Full days. Great days. Exhausting days. Days with adversity — just the way we like it.

Quickly catching everyone up….

Yesterday (Wednesday) we drove across Ghana, from East to West.  From Chereponi, just a few miles from the Togo border, we meandered back down to Tamale, and then on to Tuna, on the far West side of Ghana.  We are less than 20 miles from Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Once again, to give Ray a break from driving the punishing roads of Northern Ghana, I sat behind the wheel as we dodged goats, donkey carts, lorries teetering across speed bumps, and holes that can swallow wheels and break axels. 

As we pulled out of Chereponi, we had prepared a surprise for Ray…. Even with the greatest care, Ray’s Nissan HardBody pickup truck has been beaten, battered, and bruised over the years.  The hard life of Northern Ghana quickly rattles everything loose, from the rear-view mirror and battery cable to the passenger’s kidneys and teeth.   Ray’s CD player stopped working years ago.  So as we pulled out of Chereponi I turned on the Bluetooth speaker we brought into the cab, and from my phone, fired up the Wheaton Gospel Choir: Legacy 25  – one of Ray’s all time favorite CDs.  The first song is ideal for a 10 hour trip across harsh paths to land of the Birifor. The lyrics begin:

Who will go?
I Will…
Who will go? 
I will…
Who will go?
I will…
Carry on!
Take his message of love to the Nations, every man, woman, boy and girl
[…]
I need to go, wanna go, gotta go…
Carry on!
I need to go, wanna go, gotta go…

You can listen to the track below…..

Or use this link, if embedded player above does not work: [The Link]

Ray’s shocked look of joy said it all… It had been years since he had the music he loved playing in the truck.  Within moments, we were all singing and clapping along to the album.  Still, even with great music, a dangerous and rough road can be exhausting. But we took the opportunity to talk, sing, and learn each other’s stories.  Did you know Joanna enjoys linguistics?  Who could have known that Beth broke up with me in College, and then realized that even though I was socially inept, I had potential ? ?  Did you know Mike worked for Caterpillar designing control systems for massive machines and can explain how solenoids are designed?  How about that Ray tried to propose to his wife with a letter?   When we weren’t wincing from a massive pothole strike, or singing along to music, we shared great conversation.

About an hour away from Tuna, we passed the Mole National Park.  As if on cue, a troop of baboons crossed the road.  At the final junction, we met Cyrus, one of the OneWay Africa motorcycle missionaries in this part of Ghana. Cyrus worked with Emmanual, a local pastor who speaks the Birifor language — our next “nation”.  Cyrus earned a degree in Petroleum Engineering, before answering the question “Who will go?” with “I WILL!”.  

Today (Thursday) we started our work at small local church.  Chickens clucked and goats wandered around the small home of Pastor Emanual, as we set up the tripod, microphone, and began our work.  In the nearby church building, Mike gave a three-hour training class to about 10 local leaders.  

The highlight of the day was recording the small church choir.  Pastor Emanual provided accompaniment with a locally built Marimba (which they call a Xylophone).  In the 10 years of trips to Ghana, this is the first Marimba we have heard.  The mellow tones of the rich brown wooden keys resonated into small gourds hanging below each note. Crowded around the microphone, two men and two women sang. Behind the colorful quartet a drummer provided rhythm. This first set was “praise music” — fast and energetic.  After a few minutes of resisting, the others in the church broke away from their seats and began bouncing, shaking, and stomping to the music.  

After a water break, the group moved into their “worship music”, which was slower, and more reverent. I closed my eyes and just soaked it all in. The singers raised their hands in joy and sang out, not with perfect intonation or precision multi-part harmony, but with heart, with joy, with arms lifted up, with thankfulness.  

We finished our work at about 11pm this evening, and I’m up trying to get some photos uploaded and equipment charged, By 7am, we will be starting again. 

Long days. Hard days.  Full days. Great days. Thankful and joyful days.