So as you may know, this has just been a difficult year for me, especially the last few months with the stress and disappointment of looking for a job. However, God has provided a lot of encouragement for me through other people, the promises in His Word, and even through the lyrics of songs. In this post I'd like to share a Bible passage that has been especially powerful in my life the past week, as well as a song by Kari Jobe that I came back across tonight. I really desire for these to be my continual prayer as I go through this seemingly difficult time in my life!
**Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8**
"For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken...For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us."
**Beautiful by Kari Jobe**
Here before Your altar
I am letting go of all I've held
Of every motive, every burden
Everything that's of myself
And I just wanna wait on You, my God
I just wanna dwell on who You are
Beautiful, beautiful
Oh, I am lost for more to say
Beautiful, beautiful
Oh Lord You're beautiful to me
Here in Your presence
I am not afraid of brokenness
To wash Your feet with humble tears
I would be poured out till nothing's left
And I just wanna wait on You, my God
I just wanna dwell on who You are
Beautiful, beautiful
Oh, I am lost for more to say
Beautiful, beautiful
Oh Lord You're beautiful to me
Holy, holy, holy You are, You are
Beautiful, beautiful
Oh, I am lost for more to say
Beautiful, beautiful
Oh Lord You're beautiful to me
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Processing Post-Ghana
Hey friends!!
Just wanted to share some processing from after the trip about overall lessons God taught me through this amazing experience. :-)
God also showed our team obvious proof of His power and work through the lives of Chris and Tammy Brooks, the founders of the Jesse Brooks Foundation (the ministry we partnered with at the Children's Home). Chris and Tammy were just an ordinary American couple living ordinary lives until their daughter, Jesse, died in a car accident nine years ago when she was just ten years old. Jesse had always had a desire to be a missionary to orphans in Africa, and after her death Chris and Tammy started the foundation to oversee Children's Homes in Africa. It was so amazing to see how God is showing His power through using this death to bring about so much life to orphaned children in Africa! God's work truly does exceed our expectations and limitations.
Another way that God revealed His greatness to me on this trip was through really experiencing the power of prayer. One night, my teammate Randi and I really felt led to pray together for more team unity. The next day, God obviously answered our prayer through bringing our whole team together in unified prayer for the children and against spiritual warfare. That moment brought us together as a team as nothing else could have!
As far as what we actually did while in Ghana, our team surveyed the new land that the Jesse Brooks Foundation recently purchased and created a master plan for the site as the new location for the Children's Home. Since I went along on this eMi trip as a volunteer and not an engineer, I had a little bit of difficultly figuring out my role the first couple days in Aflao. It was definitely a very humbling experience to not really feel like I had a part to play. However, God used this shaky beginning to shape me and use me even more the during the rest of our time. Because I started out the trip feeling “unnecessary” in a way, I was so much more willing to humbly submit whatever God had for me throughout the course of the trip...and He definitely had a lot! I ended up getting to go to the Children's Home just about every day, sometimes twice a day, singing songs with the kids and sharing the gospel through reading stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible which I brought along with me. Although these kids knew most of the stories already, it was a great hook to start up deeper conversations and really get them talking about who Jesus is to them. I also had the opportunity to teach how to tell time in a couple different schools in Aflao using handmade clocks.
One thing that was pretty difficult for me was to see the lack of resources over there, particularly in teachers themselves. I actually got several job offers while I was in Ghana, and began to feel guilty about coming back to Colorado where I am still currently unemployed and planning on substitute teaching the upcoming year. I questioned why God would show me this problem if I am not to be the solution. This is still something I am wrestling with a bit, but one thing God is teaching me through all of this is that He wants me to be faithful where He has placed me, and humble when it is not exactly where I think is best. I am realizing that being “needed” is not what matters, but what matters is that I am faithful to God's calling on my life-to glorify Him in everything that I do. I need to glorify Him with my every action, whether that be subbing in Greeley, CO or singing with orphans in Ghana. I am so thankful that God used this trip to remind me of this constant calling in my life.
Just wanted to share some processing from after the trip about overall lessons God taught me through this amazing experience. :-)
One thing God definitely taught me through this trip is that He is BIG and will always exceed my expectations! It was so neat to have the opportunity to see how He has worked through the lives of all of the Ghanaian pastors that we met as well as the orphans at the Home. Through this, God really impressed on my heart how great He really is to be able to be so intricately involved in my own life as well as in these Ghanaians' lives all the way around the globe! I have always known that God is omnipotent and omnipresent, but it was so powerful to really be able to experience proof of these qualities for myself.
God also showed our team obvious proof of His power and work through the lives of Chris and Tammy Brooks, the founders of the Jesse Brooks Foundation (the ministry we partnered with at the Children's Home). Chris and Tammy were just an ordinary American couple living ordinary lives until their daughter, Jesse, died in a car accident nine years ago when she was just ten years old. Jesse had always had a desire to be a missionary to orphans in Africa, and after her death Chris and Tammy started the foundation to oversee Children's Homes in Africa. It was so amazing to see how God is showing His power through using this death to bring about so much life to orphaned children in Africa! God's work truly does exceed our expectations and limitations.
Another way that God revealed His greatness to me on this trip was through really experiencing the power of prayer. One night, my teammate Randi and I really felt led to pray together for more team unity. The next day, God obviously answered our prayer through bringing our whole team together in unified prayer for the children and against spiritual warfare. That moment brought us together as a team as nothing else could have!
As far as what we actually did while in Ghana, our team surveyed the new land that the Jesse Brooks Foundation recently purchased and created a master plan for the site as the new location for the Children's Home. Since I went along on this eMi trip as a volunteer and not an engineer, I had a little bit of difficultly figuring out my role the first couple days in Aflao. It was definitely a very humbling experience to not really feel like I had a part to play. However, God used this shaky beginning to shape me and use me even more the during the rest of our time. Because I started out the trip feeling “unnecessary” in a way, I was so much more willing to humbly submit whatever God had for me throughout the course of the trip...and He definitely had a lot! I ended up getting to go to the Children's Home just about every day, sometimes twice a day, singing songs with the kids and sharing the gospel through reading stories from the Jesus Storybook Bible which I brought along with me. Although these kids knew most of the stories already, it was a great hook to start up deeper conversations and really get them talking about who Jesus is to them. I also had the opportunity to teach how to tell time in a couple different schools in Aflao using handmade clocks.
One thing that was pretty difficult for me was to see the lack of resources over there, particularly in teachers themselves. I actually got several job offers while I was in Ghana, and began to feel guilty about coming back to Colorado where I am still currently unemployed and planning on substitute teaching the upcoming year. I questioned why God would show me this problem if I am not to be the solution. This is still something I am wrestling with a bit, but one thing God is teaching me through all of this is that He wants me to be faithful where He has placed me, and humble when it is not exactly where I think is best. I am realizing that being “needed” is not what matters, but what matters is that I am faithful to God's calling on my life-to glorify Him in everything that I do. I need to glorify Him with my every action, whether that be subbing in Greeley, CO or singing with orphans in Ghana. I am so thankful that God used this trip to remind me of this constant calling in my life.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Last few days in Ghana....but God's work is just beginning!
Hello there!
Sorry it has taken me SO long to finally get on and finish blogging about Ghana. Life has been a whirlwind of busyness upon returning to the States, which is not quite what I expected!!
About Sunday, June 12:
John, Randi, Nick, and I went to George's church in the morning. Everyone else slept in and packed up their stuff since they were leaving Sunday evening. The church service was interesting...very different from the church in Aflao! You could see the affluence comparatively to Aflao through the clothing, the actual church building, and even the lovely smells of perfume and cologne rather than B.O. The majority of the service was also in English, but they'd switch back and forth into their native tongue (different language than in Aflao) fairly frequently without translation. It was actually a special children's service and not a normal Sunday, so it was hard to really know for sure other differences in the service. The whole service was over 3 hours long, which I've heard is very typical for African church services.
After church, we checked out of our beach-front hotel because they were ridiculously trying to make us pay for every little thing. (John, Randi, Nick, & I had planned on staying there the rest of our trip) Samuel and his wife had us over for lunch. They made us 2 options of Ghanaian dishes: one which consisted of okra and goat intestine soup with banku (similar to fufu):
and the other dish I have no idea of the name, but it's the one I ate. It is hard to describe, so here is a picture:
I also drank a "Malta" with my snack, which is really popular in Ghana. It is basically non-alcoholic beer, made by Guinness.
Because of our snack, we ended up sitting in George's mother-in-law's office with her for almost an hour, eating, and talking to her about the school and teaching in Ghana. It was really enjoyable even though it wasn't quite what we thought we were going there to do.
After we finished eating, we were able to go out and lead some fun songs with a group of kids (probably pre-K and Kindergarten age) she had gathered together for us. We only did this for about 15-20 minutes though, before Nick and John returned to pick us up so we could leave to get ready for the eMi meeting.
We had the eMi meeting in this fancy conference center building that George had rented out for us. About 20 Ghanaian design professionals showed up, which was really exciting!! John shared about the vision of eMi and the hopes of building an office there sometime in the near future. They were all really excited and also had lots of good questions about eMi and how they could best help. It was really neat to see the beginnings of a partnership with these locals, who could be so influential for eMi in the future! It did raise some questions in my mind though...just involving the difficulties to get a proper balance between coming in and doing things for them, rather than letting them do it or working alongside them. It really is hard to know when what you're doing is helping, and when it is actually hurting.
After the meeting, everyone just mingled. I actually had a guy come up and start talking to me about teaching. He just graduated from college too, in Ghana as a civil engineer, but has taught Sunday school for many years and loves it. We had a great conversation about kids and teaching which was really fun and unexpected! :-)
Tuesday, we left Accra to drive west toward Cape Town. We made several stops on our way, one at a Christian college campus where John's team in September will be helping to design a few new buildings. Then we went to this place called Village of Hope, where John's September eMi team will also be helping with some design. Going to Village of Hope was an awesome experience! Started and funded by the Church of Christ in the States, they have about 50 acres of land which includes a Children's Home, medical clinic, and school-elementary through high school! If you'd like to read more about it, check out their website: http://www.thevillageofhope.com/. One thing that was SO cool about touring the Village of Hope is that their children's home is basically exactly what Chris and Tammy's vision is for the home in Aflao! It was so neat to see what it can look like when it is finished and still growing years later. It was just another great testament of God's faithfulness and a reminder that He will provide and carry through!
From Village of Hope, we drove on to Cape Coast. Cape Coast is a touristy town right on the coast (obviously...), about 3 hours west of Accra. It was exciting to have the opportunity to see a different part of the country! We checked into our hotel (instantly upon walking into the room I found a twitching cockroach!! eew! But don't worry, I squished it and kicked it into the hall!), then drove around to see the town a little. (I keep forgetting to mention our awesome driver, Kofi, who was driving us around thru this and being wonderful enough to jam out to my country music!!)
We stopped to get out and walk to the ocean...which ended up turning into a much more confusing moment than I expected. We were almost instantly bombarded by a group of street children, who were obviously starved for attention, but you could tell all they wanted from us was money. Hanging around them caused a huge internal battle for me. They kept wanting their pictures taken with us, but I was wary the whole time with my hand on my purse so they wouldn't somehow steal my money. I hated the fact that these kids were so lost and needy and yet all I could think about was my uncomfortableness and the safety of my money. It was so encouraging and also convicting when I looked over and saw Nick stooped down to their level, conversing with them about anything he could, seemingly without a care in the world. It was weighing on my mind the whole rest of the evening...was it right for me to be cautious and hold back? Should I have given them money? They kept asking for it, saying they needed food...it's just such a hard situation, and it feels so hopeless and like what good would it do anyway? Definitely a difficult situation for sure. I still don't really know what would have been right...
We got back to the hotel around 7:30, starving and ready for dinner! The "restaurant" at the hotel provided yet another adventure for us, however! There was another American group sitting in there who informed us they had just gotten done waiting 2 hours for there food..and their orders weren't even made correctly! That should have been a pretty big red flag but we decided to try to push forward regardless. We started to order, Randi and Nick first ordering burgers, only to be informed that they had no burgers! We all finally decided on the tuna and avacado sandwich. We were on the coast after all, so the tuna would have to be really fresh, right? Wrong! Well first of all...the waitress told us they had no avacado! She said they could make the sandwich with just tuna...we decided to try to find something else. Well, nothing else really sounded good and our fellow Americans informed us that they didn't have most anything on the menu. So we decided to settle for the plain tuna sandwich anyway. John actually had to go upstairs to nap cuz he was feeling really sick and told us to let him know when the food arrived.
Well....an hour later it arrived....and it was just a 3-layer tuna salad sandwich...with little shreds of lettuce and carrot mixed in! The ratio was about 75% vegetables and 25% tuna. George had specifically warned us to not eat the vegetables in Cape Coast, because you never know about the water. And we had all heard many times that you should NEVER eat lettuce in a country that has questionable water, cuz it soaks up everything it's watered with. We proceeded to spend the next half hour trying to pick out minuscule bites of tuna around all the lettuce. I think I probably ate about one normal size bite of tuna total, the whole meal! I did eat all of my french fries, though! We finally gave up and just ate clif bars and hung out outside on the veranda for a little bit chatting. John never did come down and ended up just sleeping the rest of the night. Turns out he was really sick for the rest of our trip. :-(
Well, I don't want to bore you anymore with drawn-out tuna fish stories....so moving right along! ;-)
Wednesday morning dawned, our last day in Ghana! I was kinda sad and just trying not to think about it the whole day. We did get to do some exciting sight-seeing stuff though! We toured King George's Castle, where the Portuguese, Dutch, and British all used to trade slaves. :-( It was very sad to hear the history, but so interesting at the same time! I had never been in a real castle before, and this one was right on the ocean, and had a mote and drawbridge!! It was also over 500 years old...built in 1482!! Before Columbus even discovered America! That's pretty crazy to think about. I guess Obama and his wife had visited there just a few months ago, which all of the Ghanaians seemed pretty excited about! lol.
After the castle, we got to go on a canopy walk through the jungle, which was just about one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life!!! At some points, we were as much as 40 meters above the jungle floor! I was hoping to see a monkey, but that didn't happen. :-( Here's a picture of the awesomeness though!
After the canopy walk, we drove back to Accra, told George, Joyce, and Kafi goodbye, and went to the airport to fly back to the States. Joyce bought us each a bunch of Ghanaian chocolates on the way, which was so sweet! :-) Let me know if you want to try any....I have a lot left!
Going through customs in Accra went really smoothly. Our flight back to Atlanta was actually 12 hours long!! But luckily this time I was able to sleep much more, thanks to advil pm. :-) It was bittersweet to be leaving. I didn't want to leave the team and the kids and the fun times and new experiences, but was excited to see everyone back home again. There were also some things I was returning to back home that I was quite scared and apprehensive to return to. (mostly the lack of a job...)
Well, that's about all I've got for now....and it's so long the chances of you reading the whole thing are pretty slim! But I guess if you're here, thank you for putting up with the novel, and traveling with me on my adventures in Ghana!! I am so thankful to you for your support. I hope to write more in the next few days about my process of reflecting upon arriving back to the States.
In the mean time, here are some praises/prayer requests:
Praises:
*Safe travels
*Good health
*New friendships formed
*Changed perspective
Prayer Requests:
*Continue to see how God wants to grow me through this experience
*Guidance in setting up a sharing night and that God would give me the words He wants me to share!
*For continual connections in Ghana for eMi, and for John to find a few more volunteers to help set up the West Africa office
*Boldness in sharing the gospel when people ask me about my experiences in Ghana
Sorry it has taken me SO long to finally get on and finish blogging about Ghana. Life has been a whirlwind of busyness upon returning to the States, which is not quite what I expected!!
About Sunday, June 12:
John, Randi, Nick, and I went to George's church in the morning. Everyone else slept in and packed up their stuff since they were leaving Sunday evening. The church service was interesting...very different from the church in Aflao! You could see the affluence comparatively to Aflao through the clothing, the actual church building, and even the lovely smells of perfume and cologne rather than B.O. The majority of the service was also in English, but they'd switch back and forth into their native tongue (different language than in Aflao) fairly frequently without translation. It was actually a special children's service and not a normal Sunday, so it was hard to really know for sure other differences in the service. The whole service was over 3 hours long, which I've heard is very typical for African church services.
After church, we checked out of our beach-front hotel because they were ridiculously trying to make us pay for every little thing. (John, Randi, Nick, & I had planned on staying there the rest of our trip) Samuel and his wife had us over for lunch. They made us 2 options of Ghanaian dishes: one which consisted of okra and goat intestine soup with banku (similar to fufu):
and the other dish I have no idea of the name, but it's the one I ate. It is hard to describe, so here is a picture:
(at the top is boiled plantains-not ripe yet, on the right is yams...you dip both the plantains and yams into the fresh tuna/cooked leefy green stuff on the left. And yes that is a hard boiled egg at the bottom too.) SO delicious!! This comes in close 2nd of favorite meals and definitely rivals for first! Yum!
After lunch, we drove to the new hotel where John, Randi, Nick, and I would stay for our extra nights. It was not nearly as nice (me and Randi's room was about the size of our double bed!), but it was much cheaper, and we were in Africa after all and didn't really care.
A bunch of us played one last round of "7 up" as a team in the hotel lobby, then it was off to the airport to tell 9 of our team, plus Chris and Tammy, goodbye. :-( So sad!
The reason John, Randi, Nick, and I stayed was to gather together some Ghanaian engineers/architects for possible helping at the West Africa office John will be starting up hopefully in a couple years...probably right there in Accra!! We also stayed to meet up with the ministry partner for John's next eMi trip to Ghana in September of this year.
That night, the four of us hung out in John and Nick's room playing Hearts to not be too sad or lonely. When Randi and I went back to our room to try to go to sleep, we kept hearing really creepy noises (like footsteps walking right next to our room back and forth) and had to pray together before we were able to fall asleep. I wouldn't doubt that this was an attack of some sort, but I'm so glad God provided us each other and kept us safe!
Monday morning, we got up bright and early to go to the radio station with George. All four of us actually got to speak on the radio, sharing about eMi and our experiences in Aflao with the children. First time ever on the radio...epic!! Our purpose was to invite Ghanaian architects/engineers to our meeting about eMi that evening.
On Sunday after church, George (the Ghanaian electrical engineer on our team) had excitingly informed us that his mother-in-law runs an elementary school in Accra, and wanted me to go visit and help out there the next day. So after the radio, our team of four headed to visit this school, Bekdan Academy. Upon arriving, George's mother-in-law wanted us to drive over to her new site for the school and take a look at it. They were only a little ways through construction, but Nick, John, and Randi were able to look it over and offer a few suggestions. We then went back to the school, and Randi stayed with me to help with the kids while Nick and John went to take a look at George's new house project. George's mother-in-law gave us a tour of the school...here there were actual classrooms! It was pretty small, as it was only infant through 3rd grade, but was the nicest school we had visited so far in Ghana. However, instead of having us jump in and help out immediately, she took us back to her office where she had a DELICIOUS snack prepared for us...fresh ground nuts (their name for peanuts) and fried plantains!! It was an absolutely delicious combination. Fried plantains have the consistency of sweet potato fries, but taste like really, really sweet bananas.
I also drank a "Malta" with my snack, which is really popular in Ghana. It is basically non-alcoholic beer, made by Guinness.
After we finished eating, we were able to go out and lead some fun songs with a group of kids (probably pre-K and Kindergarten age) she had gathered together for us. We only did this for about 15-20 minutes though, before Nick and John returned to pick us up so we could leave to get ready for the eMi meeting.
We had the eMi meeting in this fancy conference center building that George had rented out for us. About 20 Ghanaian design professionals showed up, which was really exciting!! John shared about the vision of eMi and the hopes of building an office there sometime in the near future. They were all really excited and also had lots of good questions about eMi and how they could best help. It was really neat to see the beginnings of a partnership with these locals, who could be so influential for eMi in the future! It did raise some questions in my mind though...just involving the difficulties to get a proper balance between coming in and doing things for them, rather than letting them do it or working alongside them. It really is hard to know when what you're doing is helping, and when it is actually hurting.
After the meeting, everyone just mingled. I actually had a guy come up and start talking to me about teaching. He just graduated from college too, in Ghana as a civil engineer, but has taught Sunday school for many years and loves it. We had a great conversation about kids and teaching which was really fun and unexpected! :-)
Tuesday, we left Accra to drive west toward Cape Town. We made several stops on our way, one at a Christian college campus where John's team in September will be helping to design a few new buildings. Then we went to this place called Village of Hope, where John's September eMi team will also be helping with some design. Going to Village of Hope was an awesome experience! Started and funded by the Church of Christ in the States, they have about 50 acres of land which includes a Children's Home, medical clinic, and school-elementary through high school! If you'd like to read more about it, check out their website: http://www.thevillageofhope.com/. One thing that was SO cool about touring the Village of Hope is that their children's home is basically exactly what Chris and Tammy's vision is for the home in Aflao! It was so neat to see what it can look like when it is finished and still growing years later. It was just another great testament of God's faithfulness and a reminder that He will provide and carry through!
From Village of Hope, we drove on to Cape Coast. Cape Coast is a touristy town right on the coast (obviously...), about 3 hours west of Accra. It was exciting to have the opportunity to see a different part of the country! We checked into our hotel (instantly upon walking into the room I found a twitching cockroach!! eew! But don't worry, I squished it and kicked it into the hall!), then drove around to see the town a little. (I keep forgetting to mention our awesome driver, Kofi, who was driving us around thru this and being wonderful enough to jam out to my country music!!)
We stopped to get out and walk to the ocean...which ended up turning into a much more confusing moment than I expected. We were almost instantly bombarded by a group of street children, who were obviously starved for attention, but you could tell all they wanted from us was money. Hanging around them caused a huge internal battle for me. They kept wanting their pictures taken with us, but I was wary the whole time with my hand on my purse so they wouldn't somehow steal my money. I hated the fact that these kids were so lost and needy and yet all I could think about was my uncomfortableness and the safety of my money. It was so encouraging and also convicting when I looked over and saw Nick stooped down to their level, conversing with them about anything he could, seemingly without a care in the world. It was weighing on my mind the whole rest of the evening...was it right for me to be cautious and hold back? Should I have given them money? They kept asking for it, saying they needed food...it's just such a hard situation, and it feels so hopeless and like what good would it do anyway? Definitely a difficult situation for sure. I still don't really know what would have been right...
We got back to the hotel around 7:30, starving and ready for dinner! The "restaurant" at the hotel provided yet another adventure for us, however! There was another American group sitting in there who informed us they had just gotten done waiting 2 hours for there food..and their orders weren't even made correctly! That should have been a pretty big red flag but we decided to try to push forward regardless. We started to order, Randi and Nick first ordering burgers, only to be informed that they had no burgers! We all finally decided on the tuna and avacado sandwich. We were on the coast after all, so the tuna would have to be really fresh, right? Wrong! Well first of all...the waitress told us they had no avacado! She said they could make the sandwich with just tuna...we decided to try to find something else. Well, nothing else really sounded good and our fellow Americans informed us that they didn't have most anything on the menu. So we decided to settle for the plain tuna sandwich anyway. John actually had to go upstairs to nap cuz he was feeling really sick and told us to let him know when the food arrived.
Well....an hour later it arrived....and it was just a 3-layer tuna salad sandwich...with little shreds of lettuce and carrot mixed in! The ratio was about 75% vegetables and 25% tuna. George had specifically warned us to not eat the vegetables in Cape Coast, because you never know about the water. And we had all heard many times that you should NEVER eat lettuce in a country that has questionable water, cuz it soaks up everything it's watered with. We proceeded to spend the next half hour trying to pick out minuscule bites of tuna around all the lettuce. I think I probably ate about one normal size bite of tuna total, the whole meal! I did eat all of my french fries, though! We finally gave up and just ate clif bars and hung out outside on the veranda for a little bit chatting. John never did come down and ended up just sleeping the rest of the night. Turns out he was really sick for the rest of our trip. :-(
Well, I don't want to bore you anymore with drawn-out tuna fish stories....so moving right along! ;-)
Wednesday morning dawned, our last day in Ghana! I was kinda sad and just trying not to think about it the whole day. We did get to do some exciting sight-seeing stuff though! We toured King George's Castle, where the Portuguese, Dutch, and British all used to trade slaves. :-( It was very sad to hear the history, but so interesting at the same time! I had never been in a real castle before, and this one was right on the ocean, and had a mote and drawbridge!! It was also over 500 years old...built in 1482!! Before Columbus even discovered America! That's pretty crazy to think about. I guess Obama and his wife had visited there just a few months ago, which all of the Ghanaians seemed pretty excited about! lol.
After the castle, we got to go on a canopy walk through the jungle, which was just about one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life!!! At some points, we were as much as 40 meters above the jungle floor! I was hoping to see a monkey, but that didn't happen. :-( Here's a picture of the awesomeness though!
Going through customs in Accra went really smoothly. Our flight back to Atlanta was actually 12 hours long!! But luckily this time I was able to sleep much more, thanks to advil pm. :-) It was bittersweet to be leaving. I didn't want to leave the team and the kids and the fun times and new experiences, but was excited to see everyone back home again. There were also some things I was returning to back home that I was quite scared and apprehensive to return to. (mostly the lack of a job...)
Well, that's about all I've got for now....and it's so long the chances of you reading the whole thing are pretty slim! But I guess if you're here, thank you for putting up with the novel, and traveling with me on my adventures in Ghana!! I am so thankful to you for your support. I hope to write more in the next few days about my process of reflecting upon arriving back to the States.
In the mean time, here are some praises/prayer requests:
Praises:
*Safe travels
*Good health
*New friendships formed
*Changed perspective
Prayer Requests:
*Continue to see how God wants to grow me through this experience
*Guidance in setting up a sharing night and that God would give me the words He wants me to share!
*For continual connections in Ghana for eMi, and for John to find a few more volunteers to help set up the West Africa office
*Boldness in sharing the gospel when people ask me about my experiences in Ghana
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Goodbye Aflao
About Saturday, June 11:
We packed up to leave the Hotel Liberte' and Aflao in the morning. It was sad to tell our good friends at the hotel and most of the pastors goodbye. Upon leaving the hotel, we went to the Children's Home one last time to tell the kids goodbye. George had actually invited his small group from church, Young Adults Fellowship, to join us. These church members from Accra were shocked to see such conditions, and children who had been left to die, just 3 hours from their home. George admitted they kinda live in a bubble and ignore these things that are happening so close by because it's not pleasant to think about. This really makes me wonder...how many things are taking place right in my backyard in Colorado that I could help with, but choose to ignore? In Greeley alone there really is quite a bit of physical poverty...but taking it a step further, how often do I do nothing about spiritual poverty? There are so many people in our neighborhoods and close circles that need Jesus...it may not be as blatantly obvious as physical poverty, but it is definitely there. In a way, I am so like these church people from Accra, ignoring that there's even a problem. However, I hope when God opens my eyes to my blindness that my reaction will be like these people from Accra. You could see their hearts bursting with compassion, and the question of "What an I do?" immediately on their lips. One woman took one look at baby Princess after hearing her story (she was left tied in a plastic trash bag on the side of the road by the Togo border) and said, "I want to adopt her!" Such a beautiful representation of grace...I hope my response would be the same.
Being at the children's home one last time was hard. I felt like I had just started getting to know these kids, just to tell them goodbye. I got the opportunity to show some pics of my home and family to the kids before leaving though, which they really enjoyed. I also pulled Constancia aside to pray with her. I felt the Holy Spirit's leading that this was really the only thing I could do, and the best response to her letter I could give. It was difficult, but I know that only Jesus Christ can give her eternal hope, as no hope of an earthly family through adoption ever could. She didn't really say anything after the prayer, but her eyes said it all. It looked like it was all she could do to hold back tears.
As we pulled out of the home for one final time, I kept reminding myself that if the kids have Jesus, it's not really goodbye, just see ya later ("here, there, or in the air," as Bob and Marilyn say). It was still hard though!
After leaving the home, we drove to Adina, a small fishing village along the coast. (where there are tons of kids but no school and Tammy told me I should start one ;-) ) We left George's small group here to do ministry the rest of the day. We prayed for them and sent them off, and our team continued our drive back to Accra, the capital city.
Just before entering Accra, we stopped to shop at a market. Crazy experience! Those of you who have been to one before would surely understand! Every shopkeeper very forcefully wants you in their store, and to buy something. I did kinda have fun bargaining down prices, but it is all pretty overwhelming too! This one creepy guy grabbed John's hand and dragged him into his shop back in an alleyway. I followed immediately. Upon getting back there I just felt darkness and a really creepy feeling. The man's shop was filled with masks of all sizes. John firmly told him, "We don't do masks," and then we managed to leave. Phew! It was creepy. I made sure the rest of our team stayed away from that guy's shop after that.
After shopping, we drove to our beach-front hotel in Accra. Wow...luxury! We had a relaxing evening strolling along the beach (amidst the garbage), eating dinner prepared by Samuel and his wife, and finishing our group debriefing time at 1 am again.
I need to take a moment to describe our dinner to you, cuz it was about my favorite meal of the whole trip! We had fufu an tilapia. Fufu is basically a big starch ball made of cassava and plaintain. They made a tomato-based soup that you soak it in so it's not too sticky (all of this you eat with your hands :)) We had big whole tilapia again with the fufu, which was by far the best all trip! It was soaking in the same soup type stuff as the fufu. Mmmm....my mouth's watering just thinking about it! I ate the whole thing (but not all of the fufu). Here is a picture so you can see better what it looked like :-) In case you can't tell, that's the tilapia (butt side again) in the back left, and fufu in the front right.
Here is a picture of Randi and I enjoying our fufu...as we try to eat it the correct way that Samuel instructed us!
After dinner before debriefing, we met a couple that are missionaries in Togo! They've been there 6 years straight and this fall are taking a 1/2 yr sabbatical. Crazy to think how difficult that'd be to adjust and everything! It's hard enough adjusting back after just half a month! Continue to pray for our team as we seek the Lord's direction in living our daily lives for Him back at home.
We packed up to leave the Hotel Liberte' and Aflao in the morning. It was sad to tell our good friends at the hotel and most of the pastors goodbye. Upon leaving the hotel, we went to the Children's Home one last time to tell the kids goodbye. George had actually invited his small group from church, Young Adults Fellowship, to join us. These church members from Accra were shocked to see such conditions, and children who had been left to die, just 3 hours from their home. George admitted they kinda live in a bubble and ignore these things that are happening so close by because it's not pleasant to think about. This really makes me wonder...how many things are taking place right in my backyard in Colorado that I could help with, but choose to ignore? In Greeley alone there really is quite a bit of physical poverty...but taking it a step further, how often do I do nothing about spiritual poverty? There are so many people in our neighborhoods and close circles that need Jesus...it may not be as blatantly obvious as physical poverty, but it is definitely there. In a way, I am so like these church people from Accra, ignoring that there's even a problem. However, I hope when God opens my eyes to my blindness that my reaction will be like these people from Accra. You could see their hearts bursting with compassion, and the question of "What an I do?" immediately on their lips. One woman took one look at baby Princess after hearing her story (she was left tied in a plastic trash bag on the side of the road by the Togo border) and said, "I want to adopt her!" Such a beautiful representation of grace...I hope my response would be the same.
Being at the children's home one last time was hard. I felt like I had just started getting to know these kids, just to tell them goodbye. I got the opportunity to show some pics of my home and family to the kids before leaving though, which they really enjoyed. I also pulled Constancia aside to pray with her. I felt the Holy Spirit's leading that this was really the only thing I could do, and the best response to her letter I could give. It was difficult, but I know that only Jesus Christ can give her eternal hope, as no hope of an earthly family through adoption ever could. She didn't really say anything after the prayer, but her eyes said it all. It looked like it was all she could do to hold back tears.
As we pulled out of the home for one final time, I kept reminding myself that if the kids have Jesus, it's not really goodbye, just see ya later ("here, there, or in the air," as Bob and Marilyn say). It was still hard though!
After leaving the home, we drove to Adina, a small fishing village along the coast. (where there are tons of kids but no school and Tammy told me I should start one ;-) ) We left George's small group here to do ministry the rest of the day. We prayed for them and sent them off, and our team continued our drive back to Accra, the capital city.
Just before entering Accra, we stopped to shop at a market. Crazy experience! Those of you who have been to one before would surely understand! Every shopkeeper very forcefully wants you in their store, and to buy something. I did kinda have fun bargaining down prices, but it is all pretty overwhelming too! This one creepy guy grabbed John's hand and dragged him into his shop back in an alleyway. I followed immediately. Upon getting back there I just felt darkness and a really creepy feeling. The man's shop was filled with masks of all sizes. John firmly told him, "We don't do masks," and then we managed to leave. Phew! It was creepy. I made sure the rest of our team stayed away from that guy's shop after that.
After shopping, we drove to our beach-front hotel in Accra. Wow...luxury! We had a relaxing evening strolling along the beach (amidst the garbage), eating dinner prepared by Samuel and his wife, and finishing our group debriefing time at 1 am again.
I need to take a moment to describe our dinner to you, cuz it was about my favorite meal of the whole trip! We had fufu an tilapia. Fufu is basically a big starch ball made of cassava and plaintain. They made a tomato-based soup that you soak it in so it's not too sticky (all of this you eat with your hands :)) We had big whole tilapia again with the fufu, which was by far the best all trip! It was soaking in the same soup type stuff as the fufu. Mmmm....my mouth's watering just thinking about it! I ate the whole thing (but not all of the fufu). Here is a picture so you can see better what it looked like :-) In case you can't tell, that's the tilapia (butt side again) in the back left, and fufu in the front right.
After dinner before debriefing, we met a couple that are missionaries in Togo! They've been there 6 years straight and this fall are taking a 1/2 yr sabbatical. Crazy to think how difficult that'd be to adjust and everything! It's hard enough adjusting back after just half a month! Continue to pray for our team as we seek the Lord's direction in living our daily lives for Him back at home.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Home Sweet Home...
Hello from Colorado!
John, Nick, Randi, and I arrived back at DIA yesterday morning around 9:45. We finally retrieved all of our luggage from baggage claim by 11 and went to lunch together before John, Nick, and Randi headed back down to the Springs. It is good to be back in Colorado and hanging with my family (excited to see all my friends again too!), but it is also weird at the same time. Hard to explain, but reverse culture shock is an interesting thing for sure. I hope that God can really use the things I saw and learned in Ghana to shape me more into the woman he wants me to be. Oh by the way, before I start in on some more about the end of our trip, I wanted to let you know that if you would like to read more about our trip from a different perspective, you can check out my great new friend Randi's blog at randiswalk.blogspot.com. She is one of the interns for eMi this summer, and shared more from an engineering perspective what went on on our trip. :-)
I actually have to go right now...gotta pack up and leave to return to Greeley! I will try to write more tonight if possible. Stay tuned!
Also, if you get a chance it would be wonderful if you could continue praying for our team and adjusting to being back at home again. Pray that God would protect us from fears and insecurities, from judgmental thoughts, and give us a desire to change in the way He wants us to. That the reason for our going on this trip would be clear and we would be able to glorify His name better here in the States. Also pray for a few on the team who came back a little under the weather, that God would continue to heal their bodies physically and restore their strength.
John, Nick, Randi, and I arrived back at DIA yesterday morning around 9:45. We finally retrieved all of our luggage from baggage claim by 11 and went to lunch together before John, Nick, and Randi headed back down to the Springs. It is good to be back in Colorado and hanging with my family (excited to see all my friends again too!), but it is also weird at the same time. Hard to explain, but reverse culture shock is an interesting thing for sure. I hope that God can really use the things I saw and learned in Ghana to shape me more into the woman he wants me to be. Oh by the way, before I start in on some more about the end of our trip, I wanted to let you know that if you would like to read more about our trip from a different perspective, you can check out my great new friend Randi's blog at randiswalk.blogspot.com. She is one of the interns for eMi this summer, and shared more from an engineering perspective what went on on our trip. :-)
I actually have to go right now...gotta pack up and leave to return to Greeley! I will try to write more tonight if possible. Stay tuned!
Also, if you get a chance it would be wonderful if you could continue praying for our team and adjusting to being back at home again. Pray that God would protect us from fears and insecurities, from judgmental thoughts, and give us a desire to change in the way He wants us to. That the reason for our going on this trip would be clear and we would be able to glorify His name better here in the States. Also pray for a few on the team who came back a little under the weather, that God would continue to heal their bodies physically and restore their strength.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Hope for the Future
Now to the rest of last week….Thursday morning, I helped Marilyn pack the donation bags for the pastors, and also helped work some more on the model. In the afternoon, we went back to the children’s home for Bob’s illusion presentation! I led a couple songs at the beginning and then Bob did his presentation. The kids loved it, and 2 of the older kids, Courage and Jolie, came forward to accept Christ and have the team pray over them at the end. Praise the Lord!
Mama Rejoice cooked for us again on Thursday night…goat this time! It was a very interesting experience. I was a little apprehensive at first, especially when I saw a few hairs stuck in the meat. :-/ But the more I ate, the more I realized I could actually handle it, particularly the crispiest pieces-they weren’t as chewy or fatty. It was a little difficult to get used to chewing and chewing and chewing. Haha.
After dinner, Pastor Osmond came by and delivered our tailored outfits. Mine is SO cute…love it!!! I have to have Randi help me get my shirt on though cuz it’s so snug haha. Mama Rejoice also had a bunch of things she made set up in Tammy’s room for us to buy which was great! J Tammy made me some iced coffee and I got really wired for a little bit while we were working on the model. Haha it was pretty entertaining (for everyone else). We ended up staying up til 2:30 am finishing the model! We had to finish it for the presentation Friday morning. It was an epic night of bonding for sure. J But it turned out so awesome! Here is a picture:
Friday morning I got up bright and early at 6;30 to shower and stuff before the big day! It was crazy….4 hours of sleep but God gave us the grace to stay awake and alert for the festivities! The celebration started at “10:00”, which really interpreted to starting at 11:30! Lol. Yay for African time J We all wore our Ghanaian outfits, which was so fun but very hot out in the sun and humidity! Oh I guess I never really explained what the celebration was-basically a lot of important people from the community, and all the children from the home got together to celebrate the completion of the first stage of the plans for the new home, and to have a sod cutting/ground breaking ceremony as well. Here is a picture of me and Samuel, our awesome police officer friend, before the ceremony!
The event started out with a lot of prayer, which is still a new but cool experience for me, cuz everyone prays out loud at once! The praise band led a few traditional songs, and the women were dancing around in a line like they do in church. Randi, Sarah, Marilyn, and I actually went out there and joined them! It was fun, but some of the girls from the home later tried to teach me the correct way to do it and were laughing at my attempts. Haha. I just don’t have the rhythm built in like they do! ;-)
When the King of Aflao arrived (he was about 1 ½ hours late to the start time lol), he gave a speech. Most of it was in Ewe so we couldn’t understand what he was saying cuz they stopped translating, but he said that he was very glad to have us there from America and presented us each with a special gift-Ghanaian bracelets. George told us that we should be careful about wearing them though cuz I guess he could have chanted curses over them or something…you never know. In my opinion though, God is bigger than anything like that.
After the king presented us with the gifts, I got to hold baby Moses for the rest of the celebration. Moses is the most precious little baby! They actually named him Moses because they found him left in a river or swamp of some sort. I don’t know how someone could every leave such a beautiful baby. :-/ But it is so great that he is alive today and has such a hope for the future! God is good. It was really a powerful experience to be holding one of the children that will be the future of this children’s home as we did the ground breaking ceremony. I am so excited for Moses and the other children who will really be able to see this dream become a reality. When we presented the model to Chris and Tammy, they started crying. It was so neat to see their dreams and answered prayers coming true!
I forgot to tell their story earlier, so I’ll tell it now. They actually were called to start the Jesse Brooks Foundation and help the children of Africa after the death of their daughter. Actually 9 years ago last Tuesday, Jesse (only 10 years old at the time) died in a car accident on their way home from her first mission trip to Montana. Tammy was sitting right next to her in the car, and was pretty seriously injured from the accident for a while too! Jesse had always wanted to be a missionary to the children of Africa, so God used this tragedy in Chris and Tammy’s lives to send them to the children of Africa. Their passion is so great and I think so much more even when you think about what they’ve been through to get to this point.
After the celebration, we all went back to the hotel and CRASHED. Most of us took like a 2 hour nap, which was wonderful and very needed! For dinner, Tammy fixed us spaghetti which was delicious! (forgot to mention that we ate American food most of the time since Tammy and Chris who were hosting us are from Texas…but for lunch every day it was just canned stuff…I ate spam for the first time in my life! LOL) After the spaghetti, Pastor Christian came in the room and surprised John with another traditional Ghanaian meal that his wife Mama Rejoice had prepared. Those of us that wanted to got to try it. It was called Akple and Koobi. Akple is a dish similar to the other Ghanaian favorite, Fufu. It’s like a big starch ball, or maybe a ball of dough. It’s similar to grits also. Haha quite unique! The other part of this Ghanaian meal was mini tilapia. Literally it's just mini dried fish and you eat it, bones and all, except not the head. I actually brought myself to eat it...and I ate 4 of them! I was so proud! It kinda tasted like a fish stick, only much crispier and fish-shaped. lol. So not really at all.
Friday night we began our debriefing sharing time, which went until 1 am and not even half our group had shared!! There is a lot to discuss. Good thing we had more time later!
I actually am about to go to bed now…we are staying the night in Cape Coast tonight and have a big day ahead of us tomorrow so I need to get some sleep! In the morning we get to tour the Cape Coast castle, which was a huge place for slave trade back in the day. :-/ I think we are also going on this canopy walk thing through the jungle which sounds awesome! Then we’ll head back to Accra and to the airport for our flight that leaves late tomorrow night. (around 10 ish I think) I won’t have internet again after tonight, so I’ll have to post about the rest of our trip after I return to Denver on Thursday morning. Thank you all for being so faithful in reading and praying!! J Please continue to pray for safety and quick & easy access through the airport tomorrow!
There is power in Jesus' name!!
Hello friends!
Let me jump back to where I left off…last Wednesday, I got to teach again! This time just Sandra and I went to the Shalom Baptist school, which was in the same building as Pastor Christian’s church that John, Sarah, and I had attended the Sunday before. It had been raining the whole morning so it was a bit muddy out. Luckily, this school is in a building with a tin roof so we stayed dry. I really enjoyed teaching at Shalom! We brought in our clocks again, and had kids pulled over to the side for small group instruction on telling time. Sandra and I each took 2 clocks and each had a Ghanaian interpreter with us to help. The guy that I taught with (wish I could remember his name, but it was really long and complicated!) was actually a teacher at the school, and he ended up doing most of the teaching. He was so good at it! He had some really good ways of teaching the abstract concept. I just sat there and watched, impressed…I hope to use some of the stuff I learned from him someday! This Ghanaian teacher and I taught 4 different groups of kids probably ages 5-10 in about 1 ½ hours. Then I got to teach my own group with the other interpreter cuz the teacher I was working with had to go help with lunch duty. It was really neat because I got to use the language and tactics I had just observed to teach it to a different group…and they were really getting it! Yay J They seemed to understand me better when I used that vocabulary.
Around 12:30, the van came to pick us up. John, Nick, Keith, and Pastor Christian had been out doing some tests on the land and viewing the flooding condition at the current children’s home. When we got in the van, John had been crying and said we were gathering the team together back at the hotel to pray for the children. When they were at the home, there had been a very dark presence there. Trash was being dumped literally in the street leading to the home, and then they saw a crazy man (most likely demon-possessed) right outside the gate of the home screaming at them. John really felt the Holy Spirit telling him to gather and pray for the children, and laid Psalm 70 on his heart to pray for the situation as well.
Back at our hotel, we gathered as a team and prayed together before eating our lunch. It was one of the most powerful experiences of prayer I think I’ve ever experienced. It wasn’t that I felt anything different, but it was more that I realized I don’t have to feel it for it to be real. Instead of just being an emotional experience, I really felt the power of God through His truth and His presence that is always there. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but it was really good. Everyone just prayed out what the Spirit laid on their heart, and we also spoke out names of God, because there is so much power in his name alone! We prayed protection over the children and it was really a big realization for me that this battle is not against flesh and blood! It’s so easy in America to get distracted and forget what we’re really fighting against because it is not nearly so obvious. But we have all the power through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen! Hallelujah. J
Wednesday afternoon, a few of us went back to the Children’s Home. Bob, one of our eMi staff, was initially planning on doing his illusion show/gospel message, but he had another meeting come up, so we went instead to just sing songs with the kids, with me leading. J It was so encouraging to sing songs about Jesus with them and to see the hope they can have within even though they are in such a seemingly hopeless situation! I think this moment was especially powerful for me after we had prayed so much for the children earlier that day, and just for their protection physically as well as spiritually! We also read them the story about Jesus calming the sea and bringing peace in the Jesus Storybook Bible. It was neat, because we just passed the book down the line and each read a page.
When we went to leave the children’s home, Constancia, one of the 12 year old girls that I had met the first day, came and brought me a letter. I read it as we were leaving the home. It’s pretty heavy stuff. It’s 2 pages long! The first page is about how much she loves me, and about her love for Jesus as well. (which is awesome!) The second page is basically a list of things she needs or wants, such as spectacles, a backpack, shoes for school, etc. It is so hard because the kids are supposed to be learning to not ask for things, but to just be happy with what they have, but you know they want so much more. One of the things she really wants is a family. It is so hard knowing that I can’t provide her with this…but I can pray for her and I know that Jesus is ultimately the only one who can satisfy. It’s still really sad and hard though.
Mama Rejoice (Pastor Christian’s wife) cooked us chicken Wednesday night. It was pretty good, and I tried to not be as picky about eating meat off the bone. Haha. We also started the first stages of working on the model of the site Wednesday night, which we built as a surprise for Chris & Tammy and the Jesse Brooks Foundation.
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