Face-Off

The members in Sunyani have been begging for more activities where they can get together and socialize with each other. We have put together a game night called "Face-Off". Basically, it is held once a week, for 8 weeks and players are drawn from a basket of names to compete in "Minute To Win It" silly games where the Grand Champion will win a new IPOD. They are really excited about the event!

The first game night seemed cursed from the get-go. First, the Area office hired some painters to paint the inside and outside walls of Nkwabeng, where the games were to be held, as well as the outside guard walls.They also were making preparations to paint and seal the inside floors but we stopped them in the knick of time. (It takes about 3 full days to dry.) We got there early and set up the chairs and game props. About then I had a surge of diarrhea (common here in Ghana)--thank goodness we have bathrooms in meetinghouses.

I put signs out on the road and attached two large red cloths to the gate to show everyone where to come in. Brother Brookman, Gary's District Clerk, came running into the chapel and apparently my red flags were very inappropriate. Red is the color of mourning and death in Ghana (along with black)) and is considered a very solemn and sad color and to display it at the gate meant someone had died. We took the flags down.

Africans are ALWAYS late--never on time for anything, but they started arriving in droads about an hour early. The games were scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm. By 6:15, we had a tremendous crowd! At 6:25 pm, the inevitable happened--the power went off. It's dark at 6 pm and it was pitch black inside so we waited for a while outside on the grounds. Finally, we gave the members 3 choices: cancel the event for that night and go home; postpone it to the next night; or travel to Penkwase Chapel and carry it off that night. Much to our surprise, they all wanted to move it and have it that night at Penkwase.

So we flagged down taxis, loaded the games and all the people, and off to the new building we went (where the power was on--we called to make certain). That first night it was a little thrown together but it finally went off without a hitch. They all had a great time. We had planned on about 50-60 people, served Fan-ice, ran out, and figured we had about 85-90 people--a great success!

The problem is we have to do it again next week. The joys of mission!


UPDATE: Face-Off is HUGE! Every week, 80-90 people show up, compete in silly games, laugh (and argue), and all but the winner leave vowing to compete for the coveted championship the next week. All in all we will have 8 weekly competitions (way too many and way too long). Then the weekly winners will play off to see who will be the Grand Champion and win the IPOD......They Love It!!!