Comments from the VIM Team Members

Beth Ruppe: I have been trying to think of a way to describe my experience in a sentence or two and well... I can't. I guess the best thing is to say that I had pretty high expectations but they came nowhere close to the reality of my experience. When Nana made the analogy of the bond we share being like a marriage and closed our time together with "What God has joined together let no man put asunder" I was overwhelmed. That was better than anything I can ever come up with to describe my feelings but I don't know if that helps.

Here is a picture that I like of Mr. Rob and friends and one of the concrete pouring "assembly line." If you look closely at the second picture you can see a bowl of concrete going up and an empty one being thrown back down.

Alex Rea: I suppose in only a couple sentences, my trip to Ghana was absolutely life changing. I have made friends and seen things that I will treasure forever and that I will try to share with my friends and family at home. I wrote in my journal everyday we were there and I think my entry for the last day sums up my experience well. The last lines read as follows: "The most obvious thing to me is that I must come back. The respectful and hard-working nature of the Ghanaian people is not something found everywhere and not always found at home. This is an amazing place and truly must sit near the kingdom of God. I will miss Ghana so much but will someday come back; I promise."

Rob Schultze: I went on this adventure in search of ....something. I'm not sure exactly how to express it, but it involved family, purpose, soul, love, youth, God. I found so much more....like friendship, understanding, hope, perspective, faith...our Ghanaian friends were volunteers as well (what were they expecting and hoping for??)...it's amazing what happens when you bring together a diverse group of people with open minds, share a dream (and a little faith)...humanity...and a bit of hard work....