My Mission Trip to Ghana
Adam Ehinger

There are not many times in a teenager’s life when he is blessed with the opportunity to change his life in a complete hundred and eighty degree turnaround. During the summer after my junior year, my parents told me that I would be joining them on a mission trip to Ghana, in West Africa,  to build a high school for the community. At first, I thought they were just kidding around, but as weeks went on they kept reminding me that this was no joke. Once the reality of this decision started to set in, my selfish side started to set in as well. Selfishness is something that I think now that everyone in American falls susceptible to in their everyday life. I was thinking about me not being able to play some of my last varsity soccer games, missing my senior homecoming game, missing friends, and not having everyday pleasures that I am used to in the States. But with my parents minds made up, my sister, my parents and I started off in our car to Charlotte, North Carolina, where we would be meeting up with the rest of the twenty-five members of our mission team. We boarded a plane that would take us on a twenty-eight hour flight to Africa, not knowing this would be the trip that would, become an adventure that would send me through the most extremely emotionally, physically and spiritually straining ten days I have ever witnessed. It would completely change the values I had known until then.
The first day of our trip was spent in either a cramped airport lobby or the tiny seating arrangements of the airplane. This is something I do not do well with. The extreme back cramps and  paranoia of doing absolutely nothing but sitting around started to take its toll. But I fought through this because the thought of starting to complain on the first day would only make my trip that more tedious than it already was. After a very long and aggravating trip we made it to Accra the capital of Ghana; sleep deprived and starving.  
Waiting around for our baggage, and trying to excape from sheer boredom, I started to study and evaluate the members of our team. They all came from different places, lived different lives, and looked nothing alike. All were extraordinarily happy and friendly, and all had a glow that seemed to be surrounding them. I sat on my suitcase racking my brain about how all of these people that came from such different backgrounds could act and treat people so similar. I thought to myself what is it that all of these people could have so much in common to act so much the same? I later found out in our journey what this similarity was.
The next day we started our quest to a historical slave castle that was running during the triangle slave trade. We wanted to understand the history of this country and have a respect for the people, before we started helping these wonderful people out. So all thirty members packed into our church van (which by the way was not air conditioned) and started the once again long journey. I’m not sure what was more mind blowing to me, how these people were treated in the past that we learned about on our tour, or how poverty stricken and poor not just Accra or Pram Pram was, but the whole country itself. Most Americans have never dealt or have even seen this life style. The lifestyle of having to live day by day hoping you will find food and clean water, for not just themselves, but for their family and children in addition. We witnessed terrible living conditions all the way to the castle, but one thing I also witnessed on my ride there was, the people acted like there wasn’t anything wrong. Their love of life is so much better than our own. Every dirty child, every hardworking street vendor greeted us from outside our bus with a breathtaking smile and emotionally piercing greeting. It almost made my heart twist with the compassion for love of everyday life that these wonderful people have in such harsh conditions compared to life in America. This is because they share the same thing that all of us on our team shared, the love for Jesus Christ and people less fortunate that need a helping hand.
The next day was Sunday. America might be far more technically and economically advanced than Ghana, but in the race of spirituality, Ghana beats out America second to none. These people have a tremendous love for Jesus Christ; their world evolves around our Savior. This culture’s back bone rests in the hands of God, something I wish I could say about America. We started our church service at 8 o’clock that morning and ended at 11 o’clock. This was one of the longest services I have ever attended. Once we had finished with this, we rushed straight to a special healing and anointing service. We all danced, sang, praised God, and prayed for each other. At the conclusion of this service we lined up and had the local priest pray for us. This is something that I have never witnessed, God was present in that service, and demons were not safe on this day. Some of the natives that were prayed for started convulsing while holy hands caressed their tough, overworked skin. That day was the beginning of Jesus Christ starting to work on my heart.
The next day was probably the best day of my trip. One of the older members on our team, my sister, and I were assigned a separate mission. There was a local compound in Pram Pram where we were staying, and this compound was comprised of a church and the local school. We met with the leader of this compound.  His name was Father Isaac, which throughout the mission became a wonderful mentor and very close friend. We got to know each other and he sat us down to talk to us about the dream he has for his village of Pram Pram. He started off by giving us the background of this town.  Pram Pram is a major fishing town, almost all of the people either work on the sea or have something to do with it. The down side to this is that there is no money in this profession; most families end up poverty stricken and begging for money in the neighboring town of Accra. This brings me to Father Isaac’s dream, and his dream is to have senior high school for the children of Pram Pram. They need to go farther in their schooling because right now they are not attaining enough education and skills to be on their own. As Father Isaac told us about this dream, I could see in his eyes an enthusiasm that he cared very much for this dream and for the people of the village But this seems to be a near impossible task due to no funding from the town and no support from the parents because they have never gone to a secondary school so they think why should their kids? Once Father Isaac was done talking to us about his plan to better the community we started a walk with him through Pram  Pram to see the school and the local fishing village.
We had only made it a half mile on our quest until we came to the compound. The first thing I saw on the school ground was a barnyard shack, almost resembling a pig pen. There was only a fence that was about shoulder high, no windows or doors, and a roof with cracks and holes all around it. I immediately asked Father Isaac what this building was. Thinking to myself, why would they keep animals in the middle of their school, Father Isaac responded, “Adam that is our nursery.” Just about that time dozens of the cutest toddlers came running out of their shacks with huge greeting smiles. They started waving at us and saying “Hello”. We went into the shack where I thought I was going to be entering a “classroom” if you would like to call it that. I figured I would see the little wild things running around, however when we entered, I was astounded to see all the toddlers sitting perfectly on their wooden benches. They were sitting with their bare feet barely touching the ground waiting to meet a kind of person they have never seen before. This made my heart exploded with compassion for this community.  We handed out some WWJD stickers and they gave us a smile that would light up the world. Once we were finished, we were on the way to meet other students around the campus. We met with five other classrooms, and all had the same outcome, bright smiling faces and the friendliest people I have ever seen. They all had one thing in common, the will to learn and praise Jesus Christ.
The next three days Allie, Alex and I spent the whole day interacting with the kids in and out of the classroom, and we started to form a plan to help these people out. The second day Father Isaac invited us to have lunch at his house. We had a very interesting meal before us.  A cut up goat leg that was sitting in a bowl in front of us did not look so appealing. To be respectful, Allie and I started the long task of trying to nibble on the what Father Isaac called an African delight.  It was called Foo Foo and was horrible! When we were done, Alex, the youth leader on our team, told us something I will never forget. He said, “I’m very proud of ya’ll. You guys are going to make great travelers, ya’ll aren’t afraid to try things and ya’ll are going to see the world.” After lunch I participated in the local soccer game, everyone from the community was there. I was having a blast just playing around on the dirt pitch with goals without any nets. The players let me join with open arms.They too have a love for the game of futbol,  just like me. This was the first time I felt like I wasn’t in a strange foreign country; I felt like I was home.
The next day my whole family went to Accra to watch my mom teach.She was teaching to about thirty teachers in the local church. She was teaching them leadership skills and how to form relationships with your students in the classroom. As I watched my mom, a twenty one year professional to this job, at work doing what she does best, it sent chills threw my body thinking about how good of a job she does and how much she cares about the people she teaches. This is why I also want to take on this challenging profession, because I also care about people and want to change students’ lives for the better.
Our last day in the amazing town of Pram Pram was spent at the hotel, relaxing and taking in the enormous amount of knowledge and compassion we had taken in, in such little time. We left with our energy level depleted and our levels of love for people and Jesus sky rocketing. I met so many people and have taken in such good advice in such a small amount of time that it was almost overwhelming. The biggest shocker is how much of a bond I had made with these people in such a quick time and how my heart wept so much to be leaving these people with whom already I developed a friendship, but  I did leave with the Holy Spirit rapidly flowing through me, and some great ideas to fundraise. I am hoping we can come up with twenty thousand dollars for the high school and church and come back to this blessed town of Pram Pram to see my new amazing friends again when the new senior high school is standing

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