Beach Day in Aflao

After leaving the Northern Region, the team flew back to Accra and then drove directly to Aflao, which is located in the Volta Region, near the border of Togo.  Aflao is a beautiful place full of beautiful people like Pastor Christian and his lovely wife Rejoice.

Pastor Christian is the director of Good Shepherd Children's Home, a place where they take care of 40 orphans, many of whom have been abandoned.  The home is clean and the children are well loved and well cared for.

We were only there for a couple of days, but we had great fun taking the children for a day at the beach!

Here are a few pictures of our time together.

Update from the Field

It was a very long drive from Kumasi to Tamale

Cheryl with one of the widows and her children

Saleem, Pastor Mohammed's son

Katie and Colton

Katie and Emma

The team spent a restful and relaxing week at Ankaase, which is near Kumasi.  We enjoyed having a house mom who taught us how to cook Ghanaian food and we also enjoyed working with Julie at the Reading Town Library.

On Wednesday, we went on an excursion to Kumasi.  We shopped in the local market and toured the Chief's Palace.

We traveled back to Tamale on Thursday. 

On Friday, we welcomed 5 new team members from Visiting Orphans, then spent the day visiting orphan homes and shopping for food at a local supermarket. 

Saturday was an incredible day for all of us as we loaded into the big yellow van and headed back out into the remote villages to visit the widows who received goats a couple of weeks ago.  On these visits, we took the time to sit down and get to know them and their children.  We also had the opportunity to share the story of Jesus with each of them.  More than once, the widows' response to the message was, "We know for certain that Christianity is the Truth."  Our prayer is that these women and their children will soon come to know the Lord.  The ministers of Shalom Baptist Church will continue to follow up with them to see if they have any needs or questions.  We thank God for Pastor Steven Napari, Pastor Mohammed and Pastor Issah for their dedication to the Lord.

Today is our last Sunday in Tamale and we had the opportunity to go and worship with our good friends at Shalom Baptist Church in Tarikpaa.  It was a great morning as the Visiting Orphans team formally received their Dagomba names.  Also, Cheryl had the honor of praying the dedication prayer over a new baby at a baby dedication ceremony.  The team danced their hearts out and even sang a song for everyone!

We have only 3 more days in the Northern Region and already we are starting to be sad.  This place gets under your skin and in your heart.

Thank you all for your continued prayers.  We will be flying to Accra on Thursday.