...its not even june yet...:)

Hello friends. Katie Heckel here!! :) We have completed over a week of time here in Ghana and we have already completed so much. We wrapped last week up with spending time at one of the orphanages here in Winnaba. We fell in love with the children at the orphanage and got to spend a lot of time with them playing games, teaching them songs, and leading devotions. Emily and Chad actually got to go in to their classroom and help with school while the rest of us cleaned around the orphanage. It was a great experience.

I want to tell you about this weekend. We went on a medical mission trip to one of the villages in Winnaba. A doctor, a pharmasist, and some nurses came with us to help pass out medicine. Chelsea, Haley, and Paul got to help out a lot with the medicine while the rest of us played with the children. The children were beautiful. We had no set plan when we went into the village, but it was all in God's hand. All they wanted from us was their attention. We taught them a lot of songs. (we even had the guitar so Clint and I lead some worship which was great. They loved Boom chicka boom, pharoh pharoh, and the princess pat.) We also played games with them. There were so many kids. They were so loving and they knew so many songs about their God, which is so encouraging. What an honor it was to get to go to a village that had nothing, where the kids probably only owned two to three pairs of clothes, families sharing a one room house, not having enough clean water to drink, not having enough food to eat, but its like the children had no idea they were suffering from anything. We are so spoiled in America. It was such a humbling experience and I am so grateful that God lead us to that village. It was a successful day.

On sunday we all went to church. The group split into two church groups. One group went to the church where John Garrott had been preaching at. Chelsea even stood up and spoke to the congregation. (earlier that week, Clint and I played guitar and lead worship: Trading my sorrows and Pour out your spirit--they seemed to like it) The other group went to a church about an hour away. I've never seen poverty like I did at that village. Wow. I wish i could describe to you all of their needs, but let me try to give you a picture. Driving in to the town, all the trees were dead because of a fungus, the church is falling down. There is no roof. The houses are mud huts. The roof of the houses are built out of hay. Some children had barely any clothes on. (Oh this christian church is located in the middle of a muslim community--we saw about 3 mosques driving in to that one village.) Gary lead the church there and i've never been so encouarged before in my life. These people love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind. When we presented them with a gift, they were so grateful that they started rejoicing through song. Their faces--I can not describe to you their love. :) Getting to serve them was such a humbling experience. During the service, we got to pray individually over some of the people. They also prayed in their language and I wish i could explain to you the love i felt, but it is something you would have to feel for yourself.

(Tomorrow, we are going back to this village to help rebuild their church.)

On Monday, it was a special holiday for the people of Ghana so our team went to the beach and let me tell you...that was a funny experience. We got to the beach and layed our towels down, and saw that there were children playing in the water...the only thing was...the children were not dressed. They became so fascinated with us and our white skin and freckles (which they called pimples-haha) that they surrounded us. Remember, they were not dressed: boys and girls, ten years and younger. There were probably 25 of them. HAA--what an experience!! haha!! I'm not going to say anything else about that except that it was a relaxing time on the beach once we moved locations away from the kids....haa...but Charla got to have a really good convo with one of the kids about Jesus so it was worth it---haha...

Well, to all my friends and family, I bid you my farewell for now. We love you all and appreicate your prayers. Continue to pray for God to move in the hearts of Ghana people. Please pray for strength for us and that we will continue to stay well--we're trying to watch out for malaria and those parasites (that my mom is scared about us getting--haha--don't worry mom, we're in God's hands...)

LOVE YALL
Hebrews 12:1-2

We made it

We made it safe and sound and despite not being able to sleep it was not that bad. Chelsea was the only one who slept much.

Ghana is much more beautiful than I could have known. Poverty is seen everywhere though it is set among landscapes more beautiful than anything in the US. Despite being very poor everyone is very friendly, they all want to use their english with Americans. Everyone knows english but people mostly use one of the many native languages. We have learned a few words in Twi ( the main language but there are several more).

The hotel we are at in Winneba Lagoon Lodge is great, but it has no air. It is not so bad though because it is set on a lagoon that is from the Atlantic Ocean. We took the short walk to the ocean on Tuesday and it was amazing. I had never seen the Atlantic. We saw migrant fishermen villages and took some pictures with the children there. They were very interested in the white people. Mathais wants to start doing missions among these people soon. Though most of Ghana is Christian, this group is mostly unreached.

Today we went to visit our first orphanage. We did not stay long the day was just to get oriented. We will help out with work there in the morning and work with the kids in the afternoon. They have school in the morning. It is 5 first grade kids and one girl not in school yet. The orphanage wants to have more kids and can hold 50 but they do not currently have the funds. We hope that some of you at home may want to help this cause. It is very worthy. They have no electricty or a car to transport the children if there is an emergancy. The facilities are beautiful and very well kept though.

We have had some funny stories. My favorite is Katie getting asked for a kiss and a bit more from a boy on the side of the road. We don't feel sorry for her though because she did wave at him.

I am doing well. The food is great and it is hot but not too bad. The rest of the group feels the same way. We are all really ready to get to work tomorrow. We are a bit restless now that we have been here a few days.

Please be praying for us and send this link to people who may not know about it.
I love you all
Charla

here we go...

hello friends!
the day has finally arrived. the team is arriving at our house in jackson at 1:00 today for our flight from jackson at 4:25. we have a long day ahead of us. our flight schedule is jackson to memphis (depart. 4:25 p.m. May 18), memphis to amsterdam (depart. 7:20 p.m.), and amsterdam to accra, ghana (depart 1:40 p.m. May 19). We will be on Northwest/KLM Airlines, and we appreciate your prayers as we travel.
expect a new blog soon after we arrive in accra from other members of the team.
love in christ,
chelsea