Our Link with Yelwoko

By Rev Linda Porter

We’re back!  Safe and sound!  On 25th August we flew from Heathrow to Accra, the capital of Ghana, and the on the 26th a further flight to Tamale in Northern Ghana.  It was then a few days into our stay before we were taken on the long drive of about four hours to Yelwoko.

I hadn’t been prepared for the remoteness of this place.  I was aware that there was a clinic in the village and somehow this had, in my mind, translated itself into the village being on a ‘proper’ road.  And so it was when we left the road and started off on a dusty track, at that moment I realised what rural really meant.

We were warmly greeted by Father Jeremiah Aladago, his assistant Fr. Michael, one of the Church Wardens, the Headmaster of the school and one of the teachers.

Nor had I realised the extent of the recent storm damage to the school which is, in large part, currently without a roof.  There are approx. 250 pupils at the school which provides for kindergarten and children up to the age of 15.

Although the school children were on their summer holidays we were able to meet just a few of the younger ones together with some of the mums who go in to help at the school on a rota basis.

The villagers have begun to build a new church.  The present building accommodates about 200 but when the Yelwoko congregation are joined by worshippers from its outstations they number around 600.  They have been saving for three years and are only now at foundation level, providing the labour themselves.  When I asked when they hope to complete I was told, ‘it could take 5 years, it may take 10’!

Yelwoko is, without doubt, a poor village, that is in material terms.  In other ways we have much to gain from them in the way they lead their lives, placing value not so much on what they have got but on the goodness of God each and every day.

The children at Shalfleet & Yarmouth schools will soon be able to write letters to children at Yelwoko, widening knowledge, learning from each other, appreciating what life is like in another part of the world.  As for us, what will our role be?  This link is a companion link; encouraging one another, praying for one another, sharing both our joys and our down moments.

I hope over the next weeks and months to share more with you and update you on progress with both the church and school.  I know we will be enriched by these friends in Ghana as I pray that they will too.