UPCOMING GHANA MISSION

The dates have been set! We will be departing for Ghana Dec. 29 from New Orleans and arriving back in New Orleans Jan. 8. If you are not able to join us for this mission trip, please consider joining our meetings as we plan our fund raising project.

The next meeting will be Monday Aug. 18 at 7p.m. in the St. Thomas Conference Room upstairs above the Parish Offices at 3117 West 4th St. across from USM in Hattiesburg.

We hope to be able to build a bakery in Fr. Charles' local town. A rough estimate for the materials necessary to build the bakery is $8000. Fr. Charles already has an industrial mixer for the bakery.

This will be an innovative project in that it will teach the local ladies a skill that they can take back to their villages and use to earn a living. The resources available in each village would determine the type of oven used in the village bakery once the individual lady from the village has learned to bake. The types of ovens available use residual heat from wood, charcoal, gas, and electricity. Each of theses types of oven will be available at the training bakery.

Then each lady from the various villages can go back and have an oven built. Then while she bakes, she can hire others to help her with sales and other duties associated with the bakery in her village.

PLANNING MISSION TO GHANA MEETING

To all interested persons, there will be an initial planning and organizational meeting at St. Thomas Parish Center at 3117 W 4th St. in Hattiesburg at 7 pm on Thursday July 31. We are considering going sometime between Dec. 26 to Jan. 10. Please check your calendars to see what dates would be best for you. Some of the dates will depend upon the pricing of the airfares.
Hope to see you there!

Many Thanks! Donations Sent to New Orleans!

Many thanks to all who donated items for the container to be shipped to Ghana. We were able to fill our part of the container. Our part of the container was about ten feet wide, nine feet high and twenty feet long. It will be tightly packed. We also have the money necessary to pay for the container. We are continuing to receive donations to pay the tariffs when the items arrive in Ghana.

These donated items will show our goodwill and interest in our brothers and sisters in Ghana as Fr. Charles works on projects to assist them in becoming self sufficient.

Many thanks to all who not only donated items but also their time to help with the sorting, moving and packing of the donated items. Without your help we would not have been able to send these donations to Ghana!

Recording for CD

Fr. Charles and Samuel are in St. Thomas Church in Hattiesburg singing and playing their guitars for their recording for the CD Mississippi to Ghana. All proceeds go directly to support the mission Mississippi to Ghana. All equipment, supplies, and expertise necessary to record were donated to the mission.
The following songs are on the CD: Father We Adore You, Praise Be to You, I Love You With the Love..., Holy Holy Holy, Word Made Flesh, Peace Perfect Peace, Hear Oh Lord, Father We Adore You (2 different versions), God Is So Good, Spirit of the Living God, He Is Lord, Trinity Song, and Smile.
The CD is for sale for $7 at the church office.

Catholic Social Services Donates Room of Items

Pictured is Polly Sumrall, a case worker.

Catholic Social and Community Services Case Worker Jannie Green offered to donate to the Mississippi to Ghana mission the room of items in their building. This was a wonderful gift in support of the Mississippi to Ghana Mission. Fr. Charles was able to meet Ms. Green to express his thankfulness and to share some stories of his homeland. Fr. Charles would welcome the opportunity to do this at other churches and civic organizations in our area before he returns to Ghana at the end of August. You may contact him via this blog.

Hattiesburg American Seen & Heard July 10,2008

Seen & Heard: Community cooks with Father Charles
By Judy Showalter • July 10, 2008

HE'S BACK! Father Tommy Conway, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, returned to Hattiesburg a few days ago from a well-deserved vacation.
He led a group of 44 Pine Belt residents on a tour of Ireland and then stayed behind in his homeland to visit family and friends.
While Father Tommy was away, he left his parishioners in the capable hands of Father Charles Ahenkorah.
Father Charles, a native of Ghana, has been staying temporarily in a small apartment above the parish offices of St. Thomas. He enjoys cooking, and the enticing aroma of the West African delicacies he has been preparing upstairs permeates downstairs to the St. Thomas Parish Center.
So many visitors to the parish office inquired about the wonderful aroma in the air that the office staff eventually persuaded Father Charles to share the cooking skills he learned from his mother with some interested members of the community.
Recently, Father Charles; his "sous chef" Tony Taylor, a member of St. Thomas Church; and several cooking enthusiasts gathered in the St. Thomas Parish kitchen for a cooking lesson with Father Charles. I was thrilled to receive the invitation to attend this interesting cultural exchange.
Father Charles prepared a typical West African spicy chicken and mixed vegetable stew, while Taylor worked on a smoked turkey soup, which was even spicier than the stew.
Father Charles and Taylor adjusted the recipes to include ingredients that are available here, and they toned down the pepper a bit to make it more palatable for our American taste buds.
Father Charles also prepared fou fou, a staple food in West Africa made from boiled, then sun-dried yams or cassava, which is later milled into flour. He explained that fou fou is a comfort food in Ghana, and the people there eat it every day.
The fou fou was prepared by adding water to the fou fou flour, which resembled uncooked grits. This mixture was placed in a pot on the stove, and then Father Charles stirred it constantly until it thickened to the creamy texture of mashed potatoes. A sampling of the fou fou revealed that it not only looked like mashed potatoes, but tasted like it too.
The fou fou was then shaped into balls and placed in a bowl, and the smoked turkey soup was served over the fou fou.
Everyone who sampled the West African food that day agreed it was delicious - and that Father Charles is a talented cook.
Will we be seeing him on the Food Network soon? Probably not, but you can get his recipe for Ghana Chicken and Mixed Vegetable Stew and learn more about him and his ministry in Ghana, West Africa, by viewing his blog at www.fathercharlesinghana.blogspot.com.
- Judy Showalter is a freelance writer who lives in Hattiesburg with her husband, James. She is the mother of one son, Mark, and is a former teacher. Contact her at judyshowalter@comcast.net.

GHANA MISSION UPDATE

Donations have been trickling in for the Ghana Mission. The items are are being dropped off at the St. Thomas Students Center. A guitar has been donated but we are yet to get the name of the donor? A computer, printers, clothing,books (fiction,non-fiction & religious) linen, shoes and sandals etc have also been donated. The collection of items will come to an end on the 20th of July so that the items will be made ready to be sent to Ghana in a Container on a ship from New Orleans. God richly bless you for your donations and do pray for the success of this Mission.