I have to admit. I was not looking forward to Christmas in Tamale. Already weeks before the 25th kids would pass by my house and ask for gifts like, candy or money. Even some adults would ask me to give them a Christmas gift. I know they are just having fun…but after some time it got old and started to grate on my nerves.
Christmas in Wisconsin is wonderful with my family and snow and food and, you know, all the works. I always think I should be used to being away by now, but I don’t think I will ever get used to it.
I am thankful to be where I am. There are just times, just pokes of “aw, it would be nice to be cold.” or yelling, “quit eating the cookies! You will ruin your appetite for dinner.” or “this is exactly what I wanted for Christmas.” or wearing flannel pajamas. Those little moments, I have learned not to dwell on them and know that there will be a time for that another year.
I was thinking that this Christmas I will just deal with it and get it over with. And then Yvonne came. Yvonne is a colleague of mine from the UK. She had some ideas of things to do, and I followed whatever she did.
She had gone to the Catholic church one year when she lived in Tamale and said they do a nice Christmas Eve service, so we went. It was 4 hours long. But really, it was lovely. And I could feel my heart getting into that Christmas spirit. The Christmas story done with youth was hilarious and very Ghanaian. They put their own spin on what that night could have been like. I think it made all of us think about Jesus coming. The choir sang beautifully and some of the songs were traditional Christmas carols. We rolled out of there after 10 pm but so full in our hearts.
With Yvonne around, I had someone to eat breakfast with and linger around the table. I had someone to watch Christmas movies with. I had someone give me a gift!
I had to go to the hospital and Yvonne came with. We brought some food for Silas and three other patients. Yvonne and I prayed with them. What a joy to do it with someone else!
There is a brand new restaurant in town that is pretty snazzy (spell check doesn’t like this word haha). It was a bit expensive, so we shared a meal, and the portion was so big it was a good thing we shared! Also, Yvonne was interested in the building. She just has a way about her and starts talking to the owner who then let us go and see the kitchen. We were able to greet the chef, who is from Ivory Coast, and we told him we enjoyed the meal. We found out they will be having a pastry shop, coffee shop and even an area that sells gelato ice cream in the future. (For real? In Tamale??) Hanging out with Yvonne, you never know who you will meet or what you will do.
Another day with Yvonne we went to a swimming pool. It had high walls around it and cool blue water. Oh, we felt like we were miles away from our dusty city. It was so lovely to read by the pool and dip in the water to cool off when needed.
Both Yvonne and I were helping with the Youth Conference, so she stayed on until then and Penny flew up from Accra. We arrived in Yendi on the 27th and the conference started on the 28th until the 30th. There were more than 300 youth. Penny talked about “The Gospel” and remaining in Jesus. It was soooooo good. Yvonne spoke about how your work is worship to God; whether you are a student, or having a job, whatever you do should glorify God. Charity spoke on the practicality of the Gospel and being a sponge. You soak up what you are near. If you are around nasty things, you will soak up the smell and when you are squished out it will smell. But if you are soaking up good things, when you are squished it will come out and smell good. She said it a whole lot better than what I just said. Penny ended her talk saying if you are saved you need to be sent. So, I led a time where we put up maps of 10 different countries where there are unreached people and put prayer requests on the walls. They were to go to a country and pray for it. We had handouts also for them to take with.
Side Note—I was just talking with my friend about unreached people groups. There are 19 tribes in Ghana that are unreached. He said, “This is the first I have ever heard of it. Let’s go to those places.” If only more of us would say that.
The conference ended with a question-and-answer time and youth then went back to their cities.
New Year’s Eve is a big deal in Ghana. A new start. A new year for new plans and people want to start it out right with God. I went to a church and enjoyed the singing and the time for sharing what God has done in the year. The pastor shared a good message on being prepared. It could be this year that Jesus comes back, Are you ready? And then they had a prayer time to bring in the new year. It was a nice time, though, my body does not like staying up so late and I did not go to church in the morning. (Please, still be my friend! Don’t judge😊!) I watched an online service and napped throughout the next day.
I had to start thinking about putting my Christmas decorations away and looking at lessons for the next month. I needed to catch up on emails and send out a newsletter. I needed to clean my house since I gave my house helper time off for the holidays. I had some petty petty things that needed to be done and some larger things that needed to be done. I still had Yvonne and sometimes Penny still at my house too. But I never felt stressed. I never felt time-crunched. I never felt “I am done with this holiday”. I just kept at it and went with the flow, and enjoyed every day. Doesn’t that sound lovely?
It really was. I am so thankful! I told Yvonne she can spend every Christmas with me.