Friends from my home church come to visit!

Last Saturday night three wonderful ladies from my home church, Christ Church Lake Forest, in Lake Forest, Illinois, came to visit me. They were on their way to an AIDS conference in Nigeria and stayed with me for 5 days before heading to Lagos, Nigeria this afternoon. We had a great time together although they did have several traveling snags along the way. It started in Chicago when they were late in leaving - not b/c of weather - but b/c their pilot was late. That caused them to miss their connection in London so they spent Friday night in London instead of coming into Accra as planned. Saturday night the three of them arrived but their luggage did not. Between the layover in London and losing their luggage for a day they were getting quite tired of the same clothes. But at least they had packed extra things in their carry ons for just such an occasion:) Oh by the way my friends are (L-R:) Griselle Larsen - who I met here and am so glad I can call her a friend, Jo Lyons - mission director and my boss before coming to Ghana - oh and a great friend:), me and Joanna Cushman - my friend from church. All three stayed with me and my roomies for the week. It was a blessing having them here - and not just b/c they brought me all sorts of goodies from the states! While in Accra I took them around the city, out to some local restaurants, to a couple of local markets for souvenirs, and to the church I attend here. Unfortunately b/c of the lost day and other obligations I wasn't able to take them to the coast to see a slave castle, the ocean or the canopy walk. But we still had fun. On Tuesday and Wednesday we were in the Volta Region which is east of Accra towards Togo. Jo was looking at the ministries of a potential partner in that area. We were able to go to several schools where children pulled out of child labor were attending, visit a village where traditional ancestral religions are practiced and also see the vocational training center where young women are trained in a trade so that they can support themselves. These women have been freed slaves from the fettish priests in the villages in the area. Each place we saw was really incredible and so different from anything I have seen in Ghana so far. The trip was wonderful and tiring at the same time.

Below are pictures of each ministry we saw and you can see more pictures from the trip by going to the link to the left under the "online photos" area.