Hello, praying friends!! I am so sorry that it has taken me this long to blog! Thanks so much for praying during our journey to Africa and back. Today is Tuesday, and we arrived from Ghana at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday. On Saturday, we picked up 2 of the children and tried to rest and get pictures printed for Sunday School the next day. Then on Sunday, we drove to Simcoe to be at Bethel Baptist Church, where we spent the whole day. So now I will take some time to tell you about how things went while in Africa. May I encourage you, that when the Lord places someone in your heart for any amount of time, to PLEASE pray for them at that EXACT moment. They may never know that you did that for them, and that is ok. We do not know what others are going through, and we really DON'T HAVE to know, just pray. There is a reason that the Lord has placed that person on your heart at that exact moment. Having said that, I will proceed to write about our experiences.

When we our plane touched down in Ghana, it was such an exciting, but kind of scary thing. We were being herded to customs, and we (Brendin and I) did not know what to expect. We (I) have the perception to somehow have this GREAT fear for those who are in customs. However, we told them that we were missionaries, and they let us through with no problems at all. It then took some time to locate our luggage, but fortunately, everything was there! What we were to experience next was so scary. First the heat hits you like a brick wall. It was around 8 p.m., and and REALLY dark, and extremely hot and humid. So as we begin walking to the car, we are immediately SURROUNDED with men who "want" to help us with our things. Now the thing is, Pastor Bohmah, a pastor that we know personally said that he hired a team to help us, but we did not know who all was in this team. And we were told to NEVER take your hands off of your bags, and NEVER allow anyone to touch your bags. So the whole way to the car, we are doing our best to keep up with Bro. Arnold and Alan and the rest, which by the way, walk VERY quickly:) But these fellows are constantly IN YOUR FACE, and what they were trying to do was separate us from each other. I don't think they meant any harm; this is what they do to make a living. Well, when we got to the van, we were standing there and waiting, and it just seemed so CHAOTIC. I took my hand off of one of my suitcases for one second, and someone grabbed it and put it in the van. Then he turned to me and said, "A little something for the boys, we helped you." Well, I didn't carry any money with me, and I told him that. But they are very persistent, and would get in our way, making it hard to move forward. Well, after what seemed like hours, (I know in reality it was minutes) we finally jumped in another vehicle and made it to the guesthouse that we would be staying in for 2 nights until we traveled to Benin on Saturday.

So on Saturday, we traveled to Benin. Now, Ghana is on the West, Togo in the middle, and Benin on the East, but those 3 countries are all in a row. And as you reach each border, each person has to fill out a disembarking form for the country that you are leaving, and then walk across the road to the other country, and fill out forms to get a visa. Mind you, we only drove through Togo, but we still had to do all of that paperwork, even to drive through it. Everything was hand written. So they had these big books that looked like old accountants' books, and they had to write ALL of the passport information on each person by HAND. So that took some time. 5 national pastors showed up to help us get through each border. They were truly a blessing. Even Pasteur Jean Baptist who came all the way from Benin was there to meet us. So we get through the Ghana and Togo border, and now we arrive at the Benin border and fill out all the paper work for that country. By this time it was several hours later. There, the border guards are so friendly. However, they would only give us a 48-hour visa each. But they said, go on Monday (this was Saturday) and have it extended. (We had just paid $30 U.S. for a visa.) It won't cost you a thing. So we get to the place where we will be staying for the duration of our stay in Benin, and have a GREAT weekend, and then Monday rolls around. It is a national holiday, and the government offices are closed. So Pasteur Jean says, no problem, we can just go on Tuesday. So it is decided that Pasteur Jean would take all of our passports, and on his way to pick us up on Tuesday, he would stop at the immigration office and have our visas extended. He is the first one there, but the office quickly fills up with white-skinned people. So he realizes why when he speaks to a representative. Who proceeds to tell him that we are in the country illegally because our visa is expired. And by the way this representative already had our passports and would not return them. He continued to tell the pasteur that it would take 2 more days and meeting the mayor and all of these other people and go through a long process to be able to get our visa and passports back. Pasteur Jean explained that we had to leave before that time. So the representative went on to say that there "might be another way". That for I think it was equivalent to $30 U.S., each person, he could speed up the transaction and we would have our passports back that night (This would be on Tuesday night, and we were due to leave on Wed.). He was told to be back at 6 p.m. to pick them up, as they would be ready by then. Well, when he went back that night, they were still not ready, and "by the way, now I need $24 from each person to finish the transaction". Pasteur said, but they ALREADY paid for the transaction! Why do you need more?? The rep. said that now he needed HIS part, for processing it so quickly. So now in total, we spent and extra $84 EACH person just to get our passport back. Hence the W.A.W.A. That means West Africa Wins Again. That whole day was spent in prayer. I just had this funny feeling, and I knew that the Lord would once again have to come to our rescue. I also kept thinking, "How am I going to call our children and let them know that we would not be home for a couple of years because we were in the slammer???" I know that kind of thinking was a bit extreme, but when Pasteur went back at 6, they still weren't ready, and he would need to come back that night. So imagine my relief when he showed up at 8 p.m. with passports in hand! So, other than that one trying time there in Benin, we really enjoyed being there, and seeing Pasteur Jean's heart and getting to know him and his family better, was one of the biggest blessings throughout the WHOLE trip. As a matter of fact, I cried when we had to say good bye to him. I would like to recommend that if you have a real burden to help someone in Africa, would you consider Pastuer Jean Baptist in Benin? He and his family and church people are all so humble, and truly appreciated that we would come and spend some time with them. I am really, really grateful for them. While we were there, we had to hire a driver and a van big enough to hold all of us. And in order to save US some money, the church took care of our gas for us. What a kind gesture!! These people don't have much, and yet they wanted to be a blessing to us. And they were!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day!
Psalm 113:1,2
Love,
Ida