Ghana: City of Refuge

    Our main ministry while in Ghana was with an orphanage called City of Refuge (or C.O.R. for short). Three days a week we would make the hour-long, bumpy journey to C.O.R.. What exactly we did there looked different as we were there longer and as we adjusted to how we could be most helpful. At first, we were there while the kids were still on Christmas break (their Christmas break lasted until the middle of January); so, we spent pretty much the entire time of our day there (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) just hanging out with the kids. We would play football (soccer) with them, play basketball with them, organize activities for them, eat lunch with them, and really just try to be there for them. This went on until the time school started, at which we were planning to start helping out at the school that was on the C.O.R property. However, once we started helping out at the school, we realized that our time was not being best used there, because we were actually less help at the school than we thought we’d be. So we again adjusted to how we could help the most. Thus, we started coming an hour before school ended to help with a little bit of the practical work that needed to be done around the school (organizing books, etc.); then, once the non-C.O.R. kids left, we would help with homework and then play games with kids.

     This was probably the favorite ministry we did in Ghana. Even in the relatively short time we were there, we were able to build some awesome relationships with the kids. I personally got close to a boy named D.K. He and I spent several hours a day playing basketball together and I would occasionally break out my mad math skills to help him with his 6^th-grade math homework. One thing that surprised all of us was what a passion for Christ all the kids had at such a young age. The couple that ran the orphanage and the couple that acted as the “mom and dad” for the orphanage were amazing, and their love for the kids was so evident.  As it often is in ministry, you go expecting to just bless others, but end up getting blessed yourself.

     Just to tell you a bit about what  C.O.R. does exactly, I’ll elaborate a bit on what I had said before we left for Ghana. Essentially, C.O.R. works rescuing kids out of the Volta region in Ghana. Child trafficking is fairly common in that area, as parents will end up selling their children to the fishermen who work Lake Volta. C.O.R works raising awareness for child trafficking, and also takes it upon themselves to get as many kids out of the hands of the fishermen as possible. Working the lake is extremely dangerous for anyone, but these kids are forced to work as young as the age of 6 years old. The conditions are horrible and the children are treated as no more than property. To rescue a child, C.O.R. would start by tracking down the parents of a child and getting their permission to take the kids away from the fishermen and put them in school; then, the rest would be dealing with the fishermen trying to get permission to rescue  the kids, paying them if necessary. Once at C.O.R, depending on the age of the child, they would either try to find a family to adopt the child, or just plan on raising them themselves at the orphanage/school. That is just a rough summery of what C.O.R.’s mission was; to see more about what they do I would REALLY encourage you to check at their website at http://www.cityofrefugeoutreach.com/

    One other story from C.O.R I wanted share was just once really unexpected ministry opportunity. In our second week of working at C.O.R another team of college students came from Cornell University in New York, who were there as a required part of their degree. In just saying hi to some fellow Americans we were able to say who we were, why were there, and some about what YWAM was. One of the Cornell students, Michelle, was really interested in what we were saying. As the week went on, we were being a bit more intentional about ministering to their team, and by the end of the week Michelle was getting all of our contact info so she could continue to ask us questions about some of the discussions we had had. Apparently her dad was Catholic, but it was more of just a thing to do with family religion and tradition rather than relationship with God. It was just another way you have to always be ready to minister to others, because you never know who God is going to bring your way.

    Tuesday, February 7 was our last day, and it was a hard day indeed, but also quite awesome. Again, we were blessed by the kids when they prayed for us after we had prayed for them. Hugs and little gifts were exchanged. D.K. gave me a necklace that is currently tied to my guitar neck, reminding me of how much I loved working at City of Refuge. I spent my last 20 minutes at C.O.R. doing the same thing I had spent most of my time there doing, shooting some hoops with D.K.,then I got on the bus to say goodbye to the one, the only, City of Refuge.

Leicester (December 18th-28th)

      On December 18^th the team jumped on a van to jump on a bus to jump off a bus in Leicester. The work we were to do in Leicester revolved mainly around ministry to the homeless and the underprivileged. Upon arriving, we were greeted by a couple named Paul and Vicki, who were the heads of a ministry called Open Hands. From the bus station, we went off to the building that Open Hands was run out of. There, after a lovely dinner of jacket potatoes, we sat with and met the rest of the Open Hands staff. As we went over what the week’s schedule would be looking like, the reality of, “Holy cow, were actually on outreach!” was just starting to set in. At the end of the evening we headed off to the different homes in which we were staying. Our team was divided between four different host-homes, with two or three people at each house, and at each house we were greeted with amazing hospitality. After a long day of traveling and meeting new people, it was great to be able to sit down on a bed, take a deep breath, and get some much needed rest to prepare for the rest of the week.

    Starting up the next day, we were back at Open Hands helping to get stuff organized for the opening of the second-hand charity shop. I was personally working in a very unorganized kitchen, using my slightly OCD-ness to put some order to a fair amount of chaos. My focus on moving plates/bowls, separating silverware, and organizing various kinds of hot-drink mixes was occasionally broken by Dean-Dallas, our fearless outreach leader, doing a dance across the room. That morning, there were shelves being raised, clothes being sorted, and a general readying of stuff for the people who were to come to the second-hand shop. Open Hands, in this stage, was essentially a free Goodwill store, plus a place to get a free cup of tea, coffee, or hot-chocolate. Once the “guests” came we served them drinks and socialized with them as they waited their turn to go through the shop. It was pretty cool to talk to people and to hear their stories, and it is gosh darn amazing how much people love the opportunity to simply be listened to.  Personally, just socializing and getting a chance to “pick” people’s brains, is one of my favorite things to do, so I thoroughly enjoyed this part of working with Open Hands.

    Also working with Open Hands, we made a full Christmas meal for the homeless people in the area. I quickly became an expert at piecing together what the English call a “pig on horseback”( a.k.a sausage mixed with stuffing, wrapped in bacon). Fortunately or unfortunately, as the case may be, I did not get to eat any of my “pigs on horseback” due to the fact that the 108 people we served ate them all. This dinner was essentially the last of the work we did with Open hands, but we had much more ministry to come.

    On the third or fourth-ish day (my memory is being put to the test by how late I am writing this blog), we did some street evangelism. Having done some street evangelism before in London, I was not too uncomfortable with the idea; however, this time MANY comfort zones were pushed to new levels.  In London we had simply started conversations with people through surveys, offering free hot chocolate, and generally being friendly; in Leicester we found ourselves with a group of……enthusiastic……elderly women who were quite literally blowing horns and waving flags in Leicester’s town center.  Despite some new and uncomfortable situations, we were still able to get into some good conversations with people, simply sharing a little bit about why we were there and what we believed.

    The rest, and actually the main part, of what we did in Leicester was with “The Bridge” ministry. The Bridge was a homeless shelter only open during the Christmas/New Years holiday season. Essentially, the bridge gave people a place to stay for the night and 3 warm meals a day to those in need of it. We worked out of a Salvation Army building which had a capacity for about twenty guests. (Meaning there was a room big enough to fit twenty cots in). To be allowed to stay at The Bridge center, the guests had to be referenced by another nearby charity. This was to control numbers and to be careful we weren’t allowing any dangerous criminals in the center or anything like that. We helped make meals, socialized with the guests, and every night two people from our team would stay the night at The Bridge to keep the guests company and keep some level of control among the potentially drunk, potentially high, (potentially both) guests

     We took a day off for Christmas to go to North Hampton, one of our staff, Matt, was from North Hampton so we spent Christmas with his family. It was hard to be away from home and family on Christmas, but being with somebody’s family did help the homesickness. Christmas day involved a small gift exchange between us trainees (I got a much needed guitar strap!), a full English meal, and some fun times just playing games with Matt’s immediate and extened family. Again, the hospitality we experienced amazed us as we felt included in a family’s little Christmas in the beautiful rolling hills of the English countryside.

    We went back to Leicester early on the 26^th and continued ministry that afternoon; then, that evening was my night to stay over at The Bridge. We had ministry only in the morning on the 27^th (cooking and serving breakfast at The Bridge), and on the 28^th we said goodbye to our awesome hosts and to Leicester to head back to Harpenden. Back on the Oval, we had a little over 24 hours to laundry and catch up on sleep before, on the evening of the 29^th, we left for the one, the only, Ghana….

Two Announcements

Hi all,

      Well, we got back from Ghana Tuesday night, after another long day and a half of traveling. We were the first outreach team back, and since then the other outreach teams have been arriving one by one. It has been so awesome seeing everyone from the DTS again, after not seeing them for over two months.

     Monday will start our week of debriefing, during which will be doing different stuff to reflect on what has gone on during DTS. Then, a week from Tuesday (on February the 28^th) we graduate.

     Over the next couple of days I will be posting more about the different things we were involved in, in Ghana; so keep your eyes open for several new posts coming your way.

     I can’t thank you enough for your prayers over the course of the past 2 months. Our time in Ghana was really amazing and will never be forgotten.

     Lastly, (for now) I wanted to briefly let you know about an opportunity God has given me. Recently, something that was just a possible opportunity has been confirmed as a plan for the time immediately after my graduation. One thing that has been on my heart a lot since I have been in England and in Ghana, has been my passion for music. I frequently found myself wondering what to do with this growing passion, and after several weeks of thinking, praying, and being prayed for, it was becoming more clear I needed to talk to someone who shared this passion and had done something with it.  That someone, or someones, ended up being a band called Evergreen. Evergreen is band that lives and has a recording studio on the YWAM base here in Harpenden; their passion is music and sharing the love of God through music. After multiple people suggested that I talk to them, I finally pulled aside one of their guys, Andy, and asked if we could talk for a little. I presented to him an array of questions from, “How does one balance a passion for music with a passion for serving through music?” to, “What does it look like to try to sustain relationships when living a life tied around the music industry?” As I asked these and several other questions, Andy was chuckling because these were apparently the exact same questions he was wrestling with two years prior. At the end of the conversation Andy brought up an idea that would eventually become the opportunity which I mentioned earlier. He suggested that I pray about staying on with them (Evergreen) for a month or two after my DTS ended to get a feel of what they do and why they do it. They would do their best to not only show me what they do, but also to mentor me along the way.

      Since this discussion I have prayed into it a lot and really feel that this is an opportunity God wants me to take. It will give me a chance to see what using the music industry as a ministry really looks like, and it will give an opportunity to hang out with and be mentored by some awesome guys. Also since the discussion I had with Andy, God has provide me with the previously not-to-be-seen funds to stay the extra time.

    It is super hard, if not dang-near impossible, to overstate how excited I am about this. I think it will be great for getting continued guidance on what I think I will continue to after DTS and university. I would REALLY APPRCIATE prayer for this though. A lot of the details have been figured out already, but there is still a fair amount of little details to get organized.

Again, thank you so much for your support. I hope you will look forward to seeing what I post over the next couple of days about our time in Leicester and Ghana.

God bless,

Will Clegg