We had some incredible experiences this past weekend. First we had a meeting with some village chiefs. We felt a little like we were living in a national geographic magazine. The village is helping us and partnering with our organization for the betterment of the children. We arrived during a local funeral so we had to wait a while before the ceremony ended and everyone gathered for the meeting. We entered one of the chiefs’ households and sat in a circle in the courtyard waiting for everyone to arrive. This particular village had eight chiefs. Their carved stools sat royally along the back wall and were slowly filled with elegantly dressed men wrapped African-toga-style in yards of shimmery cloth, traditional hats, beaded necklaces, bracelets and embellished sandals. They carried canes with animal carvings and had a very formal process to discussing our purpose. There was an assembly man, a spokesman, a liaison/translator and about 10 other bystanders who I’m guessing were influential men in the community. We felt so vulnerable and tried not to make any wrong moves or offend anyone. Mostly we just listened to a lot of talking (which we didn’t understand), smiled, nodded, said thank you very much, and tried to remember every detail of what was happening.
Then on Monday we took the worst road in the entire world for nine hours straight up to Lake Volta and met with some indigenous leaders to discuss our vision, values and purpose. We made some great connections and saw a bit more of what Ghana is all about. We visited a beautiful village and the people were exceptionally friendly and kind. We spoke with a few fishermen and local chiefs about the issue of child trafficking and child labor. We spent the day there and drove back the same day (almost a 24 hour trip). Our driver had apparently booked two jobs at the same time so he was desperate to get back and his boss kept calling to see how close (far) he was. The minivan we took had no shocks and we were sitting in the back on a dirt road after a long rainy season. It was pretty much like placing speed bumps every two feet for a thousand miles and then driving as fast as possible over them for eight hours. Needless to say there has been some discussion of a visit to a chiropractor when we get back. It was hands down the worst road I’ve ever been on in my life. There was absolutely no sleeping on that trip. We tried hard to keep our sense of humor about the situation, but that can only last for so many hours before the pain gets the better of your attitude. We sped through villages at unbelievable speeds and disrupted any peace they had. We ran over a tiny goat (smaller than a cat) thankfully it was shorter than our bus so it was just knocked over by the wind and shock and we saw it climbing to its feet behind us. By God’s grace no one was killed on that drive.

We’ve received a lot of sobering news recently and things have quickly changed to reveal the truth about many of the people we are partnering with here. The sad truth is that many are motivated by money and ego more than the welfare of the children. We are trying not to allow this kind of thinking or anger at this take over as we strive to give the kids the best we can. We are doing our best to stay encouraged despite a lot of discouraging events. We are also surrounded by some incredibly honest, hopeful and virtuous Ghanaians and westerners who are willing to take a stand for truth no matter what it may cost them. We’re hoping to resolve some issues and move forward with new confidence, motivation and a secure foundation. Please pray.

Henri Nouwen has come through for me again with this insight from “In the Name of Jesus”:
“When members of a community of faith cannot truly know and love their shepherd, shepherding quickly becomes a subtle way of exercising power over others and begins to show authoritarian and dictatorial traits. The world in which we live – a world of efficiency and control – has no models to offer to those who want to be shepherds in the way Jesus was a shepherd. Even the so-called “helping professions” have been so thoroughly secularized that mutuality can only be seen as a weakness and a dangerous form of role confusion. The leadership about which Jesus speaks is of a radically different kind from the leadership offered by the world. It is a servant leadership – to use Robert Greenleaf’s term – in which the leader is a vulnerable servant who needs the people as much as they need their leader.
From this it is clear that a whole new type of leadership is asked for in the church of tomorrow, a leadership that is not modeled on the power games of the world, but on the servant-leader Jesus, who came to give his life for the salvation of many.”