Today is Sunday and we went to church today in a village named Tarikpaa where Cheryl has been going for 5 years and her ministry has helped to begin building a new church and hopes to build an orphan home in the near future. It would be so amazing to be able to see that come to fruition and to be able to send teams in the future to volunteer there. I love the villages and the people there. Church this morning was AWESOME!!! My church in Nashville is charismatic so this church was not that much out of the ordinary for me. I loved it so much. Worship was so amazing. They had a team of Ghanaians dance and sing for everyone, then there was like a worship team and we also danced in a big circle basically following the leader who would do different dance moves and we would all follow. It was a fantastic celebration!!! They asked us to come up and sing them a song. The team who had been here before us had learned a song in the language here and they taught it to us. It basically says "Thank Him, Thank Him, for all that He has done". It was fun. Then the pastor introduced everyone who was there visiting and he asked me to give a little speach. I told them why Visiting Orphans was here and then another pastor who was visiting gave the message about being fruitful. Later in the service, we were all called up again and the pastor gave us each our Dagbani name. That's the language in this region. Here are the names he gave us and their meanings:
Amanda - Balima (means: Uniting together)
Grant - Deeshini (means: Forgiven, forgiving)
Jessica - Ndeeya (means: Accepted and accepts challenges)
Autumn - Nunje (means: Everybody likes me)
Dorcas - Mankubahi (means: I will not give up)
How fun!!! I loved my name and I hope everyone does like me:) hee hee It's kind of hard to pronounce. Mine sounds like noonjay sort of. I'm sure I'm still not pronouncing it right.
After church, us 4 VO team members, Cheryl and Dorcas went with Pastor Muhammed to meet the village chief. It's a big deal to meet the chief and it's very formal. You are brought into a hut and seated around him and he sits up on a platform that is higher than everyone. The pastor translated while Cheryl greeted and thanked the chief for the hospitality of the village people to our team. She also presented to him the need for more land to build a school and an orphan home and humbly asked if he would allow us to have land to do those things. She said she understood he would need time to think about it but he came right back by saying he was in favor of it and all that she spoke of regarding educating and caring for the children was speaking his own heart. He said that he would not be around forever and he wanted the village people to have these things. And that he could not even think of turning this request down. Praise God! This was history in the making and we were there to witness it. How awesome!!!! He said he had to take it to the council (not sure if that's the word he used but that's basically what it is) and that Cheryl would need to come back and meet with all of them to get official approval but that he didn't think they would turn it down either. Please be praying that they are in favor and the land for building a school and orphan home is granted to them!!! We got a picture with the chief - I am sure that Cheryl will be posting that photo on facebook so look for it on my page as I'm sure she'll tag me.
We are now at the internet cafe using the computers here. I was happy to be able to update my blog from here. Thanks for all the prayers from y'all and for reading the updates. We all so appreciate it. We have an amazing team here. I am getting to know each person and they are all precious brothers and sisters in Christ. What a wonderful blessing to be able to join this team! The journey has already been so amazing and we're only a few days into it. Stay tuned for more!!!
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