Thank you for your prayers. I was able to complete all the necessary research activities by the end of last week. This trip was an especially busy time in Wa, but the Lord was faithful to bring everything to completion in time. The collaborating researcher and SARI (Savanna Agricultural Research Institute) technicians will complete the remaining work and hopefully send me the final data by January. Then I will be able to focus my efforts on analyzing, interpreting, and explaining what we observed. Thank you for your prayer support for me while I have been away. It has made all the difference. I have experienced more difficulties on this trip than I have in my previous 2 trips to Ghana and I know that had it not been for your prayers I would not have been able to finish in time.

I am currently in Tamale. Though on my way to Accra, I made a stop for a day or so in Tamale to tour the Agricultural college of the University for Development Studies (UDS) that is located near Tamale. I traveled to the campus this afternoon with a recent alumnus who is the former president of local chapter of the National Union of Baptist Students (NUBS). I also met a faculty member working in Animal Science who is a fellow Baptist. He was gracious enough to show me some of the various facilities they have on campus. He even let me use the internet connection in his office to post this blog entry! It was a wonderful opportunity to make some new friends and get a feel for the campus.

I have also visited the campus of the Northern Ghana Baptist Theological Seminary while I have been in Tamale. I spent the night in the dormitory and was even able to sit in on one of their classes this morning. It was a blessing to see pastors equipping themselves for more effective ministry. Two pastors are from towns in the Upper West Region. One of them has been particularly helpful in guiding me around and even preparing dinner for me. I will stay at the seminary again tonight and then catch my bus early tomorrow morning for Accra.

In Accra, I plan to spend Thursday visiting the main offices of the Ghana Baptist Convention (GBC). I hope to meet with Rev. Ofori, the Director of Missions and Evangelism for the GBC, to get a big picture view of mission work in Ghana and specifically in the north. I may also be able to meet with the head of BReADA (Baptist Relief And Development Agency) to find out the kinds development efforts the convention is supporting. I will spend Wednesday and Thursday nights with some friends that Dani and I met in Wa who now live in Accra. They will deliver me to the airport Friday morning and I’ll catch my flight from there to the States. I have begun my journey home, but I still have quite a way to go.

Please pray:
- That the Lord will make my interactions with various GBC leaders mutually beneficial.
- That the Lord will give me perspective on His work in Ghana.
- For traveling mercies as I take the bus to Accra and then fly back to Florida.

I understand that an email went out about my eardrum bursting...it sounds much worse than it actually is...perhaps ‘torn’ is a better term? I have only had minor discomfort and slight hearing loss from it. In fact the only reason I knew that anything was amiss was that I ruptured the same eardrum in high school and am familiar with the symptoms. I am otherwise healthy and doing well (no fever anymore). Nevertheless, I do appreciate the concern and prayers for my health. I am being careful to protect my ear, but please pray for God to prevent any infection from developing as that would greatly complicate things for me.

I have been working diligently on my research and that has not left as much time for ministry activities as I might like. However, I was able to preach at Zinnye Baptist Church on Sunday. It took Pastor Kwame and me about 45 minutes to get to Zinnye from Wa. The road is not any better than the road to Tuasa, but Pastor Kwame’s riding style is a gentler than Sule’s so the ride was not quite so jarring to my body.

After the church service, we went to a church member’s house where we held a combined house and child dedication service. The house had recently been finished and the family had recently had a baby so they wanted to have a special service to celebrate both of the occasions. Pastor Kwame and I tag-teamed on the dedications. I spoke from Psalm 127:1-2 and prayed for God to bless the family and their new house as a place for people to see the word of God put into practice. Pastor Kwame then finished with verses 3-5 and led the group in praying for the new baby. Afterwards as we were preparing to leave for Wa, one of the church members gave me a live rooster. So now I have a rooster staying at Pastor Dan’s house until I decide what to do with it. I think we’ll make some soup with it later this week. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Monday night I was able to join the GGBC youth for their weekly meeting. The youth president, Prosper, had invited me to share a word from the Lord. I spoke from Luke 6:43-45 and encouraged them to be mindful of the influences that they subject themselves to. I challenged them to store up good in their hearts by taking time to pray and read scripture regularly. If they would do so, I assured them that God would make them trees that bear good fruit and thereby honor Him. I often have a hard time knowing when I’m getting through people, but Prosper, Matthew and Philemon thanked me for the message afterwards and reassured me that it had encouraged them. So, even if it only benefited the three of them I guess it was worth it.

I spent all of last week finishing up the interviews I needed in Piisi, the village where I am doing my on-farm research. Interviewing there took much longer than I’d anticipated. It was harder to catch farmers before they left for their farms and even the interviews themselves took longer than I’d anticipated. I finished the last of those interviews on Saturday. This week I am helping the research technicians to harvest the on-farm research plots in Piisi and Nakor. We have finished 7 of 13 so far. If I have time left after those activities are completed I might do a few more interviews in Nakor. I’ll have to see what is feasible. I begin my journey from Wa back to Gainesville on Monday. It’s hard to believe that my time here is almost over. Please pray that the Lord will bless the time I have left so I can complete all I have to do before I return.

My apologies for the long gap in blog posts. I have spent most of the last week being sick or recovering from being sick and have not had much time to get to the internet cafe. Also, the internet has been down for more than a week.


Saturday afternoon a week ago I was privileged to participate in an “Pastor Installation Service.” One of the pastors in the area has recently been ordained (though he’s been serving the church for a couple of years) and the Installation Service is a formal way of churches in the area to recognize the significance of this occasion. They held it at God’s Glory Baptist Church to accommodate the large crowd...even so they ran out of chairs! As with most other church services, there was praying, singing, dancing, preaching, and admonishing in the Lord. At the end of the service, they held a “robing” ceremony in which two other pastors took a robe (similar to the one John Fairless wears occasionally) and put it on the newly ordained pastor.

I’ve never seen anything quite like it and felt honored to participate. Such faithful men and women seeking to bring the Gospel to the Wala people are really

needed here. The workers are few when compared to the harvest that awaits those who will venture to go.

Last Sunday the local chapter of the National Union of Baptist Students (NUBS) joined services with God’s Glory Baptist Church to celebrate their inauguration as an official member chapter. There had been a group of Baptist students meeting for the last five years and had finally grown to the extent that they felt it was time to formally affiliate with NUBS. It was an especially energetic service with so many college students participating. The dancing was so intense at one point that someone broke off part of the sole of his shoe! That evening they held a dinner celebration at which I was a guest of honor. I found this out when I arrived and they seated me at the head table. Although I was a bit disappointed at not being able to sit with my friends, being a guest of honor afforded me the opportunity to offer a few words of wisdom to the group later in the program. I urged the students to take time for spiritual development in the midst of their academic pursuits. Academic preparation might grant them success in a worldly sense, but without a firm foundation of faith they will not be able to handle that success in a way that honors God. I don’t know how many took it to heart, but hopefully it was a helpful reminder to someone.

On Monday I was sick, sick, sick! I registered a fever of 103.6 F along with a laundry list of other unpleasant symptoms. I could barely move. I spent nearly the whole day just lying down at Pastor Dan’s house. Tuesday was incrementally better and by Wednesday evening I felt well enough to make it to prayer meeting. Thursday I spent most of the day resting and by Friday I was mostly back to normal. Needless to say, I did not get much else done during that time. I will say this: there is nothing like severe sickness to make you appreciate how wonderful it feels to be healthy. I have certainly not taken my health for granted these last few days.

On Friday I left with Sule to go to Tuasa for to interview farmers. I was expecting for us to finish about 8 interviews before returning on Saturday evening. Amazingly we were able to finish all 15! The Lord truly multiplied our efforts beyond all that I asked for or imagined. I’m left with interviews to complete in Piisi and Nyagli. I am praying that the Lord will bless the remaining efforts in a similar way. If so, I might even finish things early.

Sunday morning I traveled with Pastor David to Vieri for their church service. It was wonderful to worship with them under the shea tree praising the Lord and praying together. I shared with them from 2 Kings 7, where the 4 lepers deliver Samaria from the Aramean army. I encouraged them that if God could use 4 lepers to defeat a whole army, he can surely use them to spread the gospel in their community. Pastor David added a few of his own words at the end and we closed with prayer. It was simple yet powerful. I’m glad I went.

Please pray:

- For good health for me and those working with me

- That God will grant me favor with the farmers I interview

- That I will have opportunities this week to pray with and encourage other believers here

I can’t believe it’s been a week since I posted last. Well, in the last week, I have been working hard to get my research activities up and running. It has truly been a challenge. Life moves at a more relaxed pace here and you can either adjust to it or be doomed to endless frustration. I have been trying my best to observe cultural norms, but this often slows things down. It is culturally unacceptable to simply arrive, introduce yourself, and start interviewing people. The cultural protocol requires at least one social visit before coming to interview them. So, I have been going to greet the farmers ahead of time to let them know that I am in town and will be coming around to interview them soon. I pray about my work often asking God to bless my efforts so that I’ll be able to complete everything in time. I only have a month left, so I have to make each day count. I finally completed 3 interviews yesterday and hope to complete another 3 today so progress is being made. I certainly feel the pressure of my time constraints, but rather than worry about it I have chosen to keep bringing the matter before the Lord. I know that He has brought me here and as I work diligently He will work it all out as He sees fit.


I have really enjoyed reconnecting with friends from God’s Glory Baptist Church. Several friends’ greetings were especially enthusiastic. One friend grabbed me in a couple of big bear hugs, another ran up to me to hug me, and a third ran up and jumped on me for a hug (like some football players do after a touch down). Fortunately, I was able to catch my balance and hold him up without falling over. Needless to say, I have been received vary warmly. I have even moved out of the guest house where I staying and moved in with a couple of young men from the church. They had space and I did not see the need to be paying for a room when that money could be put to better use through the church. Though my new accommodations are not as fancy as the guest house, the closer fellowship with my brothers in Christ is truly a blessing. I have enjoyed several meals together with them and one friend's family. The picture above is of us enjoying some roasted fresh corn. I couldn’t put my own down long enough for a picture until I’d finished half of it:


I will be heading to the village of Toassa on Friday afternoon. There is a small, but faithful group of believers there and I will have the privilege to offer some words of encouragement to them on Saturday morning. I will also spend some time greeting other people in the village in order to prepare for doing some interviews with farmers there next week. I will be staying overnight in a village for the first time, and I’m pretty excited about it. I’ll have to let you know what it’s like in my next post.

Some Prayer Requests:

- Please pray for my friend Prosper. He started experiencing severe abdominal pain this morning and was not able to go with me to interview farmers. He told me he used to have similar pains periodically when he was a child. Pray for his complete health to be restored that he might be relieved of this pain.

- Please continue to pray for me as I seek to be faithful in completing the research I was sent to do. I have just started interviewing farmers so I have much left to do.

- In the midst of everything else, I want to be attentive to opportunities to serve the Lord and His kingdom here. Pray specifically that the Lord will open my eyes to ways I can encourage His people and participate in His work as I travel to Toassa this weekend.

Touring experiments in Tamale and Wa

Tuesday morning I joined a group of researchers touring some experiments in Nyankpala sponsored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Peanut-Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP). We spent several hours looking at experimental plots and speculating about reasons for what we observed. After leaving the fields, we stopped by SARI headquarters for the senior researchers to resolve some administrative issues. We then ate lunch and left for Wa.

The ride was quite bumpy along some stretches of the road with several potholes 4 feet or more in diameter. We finally arrived in Wa around 9:00pm, but we had to drop off the other researchers at the Upland Hotel so I did not make it to the SARI guest house until close to 10pm. By the time I finished unpacking, setting things up in the room, and getting ready for bed it was nearly 11:30pm and I was exhausted. Fortunately, I now feel much more settled and ready to take on the next few weeks of work. I’m realizing the divinely-inspired foresight of planning to be here 6 weeks instead of 4. It took me one week just to get to Wa!

The rest of the researchers leave tomorrow morning and then begins the real work I was sent here to complete. My next steps will be to select and train my translator on the format of the survey I’m implementing and start arranging for the actual interviews. Once the interviews are done, harvesting activities for my on-farm experiment should be getting into full swing. This is definitely going to be a busy few weeks, so I would genuinely appreciate your prayers for strength and endurance.

I haven’t talked with Pastor Dan about the latest on ministry among the Wala. I suspect that my involvement this trip will mainly consist of encouraging members of God’s Glory Baptist Church and visiting the various village churches when I have time. Pray that God will create opportunities for these interactions and make them fruitful for His kingdom.

The best laid plans...

Things never seem to go as planned when I’m in Ghana. Fortunately I’ve learned to “roll with the punches.”

The bus I was planning to take to Wa left Accra on Saturday and not Friday as I had thought...oops. However, the researcher with whom I am collaborating was planning to travel to Tamale on Sunday morning. (I was to join him in touring some experiments there.) Given that the bus to Wa would arrive around 11pm or later (13+ hours on the bus), it would have been rough to then turn around the next day to travel for another 5+ hours on a very rough road to Tamale. Since the bus to Tamale also left on Saturday, I decided to travel to Tamale directly and meet the researcher there. In any case, I gained an extra day in Accra and was able to visit some friends that Dani and I met in Wa when we were there previously. The food was delicious (as usual) and the fellowship was delightful. It a blessing to see familiar faces when you are far from home.

Saturday was spent traveling to Tamale. The bus ride was fairly uneventful. I mostly read and napped along the way. Nevertheless, I was happy to find the bed waiting for me once we arrived.

Sunday was a good day. The guest house keeper took me to get some breakfast and then another friend from Wa (who happened to be in Tamale) dropped me off at the First Baptist Church of Tamale. I arrived during the second half of the Bible study hour. Everyone was very friendly, and the worship service followed a similar pattern as God’s Glory Baptist Church. The two-hour service was full of joyous singing, enthusiastic dancing, and otherwise worshipping the Lord. Afterwards, a member of the church was kind enough to give me a ride back to my guest house and even helped me pick up some purified water on the way. I spent most of the afternoon reading the Bible and resting. Praise the Lord for a day of reprieve in the midst of all this traveling.

This morning I traveled with a fellow graduate student, Stephen, to the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) headquarters at Nyankpala (map). It was raining, but we were able to catch a ride to the taxi stand with some other researchers staying at the same guest house. Stephen had some business to take care of at SARI and I had wanted to check out the nearby campus of the University for Development Studies, but the rain kept me inside. We are supposed to tour some experiments tomorrow morning and then head for Wa about mid-day. Please pray for good weather and safety as I make the final part of my journey to Wa.

So far so good...

After plenty of long hours on an airplane, I have made it safely to the airport in Accra, Ghana (map). I will have the day to rest a bit and tomorrow morning I will catch the bus to Wa (map). At least that's the plan, I haven't caught a taxi to the bus station or found a hotel yet. I'd appreciate some prayer in that regard.

Assuming all goes according to plan, I'll have a day or so to get settled in Wa before leaving for Tamale (map), a city in the Northern Region. I will be joining a group of researchers touring some experiments supported by the US Agency for International Development through the Peanut Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP). I hope to participate in services with God's Glory Baptist Church on Sunday, but the trip to Tamale may preclude that. Please pray for my safety and opportunities to serve God while I am here for my research.