The beginning of a new year

Wow I can't believe it is a new school year already. I have been back in Ghana for about a week and it has been non stop. My flight was long and spent an extra day in the states after my flight got canceled in Atlanta. Its amazing how God gives little things like a friend to travel with when you get stuck. I hate airports and the fact that I was stuck in one and had to get a hotel with the airline and figure all that out I was so glad that my principal was with me. We spent the night in Atlanta and took off the next evening arriving back in Ghana on Monday one day later than i was supposed to. I was so glad to be back. I got back and all my things were moved to my new apartment and I got to work. I now have everything set up and ready to go and I have loved living by myself and just relaxing when I get home. This first week has been super busy. I have been making airport runs to pick up the new staff and helping show them around. I have got to see my best friend Nana and my other friend Karim three times this week which is amazing. I realized how much I miss these guys. I have been working in my classroom and organizing all of the things that I have. As of right now I believe i have 24 students and I am so excited to get to know each one of them.

Thank you for all of your support and prayers these past three years. I have felt them and I hope you continue to be a part of my ministry as we partner together.

The end draws near

Wow I can't believe this year is coming to an end already. With the end of the school year comes a lot of goodbyes, packing up, and stress. This year I can honestly say I am ready for this school year to be over. This school year has been emotionally, physically, and mentally draining. This year has consisted of sicknesses, and death which has made this school year one of the roughest years. Even though its been rough I thank God for it because without all the rough things this year I wouldn't have seen how amazing my friends are and how faithful God is.  One verse that I have continuously wrote in my journal to give me strength this year is

Be strong and of good courage fear not nor be afraid of them for the Lord God he it is that doth go with thee he will not fail thee nor forsake thee.
Deuteronomy 31:6

I have found this year it is really difficult to get ready to leave. This year i have made amazing friends who have been a great support to me and have become like family. Leaving this year means coming back next year with friends I have spent the last three years with are somewhere else.

Please pray for me as i finish the school year up and say goodbye to some friends who won't come back to AIS next year. Pray for my stress level as I have to pack up both my classroom and my bedroom (as I might move next year)  Pray for the new staff as they come. Pray for my class for next year, it is going to be pretty big. Pray for the staff as we meet with representatives from our home office next week. Pray for AIS as we expand.  Pray also for my trip home next Friday as I will be traveling by myself back to the states.

Spring Break

Coming up to this last week I was ready to get away from the school and just everything. I needed a week of not being stressed. So I planned a nice week of sitting by the pool and a spa day with one of the other teachers. Then on Friday I got invited to go to a BBQ with a friend and his life group at church. So my friend from church knew I was going on break and told me I should get out of the city for a little bit. On Saturday after having a pretty rough morning I decided that getting out of the city would be a great idea. So I said how about on Sunday after church we could go for a couple of days. So on Sunday after church we went out to eat and then got on a tro tro and took a two and half hour drive to the Volta region. This is towards Togo. I went to a village outside of Ho. This village I went to had no running water and no electricity. However the house I went to did have running water and the electricity. This village was in a valley and it was so beautiful. It was about 10 degrees cooler than it was in the city. I got to meet some really nice people and get to just relax and eat some good ghanian food. It was so nice to just get away and just chill. On Tuesday I got back into the city and got to go out for ice cream. Then the rest of the week I got to just chill by the pool and relax. I feel refreshed and ready to finish the year strong.

Prayer request:

-Finishing the year strong

-saying goodbye to my friends here that are leaving.

- just saying goodbye for two months to the people that have become like family

- my class for next year

He lifts me up on wings of eagles

"He giveth power to the faint and to them that hath no might he increased strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall. but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint" Isaiah 40:29-31

This has been my theme the last couple of weeks. It has not been an easy month here in Ghana. This verse I always thought it meant that when you are tired God will renew you but after the last couple of weeks it has come to mean so much to me. It now means when you have nothing left physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually God gives you strength to keep going to keep doing what He has sent you to do. A lot has happened within my family here at AIS and my family at home.

I have always heard missionaries say how hard it is to be overseas when there was a death in the family but I never really understood all the feelings you feel. The weekend I found out my grandpa died was a weekend that was supposed to be my recovery weekend. It was supposed to be the weekend I got over being sick. Instead it was the weekend I felt guilty and stressed and made myself become even sicker. I always knew I would feel sad if someone died while I was over here but the sadness faded rather fast because I knew I would see Grandpa again. The hard part was not being there for the rest of my family especially my mom. At this point I didn't care what I felt I just wanted to be there. It is funny how God just put the people you need at that point in your life. The night before I had an argument with my best friend here and I texted him Sunday morning because he is always the one that just gives me advice and he is really like the big brother i never had and even though the night before we just left it kind of unsettled and he was busy he just came over to give me a hug and tell me everything was going to be ok. Of course I didn't believe him at that time but he became my family when I wasn't around my real family.

That next week there was a student in the youth group at the church and who was really good friends with students at our school died. It hit our students unexpectedly and hard. I remember sitting in church with one of the students from school and I don't think i realized how hard it would be to go back to church after a death but it sure hit me that Sunday. Sitting in church with this student and me pretty much used a whole role of toilet paper that we took from the bathroom. However I realized something I got to talk to some students about how they felt and I could honestly say I knew what they were going through.

The next week was my birthday which I am usually really excited about. This year it just came. I wasn't really excited about it. Two out of my three best friends here were going to be out of the country and the other couldn't take time out of his busy schedule to hang out with me so I was pretty sure I was going to be by myself which I came to be ok with. I ended up going to the gym and then out to dinner with two of my school friends Kim and Meg. It was a lot of fun. I also got to go out for sushi the next night which i loved.

That Sunday in church I just really was reading my Bible I don't even know what the speaker was saying. I read in Ecclesiastes 3:1-17.It made me think that each of the times has a hard time with a renewing time I laid it out in my notebook here is what it says

To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven A time to

be born --- die

to plant--- pluck up that which is planted

to kill ---- to heal

break down--- build up

weep-- laugh

mourn--- dance

east away stones--- gather stones together

embrace--- refrain embrace

to get--- to lose

to keep ---- cast away

to rend--- to sew

to keep silence--- to speak

to love--- to hate

war --- peace

I then skipped to verse 11 and then 14

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. ... I know that whatsoever God doeth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it and God doeth it that men should fear before him.

The end of verse 17 God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time there for every purpose and for evert work.

Praise the Lord.

I have learned so much the last couple of weeks its been hard but I think God He gives strength to the weary and renews us.

check out the new AIS promo video ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZuiJK4yP3g

This show where our school is and where it is headed. Pray for AIS

love letter

So this week was valentines day. Coming into this week I was really excited because I love Valentines Day. I don't know why I just think it is a really fun holiday that you get to show someone you care about them even more than usual. It was a lot of fun I gave one of my friends a valentine and it was his first one (of course it was a kiddy one) He loved it and was excited to get one.

Well an assignment we had from our care group members was to write a love note to God. We are so quick to write love notes to our significant others and whoever else but do we really stop and write a love note to the one who loves us more than anyone else. It took me a long time to do this because I didn't know what to write. How do you express all you have to say to someone who has greater love than you ever known. I finally wrote it.I have read it many times this week when I have felt overwhelmed and stressed or just plain down to remind me of who this God is I serve. I thought I would share it to encourage you to write one to God as am offering and an encouragement or reminder of who God is.

Dear God,

So I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be in love. The last couple of days I have come to find the funny thing about it is that it has nothing to do with me but has everything to do with you. Your love is undeserving especially to me a failure on so many levels. Your love is sacrificial. I mean you loved me so much you sent your son for me to take my place. This love I can never return. So many times I have stood you up, forgotten you, ran to someone else, and made you cry. I have disappointed you and yet you have never left my side, given up on me, or disowned me. You have stayed by my side, given me encouragement, you have seen all my tears and collected each one. I can never repay you for all you have done. You have brought people whom I have come to love into my life, you have taught me forgiveness. I can't put it all into words of how much I need you and depend on you even if I don't say it. God I am so grateful that you know me for me. God thanks for never changing. Thanks for loving me even though I have hurt you and you take all my pain. Truly bring me back to who you are and help me to continue to fall deeply in love with you.

Your princess,

Faith

Praise the Lord for all He has done in your life and all He is going to do. Thank Him for the special people in your life.

Love all of you.

Pray for my class this week as we talk about salvation and what it really means to be born again.

An Amazing week of Just what I needs...

This past week has been a blast here in Accra. It started on Sunday and has been going ever since. I have some pictures of some of things I did this week.

I love when I get opportunities just to make people feel loved. So my friend Nana has been really stressed on the past couple of weeks. So my college friends would appreciate this I decided that I was going to treat him to what I did with my friends Jo Lyn and Amie in college and bring him some junk food and then we could watch the game. So he agreed so on Sunday after church I set out on a baking spree of brownies and popcorn. Then I grabbed pizza on the way to his house. He had some friends over and so it was fun to not only show him some encouragement but also just to show his friends some encouragement also. It was a lot of fun.

Monday was my first day as a member at the gym and the gym has been great. I look forward to going every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It is a great way to just distress and meet people from outside the AIS family. I have found this more and more important to my ministry here. I love that I get the opportunity to share Christ with my students but also to the outside community that they are involved in also.

On Tuesday we had our staff meeting. Our principal (Mrs. Hailey) started this award this year called the bottle cap award. Each week this reward goes to someone who has worked hard, done something out of the ordinary, or has encouraged someone. This week I got it from my prayer partner. It was definitely a surprise. THen I get home Tuesday night and nothing seemed to be going right, the kitchen was a mess, i kept stepping in something, there were ants, the electricity went off it was just going rough so I was making dinner and I was texting my friend and its great when God just puts people in your life right at the right moment and He puts them to be open to when you are just fraustrated. W

ell Tuesday night was one of those nights and my friend just saw that I was not having a great night so He was in my area running errands and came and hung out for a while.

Wednesday we had chapel and my kids did amazing. God definitely used third grade to encourage the elementary staff and students. Throughout the rest of the week people came up to me and the class and told us how blessed they were.

Friday we had no school so I just got to go and do somethings that I needed to do and just be really independent. It was fun just getting to do things by myself. Knowing that I could do without help from anyone else. Then I went to the gym which was great. Then Friday night I went out with my friend Nana. We went to Chez Afrique which is an african restaurant that has live music. So it was fun going there and just ge

tting some alvario (a fruit like drink) and listen to the music. There were lots of people there dancing and having fun. It was nice to just chill and relax.

Please pray for opportunities to share Christ with people. Today I felt like I needed to invite my friend Nana to church with me because we had been talking about the church he went to in Canada and so I texted him to see if he wanted to go. Unfortunately he couldn't go this morning because he already had plans but he said maybe another time. Just pray that his heart would be opened to coming next week. Pray for more opportunities to share Christ with people outside of school. Pray that Christ continues to open up the hearts of the students in my class and the students at AIS.

My Students singing in Third Grade Chapel.

See their skit below-

"Don't Laugh at Me"

Nana and Me at a soccer game this is where he taught

me the term indirect free kick. (football language) I am really

trying to learn football since it is so influential here.

Nana and Me on Sunday night watching the Ghana football

match and eating lots of brownies and pizza.

Some of my third graders and me after

International Day.

Nichole and Me.