In line with Biblical principles and the mandate to serve God and humanity , we took upon ourselves to dedicate our time , effort and resources in seeing the progress of God's work in the deprived areas. Our focus however was directed toward people in the Upper West Region of Ghana specifically those at Tuna.
At about 2:30 pm, the four of us( that is, Sis Martha, Sis Lydia ,Bro Theo and Bro Prince) congregated at the Charles Lane auditorium to get ready and prepared for the journey at hand.
In order not to fall prey to the devices of the enemy, prayer was said for protection and travelling mercy . There was the need to beat the departure time, so we got to the VIP bus terminal at the reconstructed Kwame Nkrumah Circle before 4pm. There was the need however to fulfill certain requirements at the bus station before we got on board .
At exactly 4:00 pm we set off to Tuna in the Upper West Region. Amist all the panic and fear of being attacked by armed robbers we arrived safely at Tuna at 4:30 am. Almost 10 hour journey.
Though the weather wasn't favourable , we were still determine to fulfil our mandate on the land of Tuna before we leave . In a space of 10 minutes, Overseer Maxwell Amoah arrived with the usual means of transport in the North: motor cycle. The adage "ladies first" was the obvious when he asked Sis Martha and sis Lydia to get on board. In no time , we were all at the mission house. We were given a warm welcome by Overseers wife who introduced herself as Deaconess Doris Amoah. We had a chit-chat with Overseer and his wife about our mission and why we choose Tuna among all the villages in the North, he thanked us for the thought and sent us to his prepared resting room.
"I want to thank you for the thought and your kind gesture. I am also happy to see you today because we have been expecting you all this while. Though we gave up at a point in time because we weren't hearing from you , you finally made it " he held .
For us, sleeping wasn't an option especially when we had lot of things to do.
Around 6:00am Saturday morning we were taken round by Overseer to some of the locals and his intention for the District despite the fact that he will be leaving Tuna in no time was communicated to us. Our first place of call was his vocational school which also served as a church premises for one of the locals. According to him, the community is dominated by Catholic schools, and the need for alternatives and varieties was a motivation for him to also start a vocational school for people in the community.
As If that was not enough, we had an exercise we wouldn't bother to do back home. We had no option than to endure .
As a way of releasing stress we were on a picture spree when we got to one of the locals in the village . Overseer introduced us to some church members after which we came back to the mission house to get prepared for the main reason and purpose we came there . Upon our arrival at the mission house, we were once again given a wonderful breakfast treat by Osofo Maame Doris . After the breakfast and everything, it was time to set off to the district were the presentation would be made.
Unexpected of us, we got a benevolent Taxi driver who was willing to send us to the church premises. Interestingly, the driver treated us with some fine gospel tune. However, after enjoying the song for like 10 minutes we fell prey to the soporific effect of the journey .
The distance from.the mission house to the church took us like 30 minutes .
We arrived at the district by the grace of God. Sadly, we were welcomed with the news of the death of a church member who happen to be the mother of an Elder in the church . This is what we refer to as mix feelings. In the mist of it all we managed to meet the congregation.
As their custom and tradition demands , strangers or visitors are welcomed with special water to drink(water with an additive ). After explaining these culture of theirs to us , Overseer took to the mouth of the metalic bowl and took a sip of the water just to prove to us that it is not poisonous. After satisfying their cultural requirement, overseer introduced us to them and also gave us the platform to tell or inform the congregation about ourselves, mission, and reason why we choose Tuna.That was after the congregation thrilled us to some of their songs.
Sister Martha however encouraged them , charging them to hold on to the faith they profess . " I want to encourage you to continue in the faith" she said . Adding that :" your labour in the Lord shall never be in vain"
Afterwards, Bro Prince introduced all the team members and went ahead to do the presentation alongside Bro Theophilus Areo who in turns taught them how to use the things we have presented to them. We took pictures with the congregation and then moved to the crying ground to console and show solidarity to the Elder and his family . Seeing people lamenting was a pity but we were of high hope that there is a good place for all those who die in the Lord. Our return to the mission house was diabolic as we were epically showered by the sand from the untarred road. You have no idea how it was!! All the same we returned to Accra rejoicing for mission well accomplished and the victory God gave us.
