Kristen Golightly didn’t make her maiden voyage to Africa this summer to take part in a safari or witness exotic wildlife. The University of South Alabama sophomore women’s golfer traveled to the world’s second-largest continent with a much different purpose.

Golightly, a native of Pensacola, Fla., boarded a plane in early July with seven women from her hometown Olive Baptist Church, where she has been a member her entire life, for a 10-hour flight to Ghana on a mission trip. The group’s destination, Tema (TEE-ma), Ghana, is located in West Africa on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean near the capital city of Accra (uh-KRAH), and sits in a region with a population estimated at over 2.1 million people. Tema has transformed through the years from a small fishing village to what is now the nation’s largest sea port.

“I prayed about this trip for about a month,” Golightly said. “I felt the need to go overseas and spread God’s word around after my experiences this year with European teammates.  I started praying about it, and about a month later I got the answer I was looking for.  My aunt asked me if I wanted to go on a trip with her to Africa, and I said, ‘Let’s go.’”

Each member of the travel party packed two suitcases apiece – one full of clothes and the other full of Bibles, clothes, shoes and crafts to give to the children of Tema at different schools and orphanages they visited.

“We went to schools and did small crafts for them,” she said. “We made necklaces out of different bead colors, and shared the gospel throughout the craft. We had little gifts for the kids, and we brought about 20 pair of shoes. Every time we gave out a pair of shoes or even pencils, they treated it like it was Christmas.

“It was unfortunate because I wish we had more Bibles. People just wanted stuff. Pretty much everything we took over there to give away was gone by the time we left.”

The group spent 10 days spreading its message to the citizens of Ghana. Golightly said one thing that stood out to her was the generosity of the people.

“They waved at us and would come up to our van and want to talk to us,” she said. “People over there are more willing to accept things than in America. Here we try to share the message with different people, and we sometimes get the cold shoulder right away. But they are a very kind and polite people, and they will give you some time of their day just to listen to you and hear you talk.”

Golightly is not a fan of flying, admittedly, and knew that in itself would be an obstacle to overcome if she wanted to make the trip.

“I don’t like planes that much, so it was going to be a step for me to get on that plane and go across some big blue ocean,” she said. “That was one of the things I needed to pray about. “

Upon arriving in Ghana, Golightly learned of some of the stark contrasts between life there and in America, as well as some of the more subtle differences.

“The churches over there are so different from ours. We were over there for two Sundays, and the church over there is so different than the one I am used to,” she said. “We had a conga line in church one day. They shout and clap, but they’re just excited to hear about the gospel.  They had their church in a small school room that had a roof over it but no windows. It had a few plastic chairs and a few drums and electrical things, but not much other than that.

“It’s a poverty-stricken area, but they’re near the capital so there are some nice things. They have an interstate system similar to the one we have here, but where we were was very poverty-stricken. We went to shops near the capital city, and just about everywhere you go in there they swarm you because they just want some money or something to eat. So we were able to share the message that way too.”

But basic essentials of everyday life that Americans have grown accustomed to aren’t quite as plentiful in Ghana, according to Golightly.

“Certain areas have better plumbing, but it was suggested to us to drink bottled water while we were there. You didn’t know what was going to be in the water, because in certain areas they were getting it from streams that were dirty. It really broke my heart to see that and see people who didn’t have enough to eat.”

As far as the weather during the trip was concerned, Golightly said they could not have asked for anything better despite being so close to the Equator.

“They don’t have four seasons like we do, they have a wet season and a dry season,” she said. “We were over there during the wet season. If we would have gone a little further south then it would have been winter, but we were near the Equator and it actually felt more comfortable over there than it does here. It was about 80 degrees and the wind was always blowing. Most of the time we had clouds, so it was nice. We wore capris and short-sleeve shirts, but it was funny because at night we would see people in big heavy coats and it would be 70 degrees outside.”

Golightly said her experience was like none other but even as they traveled the countryside spreading the message, she was closer to the game of golf than the she first realized.

“One of the things that surprised me was when we passed by a golf course,” she said. “That’s something I didn’t expect to see. It was a very basic and simple course. They just cut the grass and that’s about it, but not too many of the Ghanaian people golf.  A lot of Chinese people live in Ghana and work in industry, and they play golf.”

As busy as the group was during their trip, they opportunity to see some wildlife before returning home presented itself from the start.

“The first day there we went to a school that was near a naval base, and the way out there was primarily just open land with grass,” Golightly said. “Off in the distance we could see huge mountains. One of the pastors who was helping us took us out to a preservation site and we saw some monkeys. The people there had pigs, goats, wild dogs and chickens – there were chickens everywhere.”

Golightly is not the only member of her family to serve on a mission trip overseas. Her brother, Brett, traveled to the Philippines for three months while attending college at the University of West Florida.

“I thought it was about time I started thinking and praying about it, and when I went home for Christmas break I thought it was something I should do,” she said.

After experiencing Africa for the first time, Golightly earned a greater appreciation for life in America but left with a sense of wanting to do more for the people of Ghana. In fact, she would not rule out the possibility of returning to the country and continuing to work as a mission.

“I certainly would consider doing it again there. The people are really nice and just so generous,” she said. “Some of them don’t have much, so I learned to appreciate the simple things that we take for granted here – food, water and shelter.”