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As you can see, I haven't had much time (either on the road or now that I'm home) to blog, but that may change. There are so many things I'm trying to do at the moment, though, that it's hard to remember there are people out there in the blogosphere (or elswhere) that are interested to some extent in what I'm doing.

So... a brief recap: The last week of the banquet tour was really good. I got some great responses and actually met a lady who still sings my parents scripture songs (when my parents first became Christians they wrote a lot of folk-oriented scripture songs and sang them all around Florida at churches in the early days of the Jesus movement of the 70's). It was really cool. Here's some video of me singing 'I'm on a Journey' (which I did every night), as well as another video of parts of Charleston, SC that we got to see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAw74iPV1Gc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvEHnWOO15M

I flew back from the banquet tour on a Sunday (Mother's Day), and the following day my parents flew down to SC to help lead a 2-week spiritual retreat. I started back to work the same day and so it's been somewhat hectic. I've been working overtime for Math-U-See while overseeing house affairs (cooking, cleaning, upkeep, shopping, keeping tabs on things) with the help of my younger siblings, catching up with folks, applying to this PhD program, and working on some new recordings with a few new pieces of equipment. My parents come home on Saturday. =)

Life on the Road

So I'm on a banquet speaking tour - the idea being to raise awareness of the need for bible translation into the more than 2,200 unwritten languages that are left in the world. Those 2,200+ languages represent over 350 million people (yes, 350,000,000!) that still have no access to scripture in a language they can understand. My parents have been with Wycliffe since the 70s, which is why/how I was born and raised in Ghana.

As anyone who travels for work can tell you, life on the road can be grueling. Dan and I travel to a different city, set up our equipment for the media part of the presentation, feed a meal and present to a different room of people almost every night. So far we've done 20 banquets over the past four weeks - 5 banquets per week. Tonight is the first banquet of our final week - our 25th and final banquet will be on Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida.

This kind of schedule doesn't leave much time for sightseeing (it's kind of like being on tour), but we have managed to see some of the sights, nonetheless (when there were sights to see, that is). This is particularly true of local eateries - there are lots of restaurants down here that I've never been to, chains as well as local delis and cafes. Here's me and Dan in 'Sweet Magnolias' in Gainesville, GA, which is in what used to be the old JC Penney arcade on the square.

And of course I would be remiss if I failed to mention the tour of UGA that my friends Sam and Marie gave me after the banquet in Athens, GA. On our day off (wednesday), they offered to show me around the campus, busting the myth of the 5-year curse, taking me to see the book bound in human flesh in the school library (not shown) and of course the tree that owns itself (not shown) as well as the double-barreled cannon that only fired one round. Check out the video below.

Speaker Training

I'm in Florida for Wycliffe Associates at speaker training. Since I will be speaking on their banquet tour for the next month, I'm here to learn how to tell my stories effectively to communicate and keep people's attention. We're at a hotel near Orlando and the days are pretty grueling.. but they sure do feed us well!

I've been learning a lot, developing stories that fit into 2 minutes and communicate the truth of the situation I'm describing. Telling stories is more like theater - not so much like songwriting. With songwriting I'm crafting poetry that captures multiple shades of meaning to communicate truth with stories and imagery, but with storytelling I'm capturing emotional and image-rich events in natural, every-day language. A subtle difference. Songwriting relies on the words and music to communicate, while storytelling relies mostly on non-verbal cues.

There is definitely some overlap, and I find I'm taking to it like a fish to water. Or perhaps more like a dog to water - maybe I'll turn into a dolphin eventually. Still working on that and will let you know what happens by the end of the week. If you'd like to come to a banquet (April 5 - May 8 in Georgia and South Carolina) to hear my stories and how you can be part of getting scriptures to the millions of people around the world who still do not have any of God's Word in a language that they can understand, check out the dates below, and my or the WA website for more details.

Apr 5 Valdosta, GA

Apr 6 Americus, GA

Apr 8 Columbus, GA

Apr 9 Warner Robins, GA

Apr 10 Macon, GA

Apr 12 Fayetteville, GA

Apr 13 Conyers, GA

Apr 15 Marietta, GA

Apr 16 Rome, GA

Apr 17 Norcross, GA

Apr 19 Gainesville, GA

Apr 20 Athens, GA

Apr 22 Anderson, SC

Apr 23 Greenville, SC

Apr 24 Spartanburg, SC

Apr 26 Rock Hill, SC

Apr 27 Aiken, SC

Apr 29 Augusta, SC

Apr 30 Columbia, SC

May 1 Florence, SC

May 3 Mount Pleasant, SC

May 4 Savannah, GA

May 6 Statesboro, GA

May 7 Waycross, GA

May 8 Jacksonville, FL