Girls! We run the world!

Well, the girls have finally made an appearance! They came Saturday night on July 13th. I love them all so much! Each one has a distinct personality that I can wait to see more of! Seven of the girls are from the North and four of the girls are from the South East. Four of the northerners cannot speak Twi, the rest of the girls can, and two of the girls from the South East can understand English. Every conversation is translated from English to Twi, to the northern language and back again. It took me an hour and a half to read a children's story book! Most of the time I just make a fool of myself and try to use hand motions to communicate, which rarely works. I have the pleasure of teach English to the seven northern girls while Courtney works on reading with the other four and I teach math to all of them. I can only do this part of my job through the LORD because I do not have the patience to teach. The LORD comes through everyday though and provides it. It is so amusing to see the girls experience things for the first time! Like a shower, a light switch, kitchen tools, a toilet, and coloring! Tina won't even let the younger ones in the kitchen because they are still adjusting. The second day that they were here, we brought out the crayons and paper from them to color. They had no idea what to do! So Courtney and I would draw something and they would copy. This is still going ton a week later. All the girls love getting their pictures taken, looking at pictures, dancing, signing, and learning new words! This week we started trying to get somewhat of a daily schedule down of two hours of English and reading, and hour of bible, a break and lunch, an hour of math,and  an hour of life skills and health. We are trying to prepare them to start school in September and not be to behind. They all went to school back home, but most are extremely behind. The first week they were here we practiced how they should welcome visitors. It is the cutest thing to hear them all say together "Hello! Welcome to the Pearl House!". They nail it every time. Courtney and I have definitely had to adjust as well. Girls here fight a lot more, cultural boundaries, and lack of communication have all been hurdles we have to continually jump. The girls are all so beautiful and I can't help but smile every time I hear them laugh, even if they are miss behaving. We took all of the girls to the Village of Hope Orphanage Hospital for check-ups and lab work to make sure they are all healthy, which they are! We all attend Lauren's Lighthouse Chapel together on Sunday mornings and pretty much double their congregation. I am so excited to see why God brought these specific girls here and learn more about their lives. Please pray for patience, communication, and open hearts for the girls. 

Jesus Loves Me

"Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so. Little one to Him belong, we are weak but He is strong." A simple song that we all know by heart. Every night Courtney, Laura, Dana, and I do devotion and we always start with a song. Since none of us seem to know any of the same songs, we sang this one. When it's really one of the only songs you have, you really listen to the words that you are singing. When you get past the wordiness, multiple verses, and bridge parts of all the worship songs and you go back to the simple children's worship, it is a lot easier to just see Jesus work. The bible tells me that Jesus loves me. I belong to Him. I am weak, but He is strong. While I am here I am going to have weak days, but God sent me here so I trust that He will be my strength. There are still no girls here yet, but they a coming and I can't wait to teach them these songs to show them how much their Savior loves them. Yes, you read that right! Girls are coming. They are not the original 7 we had found earlier in the year, but they are girls who have nothing: no hope now or for the future. We don't know where they are from or even how many are coming this week, we just know that God has sent us to take care of His little children that He loves. 

Lauren's Lighthouse

This morning was my first Sunday here in Ghana and I was so excited to get to worship the LORD in Lauren's Lighthouse Chapel. For theses of you who don't know, Lauren was a dear family friend of mine that past away in 2007 in a car accident. Before she died, she had signed up to go on our youth groups first trip to Ghana. She was never able to make it here in body,  but she is definitely here in spirit. Lauren's family built a church here in Winneba through Maranatha in her honor. It is a beautiful church that is filled with worship for the LORD. It made my heart so happy to see young and old attend church there. We talked about 1 Corinthians 13 this morning and I thought it was so fitting to talk about love on my first Sunday there because Lauren was on my mind and that was what she did. She loved. I am excited to see this church grow and become an even bigger lighthouse for the LORD. 

Waiting on the World to Change.

So I have officially moved into the Pearl House! It is amazing and so spacious! The house has a beautiful view with a nice ocean breeze at all times! The only thing that the house is missing is the girls. The original 7 girls have pretty much flaked out and Pastor Odai has been in contact with several pastors to have them each find a girl in their village that pretty much had no hope. It is a slightly different path than we were on, but we are trusting that God has it all worked out. It has been sort of rough not having a lot to do be because usually when I am in Ghana it is go go go 20 hours of the day. We have found ways to keep us busy though. Tina isn't here yet, so we have had lots of fun trying to cook for ourselves. We have been "decorating" and organizing and making lots of phone calls and meeting with people. We finally ventured out or the house today to go run some errands. Since  yesterday was the 4th of July, we celebrated as much as we could. We all wore our red, white, and blue, we cooked a semi-American food (as close to tacos as we could get) and  ate watermelon and Dr. Pepper. After dinner we belted the National Anthem and God Bless America for Dana  and I'm pretty sure he judged us the whole time, but that's okay. We ended our celebration with FanIce (ice cream), my stash of Oreos, and an episode of Friends. I have been using this down time to get to know Courtney and Laura better and it has been wonderful. We get along like we have know each other for years, not days. We share similar humor, sarcasm, and hearts for Africa. I look forward to see God work through this relationship He has provided. Despite the houses emptiness, we have managed to fill it with our laughter. Adjusting to African living has probably been one of the funniest things I have experienced. Learning to cook chicken, being scared by the security guard, running out of water, offending natives with our struggle to learn the language, slipping through the mud, bugs in the fruit, being called by the pastor to tell us that we are late for church, many dance parties, and locking ourselves in have all been moments that have left tears on our faces from our hilarious failures. We continue to pray every night for the future girls of this home even though we no longer know who they might be. God didn't bring us this far to leave us with an empty house, so I know He has something big planned. 

What Am I Doing!?

As I was sitting on my 3 flights over here I couldn't get the question out of my head "what the heck am I getting myself into!?" Thinking about how foreign this will all be to me despite the fact that I have been over here 3 other times. Thinking about what happens when I realize I don't have my youth group around me, when my American food runs out, when my trip goes longer than the 2 weeks I am used to. However, once I stepped off my final plane and took in a huge whiff of the very distinct Ghanaian smell, I knew that I was where I was supposed to be. I was greeted by Courtney, Laura, Tina, and Kingsley who all warmly welcomed me back home. We are staying in Accra tonight, so we drove through town to go to Shiloh. As I walked in, I saw Pastor Odai who gave my a great big hug and started chatting with me like I hadn't been gone for more than a few days. I feel like I am back home and where God wants me. Cynthia fixed an excellent dinner which I paired with an ice cold Dr. Pepper, which is a first! I didn't know they had it here (but its a secrete, sshhh). Tonight, Courtney, Laura (a girl from Courtney's home church), and I will go over to the church to regroup about the Pearl House since the girls who were chosen are being back and forth abut living there. Pastor Odai, of course, already has plans to save the day and I will let you know what they are as soon as I know. I got to see Mama Valerie at the church last night and it was so good to see that sweet lady! She definitely holds a place in my heart when my mama can't be here with me. As we got back from the church, I got the best surprise when Little Cynthia opened the door for us! We both looked at each other and she jumped to give me the best welcome home hug! Both of our faces lit up at the sight of seeing each other! I am getting so excited to see what God has planned for us here even though I don't know what He is doing. Well, shalom for now and I will keep everyone posted as often as I can!