malaria is real

yep. clint got malaria. but no need to freak out. he's on medication and almost better. it's really not much worse than the flu; it's just that in africa it often goes untreated and that's when it gets bad. he'll be fine, but prayers are still very much appreciated. it's hard to believe that we've been here a month. mom, dad, joel, and patrick fly out today and that means half of our group leaves in a week. it's going to be really sad to see everyone go.
we've been so busy the whole time we've been here. we have visited three schools since the last post and two churches. we also went to an orphanage in sunkwaa. the children there had never seen obruni (white people) before. we have worked on the construction of two churches, one in tekyiam and another in srafa. we all fell in love with the tekyiam community. when we would drive through the village to get to the site of the church the children would see us drive past and literally run down the street to greet us. i have a video! it's amazing how even though no one in that village spoke any english we were still able to communicate through love. we sang so many songs. the children especially enjoyed chandler's boom-chicka-boom. we were not able to do much work on the church in tekyiam because one: there was not enough work for all of us and two: it took us a long time to convince ghanaians that these obrunis weren't afraid to get dirty and work hard! construction at srafa is another story altogether. we have worked until we couldn't work any more! our job was to level the floor so that they can pour the foundation. i don't think i can begin to explain how hard it is to shovel and haul in metal bowls enough dirt to add 12 inches to about a 400 square foot area. basically, we moved tens of thousands of pounds of dirt. we did that for at least four hours a day for a week. the work was strenuous, but it was so rewarding to see the results at the end of each day. the srafa community is extremely poor. their main source of income was harvesting coconut, but a fungus killed all the coconut trees so now they are experiencing famine. it was eerie to drive along the dirt road and all the sudden all the trees become just trunks with no tops. so sad.
there is so much need here in ghana. i can't wait to come home and share pictures and stories. also i have to share that God is working through us in so many ways. i have done the light saber skit (camp people know what i'm talking about!) and others have shared bible stories at the schools and four children accepted christ as a result. it's really amazing.
it's exciting to think that we're only halfway through!
love in christ,
chelsea