A Wedding & A Funeral

I haven’t been to Accra since November. I went down with Doug and Heather who are missionaries a few hours north of me. It was so nice to be in a car and not driving by myself. We arrived in Accra on June 1 and was immediately swept up by the busy-busy of life in Accra. I also had mixed feelings. When we were getting into the city, I felt a sense of relief. I think the relief was because I knew Accra and I was comfortable here. I know the short cuts, I know the shops, I know where my friends are (I have friends here!). On the other hand, I knew I would be expected to visit and greet more than I had time for and I knew I would be stuck in traffic a lot.I came down to Accra for my friend Emmanuel’s wedding. He is a whole story in itself but in a nutshell… he and I have been friends for many years. He was a youth leader in the Accra Good News Churches and then became the Youth President. Since I worked with many of the leaders we were often together. I did not like him at first. His way of doing things really grated on me. I started praying that I would love him and God answered that. We became great friends. We still argued and fought a lot but at the end of the day there were no hard feelings.His wedding started only an hour late. I think that is pretty good for Ghana standards. It seemed long, well, because, it was J. One thing I love in Ghana is the revealing of the Bride. The pastor asks the Groom to unveil the Bride to make sure she is the right one. They don’t want to have a situation like Rachel and Leah in the book of Genesis J. So, the Groom sl.ow.ly, very sl.ow.ly. rolls up the veil. Sometimes he will even turn to his best man, who will then wipe the sweat off his palms and then continue to roll it up until he can see her face and drop the veil behind her. Some guys can really play it up and the crowd just hoots and hollers. I love it. After the wedding, they had the reception outside at another church. It was really nice. They served food, danced, took pics, cut the cake and did all the other things that we do in the West at our weddings. (They do have a traditional service but they performed that the weekend before.) It was so nice to see all my friends at this wedding! What a great way to catch up with everyone without having to go and greet them at their various places. Some of the youth I worked with are married and have kids.
All in all, a tiring but good week. I think I was expecting that. Gotta get back into my language brain! Thanks for praying. Love you.