Walking in Faith

International Day! This is Burkina Faso which the students holding the flag are in second grade. What an amazing day to celebrate diversity but unity in Christ.

Japan! The girls are beautiful in their traditional outfits.

The two brothers proudly representing Kenya!

A mixture of girls from different ages and cultures performed another traditional Ghanaian dance. We have a lot of talent in our school.

Some of the eighth grade students danced a traditional Ghanaian dance. I wish I had their moves.

All of the Koreans dressed in their gorgeous dresses singing a traditional song. I love how every other culture dresses up and the Americans all wore t-shirts and jeans.

Our Korean music teacher with some of theh boys performing a traditional drumming from Korea.

One of my students on International Day. They were all beautiful especially with their Mexican flowers.

"Therefore, this light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2 Corinthians 4:17

I have been waiting for this moment a long time and although it did not come as I expected, I am thankful to my Lord who has opened each door for this new chapter in my life. I must back track some so you fully understand how amazing our Lord is and continues to be. I do not want to sound like this is gloating, I just need to express how the Lord provides for each of our needs according to his plan.

I have always wanted to be a missionary and spread the good news to the end of the world. It is something I always dreamed about but was never sure if it would actually happen. The Lord showed me his path by allowing me to come to Ghana as a teacher. Through this experience, I have been able to understand the culture and just deeply love the people, especially the children who attend public schools. The Lord has been stirring my heart in this direction and at times I felt restless but the Lord finally worked out the details.

Last summer through a friend, I was able to meet the director of FIM(Fellowship International Mission) and found out that there were already missionaries in Ghana. Through them, I was able to meet more home office people when they came to visit in November and I had my interview. All of this is not by coincidence as the Lord's way of working out details is so more complete than we could ever imagine. In several months, I was able to find a mission organization but the problem was I did not have a clear direction in where I should go.

After being home for Christmas, I went back early to travel to Togo which is a long, but skinny country to the east of Ghana. My principal who just arrived in November, has been going there for 6 years to help a friend start Christian Schools. I just felt drawn to go with them and loved every moment. I was able to do some teacher training and then help with the kids. After coming back from there, I just felt a peace about going there but I wasn't sure if I wanted to teach at the school another year as it is hard to go and my administration wants me to stay. I do love pleasing people but after talking with FIM and another wise friend, I decided to follow the Lord's command now to go to Togo.

Now Togo, what does this entail? Ah yes, a lot but God is faithful and will make the way clear. I had a friend this Christmas ask me where I originally wanted to be as a missionary and I forgot that it was in a French speaking country. Well, my dream has come true but being in an English speaking country I have gotten spoiled and now have to relearn my French. Along with that, I really need to understand Eve so I can communicate with the small children at school.

I have decided to go back to the states this summer for FIM orientation and then to raise money. Yes, raising support is hard and of course it is not my favorite thing to ask for money but I do believe in what I am doing. Oh yes, what exactly am I doing? That is a really good question! The missionary in Togo has started 14 Christian schools in a 8 hour radius around Togo.(part of the long distance is the awful roads) Each school has K-6th grade but the teachers are still inexperienced and need advice. It will be my job to do teacher workshops with the teachers and disciple them as they grow closer to the Lord. Some of them have a hard time understanding the purpose of a teacher as they see it as a job while we live it as a mission to share Christ with these young children. Ultimately, we would like to train on teacher to oversee the training so we could continue our work in other areas. We would also like to see the students come back and become the teachers for the next generation. I really need to be there by next November as the missionary is leaving for medical reasons. I know this seems impossible to raise the money this quickly but God can work out the impossibility and I know he will do it in His timing as I learn more patience!

Please pray for this endeavor and that I continue to seek the Lord's guidance instead of listening to outside opinions.

In other news, Friday was International Day. This is a day each year where everyone dresses in their countries traditional clothing and we learn about different countries. I got to teach about Brazil which was fun since I have been there. I taught it 7 times and was actually quite tired afterwards although I do teach all day everyday. We then all went out to each lunch which is crazy but kind of fun at the same time. Of course there are all the Ghanaian dishes but also a lot of Korean dishes which make up the main staples of the lunch. After lunch, we had all the Korean kids in their beautiful dresses or suits sing and play different drums. It is just a great time to express our individuality but unity in Christ. We even had a lot of the kids participate in traditional Ghanaian dancing which seemed like they represented Ghana well. I am so thankful for the universal church here at AIS as we have 30 countries with all different backgrounds. Some of them come from 2 or 3 countries but it is just a reminder that they might not belong somewhere specific on earth but they belong to their Heavenly Father.

After school on Friday, I had this amazing conversation with one of our seniors. We just talked about trying to be perfect and how we will never become perfect. I explained that the Lord doesn't want to punish us for what we have done wrong but instead wants to be our loving Father. I pray that this conversation was encouraging to this student as I really felt the Lord present during that time. Please pray that the senior class will leave with a strong foundation of who they are in Christ so they do not fall into temptations out in the world.