June 2012 Thank you for praying about our residents visas.

We received our one-year residents visas on May 14. That is definitely an answer to prayer! For the first couple of weeks in May, I was very sick. I had a temporary filling which came out of a tooth, and the tooth got very infected. I had never been to the dentist in Ghana before. The first place that I ended up was not very clean. That dentist wanted to drill; but after I saw his rusty drill bits, I told him, No thanks. He did put another temporary filling in, but he did nothing about the infection. I thought it was starting to get better until the infection started making me very sick. I thought I would have to travel five hours to the capitol city, but another missionary told me of a different dentist here in Takoradi. It was a much cleaner facility. The dentist was able to do a root canal. It took several visits to complete the root canal. I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic which I was given. Once we got that under control, I was on the road to recovery. I have been needing to make a trip to Ivory Coast to go through the rest of our stuff there. But, I could not leave the country until I got the resident visa for Ghana. Since the war took place in 2011, Ivory Coast has not been requiring a visa to cross the Ghanaian border into Ivory Coast. When I attempted to cross the border this time, I found out that they are now enforcing the visa in Ivory Coast. All of the people who used to work at the border are no longer there. They have all been replaced with people from the north. At one point, they had me in handcuffs. When it was all said and done, I had made friends with the man who put me in handcuffs. They followed me back across the border to inform the Ghanaians that I had not embarked. The Ghanaian immigrations officials said that they were not aware that visas were now required either. I went from the border straight to Accra (a seven-hour trip) to begin the visa process. In doing all of that, I discovered that my yellow fever shot was out of date. After a forty-eight hour wait, I got the visa. I went back home to Takoradi before attempting to cross the border again. It was smooth sailing on the second attempt. I was reminded once again that I have a lot of people praying for me! The church here in Ntokroful is doing well. We have had several first-time visitors recently. One of our members who was with the UN in Lebanon for six months just returned. He and one of our faithful ladies will be getting married in a couple months. That will be my first wedding to perform in Africa. Please pray for Bright and Harriett as they start a new life together. Someone purchased a ticket for me to go to Israel for a week. That trip is June 11-18. Then, I will need to make one more trip to Ivory Coast before July 1. Someone has purchased a ticket for my wife to go the States for a short trip in July. Our children are on the trimester system here and will finish this school year at the end of July. Please pray for traveling safety and for the rest of the family in Ghana. Your friends and ambassadors to West Africa,

Joe and Laura Consford