OK PLEASE remember this is MY journal that I make public to those who are interested. That being said...this was really a "non mission day" and I skipped the Team day but boy...I've got alot to say today so if you're bored & have time grab a snack & a drink & read on :) If not pick & choose the categories that you may like...fun fat of the day, church, or humanitarian or none of the above. It has felt like a LONG DAY with things planned but not fully accomplished I have honestly felt like I was managing my own NGO. I went to bed earlier last night & took some melatonin & slept well EXCEPT for 2 times when I work up with immense cramping in my foot & leg one time the right leg & the 2nd time the left leg. I don't know it I was dehydrated or what but it was painful & after I managed the 1st episode & went back to sleep it was awful to wake up again & have it happen twice??? Fortunately, I did get some good sleep in between and I am drinking LOTS of water today.
So last night after blogging & before bed Eddy the PC (Program Coordinator) sent out the next days schedule (for today Sunday) and since they had the AV issue on Saturday for the education sessions they added it to Sunday morning, plus a visit to the shelter (which I would have LOVED) and the team day to start at noon at a Praise Eco center with a zipline, paddle boats & suspension bridge. I text Eddy & told him I had made plans to go to church and meet with some people I have been talking to for about a month to provide some humanitarian help to people in Ho & asked if I could be excused. I already planned for a ride & thought I could be back by noon for the team day (you will see that was not to be) Eddy graciously approved my plans. Cherish dropped by my room & I told her I was going to church to meet Salam & Pres Ofari & she said she wanted to go. I explained how I got excused & told her to LMK. So this morning she said she would join me & was hoping to go from church to the shelter...mind you she does not have wifi on her phone, does not have Ghana currency- so at breakfast I shared my concerns & uncertain plans but said she was welcome to join me.....
FUN FACTS: People in Ghana seem to have 4 names??? a given name, an English name, a name related to the month they were born in & I will have to get back to you on the 4th name??? So when a couple from Missouri called Salam Sister Lydia??? I was confused but it is her English name.
CHURCH - I went to the hotel "lobby" at 8 to ask them to get me a Pragia for 8:30. There was one arriving just then so they asked the driver if he would take me & he said yes. I text Cherish that we were leaving now & she came. The ride was $4 US for the 2 of us :) Joshua our driver had the address I had on the website & took us to where we thought the church was...& we knew it could be in an apt building but this was not the place. Fortunately, I stopped Joshua from leaving & we called Salam who told him where we should be & for another $3 we got an extra little tour of Ho & I felt like the entire community were all walking to churches & we must've passed 20 churches on the trip. Joshua was super nice & he got us to the right place where Salam was waiting at the side of the road & there was church signage. I kept thinking small branch in an apartment type complex & expected maybe 12-15 people - was I ever wrong!!! Just arriving and walking into church was a GLORIOUS event that felt like "coming home". There are 3 Branches in Ho & they all meet from 9-11 in 3 different places one is a large traditional multi congregation church building that they have had for about 7 years & the other 2 are buildings they rent and have created in them a congregations room for worship & Sunday school plus they have rooms for the children & teen programs. As soon as we walked in numerous people came up to welcome us & ask where we were from & why we were in Ho & I shared about Op Smile which some knew about. They were genuinely so kind. There were 4 missionaries in this branch - two elders from Utah who had both been out a year & they each have African companions - one from Ethiopia who was surprised when I told him I had been to his country 3 times & another from Zimbabwe. Two of them stay "in town" & 2 of them go to the outlying villages & they all loved being in Ghana. They said there were sister missionaries in the other branch. The meeting was getting ready to start & a couple the Grandon's from Missouri came in & also introduced themselves to us - they have been here for 2 years as member & community support & were going home next week. They said when they offered to serve they put in places they wanted to go & Africa was not on the list but they wouldn't change a thing & have had amazing experience with the people of Ghana. During their time here in Ho the membership began at 1600 and has increased to 2360 helping this areas church structure move from a "district" to a "Stake" and the papers have been submitted & in 6-8 months the change will take place bringing these members more resources :) They both mentioned how the people of Ghana radiate the "light of Christ"
No offense to my Foothill Ranch Ward friends but by the time the meeting started the room was full with almost all 100 chairs filled with young & old & all ages in between. The way they sang the opening song #135 about Jesus with such enthusiasm & conviction brought tears to my eyes. In one row of 3 chairs sat 3 little children all probably under 6 & I was AMAZED at how they sat there quietly the entire meeting while their mother & father sat behind them. There was a steady stream of members going up to share their testimonies - not a break for a minute. An older man talked about how joining the church in 2005 completely changed his life & how he loves God & the church. All spoke in English except for 2 older people who spoke in Twi (which the congregation all know also). Salam also went up so I felt I know her a bit more after that. At the end a small choir sang Amazing Grace...powerful! After the mtg Pres Ofari's wife had been sitting the row in front of us & turned around & introduced herself & her 8-year-old son who had a Cleft Palate Repair on an Op smile Mission in 2021 - small lil world of how we intersected thru Op smile. He is still in some speech therapy but was very sweet. Salam introduced us to her 3 children - a daughter 22, a son 19 & a son 14. Her husband is not a member of the church but has fully supported her for the 21 years she and her children have attended. He is a teacher at the "state university". We left there after the sacrament/worship service to go meet Pres. Ofari at the 3rd Branch. that meets at the "real church building". Salam drove us there in her old Chevy Spark with no AC & several dents - having a car in Ghana seems to be rare? She also was skilled beyond measure at avoiding all the hundreds of potholes on the roads. When we arrived at the next building the primary children ages 3-11 were singing their little hearts out & oh how I loved hearing that. BUT...Pres Ofari had left that bldg to go see someone at the 1st Ho branch, so we went into Sunday school which went over by 15 minutes & had over 60 adults in class! Church attendance in America may be down but Ghana sems to be thriving! And we were definitely on "Ghana Time". After Sunday school as we waited for Pres Ofari, we met the sister missionaries at that building - one from Texas & Sis Gransfield from Vernal Utah -they glowed & said this has been an AMAZING journey for both of them. They invited Cherish & I to a baptism that was happening & Cherish went there while I went in to wait for Pres Ofari...who got there about 30 min later but he works in the lab at the military hospital & planned to first do blood rapid PSA tests on all the men over 40 in the congregation. While he did that I chatted w/ Salam & Savior (yes that was his name) the 1st Counselor to Pres Ofari to get an idea of what they were thinking for the humanitarian needs. At this pint Cherish felt like she needed to get back to the students, so we called our Tuk Tuk driver Josh to pick her up & take her to the hotel & I paid him in advance :)
HUMANITARIAN: If you are still reading - what a devout follower of my mission trips & if you are starting here Welcome to Sundays adventure with Nancy!!! While waiting for Pres. Ofari I asked if they had any ideas of the greatest needs - they mentioned several elderly and widows in the boundaries of the district members & just wonderful elderly neighbors who truly need food. They also mentioned single mothers with meager resources who needed help. That all sounded great. I TRULY have an ARMY of ANGELS who when I leave for a mission trip send me money via Venmo or drop off cash at my home or discreetly give me envelopes of cash at church or mail me checks or even see my post on social media & ask if they can help & this mission was no different & I came with a good amount of "sacred funds" because of the wonderful, caring, kind hearted humans that I know. I call them sacred fund because I feel like I am sent on a mission somewhere & God has a plan or a need and I am just the conduit of their generosity or goodness. I am diligent in trying to understand what I am here to do with thes funds & this time I was still unsure as we waited & chatted. It was about 1 pm when Pres Ofari returned to the room (remember I started the day with an 8 am ride to church -Ghana time :). Pres Ofari had contacted the 3 Branch presidents in Ho & 4 other Branch Presidents in the outer areas of the district & the 3 "units" in the district some of these congregations are 3 hours apart from each other & not in the direction of Accra. He had pages & pages of notes related to the needs, The only thing this made me think about was we are talking about a lot of people here... They also mentioned young men & women who want to do missionary work (most will go to another part of Africa) & they started calculating the amount to cover a suitcase, shoes, clothes & even in Ghana dollars that was adding up fast. They also mentioned Caroline, the wife of the 3rd Branch President who I met at that building with a lil baby on her back & told me her husband is a nurse I may see at the hospital & they have children 18, 14 & 10 & the baby she had today was abandoned at the hospital & since the social workers there knew her husband she asked if their family could care for the baby as there were no resources to take the baby & it would not thrive/survive in whatever an orphanage system is in Ghana ( which sounds nonexistent). With my passion for children I knew I wanted to help her with the expenses of baby formula, baby cereal, diapers & wipes. But after that Pres Ofari's notes from everyone he had spoken to with pages & pages of needs left me feeling very overwhelmed. My last mission in Brazil by the time we met with leaders they had a plan for a specific number of people who needed help with food & the amount it would cost per family & the little miracle was it was the exact amount I had exchanged at the airport. Here I was worried if I had exchanged enough cash & did I have enough for the things they were talking about & how we would get to a decision. I had a thought & asked Pres Ofari to prioritize & he without hesitation said: "Priority #1 are 15 Elderly throughout the district area without family and without the means to get food. Priority #2 are 24 single mothers some with multiple children who are going hungry Priority #3 were the missionaries, but we dropped the clothes & talked only about suitcases for them. He said these are the 43 people. I felt a little less angst but we were far from knowing what to do, how to do it or the costs. so we got into the details - food for 2 months for the elderly included: 25 kg of rice, 5 liters of oil, 2 cases of tomato paste, beans, Maize (corn), Geri (some sort of cracker) and they could split a large bag of sugar among all. We added costs that Salam estimated & it turned out to be about $100 US per person. We thought we could use those same numbers for the single moms & it could last them 1-1 1/2 months depending on the size of their family. But at that we were talking $4000 and I was very short of that. When we started "ranking the single mothers needs" and who we would skip I felt sick to my stomach. 5 suitcases would be $300 or 3 families but how do I choose? 2 months for a senior & 1 for a family there were no good answers. At least we had a "sort of starting point" which was the elderly. I handed them all the cash I had exchanged & told them I had more cash in US $20 bills that the money exchanger wouldn't take & I also could use my credit card if there were places that would take that but their intent was to go to the "open market" where all of this would less expensive. Pres Ofari needed to leave & Salam & I decided to go to 2 stores nearby to see about using a credit card & what they had. I seriously needed to feel like I was starting somewhere. At the store they miraculously had 5 of the same suitcases for $60 each so I took that as a sign to buy them even though it was priority #3 & I knew I could use my credit card, preserve the cash & which friends would be happy to know that is where part of their money went. That store did not have any baby stuff but the next one did so I spent $100 on that from a friend in Australia after a social media post asked if she could Venmo me $100. We dropped that off to Caroline on our way back -she & her husband live in Nurses housing by the hospital - they are small brick stacked buildings that look old & word down. I felt good that I was able to get the baby items they would continue to need and likely could not afford (especially since nearly all mothers breastfeed in Ghana but she could not since this was not a baby she gave birth to. I was sensing a bit of traction but it was also 3 pm & I was tired & spent. Salam drove me back to my hotel & we sat in her car & "literally crunched the $$$'s needed" I told her what I had covered & where we might be short. I asked about the price difference between buying the 25kg bags of rice at the store that took credit cards vs the open market she said we would talk more about it tomorrow. I went back to my hotel room ate some snacks as it had been hours since I had breakfast totaled all we could cover & what would be left & PRAYED mightily. I could easily cover the 15 elderly - DONE & 12 of the 24 single mothers or if we changed the amounts, we could give all of them half. It was a lil tricky, but I covered what I could with what we had and shared with my "Angel Army" all the good we were doing. One spontaneously offered to send another $200 via Venmo (if I could get access to it) & another offered for me to spend more & she would give it to me when I returned & asked me to determine the amount & I came up with what seemed right. A childhood friend also offered to send $200 but when she sent me money it was more than what she mentioned & she sent the EXACT amount of money I needed to cover ALL of the rest of the single mothers. Tears FLOODED my eyes in awe of how God is involved and manages the details of all his children's needs all over the world Ponder on this...someone in Calif. sends exactly what is needed for his children in Ghana and I am again simply the conduit for others good. It's been a long day & we still have ALOT of shopping & logistics. I wanted to give Salam time with her family since I occupied her entire day so I text her the joyous news & she said she will get the other 5 or 6 women leaders from the other congregations to help her use the cash at the market & she & I will manage the items we can buy at "the store that takes credit cards" perhaps after a mission night - maybe tomorrow because we are starting with "light day" of 12 surgeries. It's not all done but it's in process...MIRACLES still exist & PRAYERS are answered & God is always GOOD!
But quite honestly, I am exhausted & surgeries start tomorrow. It is 10 pm here & I am going to bed - up at 6 & leaving at 7. All my clothes are laid out. I drank water while I was blogging so hopefully, I sleep without leg cramps!!! I know tomorrow will be an AMAZING DAY as we give some little ones new smiles or needed palate surgeries & improve their lives...it's what keeps me going!!!
GOOD NIGHT FROM GHANA - Nurse Nancy
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