Two posts about MP in one week, you ask? Why yes! It's been an amazing week for us here and just an exciting season overall; I can't help but share! After our Blog success early on in the week, we launched Building Hope on Wednesday – a campaign designed to raise the funds needed to build our missionary home on-ground in Ghana. Next summer, we will be sending two missionary couples to live in Ghana where their relationships and interaction there will allow us to be more effective and further our work to bring freedom to the kids still working on Lake Volta.

When I was in Ghana in March, we scoped out and purchased a 10-acre plot in Makongo for such a purpose; since then the land has been surveyed, and architectures are hard at work drawing up plans for the building. Our goal this month is to raise $60,000 to fund the building – a place for the couples to live as well as a place for family and supporters to stay while traveling over. The best part is, we have some incredibly generous people who will be matching every donation made this month up to $30,000.

Check out this video to see the design of the house and meet one of our missionary couples.

Fundraising is going so well, and we are just in awe of those who are supporting and affirming our work in Ghana in big ways. Our hope is that at least 150 families and individuals would get involved and truly share ownership of this home. More info can be found here if you'd like to join our efforts – it's not too late!

Topping the charts of excitement, a small group of us leaves for Ghana in less than three weeks, headed to rescue our first group of kids. We are so pumped about the culmination of this journey, about seeing God restore life for ~25 kids and return to share it all!

What a journey! I honestly try to come up with unique ways to share about trips to Ghana as I'm sure they all run together for those who read along here. But for me, each trip really has been a completely new experience; the food, travel, bucket showers... those all become old hat, but the people and places are ever changing and providing new insight. While I didn't journal as much as usual this trip (shocking, I know) due to the busyness and time spent with the group, there are certainly some events worth recounting. This trip was honestly groundbreaking in so many ways for us at Mercy Project. All that said, a few words to describe trip #5 (Type A, much?!):


First, ADVENTURE. Traveling to Ghana is always an adventure, but this time I feel like it was even more eventful than we bargained for! (Perhaps the 2-hr plane delay in DC should've been the first indication.) We seriously had the best group on this trip; everyone was laid-back, flexible, and so positive. Our crew of 18 arrived in Ghana on Friday and drove to Kumasi for the evening. Saturday was spent finishing out the drive to Yeji. Driving in Ghana is quite... nerve-wracking? scary? suicidal? Let's suffice to say we were glad to arrive and start our time out on the lake.

The countryside is oh-so-beautiful though. Here's a glimpse: (I had fits getting the video to upload, so just trust that it's a lot better quality than it appears! You can also click on the images for a larger look.) 

We spent time in Adovepke, allowing our group to experience village life and our Ghanaian friends time to adjust to having 17 O'bruni's traipsing through their space. Work on the fish cages began, and Chris and I started interviewing trafficked children with Fred's help.

We visited Makongo, where our group got to see the land we bought for the missionary/guest house... and Chris bought a cow. That's right. And not just any cow, but the scrawniest, most pathetic bovine you've ever seen.

The next morning, we returned to join a tribal celebration inducting Chris as an official Sub-Chief of Makongo. If that's not legit adventure, I don't know what is. I should also mention here that the ceremony included the slaughter of aforementioned cow (6" dagger, Ghost-in-the-Darkness-style), tribal dress, the Makongo village warrior shooting a rifle (and wearing baseball cleats), and lots of drumming and dancing. Those people know how to throw a party!

The drummers and many, many children led us parade-style down to the boat while the villagers lined the streets to get a view of the new Sub-Chief. And the children ran around carrying chunks of meat from the slaughtered cow. All before 11am. Adventure.