Oh the Freedom!

Kids hard at work! I love watching them work on projects. They were righting synonyms for overused words that we put to bed.

The boy in the middle isn't sleeping, he just doesn't like his picture taken.

We made ourselves into food chains by dressing up as animals and taking pictures that will be made into the food chains on paper. This is a giraffe. They were very creative while dressing up.

Here we have a ferocious lion!

A beautiful butterfly flapping her wings! I love allowing the kids to be in charge of their own projects and just going with it!

Galatians 5
Freedom in Christ

1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.


7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.



13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I had this finished a week ago and had it finished but then lost it all so I wasn't motivated to rewrite it yet. Fortunately, I will try it again! I will try to keep it short but you know how that goes!

Last week during a morning devotion with the elementary teachers, the fifth grade teacher read this passage. It really hit me and gave me joy that only comes from the Lord. What a beautiful word; freedom! I have never appreciated that word enough. Granite, I loved the word when it meant freedom from rules, school, troubles, and sometimes parents(not anymore, when I was younger of course!) However, there is such a deeper meaning to the word, an eternal meaning that is priceless. We have freedom in life because we are set free by our maker, Jesus Christ. He gave us the ultimate sacrifice so we would no longer have to live a life in chains. Why then, do I allow the chains to engulf me to the point of suffication? Well, good question Christ and the answer is, I allow this dark, evil world to get me down by the difficulties I must face. Why though when I have in capital letters FREEDOM in Christ! Obviously, he is the only one that matters and if He has already set me free, then there is nothing to stop me from finishing the race He has set before me. Sorry, I am sure most of you have this realization, but it just hit me in a powerful way this week. How would my life look different if I never allowed myself to be stuck in bondment but continued to throw off the chains by getting my daily fill of God's word and allowing myself to listen to His still small voice.

I will insert the Newsboys Song, I Am Free. It has a catchy tune but catches this message accurately.

Through You the blind will see
Through You the mute will sing
Through You the dead will rise
Through You our hearts will praise
Through You the darkness flees
Through You my heart screams I am freeI am free
Chorus:I am free to run(I am free to run)
I am free to dance(I am free to dance)
I am free to live for You(I am free to live for You)
I am free(I am free)Yes, I am free(I am free)
Through You the kingdom's come
Through You the battle's won
Through You I'm not afraid
Through You the price is paid
Through You there's victoryBecause of You my heart screams I am freeI am free
Chorus:Who the Son sets free is free indeed.Who the Son sets free is free indeed.


The girl teachers have started a new bible study on the Psalms of Ascent by Beth Moore. This past week we read Psalm 121
1-3 "I raise my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow you foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber."

Is there really anything else to say about these verses as the messages rings "Hallelujah" choruses. I am afraid to say much as it will ruin the beautiful words the psalmist uses to show us we have the Maker of heaven and Eart on our side so we have no reason to worry. Our deliverer knows us and the universe as it is all His. Although He is the mighty One, He is Mighty enough to care for little you and me.

There are some things roaming over my head that can get me overwhelmed but I know the Lord will interceed when it is time for each one to take place.

First of all, I am helping a junior soccer boy look for scholarships as he wants to play Division 1 soccer in the states. I have now became an novice agent and I am clueless! Luckily my coach from college is helping me and I've been surfing the web alot through our oh so slow internet! It is overwhelming trying to find a place and get everything turned in when we aren't even in the states but I know the Lord will provide so as long as we are on top of things, God will get him where He needs to go. If anyone reading this has connections with D1 soccer(you never know, there could be someone out there!) please let me know! Anyways, his mother actually came to school Wednesday to meet me. She is very protective but not very involved in their lives so this was a huge deal for her to come and give her agreement in allowing me to help her son find an university. Now the easy part, staying true to my part of the bargain and finding a place. I just have to keep telling myself, in God's timing.

Soccer: We are stuck playing at the school until they finish building ours. The dust is unbearable right now as it is dry. I have to cut through it to find my players! It has made it cooler out which is nice. We are probably only 100 degrees from you current temperature now if you are living in the arctic at the moment! I suggest we have dust days instead of snow days but the administration hasn't approved one yet. Please pray we get to the field soon and I can schedule some games. Also, one of my players broke her collar bone outside of soccer practice. She is really down about this but the team which is like a huge family, has really been rallying around her and sending cards of encouragement. I am so thankful to have these kids in my life which really offer good support to one another.

Math month: I am in charge of math month at Children of the Light. This is a huge responsibility and not all the way read yet(shhh don't tell Auntie Jean) but it will get done. Last week I went up there to teach the teachers the math centers. Unfortunately, one of them couldn't finish an AB pattern out of colored blocks nor do multiplication. This was sort of frustration but it is giving me good practice for when I start my centers for teachers.
Speaking of that, most of you probably know I want to start my own teacher training centers so the government teachers will have resources and better methods of teaching. It is overwhelming as I want to start developing this idea more but still don't know the certain direction to go towards. Please pray that I continue to pray about this and I will listen to God's guidance. If anyone has any advice on this, I would be more than willing to listen! I know my job right now is AIS so I must stay focused there.

Sorry this is probably boring but I wanted to just give a testimony of how the Lord works in so many little ways. Anyways, praises!

I went to this seminar on a way to teach phonices called "Phonics Dance" I love it and use it all the time along with the 1st and Kg teachers. I e-mailed the lady who lives in Xenia, Ohio about how we love it here in Africa and I use it some with the street kids. She wrote back excited that we were using it and offered to send me free books! Of course I can't turn that down. What a blessing. You never know until you ask!

My parents and Cathy are coming the last week! Yes, it is true and they have to come as we have already booked it. I am so excited and we are already planning even though we have 5 months. 5 months seems forever but I know it will come fast enough, might as well enjoy each day. THe real reaso I want them to come is all the suitcases they can fill with things for the kids. Just kidding, well it is a great bonus of them coming! I am so excited to see Ghana through their eyes and meet the people that are so dear to me. If you would like to donate anything for the kids on the street, in the village, or for Auntie Jean, contact them. They already know they can only bring one change of clothing! I want to give the kids on the street a book of their own so if you have any suggestions let me know.

We are finally making friends out of AIS as we had a couple over from church who are Dutch. The husband doesn't speak much English but we all did the best we could to communicate. We started realizing though that we talk about school way too much and even when we tried to think of other topics, we couldn't! Just shows that we don't have a life outside of school! Well, we hope this friendship will last with this couple as they are really sweet.

Alright last story before I leave you or maybe you have already left me. THis is a weird one so bare with me. I have a scraper that I use to remove the calluses on the bottom of my feet. I just changed the blade and was really scraping away the dead skin. There is a great object lesson in that! Anyways, I have done this plenty of times and never had a problem but when I moved to the second foot, I hit good sking and cut myself. While this was bleeding over the towel, I continued on the other side of the foot where I did it again and yes then one more time. I cut myself three times on my foot! I promise I wasn't doing it on purpose. I just started laughing as a stream of blood flowed across my foot and I bandaged my foot with Garfield bandaids. Then it reminded me of sin. We do it once, don't think it was too bad so we do it again. The effects of the sin still aren't horrible so we do it again. Alright, by this time, the effects are showing and it is hard to stop the flow of consequences from our actions. Luckily, Christ bandages us up but leaves the pain to remind us of our actions so we don't do it again. Oh man, who knew I could find a lesson in trying to get rid of calluses? God is good!