Akwaaba! Day 1...oh...and 2

Akwaaba! I’m pretty sure that’s the standard Ghanain greeting. There were signs everywhere when we got here. But wait, let me first begin with the flight. I haven’t been on a plane longer than 6 hours before, so needless to say I was a bit anxious to get off before we even got on. It was a little bumpy for my taste, but everyone else slept like a baby while I looked out of the window at the dark sky and tried to make sense of the shaking, as if my looking would change things. I read…really read for the first time since I graduated seminary. THE SHACK. Get that book. It will change your life. I could have finished it too, in one sitting, but my eyes began to burn around 1am. The man next to me was from Philadelphia by way of Ghana and was coming back home to visit for the first time since last year. As the flight decended, his face lit up more and more. The smile on his face comforted me and made me forget about the lack of sleep that I had…I mean I literally watched it go from light to dark to light in one sitting. He was so happy to be home…and so was I.

You gotta love Rev. Soaries because he just has this confidence about him where it’s as if he owns everything even though he doesn’t. It’s actually pretty comforting when you’re thousands of miles away from home. Lots of people were trying to carry our bags and people were surrounding Rev. Soaries as we walked out. To them, he looked important. It was kind of like that scene in Ali when Muhammed Ali was running and they were surrounding him screaming “Ali Bumbaye!” Yeah…that was pretty funny to see. He took off in someone’s car and we got on a bus to Cape Coast. We’ll see him again Thursday back in Accra…he has meetings. Anyway, I slept a bit on the 2 hour bus ride to Cape Coast. Probably because we were on ground. lol. Obama signs are everywhere…He may as well be the President of the U.S. and Ghana. It’s not as hot as many of you may think…it’s October in Ghana not July. There is absolutley no humidity so the weather is pretty much perfect. The hotel is pretty nice…nothing like Jamaica for all of you who did the missions trip this summer….a world’s away from where we were. But it reminds me a lot of where we were too at the same time…the area that is. I’m really thankful to God for the Jamaica experience this summer. I couldn’t have received better preparationfor this trip. Tomorrow we will head to the slave castles and do some touring around Cape Coast a bit. I do think about how blessed I am to have an opportunity to not only be in the land but actually be in the same spot where my ancestors were taken and walk through and hear the stories. How many people can say that they’ve had this opportunity? To come back to the place where it all began. Wow. Gotta wake up in the morning and spend some time with God…but I must say, THE SHACK has even challenged my perception on how we interact with God. Get that book. It will Change Your Life!

Plenty of pics to come…