field day

Field day is a day here at AIS where we split up each student into a team of a country represented at our school. Each teacher has a team of k- gr12. This year my team was Ivory Coast. My team came in second place out of all the other teams. I had a great team! On the last day we had to wear the colors of our countries flag. Mine was green, orange and white.

My third graders before field day!

PRAISE AND PRAYER REQUEST:

THE FIRST PART OF THE WORK VISA HAS COME THROUGH. THE PRAYER REQUEST IS THAT THE SECOND PART IS GOING THROUGH RIGHT NOW WHICH MEANS THEY HAVE MY PASSPORT AND I LEAVE IN LIKE 20 DAYS. PRAY THAT I GET THE PASSPORT BACK SO I CAN LEAVE ON THE 16TH.

a time to come to end with great new beginnings...

There hasn't been much going on here. It seems like a lot of things are coming to an end. Reading month is officially over. Which means a lot of stress has gone away. Eligibility for the semester is over which is great because there is a lot of drama dealing with that. The semester is coming to an end also it just a few short weeks. The sad one is volleyball. Monday is our last game against the staff and Wednesday is our party. Then girls volleyball will be over. Even though all these things are ending there are so many new things beginning.

So I have signed my letter of intent to stay another year in Ghana. I love it here and I love my students. Some of you have heard that I am looking to change grades here at AIS. Right now it is still up in the air of what I will teach but hopefully it will be either first grade or kindergarten which are totally different from 3rd grade.

The joy I feel when I see precious little ones in those grades and even smaller like the preschoolers is amazing. It must only be a small glimpse of what Christ sees and feels when He looks at us.Even today while I was waiting for my friend George to get done coaching soccer practice I was watching these little kids that couldn't be more than 5 or 6 playing soccer and how adorable they were trying their best to kick the ball and even when they missed the joy they had while just trying to kick it. Just seeing little kids with huge smiles on their faces with not a care in the world reminds me of how we are to be. Just think if we were to act a like one of those little kids trying to kick a soccer ball and failing but still have so much joy and excitement. Wouldn't our lives reflect the true joy of who Christ is. I am speaking to myself right now. The past couple of weeks have not been easy here. They have tough, lonely, and feeling of being left down time and time again. If only I had the joy through all of it as those little ones did. Have the faith that one day I will be able to stand and not feel any of those things. That one day I am going to be in the presence of the Lord everyday and never feel sad, alone, or cry a tear. Its only looking back on the situations and hard times it seems that I learn this. I wonder why I don't keep this in mind when I am actually going through it.

PTL

- George, he is a great friend to me that just listens and sometimes lets me just tag along with him doing errands just so I can get out of the house.

- amazing parents who really support the class.

- new principal at our school she is amazing and I have already had a bunch of meetings with her and they have been great.

Prayer request

- housing- there has been a lot of tension at my house between my roommate and me. I may actually be moving at christmas into an apartment with another teacher.

-deciding what i will be teaching next year. THe director sees me as a first grade teacher but I know God will put me in which ever one he wants me in.

- I have a student that doesn't smile and he told me I wasn't going to make him smile so its my mission to make smile. He is a sweet kid and want him to love Ghana as he moved from Ohio. He was the first student i met this year.

-George- He has been really busy and he is exhausted. He believes in Christ but we have been talking about it a lot and he doesn't really go to church anymore because he is tired and doesn't have anyone to go with. He is catholic and so just that he will feel the pull at his heart to go back to church. he needs accountability. Just ask for opportunities to encourage him and that we will keep having great conversations about life and things in general.

- my stress level it has been really high lately and it was to the point where I would get home from school and go to bed at like 6:30 and sleep all the way to 4:30 (4:45ish) in the morning and still wanting to sleep.

- I have also had the yearning to really want to be home. A lot has happened in this first semester with people at home. Like my best friends mom died and it was hard for me because I could not be there for him or just feeling like I am letting people at home down because they are going through something and I can't be there which I know I can't be because God has me here and that he has control over the situation at home but its definitely this week effected me.

- a good end to the semester only a couple of weeks left and they are going to be busy.

27 days until I leave to come home to celebrate the holidays.

The Provider

I just love how God provides little things that encourage you or just teach you something. This weekend has been full of God's provisions.

Having our very first volleyball game in AIS history. God provided a team and safety getting there. He also provided our girls to have the most amazing attitude about playing and even after a lost. They could have been discouraged and all had bad attitudes but they had the most wonderful attitudes. He also provided amazing fans! Our fans are awesome there was a lot of them and they were cheering these girls on. I seriously love each of them. Our captains are amazing and I am so glad God gave me each of them.

He also...

Provided a great friend to hang out with. Being a coach and teacher can sometimes be frustrating and having someone who understands when you just say your frustrated with the week. No questions asked because they already know. Or having lost a game and kind of bummed and just replaying all of the things in practice you could have worked on or all the things we need to work on next in practice. Just saying we have some things we need to work on and they understand. Sometimes you also need someone who is not associated with your job or ministry. Sometimes is here since I work, live, and hang out with everyone at AIS you sometimes just need new faces and people who understand you that are not around you all the time. God provided me with that friend this weekend. A way to not think about the week to get my mind off everything to do with school. Thank God for George who is both a teacher and a coach. George has become a really good friend of mine the last 6 months. This weekend was a blast hanging out with. For just a couple of hours of not thinking about all I have to do or just about school.

He also provided...

A close friend! This year I have felt lonely. I really haven't felt like I have really fit in with anyone. I still have my friends from the last two years but I have felt like I haven't really connected with them for some reason. God provided me with a volleyball coach that I have come to love. She is awesome and is such an encouragement to me. Today we went and got pedicures and we just talked about things going on and about what we are going to do next year or when the contract is up. Its awesome that He provided me with someone I work with and coach with.

A much needed break

After a very few stressful weeks we had a much needed day off from school Friday. This was very relaxing for me. I got to relax by the pool and then hang out with a great friend. Not only did I get to relax I got a little taste of home. I got to have some root beer and peanut butter ice cream. I also got to watch american football which I was really excited about. It was just what I needed. I hung all day with that friend and then got to go to see my other friend Mike at a job function. It was great to see him because he is leaving to visit the states on Sunday for a while so it was good to see him again before he left. It was a great day off and today I got to relax by the pool and then chill at home and tonight I get to go out with Nichole.

It was a great relaxing weekend! Monday and Tuesday I have parent teacher conferences so pray for me as I talk with parents. Pray also for the volleyball team as AIS will have their first volleyball game on Friday! Almost 2 months till I will be home enjoying the snow! THanks for all the prayers!

Being Peculiar for Christ

But ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people that ye shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. I peter 2:9

The word peculiar is a word that has been coming up and a word that has impacted my life is amazing ways. God has been working in my life and really been impressing on my heart to be peculiar for Christ. I should not be normal to this world I need to be weird.

I was sitting in church the last two weeks and the pastor was saying how some Christians these days are to nervous and to ashamed to even pray out loud at restaurants. So many times we do a headache prayer. I asked myself am I willing to be peculiar for the one who was peculiar for me?

The past two weeks I have really been trying to stand out in the world I am living in. Trying to be Christ to people I am with. We are studying David in my Bible study and how what he was doing was culturally ok but not okay with God. This made me ask myself if I am doing things that are culturally okay are they really okay with God.

Then today in church Pastor Jeff was talking about who is getting the glory and why you do certain things. So many times I just do things for my glory to get man's approval but I should be doing things for Christ's glory. Really giving glory to whom it belongs because really without CHrist I am nothing and can do nothing. That is being peculiar knowing that the approval of men is nice but doing for Christ is going to be more rewarding in the long run.

I have been blessed the last couple of weeks with some awesome friends that have taken my mind off of school. I have had so many nights out with other people and it is quite refreshing to be with others than the same people I work with.

Where do you find your strength?

I have a couple of stories to share with you this week. I got strength this week from a couple of things that happened this week. 2 of them have to with friends and the other ones just have to do with little encouragements from others.

So this week I was sick again out of something I ate. So on Wednesday I came home from school at like 3:40 which is super early for me and came home and went to sleep because I had no energy. So I wrote on my facebook that I was not feeling all that well and I get a phone call from a friend that I just really started to get to know at the end of last year. He was just calling to see if I was okay and to make sure I didn't have malaria. It was so sweet and it kind of made me feel better. Then I got a better on Thursday and George wanted me and my roommate to see the soccer game at Lincoln on Friday. So we decided to go and I was excited so I got to see my friends George and Elrom.

Then on Saturday I got told since I was a volleyball coach I needed to go thru first aid training and it happened that the guy that was doing our first aid training was my friend Mike who was the life guard at my pool party last year. It was great to see him again and just see him do something that he is very passionate about.

On Thursday in our mailboxes we got prayers from students after chapel. I and the prayer team at home have been praying for one of the high schoolers who has been searching for Christ. Well on those prayers I found one that said something like thanks for sending Jesus to die for me, and it was from this one student that we are praying for. I don't know if he has accepted Christ but he realizes that Jesus came to die for him and that is one step closer for him to ask him to come into his life. Our prayers are working and Christ is working in his life so please keep lifting him to our savior. Sometimes in ministry when you don't necessarily see a lot of results from just planting seeds and you see something like that you just see that all the work and praying for these students is making a difference you regain strength.

The one that has not happened yet but that I am so excited about is volleyball starts tomorrow! We have about 11 girls that have picked up permission slips to play which is just really exciting. But what is perhaps even more exciting is that I have an awesome partner who has the same passion I do for these students to really be a discipleship group as well. Talking with her yesterday in the van about what we wanted to do to make Christ even more evident on our team. We have come up with a couple of different things: Before we start practice each time we are going to have someone share something that they learned about Christ that day or something that happened to them. Then we are going to pray together as a team. This week Daesha and me are going to show them. As a team we are going to have a team verse that we are going to memorize. We have talked about getting shirts with the team verse on it so that it would be the center of our team. We want volleyball to be not only a team but a small group that can encourage and be in God's word together. Please pray for all these girls and Daesha and me as we coach and disciple these girls.

Last and not least I have especially today found strength in sitting and reading the Bible, and listening to worship music. It has been a rough day and the first thing that i thought of was to vent to someone else. However all the people I usually vent to were not home or not online which I think was God telling me I am the one that you vent to. So just crying out to God for strength to deal with people here and just being tired just listening for his voice, and searching in the Bible. Going to humans first is so ridiculous because they don't hold your future or your life. They don't have the words to comfort and loving arms to wrap around you and hold you for a long time but God does and He does all the time. He always has the right thing to say to you even when it is in his stern voice because you have disobeyed or did it your way instead of going to him first. He always does it in a loving way.

Please pray for this senior who has realize he needs Jesus. Pray for salvation. Pray for our volleyball program as it starts on Monday. Please also pray for a struggling relationship with one of my housemates and coworkers. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragements.

a little bit of chaos in a world of peace

This week has been a week that I have realized that I am back in Ghana. The honeymoon stage is over and I am full in. You would think after 2 years I wouldn't have to have the realization that I am no longer in America and get into a routine which is fine. I love having my routine but being too comfortable with the routine is another thing. Having a passion for what you are doing with a routine is different that just being completely comfortable with your routine. I don't want to be in a rut where I just go and go like a robot. I want to be open to all of what God is willing to teach me and the opportunities I have to share Him with others.

This week I got to go to a Korean festival. There is a big Korean population here in Ghana in a place called Tema. A lot of these families are missionaries. They would putting on a fundraiser for their church. It was a lot of fun and I got to eat a lot of good korean food. I had a great opportunity to eat lots of good food. I had some Korean noodles which are amazing, they were called Chap Chae,I think bung-a bbang was these things that look like fish and inside they have beans and something else but they taste like chocolate, and hoddok is a cinnamon pancake thing, it was more of a dessert. I got to hang out with some amazing teachers and friends. So all of these foods I split with the new PE teacher, Josiah, and at one point he told me I wasn't allowed to talk any more till I finished the rest of the fish thing because he wouldn't start eating the pancake things until I was done. So for all of you who know me I didn't stop talking I just quickly finished so that we could eat the pancake things. It was a lot of fun and I hung out with people that I hadn't really hung out with yet.

So in Bible study this year we have been looking at the life of David in I Samuel. This week a couple things just hit me.

1. GOd has a will for me but so does Satan. (2 Tim. 2:26, And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. Satan tries with all his might to make us stray and to deceive us. Make us doubt our faith and make us doubt of who we are in Christ. He attacks us and we know he will just like David knew he wrote it in Psalm 27:2. That is why 2 Tim. 1:12 is so important. It says For he which cause I also suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I KNOW whom I have BELIEVED and am PERSUADED that he is ABLE to KEEP that which I have COMMITTED unto Him against that day.

2. There are two types of faith. Faith that we base our faith on what God is doing and one where we base our faith on who He is. So many times especially in Ghana I have faith on what He is doing and as soon as something happens where I don't necessarily see Him working I tend to get down on myself and look at things more critically. WHere as if I have faith in who He is I would really be looking at WHat he has done in the past and all of His promises that he has kept and know He is a faithful, loving, all consuming God.

3. GOd is bigger than our feelings. He is bigger than our heart. Beth Moore talked about how we have the breastplate of righteousness to protect our hearts when our feelings are in conflict with our callings. SHe talked about how we can't just listen to our hearts because our hearts will deceive us. I John 3:20, I John 4:4. verse 20"For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. vs 4 Ye are of God little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is of the world." Praise the Lord that We have a savior who is greater than our heart.

It is coming to be time again where I have to decide what I am going to be doing next year.I have a couple of choices. I can stay in Ghana and teach third grade, I can stay in Ghana and switch grades, I can transfer to a different NICs school, or I can come home. I think coming home is not really going to be an option my passion is to be overseas. I am just really praying about where God would have me. I have been thinking about maybe transferring to Korea or just switching to a different grade here at AIS. Just pray for this decision. I always dread this decision it is so hard for me. Part of it is because all I have known for the last two years has been AIS its scary thinking about leaving it. However, I can't let fear or being comfortable keep me here and not really listening to what God is saying to me. I ask that you pray for discernment.

So I guess I should explain why I entitled my blog a little bit of chaos in a world of peace. In the last couple of weeks my whole world has been turned upside down with a million different things and just adjusting to life back in Ghana and not getting to talk to some people as often as I did at home and different things and it has just been chaotic but I have peace with it all. I have peace because I know God gives peace to those who trust in Him and He has every single thing that has happened in the last couple of weeks from Amanda's wedding to coming back to Ghana to some other things He already had and has them worked work out and so with chaos all around I can have peace. I can have faith that God will come through and I can have joy even in the hard times because I know I have a faithful God.

God is good and I am so thankful that i have this opportunity to be in Ghana for a third year. My class is amazing and they really put a smile on my face every time I see them. okay so at Care group tonight Chris was talking from Hebrews and he referenced a passage in TItus and I really like it and it really just kind of stood out to me so i thought I would close with this.

Titus 3:4-8

" But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy ghost: which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and that things i will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men. "