Moto Photos

Here are a couple of small photos (due to low bandwidth) of me on my bike. I drove all the way to the seminary this afternoon and made it there and back without incident. Now I’m ready to tackle the drive in the morning during rush hour. Praise God!

Labor Day in Ghana

It's Labor Day in the USA. They don't celebrate the occasion in Ghana, but they have their own share of holidays and celebrations. I hope all of you are enjoying a day's rest from your work. Labor Day officially signals the beginning of fall in my mind. I also think the day after Labor Day is when school ought to resume each year (and it should end on Memorial Day).

School does begin for me the day after Labor Day at the Northern Ghana Baptist Theological Seminary (BGBTS) here in Tamale. Tomorrow morning at 8am I will face my first class and we'll get started. I can hardly wait. I went over to the seminary today to meet with Rev. John just to make sure everything is on "go" and it is. I was told I will have 17 students whom I will teach six hours a day on Tues, Thurs. and Fri. There are two classes a day; one from 8-10am followed by chapel from 10-10:30am, and then a second class from 10:30-12:30. That's not too bad of a schedule. I'll know more about it once I actually roll up my sleeves and get started tomorrow, but for now I'm pumped.

So far on my Labor Day, besides visiting the seminary, I have taken another motorbike excursion. I rode for about 20 minutes, got her up to 44 kilometers per hour, dodged a few more goats, and even bought my first petrol (gas) at a nearby station. I only stalled the bike one time today, which is also a first for me. I'll probably go out again later today, barring further rain. It has rained every day I've been here so far. I have a hunch I'm going to get wet plenty of times driving to and from school on my motorbike. That should be invigorating!

Other stuff going on … I watched a great movie on my laptop last night called "Faith Like a Potato" about a Scotsman who becomes a Christian in South Africa. I borrowed the movie from Bob and Bonnie and it's probably not super available back home, but if you ever get the chance to watch it you should. Also a couple from Kentucky, Phillip and Susan Branan arrived at Seed Ministry today. The Branans conduct marriage enrichment and marriage counseling seminars and they will be going around to local churches for the next 3 weeks teaching. They seem like very nice people. I love being with Bob and Bonnie, but it will be nice to have more people around too.

Enjoy your Labor Day and keep us in your prayers even as I pray for all of you.

Teaching

It's Sunday morning in Tamale. The day has dawned cloudy but cool. The birds are singing outside my window and I can hear the thump-thump of drums coming from a nearby church. The congregation there is a singing a chorus called "Naawuni Vela," which means "God is so good." I just love the enthusiastic, full-voiced singing of Ghanaian believers.

My plan for today is to work on my lesson plans some and then go practice riding my motorbike this afternoon. I'm sure the villagers will enjoy watching me stall the bike out in the huge potholes in the road outside the compound again today. I noticed the crowds on the front porches along the road growing yesterday each time I drove down the road. My Dagbani is still not so good, but I'm pretty sure what they were saying so animatedly as they pointed at me was, "Look, here comes that crazy man on the motorbike again ha ha ha!"

I start teaching on Tuesday. I'm excited about that because it's the reason I came, but it has really been a struggle for me preparing to teach. I'm struggling because a) I've never taught school before, and b) I'm concerned about the cultural differences I'm going to encounter in the ways the students are used to being taught. The seminary gave me total freedom as to how I want to structure and teach my two classes (Christian Ethics and Christian Family Life), which I appreciate, but the perfectionist in me is really in full bloom on this one. What I chose to do was go online and look at syllabi different seminary professors published for their classes. Studying these I found a few books that kept coming up repeatedly, so I purchased those books, used, from Amazon. Since then I've been reading the books, mentally arranging the material as to how I would teach it. Honestly, I think I'll feel a whole lot better after meeting my (hopefully) eager students on Tuesday and getting started (like finally taking that first hit of the football season for those of you who might understand that).

I hope you enjoy your Sunday; use it as a day to remember how much God loves you, and give your family a hug. I'll meet you here again tomorrow.

P.S. I have had numerous requests for a photo of my hot new motorbike. I'll get one up soon; uploading photos here is a major ordeal, but I'll do it shortly.

Motorbike Mania!

Well it is official. I am now a biker. I know many of you have always thought of me as the biker type, but it wasn't until this morning that I actually purchased my first motorcycle. Buying the bike was a real experience. Bob Parker, Emmanuel and I drove to 4 or 5 different places around Tamale that sell bikes. Unlike in the states, the salesmen here didn't really push us, or point out features, or anything. They simply stood by politely and answered whatever questions we had. When the actual decision was made to buy, there was only a little bargaining and just like that, it was done. Buying a pair of sunglasses on the streets of Tamale involves more drama, haggling, walking away, etc… than did buying this motorbike. Go figure!

The motorbike itself, for you aficionados, is a cherry red 150 cc Royal model TYGY150. It came with a red helmet that matches the bike, a rain slicker, and a polo shirt all emblazoned with the "Royal" logo (a crown). I am a dude! I have already taken several short rides on the bike today. Each time I ventured further and further out, moving from the unpaved road Seed Ministry is on, to a two-lane paved road, to an even busier two-lane road that locals actually turn into six lanes. Add in assorted goats, sheep, cows, vendors, bicyclists and small children all wandering around in the road and you get the picture of how scary my first cycling experience was in Tamale.

Believe me, the old foreigner with the white face, brand new red bike and helmet putting along at about 10 mph attracted plenty of attention! Hopefully by Tuesday my biking skills will have improved enough that I'll feel comfortable driving the five miles or so to the seminary without causing too much havoc on the streets of Tamale and without endangering too many people or animals.

It's funny, but what was going through my mind today as I drove around was that doing what I was doing is not something I ever imagined in a hundred years that I'd be doing when I accepted God's call to ministry and went to seminary twenty years ago. It's just not something they teach you in seminary. I guess it's like the old hymn says: "God moves in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform."

The Real World

This morning (Friday) I went to a local cell phone company and got a USB modem that allows me to connect to the Internet from Seed Ministry, albeit at dinosaur speed. At least I can check email, publish this blog, and access Google in an emergency. Otherwise, I'll be going to one of the many local Internet Cafés to do more serious Internet work.

Our second major errand of the day, looking for a motorbike to buy so I can get back and forth to school, was postponed because of rain. It is the rainy season here in Ghana, which makes everything a luxuriant green color, but which also makes for frequent flooding and power outages because in Africa the rain, like everything else it seems, is always epic – larger than life. Inconvenience and working harder for even the simplest things in life is just part and parcel of life not only here, but in most developing countries. But as the Bible reminds us, this is the world we must live in, not some fairy-tale world where things never stop working, or break, or go awry.

My trans-Atlantic flight over here reached heights of 41,000 feet. Even yesterday on the short puddle-hop from Accra to Tamale we reached 20,000 feet of altitude. Those of you who have flown before know that when you get up that high the sun is always shining, no matter what's going on down below. The tops of the clouds thousands of feet below you look resemble a soft, beautiful cotton quilt. There's no indication that somewhere below those clouds the chaos of "real life" is happening: stormy weather, flooding, people scrambling for a dollar, foreclosures, sickness…etc….

The good news is, even though we can't stay up there above the clouds for long, God has come to us here on earth. Jesus came and walked among us and even today he is here by his Spirit, living in us. That's the main reason I'm here in Africa; to help as many people as possible grasp this truth. I figure training pastors as I'll be doing multiplies this effort. Sitting here on a rainy afternoon in Africa I can truthfully say there's no place I'd rather be – not even floating thousands of feet above the fray.

Day One

I made it up from Accra to Tamale this morning. I got up at 4am and was at the airport at 4:45 for my 6am flight. The flight takes just over an hour on the little 35-seater prop aircraft. I arrived in a rain shower, and Bob Parker was there to meet me. It was great to see a familiar face! We drove to the compound where Bonnie had a tasty breakfast of homemade waffles and local syrup for us to eat.

I’ve spend most of the day today getting my room all set up just like I like it. I am staying in the same small house in the compound that the family and I stayed in back in July. It seems a bit weird being in there without them, but I am going to have quite a bit of study and preparation time for the classes I’m teaching, so I know the uninterrupted time and space will be good for that.

Tomorrow we’re (Bob and I) going to go into town to shop for a motorbike for me to drive to school every day. If nothing else, the sight of an old geezer like me driving a motorbike through Tamale ought to be good for a laugh or two for the locals. We’re also going to run by the seminary so I can check in with them. I will start teaching on Tuesday.

All in all, it’s been a great first day; hopefully after a good night’s sleep I’ll have more energy to face things tomorrow. I’m reminded of Jesus’ words about taking one day at a time and resting in him. I hope you’ll do the same tomorrow.

Made It!

I made it safely to Accra. It seems like I’ve been up forever – I never went to sleep last night; too excited. At any rate, I’m comfortably ensconced in the Airport View Hotel here in Accra, which is the largest city, and the capital of Ghana. After I touch base with a few folks I’ll be hitting the sack because check-in time for my flight to Tamale in the morning is 4:15am.

Thanks for the prayers thus far, and all the encouragement via Facebook, email and texts. It was great on the 11 hour flight from Atlanta to Accra; I had no one sitting in the seat next to me so I could stretch out and set up a mini-office in my little area. Thank-you God! It was just great. I prayed, read, watched a movie (Avatar), journaled, planned, and enjoyed myself. I got all pumped up on the trans-Atlantic flight, but then when I stepped on the tarmac here in Accra all by my lonesome, I felt a little lonely. I whisked through customs, past all the “officials” in the airport who ask to see your ticket, passport, etc… (the trick is to not make eye contact), and the driver from my hotel was standing there with a sign that said, “Airport View Inn – Welcome Dr. Jackson” – awesome!

The photo above is of me in my room here. It is a very nice room with double beds, a mini-fridge, a flat screen TV, and wireless Internet. Nice. I’m enjoying it while I can. Oh well, more later…getting sleepy now. God Bless You!