Palm Sunday (kind of a religious post)

I have good news and bad news. I will start with the bad news so that I have something good to end with. Bad news: The baby named Ivan died this past week. For those of you who don't remember Ivan was the 6 month old baby with AIDS and malaria. It is hard to understand why these things happen but I am praying about it. I won't say too much more because that pretty much covers it so I will move on to the good news: One of the toddlers I have been watching (Epia) and his baby sister were adopted this past week! It was sad as a volunteer because we didn't know that he was being adopted until he was already gone, so there was no goodbye. But it is so encouraging to see him go to a better place. The great thing is that the family adopted him and his sister together so that they can grow up together.

On a side note- I talked to my 1st pres youth group last night as they started their 30 Hour Famine. This is the first year in a long time that I am not participating and to be honest, it makes me very sad. There is no doubt in my mind that 30 Hour Famine is why I am here. Without the 30 Hour Famine I wouldn't have started to open my eyes, without that I wouldn't have raised money, without that I wouldn't have gone to Zambia, without that I wouldn't have fallen in love with Africa and with serving others. I am so thankful for my experience with the 30 Hour Famine and everything that it has brought to me.

This morning I went to church for the first time since I have been here. I have an unusual host family because they do not attend church (that is very uncommon in Ghana). Since they don't attend church I have found it hard to simply choose any random church to attend. But then two of the older boys, Kwame Mensah (Emmanuel) and Seth invited me to attend their church at the orphanage. Not all of the children attend this church. Some of the kids choose to go outside of the home to attend a church of their denomination (if they had one before they came into the home). I was told that the service started at 7am so I was there at 6:50am. Well, what I have learned is that in Ghana- time does not exist. When I got there I couldn't find anyone dressed for church so I asked around. I was told that church started: shortly, 7:30, 8:30, and around 9:00am. No one officially knows when church starts apparently.

Well the service didn't end up starting until 8:30 and it lasted until 11am. They started with praise and there were people dancing all over the room laughing and screaming and praying. I couldn't help but move my feet and laugh at how different my church's worship is. Then for the sermon the pastor was screaming and yelling and passionate and it was really neat to watch. He had my attention the entire time I really connected with the sermon. It was about the authority that we have from being one with God and why we feel we have to wait for someone to tell us what our calling is. If we feel that we know what we are supposed to be doing then we shouldn't be waiting around hoping that someone will approve of what we want to do. I know that a lot of people reading this e-mail aren't religious so I won't continue but it was a really neat experience. My mood was lifted and I just felt joyful. I am going to take a break from telling about the boys until tomorrow because this is so long to begin with.

My friend Christina goes home today which I am very sad about. She has had stomach problems that they can't figure out so she has to go back to Britain 2 months early. I am about to go to the orphanage to meet some of the boys for their football match (soccer game). I promised them I would attend and cheer them on! This is all for now. Keep e-mailing me. It keeps my spirits up when I am having a rough day!