Chasing Children

Here is an excerpt from Sam's email this week:

"Things here in Ghana have been pretty good this week. I went out to the village Ahyntia again. I had to take the district leader out there for a baptismal interview with S. When baptismal interviews are being done the district leader has to go off and be somewhat alone with the person. So the other missionary is usually left there doing nothing. So I was sitting there really bored and a couple of children from the village came up and would stand about 20 feet from me and just stare at me. Because it is a village most of the children have never seen a white man before so they won’t get too close. The interview was going on a long time. As the time went on more and more children started to gather in the group. There were about 40 kids just staring at me in fascination. I was getting pretty bored so all the sudden I decided to flinch at them. Form just my finch they all flew backwards with some of them falling on the ground. When they did this I got an idea and if you could have seen my face you probably wouldn't have thought it was a great idea. I jolted up and started sprinting after them. They all took off screaming for their lives. I felt like a lion chasing a bunch of Wilda beasts. The next thing I know I am running all around this village chasing all these little kids. All their parents were laughing their heads off. After a little while I felt bad and I made them all come up to me and be my friend. They all were very interested in my hair and kept touching it. I felt kinda of gross letting these kids touch my hair because I have no idea what they have been rolling around in, but then I thought what the heck this is Africa. It was a pretty fun experience making friends with all the kids.

Also this week we got permission to start teaching a couple of orphans because their care taker is a strong member. We have been given permission by the bishop to teach 6 of them, but he still has to get permission from the mission president. The children have been coming to church for a while now. We went and talked with them one on one on Wednesday. I was talking to one of the Boys "M" he had the worst stutter id ever heard. He knew the main message of the Gospel. You know, that god is our father and he sent Jesus to die for us. When I was teaching him I just got the feeling that I should give him my sunglasses. Right when I was done teaching him I realized that I need those sunglasses. I am starting to realize that I keep giving away things that I need. I think its okay though because everything is way cheap in Ghana. I really hope that president Smith lets us baptize the children. It would be way awesome to get to do that before I get transferred.

On Saturday we had a Baptism. I was really excited for this one because I was gonna get to finally Baptize O. The day of the Baptism O called me really early in the morning. He told me that he couldn't be baptized because his wife told him that if he was baptized, she would leave him. My heart sunk when I heard him say that. It made me way sad because I have been teaching him since the day I got to Buduburam. I was pretty depressed on Saturday, but I just got a feeling that it’s not O's time yet. I know one day he will be baptized, it might not be when I am still in Buduburam, but the important thing is that he is baptized. So the baptism went on as scheduled and S the man in Ahyntia was baptized. It was a very nice baptism and I was really happy to baptize. "