God's Plan

God's plan for me today was so much better than I had planned for myself!  This has to be one of the best days so far!!

Let me start back at Friday.  A preacher from the Yendi Church of Christ, Andrews, traveled to Takoradi to visit me and see the school.  I met Andrews this past February when I spent a week in Yendi learning about clinic work here in Ghana.  Yendi is in the Northern Region of Ghana and Andrews traveled about 20 hours straight to visit me.  Yendi is dry and hot most of the time as it is closer to the desert.  He would only be able to spend Friday night here in Takoradi and then travel on to Accra on Saturday morning.  When I was deciding about his hotel reservations, I thought it would be nice for him to see the ocean.  So I booked him one night at the African Beach Resort and me two nights....I decided to take the weekend off.

Andrews was very thankful for the stay at the beach.  He enjoyed sitting at the beach talking about the many marvelous and wonderful things God made for our enjoyment.  I think that it was a very relaxing time for us both.  I took Andrews to the bus station early Saturday morning for his trip to Accra where he will be preaching today.

I, on the other hand, stayed at the resort for the weekend.  I enjoyed my first hot showers since I arrived here in April.   I will tell you that I had almost forgotten how good they felt.  Wow!  I am an expert at the warm bucket bath, but a hot shower is still the very best!

I spent hours at the beach.  Some of the time I was working, some I was just listening to the ocean and relaxing and some I was reading. I got up early both Saturday and Sunday mornings to watch the sun rise over the ocean.  I talked with God, sang praises to him and tried to listen.  It felt so good to feel the light breeze on my face and listen to the sounds of the waves crashing on the rocks and beach.  Watching the tide come in and go out is amazing.

After my Sunday Sunrise Service, I had an enjoyable breakfast and a couple of cups of tea.  I had thought about spending a few more hours at the beach before heading back to the house, but for some reason I decided to leave and go to the school to do some work.  I am thankful to the Lord for that decision.....
As I approached the school, I suddenly remembered that the Village of Whindo has their church service at the school.  As I drove in, I could see they were in the middle of Sunday school.  I decided to go to the kids class and see what they were doing.  They were learning the books of the New Testament in English.

I introduced my myself and we learned to sing the New Testament song.  They did very well, I must say.  Saying "Thessalonians" is a mouthful for them tho.  Their smiles were infectious.  I love the children.  They are so eager to learn.  By the time I left them, they were singing the song by themselves and came to Thank me for joining them.

When church was over, I went into greet the adults.  This church is only about 40 people.  I greeted many of them.  Some of them are students from OAVI.  Today was a wonderful day for the Lord's Kingdom.  Two of the OAVI students and one other student were baptized!  Mary Baidoo and Emmanuel Cudjoe are two of my students.  (Mary is the young girl who I have talked about in the past who had chickenpox.)  I walked with the church the mile or so to the river and the three baptisms were performed.

As we approached the river, they began to sing praises to the Lord and immediately after hearing the confessions and watching the baptisms, they again began to sing Praises.  I was so excited that I had left the hotel early and decided to go to the school.  What a wonderful blessing to be a witness to this beautiful day.  And, you know, there is no way I can believe anything except that God wanted me to be there.  He gave me such a wonderful gift.  The students walked me back to the school even though they live near the river.  This was another one of the best days!!!

Matthew 28:19-20  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

AMEN!

Kicked out of Ghana!

Well I had to face some unpleasant consequences for a mistake with my Visa.  I came into Ghana on a 5 year - multi-entry Visa.  I read all the information about my Visa on the internet and knew that I could enter as many times as I wanted over a 5 year period, but that the total days I could stay could not exceed 365 days.  No problem, right?  Wrong......

Evidently I still have to re-new the Visa every 60 days.  I did not do that.  So when I realized my mistake and went to the immigration office, they told me they would charge me a penalty and renew the Visa.  OK.  How much?  My mistake.....I will pay.  So I paid about $200 in penalty and $100 in renewal fees.  Great.  I will remember next time and do it on time.

NOT SO QUICK......when I went back to pick up my Visa (about 3 weeks later), I found out that they had changed their mind about renewing the Visa and only gave me until October 12th.  I know my mouth dropped to the top of the counter.  I'm like, ok...so now what do I do?  The very polite young immigration officer said "Well you have to leave the country and then you can return and we will start our relationship with you all over".  Uuuuhhhhh, what?  I have to leave the country?  For how long?  (I wanted to say, but what about the "penalty" money you charged me to renew it?)  As it turns out, I only have to leave and I can re-enter the same day if I want.

So the decision is made that I will make a quick trip to Ivory Coast and back.  No Visa is needed to enter that country and then when I return Ghana immigration will re-stamp my Visa and I am good to go for another 60 days.  At the time I found all this out, I only had one week to get this done.  Dan and another church leader, Mike, helped me with arrangements.  Due to the short notice, no one was able to travel with me, so I was introduced to the Ghana bus driver who would make sure I made it through immigration alright.  Then another man who is related to Mike and lives in Ivory Coast would meet me at the station when I arrived.  No probem.  I have traveled lots by myself.

Well, YES,  problems......On Monday, October 10th I was to leave Takoradi at 9am to head for Abidjan, Ivory Coast.  I waited at the bus stop until 1:30pm before the bus left. 

Takoradi is in the middle on the coast above and you can see Abidjan, Ivory Coast to the left.

Since the bus left so late, it will now be after dark when we are in Abidjan.  No worries, I have spoken to Mike and he has informed the person who is meeting me in Abidjan.  For some reason, I am too shy (can you imagine me being shy???) to ask about a bathroom during the bus trip.  For the Africans it is not an issue...they just go anywhere.  I will not do that, so on this particular day I went 14 hours without going to the bathroom.  Good thing I have practised for this.  Being a nurse has given me 20 years of training as we often are too busy for a bathroom break. 

When we arrived at immigration at the border, it was a real treat.  First, please believe me when I tell you that I was never afraid.  The bus driver and the gentleman who sat by me on the bus where very helpful.  However, IF I had those type of tendencies, I might have scared myself to death.  When we exited the bus, an armed guard took our passports.  We were then told to go to this little delapadated building by way of a muddy walkway which had barbed wire fencing on both sides of it.  You won't believe it, but my first thought was "Is this what it was like for the Jews when the Germans were taking them to unknown camps?"  Of course, this is probably nothing like that, but the thought did come to mind.  There were many police and guards with rifles.  I have only seen this many in one place just after 9-11 at the airports.

Anyway, when I first traveled to Africa I was informed that I had to keep the yellow immunization card with my passport.  No problem.  I got all my vaccines before coming here and have always had them together.  However, when immigration took my passport to renew the Visa, they did not want the immunization card, so I had placed it in my room.  I have been in and out of Ghana 3 times over the last year and have never been asked for the record......UNTIL NOW!  I don't have it with me.  They require it.  But never fear, money will buy you anything.  I pay them GHC7 (which is approx. USD$4.75) and I am given a yellow immunization card with my name which states I received three immunizations today......I didn't receive anything!!!  Unbelievable.  So what is the purpose of the yellow card?  Anyway, glad to be back on my way.

Oh, I mentioned that they don't stop for bathrooms, except all natur'l by the roadside.  Did I mention that they don't stop for food either?  I left the house in a hurry this morning and did not eat breakfast....my fault.  Because of the bus delay, I had already drank the water I brought with me prior to departure.  (Glad I didn't have any more, really...)  I had a small pack of crackers with me and that was all that was left.  We arrived at the Abidjan bus station at 9pm.  The hotel at the station is where I am staying and a man greets me when I get off the bus and takes me to my room.  The hotel does NOT have a restaurant.  It is a BARE-BONES kinda place.  I am not going out of the compound to search for food.  I did, however, ask one of the bus attendants to go out and buy me some water.  So I have a couple more crackers and water.

The room has no towels and only one sheet on the mattress of the bed.  BUT, I have an air conditioner!!!  I can deal.  End of first day....not too bad all in all.  I made it safely from point A to point B, managed to wait 14 hours for a bathroom, I have crackers and water and an air conditioner.  What more could a girl want???
Sleep!!

Tuesday.  I am awake by 4am.....the bus depot staff are having a morning church service before work, so I am awakened by the singing and preaching.  At 6:30 I am told the bus will leave at around 9am.  No breakfast, 'cuz their is no restaurant.  I finally board the bus at 9:30 and we leave at 10.  Wow this is pretty much on time for Africa!!!  I still have some water from last night with me for the trip.  At 10:30, we stop on the side of the road for who knows what.  I think the bus driver and his helpers go to breakfast.  We, the passengers, are left sitting on the bus for a little over 30 minutes.  The young man next to me buys some carrots and offers me one.  I am so thankful for it. I wind up eating 2!!  Breakfast of champions!!

Off we go....back through the immigration posts again.  We have to deboard both at the Ivory Coast border and the Ghana border posts.  At the Ghana post, they remove all the luggage from the bus to search it and then re-pack.  This process takes 1.5 hours!  This time, I am a little braver and I notice some ladies who are leaving the bus area, so I follow them and A RESTROOM!!!!!  Whew!  Much better now.

Back on the bus.  At least it is daylight for this trip.  The scenery is nice and I enjoy watching out the window, however, I am tired of being on this bus.  We finally arrive in Takoradi at 7pm.  I get my car and head home.  I arrive home at 7:30 and the first thing I do is.....EAT!!!!  I am hungry!!!

I have definitely learned my lesson about my Visa and will be staying on top of it.  I am now good for another 60 days and you better believe that I have marked in on my calendar a couple of weeks early!!!!!

The rest of this week was busy and I am still trying to catch up on my sleep.  It is so hard to believe that you get more tired from sitting than from actually working.  But I give Thanks to Our Lord, Jesus Christ, for watching over me and guiding me safely through another week.  May he be with you and your family as you walk on your path.  Till next time.......May God Bless and keep you.

HIV/Hep B Clinic

Yesterday, we held a clinic to perform HIV and Hepatitis B screening tests for all the students and staff at OAVI.  I was a bit concerned about how the students would react.  I so wanted a positive outcome.  I chose not to inform them about the screening before hand. So after our morning devotional, I spoke to them about the importance of knowledge and prevention when it comes to their health.  I was so surprised when I informed them of what we were going to do, they actually clapped and were excited.

Volunteers from the area turned out to assist us with this project.  We had 5 other nurses and a pharmacist who assisted us.  We performed 226 HIV screenings, 215 Hep B screenings, administered 175 hepatitis B vaccines and gave out de-wormer to all.  We did identify a hand-full of HIV and about 40 Hep B screenings which will need further testing.  I will be performing follow-up testing for these students soon.

With the help of these volunteers and the orderly participation of the students, the day went very smoothly and was completed in a little less than 4 hours.

This is a picture of all the students gathered for the clinic.

We had the students sign in by department to keep the flow moving in an organizaed fashion.  .

Each person registered and received a number.  After this point, all testing and documentation was performed by number only....no names.  This was for confidentiality.  I will be the only one with access to the names, numbers and results.

As you can see by Lydia's face, the students were excited to have this testing offered for them.

If it was appropriate for them to receive the Hepatitis B vaccine, we administered them.  Of course, this vaccine consists on 3 doses, so we will administer the next doses in November and then March 2012.

After the students completed the testing and received there vaccine, they also received a de-wormer medication.  In Ghana, it is optimal to receive a de-wormer every 3 months.

We had 4 testing stations to help speed up the process.  Each test takes 15 minutes to develop prior to reading.

Of course, there are alway a few who are fearful of receiving shots.  However, we were able to comfort them and no one had any adverse reactions or fainted!

This clinic was successful because of many who donated time and monies.  Many thanks to the nurses and pharmacist who donated their day, to Liberty Movement Organization who donated the HIV testing kits, once again to the pharmacist who donated the Hep B testing kits and my church family in the U.S. who donated money which I used to purchase the vaccines and de-wormer.  God brings us all together to help those who are in need.  Glory be to God.

I Corinthians 12:27-28  Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  And in the church, God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.