In the Rush of the world ...

God still finds time to calm us down and learn more. THese past two weeks have been busy but I have learned so much in those two weeks. So last week it was a struggle to really get into my Bible study and really focus on the Word. So on Tuesday I think it was I woke up and could not sleep I was wide awake. I tried watching a movie but it was not putting me back to sleep so I opened up my Bible and for some instance Revelation drew me in. I could not put it down I found so many things that were so interesting and how amazing our God really is. Just the smallest detail He has it down. One thing that just amazed me how awesome the worship is going to be and how everyone and everything is going to be praising the Lord. THat is just so amazing to me and it has given me a new hunger to read the Bible.

Then yesterday my class was talking about Matthew 18:21-35, which is the story of the unmerciful servant. We started talking about how Jesus made the greatest sacrifice for forgiveness by dying on the cross. So we were talking about that and somehow we got on the devil. So we were talking about how the devil got kicked out of Heaven and all these questions about the Bible. It was amazing just to see how many verses came to mind and how I could reference them in the discussion. This was definitely the holy spirit bringing them to mind. It was amazing. My class had such a good discussion, that even the students that don't usually put in their opinion were speaking up and asking questions and putting input in which was huge.

THen today we were talking about the Spaniards and how they came over to the west and were setting up missions and that they were forcing the native americans to believe or the were publicly whipped or killed. So we started talking about the right way to spread the gospel and the wrong way. How we need to do it with a loving, and caring spirit and not a forceful spirit where you make it a punishment. It was amazing to see the opportunities I have had this week to share with these kids and encourage them to get in the word.

Really that is the reason we are here. For all the times this year I have been stressed out or just frustrated with my class these last two days made up for it more. I wish I had more answers to their questions but they were asking some hard questions and we are going to see if Mr. Crosby can answer some of them. A friend of mine that teaches in Singapore wrote to me and gave me a good reminder, he said, "Every time one of your third graders give you a hug it is a hug from the Lord." THis is so true God doesn't put us in impossible situations we just have to see His touch in the simple things and in the child-like things. He sends his hugs in the form of a child.

Get our Praise on

1. more people are showing up to volleyball

2. I am learning so much and have a renew hunger for the word

3. Great Discussion in Bible

4.we are still getting rain- this never happens in February.

5. My dad comes in 3 weeks!

6. Had some great fellowship with the high school and middle schoolers after school and volleyball.

Prayer Request

1. OUr electricity has been going out more and more. This is the third or fourth time this week that our electricity has gone out.

2. opportunities to share Christ with students

3. I don't get to busy to sit and listen to what the Lord is teaching me

4. pray for unity in our school right now there is a lot of issues going on right now.

5. Mr. Crosby, our director, as he hires people to come to Ghana that the Lord would bring the right people to us at AIS

I love my life

This week I have really seen why I love being in Ghana. This week I had a blast getting to know these students. It started off with a day off where I got to just work in my classroom and then got to be a chaperon for the soccer team. Not really knowing anything about the game of soccer I went to be a support for the soccer coach which happens to be my roommate. I got to be in charge of the first aid part which is just funny since I have no idea anything about first aid. Luckily no one got hurt at least not to bad. All I had to do was get ice for two students which happened to be a really cool thing. I got to talk a lot to the assistant athletic director. After we got back from the game and got home I had an email from him which was just a huge encouragement of the testimony our school has, especially to the other American school. The soccer team did really well and they tied against a really good school compared to us. So I got to meet a lot of the high schoolers and middle schoolers on the soccer team which I knew their names but really did not know them. So on the way home one of them reminded the coach that she said if they won or tied she would give them a party so on Friday the soccer team came over. It was very chaotic but very fun. It is amazing to see the students outside of school and how they interact with each other.

I just have kept thinking this weekend where else or how could I ever imagine that I would have 25 high school and middle school students at my house playing soccer and playing games. The impact that we make here through relationships with the students and really just getting to know them is amazing. It is a real encouragement to see the impact that people have on other's lives just because of how we act and how we treat other people.

Get your praise on

1. opportunity to share a smile with professionals at another school

2. no one got hurt at the soccer game and that they did well

3. our electricity came back on

4. great friends that are big encouragements to you and support you no mater what

5. time to yourself to regenerate.

6. One of the seniors got saved last week.

Prayer Request

1. continue to pray for my class

2. pray for this senior girl who got saved as she begins this amazing journey

3. for Mr. Crosby as he is back in the states interviewing for new teachers

4. Pray for a situation that is not involving me but a close friend and a parent and somethings that happened with administration.

5. This new contact I have with the assistant athletic Director and that I can share Christ with him.

life in Ghana

This week has been a pretty normal week. We have no school Monday but teachers have to go in for a teacher work day. I am really excited for a day kind of off. I really don't have much to say but I do have a few prayer request that seem small but are really important.

1. please pray for the volleyball program. The kids are not showing up and me and the other teacher are thinking about just not doing it anymore for the high schoolers. This brings me to another one we are thinking about working with the 3rd through 5th graders to start on their skills so that way when they get to jr high school and high school they will have a love for volleyball and we can play more fun things. THis volleyball program is my baby and I want it to work and reach these kids with something that they haven't done before and share a passion that I have.

2. pray for two of my students they are just having a rough time. These two are the ones that shape our class and they have no confidence in themselves. I had one last week that broke down twice in tears for me and the art teacher. Please pray for whatever is going on his poor little heart.

international day

This Friday we had international at school. I love seeing all of our students dressed in their national costumes. It really just shows why I am here in Ghana at AIS and all the different types of people that we are reaching. Here are some pictures.

Students that represent India

This is Meghann and Me at the international day lunch.

All of the parents bring in food from their country and share and the whole school and parents eat and then there is a part where we see

all the students and parents from the different countries.


Before lunch a group of students and the science

teacher did a traditional ghanian dance.

THis is our PE teacher who was

Presenting on Scotland. He got in full character.

Most teachers research a country and then tell the students

about the country and do an activity that goes with

the country,

My wonderful third graders doing

of course silly things.


My third graders and me taking a

picture in their traditional dress and representing

their countries.

Beauty from Ashes

Beauty from pain

Wow so much has gone on the last couple of weeks. These past couple of weeks have not been easy but as I look back on everything that has happened I have come out a stronger person and the phrase that really got me is beauty from pain. God uses pain to make us more beautiful. I have learned so much this past week and just seen God in so many ways even when I thought everything was to much He was still there. I have realized that I have so much. I am not the richest person and I am not by any means the poorest person. Today looking at the street kids get the books and how excited they are to just receive a book and how that is more than they could ever imagine. I just think what happened if I looked at everything that I have or get and be that exciting just because God allowed me to have it. He allowed me to have a trailing week but he also allowed me to see the joy that comes with getting through those trials.

Also this week in Bible we have talked about Salvation and pictures God uses to show us salvation and our focus this week is becoming a new creature. II Corinthians 5:17 is our memory verse and just looking at how we are something new once Christ has come into our lives. Well this one-day they had to finish this phrase Salvation is like…and fill it in. My students came up with amazing analogies that related to their lives I wish I could share them with you but they were so good I showed them to the director and haven’t gotten them back yet.

Please pray for my class and that their hearts are opened to the gospel. Please pray especially for two boys in my class who have a huge influence on how the day goes. Lately it has not been very good. Please pray that no one gets lice in my class, which includes me, we have had some students out with it. Pray for our electricity it is starting to go out more pray that it stays on. Pray for the NICS family as one of the director’s wife died suddenly this past weekend after collapsing in front of her class on Friday.

Blessings

1. God makes us beautiful through trials

2. Blessed with more things than I could ever imagine

3. The joy and the hope that I have something so much more to live for

4. That God already has an outcome for every situation.

5. Great friends around the world that know what it is like to go through things over seas even though we are not in the same country but deal with the same things.

To end this I have some lyrics from a SuperChic(k) song that have been an encouragement to me and I hope they are an encouragement to you.

The lights go out all around me

One last candle to keep out the night

And then the darkness surrounds me

I know I'm alive but I feel like I've died

And all that's left is to accept that it's over

My dreams ran like sand through the fists that I made

I try to keep warm but I just grow colder

I feel like I'm slipping away

After all this has passed, I still will remain

After I've cried my last, there'll be beauty from pain

Though it won't be today,

Someday I'll hope again

And there'll be beauty from pain

You will bring beauty from my pain

My whole world is the pain inside me

The best I can do is just get through the day

When life before is only a memory

I wonder why God lets me walk through this place

And though I can't understand why this happened

I know that I will when I look back someday

And see how you've brought beauty from ashes

And made me as gold purified through these flames

[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/beauty-from-pain-lyrics-superchick.html ]

After all this has passed, I still will remain

After I've cried my last, there'll be beauty from pain

Though it won't be today,

Someday I'll hope again

And there'll be beauty from pain

You will bring beauty from my pain

Here I am, at the end of me

Tryin to hold to what I can't see

I forgot how to hope

This night's been so long

I cling to Your promise

There will be a dawn

After all this has passed, I still will remain

After I've cried my last, there'll be beauty from pain

Though it won't be today,

Someday i'll hope again

And there'll be beauty from pain

You will bring beauty from my pain

Isaiah 61.3

A New Year and a lot of fun

This semester has been so much fun already and I have only been here a week. So many times I would just get in a routine and it was that same routine everyday never really seeing the excitement of what I was doing.

This started before I even left the states. My whole trip was full of new experiences. First leaving Chicago we had about an hour delay where we sat on the plane because something was broken but I was really excited because I got to sit by the window. Then I get to Washington D.C. and we go to get on the flight and when I handed my ticket to the guy it flashed red and I was like what is wrong and he said I had a seat change. I look at my new ticket and I had been upgraded to United Business which is just like sitting in first class. It was amazing! Never would I have imagined sitting up enjoying all of that. It was totally a switch up, definitely out of my routine.

Wednesday when we started school I was so excited to get back into my routine of being in school. It is funny how God works in little ways and reminds us of why He put us here. Wednesday was probably the best day of this year, I had so much fun being with my students and it made me realize how much I love teaching these kids. I have never had so much fun being in my classroom. I was excited to see if I would have any more students added to my class and I only had one new friend. My class is now up to 14 wonderful students. 6 boys and 8 girls. It is really amazing to see how my class welcomes the new students and it is really awesome to see how God unites them and allows them to all get along for the most part.

I also got to see the impact of having the study hall last semester. I don't get the pleasure of having them this semester but they still come by my class and say hi. It was really cool because I had more than one of them come by and tell me how much they miss being in the study hall. I do miss them a lot.

This weekend me and three other teachers went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner on Friday night and it was such a blast I really do love hanging out with these teachers. This was a random night in itself. So we always go to this restaurant we want to order the sweet and sour pork in a whole pineapple but they never have to pineapple. So this time we decided we were going to bring our own. So we stopped on the side of the road picked up the pineapple and took it to the restaurant. Kim is ordering so she says we would like the sweet and sour pork in the whole pineapple. Waiter- We don't have that. Us- no worries we brought our own. Waiter- laughed and took the pineapple to the kitchen. We all laughed so hard. Never in America would that happen.Then on Saturday we got to go to the Koffee House which is our new little spot that we like to go to and just hung out and talk.

As I was thinking about how I could keep everyone better informed of what God was doing each week when I write I am going to add a section called Get your Praise On and I am just going to say a couple of things that God has done.

GET YOUR PRAISE ON

1. We have our land purchased and will start clearing for a soccer field hopefully next week.

2. This new semester is starting off great with 14 students.

3. I got here safely and in style.

4. A wonderful family and church family at home that really supports me. Thanks soooo much !

Home sweet Home

It is so good to be home. I can't believe how much I missed it. It was great to get home and then go shopping for a Christmas tree and decorate it. It was such a surprise after a long trip. It was so nice to worship with people at my church and to see the Christmas program. Being a teacher sometimes I just don't want to see or be around kids because I am always around them but it is such a reminder of how we are to have faith and worship God and remind us the real meaning of Christmas.

I have also been amazed at how many people now about what I am doing in Ghana. I would have never fathomed how many people would know about me going to Ghana. I also have noticed how people have surprised me with little blessings that mean so much to me.

I am adjusting to the time change pretty well but the cold weather not so much. It is cold here but I am super excited about wearing sweaters and I have straightened my hair which may sound stupid but for someone who loves sweaters and hates having crazy hair because of the humidity loves it.

Missing Ghana but loving it here. God bless you this CHristmas.