Climb Higher

I find myself in my room past midnight after eating a large Lebanese meal from a family at school. My parents and sister know this family well as they were also blessed to enjoy the ladies excellent Lebanese cooking. We are blessed by these generous families in our school but eating at 10:30 at night does become exhausting! Anyways, I am still awake and ready to process the week that the Lord graciously gave us! The week started with a day off on Monday. Usually days off should be taken to relax but we take it as an opportunity to travel somewhere! Kim, Josiah, and I took a trip to Boti Falls. Since our trip to Togo worked out so well last time, we figured we were all good traveling partners, ha! Anyways, a teacher at our school had her husband take us half of the way to his village where we boarded a trotro for the rest of the journey. While standing there waiting for the trotro, a man asked me to go into his chambers(stand next to him.) I refused but he got Kim to go over and then was asked to marry him. I told him that the bride price was too high! Anyways, during this excitement, a little Ghanaian boy was screaming because of the sight of white people which can be pretty blinding! He began to scream again when we got on the trotro so they sat him on Kim's lap to calm him down. we thought this would be for a second but alas he stayed there for the entire 1 1/2 ride! He did become quite content and even fell alseep. Only in Ghana would you put a kid on a complete stranger's lap. We finally arrived at the falls and began our journey to the top of the hill, there really aren't any mountains here, to "mushroom rock." While we were climinb, I kept looking back at the spectacular view. Every step I took up, the view became better and better. I couldn't help but think of our relationship with Christ. We are enjoying life and thinking the view is great. However, the more we begin to trust on God and allow him to control every step, the view or life becomes more spectacular. The close we become to Him, the more we realize how much life is better when we are relying on Him and Him alone. I feel like this is so true in my life right now. I know nothing about tomorrow but Christ holds it in his hands and that is sufficient. God is enough! After viewing the surrounding countryside and the powerful waterfall, we decided to start walking back until a trotro passed. Trotros passed but they were all full so we walked for and 1 and 15 minutes wondering if we had missed the turn. I kept praying that the Lord would give us clarity if we had gone too far and sure enough he did when guys stopped us and told us we were lost and went too far! God is good though and got us back on track even allowing us to cool off during our walk with some large drops of rain! We made it back that evening and it was just around 8 oclock which was good considering school was in the morning!

I love my beautiful students and I am thankful for their love! Some days we are crazy and loud but we love to have a good time! We listen to music while working, take off our shoes for tests, and say everything extremely loud. Pretty much, what could be better? One of my little girls prays the most elegant prayers. One of them went at the end, "Lord, as for me and my family and my friends' house, we will serve you, as it says in your holy word." She is definitely listening tot he sermons and picking out the important parts! She prayed for those that didn't know Christ that they would know that he died on the cross for their sins and that we would tell others about Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than a little child on fire for God! A random comment said by a student went like this: one boy, "my aunt is expecting a baby." another boy: how many?" the first boy," I think one or two." Oh man they are hilarious!

This week proved to be a struggle in some ways as I am trying to figure out next year. Last year I was at peace with not knowing but this week wasn't as simple. I have a lot of emotions about everything but I am confident that the Lord will guide my steps! Today I went with a missionary family to their children's home. The children all have some life threatening disease and some thankfully are being adopted from families in the states. I was able to meet a mother who is bringing a beautiful girl back to the states with her tomorrow. The 2 year old is HIV positive but such a joy to all. There are mostly babies at the children's home except for a 9 year old girl with sickle cell anemia. She has hardly had any schooling because all of the kids made fun of her for her bloated stomach or the fact that with a diseased liver, being pushed could kill her. She was living in Kumasi(5 hour drive from Accra) with an uncle until he decided he could no longer take care of her. He set her in a taxi all by herself and sent her back to Accra, giving the taxi driver only the address of where the mother should have been. Needless to say, the sick girl was dropped off with noone around and was sent to the hospital. Luckily, this missionary family is friends with the social worker and quickly rescued her. There are so many stories like this of how neglected children just need love. I met with the house parents who have a ministry to refugee children from Northern Ghana in the Yam market. I will be going with them tomorrow to see how the Lord can use me in this capacity. I am excited to meet these beautiful children.

One last thing that has changed quickly in the last 48 hours. Due to my grandfather's health, I have decided to go back to America for Christmas. I don't have a plane ticket yet and praying for a miracle in an awesome price but the Lord will provide! I like staying in Ghana for Christmas and had committments to help with but I know this is the right decision. I am excited to see family and friends but at the same time I have skipped the last two Christmas's in the states and I am a bit nervous. I have forgotten about Christmas decorations, or every store decked out, or lights or well there are still other things I have forgotten about! Oh yeah, not to mention the freezing cold! I don't even have a long pair of pants here nor a sweater! I am practically going to freeze to death and that is no joke! I do have some reservations as it will definitely be a culture shock but the Lord will get me through this. I will only be staying for around 2 weeks as I need to go to Togo to assist our principal with teacher training workshops. I am excited for this opportunity as this is a passion of mine and I am praying that it will give me more insight on what the Lord has in store for me next. Please continue to pray that the Lord will make His will clear to me in His timing and not my own.

I pray that you can all have a restful Sunday soaking in God's goodness.