Goings and Comings

Attah headed down to Accra to fly out to North Carolina with Nile on New Year's Day.

This was a difficult time for us to be separated (our wedding anniversary and Zion's birthday would come and go before we were reunited) but the trip had to be made and tickets purchased rather last minute.  Attah was scheduled for his naturalization interview on the 7th of January and took Nile with him on the trip.  Our strategy was to "divide and conquer"!  With only Zion and Havilah under wing, Jessica was still able to go to school each day and teach while Nile and Attah had some good Daddy/Son time!   We praise God that Attah's interview was successful and to our surprise they went ahead and completed the whole process the same day (instead of scheduling a follow up later on as usual) so he walked out of the immigration office as a US CITIZEN!  They had a difficult time getting back to Ghana due to having to get a new passport, but while they were in the States they were encouraged by visiting with friends and family.

Nile thoroughly enjoying hanging out with his special pal, Papa Jim!

 Also thankful for visits with good friends!

Meanwhile, Jessica welcomed a visitor to our mission in Ghana.  Tana Martins came from Brazil to see and help in the mission work.  It worked out really well, actually, that Attah was gone for three of the four weeks Tana was here because Jessica was able to spend a lot of time with Tana and really get to know her and show her many aspects of the ministry.  She had a great visit and we were just as blessed as she was by her visit!

Most mornings she worked with the 3 year olds in the daycare - teaching them basic English through hands-on crafts, games, and activities.

We took Tana to a village to see what typical life in a village is like.

And to spend time with the kids in a Christian school started and run by a dear brother in Christ.

Zion and Havilah loved the taste of village life! 

Tana was the very best kind of volunteer - she came up with ideas of ways to help the ministry, asked us if the ideas would be helpful or not, and then went to work making them happen with a little guidance.  She and the youth of the Church organized and ran a mini-VBS which about 180 kids in the neighborhood attended.  Here is a little video clip of music time during VBS...

Then Attah and Nile returned to Ghana!

Very happy to be reunited with each other! Husband and wife and siblings!

The very best part of Tana's visit was the many opportunities to go in depth into the Word of God and after studying God's plan of salvation as revealed in the Scriptures, she chose to be immersed into Christ for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!  Praise God!!!  That is what it's all about!

And then all too soon it was time to say a good-bye to Tana, but so thankful for the wonderful time we had with her!!!  

PS. Tana has many more, great pictures of her time in Ghana.  She did so much while here - teaching the ladies how to make fabric flowers and Brazilian chocolates, teaching the students of BCA about Brazil, making personal visits to the homes of families in the Church, hanging out with the teens at a surprise going-away party for her at the lake, and so much more!  Check them out on her facebook page!