Tuesday in Tamale

John and Jordan left at 5:45 am today with our good friends Johnson and Lydia Asare for different destinations in southern Ghana. That makes me the only member of the Discovery team currently in Tamale, and I expect to remain so until the beginning of next week when both of the men in my family hope to return....along with our daughter Leanna. The quiet is palatable, as even the guest house is a bit empty at the moment....and I am looking forward to some focused working time while they are gone, so I can be more available when we are all together again.

The 2011 Discovery team is doing very, very well; we hear from them on Mondays and Thursdays, and they are very diligent about keeping in touch. There is only one team that continues to have significant challenges, as one of the girls has been sick or in recovery since the day after they arrived in their language project 12 days ago. The other lady was also sick; although she is now recovered, she is finding it difficult to engage relationally as well as work wise as the place they are staying at is a bit isolated and (of course) she is helping out with her partners physical needs. This week a conference is taking place close to where they are staying with the group of nationals they went to work with, so please pray as they would like very much to be able to start developing some significant relationships during this time, as well as begin to get involved more in the work. On a similar note, another one of the lady partnerships asked us last night to pray that they would be able to make some lady friends; so far their colleagues have been men, who keep introducing them to other....men! 8-) I gave them an idea of how to meet some ladies....now we are praying that that, or an idea generated from that, will work for them.

Finally, today I was reminded about the prayer request we sent out in our prayer letter before we left; "God, bring me closer to you this trip, no matter what it takes." We wrote that focusing on personal comfort and safety....and while there have been some stretching in that area, I have realized that maybe the way God is stretching me most this trip is via my computer issues. My inability to communicate on our blog or even to answer e-mail as much as I have been able to on my past several Discovery trips has made me sad as I am not able to keep those of you who are praying for us up to date on the teams progress and prayer needs. I have also felt very frustrated that I am unable to respond to encouraging notes sent to us in a timely manner. On the other hand, I have spent time I normally would have on the computer interacting with people face to face instead...and probably succeeding at being present more, which has been something we have been encouraging our team to do as well. Most of the time I have been successful at reminding myself that God is in control and resting in that....and trusting that He will enable me to get done the most important things and the others.....oh well! 8-) I am truly thankful for His grace enabling me to do that....as well as for your prayers!