Greetings dear friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

We are grateful for your prayers and support. They are very meaningful to us.

And I should share that the prayers for help at the port have been answered again...God always is there and answers but this year we saw His powerful help.

We had started the clearing process in the port only four days after our arrival in Ghana in early November. Then we met with our clearing agent and he was able to take the documents that we had left and get the whole process done except for pickup without our further help. In other words, this year we avoided the countless, weary and difficult trips back and forth getting the documents in order. We thank God!

We had a very long day at the port when we picked up the container of books, but we were able to get it up to Hilda's hometown at 2 am the next day.

Last week we started sorting the books out in categories and believe it or not, we were able to rebox all 33,000 books in five and a half days. That was because of the work that was done with help in Akron before we left; all the books had Dewey decimal numbers on them before they left the USA.

We are eagerly preparing for our annual library in-service. We have invited all 33 of the existing libraries and the staff of the three new libraries we hope to set up this year. We will have panels on HIV/AIDS and alcoholism. We will hear from the students who won the reading contests in the each of the existing libraries and the libraries will give reports to those assembled on how things are going in their libraries.

Amazing progress is being made with AA groups. I had a man living in the small treatment center I built last year. If things go as planned we will bring several individuals to the center after they have been discharged from de-toxification centers at the big hospitals in the capital. There is a group in Accra that is supporting this effort.

We have had an AA meeting at my house for 4 weeks now. The men wanted to add another meeting per week, so they now meet Saturdays and Tuesdays. It is exciting. We are getting some help from Accra running the meetings since neither Hilda and I are alcoholics. I have started an Al-Anon meeting (for friends and families of alcoholics) as well in our house. We had a good beginning last Saturday. This I feel very comfortable with this since I have been attending Al-Anon meetings in Akron for six years. I know the program well and can share the wisdom it contains. It amazes me how powerful it can be. I believe God wants each of His beloved children to be free from every addiction and compulsion so as to be in loving relationship with Him. The 12 step method helps many people find this loving relationship, and their lives are changed.

Alcoholism and drug addiction are killing people in Ghana. I have watched friends in Ghana die. For some of the men in our group, AA is their only hope; they are young but look old. They are undernourished because of the drinking. God is able to do amazing things through AA. Al-Anon I believe will greatly benefit the families and friends that are affected.

We have started the translations of AA materials into Twi and Ewe.

The AA meeting at my house is in Twi and it breaks the pattern of things to have to slow down to read the 12 steps and Serenity Prayer in English while everything else is in Twi.

Hilda and I are taking a few days vacation starting tomorrow.

God bless you all.

Kirt and Hilda