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hey everyone, this is jeffrey gunter, and this group has had a very exciting week so far, and we're only half done.

well, i am very lonely, because only 4 of our group (myself, will mortenson, shaun, and greg) have remained in accra today while the rest of the group has moved on to a village 3 hours away. we will join them early in the morning.

wow, there is so much to say here, God has done SO many amazing things this week and we look forward to many more. i have so many stories running through my head right now that there is no way i will remember all of them when i get home. we have seen God move in so many ways this week, and everyone, in and out of our group, has felt his presence with us. We thank you so much for all your prayers, and your comments have been very helpful to us as well. every one of us is feeling the effects of the trip, but i can say without a doubt that not a single person in this group has allowed that to get in the way of what they came here to do.

the four of us left in accra spent the day working on the construction of the pole barn children's building for Pastor Odai's church. i must say it is coming on quite nicely; however, our own building skills are not. for some reason every piece of wood one of us tries to cut with a saw suddenly turns to stone and refuses to cut...while the african workers could cut it blindfolded with a bread knife.

It is a completely different world here in africa. we could tell from the minute we got off the plane. it is a completely different experiance to watch videos and look at pictures of people who live off of 3 dollars a day, it is another to spend those days with them. everyone here is amazing. all anyone here does is help others, no one is out for himself. there is so much trust and love between the ghanaian people i only wish that everyone in america could experiance it.

also, there is the small issue of the language barrier. when the people around you finally decide to speak english, you are lucky to make two or three words out of what they are saying. it is a difficult thing to talk slowly, without an accent, and leave out american slang. it is also difficult to play soccer (futbol) with kids who have no problem hitting a 4 foot wide goal with a soccer ball from 20 yards away. in fact, it is hard to play soccer when every single person on the continent is better than you. this includes men walking by in business suits, young children who pick up a stray ball...anyone.

dad, mom, ty and carter i miss you guys so much, i wish you could be here to see all this. i will be home soon. bye!!!

Hey everyone reading at home, This is shaun and someone left the computer out so i thought id do some damage. Didnt read any posts put before mine so sorry if i repeat anything. Me Will Mortensen Jeffery Gunter and Greg Grunewald are the only people here at the hotel right now on account of we went to work at the construction site while the rest headed out on a three hour buss trip to the bush... We will be joining him tomrrow. The construction on the Pole barn is coming very well. Alot of white people not knowing what they are doing + 1 greg mixes suprisingly well with abunch of bossy african workers that enjoy the extra help and company. I am enjoying my time here and learning so much. I want to thank everyone for their prayers. Its kinda weird to drive down the street and have every single person staring at you because they dont EVER see white people running around, but you get used to it. Some things i have learnd thus far:

1 you want a mob start kincking the soccer ball around (obvious)
2 make sure you have extra memory on your phone/camera before giving it out to children.
3 dont throw your toilet paper in the toilet after use (learnt from reading the sign not experiance)
4 give small amounts of sleep aids out at begining of trip. Charge at the end.
5 Setting work gloves on the ground results in them being permently borrowed (took me a whole five minutes to learn that one
6 Balls-O-Chicken are not boneless
7 dont leave your snacks out in the open (i am eating will w's yum yums at this very moment)
8 Hammering nails is harder than it looks (although i, of course, am an expert)
9 Real food is kinda good.

Want to say hey to mom, dad and seth. Hope everythings going well at home. Love you all, see you soon.

Shaun

Wed. night, oh so tired! Things went well today in the bush we've heard. They went equally as well in the capital city of Accra on the construction project. Neither projects are complete, but we will be headed to join the rest of the group early tomorrow. Last night the group gathered fresh supplies of Malaria medication with hopes of seeing as many as 400 children over the next couple days. That's huge considering 1/3 of all children who die in Ghana, do so from Malaria. Pray for the ministry that will continue when we are gone. These people are so genuine. They are working to change their world and are a total inspiration.

Laura, Max, and Sus-I miss you and think about you as I watch these families work and worship together. Love you and am so thankful for the opportunity to come. The children's worship area/ pole barn will literally be a place thousands will meet the Lord!

We love you, goodnight-Greg Grunewald

Evening Greetings from Ghana!

Dancing and singing into the night, we wrapped up our Tuesday. Excellent skits and song with a differnet worship experience will be etched in our memories forever. These people love the Lord and are so passionate about their forgiveness and new life in Christ, that it really helps adjust our perspective. Tomorrow our group splits into two sections, a small construction section will stay with me, and the others will head to the "bush." I fully expect more stories and growth experiences! I will post again tomorrow night hopefully with a report that the new children's building is complete! We will post again Friday night as we will all be in the "bush" Thursday night. Please continue to pray for strength and influence in these communities. We love you all. Greg Grunewald-offical two day blog updater!

Amazing Afternoon

What an amazing afternoon!!! We were trying to upload images(not working at this moment), the kids are practicing their skit. The children from the area came and sat with them and watched them perform. God is Good and truely with us. We will blog again after the Youth service tonight. Please pray for all of those who will participate in song, skit, and testimonies. We will not be able to write much after tonight as we will be traveling into the bush to minister the people in the villages. I can not express how faithful the young men and women on this trip are. They are such a blessing. Thanks again for all of your prayers and support. We will try to upload some more pics before we leave. May God bless you as he is blessing us. - Stephanie

PS - Miss you babe ;-)

Day 3...entry 1

We just finished at the healing service. What a blessing! In the service they offered each team member a gift. They also had one for Lauren. We were very moved. They did not connect immediately that she was the one from our team that had died. Will Mortensen had just talked about her in his testimony. Then Pastor Odai talked about her. But when he called her name, he didn't recognize the name immediately. Then when he did. He held it up, and said "She is here in spirit. We are saving souls for you, Lauren!" We were all very moved. The entire experience was overwhelming. In addtion to Will, Rachel and Julia also shared their testimonies. All 3 of them as well as David (preaching) and Skip did absolutely incredible this morning. All the testimonies flowed into each other seamlessly. God truly controlled everything that happened today. If you could only have seen our students laying hands on people, ministering and praying. You would have been touched in a tremendous way. More tonight. Thank you for your prayers. We begin our "Youth Explosion" in a couple of hours.

2nd Day Bonus Posting....

This day has just had even more amazing things happen. While the group was at the crusade sharing, Steve, Will Watkins, and I (Jason) went with Pastor Odai to do his Monday night radio broadcast. The power of God is amazing. We walked in and before we could sit down were on the air. Pastor Odai shared who we were and that we would be sharing the word with them this evening. He asked Steve to share first, and as he shared about God not condemning us, but giving us life it lead right into what Will shared. With out us ever telling each other what we were going to say it moved as only God could make it. Will continued to share how God would forgive our sins. Will did an amazing job as well. As a side note, our students are some of the most amazing young people, you should be very proud of them. I know that I am. Back to the radio station... After will Pastor asked me to share the word with the people. I shared about Jesus being the only way,truth, and life. After I finished he asked me to lead the people on the radio to accept Jesus.
We then took phone calls and people would call and ask for prayer about things. We prayed for people who were having nightmares about different issues, many of them we life and death matters. We did this hour long radio broadcast that felt like we were there 20 minutes. All that I know really know to say is WOW! what an amazing God.
Tomorrow is a very big day and we really need you to pray for us. At 10:00 am our time (5:00 am at home) we will be doing a Healing service. David is preaching and then we will be taking part in praying for people with needs. I can't even begin to tell you what they might be, because I know I would not even come close to all that there could be. We do really ask that you pray earnestly for our group at that time. Satan is trying to keep these people from knowing Jesus, and we have only just begun to see what is taking place. But as Pastor Odai and we all have seen and know, Jesus is more powerful than anything hear and what a power it is.
Thank you for you prayers and diligence to read these posts. We have read them to the group so keep the posts coming.

Hi HRC,
I really wish you guys were here. We could use so much help! Today we saw patients from 1000 - 1330. During that time we saw and treated about 100 patients, but left several still waiting. Duing the final time, I went to the person that was helping me and told him to bring us all the children and babies. We were able to treat all the children.
Pray for David today. He is PREACHING in the chuch service Tuesday. The topic is healing.
Love you guys and all of my church family
Phyllis

Wish You Were Here!!!

WOW!!! There are no words to describe the amazing day TWO we have had here. So much to say and so little time. We are so blessed and humbled.

Our team split today as most of the fellas stayed to help build the pole barn church and the other went to the square and helped Phyllis and David treat the sick and witness to the people in the square. We treated over 100 people with diseases from malaria to infections and needed to help so many more. They need so much more than we had to give. Our hearts broke as we had to leave and there were still people needing treatment. We are so blessed to have Phyllis and David on this trip with us. They did an amazing job today. Please keep them in your prayers as we will be performing more medical missions on Wednesday and Saturday.

As the people waited for treatment we prayed with them and talked to them about the gospel. A group also had a chance to go to the market and witness to the vendors on the street. The people here are amazingly receptive to listen and hear the word of God. Many of these people have lost their hope in God as they believe God abandoned them. We pray that God will give us his words and his eyes as we speak with them. Although we do not always have enough earthly things to provide, the most amazing gift we can give them is Jesus and the hope we have in him.

This was just the morning.....

In the afternoon we sang with the Children and Amanda taught and amazing story. Kids are the same everywhere full of joy and love and giggles. As we get on and off of the bus, it almost seems as we are rock stars. The children enveloped us with hugs and song and follow us around EVERYWHERE. These children are so precious.

Again tonight we had a Crusade. The passion these people have for God is amazing. We Carol Katlyn and Sara performed a dance and several people gave their testimonies. Adam preached the word of God and did an amazing job. During the day several of our girls also learned an African dance and performed at the Crusade with the African youth(We have video!!!). Dance is involved in pretty much everything. They even play a song and dance up to the front to give their offering.

Tomorrow we will be having a healing service and helping with a Youth Crusade. David is preaching tommorow. Pray that God will speak through his words to these people and that they may no Jesus is the Greatest Healer of all.

Everyone says hello and we miss all of our loved ones. We wish you could have this life changing experience with us!!!

No words or pictures can describe the people and places we have seen and the amazing things that are happening. God is moving in this place and we are thankful that we can be a part of it.

XOXOX to you all!!!!!

PS I will try to write more often but the internet is slow, finicky, and we are so busy!

Day 1 "continued" "continued"

Crusade just ended. Came back ate dinner, now time for bed! Finally! We are sooooo tired.

Great night. Incredible service. It was held at a stage in a very crowded section of Accra where there is much drug use and lots of youth and young adults. So it was an interesting crowd. Several of our kids were involved, with Karol, Beth, and Jeff sharing. Jeff preached and the girls shared their testimonies. At the end about 12 people came forward to give their lives to Jesus Christ.

Praise God!

Keep praying! There is much spiritual warfare here but God is moving. Wow...can't believe that was just one day. Feels like Wednesday...

Day 1 "continued"

We have flown 20 hours and hit the ground running. We arrived at the Hotel Beauty and immediately made our way to the church for the 10 oclock service. Steve preached an inspiring sermon on Phillip and Eunich with only a few hours of sleep no less (read: 3). The kidos even joined the band and sang in front of the entire church. AO (Apostle Odai) is keeping us on our toes. Lunch was from Papaye. Chicken and Rice...and no one sick yet. Keep our health in your prayers. This afternoon we helped with Children's outreach. We are about to leave for our crusade. Pray for us! It begins at 7 GMT. These children are so precious. Their gleeming smiles can't make you do anything, but smile yourself. Tomorrow half of us will be putting on our truth belts and peace shoes on and doing medical mission/street evangelism. The rest of us will be helping build the pole barn. We miss you all and wish you could see all the amazing colors here. I will write more soon!!!

We are here!!!

We will update later :-).

And We Are Off....almost.

Aren't we a good lookin bunch! We have less than 24 hours left until we leave. Thanks everyone for your continued prayers and support as we have prepared for this wonderful journey God is taking us on. We will miss you while we are gone, but will be back soon.

Date of Departure

Get Excited...We are leaving for Accra, Ghana (6,315 mi away from T-town) on July 26th @ 8:40!!! 13 Days to go.