Books for Africa Library Project, Inc.Establishing libraries in rural areas of West Africa |
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We are in Accra and staying the night at Hilda's brother's house; we fly out tomorrow night. It has been a good trip full of hard work and God's Grace. Remember how I spoke of our mission these months was to serve with love. What a challenge! How could I have done any action with love without God's help. There were times when my energy and patience were finished and of course, it was God that gave me the love to share. He loves people more than I do. Right? We set up four libraries and helped a number of other people with the books. We shipped over 36,000 books and had about 7,000 in the warehouse left from last year. We were able to give all of these books away to worthy organizations. We also put a lot of effort into helping give Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon a firm foundation in Ghana. We gave away a copies of Alcoholics Anonymous and 12 Steps and 12 Traditions to all of our 37 libraries. I helped start Al-Anon groups in Accra and Kukurantumi. The Al-Anon group met yesterday in Kukurantumi. It was so touching to offer the down to earth and practical help that Al-Anon gives. Our friends there are suffering from the disease of alcoholism. It seems that I had my hand on the plow the whole time in Ghana. Not many paintings done this time. We had Monsignor Michael stay with us for three weeks. He is a recovering alcoholic and was able to offer personal advice to the men and women who came to our house for help. We also translated five pamphlets from AA and Al-Anon. These translations were then reviewed by a friend of ours who taught Twi in school for many years. His grammar and spelling suggestions were excellent. We also were able to make translations into Ewe the second most common vernacular in Ghana. These translations will be submitted to the World Service Office of AA in New York City. This will make a big difference when the AA and Al-Anon meetings are conducted in the vernacular and reference is made to the essential AA literature which can then be read in Twi or Ewe instead of English. To be able to do this Hilda and I had to be constantly in prayer. I've said it before and I realize it every now and again...our life is all prayer. Everything needs it. It is all spiritual. Underlying the whole is the spiritual world. Whatever we do, prayer gets it done first. I don't say that to sound spiritual; it is the truth but I don't always see it. Three last things I wanted to share. Since we came in November we have been having mandatory black outs every four days to save energy; the level of Volta Lake has dropped below the dynamo water intake so our electricity is rationed. It hasn't rained in north of the country since last September and that is where the two tributaries of the Volta River originate. For the past three weeks we have been on severe rationing; every four days we now have a daytime black out for 12 hours and a night time black out of the same length. Can you imagine the havoc a daytime black out will reek on the business world in Ghana. These black outs revolve around the country so that they don't affect the whole country at once but rather one region by region. I was just told that the lights will go off in ten minutes in Accra, so I have to send this quick. We will be back in the States this Wednesday. Yours, Kirt and Hilda
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