419 Ghana

2011-08-06T06:21:00.001-05:00

We are landed in Atlanta, going through customs and rechecking bags!

Brian Bunch
Lake Pointe Student Missions

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Leaving the hotel

2011-08-05T11:32:00.001-05:00

We are leaving our hotel..

Here is our current flight schedule from Ghana to Atlanta.

Brian Bunch
Lake Pointe Student Missions

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Last full day...

2011-08-04T20:55:00.001-05:00

Wow. Where do I begin?

We had an incredible last full day in Ghana.

We started out by doing evangelism in the Stables Community. It is sad to see the amount of poverty in this community but it so cool to see how JOYFUL the kids are in this community.

Haley brought a Polaroid camera and gave many of the kids a picture of themselves (they loved it, kudos to you Haley).

We then went back to an area where we did evangelism earlier in the week and picked up where we left off. Our students had some great conversations this week through the evangelism and were challenged by it!

We then went and ate lunch at the church and played more games at the church with a number of kids in the community and members of All Souls.

Tonight was our last night of worship. I spoke on Commitment in Serving. We all danced around to the music and took in all that we could from the service with our Ghanaian friends!

When the service ended Pastor Moses, Pastor Joe, Nana and other members of All Souls presented us with certificates and a picture of us thanking us for serving alongside them. The Ghanaians love to give certificates for events that take place and it's a reminder of the things that we have done alongside them.

We ended the night with chicken and chips for dinner along with some delicious pineapple (nothing at home compares to this goodness)!

Nana and some of his team joined us briefly for our team meeting and we did a debrief for them over the trip. Then we had a last team meeting and prayed that we would leave this place challenged and changed!

God has done amazing things this year in this team. We all clicked. We all loved and encouraged one another. We really bonded.

Its crazy to think a team of 23 would be this close!

I love these students and couldn't be more proud of them.

Parents, thank you for letting your kids be a part of this team and coming. I would like to encourage you all to take your students out to eat one night soon after we get home and talk to them about the trip. They've got things to share (I promise).

In saw God work in each and everyone of our students this week. In amazing ways!

Tomorrow we depart for the market at 9AM, then go eat lunch at the Accra Mall, come back to the hotel and pack up.

We leave tomorrow... Sad to leave..

Thanks for all of your prayers.

God has done amazing things...

Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Love Ghana.

Bunch

Wednesday

2011-08-03T16:49:00.001-05:00

Incredible.

Ghana is incredible. This team is incredible.

Everyone is doing great and doing an amazing job!

We evangelized this morning to a new area across the main street in South La (which is the area of Accra we are in). We've covered a lot of territory this year and have met a ton of local Ghanaians. I've been so impressed by our students that just walk up to the locals (even without one of church partners)! Our students are so eager to reach out.

One of the groups talked to a guy that accepted Christ today and he came to the church service tonight, that was really cool to see.

Tonight we talked about taking the next step from knowing Christ to actually being committed to Christ. A lot of the Ghanaians are similar to us in this aspect! We all forget the commitment part of our relative on ship with Christ. We often fail to have community and accountability in our lives that are essential for us in our growth and commitment with Christ.

This afternoon we hung out at the church and they played another soccer game while others played on the playground and introduced the Ghanaians kids to Red Rover.

We are now having our team meeting and are sad that tomorrow is our last full day..

We are loving Ghana!

Bunch

Tuesday

2011-08-02T12:27:00.001-05:00

I'm writing a little earlier today because I got a little rest this afternoon and am not speaking tonight. I'm coming up with some congestion and I'm trying to not push myself (too much).

Josh will be speaking tonight during the service.

We started our day out with evangelism this morning, a couple of our groups were kind of a hike away! But, I've now had the opportunity to see all of our students reach out and share the love of Christ to the local Ghanaians.

It was a little overcast and sprinkled some on us this morning. We then all met back up at the church, ate lunch then made our way back to the hotel to change. The team all went and played soccer at the church (they played Ghana vs. US) and team U.S. actually won!! Granted a couple of the Ghanaians played on our side...

I rested some at the hotel during that time (hard for me to sit back and do that!!) and we are all about to head down to the church for our nightly service.

Pray for us as we lead the service and our students head up the small groups. Pray for great discussion to take place.

This is an amazing team and the students are doing an awesome job!!

Bunch

Monday

2011-08-01T19:15:00.001-05:00

Today was our first full day of all kinds of work! We began at 9AM at the church where we met at the church and had a quick briefing on how to present the gospel to the Ghanaians.

We then went out on the streets in our groups and had some great conversations with the locals. Our students did an awesome job!

About 1PM we went back to the church and ate lunch then began playing all kinds of games with kids. Baseball, soccer, volleyball, playing on the playground and jump roping were all things we did!

Then from 6-8 we went to the church for the evening service where we had some Ghanaian worship, I spoke and the students led the small groups.

We just ended our night (at midnight) where we had an amazing meeting and team time where we spent a couple of hours praying on our knees before an incredible God. We are all humbled by Gods presence here tonight!

We are excited to see what God is going to do the rest of this week!

This is an AMAZING team!

Bunch

Sunday

2011-07-31T13:12:00.001-05:00

It was church day! We got to sleep in a little today and went to church at 9:00. We joined in a couple of the small groups and then attended the church service. Nana Baah preached the service and did an awesome job! Nana is in charge of the outreaches through All Souls, this was his second time to preach on a Sunday morning. Pastor Moses had been at a school course in the Cape Coast area and had a prior commitment to speak at another church this morning.

During the offerings (they hold three offerings in Ghana - one for regular tithes/thanks offerings, the other for the day you were born (Mon, Tues, Wed, etc... This is a big deal to the Ghanaians as they always ask us what day we were born on. After my fourth time here I finally looked into it and realized I was born on a Thursday. My Ghanaian name is Yaw because I am a male that was born on a Thursday), the other offering was the building offering.

We participated in the offerings and when it came time for the Dayborn offerings they have a competition to see which day brought in the most offering... Thursday won!!! So they had me come up and collect the trophy (it was a joke!). It made us laugh! I then introduced our team to the congregation and informed them we would be around throughout the week evangelizing, playing games in the afternoons with the kids at the church and having nightly worship at the church.

We then went into town to OSU Food Court where we ate pizza! Good pizza! It was a nice change for us as we have had a lot of chicken & Chios (fries) thus far. Pastor Moses and his wife Dora met us for lunch and we just had a great time hanging out and talking with them.. I hadn't seen Pastor Moses since last summer so it was great to finally see him in person rather than just talking on the phone.

We then came back to the hotel and changed. Some of us walked down to the beach area behind the church and hung out at the church for a little while while others stayed and caught up on rest at the hotel.

Tomorrow we begin a busy week!

We are going to have dinner soon, our nightly team meeting and prepare for the week!

Things are going great and the students are doing awesome!!

I've already heard interest from a couple of the students about thinking of ways to raise money for the church to complete it's building fund!! Awesome!!

Love Ghana!

Here are some pictures from church.

Bunch

Dodi Island Day

2011-07-30T18:57:00.001-05:00

We woke up early this morning (5:30 AM) ate breakfast and met the All Souls team at the church where we loaded the bus and made the drive to Dodi Island (in the Volta Region).

We loaded up on the cruise boat with about 300 other Ghanaian passengers and were on the boat for about two hours before we reached the island. While on the boat we took various pictures, ate lunch, and played games together.

We reached the island and were able to see many people that live in villages on the island. Upon the boats arrival the people all had their drums out and were singing and dancing! It was a great experience!

We then made the journey back to the port in the Volta Region and got on the bus and made our way back... Granted we hit a lot of traffic on the way back.. Our students had an awesome time singing praise and worship with our friends from All Souls (they love to sing)!

Tomorrow we will meet at the church for church service! I love Ghana church!

Students are doing awesome!

Here are some pictures of the day at Dodi Island:

Bunch

Friday

2011-07-29T17:07:00.001-05:00

Awesome first day hanging out with our Ghanaian friends!

We ate breakfast at 7 AM and met up at the church at 8. We met several of the church members (youth missions team) from All Souls and we headed to Pantang Hospital (about an hour from our hotel). Pantang is a psychiatric hospital that is funded by the government and has a number of nurses and assistants that treat and aid patients that have been abandoned by their families.

We actually met a Canadian (Lori) that moved to Ghana in May to be the Occupational Therapist at this facility. She is scheduled to be here for a minimum of one year to possibly two. Lori is the only licensed Occupational Therapist and she supervises the many OT Assistants and nurses throughout the facility.

We got to visit the patients, sung, danced, played games and ate lunch ith the patients. Before we left Pantang to head back to All Souls we gave a donation of various everyday essentials to the hospital.

Tonight we ate dinner at the hotel and had a great team meeting where we all shared our hearts of how we came about choosing to go to Ghana and had a time of prayer together as a team.

For the parents:

I love your students. You will be proud parents if you would've heard their prayers! I'm so excited to be serving with your students!

Here are some pictures of our day...

Playing a game called "Change Your Style"

Dancing at Pantang Hospital

More Dancing

Abraham (All Souls Youth) Drumming

Kailey

Momma K

Donation at Pantang Hospital

Donation at Pantang Hospital

Tomorrow we will be getting up early and headed to Lake Volta where we will go on a cruise to Dodi Island.

We are having fun and can't wait to see what God has in store....

Bunch

2011-07-29T02:50:00.001-05:00

It's 8AM and we are headed out to visit patients at the hospital!

I will be able to update more later with some pictures (hopefully!). We are excited to get started!

Brian Bunch
Lake Pointe Student Missions

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Made it!

2011-07-28T15:00:00.001-05:00

Hey! We made it!

I am just getting a chance to let you all know..

We arrived and have eaten, had orientation at the church and are currently at the hotel trying to figure out what we should do for dinner!

All is well.. We begin at 8AM tomorrow to go and visit the hospital..

We are excited to be here!

Brian Bunch
Lake Pointe Student Missions

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

DFW

2011-07-27T10:36:00.001-05:00

We are all checked in and waiting at our gate at DFW.. We are on a delay before we head to New York and catch our connection to Accra, Ghana.

Please be in prayer for our group, we are excited to go together!

Brian Bunch
Lake Pointe Student Missions

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Trip Schedule

2011-06-28T09:50:00.002-05:00

Ghana is scheduled for July 27 - August 6, 2011 and will be led by Brian Bunch.

Check back for updates.