Christmas in Ghana…and my beloved family

A Ghanaian Christmas, I’ve discovered, is much more about friends than about family as compared to a Christmas in the U.S. Where Americans tend to get together with their families and stay in their homes for the day, Africans are all about getting out and visiting each other. I was expecting to spend a quiet, festive day with my African family; but instead I found myself spending the morning chopping vegetables and washing dishes, helping to prepare a feast that was slowly nibbled at throughout the day by a stream of visitors who came to call on the Tirumbus. I’d purchased gifts for each family member, and ended up hurriedly presenting the gifts in the living room while three guests were eating in the kitchen.

Pastor Tirumbu presented me with my Christmas gift after family devotion on December 26, explaining that due to the busyness of Christmas Day itself, they usually exchange family gifts the day after. Oops!

The novelty of observing new traditions somewhat distracted me from the fact that I was away from my own family; but I had a dream a few nights later in which I was so homesick that when an amazing airline deal came along, I booked a surprise flight home, just to see my family briefly. Unfortunately, in the dream, I found I’d left my passport – which I didn’t need to return home since, after all, I was an American returning to America – in Ghana, and was going to have to pay exorbitant rush fees to get a replacement passport and visa so that I could finish out my year according to my supporters’ expectations. =D

Well, if I can’t go home before June, at least a little of home can come to me…and that will be in the form of my dad and brother, who will be with me in just FOUR DAYS!! Please pray for their safe travels and for the arrival of all the luggage they’ll be bringing. And oh yeah, praying that we’ll handle the parting OK at the other end might not be a bad idea either. ;)

One last little thing about Christmas in Ghana vs. America: where my family had a 30-inch snowfall, I experienced temperatures that peaked in the 90s and 100s (even today’s high is expected to top 96 degrees!). Regardless of location, however, Christmas is about the coming of our Savior. Praise the Lord that Jesus is God in Ghana and in America, that He died and rose again and now reigns on high!