Pete and Beth started going to Ghana to help Pastor Ray Mensah with his ministry in 2011. Emily and Paul came with us, and together we worked at a local orphanage and several small schools. We sang songs, acted out Bible stories, drew pictures, played games, and made friends. We also learned how amazingly friendly and welcoming Ghanaians are to visitors. We kept a blog for each trip, including photos and our thoughts and prayers along the way.
Normally, blogs are in reverse chronological order, with most recent entry first. I’ve re-ordered the entries from the past trip blogs so they are easy to read, from first to last. If you are interested, you can read them from start to finish, as a trip diary.
Each of the trips is listed below.
2023-October Blog Link
We worked with Clement and Cyrus to develop new technologies for recording audio and video, and provide training for new equipment.
2023-January Blog Link
We took Mike and his daughter with us to Ghana to start work on the Birifor and Anufo languages, which, are on opposite sides of Ghana.
2022 Blog Link
A super quick trip to Ghana. We brought new equipment and did training with the staff. We prepared for an expansion of the work
2021 Blog Link
Our first trip during COVID-19. We went north to Chakali-land, a small tribe of less than 10,000 people. We recorded in a small church without electricity. The singing was beautiful.
2020 Blog Link
Our last trip before COVID-19 began to sweep the world. It was February 2020, and we were able to make great progress on the Gonja language.
2019 Blog Link
Pete and Beth joined Christian and Enoch (Ghanaians part of Ray’s team) to focus on the Fulani and the wrap up the Bimoba BiblePlus+.
2018 Blog Link
Pete and Beth took Kaitlyn and Daniel to Ghana in October to start recording a new language, Bimoba, and meet the Fulani and begin recording their language, Fulfulde.
2017 Blog Link
The Beckmans took Matthew and Michael to Ghana in October. The goals for this trip included finishing recordings of the Mampruli and Dagbani languages as well as getting some great video of the work.
2016 Blog Link
Pete and Beth took Laura and Emily VanHuis to Ghana to record two new languages, Mampruli and Dagbani with our friend Ray Mensah and see how the clean water filters supplied by OWM were working in the field.
2014 Blog Link
Pete and Beth took Kevin Rose and Nathan Johnson to Ghana to continue the work with Ray Mensah. We finished the Komba language and did some test recordings of the Gospel of Mark, which was recently translated to Komba.
2013 Blog Link
Pete and Beth returned to Ghana to record Version 1.0 of the BiblePlus+ units and work with Ray Mensah to begin the work to bring clean water filters to the Komba people.
2011 Blog Link
The Beckman family (Pete, Beth, Emily, and Paul) went to Ghana in 2011. The Baylor students and a few OWM staff kept a separate blog that can be found here.