it is all about the gutters...

the past couple of weeks I have encountered gutters more than I would like to. So the past two weeks it has been raining which is great. We always need rain here in Ghana so the fact that it is still rainy season is awesome. So because there has been so much rain there has been a lot of puddles, mud, and small lakes. While walking to school last week I encountered a puddle and there was no way around it. So with all of my things in my hand climbed up on this little ledge and straddle the gutter and walked until I could get down without falling in mud or stepping in the puddle. It was a very difficult task. However I made it but still managed to step in some mud.

Then at volleyball while bumping a ball went over the fence across the street and straight in the gutter. Here I am on the corner looking into the gutter and was about to say to myself sorry I am not going into the gutter a guy came over and said he would get it out for me. So I held everything he had in his hand and he crawled down and got it. Now the dilemma was carrying it back across the street to the school. I carried it with exactly two fingers and i through it over the wall and then ran to go wash my hands. Even though I washed my hands they stilled smelt horrible too. However the smell has come out.

Life here is going well, the weather is still really nice and of course it is rainy. I spend most of my time in my classroom, tutoring, playing volleyball with the high school and Jr. Higher, and hanging in my bedroom doing more school work. I got a new student on Friday and my class is already making sure he is welcomed.

Please pray for the decision that I am soon going to have to make at the end of November of what I am going to do next year. Pray for the teenagers that are coming out for volleyball. Continue to pray for a couple of boys in my study hall they are really searching for some answers to questions and that I would have answers to their questions.

I don't believe in coincidences, only in God's perfect plan

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Praise the Lord I am so glad that I am not made like anyone else. I am glad that God has given me so many special traits and talents which are impacting my life right now. God is using the things that has given me and I have seen it this week more than I have the last couple of weeks. It all begins last Sunday.

Last Sunday me and a couple of my roommates went to Prom Prom. Prom Prom is a ministry for street kids and they get to live in this compound and go to school and every first Sunday of the month we get to go and do the little kids service. This last Sunday we read the story You Are Special by Max Locado. It was just really cool to hear the reminder that God makes you who you are for a reason and he does not make mistakes. Sharing this story with these kids that have a rough up brining and telling them God made you this way and He does not makes mistakes is just an amazing thing to realize. He puts us in situations and places that we ask why Lord and He says I know and you will see in due time.

Thursday was our last day of school for the week and it was the best day of the week. So many amazing things happened and I made a couple of realizations. First I have realized more and more that a couple of the high school boys in my study hall keep stopping by room throughout the day. Having this study hall was just another thing that I had volunteered for and did not think anything about it. THis week I realized GOd put each one of these students in my study hall and I relate with each one on a different level. Then I had my first volleyball practice we only had two that had permission slips but there was about 4 or 5 that were actually standing around us watching or playing. Once we have our Friday practice we will have more because soccer won't be going on, so we will get the soccer players that want to play. Volleyball practice was interesting we don't have a volleyball yet so we were playing with a beach ball which when it is windy does not work very well. So instead I focused on the basics and how to do them correctly. Then we jumped rope a little bit and then cooled down. Over all it was fun and I can't wait for the rest of the volleyball year. Then after school I was in my room just organizing and two of my study hall boys were hanging around down stairs when I went to get something so they came up to my room and helped me do things. In this time I really got to talk with these two boys and just what was going on in their lives. Then the one left and I had one still in my room and I asked him Don't you want to go home and he said no there is nothing for me at home I am having more fun sitting here coloring for you. That just broke my heart a 16 -17 year old boy saying he would rather color than go home because there is no one there and nothing to do. God used this time just to really talk to him and I noticed the day before he was having a bad day and so we really got to share in his life. God is using me to work with high school who knew that me a third grade teacher who voweled never to teach high school be doing so many things this year with high schoolers. Pray for this young man. I don't know his relationship with Christ but just pray that the teachers at this school whether it be me or another teacher just really step out and share their lives with these students. I hope that I get more opportunities just to share Christ with these students. I have a feeling that this one student will be hanging out in my room more often and I pray that Christ uses me to share Him with this student and plant the seed for GOd to do His work.

PRayer Request

Please pray for the 6 boys in my high school study hall and for the time that they are going to be in there. I don't know when their teacher will be coming so just that I will use every opportunity to share Christ with them for the short time I will have them.

Volleyball that more kids will come out and that it will be a great ministry

The directors from all the african and asian schools are coming this week pray for a safe week with a lot of fun.

Decisions on what to do next year whether I will stay another year in Ghana or transfer to another NICs school. The decision for next year is coming soon.

Patience with a few students in my class. This week I am going to be sharing my testimony with them in two different occasions. That the gospel will get put out there again. God will soften their hearts to who He is. That the seed will be planted.

How can it be that one person can change....

a class,

a house,

a world?

This week I have experience all of these. There is three ways one person can affect these three things in a good way. in a bad way, and change these three for Christ.

In my class I saw how when one student is in my class I have a totally different class than when that ONE student is absent I have the most calm class in the world. The past two weeks have been the most stressful, difficult weeks of my teaching career. The past two weeks I have come home and been completely drained. All I could do was go to sleep. On Tuesday I had the biggest headache and did not feel good at all because I believe it was just a highly stressful day and my body was reacting to it. Every single day I had a headache minus Friday when that student happen to be absent. I was sad that the student was not there but I realized that I would have a less stressful day and my Friday was amazing. I felt good I was smiling, no headaches, and I could enjoy teaching. I could enjoy my students.

Please pray for my class. It has been a rough year and we have only been in school for starting our 4Th week. Pray that I will have patience with this particular student and really be able to show Christ with him and just see a change of heart.

In my house wow I love my house and I love my housemates. We got a new housemate last week and it has been an adventure. We got to show her around, and different things. I have gotten a little frustrated though because it is like teaching someone how to do things all over again when they are just like in the states. I guess because I when got here things like telephones and washing machines are just like in the states so I could use them. However our new roommate is not realizing that, and she is not technology savoy which is also frustrating for me because it comes so easy for me. Our house has changed and not just because of that one roommate it just went from being loud and having fun with each other to seclusion in our own space, which I hate and I have done it a lot this week but I miss our whole house just hanging out with each other.

Pray for our house that we don't go against each other and that we can stay focused on why we are here and the relationships that we have.

The world. I have two stories from this week:

Story One

This week I and another teacher have been fighting for volleyball at our school for those who do not want to play soccer, because lets just face it some people hate soccer and have no desire to play it but do because it is the only thing at our school. So we finally got our director to approve volleyball and it starts on Thursday. I am really excited because I get to spend more time with the Jr. High and high school students and get the opportunity to continue to share Christ in their lives. This is an amazing opportunity to share Christ with the future leaders of the world. Touching just one of these students could impact a country or a continent and that is an amazing opportunity. Plus I get to teach something that I am so passionate about and love to play.

Story two

This week in my classroom we have been talking about God's blueprint and how Jesus is the main structure of this blueprint. We also talked about How God prepared Jesus for ministry by Jesus being baptized and being tempted in the wilderness. Even through all the frustration with my class this week I shared about how Jesus was in flesh and blood just like us and had the same human tendencies that we did but even though he was tempted he did not give in and so we have that perfect example of how we are to act. The whole main reason for these temptations was all preparing him for the cross to take our sin and give us that gift of forgiveness and being saw as perfect in God's eyes and how all they had to do was accept that gift and we would be in Heaven with the perfect human Jesus, and with our heavenly father and then we prayed. That was the end of our day two days last week. I don't know if any of my students were touched by the lesson but God has that all worked out and I don't necessarily need to know because I am to plant the seed and God brings the harvest in. Praise the Lord.

Pray for the students both in the volleyball program, and in my class that Christ would just work in the lives of these students and that I can just show Christ's love to them even in the most stressful times. Pray that the students just have an open heart to the Lord.