Shifting Up

10 deep breaths, 2 sighs, 3 oh-my-gosh-that-could-have-ruined-this-truck's-suspension potholes, numerous potholes besides, 2 passenger parents, 2 sweaty palms, 1 much needed lesson in smooth gear transition, 1 i-think-that-started-at-the-base-of-my-neck headache, 1 i-am-so-glad-i-decided-not-to-change-lanes-because-that-would-have-ended-very-badly-for-all-involved split-second decision, 1 tense body including a set of especially active knees

THESE ARE THE INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO MAKE MY FIRST 7-HOUR DRIVE FROM NKWANTA TO ACCRA!!!!!

So there you have it. I have crossed over into that great cloud of drivers who first braved their premier excursion behind the steering wheel. How noble the feeling! How uplifting the sensation! How glorious the knowledge that I have joined the ranks of the...blah blah blah. Enough of that. What I am really thinking about is my struggle to find a section of the road smooth enough to get above second gear!

I mean really, the number of potholes was such that I could not tell whether the paved ("tarred") road had potholes, or whether the dirt had been broken up with fragments of erupting concrete. For a while, the dirt road was just as smooth as any other...smooth...dirt...road. Then, we hit some nice paved road. That was like a cool glass of water after a long walk! Next came a few brief patches of broken road, but the smoothness continued shortly thereafter. The bliss was not eternal, though. The roughness of the journey started in the third hour or so, and did not seem to stop until only one hour remained. I wanted so much to go faster, but I was prevented; the road looked to be intact in many crucial places (going over hills, turning corners, overtaking other drivers), but very often it was not. So, I ended up speeding up after one eruption of concrete, only to slow down again almost immediately. I just wanted to get to where I was going!!

The same happens in my life. Once I get some idea of my next destination, I tend to loathe the journey to get there, counting it as a necessary evil rather than an opportunity to learn and mature. The moment I know a sketch of what is to come, I am wont to "kick it into hyperdrive," as it were, moving so that warning signs become a blur and distant memory. I am forced to realize at every bend that the journey is part of the total experience. I am always so eager to move from first to second to fifth gear that I lose sight of both the intermittent stages and of the part of the road directly ahead.

Do not be like me in this way, because it is not like Christ. Make the most of every opportunity, remembering that, for those who love him and are called in line with his purpose, he orchestrates everything for your good in the end. Everything includes the trips and the transitions, so look for him in them all. He will be found when you seek him with all your heart - Romans 8:28; Jeremiah 29:13. When you do start picking up speed, "don't be in such a hurry to release the clutch," in the words of my dad. Do all things well, like God does - Ephesians 5:1.

posted from Bloggeroid

Networking Trouble.... Shoot.

Community: I NEED IT.

So, instead of griping (learned that word in 7th grade!), I will go and find it. First ping pong table I come across, someone is goin' down!

Maybe it is "Shirls'" fault that I even use that word, but at this point, I realize the truth of her words even more. Last year I wrote that it had taken 4 months from the time I arrived in country to realize that I needed to find some sort of outlet. That was when a friend of mine started taking me out, the times my family travelled down to the capital. At the 6-month mark, I supposed that I should start finding or creating some networks in the local area, here around Nkwanta. Well, this is the 8^th month.

I am trying to find my way into the mainstream young adult culture, but feel instead like I have found myself in a tributary leading to some large, ambiguous pot. I know who I am, mind you, just not where I would be going should I join the twenty-somethings in this town. Maybe I am timid in part, because I do not know how to engage people, given my own hesitation coupled with the obvious barriers that exist. Part, too, is due to the avenues through which I have been trying to connect to others.

I have come to find out that the youth leaders here are not connected. Period. I have found three. Finding others, even as I here that there are roughly 45 congregations in the area, is like catching up with a longtime friend after an extended absence, for hours on end; it is a laudable management of time, but you feel the effort you have expended afterward, nonetheless. I will have to do more grunt work, as it were, than I once thought. I have not done much grunt work, really. I was just hoping against hope (Is that the saying? Why would anyone want to do such a thing??) that I could develop a network easily and move here and there within a relatively short time.

What do I wanna do? Develop genuine relationships, so that I can chill with a group of people at a local _anything_. Work comes as part of the territory but, though I am passionate about what I am doing here, I am still feeling imbalanced overall. I just want to be able to recharge somewhere where peers (plural, mind you) know me, and I them. That is not too much to ask; I know that much. Is it too much to find, though?

This feels more stream-of-consciousness than usual. Thanks for putting up with it, if indeed you have.


One last, unrelated truth: Nigeria won the CAF African Cup of Nations. Not Ghana, but I suppose it will have to do.

And Pope Benedict XVI has resigned; the first time a pope has done so in 717 years.  He will now have time to read books and pray, according to some news sources.  As per others, he intends to join a convent.  Thoughts on a pope from Latin America?  How about Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana?

I am through now.  Live in Love.

posted from Bloggeroid

Pain, Truth, Patterns

Patterns, like puzzle pieces, are predictable. If only we can find the edges....

Cling to your truth for what it is. Claim your exclusive rights to it. Clamor for the position of greatness among mortals. Clean the cobwebs of doubt from your opinions and let your own, brilliant, unparalleled, self-righteous, inattentive, other-shunning truth ring forth without opposition! All the while, hide your troubles from the unobservant glance. Set up your layers of fallacy as a shield against introspection.

A friend tells me that we establish our own patterns of hurt. I agree. Established; a tree planted by the rivers of water, bearing its fruit in due season. Envy, strife, discontent, discord, cacophony, malice, slander...produce of *my own* truth. My own and not yours. I am its source. From me issue the statutes of everything about which I am able to pontificate, however glibly. I am Right, if only for the sake of unearthing your wrongness. And I must do so in order that the threat of order, concerning which I find myself the head and (why not?) the center, would be averted.

So you know what I am, and thus what you are to me, being other than me.

Now, and only just now, I may smugly place myself with the illustrious Dr. King, calling down justice like many waters, "And righteousness like a mighty stream!" For when I am right, all is right. Never mind dissension or differing perspectives.

A bit much?

And this is the problem among the members of the Body of Christ: we treat each other like individual wholes, when we have actually been called as members of one body, and to live in peace. The arm must not employ the hand to harm the rib, lest the body fall short of breath. We believers, together, are the organs and limbs, held together only by the Almighty power of God in Jesus, WHO IS the ligaments of Word and love.

"Can't we all just get along?" Now we know at least one reason why it is not as easy as it seems. Realize this: your perceptions represent a fragmented fragment of the whole puzzle. Mine do too. Let us practice humility, therefore, in knowledge and power, understanding that we do not possess except that which is given to us. All for which we would grasp for ourselves becomes evil in our control.

Thanks Drey.


Allow a quick update on the goings-on in Nkwanta. I have met a grand total of three Youth leaders in the area. My next action is to meet more, then to develop relationships with them, inasmuch as my short time here will allow. There is a growing likelihood that I will be able to teach the basics of biblical study, or some spiritual disciplines, or the implications of Christian identity, or all of these. I have yet to decide on the format this will take, as I want to get to know the leaders' personalities and schedules. I am hoping for a teaching group of no more than 6, so that if I meet more leaders, I would break them up into two groups. I am looking forward to teaching in this way again.

That is the latest excitement for me. I hope you have some excitement of your own!
Life is such an adventure.

posted from Bloggeroid

Achievements a la Moi

This past week has seen some exciting new developments. If you could speak to it, this past week would be quite impressed with its events, at least concerning my recent achievements. Allow me to brag just a little.

First, I have begun in earnest to drive here in Nkwanta! I have resisted for some time, what with my hesitance at operating a motor vehicle in another country and my (now dispelled) fear of crashing into our front gate and all. However, a sense of responsibility and the desire to try and ease some of the week's tension in my dad's shoulders finally got the best of me.

Let me just show you some pictures...JUST KIDDING. Taking pictures while driving would be reckless, would it not?

Anyway, I have been out on the town, as it were, running errands, transporting the newlywed couple (see last blog entry) to and from their super-secret honeymoon location, and going to see friends in town. Alright, I went to see one person in town...earlier today. Everything else took multiple trips to complete. The point is, I have been driving. Why make that point? Only because the truck is manual. No big deal.

Is that all, you ask? Heavens, no!

This week, I have accomplished a feat so grand, so singular, it passes even the greatness of driving a stick shift vehicle. The reality of this personal milestone baffles me, especially since its success has been heralded by my parents. You might be wondering, "What could possibly trump driving a stick shift?! Inconceivable!" Nay, I tell you, nay. Behold:



Chocolate cake!!!

Be thou amazed. To put this in perspective, the first cake I helped make from scratch was as hard as understanding the mind of a domesticated feline. This pic, on the contrary, represents the lightness of goodness...and I make it myself...not necessarily from scratch. No matter; it was tasty!

...and then I found five dollars. Now you know.

posted from Bloggeroid

Don't Go for the Gold

How long has it been since you have given attention to your belly button? I mean really, do you frequently think about your belly button? What is the point of that thing? Anyway,




Today I saw the rain approaching. In that oncoming liquid barrage I saw this rainbow. It may be faint to you because I took the photo with my phone, but one end of the rainbow can be found just to the left of that building with the red roof, extending upward and to the left. The rain was unexpected, mainly because the dry season is starting now. We are entering the season of Harmattan, when the dust from the Sahara Desert moves south and settles over everything. Everything. Even sneezes can somteimes produce only dust! So this short rainfall was a welcome respite before the waves of dust that are intended to last through 2013's first quarters.

To me, the rainbow represents God's promise not to destroy all life again, through a flood. I also remember being told that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, left there by a leprechaun. I am aware, too, that there is something involving the cooperation of light and water, and a separation of the spectrum and whatnot. Now, what I really want to tell you is that I had a chance to learn from two of the gentlemen that work on the compound, Peter and Sakura. Before I told them about my three-faceted knowledge mentioned above, they taught me a thing or two about rainbow folklore from (at least) the Nkwanta area. They told me that its end holds both goodness and evil. Good news first: there is a lot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Now the bad: if you stand in the area touched by the rainbow while its still visible, then "half of your body dies," transliterated. So that is the worst of it. The lesser evil, perhaps, is that the rainbow changes the color of the ground it touches, at least while it is visible. I am not exactly sure what that means, but that is what they told me. I will let you ponder over what is most assuredly unexpected, unsettling information about rainbows that I have heard.

In addition, I want to show you this picture. I took this and the rainbow photo today, about four hours ago.




Those white spots you see are Egrets, the genus and species of which I do not know. Those are some of the birds I briefly mentioned in the last post. There they are in our yard, performing their duty in a marvelous way. Their duty, in case you missed it, is cricket population control. WorldVenture, then mission agency with which I am interning, has a women's conference starting Monday. If we have a cricket problem, then the ten women vounteering their time and coming here from the U. S. A. may not be too keen on an overabundace of little, hopping insects.

posted from Bloggeroid

Two Masters

Today, as we were coming back up the driveway from a quick trip to town, my parents and I were paying close enough attention to behold God's handiwork.
Q: What had graced us this time?
A: A Blue-bellied Roller.

I would post a picture but, by the time we had gotten out of the car and my dad had retrieved his camera, he was unable to get a good shot. If your internet connection is any grade above the one I use (or even equal to it) then I greatly recommend to you the pursuit of a photographic image with this Roller in the foreground. For anyone else, please let me know when you would like to come and visit me here in Nkwanta. Room and board available, usually.

This week, as I may have mentioned last week, I had and took advantage of the opportunity to guide a group of pastors through the book of Colossians. This was an encouraging experience for me, as I had not previously been sure of my ability to teach an entire book of the Bible. I realized the importance of the book being the centrality, supremacy, and sufficiency of the person of Jesus, the Christ, to, in, and for the Christian faith. Secondly, the works of Jesus the Christ (just in case you had him confused with Jesus Justus in Colossians 4:11) stand out as efficacious among the attempts to both conquer the desires of the sinful nature and deliver humanity from the domain of darkness into his own kingdom.

Moreover, the pastors, who graciously learned from me despite the fact that I am younger than they, observed the importance of these truths: Jesus is God, and being renewed to partake of his spirit drastically changes the way we live.

They left our house this morning, on the way back to their respective homes. Two of them live nearly two full days away, by public transport; the third, about 30 minutes.

In your search for meaning, what is your treasure; that which, if found, would end all searching? Do you think you even have meaning? Let me cue you in to something that is true of all people: we were made to worship. The questions are not if and why, but what and how. I urge you, therefore, in view of the mercies of God, to present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is YOUR REASONABLE ACT OF WORSHIP.
Q: What does God demand of your time, gifts, and energies so you can make use of all he has for you?
A: Everything.

Q: What of God time, gifts, and energies has he devoted to the ultimate satisfaction of your soul?
A: Everything

In Christ, you are free. Free to remain in the darkness, trapped by the empty deceptions of your own efforts without the Christ. Free to live, having been transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son (Jesus the Christ), who offers freedom and forgiveness and substance rather than mere shadows. Confess that he is Lord, and believe the mystery that God raised him from the dead.

Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

posted from Bloggeroid

This Ministry's Purpose

of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Paul's ministry is about making the gospel of Jesus the Christ fully known, so that he might present everyone mature in Christ. Is that true for every one of God's ministers?

Today, we were on the road again from Accra, where we spent not-quite-two- days buying necessary groceries, dog food, and plants, back to Nkwanta, our home. The journey will be around 6 hours in duration. It could be shorter, if the rain has not damaged the last hour-long stretch of road too badly, or if no large trucks have gotten stuck on the road, effectively impeding progress and raising stress levels for all travellers. It could be shorter if, after the paved road ends, the dirt road has been grated and only slightly dampened by rain; or if the Chinese contractors have paved the road completely, so that the whole journey will pass over tarred (paved) road. But, of course, we're in the rainy season and, while it is dry in Accra, Nkwanta and its surrounding areas are making up for the capital's lack. It'll be longer.

Remember, your identity is found in relation to someone(s) or something(s)...unless you are source of all the somethings and someones, in which case, if you're reading this, I am grateful and greatly humbled and welcome all of your input on...everything. If you are not, then I would thank you to read on. Without what(s) or whom(s) would your life be less than satisfied or satisfactory? Mind you, I do not intend to imply a scale as our teachers may have in grade school, from Failing to Satisfactory to Excellent. Rather, I intend to denote the difference between satisfied and not satisfied, simply. If _ were not a part of my life, I would have no reason to live, no purpose in living. As an attempt at greater clarity without confusion, if you could make allowance for _'s absence, then you need to keep searching. I mean, without ___, you would lose your sense of self. I hope that's clear.

Now, if you have no point of reference for such a source for your sense of self, then I would urge you to both begin and continue the search. By the conclusion of these thoughts, I hope you understand the importance of your identity. I know that many may not know where to start, and might not have even given this topic a first, let alone second, thought. To you, then, what follows is a case for identity. To you who are searching and who meet with mixed success, encouragement and exhortation are my goals. To those who encourage and exhort in this area, I pray that this is helpful as you help others grow, and as you find nourishment for your souls. To all of you and everyone, may your source prove just and benevolent and, perhaps above all, present.

posted from Bloggeroid

Life's Aul

Haven't we been changed by the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ? What is there to be said concerning the presence, power, and promises of God Almighty? Are they ineffectual? Is the Divine Love in vain? Where is the change in my life? In yours?

Or is it the appropriation of this God's life onto, into, around, through our own existence? Is it propositional knowledge, or is it relationship? The difference between the two is worth noting. On the one hand, the intellect reigns, without solid footing; mindless speculation abounds, leading to high-sonding nonsense and "ownership" of the infinite. On the other, intellect is fed by experience; hope is not seen, but the evidence of said unseen awaits to enwrap us all in an unforseen-yet-expected. A serendipitous embrace. O, that I might attain unto the loftiness of the plans for me by my Infinite Benevolent.

Today, we worked. I would upload a photo of our progress but, alas and alack, I reside in Nkwanta, Ghana, where picutres swallow bandwidths whole. Perhaps you could keep up with the progress by clicking on the picture of the sky at the top of the page. To keep you updated, we have begun to fill the first part of the Nkwanta Leasership Empowerment Center. Jeremy, David (my cousin), Evans, and I all worked together to shovel sand into the first of many holes, and mark the beginning of the foundation-filling journey. Worked about 5 hours, and I've actually just woken up from a nap [that I will be resuming soon enough, and with great pleasure] to fill you in (get it?) on what's happening with WorldVenture Ghana. To add the cherry ont top of an already sumptuous pretty please, we have our own truck! I know, you're like, "Yay," in that uncertain-of-what's-going-on kind of way. With the truck, we can cut down on the cost of transporting goods (eggs en masse, dirt, etc), which means that we can put more money directly towards the ministry with less heartache! God has provided yet again; feel free to get in on the action if you aren't in already. How? Click on that big picture at the top of the screen. It is so cool.

I have also been given the privilege of teaching one of the local Youth groups tomorrow evening. The topic is "The Renewal of the Mind," Which spans passages in Philippians chapter 2, Ephesians 2 and 4, and Romans chapter 12. I'm always excited to speak to Youth, and this is another time when I will get to incorporate my passion, Identity in Christ, into the lesson. I plan to teach no longer than 30 minutes, and then to field questions, as per the pastor's request. I hope and pray that all goes well, and that I treat the Word of God appropriately.

Keep answering those questions put forth in the "To Begin" blog and following. Who are you? Why does it matter? What does it mean? Write down the reason that God has placed you on this planet. Take your time. Pray. Again. and Again. Live in Love.

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