Happy Mother's Day!

To the greatest moms and grandmas in the world!
We love you!!!

The King

Two weeks ago was the 10th anniversary of our king, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. A king?, you may ask. Yes, even though our country has a president, and we hold elections every four years, we still have a king! This isn't a king like England has a queen, though. Our king is the ruler of the Akan people. Kumasi is his capital city, and the Ashanti Region (state) is his domain.
Before Ghana existed, many tribes and their chiefs lived in this land. Over time, the Ashanti became a fierce and strong tribal warrior nation. Their king or chief continued to gain more and more power as they conquered more and more smaller tribes. These conquests continued until the British colonizers attacked Kumasi and took their king into exile. Even though the king was taken, the kingdom did not fall apart. The Ashanti believed the power to hold their nation together was in the Golden Stool (the king's throne). The British demanded it when they captured the king, but the keepers of the stool had hidden it away and gave the British a fake.
Even though they did not have a king for some time, as soon as they were allowed, the Ashanti reinstated a king.
Our current king has now been in power for ten years. He is seen as a "keeper of the culture" and therefore, his powers don't conflict with that of our federal government. About 3 1/2 million people live in the Ashanti Region, and about 5 million people claim him as their leader.
In the pictures of his anniversary celebration, you will see many umbrellas. Each umbrella is for a chief - the bigger the umbrella, the more important the chief!
The president, former heads-of-state, and many ambassadors and diplomats from all over Africa came to the durbar.



This is a picture of the king. He is very difficult to see, because the picture was zoomed from verrrrrrrrry far away.

Snake!!!

Well, we can finally say that we "have arrived" as missionaries in the minds of all the people that support us. Yes, most people that support African missionaries imagine us daily fording rivers filled with crocodiles, marching through elephant grass, and fighting lions as we go out to preach the gospel, all while we single-handedly have spiritual duels with witch doctors. Though we do not fit these Western mindsets of a missionary, I think that we have finally filled one requirement. John has killed a snake! Yes, this last Thursday night John had the privilege of killing his first snake. I would like to tell you that as he and Andrew were walking to check on some people before Bible study, a green mamba jumped out of a tree in front of them and tried to bite them. I would like to tell you that like Indiana Jones, John pulled out a machete (that people think every missionary wears on his/her back) and cut off it head with one blow. But, sadly that is not what happened.

After visiting some of our people and reminding them about the night meeting, John and Andrew saw a taxi driver stop his car, jump out, and run to look at something. The driver was trying to kill a green mamba that was crossing the road! (Africans do not have the same regard to preserve species as most environmentalist would like them to. Here we have a simple rule: When you see a snake, you do not stop and ask if it is endangered. You know it will be deadly nine times out of ten, so you grab the first stone available and kill it. Find out what kind it is after it is dead). Knowing his social duty, John did his part. He grabbed a big rock and crushed its head!

Overall it was a new experience! After killing the thing with the stone, all the Ghanaians around gave John pats on the back. Then he got to come to the people already gathered for service and retell the story several times. I was not as happy to hear about the presence of the snake as the men were, but it was great fun to watch the men puff out their chests and tell their warrior's story!