
Thursday night, the gathering of mission partners from the US and Ghana took advantage of our free night and put on a party. I bought Malta for the whole crew. Don't worry: even though it says Guinness on the bottle, it's non-alcoholic! We sang praise songs in Twi, Ewe and English and danced to drums, waving white handkerchiefs around in the air. The spirit was truly among us! Many of the Ghanaian church leaders stressed to us how important it is to play music like this in order to attract young people to the church. In fact, I've heard Ghanaians say similar things many times since we arrived. All I know is that everyone, young and old, was dancing the night away for Jesus.
The Ghana Mission Network is now officially over. We said good bye to many friends and partners. Tomorrow morning, our team members from Northeast Health will be conducting a Dementia Care workshop here in Akropong. After that, we will join the majority of our team in Tema where we will spend 4 days. Alexandra Lusak and I will preach at different churches in Tema on Sunday.
I have loved the hill town of Akropong with its foggy mornings and cool evenings. Now the rest of our trip begins. We will be traveling all over the country and, of course, blogging all the way.
At the school for the blind, Chet and I had our picture taken with our four scholarship students. At the school for the deaf, the children "sang" us a song and took turns shaking our hands in the parking lot.
The situation of children with handicapping conditions in Ghana is not great. Some children we saw today had been left at the school and essentially abandoned by family. At the same time, there is amazing work being done by dedicated servants and workers. The church and others are deeply committed to teaching the children to be as independent as possible and to live with dignity.
Thursday night, the gathering of mission partners from the US and Ghana took advantage of our free night and put on a party. I bought Malta for the whole crew. Don't worry: even though it says Guinness on the bottle, it's non-alcoholic! We sang praise songs in Twi, Ewe and English and danced to drums, waving white handkerchiefs around in the air. The spirit was truly among us! Many of the Ghanaian church leaders stressed to us how important it is to play music like this in order to attract young people to the church. In fact, I've heard Ghanaians say similar things many times since we arrived. All I know is that everyone, young and old, was dancing the night away for Jesus.
The Ghana Mission Network is now officially over. We said good bye to many friends and partners. Tomorrow morning, our team members from Northeast Health will be conducting a Dementia Care workshop here in Akropong. After that, we will join the majority of our team in Tema where we will spend 4 days. Alexandra Lusak and I will preach at different churches in Tema on Sunday.
I have loved the hill town of Akropong with its foggy mornings and cool evenings. Now the rest of our trip begins. We will be traveling all over the country and, of course, blogging all the way.