Sunday with the Winona Team

Packed house at NASS worship!

We got off to a very early start on Sunday morning by heading to the 7 am worship time of the Scripture Union at Nalerigu Secondary School.  This is the only high school here and is a boarding school.  There are about 2000 students living on campus here.  When we met the assistant headmaster, who is Muslim, he told us that we could come to the morning assembly of students but we could not lead a Christian devotional time.  He did say that we were welcome to go to the Christian worship service on Sunday morning, so we did.

When we arrived a few minutes before 7 am, we could already hear the music and singing. As we approached the classroom where they were meeting, some students came to greet us and carried our Bibles for us and helped us find our seat.  There were probably 300 students packed inside the room and overflowing on the porch outside.  It was truly a time of celebratory worship that was partly student-led.  They do have a "patron" who is a school accountant that leads them, as well as a local pastor.  

Evan, Allie and Mikel shared a few songs and Charlie shared scripture and encouraging words as only a Christian headmaster can.  Interestingly, when he was introduced as a headmaster, the students started yelling "Boss, Boss, Boss".  Charlie really liked that!

Cindy and Gifty

Charlie sharing

We had a great time of worship with them, then went out to where they are about to build their own, free-standing chapel.  They said that their room was way too small and sometimes they were not allowed to use it if classes or exams were going on.  It's really just Christian persecution, though.  The school has, however, allowed them to build.  They announced that the next day they would be starting to make the cement blocks and all the students  were invited to help.  We were even invited so we made plans to attend on Monday.

Winona team with some of the Christian students

After the early morning worship service, we then went to First Baptist Nalerigu for their worship service.  Afterwards, we got a sampling of the local "fast food" items and had a Ghanain buffet at home for lunch.

Sunday afternoon we were making plans for the community-wide youth worship event.  It had been well-publicized and we were looking forward to it.  The kids had really been working on the music and it was sounding very good.  When we first got there, there was no one there.  Almost 30 minute after the publicized starting time, a FEW people were there.  People told us that it was just typical of Ghanains to come late and that we should start.  They assured us that more people would come.  Sure enough, as the night progressed, the building gradually got more and more full until it was near capacity of around 200 people.

Charlie shared a message about the parable of the talents and Keenan shared the gospel.  

Afterwards, we had some water, cookies and door prizes (compliments of our friends in Winona).

It was a great night, but we were exhausted after this long day.  

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