We’re back from the North!
Oh I’m in one of those moods where I have tons of thoughts and questions racing through my head. Right now I’m at the Mozley’s playing mom. Claire is at a retreat and Michael is in America so I’m tag teaming with Tatum as we get kids ready for school, cook dinner, make sure homework is done and hang out to watch Gilmore Girls. Did I mention I’m addicted? To Gilmore Girls that is. Yes, today I have watched the last episode of season two before watching the chronological episodes, just so I could find out what happens. Does anyone else do that? I mean I think there’s some kind of code of ethics that I broke. You know how people always say, “You can’t read the ending of a book first. You have to read the whole thing.” Isn’t watching the last episode of a series the exact same?
Then I reflected a little bit. This is what I do in my life cycle. I want to know the ending. There is a part of me that wants to know if I’ll ever get married, have a family, do something that changes the world, make an impact on some young person’s life, figure out “what” I’m great at and have a profession in it…the list is a MILE long. But I bet if I knew the ending it still wouldn’t be good enough, I would still want something else. A “behind the scenes” a “bloopers reel” a “get to know the cast bit” something just a little something more.
But enter in faith. This is where the Spirit comes in and says, “peace my child.” Not about Gilmore Girls, but about life. He doesn’t tell us the end for a reason…I just forget that sometimes. Oh and I can tell when I’m running fast away from the stillness in my heart of being content where I am. I search, I try, and I do whatever to ‘feel’ validated. I do all of this on my on accord without seeking really seeking my Best Friends plan. I don’t want people to get the wrong impression and think I’m off my rocker. Well, for those who already are in on the secret…don’t tell anyone else. But seriously, why is it I want to know the ending or what’s coming next?
You know the past three weeks have been busy for me. We went up North with the team from Georgia and visited some great Ghanaian people who I’ve never got to meet. The trip had its great moments and of course it had its challenging moments. I was doing exactly what I have dreamt of doing for five years. Using a camera, capturing stories and putting those together to tell other people about the events that took place. But then during editing the fatigue sets in and I get frustrated and think….ughh…if only this was finished. I mean this is so annoying. The feeling of not being content and thankful that is. God has given me an opportunity to love on people over here and use skills that he’s equipped me with and I’m still a moron. Moron in the sense that I’m not content. I just reread this whole entry and it sounds like I’ve had 20 red bulls and no sleep. I have to admit I’m writing this totally on my own account. I haven’t prayed about this entry and I really haven’t spent very much God time this week…been “busy.”
But just to fill everyone in on the short-term trip…the team was here for two weeks and we traveled around the country. They worked on two houses, led a bible club meeting, worshiped and taught in some places, but by far the most amazing thing as an outsider to watch was the team dynamic. The team consisted of 10 people from two different churches and a racial mix. Now I’m not the most “pc” person so there were black Americans and white Americans. As a southerner it was great to see God’s love transcending a “mission” team. To see black and white Americans working together loving on each other was great. We talked a lot with the team while they were here during nightly debriefing. They definitely have an Acts 1:8 mentality that there is so much work to be done in our Jerusalem’s as well as End of the Earth.
You know as Christians our hearts are often in the right place but our mouths seem to get us into trouble. Thank God for his grace. It’s hard to extend grace to others especially when you want to be right. But the team really did try to work together and my prayer is that they continue to work together stateside. I finished the team’s video so I’m trying to put it on line so my partners back home can see some of the things that I’m “doing.” But Internet has been in and out this week…so who knows.
I will say after the team left I felt odd. I realized I wasn’t getting on the plane to go back, and having just a taste of American culture sent me into a funk. There are aspects to American culture I can’t stand, but also aspects that I miss. So this past week, while being at the Mozley’s, I’ve been dealing with some homesickness. I also think it’s healthy homesickness. I miss my family and friends and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Y’all, since most the people who read this blog are friends and family, are the crucial backbone to this ministry. I’m learning more about intercessory prayer as y’all step in for me during hard times and pray for this ministry and me.
Oh and we had our first leaders meeting for the Bible Club this past Saturday. Gifty is a good question asker. She lead off with the question, “Name something that a child does that makes you mad and how you would respond.” This is so the other leaders can get to know each other better and you will know something has happened when you see that person reacting…very good question. Keep praying for this ministry.
I’m starting language again on Tuesday. As for right now I’m going to keep taking it. It gives Ama a job and me some routine during the week as well as a great friend and I’m continuing to learn Twi!
By the way as usual something needed to be fixed this week…my clutch went out in my car. So if anyone needs to know the sound a car makes when the fuel injector and the clutch go bad…let me know. Actually I performed the noise for my mom yesterday when I talked to her on the phone and she said my sisters’ car was making strange noises …I was in heavy traffic, window down…and gave some Ghanaians a good laugh!!!!
I’ve posted some pictures from the trip to the North on Flickr.
Love to all
margaret
10.27.2006
10.07.2006
saturday october 7
Here I am sitting underneath a ceiling fan enjoying the nice breeze that it gives off. You will now know through my blog postings, that DRY season is here! The pros....my headaches are so much better since it's not raining ALL the time. I love warm weather, I love clear sunny days or sunny days with clouds interspersed and love seeing the AWESOME sunsets here!
Now the cons, I love warm weather, but when it's hot enough that you sweat in places you didn't know could sweat..well. you get my point. Also, with rolling blackouts, remember it's every three days no power for 12 hours, the nightime is a tetch hot. Although so far it hasn't been too bad, but mosquitos seem to multiply in the heat, at least in my bedroom they do. Back to pros....it's not so bad to take cold showers when it's HOT outside...anyway. I guess that's another reason God got me here in June, I got to enjoy some really awesome days of cool breezes before the oven dry season.
Cool thing happened today. We went to Keta which is in the Eastern Region, two and a half hours away. We were going to play on the beach and swim. Keta seems to be off the beaten path, but still nice roads to where we went. We drove up to a hotel on the beach, that was pretty empty and asked the guy who was walking around if it was safe to swim and he said no, the tide was too high. So we just walked on the beach taking in the BEAUTIFUL scenery and we came up to a group of Ghanaians hanging out on their canoe like boat. It was Gifty, Kirk, Nicole, Aidan, Eli and me. The Ghanaians we met were very nice and let the boys play inside the boat. It totally reminded me of what I picture Peter and the fishermen going out in. Wooden, canoe shaped. They go out from Monday-Friday with about 16 people. They come back each night but stay near the boat to leave early the next day. They usually catch about 30-40 lbs. in one day, that's if they catch, and it takes 30-40 men on shore pulling the net in. The don't work on Saturday as that's the maintence day when the fix holes in the net and also go into town for "socializing." It's their Sabbath. They rest and recoup for going out the next five days. Interesting huh.
So this past week was great well besides my camera breaking. But I got to do something I love to do. Videography. I interviewed Michael and Claire for their video that Michael will take back to the States when he goes in two weeks. It's a brief 5 minute video overviewing their hearts for God's ministry and what that looks like through them to Ghanaians. They stopped by yesterday for a preview before I burned the DVD and they said they really liked it, so of course that made me feel good! The really awesome part was how much God inspired shots, sequence and wording. I know that kind of sounds corny, but it's true. I prayed over the video, especially since my camera had just broken...didn't want anything to go too bad wrong with this :), no seriously I prayed over and about how to edit it together. It made it even more fun, being in conversation in my room with God. I know if people saw me they would think I was CRAZY. Does anybody else talk outloud when they are talking with God?
I also took language Wednesday and Thursday. My language teacher, Ama, had a malaria flare up so we only got two lessons in this week. I'm still praying for language acquistion, but that seems to be going pretty good. I like the teaching style I have. Ama and I go to different places for class and sometimes we drive and do errands while learning...but I've got TONS to learn. Tatum's teaching now so it's just me and Ama...I miss having the accountablilty with Tatum but am also going totally at my pace which I think Tatum was a lot faster at picking it up than me....
All this to say...hopefully I'll be able to use some Twi the next two weeks. I'm actually updating my blog early because Tatum and I are leaving early Monday morning to lead a team from Georgia. We will be going up north for two weeks and I'll be videoing and taking pictures for the team. Then I'll edit the video so they can share with people back home what was going on over here....so be praying for those images to be exactly what God wants to communicate. Also pray for their travel and also for the travel while we're gone. In Ghana the roads are often bad because of potholes and people fly on the gravel broken road...we have a driver, but we still need all the prayer we can get. Also pray for the team's heart and each individual as well as the Ghanaians they will interact with. They are doing a lot of construction and visiting the Kumasi Bible Club along with various other projects.
So I probably won't update my blog until we get back home which will be October 22ish. By the way- I live with a Georgia Bulldog fan and the Mozley's and Tatum are Georgia fans. MSU plays on October 21, Tatum's birthday, so I'm sure I will be hounded after the anilation of our team, not that I don't have faith that we can win, but ...well Georgia's what 9th ranked?
Anyway- I am skipping church tomorrow to wash clothes. I've been holding off all week because we haven't had water run at our house in over three weeks. We have tanks, but we've only got half of the small one left, so I was holding of on laundry.
(I only went five days without showering....just kidding really two :)
But I'm going over to the Mozley's to wash clothes and Tatum and I are having church together to pray for the team coming and worship while we both do laundry as she hasn't packed either. Ps- she's working on two weeks of school lesson plans for Garrett, her substitute, for the next two weeks. Please pray forher, her students and for Garrett as he fills in!
I guess that's it for now. Don't forget to pray for the next two weeks in the North. I hope all is well as you read this....don't forget comments are welcomed!
love to all
margaret :0
Now the cons, I love warm weather, but when it's hot enough that you sweat in places you didn't know could sweat..well. you get my point. Also, with rolling blackouts, remember it's every three days no power for 12 hours, the nightime is a tetch hot. Although so far it hasn't been too bad, but mosquitos seem to multiply in the heat, at least in my bedroom they do. Back to pros....it's not so bad to take cold showers when it's HOT outside...anyway. I guess that's another reason God got me here in June, I got to enjoy some really awesome days of cool breezes before the oven dry season.
Cool thing happened today. We went to Keta which is in the Eastern Region, two and a half hours away. We were going to play on the beach and swim. Keta seems to be off the beaten path, but still nice roads to where we went. We drove up to a hotel on the beach, that was pretty empty and asked the guy who was walking around if it was safe to swim and he said no, the tide was too high. So we just walked on the beach taking in the BEAUTIFUL scenery and we came up to a group of Ghanaians hanging out on their canoe like boat. It was Gifty, Kirk, Nicole, Aidan, Eli and me. The Ghanaians we met were very nice and let the boys play inside the boat. It totally reminded me of what I picture Peter and the fishermen going out in. Wooden, canoe shaped. They go out from Monday-Friday with about 16 people. They come back each night but stay near the boat to leave early the next day. They usually catch about 30-40 lbs. in one day, that's if they catch, and it takes 30-40 men on shore pulling the net in. The don't work on Saturday as that's the maintence day when the fix holes in the net and also go into town for "socializing." It's their Sabbath. They rest and recoup for going out the next five days. Interesting huh.
So this past week was great well besides my camera breaking. But I got to do something I love to do. Videography. I interviewed Michael and Claire for their video that Michael will take back to the States when he goes in two weeks. It's a brief 5 minute video overviewing their hearts for God's ministry and what that looks like through them to Ghanaians. They stopped by yesterday for a preview before I burned the DVD and they said they really liked it, so of course that made me feel good! The really awesome part was how much God inspired shots, sequence and wording. I know that kind of sounds corny, but it's true. I prayed over the video, especially since my camera had just broken...didn't want anything to go too bad wrong with this :), no seriously I prayed over and about how to edit it together. It made it even more fun, being in conversation in my room with God. I know if people saw me they would think I was CRAZY. Does anybody else talk outloud when they are talking with God?
I also took language Wednesday and Thursday. My language teacher, Ama, had a malaria flare up so we only got two lessons in this week. I'm still praying for language acquistion, but that seems to be going pretty good. I like the teaching style I have. Ama and I go to different places for class and sometimes we drive and do errands while learning...but I've got TONS to learn. Tatum's teaching now so it's just me and Ama...I miss having the accountablilty with Tatum but am also going totally at my pace which I think Tatum was a lot faster at picking it up than me....
All this to say...hopefully I'll be able to use some Twi the next two weeks. I'm actually updating my blog early because Tatum and I are leaving early Monday morning to lead a team from Georgia. We will be going up north for two weeks and I'll be videoing and taking pictures for the team. Then I'll edit the video so they can share with people back home what was going on over here....so be praying for those images to be exactly what God wants to communicate. Also pray for their travel and also for the travel while we're gone. In Ghana the roads are often bad because of potholes and people fly on the gravel broken road...we have a driver, but we still need all the prayer we can get. Also pray for the team's heart and each individual as well as the Ghanaians they will interact with. They are doing a lot of construction and visiting the Kumasi Bible Club along with various other projects.
So I probably won't update my blog until we get back home which will be October 22ish. By the way- I live with a Georgia Bulldog fan and the Mozley's and Tatum are Georgia fans. MSU plays on October 21, Tatum's birthday, so I'm sure I will be hounded after the anilation of our team, not that I don't have faith that we can win, but ...well Georgia's what 9th ranked?
Anyway- I am skipping church tomorrow to wash clothes. I've been holding off all week because we haven't had water run at our house in over three weeks. We have tanks, but we've only got half of the small one left, so I was holding of on laundry.
(I only went five days without showering....just kidding really two :)
But I'm going over to the Mozley's to wash clothes and Tatum and I are having church together to pray for the team coming and worship while we both do laundry as she hasn't packed either. Ps- she's working on two weeks of school lesson plans for Garrett, her substitute, for the next two weeks. Please pray forher, her students and for Garrett as he fills in!
I guess that's it for now. Don't forget to pray for the next two weeks in the North. I hope all is well as you read this....don't forget comments are welcomed!
love to all
margaret :0
10.01.2006
October 1st
Faithfulness. Yep if I had to describe in one word what the Lord is teaching me right now that would be it. The past two weeks have been busy and I have realized I love to be busy. I think of course we have to realize that what we “do” doesn’t define us, but also I know I’m created in a way that thrives on having places to go, people to see and things to do with a healthy amount of alone time mixed in there! I say this because the past two weeks I have had the opportunity to do some things that God hard wired me to love to do. Ama, my language teacher, and I went to the Medina Market Wednesday to get the “fixins” for Ghanaian stew. She cooks it and eats it for the week, so my language class that day was in the market. My favorite part was the meat section! We went into an enclosed area and there was the cow. I took in the smells and thought to myself how cool is it that I’m witnessing an area where meat isn’t kept in a cool refrigerator. Now my family I live with doesn’t get meat at this place, we actually buy it at a local grocery store. Yes, can you believe it…there are a couple of grocery stores, very comparable to the kind you would see in the States.
Anyway- after getting all the ingredients for stew we came back to my apartment and christened my kitchen. I haven’t used it yet so I was happy to be able to allow my new friend a place to cook her stew. Ama’s got a great story and I’m so thankful God has put her in my pathway. She’s a believer but I think we’re good at discipling each other. We share about cultural differences and ways we see things through our cultural lens and I’m learning a lot from her. This is the same Ama that went with us to Akropong to see her great uncle…that story was in a previous blog.
So it’s nice to have her and Gifty as friends, they’re teaching me a lot about Ghanaian culture. When they get together it’s great to see because Gifty seems to help mentor Ama in cooking and then they both gang up on me and try to teach me more about language than my pea brain can soak in…but it makes them laugh to hear me try!
Gifty is doing well. Keep her in your prayers with family issues. She is a great friend the other day she stopped me before I left the house, after I had a bad bad day the day before, and before I left she prayed for me and the day ahead.
Let’s see also this past week I took pictures at AIS. They are trying to do a yearbook so I took individual and class photos. I hope they turn out ok and they can use them!
Here’s the sad part. My GL2 camera is messed up and it’s dishearting because I’m working on a project for the Mozley’s and I’m supposed to shoot for a short term team coming in Sunday the 8th. I sent it back to America via Barry, the interim director for AIS. Hopefully B&H photo/Canon will honor the 1-year warranty. We shall see. But the cool part is God revealed the words unfailing faithfulness to me on Wednesday before the camera broke Saturday. I was playing catch up on reading the Psalms and read Psalm 89 which has the words unfailing faithfulness four times right in the beginning. I cried yesterday when I realized cleaning the heads of the camera wasn’t working and the camera was indeed broken. I just sat there begging God to fix it because that’s one of the main reasons I’m here to use the camera and do documentary videos. Then today at church Michael Mozley was preaching and he spoke about giving everything up. Even as a foreign missionary I hang on to “things.” I think we, as humans tend to do that when we don’t even realize we’re doing it. And the Holy Spirit convicted me right there in my seat about my camera and equipment. It’s not mine and God’s going to be faithful in whatever the situation. In my mind He would have just fixed it and I wouldn’t have to spend all day tomorrow on the phone to Canon trying to figure out what I need to do … but that's why I'm not God!
My friend Lyle sent me a cd with some songs on it of course I don’t know who wrote it. Part of the song basically talks about if we make a move we have to trust the timing was right because if we knew the whole vision then we wouldn’t have to use our faith. So I trust right now that the camera breaking is part of the plan. The Mozley’s and Sims have handheld cameras they have graciously said I can borrow. So in the technical difficulties there are mercies.
So emotionally I’m doing ok. Again. The word faithfulness swims in my head.
I miss my family and friends. But again God’s faithfulness. Brogan, my nephew, played his first soccer game (aka football in Ghana) last Saturday and won. This past week they lost, but I heard he thought tackling was part of the game and this week he didn’t plow anyone down, so it’s a start!
I also got my car fixed this week with the help of a driver from the Methodist Church Ghana named Simpson. The fuel injector, breaks and windows all needed to be fixed. Spent this past Friday at an orphanage for the first time. I didn’t do anything but sit there and watch the kids play and sing. I’ll keep you posted on it.
Here’s the prayer list…Keep praying for Ama my language teacher, Gifty my Ghanaian friend that lives with us, Richard the guy who hit me in my wreck, Simpson who drives for the Methodist Church, Sawaaba a new Muslim Christian, William from AIS who helped me during my wreck and all the Muslims during Ramadan. This is a time in Ghana that statistically more robberies have taken place. Muslims are very spiritual people here and mostly nice so don’t think I’m stereotyping and generalizing that’s not my goal. But with fasting here there seems to be some rather brutal ways to break the fast, which actually goes against the purpose of Ramadan. Anyway- I just pray for all people to know the amazing love of a personal relationship with God through Jesus, not just Muslims but everyone.
I love you all.
Margaret
Anyway- after getting all the ingredients for stew we came back to my apartment and christened my kitchen. I haven’t used it yet so I was happy to be able to allow my new friend a place to cook her stew. Ama’s got a great story and I’m so thankful God has put her in my pathway. She’s a believer but I think we’re good at discipling each other. We share about cultural differences and ways we see things through our cultural lens and I’m learning a lot from her. This is the same Ama that went with us to Akropong to see her great uncle…that story was in a previous blog.
So it’s nice to have her and Gifty as friends, they’re teaching me a lot about Ghanaian culture. When they get together it’s great to see because Gifty seems to help mentor Ama in cooking and then they both gang up on me and try to teach me more about language than my pea brain can soak in…but it makes them laugh to hear me try!
Gifty is doing well. Keep her in your prayers with family issues. She is a great friend the other day she stopped me before I left the house, after I had a bad bad day the day before, and before I left she prayed for me and the day ahead.
Let’s see also this past week I took pictures at AIS. They are trying to do a yearbook so I took individual and class photos. I hope they turn out ok and they can use them!
Here’s the sad part. My GL2 camera is messed up and it’s dishearting because I’m working on a project for the Mozley’s and I’m supposed to shoot for a short term team coming in Sunday the 8th. I sent it back to America via Barry, the interim director for AIS. Hopefully B&H photo/Canon will honor the 1-year warranty. We shall see. But the cool part is God revealed the words unfailing faithfulness to me on Wednesday before the camera broke Saturday. I was playing catch up on reading the Psalms and read Psalm 89 which has the words unfailing faithfulness four times right in the beginning. I cried yesterday when I realized cleaning the heads of the camera wasn’t working and the camera was indeed broken. I just sat there begging God to fix it because that’s one of the main reasons I’m here to use the camera and do documentary videos. Then today at church Michael Mozley was preaching and he spoke about giving everything up. Even as a foreign missionary I hang on to “things.” I think we, as humans tend to do that when we don’t even realize we’re doing it. And the Holy Spirit convicted me right there in my seat about my camera and equipment. It’s not mine and God’s going to be faithful in whatever the situation. In my mind He would have just fixed it and I wouldn’t have to spend all day tomorrow on the phone to Canon trying to figure out what I need to do … but that's why I'm not God!
My friend Lyle sent me a cd with some songs on it of course I don’t know who wrote it. Part of the song basically talks about if we make a move we have to trust the timing was right because if we knew the whole vision then we wouldn’t have to use our faith. So I trust right now that the camera breaking is part of the plan. The Mozley’s and Sims have handheld cameras they have graciously said I can borrow. So in the technical difficulties there are mercies.
So emotionally I’m doing ok. Again. The word faithfulness swims in my head.
I miss my family and friends. But again God’s faithfulness. Brogan, my nephew, played his first soccer game (aka football in Ghana) last Saturday and won. This past week they lost, but I heard he thought tackling was part of the game and this week he didn’t plow anyone down, so it’s a start!
I also got my car fixed this week with the help of a driver from the Methodist Church Ghana named Simpson. The fuel injector, breaks and windows all needed to be fixed. Spent this past Friday at an orphanage for the first time. I didn’t do anything but sit there and watch the kids play and sing. I’ll keep you posted on it.
Here’s the prayer list…Keep praying for Ama my language teacher, Gifty my Ghanaian friend that lives with us, Richard the guy who hit me in my wreck, Simpson who drives for the Methodist Church, Sawaaba a new Muslim Christian, William from AIS who helped me during my wreck and all the Muslims during Ramadan. This is a time in Ghana that statistically more robberies have taken place. Muslims are very spiritual people here and mostly nice so don’t think I’m stereotyping and generalizing that’s not my goal. But with fasting here there seems to be some rather brutal ways to break the fast, which actually goes against the purpose of Ramadan. Anyway- I just pray for all people to know the amazing love of a personal relationship with God through Jesus, not just Muslims but everyone.
I love you all.
Margaret
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
