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.....