November 2019

This is, without a doubt, the longest time that has elapsed between a trip to Ghana and the follow-up blog post. I got back the day before Thanksgiving and spent the next two months working on Christmas mailers and year-end statements for Eight Oaks. We are expecting our second baby in the next few weeks and I just realized that I never got around to sharing about my visit, although I started this post back in February.

I have gone to Ghana without Ted once before, in 2015, with my Mom, but this was my first trip alone and also my first time leaving my then 18-month-old son at home. I was feeling all of the emotions! I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity…particularly since the escalation of COVID-19. We aren’t sure when we’ll be able to visit Akatsi again, but until then we remain very thankful for our competent staff and the health of everyone at the Yellow House. You might’ve seen our updates on Facebook; Ghana is still being cautious in light of the pandemic. Schools and churches remain closed--but Bernard and Celestine come over on Sundays to hold church services for everyone at the Yellow House. Bernard's son has been getting his doctorate degree in China, so Bernard has monitored the coronavirus outbreak closely since this winter. We are so grateful for his leadership! Everyone is wearing masks to the market and washing their hands frequently. Keep praying for continued health and safety of the staff and the girls.

Heading to the Yellow House! I love looking at all the fruit stands on the way to Akatsi.

I can tell by the light here that it’s about 4:00 p.m.—one of my favorite times of day in Ghana.

The first of many selfies. Me, Lucky, Dina.

This was the first time I shopped for all of the girls in the ladies section vs. the juniors section. Mercy & Helen were delighted because I bought 10 dresses in different sizes, just in case, and they quickly grabbed the extra two. Top Row, L-R: Lucky, Sarah Jr., Dina, Richlove, God’s Way. Bottom Row, L-R: Sarah Sr., Regina, Gloria, Helen, Mercy.

It brought everyone NEVERENDING DELIGHT that Mama did the side-hip pose with Mercy.

Charm bracelets that say “sisters forever”

Just cannot believe how old and beautiful and wonderful they are. Gloria, God’ Way, Lucky, Regina

Playing UNO and eating M&M’s (photo by the girls)

I got a little teary when I came in the main room the first time and saw that they’d left this hastily-written note on the marker board for six months.

Helen’s grandson eyeing me on the way to church.

Helen is in the church choir these days! They all wear these outfits. The entrance of the choir is my favorite part of services.

Richlove carrying Jeptha home.

Gloria and Jeptha, Bernice’s son (Bernice is Helen’s daughter and Mercy’s sister). I got to Ghana on Saturday after a missed flight (about 48 hours of travel, total), and Bernard insisted that the girls take me back to the Yellow House after the English service at church ended. Mercy and Helen stayed for another couple of hours for the traditional service, but Jeptha came home with us for beans and garri and endless games of UNO.

The more things change…Gloria has grown SO MUCH but I usually find her by herself like this at least once on every trip. Same as when she was 5 :)

Are you tired of hearing about the garden yet? Because the girls definitely get tired of walking around with me and answering endless “WHAT’S THIS?” questions. I cannot believe how much it has flourished and everything they have planted! These are groundnuts, aka peanuts, which they boil and roast for my favorite afternoon snack (with bananas).

The most exciting development is that The Yellow House IS. GROWING. PINEAPPLE. West African pineapple is what dreams are made of.

Dina and Lucky doing Mama’s hair :) I love Sunday afternoons in Ghana.

Everyone gathered in the courtyard for fufu preparations. The girl in the orange dress behind Lucky is named God’s Way and is 14—she is staying with Helen and going to school. She hangs out at The Yellow House a lot and I loved getting to know her on this trip! She goes by her Ewe name, Mawufomor to keep the two God’s Ways straight.

Grinding tomatoes and onions for stew (Sarah Jr.)

The pounding of fufu begins. Mercy used to do most of the grunt work (that stick is HEAVY) and it filled my heart with pride to see the girls execute this labor-intensive meal from start to finish.

Sarah Sr. (photo by the girls)

Sarah Jr. with my phone, taking pictures of Mawufomor, Regina, Dina, and Gloria. I love getting my phone back at the end of the day and seeing what they’ve captured.

Richlove, Mawufomor, Regina, Dina (photo by the girls)

Lucky (photo by the girls)

Sarah Jr., me and Mawufomor (photo by the girls)

This picture of Mercy and Lucky is just crazy to me. I know I sound like a broken record but it’s WILD to see them talking at eye-level and looking like peers.

Groundnuts cleaned and ready to be roasted.

Mama made this little concrete bowl at the base of the mango tree for the chickens to have clean water.

Gloria in the fenced-off portion of the garden. This area is growing tea leaves and a few other herbs.

Ghanaian soil is so fertile. Mama and the girls cut branches from the moringa trees to create this penned-in area, and now the branches have begun to take root and sprout new leaves!

The garden in full swing. Here is a list of what is currently growing: corn, cassava, noni, soursop, avocado, pineapple, plantains, bananas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, coco yams, mangos, groundnuts, tea leaves, ginger, onions, moringa, and papaya (18 total crops!).

Facetiming with Ted and Lewis. I was asked why Lewis did not come on this trip approximately 1,000 times a day.

A spotty connection to say the least, but we’ll take what we can get!

New cloth from Bernard and Celestine. L-R: Sarah Jr., Regina, Gloria, Richlove, Dina, Sarah Sr., Lucky, God’s Way.

This was also the first trip where I was unable to help with some of the homework! The older girls in particular are getting into advanced geometry and I was…not useful. Bernard and Celestine brought over these markerboards that they are supposed to take to school and use for practicing graphs, etc.

Morning light and the before-school hustle and bustle.

Where would we be without Mercy and Helen? I cannot imagine.

I am so grateful for their leadership and friendship.

I stayed with Bernard and Celestine on this trip and they took such good care of me. And BONUS: Victor, their 4th-born came to visit! He is the same age as Ted and me, and lived in Akatsi for the first few months we were there in 2013. He was our guide and friend and would frequently stop by just to check up on us, bringing fresh coconuts and mangos. He left town to complete his government service and I hadn’t seen him in 6 years! Victor loves basketball and sorely missed Ted when I had to admit that I have no idea who Paul Pierce is. The woman on the far left is his fiance.

My room at Bernard and Celestine’s

Bernard’s house cat, which they have housebroken and taught to kill mice. I want one for the Yellow House! It was very shy and only let me get close if it was taking a nap on the tile floor in the heat of the day.

You might remember that Richlove competed in a spelling bee at the national level last year! This is the principal of their school presenting her with an award in front of the entire student body.

Regina

Sarah Sr., Dina, God’s Way, and Richlove getting home from school. (photo by the girls)

Power outages mean doing puzzles by lantern-light. I am getting old because YIKES my eyes could not take this! The girls were determined, though; they knocked it out in no time.

All 9 of us in a selfie on the walk to school on my last morning. I only cried a LITTLE bit. Mercy always makes fun of me when I come back to the house sniffling and red-eyed.

A few years ago I started writing letters to all of the girls and leaving them on the dining room table right before I leave. I like to think of them coming home from school and reading them when I am at the airport in Accra. They are a gift to me.

Top Row L-R: Lucky, God’s Way, Dina, Richlove. Bottom Row, L-R: Regina, Sarah Jr., Gloria, Sarah Sr.

I’ve still got a few inches on three of them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m the shortest of the bunch by the next trip.

November 21st, 2013. First picture of all eight girls together, just a day or two after Regina, Sarah Sr., and Richlove arrived. L-R: Dina, Gloria, Richlove, Regina, Lucky, Sarah Sr., God’s Way, and Sarah Jr.

November 25th, 2019. Recreated the original lineup! Takes my breath away.

I daily pray that they are always joyful and free.

And know and claim their full value and potential.

And that they will be mothers to many in the literal and figurative sense.

Leading a new generation into light, love, prosperity, and freedom. Isaiah 61:4 “They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”

We named Eight Oaks for Isaiah 61, and I have been amazed as layer after layer after layer of that passage has been unearthed to me. On Ted’s and my first full day in Ghana, almost 7 years ago, we attended church with Bernard and Celestine, and the pastor preached on Luke 4, when Jesus reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue and says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” I remember pondering that as sweat rolled down my back and the ceiling fans whirred overhead. “Today this scripture has been fulfilled.” But we’d just gotten there!

Truly, there was so much naïveté when we started this endeavor. I aligned myself with the voice speaking, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me…”

But I had it backwards. I was the poor, the brokenhearted, the captive, the prisoner, whose heart has been redeemed and whose ashes have been replaced with a crown. I have struggled to articulate what it’s like to visit the Yellow House—particularly that first moment when the gate opens and the girls and Mercy and Helen come running through the door and tackle you in hugs and tears and screams. I finally realized what it is—that experience:

I am the Prodigal who returns to the Yellow House to rejoicing and weeping and feasting—undeserved.

I love this topsy-turvy Kingdom that Jesus brings. I love being a part of it. I struggle to imagine how Jesus fits into American society sometimes. I don’t have that problem in Ghana. I can see him, clear as day, sitting in a plastic chair in a concrete courtyard, drinking coke out of a glass bottle and laughing as the girls tease one another. And when I enter the compound through that big rusted gate, he is always the first one to come embrace me.

My brother lent me a book a few years ago that ended with this paragraph:

Though the headmaster was the younger man, and much shorter, and though Arch was lame and had white hairs coming out of his ears and white stubble all over his face, he felt no more than a boy again—but a very well-versed boy who couldn’t help thinking of the scene described by these old words, surely the most beautiful words ever written or said: His father, when he saw him coming, ran to meet him.

From one prodigal to another, I hope this post finds you healthy and joyful in whatever circumstances. Blessings to you all.