Thanks Joanne and the Grade 6 class!

We were thrilled to learn that Joanne Kroezen had offered to use our mission to Ghana as a study unit in her grade 6 class! At a recent student assembly we were able to see what the students spent learning about over the previous two weeks in class. They studied the geography, history, culture, and food of the Ghanaian people and shared their findings with us all. It was very interesting, and their visual displays were fantastic. Thanks Grade 6!!!

Over the past two months we have been collecting school supplies for the school children in and around the town of Asamankese. We have two large rain barrels, and we have placed one in the Halton Hills Christian School and another in the Georgetown CRC, and are using them to store our supplies. This weekend we'll be packing and sealing the barrels and bringing them to a shipping depot in Toronto so that they can be loaded onto a boat and sent to Ghana ahead of us.

This Saturday we will have a table set up at the HHCS where we'll be meeting our supporters and sharing about our mission. We'll also be offering our Ghana prayer bracelets to our supporters.

See you there!

Hardships and Blessings

The past few weeks have been very eventful for the team in both good ways, and otherwise. The team was shocked and saddened at learning of a sudden accident that took the life of our friend and team member, Dave Westerveld. Dave was a core team member, and truly had a heart for missions. He had been on many short term mission trips in the past, and had been involved in missions since the early 90s. At first we as a team we wondered how could we go on, but we do go on - not in our own strength, but in the strength of the One who calls us, and with the support of our friends and families.

In that way the team is so thankful for the support of our community after our hugely successful fundraising dinner this past weekend. With the help of Carel VanderSluis, and his team of chefs we were able to serve a traditional Ghanaian dinner to more than 200 guests in Georgetown on Saturday night. This included a silent auction with donations from many very generous supporters. Thank you all!

We are also thankful to announce that we have added two new team members: John DeVries and Allison Norg. Welcome to you both.

Our preparations continue now that our major fundraising is complete. We will focus on getting healthy, and on receiving our Yellow Fever vaccinations. We will also continue to focus on our spiritual health, and will pray that the Lord will prepare us to be effective in reaching out to those we meet as we share about this mission.

Please pray for our team, and for the members individually. Take time to offer words of encouragement, and share a piece of scripture if something speaks to you.

Thanks to you all... stay posted for further entries - I will try to update the blog weekly.

On behalf of the Georgetown Ghana Team

John Blaauwendraat