"you are welcome!"

Greetings from Akatsi!

We arrived in Ghana on Friday night, after roughly 31 hours of travel. Phew! We had a very easy trip—none of our luggage was lost and we made all of our flights without any problems. Thanks to all of you who were praying for a safe journey! We were able to briefly see Matt and Tammy Garrett from the Father’s House on their way to the airport which was a huge blessing—they have provided solid guidance to Eight Oaks since the very beginning and this was the first time the four of us had met face-to-face.

Ghana is a beautiful place, and we are soaking up every minute that we spend here. Matt arranged a driver for us named Atsu. He is a wonderful man and has been so helpful! He knows everything about Ghana and has taken us around Accra and Akatsi to help us get better acquainted with the area: he is also very patient with us Americans who do not know anything and are constantly asking questions. Today alone he has taught me how to identify and differentiate between all types of trees: banana/plantain, coconut, mango, baobab, teak, and cashew.

The people here are so kind and have embraced us with open arms. Whenever we are walking, people will shout “Yavu!” (which means “white man”) and when we wave or say “hello,” they shout, “you are welcome!” This is a beautiful village with beautiful people and we feel so blessed to have this opportunity to fellowship with them! Church this morning was wonderful. We went to the English service, but are hoping to experience the local service in the coming weeks.

Hopefully we will be able to post more details in a few days, but for now our Internet is a little sporadic. We mainly wanted to let everyone know we had arrived here safe and sound!

We are probably becoming repetitive, but we have to say again how truly grateful we are for all of the prayers that are being said on our behalf. We feel them every second of every day—they give us peace and joy and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Blessings!

Ellie + Ted