April 25, 2007
March 2007 - Ghana Mission Trip Program
Communities of Faith for Ghana
Steve and Kathy Poston and Mindy Hunter - April 25, 2007
Local community members, Steve Poston, Kathy Poston and Mindy Hunter, presented the program for the Attica-Williamsport Rotary Club on April 25th. In March of this year, the three adults took a team of nine members to Ghana West Africa for a mission trip.
Steve Poston became aware of the country of Ghana when he enrolled into a Lay Pastor program through his denomination in 2004. A chance roommate assignment led to a friendship with a Ghanaian man who likewise, wished to become a Lay Pastor for his church in Chicago. Two years later, both men graduated from their educational program and the seeds of friendship developed into a vision to travel to Ghana and explore the mission opportunities available there.
With five adults and four teenagers, the mission team embarked on their adventure to Africa to see what Ghana had to offer in ways of missions. The team traveled to three specific areas of Ghana: Accra, Akropong and Kumasi. Quickly, the team learned that all of Ghana is a market. The streets were lined with shack business enterprises, food, taxi services and the sale of just about everything imaginable to traveling person’s on foot or in a vehicle. The team was most surprised to see many goods for sale being pedaled on top of Ghanaian’s women’s heads on trays, baskets and bowls. It was amazing to see all the various items and all trip long, they did not see any trays fall off of anyone’s head.
Accra is the capitol of Ghana and has a population of approximately 2 million people. While the actual center of Accra is fairly westernized, glaring third-world poverty was nestled right along side the modern amenities. It was hot and muggy; the team’s van was not air-conditioned. The best air-conditioning found in Ghana was at the American consulate. There are few rules of the road in Ghana, the team learned early on to pray hard each time they traveled. Accra is a big sprawling city with few large, western-type buildings. From the flat plain area of Accra, the team traveled north one hour into the Akuapem Hills and to the town of Akropong. It was in Akropong the team was hosted by the Christ Presbyterian Church of Ghana in a private home.
Akropong boasts a fair climate in the hills with constant, pleasing breezes. Because of the altitude and breezes, mosquitoes while present, were rarely seen. The low-mosquito/malaria factor in Akropong made the area attractive to early 1800’s missionaries in Ghana. The Christ Presbyterian Church was the first Christian church in Ghana (established in 1835). While in Akropong, the team visited many schools, colleges, church programs and a hospital. Many projects spoke to the mission team. The Akropong library in a basement of a church building was one such program. This library which services 40,000 people in the area, had so few books, a few team members knew that they personally owned more books in their home than the library had for circulation. A local satellite college near the church had a need for new computers, updated software programs and technical books for its college library. A blind school in Akropong is one of only three available in Ghana. The residents have to be boarded there and the condition of their clothes and classrooms were heartbreaking. The children attending there do not have any Braille equipment to use. They are using old materials and manual Braille marking equipment. A few young students the team had spoken to, have dreams of college but may not get that opportunity since the resources needed to learn were not available. An aged program through the local church allows the older members twice a month to attend church, get medical checks-ups from the regional hospital, a meal, eye check-ups, and general well-being check-ups. The traveling nurses showed the mission team one Rubbermaid tub half-filled with basic health supplies for over 200 elderly members. The needs at this church for the elderly program was for thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, glucose meters and basic first-aid supplies.
From breezy Akropong, the team traveled six-hours north to the second largest town in Ghana, Kumasi. Kumasi has many large, western type buildings, lots of cars and it is certainly more densely populated. Kumasi has 1.5 million people in its town. The team had visions of visiting the large market area in the center of town but after seeing all the masses of people and the 95+-degree weather wearing them down, they declined to embark on that adventure. The first stop was at the Christ King Jesus Home, an orphanage that housed 155 orphans. The facilities were sparse, the clothing sad and the weather hot! The dorms were filled closely with bunks beds, mosquito netting and old foam mattresses. They saw no toys! There were four classrooms with only one boasting the luxury of having desks for the children to sit at. All had painted on wood chalkboards and no books. The children while poor looked healthy and were happy. The orphanage can only afford one meal a day and a lady from Michigan through her organization, SPANCO, supplies the second meal. From the Kumasi orphanage, the team traveled an hour away to see the hospital that the SPANCO organization built in the town of Donyina. The building was beautiful but unfurnished. The building is waiting for donations of furniture, medical supplies, bathroom fixtures and doctors. Next to the hospital, a maternity clinic was available with two midwives servicing a population of over 37,000 people. The bathroom facilities for both the clinic and hospital was a two room out-house shack. After Donyina, the team went to another town called Apire. This town was the poorest of all the areas they visited. There were no sewage troughs in the town, no market areas for selling food or items, no school and a few start-up churches. The pressing needs of Apire are: a clean water well, public toilet facilities, a school and a market area.
The mission team saw so many areas of need and as a result, has organized a mission organization dedicated to helping the people of Ghana. Communities of Faith in Ghana is the name of the organization. It is a group that will work in partnership with the world and Ghana to provide help in the areas that spoke to the team members. It is the hope of the team members that by doing programs on Ghana like this one; they will inspire people of Indiana and beyond to make a difference in the world.
The team ended their program by briefly detailing how Rotary and the communities of Fountain and Warren County can help fellow brothers and sisters in Africa. Club members were asked to contact Steve, Kathy and Mindy if they had any questions or would like them to do a program in their communities, churches or organizations about Ghana.
Communities of Faith for Ghana has a website that is just being constructed. That website is: www.cofghana.faithweb.com and Steve, Kathy and Mindy can be reached at: cofghana@yahoo.com. Brochures and additional information is available.
The team also recommended to all that the organization SPANCO is a very worthy and accountable charitable organization for Ghana. SPANCO’s main focuses are the orphans and education. Please visit Mrs. Gisela Becker’s SPANCO website at: www.helpforghana.com. SPANCO is a certified non-profit organization and has been helping the children of Ghana for over 10 years.
Communities of Faith for Ghana and SPANCO are in a working partnership for the needs of Ghana.
The family website below is done by Kathy Poston.
Steve and Kathy have been responsible for many Rotary programs over the past several years. The site gives a summary of Steve's involvement in and graduation from the Presbyterian Church-PCUSA Lay Pastor program last November and about his connection to Ghana before the trip in March.
The site has a huge amount of information. If you like genealogy you will thrilled by this site. It may be about her family but it is also a look at our America and could be about a lot of us and our backgrounds.
Great old photos.
Thanks Kathy