I will give you a warning before you get too far into reading this. This blog might be not be that exciting as but for those who trek through, thank you. Yes, some of the things that happen are a bit out of the ordinary than in America, but now it is life and I don't remember them as well because they just aren't usual anymore. I still feel weird just blogging about my life since everyone has a story to tell about how God is working in their life for his Glory. As my grandpa would say, just say thank you to those who take the time to read and then just get on with it.
I love being infront of kids and making a fool of my stuff. I love planning lessons and helping the children but one aspect of teaching that I have been afraid is talking to parents. Now for those of you who are parents of school aged children, don't get me wrong, I love you to but it can be a tight nerveracking especially when your only 24 and never have had kids before. Monday and Tuesday started as nail biting days as they were only half days followed by parent teacher conferences. I had 7 back to back on Monday and despite none of the copiers working to print out all the needed materials for parents, they went smoothly. I had one parent who had some good constructive suggestions which I appreciated. The rest were just thankful for what I was doing and thankful for the school. One parent told me that as a family they pray specifically for me and the rest of the teachers. This really touched me and helped me realize the body of believers that uphold this school. It truly is the only way to explain why we are still functioning as and growing as satan tries many times to interfere but through the prayers of many, God has sustained us more abundantly than ever. So after facing my fear of parents, I see that they can be my biggest advocates. I truly am blessed with great parents who are involved and want to help their children succeed. In some places, you might be left alone but then the students have no support from their parents. Also, the majority of my parents are well educated people who are capable of helping their students and understant the importance of a good education. Please continue to pray for my kids as they still grasp who God is and as they share with other classmates about Christ. One girl went home and told her mom that the other girl had accepted Christ from my story from last week. I guess the girl was jumping up and down and just ecstatic that this other girl had made a decision for Christ. Pray that this young beautiful lady finds her own personal relationship with Christ and that we would be there to uphold her in her decision.
This week I was reminded how much God is involved in each aspect of life including soccer. I forgot to tell you last week that the uniforms my parents sent for the kids were at the post office but they wanted 200 Ghana Cedis for them which is still over $150. I refused to pay that much since I shouldn't have to pay extra money for something that is already yours. These uniforms are already 7 years old and they aren't even a name brand as we called them K-mart specials in high school. However, they love jerseys here so they were willing to raise the price. How kind of them! Mr. Crosby, the director, showed his grace on my and decided to pay the money to receive them. I told him I would foot the bill but he declined my offer. I must give a shout out to Mr. Crosby because he does care about us and the kids a lot. Fortunately, when William our driver came back with the uniforms, he told me that it only cost 65 Ghana Cedis which is a huge different. Praise the Lord! Mr. Crosby was very excited to show me as he found my class and I upstairs in the hallway looking for land as we were pretending to be Christopher Columbus. Mr. Crosby then swam next to our boat all the way to land and even beat us. Man, he is a fast swimmer! Sorry, I went into second grade mode there, please forgive me. Anyways, after school, I got to show the kids and they were so excited! I have pictures but I don't have my camera at the moment so hopefully on next year. The boys were trying to find their favorite number and were just chilling with them on. I informed them that they are for the matches which they understood but I just got a kick out of how excited they were. Again, these aren't the best uniforms and I wore them myself! It is cool that now the kids I am coaching are wearing my uniforms. I never dreamem this while in high school but it is cool how God designs everything perfectly for His ultimate reason. I must admit that practice is tiring on days as the kids don't have discipline or hard work ethics. However, we are working on it and we now have new motivation as we have uniforms and games to play. Please pray for patience with me and these kids!
Christmas in October continued as the container with all of our books and workbooks on it finally arrived. Before this, we have been all making copies of the workbook pages we needed as we didn't have enough books. You can all say that we were rejoicing with the final arrival of the container. It has been in Tema, the port city for over 6 weeks but for some reason it took this long to arrive here. Who knows? It's Ghana! We spent a long time Thursday night stamping all the books and putting them in their perspective classes. It is exciting to know that our school is making improvements and progress as continue to add more resources and books for the kids. It is hard not being able to pull any book I need from the library but we are getting their slowly but surely. I sent five personal boxes on the container with three of them containing books. Oh happy Day! Thank you to all of you who donated books during VBS at church. Some I am keeping in my classroom but the rest I am taking back to my house to use for reading time after kids club. They kids have been begging me to let them stay and read but I just haven't had the books for them. They keep lingering but unfortunately the container was slow. So to their surprise, on Tuesday, they will be able to stay after kids club and read for awhile until it is too dark. These children really need phonetic practice and I am going to start helping them get the sounds down as all they know is rhote memorization.
Faith downloaded the Amazing Race episodes that were tapes in Ghana. They are hilarious and I recommend watching them as they give you a little taste of crazy life here. I have been to most places that they traveled to so that was exciting. I have such pride for Ghana! There are scandals and corruptions but also genuine people who care.
May God continue to show his light to in each day!
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