Last day clips

Here's our monkey friend and my last video entry from the tarmac:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17484486

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17485658

Home sweet home

Man it is good to be home!! We feel so blessed, so fortunate to have had the experience we had in Ghana, but it is so great to be on U.S. soil! The final shots you see are of our last day in Accra, and boy did God show up. The pic of the 5 of us is our final meal at Novatel, which is one of the premier hotels in Accra. Gloria is in charge of stuff there and was responsible for making us feel at home the entire 12 days of our stay. She is amazing! You know Andy and Karen and I, the other fella is Pastor Earnest who is in charge of all the branch churches that Living Streams is a part of.

The monkey is the "wildlife" that we saw. He is actually someone's pet, tied to a tree, cute little thing, but I didn't get close enough for him to rip my lips off. Th last picture is Rev. Markwei and George from Pacodep, this was the last 11 minutes before we got on our plane, and it was also the best 11 minutes of our entire trip. I'll let you know more about it on Sunday...

worship at Life Cathedral video clips

These are some little snippets from worship this morning.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17239618

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17256911

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17259348

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17261357

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17262497

Final thoughts?

The photo above is a baby that was dedicated at the end of worhsip on Sunday, she was so sweet and cute. There dedication ceremony is almost identical to ours. The photo on the right are some of the people that we got to spend time with while we were here. You know the Genesis humans seated, standing from left to right are Pastor Earnest, who is in charge of all of the branch campuses of Living Streams International, his wife Gladys is Director for HIV/AIDS programming for World Vision. Pastor Markwei is the Head Pastor at Living Streams, our host for the time we were here. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but Pastor Markwei has instituted what they call "executive protocol" during our stay here. That means that he arranges a driver for us whenever we need to go somewhere, he feeds us food that is most often brought in from a local hotel, two meals a day (amazing food!), and he simply makes a phone call whenever we need anything. He has been so generous and gracious, it has just been amazing!

So we are leaving tomorrow night, and I probably won't have email access until we land on Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon. It's weird we begin our flight from Accra on Monday night and land in PHoenix on Tuesday afternoon. We have had a good trip...no, a great trip. There are some things that have happened even in the last 24 hours that I will share with you all when we return. God has watched over us, protected us, and showed us things that we never could have planned for. We all really, really appreciate all of your prayers, comments, and support, without the body of Genesis, it would not have been possible to experience what we have. We still have some things to process, but we are confident that God has a place for Genesis here in Ghana. I really think we can make a difference in some lives in the name of Jesus. In fact, I think that God is already doing some things here because of our presence here. I miss all of you greatly. I miss my kids a lot. We spoke with them tonight, and I showed their pictures in church, and got a little Misty. I can't wait to worship with you all, and I can't wait to have some time to share with you our pictures, video, and experiences.

Love to you all,

Pat, Karen, Andy

worship at Life Cathedral

wow! Worship with Life Cathedral this morning was amazing! The music started at 10:30 and we rocked until 11:30. The worship leader reminded me of Kirk Franklin (are you listening Dan Hopper?), and it was sung in both the Ga dialect as well as english. Pastor Markwei then introduced Karen, Andy and I, and it was my turn to do the message. I've never preached in a tent before, and never as minority. It was really, really good for me to have this experience. No, I didn't preach for 2 hours, I only went an hour and 15 minutes...but I used every minute of

it. I will try to get some video up tonight before we hit the hay on the myspace account.

video stuff

I'm not sure this is going to work, but I've got some links for you to click on that will take you to my myspace account:

From our Cape Coast Day:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17183507

From me for you on Sunday:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=17180202

From our journey to Kete Krachi:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=16990669

From our visit with the trafficked kids:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=16976335

From our visit to Peace and Love Orphanage:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=16625609

If these links don't work and I've messed it up click on my videos tab at www.myspace.com/genesisman

castles, mansions, and huts

The differences in the structures here is amazing. Upper left is one of the castles (forts) that were originally used to protect the coast from invaders. To the right is a mansion on the hill overlooking the cost and below is a typical village hut...all of these are right next to each other. Amazing!

more images from the Castles/Slave prisons

These were taken from the tunnels that led to the dungeons where slaves were kept. In the dungeon on the right is where up to 600 male slaves were kept. It was eery and sad to be in this place and the dank musty smell added to the whole experience.

journal entry

because I was offline so long, I journaled a more elaborate entry from yesterday. Here it is:

August 31st Journal entry

Yesterday we hired Kennedy and his car to take us to Cape Coast, which is north along the coastline from Accra. Both Pastor Markwei and Andy felt it would be good for us to see some of the Ghanaian history up close. First we visited Kakum Rain forest, which was amazing! As soon as we turned the corner into this place, it was instantly misty and very humid. We went on a long uphill hike to the “canopy” of tall jungle like trees. We totally felt like we were in a Tarzan movie with vines hanging down and birds chirping. We saw no wildlife (bummer) but were told that elephants, monkeys and other wildlife roam the rain forest at night. Once we got to the top of the canopy, they had built 7 interconnecting rope bridges going from one tree to the next. We were 200-300 feet up in the air on these things and it was freaky! It was the first time we had seen so many Anglos in one place, because it was such a tourist destination. We chatted with a few, mostly Europeans, and then met an American who happened to be from Port Townsend, Washington which is just down the road from my hometown. Freaky. She and I had a mutual teacher who transferred to her school. What a strange world we live in.

From there we visited two “castles” called Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle. These were built as forts on the coast by the Dutch and the Portugese in the 1500’s, and became slave trade avenues for many years. It was sad and eerie as we walked through the dungeons were 1000’s and 1000’s of human beings were “stored” before being shipped off to other worlds for sale. The castles were kept up very nicely so it really felt as if not much had changed in 500 years.

Driving in Ghana. Wow. Speed limits really mean nothing when it comes to getting places. Our driver would toot his horn and cars would slide to the shoulder, then he would pass them going 120 KPH (which I believe is about 70 MPH). We were so scared, and on more than one occasion asked him to slow down and stop passing cars so quickly. At night this is particularly scary.

Today was good for us to chill a bit. We have been busting it out, and Andy and I dozed off and on during the 4-5 hour round trip. Karen and I slept about 9 hours, which tells us we were very tired.

The original rain forest and coconuts

So this is the original Rain Forest complete with real misty rain, real animal noises, real birds and visual images like you would see on a postcard. So there was this guy who had coconuts for sale for about 50 cents, he chopped off the top with his machete, then gave you a straw to drink it. You drank it fast, then before you hit the trail again, he would chop it in half, then cut you a spoon from the husk so you could eat the inside. The white meat was very soft and squishy, not hard like we are used to. yummy.

Cape Coast Day 8

These are images from the one day we designated for site seeing and learning more about Ghana's history. This is Karen on one of 7 hanging suspension bridges in the Rain Forest. The other shot is from one of the 'CASTLES" which were built as forts and later used in the slave trade. more later, when I have better cyber time.

***\i'm having trouble uploading photos today. but I'll try again later today.