Letter from Glen and Carol Hallead in Ghana
August 1, 2007
Friends,
The Young Adult Volunteer Program in Ghana has finished the 2006-2007 term. The volunteers are in the process of leaving the country to return to the United States after a year of intense immersion in Ghanaian society. They have lived in situations and visited areas few Western citizens ever do. They have taken upon themselves the yoke of service and freely given a year of their lives. Do they see it as a waste of time? Not a chance. As they depart, tears are shed, last-minute purchases are made, and conversations are held that demonstrate a strong desire to capture of piece of this year and to hold fast to it.
We have learned many lessons, not the least of which is “different is not necessarily wrong,” and even if it is, then sometimes people and nations have to be allowed to make the same mistakes we did. We can’t and shouldn’t stop that from happening. Building a nation is no different from raising a child, and we who come from technologically, institutionally, economically, and educationally developed areas of the world must stop and reflect on just how similar the path to success is anywhere in the world. It is paved with disappointment, failure, and even despair, but it is also mixed with hope and success and joy.
(Left to right) Carol Hallead, Kimberlee Frost, Nora Jorgensen, Leigh Bonner, and Glen Hallead at the conclusion of the end-of-term retreat.
And so the year has been for these three volunteers, Leigh Bonner, Kimberlee Frost, and Nora Jorgensen. The YAV stoles they were presented to commemorate the year are symbolic of this. The colors are that of the Ghanaian flag—red, green, yellow and black. The words “YAV Ghana 2006-2007” are embroidered as a reminder of the program that framed this experience. Two “adinkra” symbols adorn the stole as well, the stool representing royalty and authority, and “Gye Nyame,” which is translated often as “except God,” implying that without God nothing is possible.
These young women have seen and done amazing things, including
- moving into a village that they had to hike to carrying whatever was needed on their backs,
- learning to cook foods with amazingly different ingredients, suffering sickness and disease,
- finding committed professors and other church leaders who could “write their own tickets” to places such as Harvard or Yale but who choose to stay in Ghana for the development of their people,
- worshipping for five hours at a time in a language they don’t speak or understand very well,
- listening to all-night prayer services in their back yards in a language they don’t speak or understand very well,
- eating freshly boiled rat, and banku, and other foods the consistency of which is so foreign to our tongues that it takes a long, purposeful, and hard swallow to get it down,
- falling down (figuratively and literally) and getting back up again and again and again.
These are our young adults—the ones who still choose to put service above self, who are willing give up a year of their life to learn more about just how alike and just how different we are from one another. These are the young women of the future who see God doing amazing things and get excited enough to do something radically different from their friends. These are the ones who upon returning to the United States sometimes even lose those friends because their friends just cannot relate to what they have experienced or why they would do such a thing. These are the people who will bring us closer together and who will find ways to make the transition to responsible living in ways that may be a threat to those around them. These are the folks who will never be content to take the comfortable or easy road again.
The stole presented to Kimberlee, Leigh, and Nora at the conclusion of the program during worship.
If you have a Young Adult Volunteer in your congregation, or if you ever get the chance to meet one, take the time to ask to hear their story. Make a point of letting them know that there are those who may not understand but who do care. Readjusting to the United States for these Young Adults is not always easy. A year has passed. Much has changed. Their friends have continued to move on with their lives, and in some cases their family has changed while they were gone—grandparents have died, nieces and nephews have been born, home church pastors have come and gone. They came with empty hands and left with full ones, filled with gifts of understanding, appreciation, and love. It is true that they have left a lot here in Ghana. The Hallead family has been tremendously blessed, as have so many others. But as any of the volunteers will most likely tell you, they return to the United States with so much more.
These are your young people. These are God’s children and we’re awfully proud to call them our Young Adult Volunteers. This letter is dedicated to them and to you who make all of this possible. Thank you.
Glen, Carol, Jacob, and Caleb Hallead
Accra, Ghana
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 315
