kids at Tom's Orphanage

Church at the Arts Center (drum makers)

Street crusade in Accra

Eric

Mankassiem church-Joseph

Tema-market yummy fish!

Close to the elephant!

Elephants bath at Mole National Park

Village church near Wa

Daniel-pastor in Wa

Church in Wa

Chris Rock in Africa??

Stephen and Me in Sampa

praying in Sampa

Almost finished

One more day and I am off. Yesterday was cool I went to the Arts center and was looking at African drums to bring back, let me know if you want one. We also had another meeting on the street. It went pretty well, Tom preached and I got to play guitar and pray for people. Again many responded to the message. Today I spoke to a bunch of Tom's leaders about evangelism. It was frustrating because everyone was late. It is a constant problem with everyone here. They call it Africa time, which means whenever they feel like showing up! For those who know Eric, I also met with him today and had a great talk and time of prayer, keep praying for him. God is really doing something cool with him, he is getting free! Well tonight another street meeting. Tomorrow I speak at the church service at the Arts center and then at the street church. My plane leaves late in the evening. This is probably the last post from Africa. When I get back I will put some pictures on this site. See you soon!!!

More ministry

I have had a good time the last few days. On Wednesday I traveled to a village around Mankassiem. It is in the central region and a rural village. From some things I saw there was much Idol worship there. I was invited to speak to a church there by a guy named Joseph. He is the pastor friend who got a hold of our friend Eric. The ministry went really well I thought. The people were very excited and very hungry for God. I preached about the Love of God, and the Father's heart stuff, and I spoke about hearing from God in a personal relationship. This was all very welcome, and new news to them. There were about 50 people in all and I was also able to pray over each one and give words. They were thrilled and said God really spoke to them. After a break we came back for a question and answer time. The questions were all really good and I had fun getting to teach some basic stuff. They were things like "What does it mean to be born again?"and "What does it mean to be righteousness?" and "How can you hear the voice of God?"
Over all I was encouraged and I got to spend many hours with Eric and talk with him.

Yesterday I spoke in the evening at a street crusade. It was in the area where many homeless people stay. I was a new experience for me and not really my style of ministry, but God helped me out. I prayed much of the day and God gave me some cool stuff to share. At the end many, many people responded, and many came asking for prayer. I beleive many were healed and touched by God. So I am having fun with all the ministry stuff here and more to come. Until later....

Back in Accra

Well I spent two days in Tamale. I had no real plans but decided to just see where God would lead me. I had dinner at a restaurant the first evening I was there. It was a cool location on a rooftop in the middle of downtown. I met a few kids that invited me to join them so I did. It turns out they were good friends with the kid I stayed with in Larabanga (the town near Mole national park) It was pretty strange, but not a coincidence. I spent time just hanging out with them. A couple were Rastas. I was able to share a bit about God, and they asked me to stay another day to talk more. I felt like I was supposed to so I met them the next day. One of the guys named Fasil invited me to his home and we ate and watched some movies. We talked a lot and I felt like I was to give him my bible. It seemed simple enough but he was so excited and appreciative. I also shared some of my music with him. We spent some time in prayer and I believe God wants to do a powerful work in his life. It was a cool connection and I know I will be in contact with him again. The trip back to Accra took over 11 hours it was pretty draining. I arrived there at around 6:00pm. I hiked to get a trotro (a van crammed with around 20 people) to get back to the orphanage I was staying. On our way the driver decided to take a short cut. When he was pulling off on a dirt road one of the tires fell into a drainage ditch and he broke the axel. We were going slow, it was not a huge deal. The only problem was getting a ride the rest of the way. There were no other trotros on that road. I was not too far from my destination, maybe a mile so decided to walk. I was pretty beat and carrying a heavy pack and guitar. I just prayed God throw me a bone, help me out. And right after a man pulled over and said he would give me a ride because I looked tired! A good end to a long trip. I went to Tom's church the next day (Sunday morning) I got to pray for a baby it was a dedication service. Also I was able to pray for a sick woman who lived on the street. I spent some time talking to Tom and planning out my schedule for the last week here. It seems we will be doing some evangelism and street meetings again in the area the homeless are. I think that will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and I will preach on Sunday before I leave. Yesterday (Monday) I went with Tom to a town called Promprom. We went to visit a school. I got to see Tema and the port where everything comes into Ghana. I also met with Eric's pastor friend as he was passing through. Today I plan to meet with Eric and talk and pray with him. I should be able to write again soon, now that I am in Accra. Adois for now

update

Well I hope you did not think I fell off the face of the earth. By now most have stopped checking this site because it has been almost two weeks since my last update. I have been far from anything remotely considered technology. I have been in the northern regions of Ghana, and it was a miracle if there was electricity, let alone internet. Well so much has happened in such a short time I will try to recap. I was in Accra for Easter and it was by far the worst time I have had here. I was in bed for two and a half days! I got malaria and some other intestinal crap. I had time to rest, take the right meds and pray. I have been feeling great since then, but it delayed my trip one day. On Tuesday 3/28 I set out for Sampa. I met Stephen in Sunyani. If you look at the Ghana map you find it by going north west from Accra. Then from there continue in a straight line to the border of the Ivory Coast. It was two hours on some amazingly terrible dirt roads. The town was in the middle of nowhere, and pretty small. It is mainly cashew farmers. Which was pretty interesting to see. Did you know that they grow out of the end of a fruit on a tree? The fruit is pretty sweet and gives the nuts their unique taste. It is very labor intensive to harvest them and they are expensive to buy even here. Anyway that was the nature info. I was warmly welcomed by Stephen and his church. He runs a school for business here as well. We had a conference for three nights in a row and there were around 150-200 people each night. It was a challenge for me because I have never had to do anything like this before, but it went well. The people really responded to the messages. I spoke on the Father's heart, hear and do, and discipleship. One of the nights I prayed over and gave words to everyone there. It took a long time, but God did some cool things with that. Another day I took a group of the people out to model our style of evangelism. I taught about it and about prayer and then we went out. They were pretty excited about this. There were a few pastors from different villages that went out, and the one from Sampa will continue to do it weekly. They all had so many questions and really liked it. On the last morning I was there (Friday 4/1) I went to the local school and played my guitar and preached. It was very cool. There were hundreds of kids crowed into the room, and some gathered all around the building peering in the windows. I spoke about haviong a living relationship with Jesus and hearing his voice. It was really pretty fun. Then Stephen drove me to Wenchi, and I took a bus to Wa, in the North West of Ghana. I arrived late in the night with no real destination.It was storming and the power was out. I found a good hotel and crashed. The next day I met up with a friend of Tom's who is a pastor there. We talked for some time and he told me about his vision to make disciples and not just grow a church. His name is Daniel and he is pretty cool. He also started churches in three of the surrounding small villages. Well I spoke at the church Sunday and was received well. I also taught his leadership two evenings. I think one of the coolest things was that I also got to teach them about evangelism. They have been having a difficult time and most of Wa is muslim. I taught for some time and we went out for an hour, and prayed with around 40 people. They were very excited about this. Then Daniel told me about a dream he had 4 days before I arrived. In the dream a white man came to him and showed him the promised land was very close and overflowing with fruit. He told a woman in the church about it and they didnt have a clear understanding of what it meant until after evangelism. I thought that was pretty cool. I also went to two of the villages with him on Tuesday 4/5. They were really out in the middle of nowhere! We drove out on these dirt roads on his dirtbike. One of the villages has only about 70 people and about 30 were at the meeting. I spoke and then prayed and gave words for all of them. They were pretty poor and hurting but God spoke some cool things. The rest of my other time in Wa was spent walking around meeting random muslim kids. There were a few I became friends with and was able to pray with. The whole trip was really fruitful and unexpected. I left Wa on wed 4/6 early in the morning heading for Tamale. I decided to take a day and stop at Mole national park. It was really cool I got to take a safari walk with a guide. We saw elephants, antelope, crocodile, baboons, monkeys, and a bunch of birds. I had lunch with a bunch of the guides and I told them I was a pastor, so they invited me to speak at their church that night. Well now I am in Tamale and found an internet cafe. It is a really busy more modern city, not too exciting. I am not sure how long I will stay, but I want to get back to Accra soon. Well that is a whole lot of info, sorry for the long lapse of writing. I only have about ten days left, and that should go pretty fast. Adios for now.....