Greetings from Ghana!

Greetings from Ghana! The team has arrived safely at our ministry site and we are starting to settle in here. We are staying in a dorm style room on the site. Also on site are other volunteer houses, Faith Roots Academy School, dorms for the rescued children who live here, a cafeteria, a church and prayer room, and a small store where they sell ice cream. It is a beautiful place. We are in a very rural area surrounded by small hills. The weather has been quite hot and humid here since we arrived and it is taking us a while to acclimate. The first heavy rain we have experienced came today so it is pleasantly cool right now.

Our hosts, Stacy and JohnBull, are wonderful and have made us feel right at home. They are the founders and directors of CORM. It is a joy to serve alongside them. We are also loving getting to know the rest of the staff here. 

The team is broken into different groups for ministry in the morning. One group is spending time in the 7 Continents ministry building relationships with the women there. This ministry is a program that teaches women the trade of sewing as a means to support their families. They are beautiful women with amazing stories. Another group goes to the school each morning. Faith Roots Academy provides education to children who have been rescued from trafficking, the children of the women who are working in the 7 Continents ministry, and children from the nearby community. Our team members are helping the teachers in the classrooms and spending time getting to know the kids. We have to give a special shoutout to our group that has been working helping our host do some organizing and cleaning. They have been sorting through a shed of donations where they have encountered lizards, rats, cockroaches, ants and many other little creatures along the way. They always have stories to tell at the end of the day! Our farming group has been involved with helping weed the gardens that supply many of vegetables we eat here. Currently they are getting up at 5:30 in the morning to help plant crops in a nearby field that will be used to help feed the children and families that live at CORM.

In the afternoons during the heat of the day, the group has some downtime to spend as a team and rest. At 4:00 we head over to the soccer field and basketball court where we are met by the kids who live here at CORM. They are always anxiously awaiting us for a game or two. Each day they royally beat us at whatever we play which they take great pleasure from. Even though we are on a solid losing streak, this is one of the highlights of our day. We love spending time with and getting to know the kids here.

The food has been awesome! Each meal is very authentic so we are getting to experience the cuisine of Ghana. We usually have rice or yams of some sort along with a stew to go with it. Stew here is different than at home. It usually has a spicy tomato base with some kind of meat in it.

Saturday we were able to go to Accra and visit an art market containing beautiful paintings, hand carved bowls, drums, and other handcrafted items. Sunday we attended church here at CORM and some of our team taught Sunday school for the younger children.

We are very happy to be here and everyone is doing well. We are excited to serve alongside our hosts and continue to experience what God is doing in the lives of the amazing people we are getting to know. As many of you know, our wifi situation is very limited this month so you will only be hearing from us about once a week. Thank you for your continued prayers!