Nicolas is sending you greetings from Ghana today. He is healthy and two months old!
Last night he slept 7 1/2 hours!!! So nice.
As we were in Accra for meetings all last week, he is very glad to be back in familiar surroundings back here at home in Amakom (in the quietness of the 'bush').
I'm reminded of Psalm 128:3,4
"Look at all those children, there they sit around your table as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees. That is the Lord's reward for those who fear him."
It's been a wildly busy day here on this side of the lake. We began the day with unloading the truck that had come in from Kumasi late last night with a roof rack loaded full. Devotions were after this at 8am, then a pro
cessional of the visiting team to greet the two chiefs in Amakom. An hour or so later we were off trekking to Atafram to greet and present gifts to the chief, elders and assembly man there.
All the while, the plumber had arrived from Kumasi late yesterday afternoon and has begun his part on laying the pipes in the expansion of the Inpatient Care Centre. Isaac, an additional mason, arrived with two of his workers, and about 20 other laborers were busy working.
Once we arrived back from these two villages doing the political responsibilities, the UK team got to work as well in acts of service on the building site...and soon the rains came. Some went off to Amakom to speak in the primary school - and this went very well.
Tomorrow is a day of traveling to visit/tour villages for Kente, Adinkra clothe, wood carving and greet church officials in Kumasi followed by a meal at Royal Park Hotel, then back to the lake.
Pictured: Michael Bentum holding Nicolas
‘Are you eating properly?’ and ‘You need to get fat!’ are the two sentences I have
been hearing the most every time I walk out of our house in Amakom for a short walk to the clinic or the office where Andrew spends many hours of his day (working hard on keeping the clinic running, construction work going and preparation for teams scheduled for the next few months).
Now, don’t get me wrong: I do NOT need to gain any more weight on my third post-partum week. On the contrary. What I am learning in this culture
having experienced pregnancy and delivery, and now with a newborn in Ghana has taught me so much in terms of how these precious people deal with such a special time in a mom’s life. One of the things being the belief, rightfully so, that a breastfed baby needs all he can get from his mom, and therefore the need to get the mom well-fed, preferably with chicken soup (remember: chicken meat is a treat in the village, usually eaten on very special occasions, once or twice a year, like on Christmas and Easter holidays) and fufu (the national starch of choice, made with plantain and cassa
va), lots and LOTS of it! I even received a guinea fowl – very special! - as a gift from Mac, Juliana’s husband (see picture of them with my mom, in front of our house). On the other side of this ‘eating plenty’ conversation is the fact that my mom came all the way from Brazil to spend one month with us, and spoil us with her company, her joy and of course her culinary talent. Like I said, they are all serious about getting me fat, in a Ghanaian-Brazilian joint effort! The end result of all thi s talk is that Nicolas is indeed getting big, and already has a double chin and big beautiful cheeks (I AM biased!).
I have been culturally advised by close Ghanaian friends to stay in my room as much as I can with Nicolas, avoiding exposing him to the elements for the next three months – I hear that and I think ‘mosquitos’ – another wise survival-type advice – and heat rash in this tropical weather. Not bad for the introvert part of me, I do admit. Very hard though, when the world around me keeps spinning and I hear of patients coming and going day and night at the clinic(*), and while we are hosting three interns (Holli pictured with Nicolas) in our modest guest house. And as much as I want to believe resting during post-partum is a common practice among the women in the villages, I see too many of them carrying their tiny babies on their backs, on their way to farm, uphill, or carrying heavy logs on their heads in order to have fire to cook a meal for the rest of the family, right before and not long after delivering their children.
Life goes on, much like before, but I cannot help but notice the smiles I have been receiving from some of the people –specially the moms and grandmoms- I greet on the road. Call me a romantic, if you will, but I noticed they now carry something in their greetings to me that, while I still am and will always be an oburoni (‘foreigner’, literally ‘person from a distant land’ in Twi), transcends language or cultural barriers, something that says ‘you are closer to being one of us because you dared to BE one of us.’ And I can say to them with confident trust: ‘I dared 
because Jesus loves you!’
*In case you are wondering, the clinic is staffed with a midwife (who does a lot of the work these days) and six health care assistants. We also receive a visiting doctor from Kumasi, Dr. Frank, on average once a week, who is especially a big help with the more complicated cases in this time. Since my arrival in the country, in April, we have been waiting for paperwork concerning my medical license to be cleared again, so I guess you can say I have been on ‘forced maternity leave’ since then. Lucas warned me in his 6 year old way that this would be ‘a time to trust in Jesus and get some rest’. We are still waiting for the Ghana Medical Council to approve my credentials and allow me to go back to work…
When you consider that we live in the bush, having a truck is not a convenience, but a necessity in the work 
that we are in. As you probably have read on the blog, our truck was in an accident over six months ago, and just a few days ago we got it back from the shop that was repairing it. Officially, this 4x4 Nissan Patrol seats 11 people, yet I have had 21 people in it before. It's a ministry machine! So many people gave and raised funds about 3 years ago so that we could purchase it. Thank you, it's back :) and we are so happy. Luiza didn't remember it since it was in the shop so long.
Our colleagues, the Mozley's, (also serving with The Mission Society) provided a loaner vehicle for us, a Nissan van. It was while we had this van that we were able to carry lots of larger items that we needed to get, transport AIDS, HIV+, TB, and other patients to receive treatments, and go where we needed to go as a family. We are so grateful that they shared their van with us for so long.
We now want to purchase a 4x4 ambulance/truck for the clinic ministries, and some funds have been given for it already.
A spontaneous shot taken by Kirk Matthews as he captured our 2 year old Luiza copying her mother.
Simplify life has been one of my theme thoughts since I read a book in high school on it.
One of the best ways the people in Ghana can enjoy a simpler life is about to happen, with a bit of confusion thrown in the middle of it. The re-denomination of the currency, currently known as the Cedi, soon to be call the Ghana Cedi.
It's not a re-valuation of the currency, but a re-numeration. When you go to buy something now you have to take huge amounts with you since the highest bill printed is equal to $2 or 1 UK pound sterling. So, to put $100 in diesel in our truck, I would have to have 920,000 cedis (46 of the 20,000 bills). Now, we will be able to had the lady at the pump only four 20 notes & 6 1 cedi notes.
Ten days ago we had a tropical thunder storm that knocked down the power lines and relieved us of electricity...it's not back.
Add this to the normal Load Shedding plan that the Electric Company Ghana, Ltd. has implemented as of September 2006 where the lights are out for 12 hours every other day. The times though when it is supposed to be on, it's often not or on half voltage (so fridge, appliances, and many lights don't work when on half voltage).
We are very glad that a generator is on the way from the generosity of business men/women in Brazil who were call to help by a relative turned advocate for this need.
Click here for an explanation of Load Shedding and page down to the last entry for an interesting read from who lives in Accra and serves with us quite a bit.
Pictured: Ju at work by flashlight, photo taken by Steve Buchele when visiting Amakom on a ministry trip.
To get a grasp on the new thoughts on missions in the world and the development of sharing the gospel, Juliana and I really have been impacted by a recent article from Christianity Today by Christopher J.H. Wright. It was read to us this week by Dr. Darrell Whiteman, the resident missiologist at The Mission Society (an amazing author, Christian anthropologist, and radical lover of God). We have had a highly intense, wonderfully powerful, and inspiring week with the missionaries of our field, Dr. Phil Granger (leader in love with Jesus, president of The Mission Society) and Dr. Whiteman. 
Our team was together in Accra this week for renewal and guidance meetings.
Can followers of Christ be a counterculture for the common good? Check out www.ChristianVisionProject.org
Love in the village, reflecting Christ all around, being Christ in the flesh is our job as Cross-Cultural Witnesses. What will it take for us to be broken so that relationships are built in geniune care and love as Jesus would do so that Christianity is biblical and discipleship is happening? What does that look like I think to myself? It's different than life in the cities in Ghana like we have had exposure to so much - Kumasi and Accra. I think of the verse that says"...that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel." Ephesians 6:19
