A Busy Few Days

Whew! It has been a busy past few days. Lots of work on the school and lots of work for an outreach that we did today. So good!



I have these crazy mixed feelings about the school starting up. The past few days, I've been working really hard to get the papers all together for our teacher training and schedules and finish testing the kids and all that jazz. That has been really good to feel like I am getting some work done that actually has a physical product! Sometimes, I have felt like I'm just working and working and not knowing where I'm going. This has felt really good to have our binders put together (with our new school crest--thank you Stacy!).
In other ways, it has felt really overwhelming! I met with one teacher today and she has never taught before. She was so unsure of herself and worried about teaching, but I know she will do well. It's hard to instill that in her--to know how to lead well when I feel so unsure myself at times. But, confidence is key. I am a good teacher and all I can do is help them to learn the curriculum and good strategies for teaching. Even if I don't have any experience as an administrator or principal, I can do my best to lead this team (and prepare future teams). Whew! A big job, but I know that I'm here for a reason.

Tonight was our outreach in Tema New Town. This is a part of the city of Tema that is very poor. You drive down by the harbor, and it's as if you're suddenly in a back village. Very underdeveloped...lots of children running around... poor area. We got to work with Edwin's mom (Edwin from the Freedom Center) to help her out. She cooked our fish for our feeding program. She is a beautiful lady. I feel so bad for her--HIV positive, but wants to live for her children. God, give her your grace day by day!

Anyway, let me back up and tell you how we got around to having a feeding program in Tema New Town this week. Earlier in the week, when Nina was still here, we ran into a family that is adopting here in Ghana. They brought their whole family to meet the two kids that they are adopting. Sydney is their oldest daughter and she was so excited to come to Ghana to meet her sister and brother. She read all about Ghana and heard about the children that are orphaned here, the trafficked children, street children, and the lack of clean drinking water in some areas of the country. So, she put out a plea. She made t-shirts to sell and raised over $8,000 to feed the children and build a well. So, when we ran into the couple, we wanted to help Sydney put her goal into place (she's only 11 by the way). We hired Edwin's mom to buy the fish and fry it up. Then, all the ladies at the Freedom Center cooked up rice (I mean trash cans FULL of rice!!!) and the stew. They cooked all day today. After it was all done, we dished it into take-away containers and stacked it in the vehicles to go to Tema New Town. We were able to feed 600 children with the food that we brought. What an amazing treat to get to be a part of a ministry like that. Such an opportunity! Thank you Sydney for your heart for the "least of these".