September update

Dear Friends and Family,

We are rocking and rolling along here in Ghana completing our 5^th week of school. Everything is going well. I can’t believe how much easier everything seems this year. Praise the Lord you only have one first year! We just had the Asia/Africa director’s conference this week. A lot of people from the NICS home office and all the directors of the schools in Asia and Kenya came to our school. It gave the week a busy feeling. The students are all well so far. I have 14 in my class right now, which is nothing by America standards, but here seems like a huge number. There is the possibility that I will get 2 more. One for sure is coming back in November. I like this class. They are so different from last year’s class. They don’t question in the same way and are more in awe of things I tell them. I had the amazing privilege of sharing the gospel with them all last week. I think that was the quietest they have ever been. They just soaked it up as fast as I would tell them. Thursday, I got the question of ‘when is Jesus going to come back and take us into heaven’? I told him truthfully that I don’t know. They are a sweet class and really take care of each other. I help with the 4 year old class sometimes. There are 10 boys and 1 girl in there. I try to help the teacher keep them under control as they certainly give her a run for her money. I have a lot to look forward to next year with those boys! J Chapel is going well. I am leading the 3-5 year old chapel. We have a lot of fun together. They are a great group. Please pray for me to be creative in my telling of different Bible stories. I had a little girl come to school for a week and then leave. Her family is Jehovah Witness. I heard stories from last year about how she couldn’t get the party favor bag from birthday parties because they don’t accept gifts. They couldn’t pay the tuition so the dad came in to talk to Mr. Crosby. Mr. Crosby worked it out where they only pay half tuition and the school pays the rest. A huge gift, but many prayers were offered that they would take it. They did, and she was able to come back to school. Prior to taking the scholarship, they thought about changing schools. When they did come back to us, Mr. Crosby told me that the dad told him ‘my daughter comes home telling us Bible verses she has memorized. How could we put her in another school?’ Needless to say, Mr. Crosby and I were extremely excited. We have seen a change in her dad. He allowed Maame (pronounced momay the o saying ah in father) to take home a birthday party goodie bag. He also came to chapel on Wednesday. Please pray that God will continue to work in his heart, and he will come to know Jesus Christ.

Prayer requests

Please pray for/that

· we will get a transformer for the school soon. It would help the electricity be better.

· Our container will come in soon.

· The students. There is a little Muslim girl in 2^nd grade who is fighting everything ‘Christian’ her teacher says. Her brother is 4 and is struggling with anger.

· Strength/health/unity of the staff. No major illnesses so far. However, my assistant Helina went home yesterday with a lot of pain.

· Several of the staff are going through hard times as friends/loved ones suffer back home.

I thank God for all of you knowing that you pray for all of us over here. It is such a blessing and encouragement to me. Thanks for your support as well.

Blessings to you all!

Wedding and a Reptile

This actually happened Sept. 4th. Our internet has been up and down....so here it is a week later than I planned

I was able to experience a Ghanaian wedding this past Saturday. It was a lot of fun. My aid, Helina, invited me to her older brother's wedding. They are very community oriented. Everyone is invited. First, they do a traditional blessing where the bride's family presents gifts for the bride to the groom's family. They have a singing competition while the family decides if they will accept it. Then, the future couple comes and the story is told of how they met. Apparently, Racheal (the bride) had a very pretty singing voice. :) Anyway, the groom to be then gives her the engagement ring. There was a short break for the bride/groom to get redressed and off to the church we go. The service lasted about 3 1/2 hours. I had a great time.

The funny part was when I first got there, Helina and I went walking around this Muslim village. We were stopped by the town assembly man who told us to go look at the 30 year old crocodile. So, we asked around and were finally pointed in the right direction. We found him. He was about 6-6.5 feet long and quite intimidating. He is kept in this shallow covered area and is fed chickens and fish. (Picture above) All in all, the day was quite an experience.

little sponges

WOW!! Yesterday, I had the amazing opportunity and privilege to share the gospel with my entire class. This includes one muslim child who seems to know more about Christ than the others. We were talking about Adam and Eve and how they sinned. Then, I decided to plunge in and explained that God had a plan thus opening the door for the plan of salvation. It was one of the most exhilarating and exhausting things I've ever done. I had 22 eyes fixed on me, taking in my every word. They all shouted and clapped when I told them that when Jesus rose again, he defeated Satan and through faith by his grace allows us to go to heaven. I must remember this moment. "...I have fixed my eyes on the prize...".