A New Day at a New School

We are finally moved into our new school and today was our first day back. It's so nice to have our own building, and there are so many new things to talk about with the kids. There's no water in the school, so the kids had to go to the bathroom outside today. Tomorrow, they should be able to use the toilet, just putting in water in the toilet's tank when they go number 2. We also don't have power there, which is ok since the lights usually bring more heat, but for our projector, computer, and speakers, we need a little power. So, we have a generator that we are bringing along for the times when we need to power up to teach a lesson or to lead our morning meetings. Today, I thought to myself a few times, "Wow! This is really different from teaching in the States." It would be so interesting to bring a few of my kids from past years here and see what they think. For us here, it's just normal. I am used to bucket baths, and filling toilet tanks, and power that isn't too trustworthy. Yet, I know that even working in more low income areas, the students expect certain things to be there (like power and working toilets). If only, for just a few days, they could trade places and experience life somewhere else, I wonder what they would think?

Today, I was thinking about a family that I've been so blessed to get to meet, the O'Leary's who are adopting from Ghana. They felt called to care for the orphaned as Jesus asks us to, so they are adopting a couple of children that were orphaned and vulnerable (they lived in the Volta region). As I looked at every face of the kids I was teaching today, I thought about the call of God to take care of the widowed and orphaned. Almost every child in our care, except for John and Stacy's biological children, are orphaned, some trafficked into slavery. And when I think about the struggles we're facing with discipline, and with teaching them what they need to know to be on level, and learning how to communicate best with my accent (yeah, our phonics lesson on "ir", "er", and "ur" wasn't too successful today), I think, "What a priveledge it is to get to be the hands and feet of Jesus" and I pray that God will continually be remolding and shaping me so that I am a better image bearer of Jesus so that I can love them more.