praise be to God, Lord of all. Maker of heaven and earth. Thank you for the blessing of being covered with your prayer. i had been praying about that all day yesterday. i was under spiritual attack yesterday, please pray for people individually for strength and energy. pray against whatever the devil has planned against us. i am lifting each one of you up in my prayers. stay strong and endure, the blessings for both parties will multiply beyond what we will ever know. we still don't have luggage, but it's ok. we have a washing machine. i love you all.
melynne
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Monday, March 16, 2009
7:38 AM
I hurt my foot playing basketball with the kids yesterday. It was fun, but it hurt something awful. Dad said I had to stretch after I got out of bed. Imagine this, reaching the deepest sleep, then getting woken up by a giant figure in his underwear. Well, that's what happened to me. I was sleeping good, and Dad woke me up saying "Get up. You need to stretch." and I said "Okay." half asleep. So I dosed off again, but Dad woke me up again "Get up. You need to stretch." and I said "Okay." and dosed off again, AND DAD WOKE ME UP AGAIN! "Get up. You need to stretch."Fine!" I was so tired, but I'm okay.
C'ya,
Alex
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Monday, March 16, 2009
7:51
I am sitting in the floor because Melynne is braiding my wild and wooly hair. I think dreads are going to be my new look. I just read Alex's blog, and you'd think he's in desperate need of medical help. I assure you he is perfectly fine. As for Austin's lizard experience, I second his emotion"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW"!
We are headed to the rainforest, so I must be off, but I'll write more later!

Love,
Dianna
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Monday 5:00pm
We are on our way back from the Slave Castle and the Rain Forest. It's been a really fun day. We ended up having to turn around a go through a bunch of town that we'd never seen before. That was quite adventurous. David, Dorian, Michelle, and I did not want to return to the Slave Castle, so we went to see some more of the town. WE climbed up to the top of a fort that was built to shoot cannons at the Slave Castle! Then we went into the market where they deliver and clean and sell fish, crabs, Octopus, and so forth. The fragrance was not a favorite experience, but it was nice to leave!
I got to go say hi to the preschool teachers before we left for just a minute. Faustina (the director) wants Laurie and I to work with the teachers as much as possible, and model teaching styles to them. SO, we'll work partly with the teachers alone, and partly in the room with the children. It seems that every time I've gone in a room in the past, the teacher decides it's a good time to take a break! We'll have to work that out!
We've taken tons and tons of pictures today. Richard got out of the bus, went across the street and was conversing with the natives at their place of business. Vicki, even here he goes and finds people to meet! Guess some things don't change just because you change continents!
It has been so much fun to watch those who are on their first trip here. The Slave Castle got to some of them. It is so awful to see and hear about how people were treated.
In the Rain Forest, we got to see an Ebony Tree and a Mahogany Tree and we learned about the Strangler Fig Tree. I'm sure that one will turn up in one of Paul's lessons.
Thank you for the prayers. We are feeling them. Glynn, as to your prayers, it has been overcast all day and much more tolerable!! Thank you!
Love to all!
Jean
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Monday, March 16, 2009 5:26 PM
Hey all of you,
This was not a day of consistency at all as we deviated from any schedule that could have been planned as we took a less than efficient road to the tourist attractions today: Elmina Slave Castle and the Rain Forest Tour. We became late as we looked for exchange sites for converting US dollars to Ghanian money. Some banks were too big, others seemed too small, but they would not exchange monies for various reasons, so we moved on into and around the large towns near the coastal area and found a "neighborhood savings and loan" that would exchange with us at a pretty good rate.
I did not plan to get tears in my eyes today...but I did in the "room of no return" at the Elmina Slave Castle. Estimates, I know they are estimates, but the number of 15 million slaves that have passed through these walls of this castle over hundreds of years caused those tears. Not because I have any known blood connection with any of those sad souls, but because:
1. the physical and mental brutality and torture shown slaves
2. Elmira was the busiest slave port of all of Africa
3. two churches were built inside this slave castle; Christian churches where men knelt and prayed, stood and sang hymns, and voiced words in a sermon over the words of God while within sight and sound of hundreds of dying, crying captured men and women. This is what bothers me most and makes my tears well up across the edge of my lower eyelids. I am not sure what to do, but I know what I felt as I stood in those slave cells/quarters.
I did not plan to find an outside toilet at a Shell station this morning as we filled the bus with petrol, but lack of time and a relaxation in my social morals, and the rest is history; but I don't think I ever saw my observers, but there must have been one.
I did think that we would take a quick bus home to the VOH this afternoon, but Justis, the bus driver for us, stopped at a small roadside market and was besieged by at least 10 women and older boys selling raw food items displayed and carried from the pinnacle of their heads. Oranges, bananas, pineapples and yes, live fist-sized snails! Delicacies each, or at least interesting to observe. He and the sellers bartered heavily and loudly, then in as short a time frame as we stopped, a price was paid and several pineapples came into the bus, doors were shut and we were off again at 80k/hour.
Today was a day that was planned to happen on March 20, 2009, but I am glad , today, to have had my eyes opened a little wider to what a world God has made as I walked among the tree tops where monkeys live; and as my eyes temporarily flooded, I pondered what His mercy means to me, a former slave. Yet, do not confuse me with the slaves of Elmina Castle. I chose my sins and became a slave to sin. The Elmina Castle slaves were just in the wrong place at a given time and had no choice in their suffering.
His mercy echos in my heart now as I think about seeing patients tomorrow and the days to follow. I want to remember His mercy every day.
Thank you God for this opportunity to have a different day and a different life than I had imagined.
A freed slave
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Monday March 16, 2009
7:13pm
Today was one of the most best days i have ever had but there is a lot more to come. We went to the rainforest and the elmina slave castle. The rainforest was amazing i have never seen anything like it. The slave castle was mindblowing. the rooms and just the thought f what happened there was very disturbing. were having a devo type thing right now so i have to go!
bye,
Austin
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Monday, March 16, 2009

7:57 PM
We just had a devotional. It was good. I still don't have my luggage, and it's kinda annoying only having one change of clothes, but I'm okay. I had soooooooo much fun at the rainforest. We had a canopy walkway thingamabobber which is a bunch of small rope bridges over a canopy of trees. It was fun.
When we went to the slave castle, it was shocking how man could do this to his brethren just because they have different skin colors! Gosh! The guide said over 15 MILLION PEOPLE WERE HELD CAPTIVE HERE!!! THAT IS NOT A SMALL NUMBER, THAT'S A BIG NUMBER!!! It just amazed me how cruel they were! It's insanity!
We are having so much fun this trip, but the most fun we have is on the bus rides. We see all these crazy stores like CONSUMING FIRE BEAUTY SALON or HE LIVES CASKETS. It's funny. We were making PB&J at 60 miles an hour. It is funny about how funny it is making a bus ride from point A to point B. That's not very expected.
Well, that's all I have to say.
Alex
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