More of the White's visit

                                            We all enjoyed watching this monkey!












                             We also had a big turtle to observe.




                           All the guys sporting their African shirts.





We went to Cape Coast (90 miles from Accra) and one of the things we did was tour a the Cape Coast Castle. We are at the entrance of the castle.





                          This was a sobering place. Hard to believe the inhumanity!



                                                      Going down into the dungeon.




            This was our guide. he did a good job explaining the events.




                                   The sign reads: Door of no Return




                        Unfortunately, Brady got sick and had to miss part of the activities.





          We felt so sorry for him. Gratefully, he was back to normal the next day.




  Great picture of Kelly and Beau, on the wall of the slave castle, overlooking the Gulf of Guinea.




                                                  Chris and Linda at the Slave Castle




This is the site where the first baptism for our Church took place in Ghana. This is in Cape Coast. Brother Oto Ampiah was  the 15th member baptized. this was in 1978. He was kind enough to be our guide to show us the places that have historical significance in the Church.




             This was the first meetinghouse in Ghana. It is now owned by another church.
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This is the prison where Brother Ampiah, his wife and 6 other members were held for 24 hours during the "Freeze." The freeze was when the government shut down the Church in 1989. It lasted for 18 months. During the freeze, all church doors were locked and the members were forbidden to hold church meetings. However, they were told that they could hold church in their homes. So that's what the Ampiah family was doing when someone complained that the singing was too loud.




This is a picture of the Ampiah family taken in their home. Brother and Sister Ampiah and their son and daughter., with Brandon, Kelly and Beau.




                                                         Another picture of their family.




This is a fun rope bridge built up in the trees in Kakum National Forest near Cape Coast.
It took about 45 minutes to walk the entire bridge. It zig-zagged around in somewhat of a rectangle
                                   







 

We ended up running into a family we know from church. They are here with a job with the America Embassy. We are standing in front of a HUGE tree native to the forest and that area.




                                Our guide is explaining many things inherent to the forest.






All too quickly was time for them to leave. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed every minute.

The White's came to Africa

During the boy's Spring Break the first week of April, Brandon, Kelly, Beau and Brady came to Africa to visit us. What a wonderful few days we had together! The following pictures will show some of the things we did while they were here.


  
Brady found a friend immediately. He was a hit with this woman, who wanted to have a picture taken with him.




This is Isaac explaining his foundation, Street Children's Empowerment Foundation Project. Our Church partnered with this foundation through our welfare services. These people are amazing! They rescue children from the streets and from slavery and bring them here. They provide an education plus take care of their other needs. Their goal is to find their family and reconnect the children with them. Because many of the mothers have no way of taking care of the children, this foundation provides training for them to learn a trade, like baking. This is where the Church steps in. We provide the money for the training and have bought an oven and many other supplies for baking the bread.  Many mothers have learned how to bake bread and now have a business selling bread and can help provide for their family.




                                         This is the brick oven where they bake the bread.





                                                   Getting ready to bake the bread.




These are some of the people who work there. They were very happy to show what they had learned and have their picture taken.




The boys found a friend that wanted to play a little soccer.



                                 Brady and his little buddy




                                   Brady found some more friends!





The boys were a big hit with all the children. They all wanted to shake their hands and take pictures with them.
                     



This was the view from the top floor of the Foundation building.



The boys wanted to donate some of the items they brought from home to the kids at the Foundation. So we went back the next morning. The people there were very happy to receive the jump ropes, bubbles and flip flops.



Brandon and Beau getting the items out of the bags.






               Brady getting a sample of the bread. It was delicious!





Our next stop was the Osu Library, where I volunteer every Wednesday. They got to meet the librarians and get a quick tour.




We went to see how Kente Cloth is made. The weavers are amazing.



They have very crude and simple equipment and work many long hours.




                                      This is a close-up of one of the pieces of the cloth




                        The art of weaving is handed down from generation to generation.

Saying goodbye to more Senior Missionary coupes.

  


These are our dear friends, Doug and Marie Hadley, receiving their wall hanging during our Monday morning devotional. They have been our best friends ever since we arrived. They live in our apartment building and we have done so many things together. Doug and Chris have been walking buddies. They walk every morning at 5:20. They are from Idaho Falls, Id. They have been the Public Affairs Missionaries and have done a fantastic job!






For part of their goodbye speech, they sang "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again." Doug sang part of it in Fanti, which is one of the local languages spoken here. It was lovely and very touching. They asked me to accompany them on the keyboard.





That evening they were honored at our Family Home Evening gathering and presented their Kente cloth neck scarfs.




This is Elder and Sister Spackman being honored by President and Sister Graham, our Temple President and Matron. The Spackman's have been Temple Missionaries. They will be returning to Florida, but spent most of their married life in Minnesota, where Elder Spackman worked at the Mayo Clinic.









Brother and Sister Pothier came here as volunteers with Self-Reliance. They are wonderful people and we became great friends. They worked very hard helping young people find jobs. This is Elder Nash presenting them with their neck scarfs.







                            Bob and Marva Pothier, from Mesa, Az.






John Buah has worked for the Church for 30 years and just recently retired. He is a very special man and deserved all the accolades and tokens of appreciation he received at his retirement celebration. He has been the Welfare Manager for the past several years, but he has held many other positions over the years.  This is Elder Vinson, our Area President,  presenting him with a plaque.




This picture is Francis Kazeh-Anfo, the Area DTA (Director for Temporal Affairs) reading a certificate of appreciation to John and his wife.





                                                Receiving their wall hanging.





This is Chris with our beautiful Esther Abuyeh. She is the legal assistant in the office. She works very closely with all the legal team. She is a dear friend and very competent at her job.




                                                 Esther and Linda.





This gentleman is Ben Markham. He is from Utah and is very good friends with Adaline Matthews, who lived in Louisville years ago. He was here on business and Adaline asked him to look us up while he was in Ghana. We enjoyed meeting him.




Our very good friend, Joseph, with one of his former mission companions and cute, little daughter. He had stopped by the office for a quick visit and Joseph wanted us to meet him.