Chuck's Blog
New Tricks - Summer 2006
By chuck
for chucksblog
YEAR TWO OF OUR mission in Ghana full of changes. Here is the scoop!
WE SPENT CHRISTMAS THIS year (05) in Accra at our very good friends (Dr. Clifton, Marcia, Joel, Jessica Clarke) and enjoyed every moment. We missed our families in the states of course, but had a nice traditional Jamaican/British/Ghanaian meal. Someone was confused as to the time that the special church service would start, and we ended up going 5 minutes before session ended! That night, though, we went to a great concert in the LaPalm Hotel in downtown Accra( where we saw some of the best Ghanaian Musicians here) and received a call from Sis. Grey, our school president wife. She told us our house had been robbed!
It was late, so we could not leave for home till early the next day. One thing that bothered me was that we didn't know what was taken. It could be our passports, all our money, our laptop which was the regional offices. When we got home, we checked around the house, and found that nothing valuable was taken! about $110 in cidis, were stolen from a drawer in our room. Plus a 100 dollar bill that was torn, and would not be acceptable at any foreign exchange bureau's here. They took that torn bill out of my passport folder, and re-closed the folder nicely to place it back in its not-well hidden spot! It was such a blessing, really, that they didn't take anything of real value. If anything, it was really more of a warning to us, and taught us to take better care of our possessions. You see, the locks were absolutely the cheapest locks possible to mankind, due to an avoidable mistake by the foreman who built the property. So I immediately replaced all the locks with better locks, and I installed a crossbar to be closed on each door at nights. I really & truly believe the entire thing to be a sign from God to be more careful. Security is so much more serious here than in the states, and we had forgot that fact. [January 20-2006]
UNDERGOING BIG CHANGES IS usually difficult no matter what the changes. In our case, many things changed in January. Firstly, due to financial issues last summer, we had forwarded 6 months of our salary because its very difficult to get our money here. Well, the move from Accra to Winneba was more expensive than we anticipated, and January's paycheck came 3 months after we started being personally paid by God himself. It was a great test of our faith, and God took care of us more even than we imagined he would.
Secondly, after the robbery, we were advised to have a security guard during the night, and someone to watch the house during the day. World Mission approved the money, and we hired Nkum for security, and Essi to be in the house during the day. Essi also helps alli cook, clean, and do laundry. For others who have washed their clothes by hand, they will appreciate Essi as we have. It is sooo hard to do all the ordinary things without the extraordinary gadgets we're used to having. No microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, running water, etc. doubles the work. Plus our louver windows allow dust to come in so that the house must be swept, dusted, & sometimes mopped, every day.
Having "servants" was so difficult for us when we first came, I could hardly imagine myself now. I feel like a house manager now, teaching Essi how to do new things, pushing her to do better everyday. I really enjoy our bible studies we stared doing 2 times a week. She does not read English as well as she speaks it, but I shouldn't complain since I can hardly say 10 words well in Twi!
We also hired Dandy for one week to help get our garden back up & running, and he really really wanted a job, so we hired him also - for 24 bucks a month. After the first 3 weeks he stopped finding work to do, so we ended up asking him to just come 1 day a week. He is a Muslim. [February -15, 2006]
PS-Mom got us a small digital camera to replace the one lost/stolen last august!
MY BLESSING IN LIFE has been having amazing grandparents. Rev. Lloyd & Edna Frazier (Papa & Nana) are the most amazing people, and have given their lives to God just as Alli & I have done. They committed to missions work in the 1960's, and just retired last year. In fact, they retired within a month of us coming here to Ghana. Papa & Nana visited us for 3 weeks in March, and I can't begin to describe the blessing they were.
Papa came to teach Church of God History & Polity to the PACUC Students. He & Nana stayed in our little apartment with us, with water going on & off, no AC, and rough concrete flooring, yet didn't complain in the least. In fact, they were so happy to see our home and what we are doing that neither of them could stop talking about what God had done for them through the years. They never mentioned the crazy driving we have to submit to, or the lack of exotic African animals that most people look for when arriving. No, they were just here to work, and didn't overly think of sightseeing. We visited Elmina Castle, of course, and a few other spots, but mostly they enjoyed the campus.
Everyone wanted Papa to speak, and I even had many requests for him to visit churches after he had left. Nana spoke at our women's bible study and followed Alli around a bit.
The biggest blessing for me, though, came in the summer of 2004. During a prayer time with Alli, Myself, Papa, & Nana, asked Papa to bless me when he left the ministry. I asked him to bless me, just as the Patriarchs would bless their oldest Child. It was serious to me, and since I am the eldest grandson, and only child in ministry, I didn't feel bad to ask it of him. What better is that he approved and said that by whatever bargaining power he has with God - he will pray his blessing for me.
Thanks be to God for a great heritage! [March -29-06]
ONE GOOD AND BAD thing about living in in a village is the wildlife. There are thousands of crikets, mice, frogs, spiders, ants (more like billions of ants), snakes, rabbits, and tons of local sheep, goats, cows, and pigs. All of them roam as if we were on their property! The only ones we permit to be in our house are our two dogs (lion & tiger) and a kitten someone dropped for us ("live" -the only one to live from his litter). Dozens of frogs used to make their way in all day long until we fixed the gap under our doors.
A few animals we haven't experienced prior to being here are "grasscutters" (as pictured below) and a smaller version of our American Antelopes. We haven't seen a live antelope, but Nkum (our security guard) caught us a fresh grasscutter last week. He cut it up and we prepared it the next day. It tasted kind of like beef, with no game taste whatsoever, and was a bit sweeter than meat we're used to.
Nkum also caught a nice 4 foot snake, foot long scorpion (including the tail), & "bush fowl." The snake & scorpion were caught just yards from our house! [April -7-2006]
WE SPENT CHRISTMAS THIS year (05) in Accra at our very good friends (Dr. Clifton, Marcia, Joel, Jessica Clarke) and enjoyed every moment. We missed our families in the states of course, but had a nice traditional Jamaican/British/Ghanaian meal. Someone was confused as to the time that the special church service would start, and we ended up going 5 minutes before session ended! That night, though, we went to a great concert in the LaPalm Hotel in downtown Accra( where we saw some of the best Ghanaian Musicians here) and received a call from Sis. Grey, our school president wife. She told us our house had been robbed!
It was late, so we could not leave for home till early the next day. One thing that bothered me was that we didn't know what was taken. It could be our passports, all our money, our laptop which was the regional offices. When we got home, we checked around the house, and found that nothing valuable was taken! about $110 in cidis, were stolen from a drawer in our room. Plus a 100 dollar bill that was torn, and would not be acceptable at any foreign exchange bureau's here. They took that torn bill out of my passport folder, and re-closed the folder nicely to place it back in its not-well hidden spot! It was such a blessing, really, that they didn't take anything of real value. If anything, it was really more of a warning to us, and taught us to take better care of our possessions. You see, the locks were absolutely the cheapest locks possible to mankind, due to an avoidable mistake by the foreman who built the property. So I immediately replaced all the locks with better locks, and I installed a crossbar to be closed on each door at nights. I really & truly believe the entire thing to be a sign from God to be more careful. Security is so much more serious here than in the states, and we had forgot that fact. [January 20-2006]
UNDERGOING BIG CHANGES IS usually difficult no matter what the changes. In our case, many things changed in January. Firstly, due to financial issues last summer, we had forwarded 6 months of our salary because its very difficult to get our money here. Well, the move from Accra to Winneba was more expensive than we anticipated, and January's paycheck came 3 months after we started being personally paid by God himself. It was a great test of our faith, and God took care of us more even than we imagined he would.
Secondly, after the robbery, we were advised to have a security guard during the night, and someone to watch the house during the day. World Mission approved the money, and we hired Nkum for security, and Essi to be in the house during the day. Essi also helps alli cook, clean, and do laundry. For others who have washed their clothes by hand, they will appreciate Essi as we have. It is sooo hard to do all the ordinary things without the extraordinary gadgets we're used to having. No microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, running water, etc. doubles the work. Plus our louver windows allow dust to come in so that the house must be swept, dusted, & sometimes mopped, every day.
Having "servants" was so difficult for us when we first came, I could hardly imagine myself now. I feel like a house manager now, teaching Essi how to do new things, pushing her to do better everyday. I really enjoy our bible studies we stared doing 2 times a week. She does not read English as well as she speaks it, but I shouldn't complain since I can hardly say 10 words well in Twi!
We also hired Dandy for one week to help get our garden back up & running, and he really really wanted a job, so we hired him also - for 24 bucks a month. After the first 3 weeks he stopped finding work to do, so we ended up asking him to just come 1 day a week. He is a Muslim. [February -15, 2006]
PS-Mom got us a small digital camera to replace the one lost/stolen last august!
MY BLESSING IN LIFE has been having amazing grandparents. Rev. Lloyd & Edna Frazier (Papa & Nana) are the most amazing people, and have given their lives to God just as Alli & I have done. They committed to missions work in the 1960's, and just retired last year. In fact, they retired within a month of us coming here to Ghana. Papa & Nana visited us for 3 weeks in March, and I can't begin to describe the blessing they were.
Papa came to teach Church of God History & Polity to the PACUC Students. He & Nana stayed in our little apartment with us, with water going on & off, no AC, and rough concrete flooring, yet didn't complain in the least. In fact, they were so happy to see our home and what we are doing that neither of them could stop talking about what God had done for them through the years. They never mentioned the crazy driving we have to submit to, or the lack of exotic African animals that most people look for when arriving. No, they were just here to work, and didn't overly think of sightseeing. We visited Elmina Castle, of course, and a few other spots, but mostly they enjoyed the campus.
Everyone wanted Papa to speak, and I even had many requests for him to visit churches after he had left. Nana spoke at our women's bible study and followed Alli around a bit.
The biggest blessing for me, though, came in the summer of 2004. During a prayer time with Alli, Myself, Papa, & Nana, asked Papa to bless me when he left the ministry. I asked him to bless me, just as the Patriarchs would bless their oldest Child. It was serious to me, and since I am the eldest grandson, and only child in ministry, I didn't feel bad to ask it of him. What better is that he approved and said that by whatever bargaining power he has with God - he will pray his blessing for me.
Thanks be to God for a great heritage! [March -29-06]
ONE GOOD AND BAD thing about living in in a village is the wildlife. There are thousands of crikets, mice, frogs, spiders, ants (more like billions of ants), snakes, rabbits, and tons of local sheep, goats, cows, and pigs. All of them roam as if we were on their property! The only ones we permit to be in our house are our two dogs (lion & tiger) and a kitten someone dropped for us ("live" -the only one to live from his litter). Dozens of frogs used to make their way in all day long until we fixed the gap under our doors.
A few animals we haven't experienced prior to being here are "grasscutters" (as pictured below) and a smaller version of our American Antelopes. We haven't seen a live antelope, but Nkum (our security guard) caught us a fresh grasscutter last week. He cut it up and we prepared it the next day. It tasted kind of like beef, with no game taste whatsoever, and was a bit sweeter than meat we're used to.
Nkum also caught a nice 4 foot snake, foot long scorpion (including the tail), & "bush fowl." The snake & scorpion were caught just yards from our house! [April -7-2006]
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