After miles of rough, red roads, today’s first stop was a small village of clay huts just outside of Tamale. As our vans pulled up to the village school, kids ran in excitement to wave out the windows and greet us. We toured each classroom, which were split up by ages, and high-fived and sang with the kids. After waving goodbye to their precious smiles, we walked through the village to the chief’s palace. There were many goats and chickens along the way, and a horse inside the palace. We were all given permission to enter to greet the chief and received cola nuts (an important part of the Ghanaian culture) as a gift for visiting.
After leaving the village, we were looking forward to our sixth meal of chicken and rice to fuel us up before a camp with some local children. Again, we were greeted with smiles and high-fives, and the kids grabbed our hands to go play as soon as we stepped out of the vans. The coaches led us all in some games that we had taught them at the clinic yesterday and then split us into stations. Some of our team worked with the little kids and Ben (a leader of Sports Friends) talked with the kids about God, while the rest of us ran frisbee, baseball, soccer, and football stations. After they finished the stations, all of the kids played sharks and minnows with our team. We then taught them a Hope cheer and prayed with them before heading back to Tamale.
Before making it back to the compound, we stopped at a local church to join in on a Bible study. The pastor led us through Daniel 9 and the members of the Bible study had many questions that lead to an intense debate. It was cool to see how people from such a different culture had many of the same questions and thoughts about the Word as us.
We came back to the compound to a dinner of beef and rice already prepared for us. We ended the day as a team discussing how we saw God today. Many of us were touched by the connections we felt with the children at the camp and the ways the people of the villages welcomed us so willingly into their community. We are in awe of the way the children have served and taught us so many lessons and can’t wait for the ways in which God will work throughout the coming week.
With love,
Adair and Nicole