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.