there is no typical day in my life.

hum. what to blog. a fresh white blank page. i have so much to say sometimes i can't get my thoughts worked out enough to make a paragraph that stays on topic. so i'll try.

it's getting late and i'm moving tomorrow. i'm excited to see what lies ahead, but sad too because i know people in my neighborhood. just the other day some of the small kids yelled out to me 'auntie margaret' and i thought to myself, oh i'll miss this moving to yet another new place. i have stayed at the sims for a year and two months. for my track record in the past 11 years that's a LONG time to live in one place. is that sad that i move so much? counting this move i think i've moved 18 times in 11 years. am i running from something? suzanne, if you're reading this don't be too scared!

but then i think this is part of how i'm created. i never stay still. i love to go and i think as long as i'm not trying to run away from something it's part of living a single, always changing life. hum. maybe i'll chew on my moving a little more and see if i come up with any deep thoughts :)

today i took a three hour nap, not on purpose. i took some sudafed and usually that stuff wires me so i can't sleep but apparently taken during the day it makes me very sleepy, so i'll never go to sleep tongiht which means tomorrow i might be a little cranky :)

this past week i attended a workshop called sharpening your interpersonal skills and it was great. there were about 25 of us. the main difference from this workshop and others i've been too is that it was multi-cultural. i loved it. what we as americans value as showing love is different than that of the dutch or nigerian or ghanaian. and we talked about how we are to build a biblical kingdom using skills like confrontation, conflict management, relationship builders and killers and problem solving without letting our culture creep in in ways that aren't biblical ...this is very hard to do and i've realized how God's grace allows people from other cultures to build meaningful relationships when there's so many things to learn about each other.

it was a great time of meeting new people and making some great connections with others in ministry. i met one couple who have a documentary production house and i'm going to visit them next week to share ideas! how fabulous is our networking God!

speaking of God it's sunday and i've let busyness get in my way of having some intimate quiet time with my Lord. so i think i'll cut this blog short. i'm moving tomorrow and we don't have internet, so if i can't respond quickly to you....at least you know why :)

oh and keep praying for the marriage video i'm working on right now. we meet tomorrow night to look at footage and continue scripting out the video.

m

quick update on the week to come

this past week was great. i'm recommending Breaking Free by beth moore to anyone who wants to continue a deeper growth in understanding how things hold us captive. i think she's very gifted in using historical scriptural refrences to get your mind thinking and talking to God about the issues she's raised. so that's that.

this next upcoming week i'll be at a confrence entitled, "sharpening your interpersonal skills." i've been to alot of leadership training seminars, conflict management seminars and done a few personality profiling tests. i've always enjoyed those classes as usually something comes up out of discussion/teaching that i definetly could use brushing up on or even tackling for the first time. our field has challenged us with taking at least one ceu course like this a year, so here i go. therefore, i probably won't be online much this next week.

also a huge prayer request. i'm continuing to work on a video for a marriage seminar. this seminar is in september and we've shoot footage several times over the past couple months to get this video's material together. i've got all the shots i need minuse one of a ghanaian wedding but i'm in the editing process. so pray for God's hands to be my hands and what ever is to be communicated to be done. i know marriage in ghana isn't on the top priority for taking time out to work on as we have seen in the interviews we've conducted. this video is going to be played during a confrence hoping to encourage people to take the Marriage Course and then in turn teach it at their church. we wanted to make a video that is purely from a ghanaian perspective, so that's our attempt. i'm working with a ghanaian man named senyo, and we are trying to be culturally relevant to reach people who are in marriage or about to get married.

also you'll notice on the right hand side of the page there is a new element hosting video on my blog. i'm trying to upload as many videos that have been created so you can catch a glimpse into all the different ways God is moving through different people here in ghana.

until next time-
margaret

not much. just settling back in.

i'm home in ghana. going back to america was fun. that's a really boring adjective, but really it was full of seeing old friends and catching up either over food or spending the night. it was full of seeing and being with family, including a week long camping trip to tombigbee national park. i say camping (having air conditioning, tv and a microwave in a movable box shaped thing called a camper) so --- let me clear up any confusion I WAS NOT ROUGHING IT! :) although i did sleep on an air mattress several nights! it was worth it to get to wake up with my five year old nephew crawling into my 'air matress' bed at 6am on july 27th to sing me happy birthday. he did this all by himself because NO ONE else was awake at that time. i really can't believe he remembered. that definetly makes it into the memories folder.

so what does life look like in ghana right now? at this very moment i'm working on a video for a marriage confrence. actually i could spend my entire life on itunes.you know when you open the home page and it has the 'just for you' section. based on past purchases it lists musicians you might be interested in. one of my favorite genres for the past couple of years is folk. so tonight i found colbie caillat. the thing is how cool is it that someone has written software that keeps up to date with what you like. i mean wow. i don't even know all the names of bands i like, but itunes 'just for you' does. i know this sounds a tetch lame, but if itunes can figure out what we like and would be the best musical choice for us, why is it so hard to believe there's Someone who can help us choose the best in every area. and if we believe that this Being knows everything and has our best interest at heart, why is it hard to put full trust and/or hear his leading? maybe it's because we just want to listen to a 30 second trial before committing to purchase? just a random thought. anyway.

i'm getting ready to move into a new place. i'm moving in with suzanne a missionary with SIM. not sure when the move will take place, hopefully this thursday! we shall see!

my camera broke before i went to the states and i got my new one the last week, so i've only got a few pics from america. Ry- if you read this i'm adding pics of my fam playing canasta!!! For those who aren't in the know about Canasta it's pretty much an old persons card game that i learned at the ripe age of five. I had to have a chair beside me because my hands weren't big enough to hold the wod of cards you accumulate unitl you can "lay down." If you desire more info about canasta... you'll have to google it, or ask me and i'll play with ya!

that's it for my first blog back in Ghana.
m