the near side has drawn far...

We have arrived home safely from our far side of the world tour! A home to some Americans which may be modest, but to the Ghanian people truly a palace. Where you seem to have forgotten your password because the form of communication in Africa is song and dance, not the internet. Where when you flick on the switch the lights allow you to see. Where there's toilet paper and a safe place to store your fruit nectar. Where the streets have stop lights and the cattle crossings are posted. Where the shower pressure is strong and hot water is expected. Where you blend into the masses because you're just like everybody else going about their business. Where a good steak is a treat just like bush rat in Ghana. Where you can put your feet up at the end of the day and say ahhh. Indeed we have had a journey to be told. We love being able to open up our windows to hear our backyard waterfall and birds seeking seed. We love seeing the mountains and the trees and the green grass..oh! and flowers. We love sleeping soundly without the canopy of the mosquito net. We love having clean clothes to put on and choices for dinner each day. We love that God provides our every need. We realize that two weeks for most of us is merely a blink of the eye~yet while in Ghana we learned to appreciate and soak in every precious moment. Because we will dearly miss the honk at our guarded hotel gate proclaiming our ride has arrived signalling a safety cue to come out of our room. We will miss the children running over the dirt mounds announcing "Obroni no aba!" (the white man is here!). We will miss the resounding and collective and joyful 'Hallelujahs and Amens'. We will miss the the hugs from the wait staff who didn't want us to leave. We will miss the smell of Deet protecting us from Malaria. We will miss the precious children at the school who performed a short play and poetry and song all in English. We will miss the young teen~Amelia~ who hung out at our bus window as we were stopped in congested traffic and wanted to see our family picture and post cards from Boise. We will miss the police guards who after shining their flashlights into our bus gave us the go ahead anyway. We will miss terms like Awkwaaba (welcome) and torch (flashlight) and meda ase (thank you). We will miss the 2 litre of pure water that quenched our thirst during intense humidity. We will miss the walks through poverty and filth just to get a big smile when we waved and asked permission to take photos. We will miss the goats who frolicked across our paths. We will miss the magical fireflies who calmed our fear as we trekked deep through the midnight dark of the bush. We will miss the Mission Ready Africa team who never left our side. We will miss the rhythmic drumming and playful games of Chinese jump rope. We will miss Kasoa, Ghana. Now the far side of the world is close in our hearts. We thank you for your prayers for our safety and good health. We thank God for the privilege to serve. Until the far side draws near once again...with our love, Bob & Cori

Nana's (King's) sword clears customs!

We're pearched above our departure gates at Heathrow, London waiting our 4 1/2 hours before we take off for Iceland>Seattle>Boise! Between Ghana and here we feel worlds apart. We just spent 11 days in the most impovershed, undeveloped, overpopulated, fight for the day's living location that we have ever experienced ~ yet come away with gratitude for having done so. The people of Kasoa and surrounding villages were amazing in their interest in us and our work there amongst them. The entire Mission Ready Africa leadership team piled into their only means of private transportation to take us to the airport- yes 12 of us & four 50lb. luggage - oh and a goat! The 3 day Leadership conference was a great success ~ with Bob truly in his element. His delivery was clear, engaging and extremely productive. We had several dignitaries attend the final day's agenda. Miraculously, his stamina held up with preaching/speaking sometimes 2x/day for 11 straight days. He delivered his most powerful & inspirational talk Sunday at a Liberian Refugee village camp. Since I last wrote, we have treked the back streets to get to a worship center without any light, shared every event with a team member's daughter who was hospitalized with Malaria, participated in nightly revivals or crusades, met with the King (chief) and Queen from the outlying village for lunch at our hotel -to discuss development possibilities (anyone ready to establish a medical clinic?) & yes, the chief does make it out of the bush once in a great while!, & conversed with young vendors who flock your vehicle while stalled in conjestion & traversed over flooded roller coaster dirt roads to observe a 3 room secondary school with only wooden chairs and a chalk board. We've jammed 3 more people than possible into run down taxis, we've hugged the wait staff for they didn't want us to leave, & we've taken showers with drip-drop hand nozzle & no electricity. We are thankful for this amazing opportunity to visit the far side of the world, & can't wait to share more of our journey with all of you. Thank you for your continued prayers for our health & safety. Until the near side draws far...our love, Nana Bob and Madame Cori.

found the far side!!

Greetings from Kasoa, Ghana, Africa! Bob & I are safe and healthy! We have been on adventures beyond our wildest imaginations. Today we are tourists going to visit the ocean. Last night we were guests at Gomoa Mprumuem - a trek through the bush in the darkest of nights amongst the tallest corn fields lit only by fire flies. The crusade brought villagers in their finest clothing to hear what the white man had to say. We have visited the Cape Coast Castle where the slaves suffered their fates. We have visited a school where we shared PE equipment and allowed children to demonstrate- juggling is now a new favorite! We have experienced the market with fish, goats, snake and pig hooves for sale. We have attended a Thanksgiving service in open air church where the dancing conveyed their joy for our Lord. We have been honored as King and Queen of Gomoa Ohua where Bob is now Development Chief in hopes to bring medical, education and technology assistance. We have received gifts from the various village chiefs such as sandals, Kente cloth robes and beautiful necklaces. Bob has been invited to speak (preach) to each locaction we have traveled- from the remotest of villages (each 1-2 hrs from our hotel) to the churches to the revivals to the crusades. God has truly been watching over us as we take the food, the local transport and the full agenda. Everyone here loves looking at my family picture I brought to show-they ask about America and Boise and Nicholas, Courtney & Amanda. (Since your father is now royalty, you are next in line for the responsibility if you so choose!) We have appreciated the Lord's blessings in everyway- from our fried eggs & tea at breakfast to our chicken and fried rice each dinner and lunch. The mosquitos have taken their threat seriously and not disturbed us! We are looking forward to the 3 day leadership conference to begin on Thursday with a victory praise worship service following the next day. We are being well cared after and cannot thank all of you enough for your prayers for our safety and good health. My personal journal is now a book & we are so excited to share with you how God has brought us to this land and worked in miraculous ways. The Kasoan natives are friendly and very intrugued by us so we wave and say hello and smile and embark in dialogue whenever possible. Our hotel server does not want us to leave. One day, we hope that many of you will choose to share your gifts with these people. Oh! And baby Cori and Morgan Jr. are precious. Also, we have adopted a Gamoa Ohua girl to help support her future. With God's continued grace we will do his work here. We love you and will be together with you soon. Until the near side becomes far~Bob & Cori

A phone call from the far side of the world...

This is Ammo and Snort, writing on behalf of the rents on the far side of the world! We just received a call from them and boy did they sound excited! 

• Dad was crowned King of some remote village in Ghana
• 6 men carried him on a platform for an hour, all through the village and he threw candy at the children... African Parade!
• Mom danced in front of Dad's "float" wearing Kente cloth from head to toe, spangly bangles, and gold rings on every finger.
• They visited the school, where "Queen Mother" (aka Cori Morgan) taught some PE lessons and captivated over 200 African children (Dad said you could hear a pin drop when she whipped out some of that colorful equipment).
• Every morning they are served a fried egg on grilled bread, every night they eat a chicken leg/thigh and some french fries.
• They are doing GREAT and have never seen more culture in their lives!

It was great to hear the joy and adventure in their voices. Tomorrow they are looking forward to church, and later this week, the conference.

All is well on the far side of the world...

two reunions and a breakfast bap!

As I type I'm staring out into the midnight moon shining it's gaze upon the English meditation garden below. Our reunion with the Germany Bechmanns was great-haven't seen them in 10 years. Christian & Bob acted like they haven't missed a beat- Christian only speaking German and Bob English-yet with a keen understanding of each other somehow. We boarded the train the next morning for Lewes, site of the Badke wedding, where upon lugging our luggage over cobble stoned streets towards our hotel low and behold there comes walking down the hill
bride and mother! What a sight on the far side of the world! That reunion was sweet too. Our hotel clerk handed us a large room key attached to an even larger metal hanger..now guess who gets to carry this around the village? Of course we just had to sit out in the garden for a lovely spot of tea. Lewes is quaint, with very narrow streets and even smaller cars to speed along the curvy roads. We chose High street to the right, for tomorrow we take it to the left. Flowers, friendly pedestrians and the Morgans from Boise, ID! So what's a 'breakfast bap'? Nothing like when I ordered a pizza in Paris and received raw egg smeared upon the entire circumference-oh no-a bap is the kind of bread, sandwiching egg, sausage & ham. Phew! The weather is lovely & so was the English wedding- but I'll catch up with that soon. For now, thank you for keeping us in your prayers for our health and safety. Until the Far Side comes near, with our love, Bob & Cori

from our flat in L-town!

Wow! What a trip! This is great fun! Seems like we only left yesterday...doh..we did! 25 hrs on the road- or shall we say, planes, trains and yes the dot-to-dot shuttle has landed us in L-town..or for you foreigners...LONDON! All our flight connections Boi-Seattle-Iceland (someone please bring those people some happy juice!) were perfect & smooth. Problem is we really don't have a clue what day it is and we're supposed to meet the Germany Bechmanns for dinner even though our stomachs say breakfast please. We're looking at Big Ben and Buckingham Palace from our flat- yeah that's right I'm already a local like saying car hire (car rental) and hump bump (speed bump) and oh yeah..'hash-hash' means (dial the # key)! By the way, as referring travel agents we highly recommend going 1st class on a 10 hour flight- we even got travel gifts put ever so neatly on our double wide cushy lounge seats. Tomorrow we board the train for Lewes, UK and Heather B's wedding! We send our love to everyone - thanks for helping us stay strong with your prayers and support! Until the Far Side comes near.... Bob & Cori

The Night Before We Leave...

One of us is calm...the other frantic. All preparations have been made. We are so excited about our two week adventure! Good thing Courtney is teaching us how in the world to use our new blog. Go Ghana!