Some Background Information

I am getting ready to go to Ghana for a 6-month internship that is part of the HNGR Program at Wheaton College. HNGR stands for Human Needs and Global Resources and it prepares students to do a 6-month internship in a country in the Majority World (also known as the Third World). My HNGR requirements in Ghana consist of an internship, an independent study, and a Global Christian Perspectives course. These together will hopefully guide my time in a way that will allow me to be a learner in the new culture, be able to serve through my internship, be able to help my internship through an independent study project, and read materials that will help me process the journey that I am taking.

In Ghana, I have an internship with an organization called the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy, and Bible Translation (GILLBT). This organization is associated with the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Since Ghana has over 60 different languages, there is much need for bible translation as more and more people become Christians. I will be involved with a section of the organization that is titled "Scripture In Use." This department takes translated Scriptures and uses them in different ways and in different ministries to increase discipleship. I will specifically be working with the newly translated scriptures for the Akyode (pronounced Ah-cho-day) people who are a small ethnic group (about 15,000) in the Upper Volta Region. I will be working with this ethnic group and possibly two other small ethnic groups in the area in the production and distribution of indigenous Scripture songs. There are many different ideas of what kind of musical work I may be doing and so I will let you know as we figure things out!

I will be living in Nkwanta which is a town in the Upper Volta Region. My guide book describes it as "the most developed town in Upper Volta although it is not very developed at all!" This town has about 20,000 people and regularly receives people from nearby villages because it has a weekly market. More information to come later!

http://www.ezilon.com/maps/africa/ghana-maps.html