The pastors showed up at my room around 9:30 this morning for the final presentation and things I wanted to share with them. One of the first things they all mentioned was that hotel room rates, taxi, bus and tro-tro fares all went up 20% last night! Much of the infrastructure in Ghana is owned or controlled by the government (gasoline, electricity, etc). So those things can all go up or down overnight depending on what some government official or pencil pusher in a windowless office decides at the moment. As anywhere else in the world, the cost of energy affects the cost of everything else.  

We had an interesting round of questions regarding marriage, divorce, what is allowed and how best to help couples who are struggling. My final class with powerpoint slides was on the job of a shepherd. God seems to have a particular affinity for sheep, and he has appointed pastors to serve like loving shepherds to care for and protect His flock. We went through a number of scriptures and points about the tasks and duties of a shepherd.

We ended with a brief discussion about pastoral transfers, and the fact that we are going to begin making transfers this year. It seemed overall that each of the men understood and accepted the need for transfers. It is never easy, but there are easily definable benefits.

This afternoon I was going to get more work done here in my room, but the power went out for a couple of hours, and then the internet was down until later this evening, so unfortunately I wasn't able to do much. Just as well, as I seem to have picked up a little bit of an intestinal thing, and didn't feel great - not really sick, just didn't feel wonderful. Fortunately, it has passed, and by this evening I'm feeling much better, which is good, because I had another visit here in my room this evening.

Tomorrow morning we are planning to check out and head south toward Elmina at around 7 am. We'll take a combination of busses and tro-tros, which makes the trip quite a bit less expensive, but it may take a good bit of the day to make the trip. Tomorrow evening I hope to visit with a couple more folks in Elmina, and then on Wednesday the three of us (Reuel Dima, Eshun Plange and myself) will take a look at two or three properties that we might potentially be able to develop into a permanent location for the Feast, summer camp and other combined Church activities.