29 June Update

Thanks for your prayers and comments regarding John’s travel last week Thursday. The 100 mile distance seems so much farther when traveling by public transport. I left the house at 7:30 am, spent about 4 hours interacting with the Discovery participants in both their work and living environments, talking and praying together and arrived back home in Tamale after 8pm. It was a long day but very successful in that the students seem to now be better adjusted to their new surroundings. We are receiving encouraging reports back from our other discoverers as well from their various locations; the days of short wave radio are now gone and our communication is either cell phone calls or text messages. Every year that we come I notice more ways that technology is changing the way of life throughout Ghana. It’s quite amazing to witness firsthand the effects of globalization. As Leanna put it in a recent phone call; “The Ghana we experienced when we lived here for so many years no longer exists”.
As for prayer requests, we would really appreciate your prayers that we would be able to do what needs to get done while also enjoying our friends and co-workers here. We both continue to feel like we are way behind in everything from putting together our upcoming debrief to lining up trips for 2010. This past weekend we unchained ourselves from our laptops and spent a lot of time reconnecting with people; we wound up eating meals at three different homes and hosting three other sets of visitors as well. We were so happy to be able to spend time with each of them….but now that we’ve spent so much relational energy on others we find ourselves being grouchy with each other. So we would appreciate your prayers for our relationship as well; although we love working together throughout the year, I think the intensity of what we are doing and the close living quarters (1 bedroom in a guest house with a common hall) can make it difficult for us to fully recharge our relational batteries.
Sooo…that’ where we are at today, coming up to the end of June. Thanks so much for your prayers for us and our various Discoverers; we really appreciate them!
Choosing joy in rainy Tamale;
John & Shevawn