New computer and a new year!

So coming into the year 2010 I am going to be in 3 different countries which if you think about is pretty cool. I am going to be in Paris, London, and Accra. I am excited about teaching this next semester. I have new ideas and ready to teach. I am excited about my classes. I do not think I got any more students. We are starting Multiplication when we get back which is going to be a challenge in general. I am excited about what I am going to be learning this year. I also hope to be going to the orphanage more this semester. I may also be tutoring another student. I am just really excited. I have a new computer so I hopefully will write more often. I will arrive on Friday and hang out on Saturday and Sunday. Then Monday I have to be at school setting up my class room and redoing some of my bulletin boards. Will update again when I get there probably on Saturday.

the most stressful and fun week of my life....

wow! I am so glad that this week is over. Lets just say conflict was all around. God is good though and I realized how much I rely on Him here. However, Saturday was amazing. First I want to Medina which is a market and me and a couple of my roommates wanted to get more fabric. So i bought two new pieces of fabric that i am going to make a dress and skirt out of it. i love the fabric i picked out it is fun and I cant wait to wear it to show all of you. Then since it was Halloween, Megan, Amanda, Chrissy and I made an apple dessert and then we carved watermelon. Since pumpkins are really expensive we did watermelon. It was so much fun and then we had our guard Daniel judge them to see whose was the best. He could not decide so we tied. After we had him judge, we sat on the steps outside of our house and we just talked with him. He was a great encouragement after a long Friday night. Daniel is an amazing guard and such an amazing christian guy who we are so blessed to have. Then today I got to go to a village about 45 minutes away and saw a place where street kids live. We got to worship with them and hang out with them a little bit. This opportunity was amazing. I got to sit within them and around them and the passion they have for Christ and wanting to learn more. Then they showed us around their dorms and the school they attend. I met two girls Mary and I can't remember the other girls name but they showed me and the art teacher around and so we got to talk to them a little bit so if you could just remember those two girls in your prayers that would be amazing they are in 7th grade and hopefully I can go back every first Sunday to just minister to them. I am excited for this coming week Shelly from home office is coming and I just know she is going to be a blessing. I have a story to tell and I am not sure if I told it already or not but when I was having my ant issue the girls told me to chalk and so i took side walk chalk and outlined my dresser and the next morning I had ants again. So I was kind of angry because I still had ants but i found out that there is a special chalk you are supposed to use so i now have gone down into AIS history for using side walk chalk to get rid of ants. but i now have the real stuff and I have moved my things out of my suit cases and back into my dresser. Well I cant believe it is November and to think almost a month until i will be back with you for a little while. I cant wait to share more pictures and talk with you. I hope God is showing you all His wonders and blessing you. Thanks for all the support and love you all dearly. pictures to follow

sunshine and sunburn

Okay so i know its been a long time since I have written. Report cards went out and its been a little crazy. We have had no electricity so that is a big reason i have not been on. Another reason is our internet has been out. It is up and running again so I can write to you. So yesturday I went to the pool and I got burnt especially on my legs. So that is a big prayer request because it hurts a lot. ANother prayer request is that I have some parent teacher conferences next week so pray those go well. Life here has been busy but that is okay. I realized that I only have like 6 weeks till I will be back in the states for christmas. So that is super exciting because I miss the cold weather and the leaves changing and all of you. I am getting more and more comfortable going around Ghana. I really do love it here but miss home. God is good and He is working.

it be ghana...

is a phrase we use here to describe things that only happen in Ghana. These last two weeks have been crazy. The first week in October went pretty well. I realized that witches and ghost even a cartoon picture is very against culture here. I had sent home a writing calender home with my students from a writing book for the month of October that had pictures around it and there is one picture of a ghost and one picture of a witch not even thinking. I mean I thought it was just a fun thing for my students to do during their homework. However the next day I got a two page letter from a parent telling me how this was against AIS standards and all this other things. So I just wrote a letter to all of my students apologizing for offended some parents and explained myself in the letter and sent a new plain October calender. In Ghana Halloween is a big deal because witch craft is a very big thing here. So I learned my first culture incident. My director had a little talk with me and he said I handled it appropriately and informed of this cultural difference. so everything is taken care of there. I don't think i have any other complaints. Last Friday we went out for sushi, it was a lot of fun. Then on Saturday we had no electricity and that lasted all the way till Tuesday night. However when i woke up on Monday I hundreds upon hundreds of African biting ants all over my clothing. I had to wash every single piece of my clothing because these ants are vicious they bite and they hurt. So on Monday I came home and chalked my closest this was supposed to help however they forgot to inform me that it had to be a special chalk so I just used sidewalk chalk. Then on Tuesday when i came home I had ants again. So i rewashed my clothing. Now I am living out of my suitcases. Wednesday my class ran chapel and it went so well. I am so proud of my kids. Our whole chapel was based on John 14.1-6 and how Jesus is the way the truth and the life and then we sang One Way Jesus by hill song. Friday we went out for one of the teacher's birthday at a french bakery restaurant. It was so good. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and it was amazing. Then on Saturday we went to the music teacher's house for brunch. Then me and Christy came back to get our haircut. After we got our hair cut we went to the school to get our boxes from the container that was shipped in August; I was so excited my Brownie mixes and macaroni and cheese. I was also excited that i got my books for my classroom also. Then when we got back from the school we went to Cheque la Afrique, we went to dinner and played cards there was also a band that played ace of base. Then we went back to the Korum's house to play killer Uno and she made us cookies. Um they were good. We came back around midnight and I went to be so this weekend has been good after a tough couple of weeks. Next week I hope goes a little better.

Something God has been showing me...

I rejoice greatly in the Lord! That at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because i am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all things through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.
Philippians 4:10-14

I read this the other day in my devotions and it has really stuck with me. Being content, I think this is something that everyone struggles with, and I really have been asking myself am I really content with where I am, and what I have. I have been blessed not only in America, but in Africa. Sure we don't have hot water a lot or water pressure to take showers with and I think am I content with that. I woke up this morning to take a shower and I turned the water heater on waited about 15 minutes so that it can warm up or whatever and then I went to shower and it was amazing hot water lots of water pressure like taking a shower in the states and I realized how thankful I was for that shower and it seems silly but i realized i have not been content with that. I would often complain to myself and say I cant wait to get a shower in the states and I am not content. I was trying to explain these verses to my class the other day because somethings got turned around at school and something got canceled and so I was kind of stuck without a Bible lesson and I remembered these verses and I just wanted them to get them to see that they should be happy and okay with any situation because God is our strength. He is the one that gets us up in the morning and gets us through the day and night.
I am Content with having no hot water and water pressure most days, being without electricity at school pretty much everyday, not having enough books in some subjects, not having enough resources to do a lot of things but being okay with that because God is my strength and I can do everything through Him because He gives me strength.

Um a lot has been going on here, last week was supposed to be spiritual emphasis week however a lot of things happened so we had to postpone that. God is good. The last two weeks I really have a had a hard time sleeping. I only got about 3-4 hours on a good night of sleep. So my body was so run down and I was exhausted. On Tuesday night I took a sleeping pill and got 6 hours and I was still really tired on Wednesday and could not stay up till 7. However, I went to Bible study and then came home and slept through the night I got about 6 hours again. The last three days or so I have been sleeping great. I sleep until 7 or so on the weekends and I wake up at 4.30 on week days and I am so thankful for all of you that were praying for my sleeping habits.

I have a couple of Muslim students in my class and we have really been focusing on John 14.6 "Jesus answered I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father except through me. " This is the verse we are doing for chapel and we are singing the song One Way Jesus by Hillsong and at the beginning they were not saying this verse or really getting into the song and now I see them saying the verse with us and doing the actions and singing the song which seems small but is huge. I have one in particular that just got off fasting and I see him starting to open up and ask some questions and really participate in Bible where we are looking at the life of Christ and his followers a lot of it is from Acts and the gospels. Pray for the Muslim students in our school and our school because the administrators have been taking some heat from some of the Muslim parents because their students are praying out loud in chapel and just really starting to see Christ for who He is so great things are happening but the devil is alive and working.

I have now tutor a student for two weeks and it is going better. I am really focusing on speaking and writing English as well as reading English because this is their first time in an English speaking school. We are starting to be able to get some things done because they are paying attention a lot more and so we have been able to do more. Just continue to pray for me as I work with this student so I can be even more of a witness to them. This student also told me that his mom was going to buy him a Bible and that really just makes me smile because this is probably one of his first Bibles if not the first and I just want to utilize that as much as possible.

Today we have a picnic that the PTO is hosting and so me and Meghann are going to meet some of the other teachers and go up there and hang and play some boggle.

Continue to pray for the students that they will keep opening up and taking in Christ. Also pray for the parents that I can show them Christ. I would also ask that you pray for one of my students who is going to be moving within the next month. He has grown so much this year already and he is one of those students that you can't help but love them and want them to do so much. He inspires me in a way. I pray for him a lot and he struggles with a lot of things just in general but always tries. I am a little nervous that when he goes to his new school he is going to struggle more because it is a new place and new school and he will have to make new friends. I am hoping to add the video of my students at chapel when they do chapel which is not this coming week but the next week.

I have devotions tomorrow for our staff meeting so just pray for that and that I can share about being content with them.

Long weekend and the sun

This weekend has been amazing. I left school on Friday right after school and came home to relax for a three day weekend. Today we had no school because its the first president of Ghana's birthday and they have made that a national holiday. I was so excited about this three day weekend because I got to relax. Yesterday I got to go and sit by the pool for a little bit and just read and relax. Then today I got up and me and my housemate Meghann made french toast which started off the morning amazing. It was so good. This was our first time making french toast so we were experimenting but it was so good we also had home made syrup um mmm it was good. Then after we ate breakfast we played Boggle until lunch. We played for like 3 hours and it was so much fun. Then we ate home made pizza for lunch which was really good too. While eating lunch we watched 24 which is an amazing show. After lunch we played scrabble and talked about what we wanted to do for spring break. This is a really big prayer request because we are looking at a couple of ministry opportunities outside of Ghana. This made Meghann and me very excited. We then watched more 24. We then walked to the store so that we could get supplies to make dinner which is pasta. Then we played more scrabble. I think I have found my long lost sister. Meghann and me had the best weekend, we had so much fun. I learned so much about her and it was a really cool bonding experience for us. Tomorrow morning we are going to get up at 4:30am to exercise together we are not sure what we are going to be doing yet but I am sure we will have fun. We decided a schedule to relax when we get back from school and I cant wait. I have to go visit her sometime because she lives in the south in Alabama, and I really think I should have been born in the south because I love fried chicken and cornbread and sweet tea um mm. Well I am going to head to bed so I can get up tomorrow morning to exercise and make it through the day. Random thought I don't know if I told you but I have started tutoring a student, so pray for that because it is hard to keep their attention because they space off a lot and it is hard to get work done. Also pray for Meghann and my spring break plans.