the Ghana leg

There are so many pieces to this trip that I'm trying not to overwhelm you (or maybe it's myself I'm really trying not to overwhelm :-) ) with all of the details at once. Periodically, I'll be focusing in on one leg or other of the trip and describing it in more detail for you.

Since Ghana is where I'll first step foot in Africa, that seems like a good place to begin in bloggerland, too. Chronological is nice sometimes. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been doing some publicity work, just a few hours a month, for The Joseph Alliance since last fall. One day last August as I was waiting for a drink at the end of my afternoon Starbucks shift, my phone began salsa-ing with a number I didn't know. I thought it might be an Atlanta area code but wasn't sure. And guessing that the call was coming from Atlanta didn't really tell me much about who was calling. (Aren't there something like 100 million people living in Atlanta now? It's the new cool southern city or something?)

"Hello, this is Kami." (That's how I answer my phone when I don't know who's calling, as it could be someone offering me a big book deal or maybe just a magazine article assignment.)

On the other end of the line was LaVerne Hanes Stevens, the founder and director of The Joseph Alliance. Ends up that she worked for the CCO, the Pittsburgh-based campus ministry organization I worked for in 1999-2001, a number of years before I did. She told me about her organization and their need to get the word out about what they were up to. She was looking for a writer, and a mutual CCO friend had suggested she call me.

One thing led to another, and LaVerne, LaRhonda, Vanessa and I met at a Ryan's in Chattanooga last September and started strategizing. Sometime that day LaVerne asked me the question I was hoping she would ask: "Would you like to come to Ghana with us?"

And that was really the question that began rolling the wheels (like the kind on luggage!) that have led the way to the trip that has birthed this blog.

The Joseph Alliance is working to encourage African-American Christians to be involved in missions, especially missions in Africa. Many of the African-American churches of our day don't have a vision for the importance of the entire Great Commission: care for people around you and also for those a little farther away and even for those very far away. The Joseph Alliance is working to encourage a vision for the importance of missions. One of the ways they're doing that is by inviting folks to come along on a mission trip that will expose them to missions, with the hope that their passion will grow and they'll take that back to their churches. The hope for these trips is that they'll have a multiplying effect. And that has already begun to happen. Some churches that have participated in past Joseph Alliance trips are now investing regularly in other parts of the world.

I'm going along on the Ghana trip partly to further familiarize myself with the Joseph Alliance's work, so that I can better tell their story as I continue to do publicity/development work for them. But, I'm also excited to begin my time in Africa as part of a group serving Ghanaian folks in more traditional mission trip ways.

The Joseph Alliance group will be in Ghana for 3 weeks, but I (and my sister Erin) won't be joining them until week #2 of their trip. Currently, week #2 will include half-day service projects in a local orphanage. We'll also be helping with the Renewed Woman Conference during that week. Additionally, we will meet the women who've begun their own businesses through the sponsorship of The Joseph Alliance and will send off some new women into family-sustaining business ventures. And, if that's not jam-packed sounding enough, that week is also the week we'll participate in Joseph Project events (Ghana's 50th anniversary celebration combined with the 200th anniversary of the end of the slave trade; the Joseph Alliance is a partner with Ghana's Ministry of Tourism, helping encourage folks to participate in service projects when they visit Ghana). During the last week in Ghana we will be going to a more remote village and doing some life skills workshops and eye screenings, as well as visiting local ministries.

I'm very excited about this portion of the trip and am thankful for the added possibility of seeing things in a new way as I travel and serve in Africa with a group of African-American sisters and brothers instead of with a group of sisters and brothers who share my pale, sunburn-prone skin and accompanying experience of life.