Sep 29

September 29


It has been ONE MONTH as of last Wednesday!!!!!
God has blessed my heart so much with these kids. Despite the fact that these kids have been through many struggle and hardships and still thank God for their lives, families and friend, just blows my mind. I was walking by the boys rooms yesterday and heard some singing , I looked in and saw all the boys standing in a circle praying and worshiping God, but get this there was no adult telling them to pray, they were doing it because they love God and want to praise Him. Shouldn’t we have something to praise God about? We are the ones with the homes and food, we have parent and families. I felt like I was a thankful person, but I think true thankfulness can not go hand in hand with complaining. I have yet to hear one of these kids complain about sharing a room with 14 other kids or that they eat the same food every week. Yet they thank God!! 1 Thes 5:18 says “Give thanks in all circumstances”. That’s what I see from these kids.
God has given me feeling of complete joy and contentment in being here. On Thursday I was sitting outside, the sky was full of the orange setting sun and I had Moses and Gabriel on my lap while we watched the boys playing soccer, when I got this feeling of joy that I have never felt before. I sat there feeling the most content I have ever felt, I know this is where He wants me.
Gabriel and Moses are boys here at HH and are also in my class at school, they are both soon to be three, they love to snuggle, sing and play the drums. Gabriel has the biggest dimples when he smiles; he is a tough little boy. He loves to play soccer, sing songs and walk around with a stick in his hand whacking any thing or anyone that gets in his way. ( we are working that)  Moses is a very little boy, when he came here he was undernourished, so he is a little behind in speech, he is also very unbalanced. He does know how to say my name, and at random he will shout hallelujah! From now on I am going to try and tell you a little bit about two kids each week. O and I have moved from my porch to a room, with a table and some chairs! Praise the Lord!
Praise God that Lindsay and I have not gotten sick. The Driscoll arrived last week and have already been sick. What a blessing the Driscoll are to us, just to have other Americans here and to be able to communicate with has been great. They have sold all they have, left everyone they know to come here and live. They will live here until or if God calls them somewhere else. What faith!!!
Things are starting to feel more settled and homie. I think I have gotten the fact that I am going to be here for another 8 and a half months and not some one month stay. Time is just flying by, I wish it would slow down a little, I have the feeling this will be over before I know it.
On Saturday we ventured into town in search if a mall that we had heard was here. Our adventure started with the tro tro ( not cho cho) dying twice. They had to push start it both times. While I was in the mall I got this feeling like I wasn’t in Africa, just like walking through a mall back home. That feeling quickly died the minute I stepped outside and boarded a tro tro, which made it to a town just before Medie ( medie is where I live) when we stopped to find smoke coming from the hood. To top things off, the other tro tro we got on drove right pass our stop!! What a hilarious day!!
Please pray that these kids would feel loved. I know they want love, but knowing how to receive it and give it is very difficult for many of them. They have so much pain bottled up and many cover it up anger, fear or just silence.
And that I would die to myself everyday, allowing Gods love flow out of me on these kids. For it is only God who can mend broken hearts.

Hello

September 14

This week has been one of large challenges, many tears and victories.
God is so good!!! I stated of Monday with my class of three boys, on my porch. Some how by the end of the day I went from three to six. Now I have three boys and three girls. What a fun time we have been having!! My goal is to play hard, in hopes that they all sleep after lunch. We kicked clubs off this week with cooking club. What a great time we had, the kids love to cook. We made spaghetti. I led art club tonight, and we learned how to draw animals. So fun! Please keep theses kids in your prayers. As I have gotten closer to the kids some have opened up to me and shared some of their life. I am so broken hearted to hear what these young kids have been through and seen. We have faced a great challenge in schooling. A lot of the kids can not read and have a hard time doing homework. So Lindsay and I have been making ourselves available in the afternoon for any kids who need help. I had no idea that so many of the kids are so far behind. Some kids that should be in HS are only in 2nd grade, and are really struggling. One of the girls was really having a hard time with math, so we worked and worked and finally it clicked!! She was happy and so was I. The teachers don’t help the kids understand, and so the kids are not really learning. Lindsay and I are gaining a lot more confidence in going out by ourselves. Yesterday we went to an open market, walked around and bought some food. Today we made the long trek to Accra for the street ministry. The street ministry is where Haven of Hope kids come from. The kids whose parents have died or are no longer being taken care of on the street, come to HH. I have never seen poverty and hunger like this. When we arrive we are instantly swarmed with kids. I had kids holding each one of my fingers. We give a short message with a story from the Bible, and then feed the kids. We have been so blessed. I don’t really know what to feel sometimes. I have no running water sometimes and not a great variety of food, but yet I have soo much compared to them. I have nothing to complain about. I am blessed to have a roof and a bed. Well I love you all and am so thankful for all your prayers. God bless you all!!!

Its been two weeks!!!!!!!

Aug 29

Hi
So things are going great. We finally got power to our apartment last night. Lindsay and I were so happy to just have power. It made us laugh to see how excited we were to have the lights on. Today I helped with the moving of corn from the mase hut to a big table were we laid it out to dry. I don’t understand why we put it all in the hut in the first place when it needed to go on the table to dry anyway. Its like a job that takes two days to do could have got done in one day. O well lest I am doing something to help and they are very grateful for it. It has rained the last two days strait, and it is not like our rain its like our walk way turns into a river in two minutes. It was great because our water is not running so I just washed my hair in the rain. We did all the work in the rain. (so much for the corn drying outJ) today we also helped the children write letters to their sponsors, some of the letters are so funny to read. After dinner I read the children some stories and then one of the children asked me to tell the story of Cinderella ( they saw that I have the movie and wanted to watch it but I said we are saving it for next Saturday) so I told them the story. Imagine this. I am sitting in a plastic lawn chair with 20 children around with wide eyes and I telling a very detailed story of Cinderella. Pretty funny!!!!





Aug 30
Today we look a walk to one of the villages close by and I meet the chief. The children told me that they are afraid of him because he is not a chirstian man and that he worships idols and not the one true God. I was more afraid of his rotting teeth and the fact that he was standing 2in from my face. J The village has a one room school house that all the village children attend. As we where walking though I felt like I was in a national geographic magazine with mud huts that have straw roofs. The village people were very kind. The children like to go there so they can play football (soccer as we call it) games against the village children. It is very comical to watch. It is very difficult to get the children to obey or follow rules. They have a “fend for yourself” mentality. Pastor Sammy told me that most of the children are from the street and so they do not have good manners, so Lindsay and I are trying are best to work with them. We have a lot of work to do, but am very excited and the children love us so much, and they love to do things for us. Today one of the children asked me if my mother or father ever beat me. It was sad because when I told her no she looked surprised that they have never beat me. A few of the children told me that their parents used to beat them before they came to Haven of Hope. Keep them in your prayers.






Aug 31

This morning Lindsay and I went to the church serves with the children, church is held in the activity center here at HH. We started out with some singing and dancing while some of the boys played on their drums. I loved it!! After singing Pastor Sammy stood up and preached on how God dose not like it when we disobey and hit other people, but while he is preaching if any of the children talk or move to much in their seat he would hit them over the head with a switch. I didn’t know what the think. Then after the closing prayer he called two of the boys (who had been misbehaving before church) up front and used the switch on their butts. In front of all the children!!! Pastor Sammy is very stern with the children, but he loves them very much. We will not be able to attend church with the children because every Sunday we will be going into town to work with the street ministry. I am looking forward to that. We will also be able to find a church of our own since we will already be in town on Sunday.









September 1

Today was the opening of the school. We didn’t do any classes because the class rooms needed to be cleaned. So that’s what we did, well that is what the children did. I tried to help but all the teachers said that this was the children’s job to clean. I thought it very interesting because all the teachers just sat around and talked for hours while the children cleaned. Today I was able to look around and meet the teacher I will be helping. Her name is Mrs. Gladys. She is a very sweet lady and also very quiet. I am very excited to start!! The kindergarten teacher is very out going and was also very helpful with telling us how things are ran. That is the most information we have had the whole time we have been here. Mrs. Salemi the Knd teacher invited us to her church, and to teach us how to cook Ghana food. She said that the other girls who came even spent the night sometime, just to get away. We might take her up on that offer, because it is just so loud and chaotic all the time. It would be nice to get away one night. Some of the children caught a huge beetle and tied it to a string. The beetle was flying around and the children were running and screaming. The best part for them was to chase me with it. The funny thing is they are so afraid of frogs but will pick up rats and chase snakes. So it is really great when I can chase them with a frog. Tomorrow we start school!!! We have about 40 students from HH and about 35 to 40 that come from other villages from around the area. I am soooo excited to start!!!!!





September 2

Well as I wrote yesterday we were supposed to start school today. Well that did not really happen. Considering that none of the teachers have their books and we had not even divided the children into their grades. So today I just sat in the class room and did crowd control. I found out today that I will taking the younger half of the preschool somewhere, I don’t know where yet. I don’t know much of anything. It is difficult because there is no expectations and no schedule to follow. Please pray for patience!! I did have a very eventful afternoon. Abby the financial director showed us how to get to the market in a cho cho. (a bus like van the hold about 15 people or as many as the can squish in) The market was like nothing I could have even imagined. People were selling food, clothing, and even running businesses all out of 5 by 5 little shops. Some even had small wooden carts or a small table. Lindsay and I are very popular and get a lot of attention, because we are white. Or as they call us “obruni”. In the market one of the ladies told Abby that she wanted to be my friend, so when I put my hand out to shake hers, she was so excited and put my hand to her cheek and said something I didn’t understand, but apparently it was funny because everyone around started to laugh. When we hear obruni we know they are talking about us. Some of the children at the market were very excited to see us and kept running and waving, one of the girls got distracted and fell into a huge bowl of water. Everyone was laughing and pointing at us, I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. It was a great way to end the day.








September 6

Well here I am sitting on bed thinking I have been here for two weeks!!
The time has just flown by. We didn’t really start school this week; we just did a lot of cleaning and school preparations. For my class room I am using my front porch with a little table and some chairs. At first I was disappointed and overwhelmed at the thought of trying to teach there, let alone keep them on the porch. My faith was not strong. The next morning I was reading in 1 John 5:4-5 “ for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” So I figured that if our faith could overcome the world, that though Christ I could have a class of 3 year olds on my front porch. Every Wednesday we have morning chapel along with worship. Mrs Salemi the Krd teacher is a very lively when I comes to worship. She and I danced!!! Some of the children joined us; it was a blast to worship God with my all. After worship Mrs Salemi told the children to worship like the trees move in the wind, and that if they didn’t worship that God would push them out and replace them with a stone. I think some of the children believed her, because after that most everyone was moving. J After school on Friday Lindsay and I decided to go into town by ourselves. We needed to get some things for cooking club. We flagged a cho cho, go in told them our destination and paid 25cents. We arrived at our stop jumped out and made our way to the store. We had to walk a little ways to get there, on our way people are were waving and yelling Obruni, its like we are the only white people around. O wait, we are. J After our adventure we felt so proud of ourselves for doing all on our own. We are teaching clubs every night starting on Monday. We have cooking, art, games, spots and Bible clubs. Next week is when things start really rolling. On Sunday we start working with the street ministry. I am gaining a lot more confidence and getting used to how things are done here. Thank you for all your prayers!!!!! God bless you all!!!!!!!!