Our First Prayer Letter

Two month’s in Africa, four to go. It seems like we have only been here a few days but we are 1/3 the way through our trip. This has been quite an experience and I can’t wait to see what is around the next corner of this adventure. We have all adjusted fairly well to the weather by now; but there are days when it is very hot (like around 105 degrees or more) that Kelly and Lyndsey still struggle a bit. We have been bitten by just about every kind of bug we can think of and some we didn’t know existed! The sun is intense and some of us have been burned but a couple of us have nice tans. Kelly and I have both lost weight but are not sure how much. The scales here are not very accurate and they read in kilograms not pounds. One thing is certain we all sweat and are covered from head to toe in dust by the end of the day. That all said, I love it here and most days could live here with no problem. Kelly on the other hand will need a little help from God before she would agree to live here.

Being here for two months now I am still trying to get used to the fact that life is very different here than at home. Trying to do some simple home repairs turn into an all day project. It would take me a long time to explain this so just suffice it to say that a dripping faucet is often better left dripping. The hardest thing for me to get used to is the inconsistency of everything. Few things here are consistent save the sun and the moon.

Our barrels arrived on Feb. 14th as promised, however the necessary paper work didn’t arrive with the them. Our barrels were inside a large shipping container which held many other items. Some of the items required specific papers from Ohio banks in order for customs to allow them into the country. They would not process anything on the container without all of the paper work. Because there was a huge snow storm hitting Ohio at that time, the banks were closed and we didn’t get our barrels until a week later. When we got them home and opened them we realized some items were missing. We didn’t know what at first but after unpacking we figured out we had lost a very big bag of Peanut M&M’s, several jars of Nutella, several jars of Parmesan Cheese and some packs of soft taco shells. All total about $75.00 -$100.00 worth of stuff. Not a big loss but it was all of the sweet stuff that we had packed. My tools were all intact as they were on the bottom of the barrel and the items we lost were all right on top of the barrels.

God is working in our lives as we are learning to be patient; we have no choice here it is a part of life. No one is in a hurry to do anything here (except for me). So if you are not a patient person, don’t move here. Unless you want a lesson in patience. We are also learning how to relate with people who have a different outlook on life. I now understand what a western way of life is compared to much of the world. We are all learning to be grateful for what God has given us and hopefully we won’t take things for granted as much as we used to. Just cooking a meal here is a lot work. One can’t run to Wal-Mart to get a jar of spaghetti sauce or buy frozen garlic bread and throw it in the oven, you have to make it from scratch. This cooking experience has been good for Kelly, as she is learning that she can cook from scratch if she has to. She would probably not agree with that last statement. I am very proud of her; she is quite the trooper.

The Bible College work is almost complete, sort of. After I arrived and we started the project we soon realized that the person who had advised them on the cost of materials to do the project had grossly underestimated. Not entirely his fault, just as the U.S. prices continue to rise so do the prices in Ghana. The original quote was substantially lower than the current cost of supplies. So the project has turned into a 2 or 3 phase project. We are just about finished with phase 1, which allowed us to rewire half of the building and install some needed circuits for computer stations and future A/C for the library. We have about 2 or 3 days of work to button up phase 1. I hope to have it finished by this Saturday.

We have just one more week in Ghana and then we head to Togo for 2 or 3 months. We are not sure if our budget will make it for the 3 months that we had planned but we are going to try to stretch it if we can. Please continue to pray for our financial situation. That the remainder of our support might come in allowing us to stay in Togo for the three months that we are supposed to.

I hope you have been able to keep up with us on our journey by reading our blog. If you have not, please log on at http://empoweringghana.blogspot.com to read about our journey. If you have, please continue and leave comments as your comments are encouraging to us here. Every time we log on to the blog the first thing Kelly asks is “do we have any new comments?” we all enjoy them.

Well I need to go as today is Marnie’s birthday and we are having a little party for her.

Serving Him,

Gary Phillips & family