That's how I would describe my trip to Ghana as a United Youth Corps volunteer this August. I experienced an eager anticipation for what awaited us after a full 24 hours of tight spaces and little movement on the three flights that took us to Accra.

The very first day we were in Ghana, we attended church in Accra, the capital. The meeting hall is only a few yards from the coast, so we walked down to the ocean before services. It was beautiful, but I saw a little boy using a plastic bag as a toilet, then he tossed it over a cliff into the ocean below, where there were many more filled plastic bags. This was the most memorable disturbing incident of the trip, and the smell will always stay with me!

Along with Melvin Rhodes, senior pastor for Ghana, and Tom Clark, associate senior pastor and camp director, four other Youth Corps volunteers from the United States and I were in Ghana for the annual Ghanaian summer camp. The other volunteers were Amber Epperson, Arielle Falardeau, Josh Lee and Corbin Rose.

Every year over 100 campers attend from all over Ghana. In previous years the camp has been held in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region, five hours inland. This year the camp was held at Adisadel College in Cape Coast, so many of the campers saw the ocean for the first time.

We traveled west down the coast to Elmina to begin camp. I felt one big "Wow!" as I looked out at the sun setting over the ocean. We were standing on the balcony of the Elmina Beach Resort Hotel, in the small town of Elmina, where the slave trade used to go on. I could see Elmina Castle, where slaves were held before being shipped to the Americas. We toured it the next day. Earlier this year the castle was one of the places chosen for the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire.

I had never seen anything so beautiful as that sunset. This was the vacation of a lifetime, the greatest and most meaningful trip of my life—and it had only just started!

In the same area of Ghana, which is a major tourist center, we were also able to visit Cape Coast Castle, Kakum Rain Forest and a restaurant/hotel complex built on stilts with crocodiles in the water. The canopy walk at Kakum will stay in my memory the longest. This is made up of seven rope bridges that are over 125 feet above the floor of the rain forest. As you walk on the bridges, you can look down at the rain forest, the most gorgeous, calming and peaceful scenery imaginable. Sometimes clouds below block your view, but the whole atmosphere up there is just amazing. I was reminded of the Kingdom of God and how nothing we see or imagine will come close to how wonderful God's Kingdom will be! Thanks to a fund-raiser in the Oakland, California, area churches, a few days later we were able to treat all the campers to Kakum, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most of them, who live too far away or are too poor to visit this area of Ghana.

The crocodile farm enabled me and fellow volunteer Josh Lee to pet and play with these dangerous creatures, with the help of an extremely attentive guide! Thankfully, we lived to tell the tale!

The six days of camp Aug. 14 to 20 offered daily Christian Living classes with the theme "Heroes of the Bible." Physical activities included volleyball, soccer, Frisbee, team challenge and, for the first time, softball. That was my contribution. We had to modify the games a little and have a lot of patience teaching campers who were totally unfamiliar with most of these sports. It also got a little crazy with the language difference—English is a second language to the campers, so I found myself keeping what I said short and to the point.

We also battled with constant power outages, little hot water and we were truly thankful whenever we had anything resembling a toilet.

The friendliness of the people was so truly memorable. I learned that, wherever you go, God's people are always welcoming. God's Spirit works with the Africans as it does with us in the United States. While they are way poorer when it comes to the physical things, spiritually we are all blessed to have God's presence in our lives. We are truly blessed with opportunities like the summer camp in Ghana. UN