elementary teacher and Jr. High and high school study hall

Ok so I have a high school study hall during my lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On Tuesday and THursday I also had the 7th grade but the art teacher is here so now I only have the high schoolers. I love having the high schoolers there are 7 of them. On Wednesday they were filling out SAT things and they were asking me all these questions about school and some things that I did in college and things like. One of the questions was did I party in college? I got to tell them about where I went to school and why I went to Cedarville. It was just a great opportunity to share with them. I hope this week I can really just get to know them and be Christ to them. I also got a new roommate on Friday. We got to go over to the directors house on Friday night for an american dinner. It was so good. Then on Saturday we went to the mall to get our new housemate all the essentials that she needs.

four girls, a spider the size of a tennis ball, and clean up

This weekend has started out crazy. I felt like little miss muffet in my house. Every where I went there was a huge spider. I went to the kitchen to make my food and almost stepped on one in bear feet. Then I went back to my room to wash my face and brush my teeth and I was brushing my teeth and I looked up and there was a huge smile less than an arms length away on the wall that crawled out from the mirror. I ran up stairs but I could not see anyone up so I sat on the couch until Tayler came out and she came to get Erin to come kill the spider. However, when we got back the spider was gone so we sprayed my room in the corners with raid. I left for school and when I got home I went into my bathroom and Mr. Spider was back so I called up stairs and everyone came running. ERin went to kill it meanwhile me, Tayler, and Shari are up on the bed in case it feels like running towards us as soon as Erin goes to hit it Tayler screams which makes me scream and SHari run. We are go running out of the room and Abdul our guard comes running to see if we are ok. We go back in to wait for it to come back and we raid it so now we think it is dead behind the mirror. We went out to the mall to eat pizza and when we came back we were still aware of the spider that was not there. Daniel had come in and took the dead spider out from behind the mirror. THis morning when I woke up I had the raid right by my bed ready to kill any spider that I saw. I woke up this morning at about 6.15 which is sleeping in for me here in Ghana. I got up and started doing laundry and washing dishes from all our cabinets which is a chore. Then the directors wife sent a text to see if anyone wanted to go basket shopping and fabric shopping and pedicures. So I was out busy doing some shopping. I got one basket that I am really excited about and then some really pretty fabric which I am supper excited about. THen I got a pedicure with hot pink nail polish again. It is fun.

Praise the Lord I have been healthy and my body has adjusted to Ghana very well. My class is really nice. I have all 12 of my students now and my classroom has changed a lot with just two more students. On Friday we got to have a discussion during reading about how sometimes God uses things that we see as horrible or bad luck to teach us something or show us what is important. We also talked about how God sometimes uses those situations to bring us back to Him or for somebody else to come to Him. Please pray for my class this year as they are a few students in my class that God is showing me patience with and sometimes it is really hard. On my calendar at school I wrote Colossians 1.9-14 just as a reminder of who gives me strength and who I am qualified by. Praise the Lord for his mercies every morning. Pray also for me as I have a high school Study hall during my lunch everyday minus Monday and Friday so pray that I can just share Christ with these students. Pray also for our mentoring program right now we have 7 kids pray for a good turn out of the high school kids. Please pray as we are still looking for a Bible teacher. Thanks for all your prayers. God is working in our school.

Captivate me Lord Jesus with you

I was listening to a song called Captivate Us by watermark. I was thinking about this year and what my goal as a teacher was going to be and how I wanted my life to change through that. I honestly want this to be my goal and I wanted to share the lyrics with you.

Lyrics to Captivate Us :

Your face is beautiful

And Your eyes are like the stars

Your gentle hands have healing

There inside the scars

Your loving arms they draw me near

And Your smile it brings me peace

Draw me closer oh my Lord

Draw me closer Lord to Thee

(chorus)

Captivate us, Lord Jesus

Set our eyes on You

Devastate us with Your presence

Falling down

And rushing river, draw us nearer

Holy fountain consume us with You

Captivate us Lord Jesus, with You

Your voice is powerful

And Your words are radiant bright

In Your breath and shadow

I will come close and abide

You whisper love and life divine

And Your fellowship is free

Draw me closer O my Lord

Draw me closer Lord to Thee

(chorus)

Let everything be lost in the shadows

Of the light of Your face

Let every chain be broken from me

As I’m bound in Your grace

For Your yoke is easy, Your burden is light

You’re full of wisdom, power and might

And every eye will see You

(chorus)

The past couple of months I have seen a lot of lost of earthly things and there is a part in this song where it says Lord devastate me with Your presence and we look at devastation as bad but how many times does God use loss to bring us to him. I want this song to be my goal for my life and my class. I want to be in his presence at all times good and bad. I want to be captivated in Him. My prayer is that our school and home will be Captivated in who Christ is.

School starts Monday and I am so excited for my students to come. I have 12 students 5 boys and 7 girls. My room is all set up and pictures will come to the blog soon.

Wow!, I can't believe I am back in Ghana. Life here seems to be so simple compare to America. There are not the distractions that you have in the US. I am all moved into my house and all my house mates are here minus one and we don't know when she is coming in. Coming back was an exciting time for me. My flights went well after about a 45 minute delay in Chicago we made it off the ground and was in the air and made it to Washington D.C. where I could finally relax and wait for Tayler. I arrived and there was William ready to pick us up and I was thrilled to be back. THe school looked amazing there was another floor. GOd is working here in Ghana and it shows by how much our school has grown. So I got to school and I have found out that my classroom was moved again, I am not going to lie I was kinda of disappointed but then God showed me what a blessing my room is going to be. Setting up my classroom I started to get even more excited about the opportunity to teach. I will have pictures coming soon. More to come with Monday the first day of school.