Frustrations are not Failures

[Adipoma, VR Ghana.]  The team arrived safely in Accra on Saturday morning and followed our normal routine of going to the market for necessary provisions, checking into the hotel, catching up about our work back home and reminiscing about previous ministry projects together around the world.  After a comfortable day in the new place, an early dinner, we all turned in pretty soon for a great night’s rest.  It seemed like we were just across the street from home.

A small group of our Ghanaian team arrived on Sunday morning to collect us and transport us the 3 hours to our first field assignment of the project.  The roads were good, the weather was comfortable and the hotel here seemed more than adequate.  The place is clean, and spacious.  Everything is going to be great.

Now, let me say at the outset of this next narrative that I know these are nothing more than petty annoyances from a group of spoiled Americans but here is the story:

Within the first hour we discovered that we were temporarily mistaken.  While we were unpacking and settling in for the next week both the electricity and running water was only a distant memory.  Afternoon turned to evening and while the workers at the hotel worked franticly to get a generator up and running the place got warmer and warmer.  It seemed like the warm temperatures rubbed off on us and we all became a bit less enthusiastic about the next two weeks.  Eventually the generator fired up and at least lights and ceiling fans were back in some sort of function.  Dinner was an hour and half behind schedule and once we finished we all turned in for the night and were grateful that the national power grid came back to life and we had A/C in the rooms for the night … or so we thought.   
 
We arose around 3 am to a hot room and had only a dripping of water for a morning shower to prepare for a total of 16 venues this morning.  This project certainly started off in frustration, but it has not been failure.   

The morning today was ushered in by cooler temperatures and cloud cover which made for a much more enjoyable day of preaching.  Upon our return to the hotel the water pressure was really good and the rooms are all cooled by air conditioning.  God has once again displayed His care for us.

The greatest blessing of all is that since Saturday night (when the Ghanaian teams started doing film crusades, and including the work in the schools this morning we have witnessed over 6,000 individuals have the opportunity to hear the Gospel message!  That is certainly not a failure!

Please continue to pray for us to all stay grounded in the grace of God with an awareness and attitude of gratitude for all that He is allowing us to participate in.

We are certainly grateful to have you praying with us.