Meghann, Me, and Christy with our elephant tattoos after seeing our elephant!
Why is it that we are so amazed when God answers prayer? I went to Mole National Park over the Thanksgiving holiday and I was just in awe of God's faithfulness. Mole National Park is in the Northern Region of Ghana and it is about a 12 to 13 hour drive from Accra. It was so fun seeing the change in the landscape going from city to tropical rain forest to a more savanna-like environment.
We left SUPER early Thursday morning at 4AM. William, our school's driver, picked up me and three other teachers in the school van. We drove the whole way only making one bathroom stop! Impressive with three girls in the car! :) 9 hours of driving on fairly smooth road and then 3 hours on a very bumpy dirt road.
God answers prayer...
1. I wasn't feeling great on Wednesday and I was really worried about a long drive on Thursday. I was definitely praying about it. God gave me a peace that He would answer my prayer and I was able to make the trip without any problem. God is so good!
2. Safety on the road. Ghana roads are not the safest roads to be traveling and God definitely protected us in our travels.
3. I totally thought we were going to run out of gas because it had been about 8 hours since we got gas and we were in the middle of nowhere! We even turned off the van's AC to conserve! :) But God answered our prayers again and we made it to a small gas station near the national park.
4. WE SAW AN ELEPHANT!!!!! It is currently the end of the rainy season so there is plenty of water all over Mole National Park which means the elephants don't need to travel to the southern edge to get water (where we were staying). During the dry season the elephants really only have one place to get water. The Mole Motel looks over this watering hole. The rangers said they hadn't seen any elephants in 5 days. We were very sad when we didn't see an elephant on our walking tour of the park. We were very happy to see other wildlife, but sad about the elephants. But then as a reminder to us that God works in His own time, we saw an elephant later in the day! A guide took us out again to see it and it was amazing! We watched it bathe, eat from a tree, and throw dust on itself to keep insects away. The elephant was not one of the elephants that the rangers knew and Christy, Meghann, and I looked at each other and said, "That's because God sent this one for us!"
We arrived around 4PM Thursday evening and we enjoyed the sunset overlooking the watering hole from our hotel. We had dinner and enjoyed meeting other travelers, mostly volunteers from Europe. Friday morning, we set out early with a guide on a walking tour of the park. God's creation is amazing! We saw antelope type animals (Kobs and Bush Bucks), Baboons, other monkeys, and warthogs. After the two hour hike, we went to a nearby village to see the oldest mosque in Ghana. It was heartbreaking seeing the people of village, knowing not one knew Jesus. They were very kind to us and enjoyed talking with us as we walked around the village. It was kind of funny because the community was working on repairs to the mosque and the guide that was showing us the mosque got yelled at because he wasn't helping! Our driver William tried to intercede and bring peace to the tense situation! After visiting the village, we headed back to the park where we were met by a ranger saying that an elephant had been spotted! He told us that a group had already left to go see it and it would be faster for us to take the van part way. So after a very bumpy ride and a short hike, we finally got to see an elephant! I love that God enjoys making us happy. Someone read me something the other day that mentioned God answering little prayers (like seeing elephants). It went on to say that nothing is big to God! After an hour of following the elephant around we went back to the hotel to relax and play cards. After another fabulous dinner, we called it a night. We woke up early Saturday and started our trip back to Accra. 13 and a half hours later, we were finally home!
The oldest mosque in Ghana in the village of Larabanga. The village is 100% Muslim.
Me and the elephant God sent our way!
Warthogs were EVERYWHERE!!!
The view from the Mole Motel Beautiful sunsets!
God's Beautiful Creation!
Kobs (from the antelope family)
A baboon in a tree! We were able to get really close to them!
Jimmy, Me, Meghann, Christy, and William
