branching out- wherever.

selling ghana stuff

2010-03-11T15:49:00.000-08:00

i'm creating a paypal link to sell ghana stuff for this weekend!!

back in the swing

2008-10-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been a long time since I've written anything. To those who might check this blog...here's something new.

I've been in the US for 4 months now after leaving Ghana. I have probably packed on 10 pounds per month that I've been here or maybe it's true that the dryer really does shrink your clothes! Either way, everything seems to be tighter these days.

It's fall. I can't believe how beautiful the weather is! Oh I love Mississippi. I think I said a million times while I was in Ghana how much I love Mississippi and here are a few reasons why:(no particular order!)

birds singing outside my window (now I know a lot of people say they like to hear birds and it's a bit cliche when you first read this sentence, but I'm talking about these birds are AMAZING soft and gentle....it's wonderful)

the coolness of fall especially in the morning when you're cozy in the bed and there's no air conditioning on- it's just natural coolness!(especially if you can lay in bed and read for a while!)

sitting on the couch with my family just hanging out being goofy (or watching dancing with the Stars....which my mom is addicted to)

family game night- beating my 6 year old nephew in cards!! (i'm not one of those who let's kids win!....is that mean?)

cooking in my mom's kitchen that has EVERY appliance known to man-and every ingredient

riding with the windows and sunroof down in my car at night smelling the 'mississippi' smell and singing at the top of my lungs :)

sitting under the big oak at my grandmother and aunts house (ooh cards, napping, talking...staring out into space or daydreaming...all fun to do!)

riding four wheelers in the pasture

chicken salad wraps at Peppers Deli (oh a little taste of heaven)

BARQS ROOTBEER!!!!!! (i don't care what you say...mug, ibc...don't compare!)

sour cream and onion lays potato chips (there's a food theme here, this could take a while!)

interstates

tap water

dryers - dryer dried towels

endless hot water (ok....those are more like america than native to just mississippi....but still...wonderful)

reliable shipping (my camera just broke and it was so easy to ship it off)

i should probably come up with a top ten list...

Well. I'm just dusting off the webs on my fingertips, I hope to get more disciplined so I can actually share some thoughts of what's been going on in my mind. I haven't blogged probably because I've had some really rough days, however there's been some amazing days too. I suppose that's life. But I do want to focus on the beauty and positive aspects today, after all, our will of positivity I think goes a long way on how our day is shaped.

For now
margaret

listen. it's harder than you think.

2008-04-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

to listen is really an art i think. you have those people who will indeed ask you a question, but in the end they're not truly interested in what you really have to say. and by that i mean able to come out of their views and concepts to try and learn where you're really coming from and what you're actually trying to say. this would mean they would need to spend some time learning your experiences and trying to 'step into your shoes' as best as possible. which also would require someone who was capable of bringing you into their life in such a manner. but really it takes a lot of work to be a good listener. one who can indeed step out of themselves, pay and care enough to try and understand where you're coming from and then actively participate with their mind to what you're sharing. these people i believe are truly hard to come by.

i think i'm starting to realize the need for this kind of listener the closer i get to going back to america. i haven't really seen anything too hard living in Ghana, but going back to people who don't want to see outside of the world they live in i think will be draining and probably where most of the reverse culture shock will come in. i learned a great application to some scripture the other day. one of the people who came to ghana last week shared a passage out of 2 corinthians. basically when we can die to ourselves we give life to others. if we want to live for ourselves then we give death to others to experience a brief moment of life and in the end our brief moment of life, is death to ourselves in our hearts. i'm thinking of this in the realm of listening. if one asks you 'how was xyz?' and they don't really pay attention, the most basic response is probably hurt feelings. i'll say basic for me. i try and listen to others, so i really think it's proper to try and listen to me! but not everybody is interested. so then the hurt feelings come in. now i have a choice. either get mad someone doesn't want to spend their time listening about places and people they've never met, or i can forgive knowing full well i've probably been less than an active listener a couple times in my life. i should probably then take note that i want to change and try and be a good listener for those who need some ripe ears.

i truly want to be a good listener. the more God grows a passion in my heart for documentaries the more He grows this desire to listen to others.

but o how my patience wanes trying to listen to God. selfishly i want someone who wants to listen to me and herein lies an easy idol to create. looking for someone other than Jesus to listen to me. i know in my head he wants to hear from me. every detail i can stand to share. but yet, i crave that of a human who wants to listen. currently i live with one of the best listeners i've ever seen. i will miss that. she truly has a gift. it will be interesting to see how this plays out in america. and i feel as if i'm toying on the err of selfishness wanting someone who will listen to me. i know we are hardwired for others we are created for community, but there must be a balance. i'm eager to see how to balance the desire to talk with someone who cares and being filled by my Father who always listens.

the balance of life.

sweaty. taking a rest.

2008-03-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

easter.

2008-03-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

well in my hiatus of writing i've actually been quite busy. this past weekend was amazing. three friends of mine (erin, john and suzanne) and i ventured to the volta to enjoy it's amazing scenery and serenity. and it was just that and more. mountain paradise, for those who don't know, is an amazing retreat place. the modest hostel/guesthouse accomodations sit at the foot of Mount Gemi Range. that means nothing to you if you've never been there or don't know ghana so i'll give you a mental image. picture yourself on the top of a mountain (i am from mississippi so i consider this a mountain, not a foothill) with various types of palms, mangos, pepper and probably a couple other types of trees. this is thick foliage too. so you have nice shade in most parts. during the day you'll be suprised by a thunderstorm rolling in over the mountains. as you catch a glimpse of the rain falling at an interesting angle because of the force of the wind you to take in the smell of rain filling your lungs with fresh air and it reminds you you're indeed far away from the two million people causing traffic jams in accra and you relax.

at night it's so cool you actually brought a long sleeve shirt that had to be dusted off when you took it out of the closet. o but to sit outside with no mosquitos buzzing around your ears and enjoy the depth of darkness because there's no electricity is refreshing and peaceful. unfortunetly during this visit the stars were hiding since the clouds accompanied the rain. but i've been there when it's clear at night. wow. romantic. did i mention that the owner, tony, has employed the best ghanaian cook in ghana. i'm serious. and i've eaten all over the country.

so sunday morning was easter sunday and the four of us were able to chill together. talk about God's Word and worship in a setting that so easily reminds you of God's majesty and might. so when i say this weekend was amazing. i'm really not exagerating...for those who really know me!

now this weekend was in an effort to really focus on relaxing as it's about to be really busy around here until may. i'm getting more and more excited about my friends coming in two weeks from my home church. we're going to have a blast hanging out in the north. and i have to add how excited i am that anna, who was one of my close girlfriends in tupelo, is coming. i'm excited to have her come and see life and what it's been like for me for the past two years.

but before the come- i leave tomorrow headed to sandema, chiana in the upper east. if you checked out the video about the upper east flooding last year we're headed up to do a follow up story and see if aid has been distributed and catch some stories of people in the extreme rural areas. usually those who are the hardest to reach because of their distance from a village center. i love chiana. it's a quaint village and last time we were there we met some stellar men and women. it will be nice to see them again and be able to work with them. stephen alampong, appeared in the first flooding video, sherri, from SIM and I will go walking into the bush and try to make it to some of these rural houses to get their stories. we'll see how it goes.

we return on friday then saturday i will help film for a project that's going to the UK. it's the marriage course video being filmed in several countries in hopes to be more international with other worldviews of marriage than just the west. should be a good time.

then tuesday my friends from the states come and we get to spend a week up in bole hanging with our friends in the methodist church ghana and the commumities surrounding bole.

after they leave. actually the day after. i go back up north to continue filming for a documentary with TheoVIsion. I'll have to write a seperate entry for that!!! very interesting....

so there's a little update on the life of me here in ghana...

:)
mb

top 10 random.....hum

2008-02-24T15:42:00.000-08:00

so i've been tagged for the 10 most random facts eh! well i don't know if these would count as random, but we'll try none the less

1. i sold books door to door in Wisconsin in the summer of 2000. they said it was an internship. um. not really.

2. i worked with espn in the press box when i was in college. i was a broadcasting major.

3. i've had a five minute conversation with morgan freeman in cleveland, ms. and i didn't have my camera. my friend gary was really mad at me for forgetting it. :)

4. i just counted it up and i've had 18 roommates since my freshman year of college.

5. i've also lived in 19 different houses/apartments (not including that little stint moving to wisconsin for 3 weeks to sell books door to door.) :)

6. i only like to sleep on down pillows. and i ALWAYS travel with my pillow. except once when i backpacked the Volta region in ghana. there was no space. but my pillow has been to russia! i get this from my grandmom, nanaw. she takes hers everywhere too.

7. i've flown a two seater plane for about five minutes before i really freaked out that the pilot wouldn't take that joy stick thing back under control.

8. i've sat in a blackhawk and was amazed at all the buttons. so many buttons. i love buttons.

9. i've dipped skoal. ok. maybe not too random. i am from mississippi :)

10. we used to go cut down our own christmas trees when i lived in madison, ms. we would take my sisters horse and my dad would rig it up so dawny buck, the horse, would carry the 12 foot plus tree back to our house some 2/3 miles away :). also my dad would always cut it down with one of those really hold hand saws with the center cut out. seems like it was hard work :)

i don't know if these are what i would qualify as my most random, but i think they will suffice as of right now. thanks tates for the tag :)

friends coming to learn.

2008-02-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

just wanted to say that my home church is coming back in april and i've linked the people who are coming to my site....check em out and if you want to support their efforts....well you can figure out how to do it :)

check out anna and russ's blog, the teams blog where joel and his family make posts and mark and melissa's blog!!!!

a little bit of everything

2008-02-20T05:01:00.000-08:00

I love when nouns become verbs. Such as .... I'm going to blog now or hey facebook me. Our ever changing art of communication seems to create a vocab of its own eh?

I'm blogging not out of duty but purely to dedicate this one to a friend here in Ghana who said the other day, "some people don't blog anymore...." :) so here's to you!!!!

I do love a blank page. Wide open space to let the thoughts and expressions inside flow freely....what do I want to say???? hum....

I think one part of communicating that is so hard is the amount that happens to us in any given day. And do we deem that blog worthy? Or is it relatively 'normal' and we feel as if to blog wouldn't be needed? I guess that is the gloryesness of being a blogger...to each his own of considering what is and isn't blog a riffic.

So today I'm at the Mozleys house wrapping up one week of playing 'mom/tatum/rebecca' I have had several people ask me how being 'tatum' has been this week....so Tates if you're reading this....you have indeed made an impression in Ghana :) I won't tell you what else they said ;) wink wink. Just kidding.

This past week has been busy and I've realized the amount of organization it takes to run a household. The first 'day on the job' was getting everybody a list of what needed to be done....but I had to figure out what needed to be done and never having to had figure that out took some time. I think learning the patterns, likes and dislikes of other people is interesting, enjoyable and a tad exhausting.

I would say this past week for me has been great. I've seen the amount of energy the interns pour into helping the Mozleys and the amount of energy Claire and Micheal dole out....and we didn't have the revolving door of people coming through like they usually have!!!

Maggie, Luke and Anna are some of the coolest and most well behaved kids I've ever seen so hanging with them was fun. Well most of the time....sometimes the mornings getting out of the door were a little um....what's the word.....rushed?

Sitting with Smags last night working on Algebra brought back so many memories of my High school days. I was/am a procrastinator and for the most part it works well for me. I thrive on deadlines and actually this year n I've noticed, for me, no deadlines equals being less productive! Of course there's got to be a healthy balance....of procrastination that is.

As I sit at my computer I'm working on several items at one time. At this very moment I'm uploading video to youtube, working on a flyer for Race for Relief (a triathlon some friends and I are creating), researching prices for Final Cut Pro books because I've been asked to teach a course, calling contacts about a DVCAM I found to rent for a shoot for the Marriage Course (they are re filming an international leaders dvd and the contacts here asked me to consult with Ghana/London)and just finished studying material for our small group that started meeting on Thursday nights. We're doing Beth Moore's Jesus the One and Only study. And all of the sudden I'm overwhelmed with these thoughts...

In part of the study we are looking at how after the Angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her she would indeed be the Lord's mother and how in Luke 1:48 she says humbly maybe out of shock .... not pride...."from now on all generations will call me blessed..." i think she was in such shock to be looked upon by God because she was a peasant girl. Nobody extravegant. An ordinary plain and simple person God decided to use :) I just love that and it made me smile this morning as I'm sitting in Ghana, living out a life that seems at some points too amazing to be living. I'm so thankful today. I hope I continue to be amazed and joyful even during the hard moments.

This is indeed a smorgeshboard (i have no idea how to spell that...but that looks good) of my thoughts. Freely flowing....:)

margaret

not just greasy fried things

2007-12-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

it's sad really that i haven't posted in so long. i do have a semi good reason...i forgot my password. as you can see....i figured it out. now the reason i'm posting is of very serious nature. i just opened a package my wonderful mom sent me in the mail. actually i've had the package about a week and today my mom asked if i had opened it. i hadn't because i was actually exerting self control and NOT peeking at the christmas presents she's sent me....so as we were video skyping i opened the package...you're asking yourself....I wonder what was underneath that styrofoam ???? well... tucked away in plastic ziplock baggies where.... CHIPS three bags of sour cream and onion Lays potato chips!!!!!!!!!! oh the taste of an american chip is undescribable. so if you're eating chips today enjoy the taste of one of God's greatest creations :)

a different culture

2007-10-29T05:11:00.000-07:00

as i was sitting among three hundred of Ghana's finest i felt as if i was in a movie. at 5pm this past saturday night i strolled into the international conference center here in accra to celebrate the 236th birthday of the marines. as you can see from the picture we were all dolled up in our long flowy gowns, but let me assure you we were still aware of reality. how? well right before we entered into this beautifully prepared room my car died. yes the new car i bought so i wouldn't have quite as many car problems as the white car, that's the one. thankfully though, and i mean seriously...thank the Lord, we didn't die out on the major highway and my sweet friends didn't have to push the spacewagon in heavy traffic on Liberation in their high heels!

once we enetered the 236th Marine Ball we sat down at our assigned table #12 and took in the scenes of Colonels, Majors and Atashays (?sp) for the Marines, Navy, Army and Airforce as they chatted it up together talking about planes and using acronyms that i still don't know what they mean. but all in all these conversations were actually quite fun, they joked about being dressed in uniforms that basically cause you to have good posture and the dinner conversation kept going back to the fact that our friend stacey had brought three dates. or shall we just say .... 'the harem.'

now last year when tates, amy, sherri, jane, lindsey, stacey and I were hanging out we laughingly reffered to ourselves as stacey's harem. never really actually did i feel like a harem as it is defined. oh but saturday night when one of stacey's bosses said, 'introduce us to 'them'" it rang in my ear that yes, we really could be percieved as 'the harem' poor stacey is often ridiculed by his coworkers for hanging out with all of us girls, but apparently he must not hate it too bad!

the music choice of saturday night was interesting. there are six marines that gaurd the US embassy here in Accra and they chose the music selection from what i've been told. let me add they are all around 20 years old, so i got caught up on the newest rap songs from america. i realized that i am in fact out of touch in two areas, the music to which college aged students are now shaking their rear area to and the words to these songs. both of which the 20 year old marine knew all too well. i will say as i looked around the room full of an eclectic mix match of people i wondered what some of the 60 year olds were thinking, but then i noticed a couplde dancing either the mambo or east coast swing in the corner and they in fact were having a splendid time. or so it seemed.

one of the couples at our table were from california and looked asian. they have three kids the youngest 4 months, but that didn't stop either of them from breaking it down on the dance floor. they were definetly my favorite dancers of the night!

my favorite dance was to thriller. we did have a couple of songs interjected into 20 year old marines' favorite rap song choices. two of the 'other' songs that stood out to me were Madonna's Holiday and the electric slide... to which i found myself amazed at how many Ghanaians were doing this timeless dance classic we American southerners play as a 'must have' at our weddings.

i didn't take my camera saturday night because i knew mariah and suzanne would take enough pictures to fill my bedroom wall. but i didn't get any good pictures from suzanne's camera of people dancing so those will have to wait until we see what mariah took, however i am posting some of the four girls i went with ....and well....stacey the harem date. too bad i don't have any pictures from the creepy guy who was going around pointing to areas that shouldn't be focused on and snapping shots. this guy made me really mad, but for some reason i didn't approach him to ask why he was being so creepy. ?

i do have to add that my dress was made by amanda. she has made several ghanaian dresses/clothes for me and does an outstanding job. for the most part my 236th marine ball dress was ok, minus the bulges on the hip area. but thankfully my friend gifty saved the day and came to my house where she re stitched up until the last minute so the dress would fit 'well enough' my lesson i've learned this weekend...if you expect perfection...you will always be disappointed. we had fun, we had laughs, and we got to see just how diverse the people are here in ghana. hob knobbing with the military and the ambassadors seemed to be the theme for me this weekend. it was nice to get a look into that world of fellowship.

sunday at 5pm i went with others to support our friend jane. she sings with a group called accragio and they teamed up with the tema youth choir a group from about an hour away comprised of youth who have a heart for music and are using their amazing voices to glorify God. sitting at the French Ambassadors residence watching and listening to these mixture of ghanaian and expat voices i truly loved the moment. one of my favorite parts of living internationally is the culture eveeryone brings. you never lack for something artistic here. it's nice.

new videos

2007-10-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

i have posted two new videos over there on the right. the russells and the upper east flooding video. the russells live in north western ghana and God's doing amazing things up there. The upper east region is where I went with SIM missionaries to check out the flooding. also if you want to read the news about the flooding, occasionally there's links on www.ghanaweb.com

margaret

catch up

2007-10-02T04:18:00.000-07:00

i always enjoy going to the north because it's country land. i am from mississippi. you can take me out of mississippi but i still like a little country backwoods every now and then. being able to see wide open land greener than i've ever seen was a blessing. however it was also compassion awakening visiting families who had lost most everything. Ruby, the SIM director wrote a wonderful sinopsis about our time walking around the Chiana/Sandama area talking to those who have been affected by the flooding. so i'm posting that at the bottom of my post. it's quite amazing to hear people praising the Lord after they've lost everything but praising Him because no one was hurt, or they were able to remove most of their items out before rooms collapsed.

We traveled around the Navrongo/Sandema/Chiana area for those who know Ghana and most of the people we saw were in areas where the Bible Church of Africa is active. BCA was started by SIM, serving in mission, missionaries way back when and now BCA is independent but partners with SIM in various ways. Since the devestation is broad SIM is working with their partner church to distribute aid. We were taken around by several leaders within the BCA. Some not directly affected by the flooding, their home intact, took three days off to walk with us village after village interviewing families. When I asked Frances Kupoe, the Vice President of BCA why he wanted to help raise awareness he said, "because these are my people. i love these people and they shouldn't have to suffer like this." As I watched Ruby interacting with the BCA leaders she's known for years and reveres professionally and loves like family I realized her heart is still among these people. She lived in Chiana for over 25 years and understands the law of harvest and what the flooding means short and long term.

Living through Katrina and watching how a country comes together in a time of crisis can make you almost numb. I personally have seen the Lord grow compassion in my heart. Unfortunately it takes me a while to react to devestation. I have tons of anxiety about helping but then somewhere between almost overflowing with a desire to help and actually doing something to help...my anxiety gets lost and I tend not to do anything. Sometimes from a lack of understanding where to begin. As I interviewed people with Ruby and walked around house to house I got more and more overwhlemed with how these people are going to recieve the help they need. I'm working on editing together the video to tell stories about those who were affected and it too is overwhelming because of the amounts of footage. So I think our part, as tiny as it might seem is to really be in prayer for the people who have to organize these relief efforts so that people who are needy actually get the aid. It's a complex problem because it's not just flooding and lost of food, it's housing, crops, cash crops, food, and cost to rebuild...please read Ruby's letter as she succently makes some great points! And be on the look out for the video of the north, it's coming, God willing :)

I do want to say one other tid bit- After gathering footage for the flooding video Ruby and Sherri dropped me off in Wa where I stayed with John and Bess Russell. They have been in ghana a little over two years and live in an area where most Methodist Pastors with the Methodist Church Ghana don't even want to go. The pastors who serve up north have a hard time because the schools aren't good, the pay isn't consistent because people don't make much money and the climate is tougher. Spending a week watching them do what is on their heart was interesting and I learned a good deal. They have really payed attention during misisonary training and are truly trying to live with people and understand them. Both John and Bess have huge hearts for people in their area ...take a look at their video on the youtube link! Oh and if you ever want to rag John through email he's an Auburn fan and while i was staying with them State beat Auburn...yes!

RUBY"S LETTER after our visit to the North

Disaster strikes suddenly and often without warning. Who would have predicted the flooding in northern Ghana, a land that over the last few years has barely received enough rains to maintain a good harvest? When disaster strikes the most common question is why did God allow this to happen to us?

This was the question I expected to hear on my recent trip to the north to see first hand the devastation and destruction brought on by the recent flooding. Instead I was asked a totally different question. What did we do to God? The different questions shows the different perspective people have of God. One says the problem is God’s fault and the other says no it is our own fault. I wonder what your perspective is.

It is hard to write about all we saw and heard. People’s stories are sad with many losing almost everything they own. Yet of all of the people I talked to, not one of them questioned God or what he was doing. Many of them in telling their story of the loss of rooms, possessions, animals and crops said, "we thank God no one was hurt". I talked to one family who said they were sitting in their own rooms next to their son’s room and all of a sudden, they heard a big whoosh and thud. They went to see what had happened and saw that their son’s two rooms that he had just finished a few months ago had fallen down. The zinc roof was intact but it was completely flat on the ground. But their response was, “we thank God because none of their possessions were spoiled, only the rooms”.

Another story was of a young farmer weeding his crops in the bush next to a small stream. While he was bending over to weed, he heard a rushing sound. He stopped, weeding, looked up to investigate but could not see anything and so he bent to continue his farming. This time the noise was even louder and when he raised his head again he saw a rushing wall of water coming towards him. He dropped everything and ran to a nearby tree, climbed it and remained there several hours before the water subsided and he was safe again.

I talked to a pastor’s family who had lost all their rooms and were living in the church close to their house. Another pastor had lost all of his rooms except for one small room where they have put their things and where they sleep at night. If it rains they have to all sit up in order for them to fit into the small room. As we saw building after building that was completely destroyed or made dangerous because they could fall at any time, my thoughts were, how will these people make it? How can they rebuild everything again?

We made this trip to evaluate the situation and to sympathize with people over their tragedy. The disaster is so immense that it is hard to put figures to the number of people affected and the number of houses that have fallen. God worked in a wonderful and marvelous way for this trip to include an experienced video/photographer to accompany us. She is making a video that will show the devastation and the terrible plight of many people in the three northern regions.

The need is great and the extent of the need includes many people, estimates range from 10,000 - 40,000 people, but I suspect that the number is much higher. SIM Ghana had about $4000 left over from the last food relief of 2005. This money was given to buy 130 bags of corn, 70 blankets and 20 plastic covering to cover the few possessions that people have been able to save. As in all societies, the widows and orphans are most affected so the rest of the money was used to buy packets of zinc for widows who have lost everything. It really is only one small drop in the bucket but it does show love and concern for people in their suffering.

In the village of Kologo in the Kasena-Nankana area, about 15 km from the district capital of Navrongo, we were received with surprise and warmth. As of the time of our visit, no one had visited them. When we talked to the chief’s representative and his elders they said, “We have been sitting here not knowing where to pass and not knowing how to explain our plight. You have come to us and we are so grateful for your coming.” The little help we gave and our concern in visiting seemed to encourage and lift their spirits.

Even before the present flooding, people were suffering. The rains started as usual in May. People planted their early millet but for about 6 weeks during June and July there was a drought. Normally around the middle of August they harvest their early millet that gives them food until the main harvest is finished. The drought means that at present people only have little food left over from last year’s harvest. People are homeless and destitute, their homes, and their possessions and in some case even their animals are all gone; to add to that, many of their late crops are still under water. Those who have no rooms go to schools and churches at night to sleep. The future is bleak and as someone said so plainly, “hunger is staring us in the face”. Without food, which is the payment for workers to rebuild their houses, it will be difficult to replace the fallen rooms. And how will they be able to buy any building materials like cement and zinc to make strong houses so that they will not fall when the rain comes again?

We have heard estimates of 75-80% of houses being destroyed in individual communities. One community has 136 houses, 70 of which have lost rooms or are completely destroyed. There have been estimates made that over 4000 houses have collapsed. We will try and work on statistics for the communities that have BCA churches. The leaders of the churches will do an estimate of their area to help us with determining the number of rooms that will need to be built. In addition to private rooms that have fallen, there have been at least 3 churches that have collapsed and probably will be more as people report about their situation. The logistics of trying to help so many people covering a large area will be difficult. Where we do have people and churches we can help and trust that other organizations can assist with the other needy areas.

The food aid alone will come to millions of dollars and there will have to be a united effort of government, religious bodies and NGO’s to help meet the need of so many people. Some aid is coming in; the government has promised 50 billion cedis about $5.4 million. The German government has given to the Catholic Church over 62,350 GH cedis (about $62,000) for food aid in the 3 northern regions I am suggesting that SIM raise money for food aid in addition to a specific amount for rebuilding houses.

The immediate future looks bleak indeed. Is it possible for teams from inside and outside Ghana to come and help build houses? The logistics of this would need planning but it is something to think about. When I asked the BCA leaders about whether people could come and carry water and mold bricks they thought that might work. Sometimes when strangers come into the situation and help out it encourages the rest of the community to pitch in as well.

A tour of government and UN officials are presently visiting the country to assess the damage. Slowly it appears that help is on the way but there is still a lot more that will need to be done. Probably the biggest problem will be the coordination the relief effort coming in so everyone that needs help will get it.

prayers

2007-09-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to summon your prayers...

1. There is major flooding in the upper east and northern regions in Ghana. I'm not sure how bad, but through various sources who have contacts up there the rains have damaged the incoming crop, as it is harvest season right now, so there is a food shortage. Also the flooding has caused people to loose everything in their houses and the houses themselves. It is a praise that we have rain because the damn is rising now and our electricity crisis is getting slightly better. However these people are struggling.

2. I have to share an intereting God story with you all to give Him some cool glory! I was supposed to travel yesterday, Friday Sept.7 up north to Wa in the upper west region to work on a video with the Russells' a mission society missionary family. On my way to the airport I stopped to drop off a video I just completed for The Marriage Course in Ghana (that's another story). The office I dropped the video off at is the SIM, Serving in Mission, mission agency office. I'm friends with a couple of the missionares there including Ruby, the director of SIM. We were talking and she's the one who informed me about the severe flooding in the upper west. She has lived in Ghana over 25 years 20 of those in the North, so she has friends who are like family up there. In our conversation she realized I was going to Wa via Tamale. Picture this in your head...Tamale is north east...Wa is north west.

I was going to take the plane to Tamale and then catch a six hour bus ride over to Wa and I was headed to the airport to buy my ticket to leave Friday morning. (this was thursday morning when I saw ruby). So as we talked she wanted to know if it would work out if we flew together up to Tamale, in the east, and i rode with her and another missionary to collect footage of the damage that's been done by the flooding. They would take the footage and use that to help get out information out about what the needs are. Of course the Russells were expecting me this Saturday, today, and I couldn't get through to them to see if coming next weekend would be ok with their schedules. So my plan was to wait until mid afternoon Thursday and see if Bess Russell was able to get through. She didn't so i headed to the airport to go ahead and buy the ticket for Friday, I got there and all the seats were sold out, the earliest I could leave is Sunday the 9th, tomorrow. So I called Ruby, not having talked to the Russells yet, and told her I was flying tomorrow. Then Bess texted me and their whole family has strep and wanted to know if I could wait and come the following weekend. So I called Ruby and told her and she said, ok, we'll fly together Sunday morning and I'll ride with them across the north to get footage and they'll drop me in Wa. I don't know if this story comes across amazing as it was to experience it, but getting logistics to work that quick here could only be done supernaturally! So all this to say, please pray for Ruby, Sherri and myself this next week as we go around to see about ways in which people can help those who have lost everything. Ruby and Sherri both work for SIM and some of their pastors they work with have lost houses, fortunately right now we don't know about the loss of life...

3. After I travel with Ruby and Sherri to get information about the flooding I will work with the Russells to tell God's stories of what's going on in WA. Please pray for this video as they will be going back in December to use this to show people what Wa looks like and the people God has put in their pathway in the past two years as they've served here in Ghana. Bess is a nurse by proffession and is homeschooling their 8 year old son, Isaac. God has put her in situations where He's used the nursing skills such as helping a little girl who is an amuptee. John, the husband, is a pastor and works with Ghanaian pastors in the Wa circuit. They helped start a church in an area that has never heard the Gospel. That's hard for me to wrap my mind around living in the globalized information superhighway life . But they have tried to work with indeginous people in the city who have a heart for rural ministry. Their team of locals and themselves set out to find areas where no one has shared about a personal relationship with Jesus and all that it means. Join me in praying that what needs to be communicated would. That God would be glorified through what the Russells allow Him to do through them.

4. I don't know how long I'll be gone. Probably at least two-three weeks and then I will take the bus back down to Accra. It's a 15 hour ride so please pray for safety and for traveling mercies as things break down frequently here. I'm excited though riding public transport is fun and exciting!

Ok- that's it. Thanks so much for your continued support through prayer. I wanted to share recently I've been praying Philipians 1:9 over individual people...it's pretty cool :)

love to all of you and yes i'm in my new house and it's great! my roomate's name is suzanne and it's been great getting to know her and a blessing to have another single girl to hang out with!

Margaret

there is no typical day in my life.

2007-08-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-08-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

happies

2007-07-05T05:22:00.000-07:00

i just learned last week that the term 'happies' is a southern thing. i have a friend who said she had never heard a little present given to someone called a 'happy.' I'm sad that my camera is broken because I would take a picture of how many happies I'm packing! I'm leaving TONIGHT for America and I have two suitcases full of happies!!!!

Seriously....I might have to pay customs because I look like a container of african goods!

I would like to share my proudest gifts though that I'm bringing for my family to enjoy!

I am taking some maggie cubes (ghana's version of bullion) for my mother since she's a FABULOUS cook, some Shito (no that's not a bad word here...it's hot sauce), Milo (like hot chocolate...made in Ghana of course) and some Laughing Cow cheese (our version of cream cheese....that's right no refrigeration required :)

I am very excited to see family and friends tomorrow in Memphis!!!!!!!! Sad news...I'm leaving Ghana in the COOLEST month of the whole year to go to Mississippi where it's in the upper 90's and humid! Ugh.

Alright so hopefully next blog will be posted state side!!!!! wooooohoooooo

love to all
m

girl talk. men i think you'll agree.

2007-07-02T13:17:00.001-07:00

Ok I have a friend named Sherri from Chicago (you have to accent Chic aaaaa go) because she's midwestern. Her brother has coined what might be the 'best' termi have ever heard explaining the way women communicate.

Now folks this 'way of life' is bred into Southern girls from the time they are born. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.

Let's say you're married. You're husband comes in the kitchen where you're feverishly cooking dinner. You're sweating because your spagehtti noodles are boiling over and the garlic cheese bread is burning in the oven. So as you put your dirty pan in the sink, with your back to your husband, you say "wow the garbage sure is full."

Now this my friends is what we call 'girl talk.' Sherri's brother has coined this phrase so I can't claim it as orginal, but I sure do agree with everything it implies. We as girls, master manipulators that we are trained to be, say one thing while implying a whole structured sentence. For example, "wow the garbage is full" isn't just an expression of the realization that you turned around and low and behold there is some trash overflowing. That is a full on hidden meaning saying, "Hello! husband don't you see that the garbage is overflowing and I need some help here in the kitchen since I'm busy. So you should really take that out right now..... please :)" We just know how to put things .... nicely.... or should we say manipulate our way into getting what we want, thinking we're doing it nicely!

Here is another example of how young we learn our 'girl talk' technique. Sherri's 6 year old niece was in the kitchen with her mom as mommie was baking cookies. Six year old niece goes over to the cookies and says to her mother, "these sure do smell nice." Mom replys, "well thank you honey, that sure was nice." Then six year old girl says again, "mom- these sure do smell nice, you're a GREAT cook." Mom turns around to see the look on her daughters face and realizes, she's girl talking for, i sure do want one of these cookies and i'm going to flatter you until you give me one!

So, know if you come to Accra, you will be busted for using girl talk as we now know what to term it!

what-june is gone?

2007-06-30T06:22:00.000-07:00

Is it really eight days until I am physically hugging my mother and father’s neck at Memphis international airport gate while jumping up and down in a frenzy of emotional bliss? Not to mention my sweet friends who are driving up to memph town…however I think that’s just strictly for them to have fun in the car…on the way up singing into drum stick!

I new June was going to go by fast. After Joel, Jackie and Jackson left on June 11 I had six days in Accra and then Amy Rambo, Ryan Kennedy, Davis Webb, Chip Jackson and our driver Stephen headed back up north to return June 26!

So now I’m in the process of making a five minute dvd to play at The Orchard when I’m home in Mississippi, while packing and buying some good ole African artifacts for family and friends…I’ve only got seven days! YIKES

Saturday Amy, Ryan and I are going to lead youth group and then Sunday we’re going to prampram orphanage to teach and hang out with kids…so this weekend is busy!!!!

Our trip was WONDERFUL. Only one minor bump…I lost my cell phone with every number for people in Ghana. Stink. But- we got to receive blessings and hopefully be blessings by going around to love on our coworkers! Check out the Jernigan’s blog, Ry’s blog and www.daviswebb.blogspot.com.

Ryan and Davis had brought several goodies for each family…and I have to say Ryan’s mom did an OUTSTANDING job picking out princess dresses for two of the little girls on our team Rachel and Louisa.

Now I’m going to get a little serious with what God’s doing up in my disgustingly selfish heart! Read on if you want to analyze my thoughts and really see how messed up my brain is! You’ve been warned.

Each morning someone led devotion. One thing I love about the ‘trip bubble’ during the ‘trip length of time’ is the amount of intentional Word time when traveling with others who LOVE the Lord.

God has impressed a couple things on my heart that I’ve been chewing on this week. One-being how we are to love others especially fellow Christians. I keep going back to 1 Corinthians 13:4. I know we hear about this verse during weddings a lot, but I totally am trying to figure out the balance of speaking truth in love to our fellow believers and how much we pray and forgive without bringing differences up. Is there an easy answer here??? Please give me a how to do it and I will follow.

Second- Davis read 1 Peter 4:11. “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.” This is where I meditated for a couple of days and Saturday I’m leading a discussion at our local international youth group.

When we do what we do - do we do it for God or for ourselves? The scripture was written by Peter to Jewish Christians persecuted and ridiculed for believing in Jesus. He tells them speak as if you were speaking the words of God…speak to those who make fun of you with love…to those who persecute you. Serve with the strength of the Lord so that they may know God through Jesus. So many times I think about me how I’m feeling about doing ministry, but my gosh if I could just get outside of myself and my feelings there is a world who doesn’t know the love, joy, peace that comes from knowing Jesus.

Why do I do what I do?
Oh how my heart yearns for ME to be ‘great’ at something. I have this unquenchable desire for when people think Margaret they think ________ insert being the best at ‘something.’ Lately, I have felt so beaten up (my mind conjuring up insults against myself) by the fact that I’m not creative enough, or not smart enough or wise biblically enough or … I mean the list could seriously go on and on. Besides the fact that thinking I’m not good at anything is completely being self focused… I have been reflecting on the words I speak when I get so consumed in me. Are these words as if one speaking the very words of God? And if I’m doing “it” for God should I get so sidetracked in what others think?

Agh the growing pains of this journey with our Lord. I know we are refined by trials so I’m trying to walk through and stay committed to what the Lord has shown me he’s called me to, even when I don’t ‘feel’ like I am enough. Is He trying to teach me that it’s ALL about him? I thought I had that one learned...

One week from today I’ll be fellowshipping with family and friends at my mother’s house in Starkville. It's going to be lots of fun...I'm starting to get excited to see everyone....more posting later :)
m

The Orchard Vision Trip

2007-06-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

As I write this the Hawkins are sitting in Germany enduring a four hour layover from 5:45am- 9:45am. It’s not fun, I’ve done that one before. So continue your prayers for their safe journey to America.

The past 13 days have been exciting, challenging, exhausting, stressful but full of joy! Overall I think Jackie, Joel, Jackson and I would agree the first vision trip for The Orchard was wonderful.

I want to first thank everyone who has prayerfully and financially supported the Hawkins coming to Ghana. Their time here I believe was fruitful for their hearts as well as those they started a relationship with. If you ask them about the trip they will probably tell you the first couple of days were very stressful! You face emotional stress. You arrive in a new culture after traveling for over 20 hours and you are exhausted when you get off the plane in the host culture, in this case Ghana. Then you ride in a car where you are bombarded by all your senses as you hear, smell and see everything new for the first time. You ride in a car, not knowing at all where you’re going but trusting that the person leading you is taking good care of you. You have thoughts that you didn’t even know existed and wonder where those thoughts came from. Sometimes these aren’t nice thoughts so the stress that you could possibly conjure those up is a little scary, after all you are Christian J You remove all of your comforts of how you know culturally to do things and then become worried that what you might say or do could possibly offend the very people you want to learn about. You virtually start as a baby in this new culture dealing with the stress of wanting to know everything, know the cultural ques and how they differ from your home culture, know the language and be able to speak proficiently, know how to ‘be’ exactly as those you’ve come to learn about. All of this creates an uncomfortable amount of stress. I believe it’s how you deal with these stresses that determines what you learn from the experience. This past week Jackie, Joel and Jackson dealt with uncomfortable situations and from my perspective God has and will use every moment of their trip here to glorify Himself.

Missions short term and long term can easily be about people coming from outside to bring in what you know to be ‘right’ and the ‘best’ way to do something whatever area that person is working. I believe it’s much harder to be a learner and be ok with the fact you don’t know everything. I love the saying, “people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” As Jesus loving and believing people, and I like how Rob Bell puts it, we help people see God and how he’s already working here. We don’t save people. That is what Jesus does. And I am going to add we ‘strategically’ help people see how God is working. Here in Ghana that strategy looks different than a strategy in America. So we have to learn this culture before we are strategic.

This past week and a half Jackie, Joel and Jackson learned an incredible amount about Ghanaian culture. They asked great questions, (some I didn’t know which encourages me to continue to be a learner!) they tried a little food outside their comfort zone without eating things that would make them too sick, but most of all I saw them really trying to build relationships with people. I saw them desiring to know about family life of those we met, know how they work in the jobs they do, know how they worship God in this culture and how they show love to each other. We visited and greeted, the Ghanaian cultural way, many people. As the week continued, I saw them praying about beginning this partnership here and what would God have it look like for years to come. We were blessed to have Bishop Atto Brown of the northern diocese of the Methodist church with us…what does that mean for those who don’t know Ghana Methodist church lingo? That means there was an older respected Ghanaian man in the leadership of the church who spoke truth to places we went, encouraging them to reach out and think outside of themselves. He was able to relate the vision of the twining program, the relationship building partnership The Orchard is doing here with Bole, the area we went. He was able to speak to us Americans in a way we were able to understand Ghanaian thought processes and culture according to different situations. He was able to cast a vision that this partnership isn’t about coming and check marking a project list off and leaving so white people can feel good about themselves and the churches here get ‘stuff.’ The vision is to grow deeper together in a relationship, sharing the love of Christ with each other and to those in the surrounding communities.

I feel like I can say this living here a year, watching and learning the culture, talking with Ghanaians in church leadership and attending church here. We all have to be intentional about loving those outside our walls of the church. We are called to love those who are lonely, hurt and marginalized in society no matter if that’s MS- Tupelo, Benton, Ackerman or in Ghana like Bole, Guniyiri, Tinga… wherever. In some places here, as it is in America, we become focused on the people inside our church instead of remembering those who aren’t.

One of the blessings this week was watching Joel and Jackie talk about why they are here. And how they are branching out to show Christ’s love just building relationships with people. After I interviewed the Bishop for the video I’m making for The Orchard, I realized that them sharing that reason of coming all this way just to love on people really encourages others’ here to do that. I know I’ve thought many times, oh if I come here for a short time and say
‘love others,’ people could say, well look at all the money you have that’s why you can come here and tell us that. But the reality is, people here consider it a great honor that someone would come all that way. Jackie said this this past week and it’s true. Ghanaians bring their best when they meet you. They wear their finest clothes, the cook the best food they have, and truly want to serve you the best way they can. So do we bring our best to them? Do we bring our best clean pure heart of Jesus love to offer? Or do we bring our own motives whatever those might be? We’re not perfect and no one here on earth is, but do we bring the best we can?

I have to say how much it pleased me to see the Hawkins look at this trip in a relationship building way and not something to just check off the list to say “ check…gone to another country to tell people the way to do ‘it’.” I’m excited to see what’s next for The Orchard in this partnership.

For more about the trip visit Joel and Jackie’s blog at www.tingabolemission.blogspot.com.

long time.

2007-05-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

too long. wow since i began the world of blogging i don't think i've gone four weeks without posting. everyday for the past two weeks i have the thought, "i should blog today" and somehow i don't. so it's 11:05pm Ghana time and i should be in the bed becuase i'm tired, but it's just about to get crazier around here and i won't have too much time if i don't just carve it out.

so many things have happened this month, hence the reason i haven't updated my blog. if you are an avid margaret blog reader...which i'm SURE you all are :) you'll remember when i first moved here i didn't have any 'work' persay to do in the video side of ministry. which was good. it was a stretching and breaking time for me realizing what we 'do' doesn't define us. fast forward 8 months and i've had four videos to finish in the past two weeks. however, being i've never been so thankful to be busy and i've never saught the Holy Spirit to fill me as i do now. i've really enjoyed this past year of getting more in depth in the production of videos and it's been such a blessing for me to see missionaries watch a piece of their world come together in five minutes. however, that's just it...it's five minutes of highlighting day in and day out life. i'm finding how difficult it is to capture reality in five minutes and not put too much subjective spin on it that i'm merely making a commercial to buy something instead of seeing a truth that one might want to wrestle with and possibly believe and support. I have had an intern working with me for about two months now, Ari. She's really quick and has a heart for videography and learning. It's funny for me to say i have an intern since i'm pounding away at learning Final Cut Pro, but i'm seeing how God lined up my degree in broadcasting even before i really lived my life for him and how those skills He's now glorifying!

The other really exciting tidbit... there is a short term team coming from my home church, The Orchard, this Wednesday. We are developing a realtionship with a couple villages in the North West part of Ghana called Bole and Tinga. Joel, Jackie and Jackson arrive on Wednesday so pray for their travel and their time here. I firmly believe God does a huge work in people's hearts during short term trips and that is transported and transferred in so many ways back in people's home culture. While Jackie, Joel and Jackson are here we're going to do some fun stuff and they're going to get a glimpse into my life and then we're headed up north but I'm praying this will be a stretching/breaking/filling time for all of them!

I've also posted some new pics. One thing I did this month was head up north to get some footage a video I finished for Mary Kay Jackson, one of our missionaries. During this trip I had we'll say....'a really bad tummy'. I had gotten food posioning the Sunday before we left that Wednesday and by Friday we were pulling over in the bush so i could 'go' J Did i really just share that with the whole world?

end of april.

2007-05-01T01:39:00.000-07:00

This past week has been good getting back into daily grinds after our Volta trip. The thing about Ghana is that something always needs to be fixed and this week was no different. There are times when this gets on my last nerve and I get very frustrated to the point, well maybe I shouldn’t express as to what point…But surprisingly this week’s problems didn’t unnerve me. Does that mean I’m making cross-cultural living progress? We ran out of water this week. That’s not uncommon right now for most people. With our crisis of water in Lake Volta Dam they are doing electricity load shedding as well as water load shedding. We ended up buying some water and according to our ‘water guys’ with the lack of water in the dam there’s not enough to go around so unless you buy some from another nearby water source, you could go months without water flowing in your area. Thankfully we are able to purchase water, but most aren’t. However after we got water and filled out tanks the next day mysteriously we had lost over 6,000 gallons? Enter in the fact there’s always something to be fixed here! Sammy, our plumber came over and literally chiseled away the concrete to one of the pipes and replaced a valve that was causing the water to be pumped back out into the water main line out underneath the streets...oh I hope somebody received all that water and it wasn’t lost…!

The rest of the week was good. I finished another video project (thankfully I got one port on my hard drive to work), ordered a new hard drive since the ports on mine have blown out, went to a film festival showing a Ghanaian film entitled “Witches in Exile” (don’t forget I live in Accra…big city with embassy’s and it was The Environmental Film Festival) and then Sunday night came possibly the worst I have ever felt in my whole life. I will now talk about throwing up…so if that grosses you out…stop reading!

Sunday night a friend celebrated her 24th birthday so we went out to eat actually at a very American restuaraunt called Champs. I ordered a chicken burger and thought it was pretty good, it tasted a little ‘different’ but not too bad…Then we got in the car to leave and my friend had to pull over because I felt really sick so I threw up! I did. A lot. Then I felt better and she dropped me off where my car was and I headed home. Once I arrived at my house I got extremely nauseas again and then it started. From 1am to around 7am Monday morning I threw up five times. Then I started getting chills and my fever spiked to 101 so I read my trusty “Where there is No Doctor” book and I had every symptom of … Malaria. There’s something about living in Ghana, maybe even Aftica as a whole, that when you get fever…you automatically think “it’s got to be malaria, I just know it.” Of course I’m reading the book and all the sudden I have every symptom for cholera, meningitis, malaria, typhoid… this is why I could never study medicine I would think I had every thing. Anyway- I went to have my blood tested and thankfully … NO malaria, however this wasn’t without a call to my dad 6am his time to simply ‘let them know’ I was sick! I’m such a baby!! But now I’m back to the land of living. Yesterday I slept more than I think should be humanly possible and today I feel good! I’m very thankful.

Wednesday we’re leaving to go North. I’m going to work on the water video project with Mary Kay, but the trip is for Jim Ramsay, our Director of Field Ministries from home office, to see the Ghana field and all the missionaries’ locations/lives and ministries! I’ll update more when we return.

volta trip.

2007-04-23T02:32:00.000-07:00

The Volta Region is gorgeous and our time traveling was interesting, exhausting and exhilarating! Leigh and I made really good travel partners as we had a skeleton plan and were both not taken a back when the plans changed due to waiting for trotro’s or anything that would make the trip’s timeline go out of whack…it was nice.

Probably my favorite part of the whole trip was riding public transport the entire time. You just meet so many interesting people. Well and some who like to drool on you…that’s actually not so much fun! You’re asking, “so did that really happen?” oh yes.

On our leg coming home Leigh was sitting by an incredibly drunk man who wouldn’t stop asking her to marry him. She’s very polite and kept saying “you don’t know me,” but he wasn’t getting the picture. At that time there were three people sitting on the back row of the trotro including drunk guy, Leigh and another small boy. There really wasn’t a lot of room, but then we picked up five more passengers to make an 11-passenger van actually seat 20 however, that’s normal here. So I scooted on back and plopped myself between Leigh and said guy. I wasn’t very nice because he was being so crude to my friend and then he started spitting out the window and I was just praying God please don’t let him throw up on me. I actually prayed that when he missed the window and spat on his arm. So I’m riding along and about 10 minutes later with guys’ head bobbling up and down at every bump because he’s apparently passed out I have a wad of saliva hit my arm. I’m talking about enough to fill a cup. Sorry I know that’s gross, but imagine it on your arm! As I’m wiping it off I made a very Ghanaian grunt, it sounds like this (eeeeeeeeeeyyyyyy) short and loud. When all 20 people in our 11 seater van turned around to see the obroni freaking out over some spit I decided maybe I should laugh, but not without telling the young man he needed to stop drinking so much because he didn’t even know what he was doing. And then honestly God softened my heart towards this guy. For some really sad reason he was drunk that early in the day. I don’t know why but even having him spit on my made me more compassionate for him somehow. Don’t ask it’s just one of those God things… Anyway all this to say it was an interesting ride.

I would say throughout this trip God strategically put people in our paths to help guide us around, give us great information of what trotro to take where and most of all interesting people hiking and budget traveling like us. We met several people doing great work in Ghana either via ngo’s or volunteer programs. We met several people that asked us what we ‘are doing’ in Ghana as from the west that’s usually our first question to each other. Once we explained we were here trying to live out a life with Christ in the center and said that stereotype bringing word ‘missionary’ we had responses such as “oh I didn’t know those still existed,” or “yeah I don’t believe in God.” So it was exciting to get to know them better and hear more about their thoughts of this ‘Godless world.’

But I would say above all else seeing the Ghana countryside was amazing. It’s so beautiful in the Volta Region. Green luscious plants everywhere and rolling hills with waterfalls. You just can’t beat being in the majestic mountains seeing so many different shades and echoes of the Most Creative.

week of easter!

2007-04-09T09:12:00.000-07:00

This past week leading up to Easter was so much fun. Besides working during the day on the Short Term Team video from a group of people who served up in Lake Bosomtwi with the Jernigans I hung out with some great friends I've made in Ghana! There is a group of us who have started getting together hanging out, playing games and experiencing culture together. This past week we went to this Gospel singing together, played dominos one night and went and watched a movie another night...it was great fun this week to fellowship together!!!

this is a guy named tim. cool God story he's from philadelphia and can sing ghanaian songs in twi and ga...i've been here 9 months and don't know all the words...he's studied the songs for two months and sings them amazingly.

this is a group of friends who all went to see tim lead worship. it was a great time.

rain rain rain! this week we had two days of rain!!! it's been so long since i've played in the rain...so i had to make sure i was still young :)

easter.

2007-04-09T01:56:00.000-07:00

Why did Jesus have to come to Earth, be crucified and be raised from the dead? I love Jesus and I am still a question asker to the most central belief as a Christian. I don’t believe this is an easy answer. If so everyone in the world would believe in Jesus.

This past Sunday, Easter Sunday, I was asked to speak at a Children’s Home called Kinder Paradise. It’s an orphanage about an hour from my house. It probably would have been a little closer if I hadn’t had to turn around three times, but that’s a different story.

So Gifty, Francesca and her mother Gabriella (Francesca works with the UN and is an Italian friend I have met through another expat friend here) ventured off never having gone to this orphanage before and honestly I didn’t have any expectations whatsoever.

I spent a great deal of time with the Lord this past week in preparation, which always happens when I’m asked to speak. See I get so nervous to say what God wants me to say and challenged for why I believe what I do, that it makes me spend so much time in prayer and studying. It’s wonderful to teach you learn so much! That’s when God revealed to me that we were going to talk about why He sent his son. Very fitting for this weekend.

Call me a cynical but, in the Christian faith there are a few phrases that repeated several times with no real expression can become ‘insignificant’ particularly during Easter Sunday. Try “He has Risen Praise God He has Risen," “He’s Alive,” or “Jesus’ blood paid the price for our Sins.” I have grown up in church my whole life and sometimes when people would say this, probably me too, I would think yeah yeah yeah I’ve heard that before…But since I’ve given my life back to God to do what He leads me to do, I have prayed that these words would sink down into the depths of my heart. That they wouldn’t be something that I just say but words that are alive and exciting in their truth.

Studying this week helped me remember you can’t talk about Jesus’ death without talking about his resurrection. He is Alive. We have hope in more than just this life there is more to come, but what about living our walk out while we're here...what does that look like? I am now a new person. Five years ago, on the floor of my apartment in Florida, crying uncontrollably after having my heart broken by a human I cried to God if he was real to please let me know Him. My whole life spent ‘saying’ the right things, growing up in church, surrounded by Christianity and I never got It or really wanted It until that night November 27, 2002. So when I say HE IS ALIVE I mean to say, as I look at who I was and the things I did before I knew Jesus I am in awe how God changes self consumed hearts and how what we have done was nailed to the cross with Jesus so that we are new creations. When I say Jesus’ BLOOD PAID THE PRICE I mean for you to hear that yes I believe that Jesus was sent to go through an excruciating and bloody beating and died for reasons I don’t fully understand but can see fruits of the Spirit being produced in my life and lives of others. I want you to hear there’s so much more to being a Christian than growing up in the Bible Belt learning what you should and shouldn’t do to be a ‘good Christian.’ I mean for you to hear that through Jesus’ death and resurrection we have purpose in our lives to live for this ‘invisible Father’ and we can break free from things we don’t want to do anymore. When I say HE HAS RISEN PRAISE GOD HE HAS RISEN I want you to hear WOW there is more in this world than just me. There are other people suffering too and Something…Someone… cares about this and HE is making it right even when it doesn’t look like it. There’s more hope than in what we see and read in the media. There’s beauty that surrounds us everyday if we just open our eyes to see. Science, engineering, humanitarian relief, struggles, addictions, success, death, disease, promotions, relationships………….. He knows EVERYTHING.

Why did Jesus come, die and live? How about... relationship... this is what we talked about at the orphanage yesterday.

There were kids probably from around 2/3 years old up to I think 15/16. I had borrowed a demonstration asking three people questions wherein if they failed one question the forfeited and had to pay a price. But we didn’t tell them what the ‘price’ was until after the questions. The point hopefully got across about someone having to pay a penalty for those who didn’t answer every question right, who didn’t do everything perfect. But in the end the one who took the whip cream to the face gave the three question answers their prizes without taking any prize for himself.

It was a great time hanging out with those beautiful children. Words really can’t explain.

western world. london.

2007-04-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure all those people you see behind me are doing the exact same thing as me...such good little tourists we are! Oh and yes...i asked some random to take my picture...I don't have shame standing alone :).

I wrote a great blog the day after I returned from London, but mistake number one, I wrote it directly in the stinkin’ blog window instead of Word…. and welcome home to Ghana…the internet went out and erased the post. You know once you’ve had thoughts and penned them, or shall we say, typed them you can’t duplicate it … it just doesn’t ever come out the same!

So instead I will tell you that my trip to London was fantastic. Full of surprises. Just the way God works with me. You never know what’s coming next I LOVE it. I made a friend in the Accra airport heading to London so we chatted and she gave me her number and said if I wanted to go to church, ‘drop me a line.’ (say that in a British accent!)

I don’t know if she thought I would really call, but I did. I arrived in London on Saturday morning the 17th around 7am. Was picked up by a taxi. And this was no Ghanaian taxi…this was setup by a friend and was a Mercedes…yes spoiled I am! I do have to say as he was opening the back right hand side door I said, “oh no…I’ll sit up front with you,” to which he gave me a funny look as I opened the right side front door.

Anyway so I took a nap, woke up and walked around the neighborhood. It was a beautiful day around 70 degrees and sunny. Perfect. After shopping at some second hand stores and scoring a great pair of new blue jeans for 5 pounds…I went to the movie theatre. Oh yes, stadium seating, loud surround sound feature film. It was a taste of heaven. Becoming Jane was my pick; I was in London after all! Then I had dinner with Ama’s boyfriend Daniel. Going to London he was the only person I knew, by the time I left God had put several people in my path that I’m sure I will see again someday!

So then I called Grace, the one I met at the airport. I think she was shocked, but seemed excited so I gave her really terrible directions to where I was staying since I didn’t know it well at all, and she picked me up around 11am Sunday morning. We went to her church, not sure what denomination, but when the preacher said after offering, “you won’t be blessed if you coins in the offering plate, only dollar bills.” It made me want to cry. Some of these people don’t have much, we were in South London, a poorer area, and really are trusting the leadership of this ‘preacher.’ I wondered if he had ever heard of the poor widow who gave out of poverty? Then we went over to Grace’s friends house where I had some great conversations with Ghanaians. I walked up and they were a little confused since Grace said she had met me in the Accra airport so they were expecting a Ghanaian. However when I busted out a little Twi…we were laughing and joking and instant friends. It’s amazing how people warm up to you when you try to speak their language…We talked all day till about 7pm about their struggle of leaving Ghana and living in London trying to make ends meet. It was wonderful. I also met and spent the night the next weekend with John and Dorothy. Friends of a friend in Ghana, she gave me their number. I called them; they invited me to dinner and spend the night as they lived in East London. Sunday morning after stopping off at the local flower market and bread store…we worshiped in a small rec building…it was wonderful! John and Dorothy are in their late 70’s I think, so it was fun being spoiled like a granddaughter!

The whole week was full of God stories and my class was fantastic. I learned TONS of information; I’m hoping I will actually have retained some! I just started on a new documentary of a short-term team that came to Lake Bosomtwi for a short-term trip, so we’ll see how it goes!

On a whole it was marvelous to enjoy 10 full days of uninterrupted power, warm almost boiling hot showers, carpet and fast food. Oh yes, I went to London and ate at every fast food restaurant I came too. Well not actually, but almost. I did intake two different meals of MacDonald’s. Now I haven’t eaten Mky D’s in years in the States? I also enjoyed KFC, Pizza Hut and Burger King! I don’t know why, all I can say is that we always want what we don’t have…right.

more london pics on flckr

wednesday night procrastination.

2007-03-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

I should be packing or working, but I'm not. I would just like to say I smell myself. If that doesn't make you want to read more... I don't know what will! I've been to language class today, worked in my hot room and went to the market. I need a shower! Actually we have what we call 'the contest' in our household. Originally it was designed because we were having EXTREME water problems and were being very frugal. So the one who went the longest without showering "won." I'm not telling when I "won" last.

This week has flown by. I am leaving for London Friday to take a course for editing software. I hope it's a good course, because it's expensive and London itself isn't cheap.

As i completed the Mozley's ministry documentary I wanted imovie (the current software program I'm using) to do things it wouldn't do and I know final cut pro can do it, I just don't know how to make it do what I want it to do.. So we'll see. I didn't know about going at first because it's before I've lived in my host country a year, and from others' experience living cross culturally it's not good to leave within the first year. However the doors kept opening and I think this is where I'm supposed to go.

Sometimes in conversation with Daddy I don't hear his voice clearly. Maybe it's because I don't want to, maybe I'm talking too much or maybe He's letting me make a decision to let me walk it out and learn. I do know that He woke me up Sunday night and put some stuff on my heart to be praying about.

I'm studying Daniel right now from a Beth Moore bible study. We're talking about Babylon as a mentality. What are our idols that we spend too much time and energy worshiping? TV, magazines, movies, pampering ourselves, books, thinking good or bad of ourselves and focusinig too much on 'me"...the list goes on and on. It's easy in our culture, and even though I don't live in America right now I'm still American at the core and battle that desire of self indulgence. I think it's taught to us from birth and the older we get the more our school and career say, "it's about me getting to the top." But Daniel stood apart. He didn't even give in when the head hauncho of the day was pressuring him. How do we stand apart, yet love others in a non condescending way? I'm really praying about this as I am going to visit an area of London full of "me" babylon mentalities. I have to admit I'm guilty of self indulging gratification just as much as the next human...that's when I say thank you God for continuining to change my heart. beautiful grace.

Ghana @ 50

2007-03-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

Last week was Ghana's 50 year independence celebration...aka...Ghana @50 Golden Jubilee. You have to check out Tatum's blog, the Buchele's and Loreli and John Marks blog for their pictures. It's true... the atmosphere was crazier than an SEC football game. There's just no way to caputre the sounds of people yelling GHANA out of cars, on bicycles, on foot, out of trees, on top of cars, out of buses and trotros. There's no way to describe the amazement you stand in when you realize, as you look down at your clothes, the amount of sweat you've prespired and those who have prespired on to you.

The day was wonderful. Ghana is generally known for its hospitality. When I think about the fact that not one single person was rude to any of us 'white' people it reiterates the kindness of the most the people in this country. I actually had the thought someone might say to me, "Hey you're celebrating an independence of colonization, you're white...you're a cause for the need for independence." Nope, not one person said that. Just another reason why this country's people are so great and forgiving.

So here's some of my pics. I highly recommend going to Tatum's and JM and Loreli's blog for more details...why rewrite when they've done such and excellent job of capturing the story!

Also- if you want to take a look at Ghanas' 50 year celebration plans check out http://www.ghana50.gov.gh

lake pics. more on flickr.

2007-02-22T03:24:00.000-08:00

the lake lessons

2007-02-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

well i'm back from the Lake and two days later i still don't know what to write about. you know how you go on a trip and people ask, "how was it?" and then you say, "oh it was GREAT" so much happened and you don't know where to begin??? anbody feeling me? my trip was great, why? several reasons including: i got to get to know the jernigan's better. they have lucas, 5, and luisa, almost 2. it was fun playing with them especially when louisa started calling me marmar, which is what my nephew says. it was bonding to spend to time with ju and andrew and start to really unpack their hearts for ministry. check out their blog (linked to the right under jernigans) let me get side tracked for a moment... thanks for all the prayers driving. we made it safe, only after being pulled over three times? i think that's right. and having to 'negotiate' with the crooked police officer. this is a bone of contention for me. they literally have you in a tough spot. i know better than to give them my real license when they pull you over because then they will demand more money, at least that's what i've been told, so i made a copy. but then they want your insurance or something so that you will have to pay them in order to get your paper work back. since i was in claire's car i really didn't want her insurance card to be taken. anyway- 15 minutes later and more money given to her than what someone who does an honest day of labor would make in a month, we're on our way. ok next topic. back to the reasons why this past week were amazing. not only getting to fellowship with the jernigans and steve buchele ( he rode up with gifty and me....checkout his blog through andrews blog...i don't have him linked yet) but we also got to fellowship with the short term team in from alabama. it's such a blessing to have people come visit. i now it's expensive and that money would go a long way not spent on plane tickets, but you just never know what God does in and through people coming and the ones who live here. i worked all week capturing footage to tell two stories. one about the jernigans' call to Lake Bosomtwi and the way God was working in and through the group from Sylacauga, ALABAMA. so fellowship was amazing listening to steve sing and play acoustic guitar and prepare questions for our minds to start thinking. as i am retrospecting i learned something amazing this week. for me getting to film is a blessing, and this week God revealed through several different people that caputring people's hope and their souls is It. in this season that is what i want to try and do. i think i knew this, surely, but it hit me hard this past week. i do want to take aethestically pleasing shots whether still or video, but capturing the true identitiy of people is hard and i think that's where God comes in. this is His media, His camera, His stories so it's interesting to see how He glorifies it. there was a specific moment when my paradigm shifted this week from just getting 'the shot' to capturing truth. i'm so thankful because it takes something i'm already passionate about and intensifies it. this past week i enjoyed talking and just stiiting with ghanians more than i have the past 8 months. tyring to learn twi and speaking it so badly that you just laugh together as they try to understand me and me them i started realizing God is giving me more and more a heart for Ghanaians. isn't that true of wherever our Jeruselam is? where God has us day in and day out, He is the one who gives us the capabliity to love. even crooked police officers! God gave me more of a desire this week than ever before to just love. when you take one person's picture here, they inevitably want more more more. so it's a great opportunity to smile and love on children, as long as they don't start beeting each other trying to be the one in front of the camera. i just think God is opening my eyes to this media more than i've ever imagined. in undergrad broadcasting courses i took a communication law class and ethics to understand the importance of telling the true story, but the truth becomes so much more powerful when you continue a journey with The Truth.

leaving for the lake

2007-02-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

it's 6:02am and i seriously could call home and somebody would probably be up on friday night, yet i just woke up on saturday morning isn't that neat. anyway. i'm leaving this am to go to lake bosumtwe near kumasi in the asante region. when God reminds you and you think about it please pray from feb. 10-19th for the jernigan's, our time together as we film for their overview ministry documentary and their short term team coming in that i'll be doing videography with. that was a confusing sentence, but it's too early to go back and retype. i'm not generally a wake up at 5:30am kind of girl! i won't have internet access until i'm home so i'll update you then!

love to all-margaret

new look and camping

2007-02-09T02:18:00.001-08:00

i decided to give my blog a new look. to me it seemed the black background was hard to look at...started making me see lines! and I just added my friends Jimmy and Stefanie (the nances) to the links section. visit their page. they have great sayings listed people say here in Ghana.

now for the camping title. last night was our lights out night and it is so hot inside our house. gifty came up with a great idea. the breeze was blowing and it was pretty cool outside, so we decided to 'camp' in our driveway. you remember moldy bed? well he's still hanging around outside leaned up against the wall with no where to go and with dry season here...it's not so moldy. so we got him down and dusted him off. we put a mattress on top and moved it out to where the breeze was blowing and slept outside. it was GREAT. lyle if you read this, you will be proud. no tent, no netting. just a hard mattress and the cool night air. we lit a mosquito coil and only once was i awoken by the annoying buzz of two mosquitos having a fight around my head. i didn't get one bite, and i had a pretty nice amount of sleep. i think we'll probably do that again! although i'm wondering for people who pass by if they were thinking..."is that a white ... girl ... sleeping outside?" YES!

games

2007-02-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

watching the ghana vs. nigeria football game and it's exciting. it's been 15 years since ghana beat them....we'll see how it turns out!!!

121

2007-02-05T15:58:00.000-08:00

i think this is interesting. on my flickr page most of the photos have been viewed maybe 20, 30 or so times. but the picture with me holding a chicken has been viewed 121 times. i wonder why? that's crazy to me. :) i'm going to see what other animal i can find to hold next!

random thoughts

2007-02-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

Why is it as humans we are always looking forward to the next “something?” I am living out a passion of doing videography in another country for God and yet there’s a part of me that wants more. Why? I think it’s the un-content human heart.

God blesses us over and over and yet we still want more. I used to read about the Israelites complaining in the desert after God provided over and over and think, “How could you not see He was taking care of you.” Yet part of my heart has israelitis.

When in a state of question asking to Daddy, I wonder is it really to glorify God or are we really saying God “make me feel validated.”

I desire a heart that is truly content. I desire a Paul heart where no matter the circumstance I can sing.

I know my God is amazing. Tonight is a great night, even though my heart is a little heavy with burdens in which I should let go. I want to know that I’m known by God, which I think would help to me to know that not to be known fully by humans is ok. Confused?

m!

low down.

2007-01-31T06:29:00.001-08:00

i'm so glad gifty is back home! she traveled to see her family last week and i was all by myself :). well me and tiger (that's our dog...who's not too smart......bless his heart...i'm southern i can say that!)

monday gifty found out she is typhoid free! hallelujah!!! and the really cool part is that the doctors were amazed because there was no trace of typhoid at all! she just told them, "well the whole world was praying," so the doctor agreed it was a miracle!

monday night i took gifty out to dinner to celebrate. we had chicken and rice :) the usual around here it was a nice treat since our lights were out. we didn't know if our generator would work because...(kirk and nicole if you're reading this don't freak out because we got it fixed :) when i cranked it the other day it fell off the blocks it was sitting on. sure happened to me. oh well. i called our electrician and now they're pouring a slab and bolting that thing to the ground. ... no more slipping now! haha.

tuesday morning i was invited by the jacksons to the inagural meeting of the Maringa Tree Organization at our Methodist Headquarters. It was interesting this tree packs more nutrients than one could imagine. so the MCG, methodist church ghana, is promoting it because it will help nutrition hopefully, especially in rural areas. tuesday night we had the bible club leaders over and it was fun. lots of laughing and joking some good fellowship last night. but here's what's been going on at my house today...

Batik and Tye and Dye. that's what gifty was trained in as a profession. so felix and leford, two of the bible club leaders, came over today to help out. they have been working non stop and have come up with some pretty creative designs. if you want to purchase some of gifty's stuff...give me a shout! check out flickr for pics!

margaret

2007-01-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

i have started about five blogs since last week and published none. i have millions of thoughts going through my head yet i can't seem to sit down long enough to thoroughly work them out onto paper or blogger that is. the sims left this past tuesday for america so it's been gifty and me except now she's in kumasi until monday. so even with being quite i still can't seem to find time to get these out :)

on thursday the 11th i talked to my friends joel and robbyn about a short term team coming in june. my home church wants to start a partnership in ghana so i'm helping assist in some avenues to start forming a relationship that will sustain even after i'm gone. it was such a great conversation. i love knowing the hearts of people who have a similar passion and vision for ministry.

i have started to realize most of my culture shock right now is dealing with the fact that the way i see ministry, creative and outside of the box, causes a sort of anxiousness inside me when i'm working with community bible club. coming from the states i've realized i expect ciricculum to meet a standard so we are charting a path for these children to be working towards. i realize and have been trained to realize the way american ministry and ghanaian ministry is done isn't going to be the same, and i know the heart of a learner and try to exhibit it. but i think we've set a less than high expectation in america for children's ministry by 'gaming' them to death instead of using games to reinforce an overall truth that needs to be communicated and taught. i see that here too and that's where i start to get frustrated. i think that when there's downtime it should be constructive and is a great way to teach the children something either by drama, game, story or a lesson. is that american? i just don't like wasting time. i know that's an american culturalism and i'm starting to unpack those feelings of culture shock. for me it's not food, smells or people urinating constantly and anywhere. it's not the live chickens, goats and cows that you meet in the road constantly. it's not driving a standard in traffic that takes an hour anywhere you want to go. it's not buying things in the market or wearing ghanaian clothes. none of these really send me into culture shock. it's the realization that the leaders here don't neccesarily need my thoughts and opinions right now. so my prayer is continuing to be 'stay in'. no one said this will be an easy road to travel down. i don't know the language fluently so i've got a lot to be working on in that arena if i'm going to want my thoughts to be heard. not that the leaders aren't great friendly people. don't hear me wrong. but i've got to gain Jesus's strength to want to continue to learn how to minister to people here because at this point i just want to do it my way.

we went to the retreat thursday thru satruday (last week) and then sunday morning 7am i flew to kumasi. this was such a blessing. i am doing a documentary for Joe Otsin. he's an evangelist in Methodist Church Ghana and also works with Cecil Williamson ministries (yes cecil from starkville, ms if you know him!...small wolrd) so i'm doing this video to help communicate his vision/passion and how God's been working through him. i stayed with his family one night and another ghanaian family the next night. i went with him to a training he leads and during that time i startd to see ghanaian men interacting in a way that was familiar to friends in the states. the training has three leaders and one of them is from accra, where i live, about six hours away. Emmanuel and Joe are friends and it was neat to see them working together in ministry yet the live hours away. it's just like home when you get to work with someone that you haven't seen in so long, but your hearts are beating with the same passion. it was so encouarging to see them working as a team. i just have to say that time was sweet and a blessing.

one more side note. the women's retreat in the mountains...first off the place was such a gift from God. it was georgous and none of us could believe where we were staying. the house faced south with a pool overlooking the landscape for miles however with harmatan we could only see about 100 yards in front of us, but we all got the picture of how majestic it could have been if the sky was clear. so that just set the tone for the weekend. for me it was full of introspective thoughts and God bringing to light many things. one part about Daddy i love is He never stops redeeming his children. he never stops coming after us to make us more pure. He and i are dealing with issues that i've never dealt with and really never knew i needed to deal with until He made them known. it's great. i've realized what great friends i have in tupelo too. (there's a point to that seemingly random interjecting among a women's retreat in ghana...) God strategically put me there after florida so i could learn and be thankful for the people he put in my life. i have met some great people here too, but there are girls in tupelo that in their presence i'm plain and simple.... comfortable. i've realized what a great comfort it is to be known by people and not have to show people and teach them who you are. that happens when you move somewhere new. you start over and you get to know people. i've done that my whole life since my dad is a preacher and i was relocated with cellular south three times. moving isn't something that scares me for the most part i enjoy it. but i am realizing i think part of why God brought those tupelo girls in my life was to show me how authentic He wants me to be with HIm because in the exhuastiveness of making new friends He is our one true personality and struggles Understander. i've got great friends here, but we're just scratching the surface of who each other really is. i'm learning how to really be in His presence constantly. it's harder to do when you're doing 'good.'

i do have to give a kudos to tonya and deirdra. they're the two ladies who led the retreat. tonya speaker/drumming artista! and deirdra on vocals and acoustic!!! they were great and encouraging. it's neat to see how God uses all of our gifts to lift each other up and that's totally what they did while they were here!

there's some of my million thoughts. not totally unpacked but there's the gist! love to all

just an update

2007-01-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

let's see. it's thursday afternoon and i'm blogging because i won't be here monday. (like i've been really consistent posting every monday for the last month anyway! ha!...maybe that will be my new year's resolution...wait...i hate new year's resolutions...so ....well anyway...)

i'm leaving around six tonight and traveling to the mountains with some other singles and we are having our first annual women's retreat. kind of sounds like a john eldridge man thing now that i write it!

but there's two really neat girls here from virginia. one's the student minister on campus at richmond va and the other is the worship leader. so they've agreed to lead us in some spiritual renewal talks and just some great fellowship time. i'm really excited about the trip. i was actually going to be our driver but the mozley's decided we needed a ghanaian driver. which is probably better considering we have to climb a nice size mountain in the dark!

this week has been great. i've started listening to a new podcast from the Village church out of texas. matt chandler is the preacher and he's really great. i started reading ecclesiastes and told my friend pat. he is listening to this matt guy and said that the church just did a 16 week study on ecc. so here i am listening to it cause pat told me about it! i have learned lots these past six months about different seasons of life and how without God as our motivator and reason we 'do' things then it really everything is worthless under the sun. matt, like i'm on first name basis with him!, really walks through each verse and compares what Solomon is allowing himself to experience and relates it to things we do as humans now. it's amazing how cliche this will sound...but it's undescribably amazing being in a study. i'm really praying about some sort of weekly small group bible study time as i've noticed that i am not vigorous and deeping as much as i would like to be therefore i tend to get more self focused easier...does that make sense?

as for this week and this season of my life i'm starting to get busy with projects. it's nice honestly. i have several documentaries i'm working on and i get home saturday from the women's retreat to leave sunday for kumasi to work with a methodist ghanaian pastor up there.

did i mention i've gotten to webcam with pat, sarah and lyle...also with my mom and sister this week...it's been fun! my parents just upgraded their camper and they took me on a tour of it...as well as sarah and pat showed me their whole house with wireless...technology is an amazing gift!

the sims are leaving for furlough next tuesday so i'll get home just in time to see them off around 6:30pm. they have lots of logisitics to work out and will be VERY busy the first 1 and 1/2 when they return back to the states...so lift them up to Daddy to care of them please :)

i guess that sums up this weeks thoughts thus far!

Christmas and New Years. Ghana style.

2007-01-07T15:13:00.001-08:00

Well I have to say Christmas was great. We killed a chicken Christmas morning. Actually Gifty killed it. I simply held it for 5 minutes thinking about how it was about to die. Is that kind of sick sounding? First time for me to hold a live chicken and to watch one get killed.

So we woke up and gave bruni, presents to Ghanaians basically, to our next-door neighbor Mathew. He has chickens so we bought one from him to cook for Christmas dinner that afternoon.

So we did. Gifty is really good. You can tell she’s grown up in Northern Ghana where that’s a regular occurrence. Not one sound did that chicken make as it was being slaughtered. Aidan and Eli were engrossed to watch how it was going to unfold. Then Aidan got really sad after it was dead. Me too. I could barely eat any of it. I’m a weenie.

So then the SWEET Mozley’s had brought presents to us that morning and I went over to their house and got on line to skype with my family. It was good to see them via webcam. I got to watch them open presents. Thankful.

That week I spent going around and giving out banana bread muffins I had made. It was fun and next year I think maybe I’ll get more into the giving out before Christmas is so close. You give all the Ghanaians you’re close to bruni and even those that you don’t know will ask “where’s my bruni” so you always have something ready or in your car. Amazing.

Then on December 30 I went to Dansoman. A densely populated area west of central Accra. That’s where Ama, my language teacher lives. I went and spent Saturday night with her at her two-bedroom apartment building she shares with her two cousins. There’s one bed and they always let her have it when she’s home from school. So we “perched” together as she calls it. It made our rooms in the states look like 7 star hotel suites. But we had a BLAST. I met her childhood friends, mostly boys, who look at her like a little sister to protect. We went uninvited to a baby’s birthing party. The parents had seven huge speakers and a dj hosting an outdoor party to celebrate the baby’s birth. Everyone’s invited, even if you don’t know the people. So I show up. The only obruni of course. But it was great. She let me into her life and people she loves it was great. I met her boyfriend that is in from the UK and we went to a bar that was so loud I could barely hear. He was asking me all kinds of questions about being a ‘missionary’ and said, “I’ve never really met one face to face…live before.” It made me laugh. For many reasons. Mostly because I think how far God has brought me and the fact that He redeems people with ‘pasts’ all the time. So I’m definitely nothing to think too special off… so it made me laugh the way he put it. I think he’s kind of been burned by the organized British influenced ‘Christianity’ that still has many remnants so our conversation was interesting. Then Ama and I went to church Sunday morning and it was a non denominational church….I’m glad she goes there… the Spirit among the people there was alive! And not once did we sing a boring British hymn from the 1800’s that no one really understands. (Sorry can you tell it annoys me that the Methodist church I go to does this?)

New Years was great. I didn’t go to watch night, which is where most ALL Ghanaians spend time in prayer welcoming the New Year in with Jesus at church. (then at 12:30am lots of the the young people head straight out to party until wee hours!) interesting.

I decided to stay at the Mozley’s house and celebrate it semi-American. That means we had a ping pong tournament at 80+ degrees in December and shot fireworks at midnight. It was fun with the whole Down’s family there and Ryan! Man was it great to get to know them. It was a blessing because they are southern people that remind me a lot of my fam. They let you just fit right in with them. Ms. Pam, Tates’ mom, reminds me of my sweet momma who feels like a mom to everyone. Then her two sisters Annie and Sally were a blast to hang out with. Annie and I jumped right into a heart to heart and I just felt like I had known her for years. After new years’ they invited me to go to the beach with their family and the Mozley’s, which was a BLAST. It wasn’t sunny at all, but we hung out, watched movies and played an awesome new game (for me) called Mafia! It was great obruni time J Sal, Ryan, Anna and I looked out into the ocean and sang songs for about an hour one night just praising Jesus. It was awesome. And it was a blessing.

The next two months are going to be really busy and I’m thankful. I went through a really tough season when I first got here of not having a structured job and waking up early early because I felt like I wasn’t “doing” enough. So as things start to pick up I’m thankful but at the same time want to make sure and remain in a place that I’m fully aware what I do doesn’t define me. And to always seek praise and validation from God first.

I think right now I’m learning how to listen. I sat in my car about a week ago and for the first time in a long time I said You talk. I’ll listen. That honestly usually doesn’t happen because I’m the first to start talking.

m

trip north. december 18-22.

2007-01-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

Wow it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. I live in Ghana, where you never know if you’ll have Internet service or not. We haven’t had it for three weeks, but HALLELUJAH we got it back two days ago!

So now I’m catching up.

Week before Christmas. This marks the first year in 27 years I didn’t spend Christmas with my mom, dad and sister. Of course…it’s the first ever not to spend with Brogan my 4-year old nephew.

But I have to say this was a memorable year. So. I went to the North with the Mozley’s to film their “Christmas project” to use on their ministry DVD I am making. This was incredible to get to see the northern pastors faces light up when a. someone came all that way just to visit them and b. when they received a Ghanaian made water filter that will supply them with clean drinking water. It’s amazing too because the water filters through a clay pot and drips into a large plastic container. The clay lasts for three years and can be replaced here in Ghana for a relatively affordable cost of 150,000 cedis or about $15usd.

We blitzed the country from the western most side driving round trip over 800 miles on bumpy dusty roads. Many of which are the “national” highways.

God was amazing during this trip. Traveling with over 30 clay pots on these roads was a little risky. Six broke on the first leg to Kumasi and then Michael came up with a different packing option and only one more broke the rest of the time. We had a flat tire the second day heading to the extreme western side. We had been traveling on this dusty gravel road and hadn’t seen anyone for at least 15 miles when after hearing that sound a flat makes we pulled over. We broke down about 50 feet from a large public transport bus. They had been broken down since 2 a.m. that morning. It was roughly 2ish when we met them.

We have a missionary family serving in Wa, in the upper West, and were headed to stay with them Tuesday night. We had bought around 40-50 bananas as they hadn’t had any for a while and we were taking them a care package.

Once the flat happened many of the men walked the less than 50 ft. over to the car to help change the flat. That’s the amazing thing here. Most everyone in Ghana, with the exception of a few areas, are caring and helpful to strangers. That’s part of the reason I feel so safe.

As they were changing the flat Claire started helping a man whose finger was swollen so big you would have thought it had elephantitis. She cleaned it with the first aid kit while Maggie and Anna helped her. She started telling the people who had gathered around to “help” and watch the obrouni’s that had broken down. There were at least 35-40 people by this time. She mentioned how it wasn’t an accident that we broke down so close to them. Literally there was NOTHING in sight and we hadn’t seen a shop or other people in miles. It was purely God’s timing. Perfect.
There was a young man, a student studying in the South, traveling North to go home and see his family. He spoke the native language as well as impeccable English.

After Michael and the Ghanaians finished changing the flat the walked over to where Claire and the group was standing.

There were probably several different religions represented including Islam and traditional/animistic indigenous worshipers, as that is very prevalent in the North. Michael started sharing about Jesus and Christmas. It was a great message. Just on the hillside talking about God’s love and what that looked like in Jesus.

When we left we gave the bananas to them. It probably was right around the number of people who were there. Remember they hadn’t eaten at least since 2 am. Isn’t it amazing His plan?

Then we traveled some more and dropped off several water filters and “provisions.” Provisions are things like rice, oil and tomato paste. That is the basic to almost every Ghanaian dish….throw in some onion and ginger….and you can make millions of things!

God really let me see how harsh the climate is up there. How much different it is than Accra. It’s good because it reminds me to pray for the missionaries who live and work in those hard areas.

We had one more flat the next day and then by Thursday we were headed on our last leg home. We were in the upper East when the timing belt snapped. It was amazing that we weren’t stranded far out of town, and the Methodist Bishop of that area did everything possible to have people come and help us. Friday morning we woke up and the car wasn’t going to be able to be prepared so Michael checked the airlines and on the Friday before Christmas we were able to get six tickets back to Accra. You would be amazed at how many people actually fly in Ghana. Remember it’s a developing country. There are people here who have money.

Anyway so we came home early, but what a great trip it was. I got to know the Mozley’s even better especially Mags and luke. I am amazed at how He uses us in so many ways and thankful for the opportunity to break down and see Him in action.

12.5 hours

2006-12-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

12.5 hours is the amount of time we had electricity this week! From Wednesday-Sunday we were sleeping in some rather warm temps and enjoying the non breezy hot African air! Thankfully our 'juice" as Aidan calls it came back on tonight. However I'm spending the night at the Mozley's....it's there lights out night tonight...so I'm staying again with no fan moving the air at all!!! I know this is hard for you guys at home to picture since it's been cold there :) Which, even though I'm hot and sweaty....I don't miss really cold days at all!!!

This is a short update to let you know this week was great. We started Community Bible Club Saturday and the leaders did a GREAT job! I'm excited to see how God will work through them. We had a good turnout, but there's so many kids in that area, so we have lots of work to do :)

I am traveling up north this week with the Mozleys to film them during their Christmas expidtion. We're taking water filters and some other presents to some preachers up North. They don't get a whole lot and part of what the Mozley's do is encourage the preachers in the hard parts of Ghana! It will be great to capture on tape and I'm excited. We will be gone for a week and travel all the way from West Ghana to East Ghana....seeing places I've never been to!

I'll give a more indepth blog upon my RETURN!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

have a great week
m

december 11

2006-12-13T00:13:00.000-08:00

Monday morning and I’m tired. It’s bad to be tired coming out of the weekend. I think it had to do with the fact that we had lights out Saturday night and I didn’t get much sleep at all. It was HOT. I have realized I love air conditioning. I mean I really love it. I love to wake up and it is cool in the room and you’re underneath the sheets covered in a see of coolness. Ok anyway.

This past week was busy and it looks like it will be that way for the next couple of weeks. The Community Bible Club is kicking off this Saturday at 10am (that’s 4am US time so if you happen to be awake at that time of morning…keep us in your prayers) it should be interesting to see. The Ghanaian leaders here are doing such a great job of working together. Now there are moments when I just want to jump in, get right to the task and do it the American way. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be to try and be incarnational. We just know the way it can be done and inherently when you’ve seen something be successful you want it to be brought up, talked about and used. The idea that is. So it’s harder in actuality to not be demanding and get frustrated when things aren’t going the way you think they should. Thank God He’s big.

The leaders are working on curriculum and have been come up with areas they want to cover for the year. Now it’s putting together those ideas and biblical stories in an organized fashion. Which can I add I have found that pre planning and organization aren’t ‘big deals’ here. Frustrating for a task driven American. But Gifty, Felix, Leford, Mark, Ben and Daniel are really putting in lots of time outside of their busy schedules to try and get this off the ground. We are using Medina Methodist church as a meeting spot and there have been some bumps with not talking to the right people before starting. So we pray to learn from those mistakes!

Now for videos…I’m still working on the Mozley’s video and the Sims video. It’s been hard to get those two projects rolling in the editing room so you can pray for that.

Nicole’s mom and dad left last Thursday and I put together a little picture and video clip reel for them to take home. I have to say watching their faces made my insides light up to see their joy of being able to take home this DVD of their grandbabies and time in Ghana.

I didn’t have language last week, but the time is just flying… like right now it’s 11am and I feel like the day just started, but in reality it’s flying!

Here’s a cool God story. Last week Michael called me and said there was a videographer/documentary guy working up at the school Michael’s attending. So Michael mentioned me and said what I was doing here, and I think I’m going to go work with him tomorrow in Accra. That will be an adventure to see how the ‘professionals’ do it!

So let me tell you about yesterday. Sunday at Medina Methodist West and it was Harvest day. Now harvest is a day that Ghanaians spend about 5 hours in church. Sunday school, regular church and then harvest ceremony. It’s intended to be a fundraising event for ‘church projects.’ This is an area that is extremely hard for me to swallow because there is someone in the front of the church calling out amounts of money and then if you are going to give that much, you walk down front and put it in the offering. Now this just goes against the American cultural grain in the first place of tithing and how nobody knows what we give because we keep that confidential. I know that’s cultural and can understand why that part gets on my nerves. But it can be a breeding ground for those who have more money to be recognized in a way that makes someone else’s offering that might be less money look ‘that of something less.’ And so I wonder if it’s biblically wrong?

I asked Gifty about her thoughts on harvest and she said, “Sometimes is makes people seem like they have more power since they have money.” And through other conversations it seems like there could be the thought that one is more blessed because they have money. But what about the widowers offering. That which comes from the heart and isn’t a large financial amount.

So yesterday we gave our envelopes anonymously. I had decided to give a certain amount and then when I got to church I asked Nicole how much she was giving. I knew in my heart this had to be a me and God thing. I had to be comfortable what I was giving with Him because they might announce my name and what if everyone else thought it wasn’t enough. I’ll admit after talking to Nicole I increased it but then I thought to myself wow this is hard. Culturally they see us not giving that looks like we don’t support the church where we go a majority of the time. Biblically I feel like God knows my heart and I gave what I felt was a generous offering to Him so people in the church don’t need to know. So here’s the tension. When you’re trying to be incarnational how much do you do that is cultural compared to what you believe is biblical. And when you do the biblical does it put such a wedge between the culture that you can’t break in? Because what if one day when you’ve broken in then you can start to explain the reasoning behind what you do. Or do you stick to your guns and do the thing that you feel is biblically right possibly causing the relationship not to happen? So many questions for God and I to work through. This is what makes living cross culturally challenging. And sometimes I want to throw my hands up in the air and say I AM GOING HOME to a culture I can be open in. A culture that understands me. A culture where I can push the box because you know what’s inside the box. It makes me think about Jesus’ approach more and more as an outside the box pusher. That’s a hard role.

This week is going to busy. I’m back to language Mon, Tues and Wed.

I’m so thankful for Jesus coming to earth. This season I’m even more thankful for an open relationship with God since I’m thousands of miles away from friends and family. I’m thankful all day long I can talk with Him.

Happy birthday Jesus.

little mid week thought!

2006-11-30T02:53:00.000-08:00

It’s 10am Ghana Time November 30, 2006. I am in Kirk and Nicole’s office sitting at the desk, which looks out the front window. There’s a GREAT breeze today, which is nice. It’s saving me from being drenched in sweat as I work inside. My plan today is to work on some video projects and my mind seems to be preoccupied and I kept thinking about blogging…so here it is. It’s like and after school special since I don’t usually blog in the middle of the week! J ha.

I’m spending some God time this morning reflecting on some things and reading Psalm 126 and 127. This morning I have thought of the joys of singleness but honestly I am also bordering on dwelling about, “Will I ever get married?” Now honestly I don’t usually dwell on this. But it seems lately these thoughts of marriage have started coming up more frequently.

I almost got married once. I was 23 when we broke up. It was hard for me because he essentially was my best friend and I put him on a pedestal that he would surely fall from because he is human and if you can believe this…I’m not perfect as much as I thought I was! I didn’t know the first thing about marriage for a lifetime or about marriage with God in the center so it was good we broke up. However at the time the break up hit me hard. Sometimes it stills hits me.

It wasn’t until we broke up that I really started following the Lord. We broke up on a Thursday and that next Sunday alone and weeping I begged God to show me Himself and teach me about him because I knew life wasn’t over… there had to be more.

So for the past four years God has taught me about Himself through the Spirit and what it means to believe in Jesus. I have loved, truly loved, being single, as I had found my identity in boys since I was sixteen. For the past four years it has been God showing, teaching, guiding me into the person He created me to be…come. I say become because I don’t think it ever stops…growing in Him that is.

But this morning I am thinking about marriage again. I still struggle with being attracted to someone and then dwelling on the possibility that ‘he’ might be the one I marry.

And this is what I want to talk about. I am the only one who does this? I mean is this the devils’ attempt to get you off course for the day and start letting your mind sort through all the possibilities? Just as I typed that I think the Holy Spirit just talked to me…that’s exactly what the devil wants to do…disrupt my course of what Kingdom work could be done today and get me focused about thinking of myself. Hum…. This is precisely the reason I love God. I love how we can be in prayer for ANY and EVERYthing. So today right now I’m ending this blog on the note of prayer. For all girls who want to sit and daydream about that future ‘guy’ they might marry. That God continues to give us peace in the fact He’s got this under control. I pray for myself that I would pray for my future husband and not dwell on the fact that I don’t have one and don’t know who it might be. But I pray that if I’m to marry then God’s working on his heart as He is working on mine. Jesus- give us strength in the battle of the mind! You might be thinking I’m crazy right about now…which could be entirely true! Oh and if you’re a boy…don’t worry most women are crazy….it’s just depends if they’ll admit it or not! Haha kidding…sort of!

Have a GREAT DAY! Hey Jesus’ birthday is next month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!

november 27-thanksgiving abroad

2006-11-27T05:45:00.000-08:00

It’s the Monday after my first Thanksgiving abroad. Everything was almost like being at home. We cooked all day and had way too much food considering there are tons of starving people…and some not too far from where I live.

It was fun though. We had about 30 people at Claire and Michaels house. In my family tradition we eat the Thanksgiving meal at lunch and then have leftovers for dinner. But we actually met at the Mozley’s at 5pm., which worked out good because it took us all day to prepare what we brought.

I’ve gotten into cooking which in itself is ironic. I cook more and eat better in Africa than I did in the States? I don’t know why I’ve developed a desire for cooking. It could be that going to the grocery store here is such a task at the end you feel accomplished so making something out of what you purchased, which took all day, gives you a sense of joy…. especially when people like it. So for this thanksgiving celebration I made green bean casserole, with fresh not canned green beans and apple crisp desert. Our total family, the Sims, made more than that…if you want to take a look at the fact that I didn’t starve in Africa for Thanksgiving check out the pictures on flickr. This was all on Saturday.

On actual Thanksgiving Day the Sims family, Nicole’s Mom and Dad, which are here visiting, Gifty and I went to Champs Restaurant and enjoyed traditional Thanksgiving nachos!

Even though the food was plentiful Thursday and Saturday and I was with my African missionary family I was probably more thankful this year than in years past. I am always thankful for God, but this year I’m even more thankful for the relationship with Him because I would not make it here without His constant love and companionship. Then thinking about my relationship with God makes me think about Jesus and the fact that we even have a relationship with God. Huge mind boggling God. And then the Spirit starts showing me parts of me and parts of God in me and in others…it’s AWESOME!

Of course I also mentioned some other pretty big things like family … my family here and my mom, dad, sister and nephew back home and all my extended family and Kingdom family and friends…. And then this year I’m really thankful for…. Skype and mail and email J !

You know my dad and I am reading the Psalms together and on Thanksgiving Day was Psalm 121…a song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem, NLT. So then I thought about how Big God is and wondered what He looked like to people who were pilgrims back in the day.

Now before the holidays I had a meeting with the Director of Communication/Publication for Methodist Church Ghana on Wednesday. We met for about four hours and they want to start a new program via satellite targeting current Methodist members and unreached peoples. So I asked some questions about usefulness and tried to ask some of the hard questions that we sometimes loose sight of once we’ve been ‘doing’ church for a long time. You know how sometimes we compare other people’s ministries in a bad way we want to “do” what they’re doing? Hopefully you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Anyway it’s in the starting stages and I’m honored they want to include me in some of the decision-making process… and I’m sure the thoughts that I might have connections to supplies necessary for the production equipment is a bonus. I also got to take a look at a production studio Ghana style and it’s not quite like what we would have in the States, but they have digital editing bays. In college I trained on analog and digital so there not that far behind. However I don’t know about you but something that I don’t associate with Africa in general is the fact that they have TV, cable, Satellite and broadband slow but it’s expanding.

But Ghana is a developing Nation and there are some really rich people here with tons of influence. So then I think this could possibly help people see what needs are here within your own country.

So be in prayer that this 30minute program would be guided effectively and started for the right reasons. Also pray that we would continue think outside of the box and not comparatively to what other people are doing.

Also the Community Bible Club will kick off on December 16th at 10am-12pm. We are finalizing main curriculum points to cover for the year. Please keep the whole club in your prayers.

As for this upcoming week…I’m working on some DVD projects and I have to say thanks to my Aunt Leslie. Her fourth grade class wrote me letters to ask about Ghana and how God is moving over here. Thanks- what a blessing.

Love-
Margaret

november 20

2006-11-20T03:41:00.000-08:00

Gosh…I’m two weeks behind on my blog! Here goes…

Week before last I worked on a couple video projects. Last Friday, November 10, I started taping myself… which was funny, for a four month update video the Orchard showed to Grow Zone…maybe Ri-Zoo? And thankfully it went through over e-mail in a 5mb file. Now for those who don’t get kb’s and mb’s in computer lingo (I say this because in truth I really just learned all this last week as I was trying to send my e-mail) 5mb isn’t a huge file, but it’s not small either. The thing is here in Ghana our cable that runs Internet isn’t very thick so even the fastest Internet service through DSL is SLOW compared to the States. …. What does that mean for video? It means you have to wait until Saturday when virtually no one is online and there’s enough space to send a file J but thankfully it went through. Not only was I working on my video for The Orchard, but also Michael Mozley had a tribute for a funeral we taped and sent via e-mail for a friend who died. So it was a HUGE praise the Internet worked for those two videos.

Last Sunday we worshiped at Medina West. The church close to my house. I know there are people, Christians, there who love the Lord. But again this Sunday challenged me so much in the judgment department.

This past Sunday during the worship service we broke for five minutes to talk about giving money. The church broke into ‘classes’ so they could write down how much money you were giving to Annual Harvest. Annual Harvest is a time where the church here focuses on giving money for future “projects.” We brought a guest, non-churchgoer, that morning. One of the reason’s he doesn’t go to church is because he feels they always talk about money. What happened that Sunday? We had four offerings, broke to meet in small groups to talk about money, talked about money in the sermon and then broke for five more minutes at the end to talk more about money. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Bible is clear that we are to have giving hearts and are blessed from giving. I also think there’s more to giving than money, and when we talk about the financial side of giving once the Spirit is moving in us we continue to ask for His guidance and there becomes an overflow that we want to give. It’s not something we do as a check mark… and hey I’ve given my 10% and I’m a good Christian. It’s the heart of realizing EVERYTHING is God’s and we’re to be faithful stewards. Anyway. I prayed the whole church service that if I was to say something to leadership about how confusing breaking in the middle of the service was to someone who was new. And what if it was their first time to church was this the best way to operate? I didn’t want to come across as just a white person trying to change things, but I think this is biblical and felt on my heart this was something worth talking about. After church I got to talk with the Assistant Preacher. Through some great conversation I learned they have small groups at the church that meet on Friday and Saturday, but the attendance isn’t up to par. The most people show up on Sunday, hence the reason to stop service and collect money. However the guy, David, and I had about a 15-minute conversation in which I learned cultural lessons and I think he started to understand how confusing it was for a first timer.

Anyway- I could go on forever about how there’s a whole lot of hierarchy in the Methodist Church here…so be in prayer that God continues to shape my heart and give me direction of where I’m supposed to go with the conviction and feelings inside my heart.

Now fast forward to this past week.

I’m reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. It’s GREAT.

I received a phone call Monday night around 7:30pm. Monday day was a great day. I was with Nicole and Kirk running errands and we rode the trotro home. My first trotro experience. There are about 15 people at any given time on the trotro. To catch it you stand at a bus stop and wait to hear the trotro mate screaming through the window from behind the passenger seat “Medina, Medina, Medina” or wherever the destination is of that particular trotro. It’s quite interesting and extremely cheap. So we waited at the stop and heard our destination route. Culturally you don’t talk on the trotro, but I didn’t really blend in that much anyway, so you know I had to ask some questions. I was dropped off at my language class at the University of Legon stop. The person I was asking questions to ended up being a student on campus and he and I walked together until we parted ways. The people here really are nice and help you whenever you need anything. I didn’t know what to do since it was my fist time and he took my under his wing.

Then I had language and I’m starting to hear more and more. Kirk, Eli, Aidian and Gifty came and picked me up from class and we went home and ate dinner.

I was reading Velvet Elvis when Lauri Korum called. She’s a nurse at the US Embassy. She is the one who helped me when I had that sinus infection for a month when I first moved here. She received a call from the Peace Corps and she called me. They needed someone to come and sit with a girl who they said was suicidal. When Laurie called me I agreed without thinking about it, hung up the phone and then thought to myself. Oh my gosh what did I just get myself into? I don’t know anything about suicidal people or how to be with them. Then I started praying Lord if you want me to do this then you’ll have to guide me. I of course can’t put into words the feeling of comfort and peace that came over me. Then Laurie called back around 10 minutes later. They wanted someone with medical experience. Whew! Off the hook. I figured God just wanted me to say yes even if He didn’t need me. But then at 9:30pm they called back and were coming to pick me up at 10:30pm. I called Marley, the prayer leader back home, and she sent e-mail to the prayer team and called my mom. My mom got some of the best prayer warriors in my family to start praying and I didn’t even know all of this until the next day. That night though I didn’t get too sleepy and stayed awake just incase “the girl” needed or wanted to talk. I only saw her once at midnight and then at 6am when she woke up to shower. She seemed to be really nice and I don’t know everything she’s going or has been through. I just told her I didn’t know and that I had been praying all night. We had some other conversations but besides that that was it.

The awesome part is that she had probably around 50+ people praying for her because God has set up a prayer team back home for events and reasons just like this. I left the Peace Corps office around 7:30am Tuesday heading home. I thought about a lot of things like what a great organization it is for humanitarian efforts. I actually once looked into the Peace Corps but it didn’t work out. That was really before I was following the Lord. I thought about how amazing it is to me that some volunteers don’t know Jesus and make it in terribly hard and depressing situations. I don’t know how they do it. I do remember what it feels like to think you can do things on your own and feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. Sometimes I still feel like that, but now I have Someone who knows more than I, who takes on my burdens, carries them and gives me peace. I got home around 8:45am because traffic was terrible and took my car straight to the mechanic shop. I was supposed to be there at 7am so I was two hours late. Thankfully he understood. I went with him to the “shop” to get my car’s a.c. fixed. This is funny because we met a man under a tree next to a gas station…that was the shop! My mechanic friend Kwasi, needed to keep the car so I took the trotro home…by myself this time.

It’s neat how God let me ride the first time on Monday because He knew the next day I would need to have transport and this way I wasn’t nervous at all. I love the steps He gives us at our needed pace of grace.

The trotro drop off point is about 1/2 mile from my house so I walked home. By this time I hadn’t slept in 28 hours so I was pretty tired. I stopped by a neighbors orange stand and bought an orange. As I walked down the road, tired, sweaty with orange in hand looking back at the night and morning I felt great. It was a moment I think I will remember forever. The feeling that I’m right where God wants me to be. Hard as it is especially with holidays coming up. And I walked a thankful thankful walk home. It was nice to be able to get around a place by yourself; feel needed and like you understood a little bit about the culture. I cherish that moment.

I slept from about 11am-4pm and got ready for our bible club meeting Tuesday night. There are five/six Ghanaian leaders, Nicole and me that meet once a week. We’re working on developing the club and last week Claire Mozley came and talked about ways to engage the kids and gave us tips from the collection of information she has from Ghanaians and having lived here 7 years. It was great…there’s some pics of the team doing activities!!!! We were trying them out for the kids’ sake J

Wednesday was language training and running errands. Thursday night Nicole’s family arrived for their three-week visit. So we went to the airport and picked them up around 7:30pm! It was so much fun to see grandchildren running to their grandparents! They have been so much fun since they’ve been here. Nicole’s mom has fibromyalgia the same thing my mom has. So be in prayer that this intense heat doesn’t get her down. It’s been EXTREMELY hot lately…we’re definitely in the dry hot season.

Saturday morning I went to my first Ghanaian funeral. It’s a very sad story. Foxy was 24 and died about a week ago after a tragic accident very close to his home. He was on a motorbike when someone clipped the back of him and slung him and his friend into a parked 18wheeler full of logs. He hit the logs with his head…head on. He worked with Sammy our electrician and has done a lot to our house. Pray for the guy who was on the back of the bike and Foxy’s family. It’s so hard to loose someone so young and to have seen the whole thing.

So then Saturday afternoon we celebrated Jimmy’s birthday with a game of bowling. Yes…I didn’t even know they had a bowling place here…seems non-African doesn’t it?

It was great fellowship and we were the only ones in the place so the Ghanaian guys were yelling with us and cheering us on!

Saturday was a day about life and death. Kind of surreal.

Sunday was another amazing day. We went to the Ga rural mission. That is an area where the people speak Ga. I am learning Twi, but there are I think like 50 something languages just in Ghana? I just asked Gifty and she couldn’t remember…but she said it’s probably more than that. Anyway- these are churches out in the bush. Jacob, who works with the Methodist church, took us to about five churches in the area. So we went to encourage them. It was a great experience to see the joy on these people’s faces, since there are not a whole lot of visitors. Quite inspiring. We left the house around 7:30am and got back around 4pm. It was a long day, but awesome…we only got to talk with really one church. After driving all the way out there, there was a funeral in the village so everyone was at the burial. But the fellowship was still great. I ate some sugar cane off the side of the road, like I used to behind my grandmothers house. Good memories.

That kind of brings things up to speed.

I still need y’all to pray for Gifty and her family. Lots of things going on there. Pray for Nicole’s parents…this heat is really bad right now. Pray for guidance I have a meeting with the Director of Communication for the Methodist Church this Wednesday to talk about videography. Pray for the holidays and my heart being away from family…selfish prayer, but I know I’ll need them cause It’s going to be hard…although…praise the Lord, my video camera is serving as a web cam and I can see my family!!!! So I’ll be able to see Brogan open presents on Christmas morn!!!!!

Love to all-
Margaret

november 7- presence.

2006-11-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

If I had to say in one word what God is teaching me right now I would say presence. Opening my senses to see His omnipotent presence. (big word…you like that J)

Ok- this week was great. Monday we got back from Cape Coast. I went with Tatum, Stephanie and Jimmy to the beach for the weekend. It was a nice getaway after spending three weeks traveling. We did nothing but lay on the beach, sit by the swimming pool and read books. Well we did eat and watch two movies on my computer too! It’s funny because as you read this I wonder if the thought, wow spending time on the beach…hard missionary life? I think that’s a natural question, but in reality it was great Sabbath time. All four of us talked about how God’s moving in our lives, what He’s teaching us and Sunday morning Jimmy had a message that he shared! It was one of those moments where you’re thankful for authentic friends who are on This journey.

We left and visited the Kakum Rainforest. It has elephants there, however you don’t usually see them during the day. But we went for the canopy walk. It says in their little guidebook there are five in the whole world, Ghana being one of them. It’s a swinging rope bridge about 120ft. in the air attached to trees. It’s beautiful. I honestly wish I could stop in the middle of the bridge and take in the scenery, however I was focused on making it to the next tree, then once on the tree landing I would soak it in. And the funny part is I did it the week before when we took the North Georgia team, so I should have been a little more relaxed.

We left there and then had the African experience. We were headed home on what was supposed to be a three-hour drive and came to a place where because of the rains the night before a truck had gotten stuck. It was blocking the road, the main road, and no one could pass. After waiting in the line for an hour we found a man who had found someone that we could follow, on back roads (remember back roads have a different meaning in Africa) to Accra. So we set off. I was driving and they pretty much went about 120 km an hour the whole time. That’s oh about 80 mph or so maybe a little less. Factor in lots of potholes and people and it makes for an interestingly fast driving experience. It was then I realized why God put a passion inside me for driving and when I was young some of my favorite Nintendo games were the racecar ones!

So we made it home in a total of 6 hours! We were exhausted from the drive, but the vacation was nice!

Tuesday I had a call from AIS to lead devotional Wednesday morning faithfulness, which was a lot of fun. (read the blog about this one)

Wednesday I ran around town all day and finally got back into language. I wish my keyboard had Twi letters so I could spell some stuff for you guys…but I guess you’ll just have to come over and learn it J

Thursday we had our field team meeting for the Mission Society missionaries. It was great and we talked about our SMART goals. It always helps me to have set goals others can keep you accountable to!

Friday and Saturday were spent getting my house clean, catching up on e-mails, cooking…not too adventuresome. Except Saturday night Ama, my language teacher, called and there was a play going on at Legon, the University.

So Ama, Gifty and I went to the play about a famous figure in Kumasi. I don’t know whether it was sitting in the open air theatre watching Ghanaians play Ghanaians, listening to the AMAZING live African drumming or watching a play which I’m always a fan of, but I felt right at home. I was sitting between my two good Ghanaian friends enjoying something together. We were laughing, they were talking lots of Twi together and I was trying to pick up on at least one word, they were laughing at me trying to speak Twi. It was great. I felt like God was saying this is My presence. This is life. Doing what you love to do together. Now spread it. I felt like He was smiling down on us that night. Three young adults, from extremely different backgrounds, loving on each other. Man God is big.

Sunday we went to an international church and the Spirit was all up in the guy who was preaching. He was talking about being humbled, crying out for God’s presence and through our weaknesses God deals with us. It was great.

I have felt like I’ve been in a dark place for the past four months and I’m starting to come out of that by God’s grace. My friend Anna P. sent an e-mail the other day from My Utmost for My Highest. You know Oswald’s book. And he said in that daily devotional, that sometimes we suffer not for personal reasons but so that we can have more compassion for someone else as they walk through something. I’ve tucked that away in my heart. It’s funny because I know God uses our experiences to walk beside others in love. It’s just neat how He tells you that and reminds you through a friend who e-mails you.

Please continue to pray for Ama and Gifty. And actually all of us as the holiday seasons approach. The Lord revealed to me lately this holiday season is about being family to others. (which is really probably how it should be all the time) But in a very selfish human brokenness way…I wanted to go home for Christmas. I miss my family and before praying about it thought I needed to go home. But thankfully with the prayers of the prayer team back home interceding for me I finally prayed about the situation and know I’m supposed to be here for the Holidays. Neither Gifty or Ama have a whole lot of family support right now, so just be praying that however God’s plan is designed we would see it.

Love to all
m

nov. 2- mid week

2006-11-02T15:07:00.000-08:00

ok- you know you live in another country when you realize a "traditional" holiday has passed and you didn't even realize it. Halloween was two days ago and I totally forgot until I talked to my nephew tonight and realized he was Noah's ghost. Yes, he had a Noah costume and then apparently decided he wanted to be a ghost. So, therefore the only reasonable thing to do....become Noah's ghost.

So- this week has been good. I love God's unfailing love and faithfulness. Actually for the past week and a half I was not in the Word and kind of in a funk. Then Tuesday morning I got a call from AIS, the new school that Tatum and Steph and Jimmy teach at, and they wanted me to lead devotional. Now I knew I needed to get some God time in even before that phone call, but it's neat how God gave me something to help get me back on track. There's nothing better for me than to have to speak somewhere to be totally immersed in the Word. I spend time in prayer, comb through the Word over and over and try to realize and hear God's leading. And I was doing that all day Tuesday, then I can't remember what I read and boy it convicited me even more. It talked about giving God the glory. Why do you want to do good. For you or for Him. Yikes!!!! So then I take another step back and cry and realize I'm yet again thankful for His unfailing love and faithfulness. The topic for devotion was about the fruit of the Spirit Faithfulness. There were two groups. The older students 6-11 grade and then the younger ones k-5. I love the Spirit's gift of faithfulness. How He gives us what we need to believe in Him more and the trust it allows us to have that He is in total control and we don't have to lean on our own understanding. I know that's one of the major lesson's God is teaching me in this season of my life. I'm goal oriented, which i think with balance is biblical, but I'm learning it's not healthy to get so upset and anxious about wanting to do something good and useful. I have to lean on God to know that I'm wanting to do everything I can and it's at His pace, not mine. I know we talk about this all the time and I've talked about it...but seriously I feel sometimes like I'm not doing enough, scared that i will look back and think "did I do everything I was supposed to in Ghana." And this is where it's hard not to rely in my own understanding.

I thank God today because more and more do I understand how His mercies are new each day. And that He cares so much for little ole me to do it again and again and again.

I love you family and friends. What a great adventure we are on as Christians.

October27-home from the North

2006-10-27T04:42:00.000-07:00

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

saturday october 7

2006-10-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

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

October 1st

2006-10-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

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

september 19

2006-09-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday! September 19. Our lights are out today, but we're running the generator ...

This week was good. I did lots of driving around this week but it was fun! You know me...gotta be driving. I think living in Oxford and commuting to Tupelo really made me love driving :) Anyway- last Sunday we went to a FraFrae church...was great they danced lots and lots. It was about an hour away. Then Monday? Gosh, I can't remember. I know Tuesday was our "lights out" day. (Remember there's a three day rotation where we are without electricity for 12 hours). Gifty and I had so much fun we sat on our porch and she started teaching me Twi songs everyone sings here. Here's the funny part...our neighbor Mathew (not sure if he's a believer) heard us and said he wanted to come the next time. Then this Sunday at church a couple of the guys that are helping with the Bible Club said they want to come so next Tuesday during lights out, we'll be jammin on the porch in the dark! Come on over if you want :)

Language is going good. Ama is a fun teacher and so flexible with Tatum and I. It's hard because SO many people speak English in Accra that you're not forced to use Twi....so I think I'm learning ....SLOWLY! Oh now that makes me remember ... last Tuesday I went to the doctor to get some tests run for my work visa. (It only took 3 hours...it took me 2 hours to get there in traffic. I left my house at 7am and didn't get there until 9am.) I say this because Tuesday we had to rearrange schedule for what we intially were going to do which was go to Akropong. Language is Monday, Wedsday and Thursday (well we change so much it's kind of week to week;) We were headed to Akropong, where Micheal's taking courses for his Doctorate. We were supposed to go on Tuesday, but because of doctors appt. we went on Thursday...which meant we were supposed to have language! Ama visited Akroprong when she was little so she road with us and we had language on the move!

I went to tape Andrew Walls, a professor of Micheals. I videoed for Micheal so he could have a little documentation of what Andrew's passion is. Dr. Walls is from Scotland and comes to Ghana to teach twice a year. He's very interesting and a nice man. He's a scholar christian who applies his gifts in acedemia to further the kingdom. And he was in one of CS Lewis' classes!

Anyway- After we taped we visited Ama's great Uncle and she got to visit with him. She hasn't been there in four years, it's expensive to travel there, so this was definetly a treat for her! It was so neat to visit with him in the compound house. (It wasn't a hut compound house) By God's handywork we got to see him because when we arrived we knocked on the door and went in and didn't think anyone was there. Then a lady walking down the road kindly helped us find someone who knew him and he ended up being there. So we stayed about thirty minutes and they caught up on the family. Where everyone was and what they were doing. This is a cool story...the last time Ama saw her uncle she didn't have as good of grades as she could have. Sidenote he was in Education for over 30 years teaching all over Ghana. So she told him, "uncle next time you see me I will be in University," and she is, teaching us! It was one of those moments that you soak it in and think...if the only reason I am here was to give Ama a ride up North, then it was worth the smile on her face! Their picture will be on flickr...so check it out.

Friday Tatum and I ran around with Claire doing some errands. And then Saturday Tatum and I took Stephanie around to get some things for her new house...then it was Sunday! Richard, the guy who was on the motorbike when I had "the accident' had called earlier in the week and was going to go to church with us, but called Sunday morning and said his mother was sick. I need to call and check on her....plus Aidan got sick this week :( He has a high fever for about three days, no malaria, but we don't know what was wrong. So it was just Gifty and me at church Sunday morning, but it was GREAT. The message was on James 3, how powerful our tongue can be. It's SO true. Afterwards we talked to some of the people there and I met a nice guy who works at the airport! He said if I ever had people coming in that needed anything to call him...so if you come and visit....we've got a contact at the airport for help!

This week I would say God's really teaching me how to feel His love. To really rely on validation from Him first and foremost. It's awesome living here, but not without it's ups and downs!

love you all
margaret

September 10- fun things/pics

2006-09-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

saturday day...before we watched emmanuel's gift we went on a tour of the mercyship anastasis. now tatum's a ywam'er and she has heard about this ship for YEARS so it was really exciting for her. i knew nothing of this until i moved to ghana. i have never heard of the vision of mercyship, but it is really neat. they travel around the world doing medical mission. checkout the website www.mercyships.org. so in the picture is barry, he works for the new school that started this september AIS, me, tatum and deseree (she's from new zealand...trying to figure out where God's leading her next)! it was amazing. and even more than that....we drove right up to the boat at the harbor. not something that would be allowed in the states i'm sure.

September 10- fun things/pics

2006-09-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

ok so these are the girls in mine and tatum's life! left is ama our twi teacher. i would spell teacher in twi, except my american keyboard doesn't have the letters needed to make the word! ha. then it's me! ok next is afrea, she lives in kumasi, where the mozley's used to live and where tates lived three years ago for four months (i think that's right...she's told me a hundred times and i still can't remember....sorry) then it's tates and then gifty sebogah...she lives with us at the sims' household. she's nuts i love it :). so we are taking a quick photo after all watching emmanuel's gift this past saturday night. we projected the picture up on the wall at the mozley's house and about 30 of us gathered around to watch it! if you are reading this stop, go to a video store and rent this NOW! it's a great depection of ghana...and continue to pray for emmanuel....

September 10-thoughts from this week

2006-09-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

This week’s update is split into two sections. Thoughts from the week and fun things from the week equipped with some pics. The “thoughts from the week” is this one…it’s long, but pretty in depth of what’s going on in my heart. For pics of some of the things we did this week…skip down to the next blog entry…September 10 fun things/pics. (I know the title uses quite the vocab!)

I’ve been listening to many 9/11-radio memoirs on BBC news in my car this week. It seems almost odd to me that five years have passed since the attacks. It seems fresh because I can recount that whole morning perfectly clear. You know how people always say during an event like that you will remember exactly where you were. It’s true for me. But at the same time it seems far away when I think about other things that happened five years ago like when I lived with Abby Crane, a roommate I never talk to anymore.

So the meaning of attack has literally been in my face this week. This week’s blog will be hard to be open about at some points but that’s the good news…we’re all ugly inside and that’s why we need Jesus.

Attack- to take aggressive action against (a place or enemy forces with weapons or armed force, typically in a battle or war. (of person or animal) to act against aggressively in an attempt to injure or kill.

This week the enemy has attacked me in my thoughts over and over, the battle over my mind. That’s what he does. He wants to kill our relationship with the Lord and cause hurt to those we’re closest to. He wants us to be unsure and led astray from the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives. He wants us to think for one moment that he can lead us to something better. That’s what he did to Jesus. So why wouldn’t he want to with us?

So what has this looked like in my life this past week? Ugly and hurtful thoughts about those who I’m in close relationship including the family I live with especially against Kirk and Nicole. I started picking apart their faults and not extending grace to them at all. Focusing on our differences and what they “should’ be doing. Thoughts that I’m no good at videography. Thoughts that I’m not doing enough here and worries that I might be lazy. Thoughts running through my head of other missionaries and wanting what they have. Thoughts that I’ve handled situations beautifully, therefore being prideful that I might have had more to do in that situation than God.

Here’s the be careful not to have too much pride one…..Tuesday was a day where I felt God’s presence and had to relinquish control over to Him. I had a wreck. I was making a quick turn left when a motorcycle ran into the driver’s side of my car when he was trying to “overtake” or pass me on the left. He came out of nowhere. He flew off the motorbike before it hit a parked 18-wheeler and thankfully he had been stopped an hour earlier by a policeman and told to “put on his helmet” having no idea later he would be in an accident. I’m so thankful of the many provisions God gave to all those involved that day. After the collision I got out of my car to check and see if he was ok. I could feel the adrenaline pumping and I know he had to be scared. Then it hit me. I had no idea what to do next.

Enter angels.

Stephanie, my friend who is here to teach at AIS, a new school, was in the car with me. Her husband and the project manager were walking back to the school and were on the scene about 1 minute after it happened. I moved my car out of the street, as it was getting honks being in the way.

Then the mob of about 30 Ghanaians formed around Stephanie, Jimmy (her husband) and me. None of us speak Twi fluently so we had no idea what was being said or shall I say screamed.

This was a day I will never forget because of the many cultural lessons I learned. So there stood Jimmy, Stephanie and me. I started dialing numbers on my cell phone trying to see what I needed to do next. Thankfully there were times that Areeba would work, it’s been really bad cell phone service lately, and I got through to Claire who was thirty minutes away and headed my way as quick as she could.

Here you have to go and get the police to report and accident. I had been told by veteran missionaries to wait there for the police. In the meantime the mob that had formed was getting louder and louder and had convinced the guy on the motorbike he probably had internal injuries and was going to die. Let me just say, it’s amazing the influence a mob can have. So he left and then the mob started saying many things including the fact that I didn’t care if the guy lived or died and I was too worried about the police coming. I started praying the moment it happened and I know Jesus was there because I never got scared in a sense that I thought something bad might happen. But it wasn’t like how we would handle this type of situation in the States at all.

Here if you don’t scream and yell for what you think is right, then it’s perceived that you are either lying or don’t really care about the stance you’re taking. So it made me want to learn Twi even faster so next time maybe I can understand and defend myself a little better. Thankfully the Lord provided William. I had been to the school that morning and met William.

What he didn’t know that was thirty minutes later he would spend the better part of Tuesday helping me relate to “the mob.”

It took William about an hour to get the police to the scene. During that time I left to go and check on Richard, the guy on the motorbike. He had gone a couple blocks to a local clinic. I was headed down the road when I saw him walking, so I picked him up. It was the first time we had one on one and I asked him how he was doing and he responded in a very nice fashion. He told me he just wanted to settle without having the police involved because he had to be somewhere shortly. It was around 12:30 pm Tuesday. I told him we had to wait for the police and he said that was ok since they were in route. But when we got back to the “scene” the mob persuaded him that I should just pay for everything and we should call it a day. However in my heart I knew we should wait. I started praying the police officer would be fair and not just assume it was my fault simply because I’m white and perceived to have money. So we stayed. When the police officer arrived he constantly spoke Twi and we asked for him to speak English so I could understand. I hated not knowing the language; thankfully William and Claire were there so we could pick up on what was going on. Sweet Stephanie stood by my side the whole time in case I needed someone to back me up and to just be there for moral support. The funniest thing was when the investigator pulled out a can of paint and started spreading it on the ground. Remember I had moved my car out of the road, so I had no proof of where it was when the accident happened. Some of the “mob” started pointing out specs of paint that could have been thrown about after the crash…anyway…after about 30 minutes of the police officer doing whatever it was he was doing? We got in the car to go to the station. I didn’t think it would be fair for one of us to ride with the investigator (by the way that’s what they call officers here…and the blinker is called the travigator) so when Richard hopped in the car with the officer, I hopped right in too. Not going to get a word in without me there…right. They spoke Twi the whole time, so then I pulled out the charm card. I’ll just try and charm the officer with the fact that I’m taking Twi classes, which I missed because of the wreck. I also spoke what little I knew…and you know what Jesus glorified it all….we all started laughing and I had more conversation with Richard in the car. When we got to the station, about three hours after the whole thing started, I realized Richard was a very nice young man. (he’s 26) At the station is when things turned around. He told me that if he didn’t get anything from the obruni that he would be considered a fool and that’s why he couldn’t back down when we were surrounded by all those people. And these words just came out of my mouth and I know it was the Holy Spirit. I said, “Richard you have to search your heart whether or not it’s more important to you to do what’s right or do what will make other’s like you.” Then we talked about him paying for the taillight on the 18-wheeler that was busted and I offered to pay for his medical expenses. But when we went to tell the officer that everything would be settled between us, he told the officer that he was responsible and would pay for everything. I know it was only one person, but it was huge for him and a blessing for me to get to see. Since then Richard and I took the new taillight to the truck’s owner and we’ve had some really cool conversations. But the thing I think you have to be careful about after a great experience like that is thinking, hey I’m good at being Christian I handled that pretty well….all the glory goes to G. But sometimes you just want to relish in “having handled that really well.” J

Now Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were the days I just really started being attacked more in my mind and thoughts. It’s almost easier coming out of an experience like a wreck and asking for Jesus than it is when your by yourself and having terrible thoughts about those you love. It’s not as glorious and you don’t receive near the kudos of “handling that situation well” when you learn how to love those you’re close too as compared to having not “lost it” during a wreck. Probably because we don’t REALLY want to share those disgusting thoughts with others therefore nobody really knows how to congratulate you since they didn’t really know you were struggling in the first place.

Does this make sense?

All of this to say….the Lord led me to read James 4 yesterday and it spoke right to my heart. Everything I thought about last week was right there in those verses. I have learned this week that living in community with others is hard. But it’s not something God can’t use to reshape and continue to transform our hearts…this morning Nicole and I had a walk and during it we had a great conversation learning even more about each other’s struggles and how we are doing at living in community with each other. I know that conversation came because of prayer. I am so thankful of the prayer team back home and especially how God uses others to pour His love on us. Friday morning in the middle of a breakdown God put it on Marley’s heart to call me. And also on Tiff’s heart to send an e-mail that made me sit in my chair and beg for God’s mercy. It’s such a blessing to see how God uses the friends he puts in our lives.

I am learning more and more about warfare and attacks. I think we rationalize things first like am I tired, am I getting enough exercise, is there a certain time in the month I need to be aware of. But I also want the thought is this spiritual warfare to be in that list of first questions I ask myself when things are crazy. In James 4 he talks about drawing close to God and the enemy will flee. I know it’s true.

September 10- fun things/pics

2006-09-11T04:52:00.000-07:00

Picture of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah with us gals. I ran into him at this bank. I was trying to get money out of the atm and it wasn't working. So I asked the guy in front of me "do you know if this is working or not?" He replied no which stank because I really need to get some money out! But he asked how long I had been in Ghana, I'm sure it's because of my impecable Twi!!! ha And I told him two months, as a missionary and will be here for two years. He asked from what state, Mississippi, and he told me where all he had been (lots of states) Then I asked, "on business" which he replied, "i'm a movie star." After that I wasn't too sure about it so of course I asked what movie....and lo and behold... it's Emmanuel. I didn't really know who he was but had heard of this documentary. Then I got in the car and told Claire who I had just met and she jumped out of the car, shook his hand and got his telephone number! The Mozley's show his documentary all the time...actually we watched is Saturday night! So Emmanuel's a nice guy...and he get's his money out of the same atm as the rest of us :)

attitude & language

2006-08-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

Well it's a good thing I didn't blog Tuesday. Why you ask? Well let's just say it was one of those days where you realize how incredibly ugly you are on the inside...and then you beg for Jesus to come in and take over, becuase you are being rotten...ever have those moments, days, years? Ok here's the scoop.

Now Monday was supposed to be the first day of language, but Ama, the teacher, had to reschedule for Tuesday. I called Tuesday and we had to reschedule for 3pm instead of 2:30, that was fine, except Tatum wasn't going to be able to come to the first day of training....well I got to the University at 3pm and waited at the designated spot and waited and waited and waited some more. All this time I was trying Ama's phone that kept saying "this handset has been shutoff and is not receiving calls...this handset has been .." I seriously dialed it 45 times and no that's not a Margaret exageration comment! So then the more I dialed the more mad I got. Then I started thinking of all the other things I could have been doing for the past two months not to mention the past hour, I was mad that I have been here that long and not started language training, then the anxiety ball inside my stomach increased until I left the "meeting place" an hour later absolutely frustrated and for lack of better words "pissed." I got in my car and drove to the gas station across the road. They have two for Tuesday pizza and I was picking it up for our family. Not exactly like Pizza Hut, but hey it's pretty darn good :) Since it's two for Tuesday, you can imagine....EXTREMELY busy. I was waiting in line and someone butted in front of me. I was already mad, it was like he was throwing gasoline on the fire inside....of course the cashier lady's shift was over right as I got to the counter, so then I had to wait for the new person to come on and count her money. By this time I had prayed a little in the car but not given it over... so I ordered and went outside to wait. That was when i really started begging for Jesus's mercy and strength. And of course He provided. As I drove home I kept thinking, man it's good to know that I'm broken and need Him. I can get so anxious, upset, mad then curse yell and scream in my car and He still loves me. I then was convicted of truly surrending earlier in the process so that it doesn't get to the point that I"m so mad I could spit nails....so of course The Spirits still got lots of shaping to do...

Then on Wednesday afternoon we met with some other missionaries and had lunch to send off part of the Ghana team, the Jernigans, to London. They're going for medical training and will be back in three months. After that Tatum, Mary Kay and Charlie and I all went to meet Ama, for the third try. I didn't have my hopes up by any means. Now here's the conviction part, I had gotten so mad Tuesday that Ama's phone was dead and i couldn't reach her, then Wednesday my phone went dead. Yeah, kind of helped me realize I shouldn't have let that make me quite as mad as it did. :) Thank God for grace :) Then we met with Ama and she was GREAT. She's very nice and really wants to help us learn. Today was another great meeting, unfortunately the Jacksons (Mary Kay and Charlie) won't be able to come because it's too far (sidenote, please pray for their language training....something to emerge) but Tatum and I met with Ama and we went over the alphabet and tones today...as well as some pronouns. Tatum picks it up great...and is one of those really organized note takers....so I have to look onto her sheet :) I do have a hard time learning ...I just don't pick it up well....but I'm really not worried about it..i know the Lord's going to lead me...hey He knows every language on earth...which by the way is absolutely amazing in itself!

Also, something that has started in preparation for dry season is twelve hour shifts of power outages. That's right my friends, we are out of power from either 6a-6p or 6p-6a. The 6p-6a shift isn't that bad right now because it's really been cool here. The hotter it gets though....the less fun that will me. It's so interesting to have been getting e-mails about how hot it is in Mississippi and here it's been so nice. Well...the table is turning....around Christmas time here wax candles start melting :) Anybody want to come for a holiday? :)

Here's the big request I have. Gifty Sebugah, she's in the picutres on the left, is going through some hard times right now. PLEASE be in prayer for her and her family and for reconilation among some of them. There are people here who are called "traditionalists" they believe in a type of vodoo and animistic beliefs. There are spells, curses, etc. Please be in prayer that people would see God's truth in these instances and have great discernment against the devils attacks whatever they might be. it's a good feeling when you know you are where God has designed you to be, even with the toughest days, He knows right when to show you how much He loves you and what that looks like through others. Nicole, Kirk and I sat with Gifty last night for hours just being family. What precious time.

We leave for a little get away tomorrow. I haven't really been here long enough to deserve this type of treatment...but I do love the beach. We're going about five hours west of here to relax a bit. Kirk, Nicole, the boys and Gifty haven't taken anytime in the past year to go off for a long weekend, so looks like I got here just in the nick of time :) We're going to spend time within our community growing it deeper, which will be good. Pray for safe travel and for those people we come in contact with on the way!!!!

love you all
margaret

august 28th update

2006-08-28T04:47:00.000-07:00

It’s Monday! The past week has been good. Last Monday night I went with Gifty to youth. Youth is a lot different here it consists of people from age 18-30 and is really a time for young adults to hang out and worship together. It was good and I think Gifty had fun having a white girl there, trying to speak Twi! Everyone there laughed as I tried to speak their language. As the custom is here, if you’re a guest then they ask you to stand up and speak a little bit about yourself. With the British influence here, they have a President of the youth group and she asked for me to stand up and I thought she said, “sing” for us! I said, “Um…did you say sing? Because you really don’t want me to do that?” But she laughed and said no. She just wanted me to share about who I was and why I was there. It was a GREAT cultural experience. The night was beautiful. It’s the end of the rainy season and the breeze is cool at night and the stars were out, so we enjoyed the outside before we went into the church. You know how much I LOVE looking at stars!

The other reason I went with Gifty was to meet with Felix about a community Bible club. Nicole, Gifty and I have been praying about whether or not to start a Bible club for this community. There are a large number of Muslims here from the North and there are some churches in the area, but as far as we know, not a community club for kids. Gifty and Felix, both Ghanaian, are HIGHLY excited about teaching these youngsters more about a life with Jesus and what that looks like. Nicole and I don’t want this to be “An American” Bible Club, but we both feel like we can challenge and encourage the Ghanaian leadership. So we’re praying for three more leaders and I’m hoping when we have short term teams come over this will be one of the areas of outreach people can pour into. Please be in prayer about this, for leaders and for Felix and Gifty….. I NEVER thought God would be calling me to help start a Bible Club for Kids. But I’m thinking that’s precisely one of the reasons He had me in Ri-Zoo the past two years….and why I have great children ministry contacts back in the states that I can pick their brains J.

Also, I’m going to be traveling with a short term team that comes in October and videoing their trip. I’m very excited about this!!!

Yesterday was Ghana’s Annual Conference and I got some good footage. The Mozley’s and the Sims’ families were there so we got some good shots of the people they are pouring into and have been developing relationships with in the Methodist Church. It was a five hour long service, but I’m still praying that God continues to teach me how to love ALL of His creation and worship Him at ALL times. There are some ministers and lay people here that Love the Lord and want to do great things. I just have to remember their hearts are in the right place, but I still want to see the process challenged. Just because we do it one way, doesn’t mean we HAVE to do it the same way. I don’t think that’s an American thought…. is it?

Let’s see…also I’m continually thankful for Internet…I got to listen to the “we are gifted” series pod cast! Thanks for putting those on line Darrell/media team J

Friday was also a day where I felt a sense of accomplishment! Stephanie and Jimmy are married and arrived about three weeks ago. They’re here as teachers at a new school so I took them to a couple of places to start getting some things for their classroom. The AWESOME part was that we navigated around Accra, without getting too lost! HAHAHA J I did take one wrong turn that sent us on a motorway and we drove for about 30 kilometers without having a place we could turn around! Oops. But then we went and got carpet, blinds and more and put it all in my Golf! It’s amazing how much stuff that car will hold! Gosh, I just read the bit about carpet and blinds….you would think a foreign missionary does adventurous, dangerous things daily. I guess we all have days were we have to do the mundane ins and outs….but in everything we take refuge in Him.

I’m doing well emotionally. Still days with ups and downs, you will notice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were left out of the highlights in this update! That’s because it was full of things like cleaning, washing clothes, trying to get the girl who’s helping me, Lady, to understand if you don’t come to work in a week and a half and don’t call it’s not a good way to gain trust. I’m writing this Monday morning and she’s still not here…as of right now she’s an hour late. I’m trying to determine if I’m supposed to continue hiring her because she needs some people to speak Truth into her life, or if I should not rehire her. Be in prayer about this because it’s really hard because I know she needs the work and pay, but she’s also around all my personal information and things…so I’m still praying about what to do…

Oh and what a GREAT blessing…I got to see my mom, dad, sister and NEPHEW Saturday night. The Sims have a web cam and it was slow and distorted, but man was I happy to see their faces J I continue to miss everyone. It’s really hard right now because I just found out Brogan is starting soccer this year, so I will miss every game in his first year of playing sports. But I just have to hope that when I get back I will appreciate family even more than when I left and want to make the most of every game, even when it’s extremely hot and out of my way to go to….

Love to everyone who takes 20 minutes out of their busy day to read my thoughts and keep praying for this mission. God is my refuge daily and I’m learning more and more about the little ways in which this looks like. If you’re reading this then I probably have a relationship with you, unless you’re bored and perusing the internet looking for new people’s blog to read, and I’m so thankful for all the relationships God’s put in my pathway….

IM IN

2006-08-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

I have officially moved into my apartment! Yeah! The Sims are letting me use their bed I was using in the guest bedroom until dry season. Then I'll buy a bed on the side of the road...when the mold isn't as prevelant!!!! This is my bedroom...more pics to follow on the rest of the house...

some pics

2006-08-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

So this is the hill of rocks we went up in a 15 seat passenger van. I was holding a two year old in my lap...it was great fun. The man kept saying, "Use force...or you won't make it...use force...use force..."

August 20th update

2006-08-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

What a great week. It's exciting to write that as much as it is for those to read it who have been praying for this mission! You ask...ok Margaret, "What was so GREAT about this past week?" For starters, I finished reading a great book that the friends who sent the birthday package included. God is Closer than You Think. Throughout this week God spoke to me through that book, the Pslams and through a new movie I watched, Shadowlands about CS Lewis' life during the time he met, married and fell in love with his wife. During the time his wife is terminally sick someone asks, "Have you been praying to God?" Lewis says, "yes I pray all the time, I can't stop it it flows out....it's not changing God, He's changing me." And through his wife's sickness and death (sorry I just spoiled the movie for those who haven't seen it) he starts to realize how much suffering causes us to love deeper and to grow in faith. So along with that movie and reading Ortberg's book, which quotes Lewis frequently, God really is working on my heart to have a heart of worship no matter the situation. And that is GREAT news.

Also, we went to Madina West. (the church that I've been struggling going to) There was a sweet spirit in that church this morning. It could have had to do a little bit with the fact that I got to experience a Ghanian tradition of marriage. The formal wedding was yesterday, but today was the vows before the church. Everyone was clapping and dancing as they said their vows and when it came time for the kiss, the groom politely kissed the bride on the cheek to which the preacher responded, "You didn't do it right." That sent the congregation into hoops and hollers. I still didn't understand but a couple words the preachers said, but God helped my heart be in the right shape this morning. One of the things Ortberg talks about in his book is how human creation is over all other creation. Including mountains, waters, sky the Grand Canyon...those HUGE creations that we marvel at, but yet we don't fall down in awe over each human. So I tried to remember that this morning and realized how thankful I am today that God is transforming my heart to look at these people with love. Wanting to know more and understand this culture more.

Another reason has to be that Nicole and I walked throughout the week. We had one day were we ventured off into an area that is very "typical" Africa. That meaning, run down shack housing with many people living out of one. No indoor plumbing, a bore head to get water. However I couldn't really tell you anything about the people because I don't know them. They were very polite and smiled at two white girls, who weren't really lost, just taken the off beaten path. You know it also makes you feel good when you pass by the stand you've been going to frequently and they wave real big and smile.

Another great part of this week was the fellowship. Tuesday night a group of five girls, including me, went out to dinner and started getting to know each other. You're thinking...out to dinner...hard life! Yes, there are restaurants here in Accra. Remember I live in a very busy, industrialized part of Ghana. It's not how a lot of people "picture" Africa. But we went to dinner and it's neat to see how God has put us in community to support and challenge each other...maybe even some accountablity partners immerging :)

To top it off yesterday was an adventure. I looked in the Bradt guide to find somewhere for an outing so we could see the countryside of Ghana. Well it worked. I'm going to upload a picture that we took as we were going up the mountain and were stopped when a bulldozer was shoveling rocks on the side of the mountain. The rocks were actually the road. And if we wanted to continue where we were heading then the 15 seat van was going to have to go over the rock hill. Keep in mind on the right side was a drop off....we were on a mountain. So one of the Ghanain guys tells Kirk, "you must use FORCE or you won't make it.." that being said Kirk revved the engine, put it in second and off we went. We dented in the bumper when we hit the slope, threw some rocks but Kirk kept in under control and we didn't roll off the mountain. I was holding a two year old in my lap, so I didn't get very many good pictures...(yeah kids don't have to ride in car seats here...it's kind of nice) So that trip was fun. We went to Aburi and checked out the botanical gardens there. It's about an hour north of where I live.

I know this is getting long, but also I went into the outskirts of the market all by myself Friday! I know, small celebration...but hey I was pumped. I have met a lady named Joyce who sells fabric for 20,000 cedis a yard. That's roughly $2usd. She's really nice so if you ever come visit and need some cloth....I know one place we can go :)

Also, I sat with Gifty and Nicole today and we talked about the possiblity of helping to start a children's bible club. It's in the prayer and talking phase right now. We want it to be Ghanain lead and owned by the people here, so be in prayer that we listen to what God wants us to do. Especially for Nicole and I as we don't want to make it an oboruni, Americanized club, but we also want to challenge the thought processes of the way to strategically help children here understand and apply Jesus' love.

And I called the women who has an orphanage not too far from here. She was out of town and is supposed to call me back...so we'll see!

love to all...thanks so much for the e-mails, the packages, the prayers...everything. I miss family and friends, but I'm SO thankful for internet!

God is Closer Than You Think

2006-08-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

I'm reading this book by John Ortberg, God is Closer Than You Think, hence the title of this post, and I just finished chapter seven. Ortberg is talking about how we have different spiritual pathways, or ways in which we connect with God. Some come more naturally than others and it's good to have a mixture of all of these. At the end of the chapter he closes describing that one pathway is no better than the other and as we realize people are all different it helps with judging and learning how to love deeper. The quote from Lewis is made from a reflection on the book of Revelation as John writes we will each receive from God a name that remains a secret between him and us throughout eternity...here's the quote I like.... "What shall we take this secrecy to mean? Surely that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the Divine beauty better than any other creature can. Why else were indivduals created, but that God, loving all infinetly, should love each differently? If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note."

i think i'm an oboe. definetly an odd sound.

august 16th update

2006-08-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

branching out- ghana, west africa Let's see where to begin. Last week was full of editing. I blogged Wednesday about struggling with final cut pro and I think I've figured out it's editing using my external hard drive...but anyway. We'll figure that out! I spent Thursday, Friday and this Monday finishing the project, but praises...that one's finished. Yeah! I think Nicole and Kirk sent the dvd's out to their family today...so hopefully their relatives can enjoy seeing their grandbabies! I know i miss my nephew and it's only been a couple months. Their families haven't seen the grandbabies in a year I think. Also, pray for Gifty and Eli, they came down with some kind of sickness Saturday and are still not 100% yet. So needless to say Saturday and Sunday were pretty quite days around here. I can't remember when but Tatum and I also ran around town sometime this week. I think it was Monday? Uh oh..everything's running together. I'm going to have to start journaling better! So as far as ministry goes.... I called about volunteering at an orphanage today and am going to talk to the lady Friday and just keep praying about wether that's where God wants me...I start langauge training hopeufully on the 21st. I talked to my language teacher today and she's calling tomorrow to firm up a schedule. Nicole and I have been walking in the mornings and that's been really neat. We get some stares, I'm not sure if that's just because we're white women walking or what it is :)! We took a foot road today, one that doesn't really have car traffic on it, and there were many Muslims living and walking in that area. It reminds me constantly of the fact that there are many many people here who worship faithfully, but don't know Jesus. So be in prayer for the muslim communities here. I also, as you can see from the picture below have sawed the moldy bed in two and have realized there's A LOT of mold on the inside. So I'm back to square one with finding a bed and somewhere to store my clothes. I've been here since June 26, almost two months, still living out of a suitcase, but then i think of the blessing it was to have kind of bee being prepared for this the past three years. Never really settling long enough to unpack...seems to be a famaliar story in my life :) But all is well here, and HUGE praises I'm feeling a TON better. Thanks for the prayers on the sickness ... I can feel them. Don't have a whole lot to report. Still praying about what to get involved with...I'm excited about language training....de e yea (sleep well) margaret

the moldy bed

2006-08-16T14:02:00.000-07:00

this is the bed after i sawed it in two. click on the flicker images to get a close up of the lucious mold on the inside. but hey it's all part of the experience right!

tiff and me

2006-08-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

100_0494,
originally uploaded by mbuell_1979.

happy birthday to tiff! I'm experimenting with flicker...and this is the first pic! On the right there is a link where I will be adding more photos. check each month to see the ones that "make the cut."

august 9th.

2006-08-09T03:36:00.000-07:00

It’s mid-week now…so I’m three days behind schedule on updating my blog! Oops J It’s neat as I sit down to type about last week, it’s almost hard to remember what happened. A week ago Sunday we went to Medina West, the church right down from where I live, and it was RAINING so there weren’t many people there that morning. It was the typical three-hour service with hymns from British influence, thoust saist the truth, knowenst that Thy lovest thee…I mean is that understandable? Sorry I need to be incarnational…but I just don’t think they even like it. I could be wrong. But when African style music is played the place comes ALIVE.

The good thing is that I’m constantly aware that worship isn’t about us, and I’ve been really praying God will teach me how to worship Him always. No matter the circumstances. And I know people have been praying with and for me. How do I know that? Well I believe one of the “desires of my heart” was given to me this past Sunday. I went to a service at a place called Asbury Dunwell and it was GREAT. Nice people, engaged in worship, smiling and friendly. It’s amazing how the worship of others is affecting my worship? I’m not sure it’s supposed to be like that? But that’s just being honest. It was a treat though and I was so thankful to be in and around people who truly wanted to be there and we ended up having a good time. I know church can be fun. It helps you through times of suffering to be connected to people who want to grow. But then I start to think, maybe that’s one of the reasons I’m here. Like Joel’s comment said, God will “mold” us and shape us in ways that we don’t necessarily enjoy, but the trial does strengthen us. I have been blessed since I started really living my life for Jesus to be surrounded by people who are looking for a deeper experience than just going somewhere because that’s where there parents went or it’s just what you do. So I think God’s stretching me to be able to understand what it means to worship Him everywhere no matter the circumstance. I am reading the Psalms and boy can I connect to what David is lamenting and rejoicing about! So that was last Sunday and this Sunday.

Now for in between…let’s see it rained and rained and rained and rained pretty much all of last week. So here’s the recap I’m sick again and stayed in bed all day Monday, the mold on the furniture GREW exponentially this week (because of the rain) even after I bleached it twice and I’m still not in my apartment. Tuesday was fun as Tatum and I spent the whole day running around in the car to check out what we needed to do about visas! (we got some good laugh time in…such a blessing she’s here…and no Tatum if you’re reading this I’m not just nice things because you said nice things about me on your blog…well ok…maybe just a little J just kidding) We had a new family, the Jackson’s, get here Thursday night. Can’t remember Wednesday? Eli turned two Saturday and we hosted everyone at our house for chili and a little fufu for Eli. He has lived half his life in Ghana, so he REALLY enjoys Ghanaian food! It’s cute. (By the way it was very cool here Friday/Saturday it felt like football season in the States…I mean it’s not 50 degrees or anything but it’s been pretty cool…nice compared to the 110 heat in Mississippi…hey my heats coming. September starts the dry season!) Then Sunday and Monday I was at the Jackson’s helping them move in and get settled! By the way…the group who sent my birthday box included a “stick the tail on the donkey” game, which I didn’t open my presents until late on my birthday, so everyone was gone. However, we used it for the kids at Eli’s party…it went over GREAT! So thanks again Sarah and the gang. Side note…Sarah has sent a couple packages and they seem to get here pretty fast, so if you have mailing questions…I would ask her about it…J

I taped Eli’s birthday all day Saturday and went to start editing yesterday and realized that my computer needed 16 software updates. The camera wasn’t registering with iMovie and something is messing up with the time code in Final Cut Pro…so if you want to pray for technological stuff (and the user) that would ROCK! Oh this technically goes into next week’s blog, but when the Jackson’s got here they got their dog, Ziker, who was living here until they arrived. SO, we got a puppy yesterday. He’s a cute Ghanaian mutt! I’ve been trying to upload pictures on the blog…but there just not wanting to go through L so I’ll keep trying. I want to show you guys what fufu looks like! Everything is well in Ghana…love to all
margaret

July 31

2006-07-31T06:18:00.000-07:00

I have thought about many titles to give this week’s blog. Such as-Boy it’s a long one. Mold seems to be my friend. Nothing ever goes the way you plan it. Thank God He knows what He’s doing. Culture shock anyone? But I couldn’t decide on just one.

Monday was the last full day with the boys before Kirk and Nicole got home. I went to the Mozley’s and tried to do some Internet stuff. That of course was time consuming. After two hours I had not gotten anything accomplished, so I sat there and I prayed at their kitchen table. I know the Lord wants me to be patient and find Him in ever step, even waiting on the Internet. So I usually bring along my Bible or a book I’m reading and it provides more than enough time to get some of those readings done! Monday I was reading Tony Campolo’s Speaking My Mind. I really enjoy his insight into the mainline denominations hemorrhage of members. Tuesday the Sims returned home from Korea and so at 10:30am we got in the trotro (big white 15 passenger van, standard of course) and I drove us to meet mommy and daddy! We made Kirk and Nicole a welcome home sign crafted out of printer paper and crayons…. Eli and Aidan preciously designed it. When the parents walked out of the airport doors after only missing their children for 10 days, tears filled their eyes as both boys ran while screaming, “Mommy…Daddy!!!!” Writing this it makes me see more clearly how happily the prodigal son was received. It makes me wonder about the delight God has when one of His children come home.

Then Wednesday I left the house at 9 am. Sounds like as soon as the parents got home I was outta there huh! Well there’s some truth to that, but I actually was going into town with Claire and Tatum to get some household items. Broom, mop, and bucket. Nothing too fun. But I have to say I was really excited because I had planned to move into my new house this week. The bed and wardrobe are made and ready to be used. Gifty sowed my shower curtain so I can take a nice cold shower. So after Wednesdays all day, and I mean all day shopping adventure, I went home, ate supper and went to sleep excited about moving to my apartment the next day. Which was my birthday!

I had a terrible headache Wednesday night and got sick in the course of the night. Then on an empty stomach took some prescription headache medicine and then proceeded to have crazy dreams and feel like my heart was going to leap out of my chest at any moment. I won’t take that medicine again on an empty stomach. Which on a side note, I feel like I have been taking A LOT of medicine since I’ve been here. Seems like every day something new with physical ailments comes up. So you can be praying for and of the devils attempts at physical pain to be cast off…Anyway….

So I woke up at 7am July 27th with a knock on my bedroom door to find Gifty, Nicole and Eli entering with a water gun in tow! Yes, Gifty’s idea to come in and give me a couple of birthday squirts to get the day started off right. I love her personality. She’s really funny and hates to loose at Ludu, a Ghanaian game sort of like Sorry. (Side note…we’ve played a good bit the past week…she really hates to loose, almost as much as me. Actually maybe even more!) Since my previous nights sleep was less than restful, I stayed in bed until around 8 am. Then it was time to go to the market to get all the fixings for Fufu! Now nothing turns out the way you want or think it will. Isn’t that the story of our lives? We go to the market to buy a woma and a base. The woma is a piece of wood about 6 feet tall they hold in their hands and pound the mixture of cassava and plantain in the base to make fufu. It usually takes about an hour to pound. They were going to charge us way too much for the fufu pounder so we ended up borrowing it from our landlord. The fufu is like a doughy bread texture with a light film around it. It’s really not much of a tasty item as much as it is a filler to make the belly full. Then you pour a soup, over the fufu. We used my favorite Ghanaian soup groundnut or peanut butter soup with chicken. Now a Ghanaian can eat a bowl full of fufu with soup, I however had four bites and was satisfied with my fufu experience. You don’t chew fufu, you simply pick up some with your fingers, yes soup with fingers is much more fun than with a spoon, and put the fufu in and swallow. It’s not that it’s bad; it just doesn’t have a whole lot of taste. And it’s very time consuming to make. Gifty and Mathew (he’s our neighbor across from us who helps work in the yard) did the pounding. I gave a feeble attempt as a white girl trying to pound the fufu and after four of five pounds I realized yes, I am an obrouni and I’m really not that strong!

Back to the morning market experience I had the best phone call. My first international call coming in…from my Mom! It was only 9:15 am my time, so that means it was 4:15 am Mississippi time. She sang me happy birthday and said that dad was probably going to be upset for her calling without him since he was out at Camp meeting. But it was truly a great surprise!

We finished shopping around 11 am and headed home to realize we forgot the main ingredient, groundnut paste. As we were driving we went through a roadblock and Nicole didn’t have her license, but thankfully the police lady let us go since we were a block from the house. We didn’t even have to pay! Let’s just say there are some crooked cops, not all, but some. We got back in the trotro and headed back into market for groundnut paste and the blessing was we found a stand close to the road and didn’t have to try and find a place to park!

We headed home again and unpacked all of our fresh veggies from the market and I went over to my apartment to get ready to move in!!!! I started cleaning and there it was. Everywhere. Mold. Mold. Mold. And more mold. Not just a little but everywhere on every inch of my bamboo wardrobe and bed. I started thinking, “Did I make an unwise decision on purchasing this and now I’m living with the consequences?” Then I started thinking about the money I just wasted and felt very unsteward like. Then I called Tatum to tell her not to come over to help move in and she immediately looked online for a solution to the mold problem. She and the Mozley’s came over for fufu that night so she gave me the print out for a bleach solution. It was truly a great birthday despite the fact the mold was on the back of my mind. Nicole made a chocolate cake chocolate icing birthday cake and we played charades. I missed celebrating with my friends back home, but it’s neat how the Lord provided people here to celebrate with! By the way thanks to everyone who sent birthday happies! I’m still getting them so it makes for excitement when I go to the post office with the possibility of getting a package!

Friday I was going to work on the mold situation and ended up going with Kirk and Nicole to tape them speaking about mobilizing Ghanaians as foreign missionaries. And speaking of packages we stopped to pick up one that came in. Now to pick up package I have to go into downtown Accra. Very busy. The first time I did this I had no idea where to go. I think I blogged about it. Nicole and I went in and there was the same guy who helped me before. Mr. Molley. I’m starting to build up a rapport with him, so add him to your prayers. Each time I go there I will try and get to know him and Caroline, the lady who helps him a little better. Back to the Sims…They have a vision Ghana is strategically placed in West Africa and can be mobilizers to impact West Africa. They spoke to the Ghana Methodist Lay Conference about becoming mission minded. They used the key word in Acts 1:8 “and.” Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria AND to the ends of the earth. Ghana isn’t exempt from sending those called out…to the ends of the earth. This consumed all of Friday as we left the meeting Friday night we also got a little lost in Accra at night. It was a fun adventure. Everyone was very gracious trying to give three obrouni’s directions!

Saturday was a down day. It was great to relax in the morning. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and just right temperatures. Many people in Mississippi have told me it’s extremely warm there…really plain ole HOT. I don’t think I’ve blogged this yet, but since we’re in rainy season the temperature here is GREAT. It’s been in the 80’s during the day and 70’s at night. Later on Saturday afternoon I used the bleach concoction on my furniture and read a little outside on my porch. (Thanks Sarah/Pat/Anna/Russ Tiff/Alicia for my new book I don’t know which one gave it to me J… God is Closer than You think...I’m loving it!) I ended up crashing around 6ish that night and woke up at 6 am Sunday morning. Sunday was rainy all day. It brought truth to the rainy season. We went to church and this reminded me that yes, culture shock is setting in.

I am constantly reminded of how thankful I am of The Orchard, my home church. However it’s also one of the many issues I think God is brining to light. Sometimes I compare every worship experience to there. See I have realized that I like to do what I like to do. One of these comes out in the fact that I love worshiping God and I connected easily at The Orchard. I know we teach, while on staff I taught this too, that it’s not about us. This is God’s story and we’re not the main character. I’m quickly learning that I know that, but often I don’t really live that way.

I have some culture shock setting in that I dread going to church on Sunday. This is a 360-degree turn from when I left the States. Worshiping at The Orchard was wonderful, for me. I love the people, serving, and the small groups. Not to say we’re exempt from all problems, but I loved going to church there. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with loving where you go. I actually am glad to know there are places that’s it’s really fun. But I don’t want to constantly be comparing and thinking it’s the only way to do worship, because I know that’s not right either. I go to church here, not able to understand the language and it’s VERY hard to give all of me and worship Him. I’m quick to say I’m naïve about some things, but I knew it was going to be a challenge corporately worshiping here. I’m a Gen X, media savvy, get me engaged with the “new stuff” kind of person. So being in a place where traditional hymns, from the Colonial period no less, dressing your best on Sunday morning and screaming from the pulpit are not my idea of exciting worship. So here I am trying to figure out exactly what God wants me to learn. But if it’s not about me then maybe God’s saying learn that I love you and you can love me no matter where you are. Even when you do things you don’t want to do? I know it’s not about me and I really want that to ring true. I have to wonder how many people here are walking with their Best Friend and are growing deep. Then I think that’s really not my call. That’s between them and Jesus. But then I think I must have some responsibility because it wasn’t until God brought me to The Orchard I realized that walking with Him is exciting, creative, hard, fun and exhausting. And He also provided people to pour that into and teach me. So maybe I am here to help a couple of young women continue grow deep. I honestly yearn to see Jesus’ face in every day tasks here. It’s funny that right now it’s hard for me to see His face in the place where you would think it should be showing up the most … on Sunday morning.

the boys. 2 and 4. whew. July 23

2006-07-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

Laughing, crying, dancing, shouting, tickling and lots of night night. That’s what last week consisted of plus changing diapers and cooking “substantial meals.” I have a new found respect for parenting after the past 9 days. I have known that parenting is quite an in-depth and exhausting yet invigorating task. But now I realize how much love and daily living outside of yourself it requires. Aidan and Eli are almost two and almost four respectively. They get up around 6am every morning and don’t stop until 7pm that night. I’ve been reflecting this week (after 7p when they go to sleep) about what it’s like for God and His children. I wonder if He gets so exhausted because He’s been trying to teach us the same thing but yet we continue on the wrong path. Choosing unwisely. But each day is new and it seems with each day comes the next bit of strength. Then just when you think…this is not going to matter a light goes off and someone actually listens to what you’re saying! This morning Eli and I spent 20 minutes on the floor learning about sharing. He has a Thomas the tank and another train that hook on to each other and he doesn’t like for Aidan to come and play with them. So after a snatching episode from Aidan we took twenty minutes of me holding him while he cried for his toys back and constantly saying, “You have to share.” After about twenty minutes Aidan came in and Eli let him play with the trains…I felt victorious. It worked. It seems like Eli really learned how to share!!!! But then an hour after that…repeat situation. I am amazed how God never gives up. If our parenting is just an echo of the amount of patience and love we have for our children, His love truly is boundless.

We have had tons of laughs and Gifty and I have really grown closer this past week. You know the saying “you become like a child when you have children.” I think there is some truth to that. I found myself looking forward to playing night night. That’s where you pretend to fall asleep and then wait for Aidan and Eli to come over and say WAKE UP. Then you scream real loud and throw them in the air! It’s great fun! We jumped on the bed every night after our neighborhood walk. They kids and parents here love Aidan and Eli. They constantly ask, “Are they twins?” We have cows that graze in front of our house so every morning and afternoon Eli runs outside side saying “MoooooooMoooo” Since he’s two and living in a foreign country his language development isn’t to where he’s speaking complete sentences since he has double the amount of words. My name is something like “gargar” and Gifty’s name is “gifee.” Going anywhere with these two if fun and they really enjoy car rides. On the hunt for bulldozers and dump trucks, which they call tippa trucks here because the tip out the contents inside.

Going to the Accra zoo was interesting. Since I was in the North a couple of weeks ago and saw elephants in their wild natural habitat I thought I couldn’t top that. Sure enough do you know that at the zoo in Africa there were no elephants! Wouldn’t have thought that huh. There were however tons of snakes. Not my favorite.

The other major God thing that has developed over this past week is the growing of Gifty’s and my relationship. We have laughed and prayed and talked about issues this week. We both like to be silly and loud. We got lost in Accra a couple of times and laughed about it together. Her closest relative lives six hours away so we both have those feelings associated with being away from family. We are both in the latter 20’s and have shared culturalisms from Ghana and America. God has put an awesome person in my path.

I also had a meeting last Sunday with a guy from Atlanta. He works with local Ghanaians discipling them so they can in turn disciple other nationals. I’m going to go up to Kumasi in the second week of August to shoot some video for them. Not going to edit it, just interviews and file footage. I really need to find a tutor and do language training. I’m calling a girl named Ama today I met at a print shop. I went with Claire because she’s involved in starting a new international school here and this girl was there looking for a job. I just asked how she was and what she was doing and that’s when she told us “looking for a job.” She got hired and Claire went back in the next week. Ama is taking Linguistics at University of Legon. So I think she might try and tutor us…I just got her number last night, so I’m going to call today. Oh and guess what’s in four days????? That’s right 27 on the 27th! Hooray. And I have to say I have the best friends in the whole world. Seriously. Thanks to Sarah for spear heading my “surprise birthday box.” We had talked how neither of us has ever had a surprise birthday party and weren’t going to get one the next two years. So she sent me a box with all the party supplies, hats, noisemakers and TIERRA (Marley would be proud) to make my birthday a celebration…THANKS SO MUCH!!!!! Also, I’ve gotten several letters and e-mails from everyone…it’s really a great encouragement! Love to all!

Margaret

The Golf

2006-07-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is my car....picture me dying on the road a couple of times, it's a standard, but for the most part...Jesus has helped me pick up driving this thing pretty quick! I feel confident driving into Accra...where it's super busy! Thanks for the prayers for this...I know it sounds silly to be nervous about driving, but hey I hadn't driven a standard in SO long!

July 18 2006

2006-07-18T05:01:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday the 18th! I'm over at the Mozley's! Imagine that...using their free wireless internet! So last week was interesting. Monday started off and I went to try and find some information about getting into some language training. I went to Legon University, 10 minutes from my house, because it seemed like the doors were opening in that direction. I went there and I walked in to the tutor's office, that had just arrived 10 minutes earlier another door I thought was opening, then he wanted WAY too much per hour to learn TWI. Back to the drawing board! But, I believe the one of the reasons the non chance meeting was to occur was I met a single missionary girl named Sherri. She is taking Twi from this guy and in a matter of two minutes I seized the opportunity to ask her number and we ended up being at the same function Thursday night just three days after we met!!!! It's neat how God's providing some relationships here. However, the starting tinges of culture shock are hitting a little. I miss air conditioning, hot water, clean walls and nice toilets. Yes every one of those is material. I'm not ashamed to say it. I also miss my family. I'm so grateful because my sister and nephew are moving back home with my parents, but I'm also sad i won't be able to be there with them. All this to say, I am having the repeating thoughts of "What is my identity in Christ?" I went to church at an international church this past Sunday and the person teaching that morning said those words again!!! I think God's asking me to work on some things. Since I've arrived I've been to two church services. (The second Sunday I was so sick I stayed in bed...by the way I got sick in the North...and I finally got some antibiotics...so now I'm getting better!) Anyway- I knew before I left it was going to be a challenge connecting and giving all of me to God in a style of worship that is different than what I most easily connect. I have learned worshiping on Sundays, isn't about us, it isn't about if we like the music or not or if we get a lot out of a sermon. It's directly related to how much we give of ourselves. It's intended so that we may pour out love for a God who freely and constantly lavishes His love on us, but let me tell you this is a challenge for me right now. I compare everything I hear and see to what I'm comfortable with. I feel like God is saying, Margaret don't get comfortable....and even when you think you're not, you are? I hope that makes sense as a reader on this blog. I don't want to compare. But one thing i'm learning about Ghanian culture is that people lie. All the time. I was talking about language at Legon earlier. One of the reason's I'm not going there is the teacher flat out lied. Here you of course bargain for everything and always have to be thinking of how you will negotiate. Some days it's fun. Other times you want someone to say what they want for the price they want and be done with it! :) Hey that's how it is in America. That's what I'm used to....This is part of the culture shock training I have been taught. So the good thing is is that I realize this is part of living in a different culutre...now i'm asking God..."WHAT DO I DO????" So back to my identity in Christ...I think God's asking me to step outside of the normalcies and really rely on Him. It's definetly a daily activity. There are times in the car I think...ok Lord...I know you're here so let's go. I hate that it seems whereever I am I want to be somewhere else. Does that make sense? I keep looking and thinking about the next thing that will happen. When really I want to be able to just be and enjoy the moment I'm in. Knowing my identity in Christ. Nicole said she was reading Brother Andrew and he says "I feel just as close to God washing dishes as I do when I take Holy Communion." This is great! So today I'm again asking for the Lord to teach me how to love the moments. Today's Psalm is 23. One of the most used and well known verses in the Bible....He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. ...This is what I'm meditating on today. As for the rest of last week...we picked up Tatum from the airport...she's a single missionary here for a year living with the Mozley's....and I'm thankful for that. Also, last week there was a get together as Camron, a teacher who was here for 5/6 months, as his going away party. I got to meet a lot of the missionaries here in Accra and thankfully so as my cold developed into a full blown sinus infection...I had met a nurse who told me what to get at the pharmacy! Yes, you go into the pharmacy and tell them what drugs you need...no prescription neccessary!!! :) This week until the 25th of July I'm helping take care of Adian and Eli. They're the two little guys who live at the house with me...they're too cute. Last night I was up at 3am with Adian. Their parents are in Seoul Korea for a five year meeting of the Methodist Conference....anyway. Everything here is good. Times of emotional ups and downs, just like in America, but God is ALWAYS here and I"m so thankful of having my Best friend here with me. I do miss family and friends...but it's truly a blessing to be here.

july 9th-update

2006-07-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Accra. It's 10pm here and I'm Mike and Claire's house using their internet!!! The trip was a great experience for several reasons. There were five of us. Claire, Mike's wife, Anna their daughter and two of her friends from highschool back in the States. We traveled from the southern most part of Ghana to the northernmost. Total roundgtrip we're thinking around 1600 miles. The first day we drove to Kumasi and got there in time to see the Bible club that started when Mike and Claire lived in Kumasi. We drove through the eastern side of Ghana which is how I picture "Africa" to look like. Since it's the rainy season the bush, rural areas, are totally green. When I came in November we went North, but it was dry season. It was like I was seeing something completely new this time. We drove through several small towns and stopped at Linda Dor's on the way to Kumasi. After about six hours of driving we pulled over to Linda's and used the facilities. You pay 10,000 cedis or 10 US cents to purchase the toilet paper and can use the toilet there. Nice and clean actually. So on the way back to the car we ran into a couple of Oboroni's (white people). They are missionaries in Kumasi and were headed to Accra. We greeted them, in Ghanian culture you ALWAYS greet, and then headed back to our car. When Anna, Davis and Ryan came back to say..."we have a flat." But let me tell you God is GREAT! The family we had just been talking to pulled over to look at the car. He had left ALL his tools at home since their truck was full, but he had the ONE tool we needed. The thing that helps lower the tire from underneath the car...I have no idea what that's called. so. :) Then there was a place across the street called a vulcanizer where we aired up the tire and were on our way. What else is cool is that we had been in areas of NOTHING. Driving for HOURS and once we got to the place we were taken care of, and Claire got to see a friend she hadn't seen in a year. They had pulled up right as we were fininshing putting on the tire!!!

Then we arrived in Kumasi and went to the Bible Club. There are children there throughout the community. Afterwards we took some of the people home. We went to the home of ne of the little kids Nana, he's 12 I think. He lives behind a house that's being built with his mom and sister. By kerosene lantern we were invited for dinner but didn't eat as it was probably everything they had. Then we looked at how he was learning math. They wrote with chalk on the side of the kitchen hut and then they showed us some prized pictures of his deceased father. One of the most inspiringly unselfish parts during this is when Nana took out the twizzler that we had given out at Bible club. He saved it to give to his mother.

The next day Tuesday, we went to Obuasi orphanage. They have 94 kids there and do an amazing ministry. I e-mailed the prayer team earlier tonight to keep praying that my heart continues to be burdened by these kids. There are so many orphans here. This might sound bad, but I'm keeping a blog to be honest so...here it goes. In the states about a year ago I met a friend who has a HUGE heart for orphans and has worked with them overseas. She constantly and unknowingly challenged me to talk with God about taking care of orphans. Figurtavely and literally. So I started praying that God would increase the compassion in my heart. It's not something I'm naturally inclined to do. But I felt like God kept putting people in my path and orphans on my heart. The Bible talks about our fruits of the spirit and to pray for the ones we don't see as they would increase. Kindness, gentleness and self control. I'm a kind person, but I am not naturally compassionate to care for orphans. But through prayer God continues to work on my heart. The day at this orphanage helped me see that just holding a baby for two hours is precious. When you're hot and want to leave have self control to know that you really can stay a little longer. Now, I'm not saying that we're all called to start orphanages and I honestly know I'm not, but Jesus loves those children. If it's not natural that I have compassion then pray for it. He definetly is teaching me that He dwells and works. I held Aquia, 1 year old weighing about 15 pounds for about two hours or so. Every breathe she wheezed, but eventually she got to the point where she trusted me. Selfishly she made me feel good, but i think God gave me that moment to say, yeah I'm changing your heart. Sit tight.

That night we went over to some American's and celebrated the FOURTH of July!!! No fireworks, but we had hamburgers and potato salad...and CHIPS they were Pringles...but boy were they good! (no rootbeer...buy hey...can't have it all right!)

By the way I have to say to my nephew HAPPY BIRTHDAY! He turned four on the Third!!!!!

So on Wednesday the 5th we drove from Kumasi up North to Bolgatanga. We stayed in the middle of nowhere and ate rice and some kind of meat??? Not too sure what it was...but it makes for a nice inside joke here! We went to another orphanage in an area that is extremely Muslim. We arrived just in time to see them eat dinner. Of course they invited us, but we passed. The man who God gave the vision to start this orphanage is named Abraham. There are 47 kids at this orphanage and they all go to a Christian school there in that village. In Bolga, as they call it for short, Islam is highly prevalent. Abraham receives a lot of opposition, but the blessing is that people are seeing these kids learn, be cared for and I wonder how many are affected by this. I wasn't there for a lengthy amount of time, but you could see the kids have fun playing games together. It is inspiring to see someone like Abraham be selfless to start this place.

The next day we went to a game park, where lo and behold I saw some large animals native to Africa. You know in Southern Ghana we don't have elephants or lions like you picture Africa to have. So I was about fifty yards from elephants and it was neat. We also met some people on that trip. Chris, a guy working with the Peace Corps and his dad and grandad brought two boys from the village he was working with. It was exciting to see the two African kids get to venture out of their village and see something like this. Most of the times here people don't travel because of the expense, so I imagine it's a great opportunity for those boys.

We then drove to Nvrango and stayed there for the next two nights. We arrived in time Thursday night to eat dinner and then go to church in a village called Zwarungoo.(I think that's how you spell it) This Christian church sits in the middle of a traditional village. Meaning the people there, called FraFra's, worship ancestors. Being a Christian there is somewhat difficult. We met a young man who was thrown out of his compound for being a Christian and was cut with a knife by his father. They let him back in about a year ago, so there's no telling what God will do through him.

This particular church sits in an area that has alot of spiritual warfare. Please pray for this village called Zwarungoo. We went to church the second night and during prayer time realized that one of the girls, Lizzie 21, had passed out earlier in the day and was unconscious. The moon was so bright that night that we (the whole church) walked through the fields to the compound where she was. As we entered into the compound of huts people started praying aloud. Thankfully we had a car and the family decided we could take her to the hospital. Claire took her and some of the family members and Anna, Davis, Ryan and I started walking. There were five other Ghanians with us and we started heading towards town. Once Claire took Lizzie to the clinic she would come back for us. I can't tell you the experience and the vast amount of joy and sorrow during that walk. Lizzie and I had a great conversation earlier that day. She has been taken in by this family as her biological family doensn't care too much for her. She has a heart for the Lord. It is sad because no one knows what illness she has and the people in the village don't ask her about it when she comes to. The walk to the clinic though was joyous as we sang songs in Twi walking down the road as Oboroni's and Ghanians singing praises. I know this is kind of hard to understand. But picture a completely dark night, no street lights, no paved roads, dust everywhere, people standing outside. We had miles to walk and pray for Lizzie together. Amazing.

The thing that I have noticed this week in my thoughts is primarily I don't know why God has called me to a VERY traditional place. I rest in the fact that He knows BEST and I am committed to serving Him wherever but that doesn't mean I don't wonder why He's sent me to a place that puts on your Sunday best to go to church. I love a come as you are place. Appearance is very important in dress and in faith. I have been blessed to be in a community where we admit we're sinners and have problems, let's work on them together asking for God's guidance. Women cook, clean and wait on the man. You greet others when you pass through their town, even when you don't have time. Sometimes people stop to see each other just because you're going there, not that you REALLY want to see that person... I wonder with my personality and mindset if I will say or do something to offend someone. Then I think about how Pat was teaching the Sunday before I left the States. Do we speak with the fear of the Lord? I of course want to be incarnational and try to understand the culture here. But I also want to make sure I'm walking on the side of what is God's culture and not was is learned Ghanian/American culuture. I think this is a fine line we walk wherever we are as Christians. I'm just being stretched a little here. Which is great.

Well it's late here so I'm signing off...I'll blog more later. hopefully be able to add some pics too...

branching out- ghana, west africa

2006-07-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well I have tried to update my blog three times this week. Let's see if this one works? I knew finding time to get online would be tough here, but getting the time right when the net actually works here is the biggest problem. It goes in and out all the time and nothings consistent. However with the World Cup going on our electricity hasn't gone out yet!!! Everyone here wants to see the screen.

I have sent out some e-mails tonight, don't know if those have gone through, so I'm going to let you know what to pray for and what's going on here.

This week has flown by. I've been shopping this week, and for those who know I don't really like to shop a whole lot anymore. It seems the older I get the less and less I like the whole thing. Well in Ghana, no price is ever final and usually to get what you need...you have to go several places. So I spent three days in a row shopping and looking and stopping on the side of the road for a bed, a wardrobe a chair, food, cleaning supplies and other basics to start a house. Seems like getting all this started could be a headache huh? Well it can. But the Lord really has shown me His grace. By this I mean, the people I live with know connections and I have gotten a fair price to get a bed made. Notice I said made. Everything here is custom order. Which means you have to negotiate a price. It's definetly a lot more relationship orientated.

So I have gotten the order in for my house furniture and tried to help stock the refrigerator in the main house, where I'm staying right now until everything in my little apartment is ready. I've spent time traveling the city and trying to learn where to go for what. It's really busy here, so traveling anywhere takes about an hour.

One thing I'm praying about right now is how God is leading me to "feed the poor." There are a ton of beggars and they come to your window when the car's stopped. I know we are to help feed the poor, so I think I might try and buy some food to have on hand in the car to give them instead of money. There are some who beg instead of work...so I don't want to continue the cycle, but also want to do what God's asking.

Also, this week I'm traveling into the North Region of Ghana. There are five of us going. We are going to many places. Hopefully I'll get to update once I get back next Sunday.

This weekend we had our Ghana team meeting retreat. It went great as we are trying to hammer out some Objectives we are trying to accomplish, under God's instruction of course. We also had some great fellowship and worship time together which was AWESOME. This morning we talked about God's Breathe from our inception and how He breathed up close and personal breathe into us to create us. Then we broke off into small groups for prayer. Bbeing in a small group praying whatever came to our hearts was very intimate time with Daddy.

I'm reading the Psalms with my dad and today was Psalm 8. I was standing and looking at the beach when I read it. God's timing is amazing isn't it.

By nephew's birthday is tomorrow...HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROGAN. I love you.

All is well here. Culture shock hasn't set in yet. As we reflected on God's faitfulness today, someone said, "I'm dripping in His faithfulness and it's hard to pick out just a couple of the things He has done." That's how I feel right now. He is caring and watching and nurturing me right now and I am VERY thankful.

ghana vs. brasil!

2006-06-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Well...it's over for ghana black stars. It was an interesting time for me as I learned all about "football." A group of us went down to a Champs, a local hang out (did i just say hang out...wow that sounds old!) Anyway, there was a mixture of Ghanians and internationals watching Brasil make some impresive moves and get some "lucky" breaks. Now, since I just learned all about football I'm no expert. But based on the crowds reactions and the people I was with...there was some bad calls...:( However, the experience of being here during the game....AMAZING. So today was a good day. I went price shopping for a bed and some other furniture for my apartment! I drove my car (around the block) for the first time today. It was ok I didn't die but I wasn't in major traffic either!! We're about to eat spagehetti...Bec I know you wish you were here to eat it!!!

day two in ghana

2006-06-26T05:49:00.000-07:00

It's my second full day in Ghana and I'm at an internet cafe down the road from one of the other missionaries houses. It's about twenty minutes from my house. Sorry no pics yet...So far everything is going great though. I had one thing lost on the airplane, but it can be replaced. Culture shock hasn't hit, yet. I've gotten two good nights rests in an interim bed until I can buy mine. I'm going to a house today to look at a bed and some furntiture for my apartment.(they're moving so hopefully it'll be CHEAP) Sorry to disappoint ... I"m not living in a mud hut! The family I live with Kirk and Nicole, Claire Mozley and her two daughters were at the airport to pick me up. It was nice and comforting to have them as a welcoming crew. Nicole, dressed appropriately, was in one of those funny Dr. Suess looking hats designed as the Ghanian flag...there's a football (soccer) game tomorrow at 1pm. Go Ghana...hopefully someone will teach me the rules to "football!" I'm going to another missionarie's house to watch the game. They host a "youth" group for Ghanians/Americans so it should be pretty fun!

This weeks' plans are to get my apartment kind of settled in to, meet the Bishop of the Methodist Church and go to our team meeting this weekend.

I'll attach some pics of my apartment...as soon as I can get them. The Mission Society has a great realationship with the MCG (Methodist Church Ghana) and it's culturally appropriate to meet the Bishop upon arrival. I'll also probably start applying for my work visa. Our team meeting this weekend is designed to keep our team in touch and build spiritually and emotionally. I'm looking forward to this. I have learned a couple more phrases in Twi. Not that I would know how to spell them, but when someone asks "how are you doing?" I know how to respond! Hey it's the little victories I'm celebrating.

We went to a Ghanian service Sunday morning. Culturally people dance and sing a lot, especially during offering. They sing out of hymnals sometimes, which I'm not sure if they even 'really' like it? and then sing memorized chanting songs which someone told me is the more "contemporary way to attract young people." Honestly I found myself judging the culture during the service. Bet you didn't think I would say that! Just being honest. I found myself wondering after two hours when I was tired and ready for a nap if some of them felt the same way? I am going to have to adjust to the lengthy services. Plus it's hard to stay attentive when you don't know ONE word they're saying. But then again, I knew I would probably think that, it's new and foreign. I'm just trying to appreicate it and know that God is here. And even when I'm thinking "such and such way" is this or that, I've got plenty of things to worship God for.... (i just ended that sentence with a preposition, my pr teacher would die if he saw that!)

leaving today

2006-06-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in Marley's house for the last time as a "roomate," and I know Daddy is here. So far the past two years in preparation to being a foriegn missionary have been a great journey with many ups and downs. I'm sure by moving to Ghana those ups and downs will remain and there will be great experiences, relationships and opportunities. I have to say this morning and last night went very smoothly with packing and I know God's prayer warriors for this mission are being faithful. I'm not nervous one bit...well yet..of course we're not at the airport! My back is hurting a little from packing but besides that I'm good to go. I read my Utmost for His Highest this morning and it was talking about living outside of ourselves. I'm praying that today.

I told someone the other day that I know the timeline of leaving is God's. It's taken two years to get to today and I'm ready.

It has been an exciting and exhausting three weeks. I am very appreciate of the going away parties and gifts everyone has given. I have gotten to hear some of my friends pray outloud, something very much out of their comfort zone. I've gotten to read letters from people who feel God might be calling them overseas. I've gotten to love and be loved on on a way that echo's Gods amazing love for us. It reminds me that God's plan for this mission has way more to do than with just me. . I leave Memphis at 7:25 tonight, get to Amsterdam at 11:15a their time and Accra at 6:35p on Saturday, their time. I'll write when I can. Thanks and keep praying I can already feel the prayers.

starting to get closer

2006-05-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

It's Friday night. May 19th and I've got roughly one month until I head for Ghana. I'm getting a lot of questions like, "Are you scared? How are living conditions there? Are you going to have access to the internet? What are you going to be doing?" So I thought I would answer to the best of my ability some of these faq's!!

For me, I believe God gives me just enough insight at times so I am just nieve enough to be excited. Yes there are days when I think, "What am I doing? Why am I leaving a place that seems to be a good fit for me (Tupelo)." I have moved at least once a year since 1997 and would have thought by now I might be a little more settled. My friend Tiffany looked at me yesterday and said, "You know, you'll be in Africa longer than you've been anywhere in the past nine years." Ironic. So am I scared to go? Not right now. But again, I haven't lived in Africa and I haven't had to be alone at night in Africa. There are a lot of unknowns at this point, but honestly God has been preparing me for unknowns for quite sometime now. Moving to Oxford was a great big unkown and pursuing foreign mission work without knowing for a year where God's plan of branching out was an unkown. The list could go on. There are times where the enemy attacks and really plays on some fears I have though. I would say right now that is an area that I'm really praying through.

Living conditions. I have tried to upload a picture of my house, but blogspot is being tempermental and it won't post. I am going to live with a family of four named the Sims. They have a "boys quarters" as it's frequently called in Africa. This is like an apartment. There are two bedrooms with doors accessing outside and an additional room with a kitchen and bath area. Each room is seperate from the other, but it's a nice place. I think most people think of mud huts when thinking Africa, so this is a paradigm shift for some. When I started this process I thought I would live in a hut, in a small village being as "incarnational" as possible. I am actually going to live in a city of 2 million people, larger than anywhere I've lived before. In smaller villages I know foriegn missionaries who live in conditions relative to the people, however in many readings and research I have found something I didn't realize. Many times in African culture, and I'm referring to Ghana only as I have not been to any other country in Africa, Americans are viewed as having money. To live in conditions like a mud hut actually places a wedge between the people foreign missionaries are connecting with. Americans are viewed as people with wealth and why would someone want to live in that type of environment? This was new to me as I thought it would be beneficial to live as "incarnationally" as possible including living conditions. Through training I have learned the key is to go into any culture as a learner. This means you're ready to be quiet and learn from nationals, asking tons of questions and not assuming you have the answer. I pray my mouth will be slow to speak and ask tons of questions :) I will have access to internet in Accra. It is very industrialized and I will be able to keep up with communication when in town.

That leaves "What will you be doing?" I prefer to answer this with four words. Loving God/ Loving People. I know that's not the best vision to climb on board with, but those four words have been ringing in my head since the day I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me. I was on my way to Tupelo, MS from Oxford, MS (one of many many trips) and I was talking to Daddy. This was sometime between September-November 2005. And the answer was Love Me and love My people. Wow! I mean I think I knew that...but that's what God was saying to me...love Me love Me love Me...don't worry about what you're going "to do." Then I went to Africa in November...great God story...this sweet couple in Chicago Kristen and Mike couldn't make the trip. The didn't know me from Adam, and I'm still not really sure how they found out Ghana was one of four countries on my heart. But they donated a ticket so I could go!! November 26- I was in Ghana. I had taken a little sony hand held digital video camera with me and shot some footage of several ministries some missionaries are working with. And through conversations with the missionaries and a feeling placed on my heart I felt the avenue God was opening up for me to show His love on other people was using videography. It's funny His plan. I have a degree in broadcasting from MSU and PR. I have been in PR since I graduated but have always remained with a burning in my heart to get back into media. So, He's letting me! The plans are to work alongside other missionaries and help document some of the things God is doing. It's going to be hard to capture this on video. Especially with people who have traditionaly been exploited by people coming in, taking pictures and then leaving with no explanation. So, I feel like I will build relationships with the missionaries and Ghanians and then shoot the footage as God leads. This could take months to develop relationships with the Ghanian people ... that part is an unknown. The other area I'm passionate about is small groups. I don't know if God will have me lead or attend or start a small group. Realizing small groups will look different in Africa as opposed to America. I'm praying about how it will look. So- long story long...that's what it looks like so far. Wow- what a long blog- If you've made it through my thoughts today...you get a big :)

couple more hiking pics

2006-05-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

on top of the rock

inside the rock

2006-04-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

getting started

2006-04-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

MTI Mountain Hike

L to R Margaret, Shannon headed to Thailand, Angela headed to Kazakhstan and Nance...still waiting on the place!

These are the ladies of MTI, mission training international, who ventured off into the rockie mountains for an exciting hike Saturday April 22, 2006! Ironically none of the guys from training hiked the 11,000 foot incline???? Hear us roar! Seriously the view was amazing. We are meeting in small groups here at MTI and we have talked about God's Majesty and Holiness. Being on top of a mountain and looking out into creation so vast you can't comprehend the size of mountains, is pretty amazing and majestic.