So great to be back at the home! Traveling was interesting, but it was weird to be in Ghana and not be at the home with the kids cause I never left for more than maybe two days the whole time I was here before. It's fun cause now I can do more school things and things I wanted to get going with the kids since there aren't so many projects to get ready for the anniversary going on. So I've been doing lots of reading with them, writing sponsor letters, getting some new programs going that some teachers can take over, praying with them... I let them convince me to join them for cultural dance yesterday, which was suprisingly fun and I could kindof do the one we were learning... the kids are waking up and calling my name so I guess it's time.

So it's been a while and I have a few post on my computer that I haven't been able to get posted, but I don't have that here so there will be a couple old ones later. This past week has been a little different from any other I've had in Ghana. I am traveling with the summer team throughout Ghana visiting, ministering with, and praying for the different staff, offices, and school ministries. It has been a good chunk of driving, but a lot of fun getting to know a lot of the staff who I met while I was here before but didn't get to know.
Just a quick rundown of a few of the places we've been.

Monday- we drove to Koforidua which is a larger town north of Haven of Hope. There we saw their office where they do some children's clubs and have a library, visited the area where they do street ministry to talk with some of the people they worked with, and visited the stone quarries there where they are forming relationships, evangelizing, and watching for children who might be trafficked as young children are often tracked in to work in the quarries. We also visited a children's hospital where one of the women goes every couple of weeks to meet, pray and share the gospel with all of the children there. It was great to see the relationships she has built with the staff and what she is doing. They actually gathered ALL of the children and families who were well enough to come and sit in a room while we shared some scriptures with them, prayed, and sang a few songs. Man I wish that were an option in hospitals in the US.

Tuesday- we were in Sogakope in the Volta region. Sister Mary came to meet us and debrief the team on what she is doing and what the trokosi project is. (They are women who were shrine slaves who ECM has worked to liberate and they meet with them to disciple them and train them in a trade, you can read more about it on their website ecmafrica.com.) We went to talk to a few of them and hear their stories and share some scriptures and encouragement with them as well as to visit a couple of the shrines that have been liberated. The priests still aren't saved, but they no longer keep women as slaves. There are many more here that do though. To get to one of them we loaded onto a canoe that had a few inches of water in it and was about one inch out of the water... quite the adventure, but we made it across and back!

Wednesday- We visited Aflao and did similar things to what we did on Tuesday with the staff there. Talked to another trokosi and we also saw the new property ECM had purchased that will be used for training women and that will also have a place where women can stay for small periods of time if they need to escape a bad situation quickly. It is exciting to see the start of a project that has so much potential to change people's lives.

Today we drove to Biriwa, near Cape Coast to the office there, and I got to spend some time with Peter.  I'm not sure if I wrote about him ever last year, but he is a boy who used to stay at Haven of Hope, but because he is HIV-AIDS positive he was unable to stay around that many kids. He is now living with an extended family member and has a sponsor to help with medications and things. He definitely isn't looking healthier, but not too much worse. It was so great to see him and pray with him a little bit. How he handles his situation that he has almost no control over and that keeps him from doing normal things that boys his age here do is amazing. He definitely has developed a heart for the Lord in his 14 years.
My time is going to cut out so  I'm going to post this without it being completely finished because they want to kick me out of the cafe!

It's all coming back to me now

                                                                                                                                                    June 19

I didn’t know for sure how I would do jumping back into life here in Ghana, I knew I had a better idea how to do and find things than I did before, but I was a little concerned when I said I could come to market to help with shopping last Monday and ended up doing the food shopping for the team alone. I was told “We will drop you here walk in that direction and we will pick you up at a busy street.” I thought, “I don’t know what street, I haven’t been in market for a while, it is impossible to go even sort of straight through market…” but I managed to find everything we needed from about twenty different stands, I don’t think I got ripped off too much, and I even found the van. Quite a large victory for this directionally challenged girl! I found I haven’t forgotten too much of the Twi I have learned (although that wasn’t much, and I’ve relearned how to turn down proposals… well I don’t know if I do the best job of it, but I had my youngest the other day as a mother I was talking to asked me to marry her three year old son L

The low down

Sorry I wrote these next couple posts a couple weeks ago but have been unable to post them.

Well, I’ve been here a week and a half and am finally sitting down to write a little update.

This time around I’ve taken a bit different role since I’m here for a much shorter time. I’m still filling in in some classrooms and doing some tutoring, but I’ve also taken on the titles of painter (which is a little different with the materials they have here), supervisor, carpenter, organizer, cleaner, market shopper, and number of other things as preparations are being made for the tenth anniversary celebration. They are expecting as many as 400 people to be here, amny being government, military, medical and social welfare employees. So a lot is being done to spruce up the place. The kids have been chipping in and working hard too.

Reforging relationships with the kids has been fun and in many cases encouraging as in a years time they have grown changed and matured (some J) I have missed sharing in life experiences with them and it’s exciting to see how some prayers I’ve prayed for the kids and home have been in the past year have been answered.

This next week will be more of the same, and we will be joined by a few more “obronis” as more people arrive to help with and be here for the celebration. It is going to include tours of the home, food, and a program with many of the kids have musical numbers, bible verses, military drills, and short speeches to perform for the people coming.

Some things you can be praying for are:

·      Preparations for the celebration, that they would come together and it would all be for God’s glory

·      That the other summer team members would arrive safely with their luggage

·      Continued health… I’ve felt great so far, but have seen that change quick around here.

·      One of the dorm mothers has a 6 month old grandson who nearly died the other day. We rushed to the home, took him to the hospital, and he has been staying at the home and seems to be doing some better, the boys are loving him and love to sing to him and pray over him. Please join us in praying for his continued and complete healing.

Today my heart is heavy, I just got back from the village where I went to visit one of our cooks at the home. This morning she found out that her 21 year old son had died. He got a call at 2:00 in the morning from someone asking him to bring his motorbike to give them a ride. When he got there he was killed, and his body dumped there.
One of those things no one would have expected that makes you realize anything could happen at any time. I don't have a child of my own, but just thinking about losing any of my students or kids at Haven of Hope brings me to tears.
Please be praying for Ma Deborah and her family as they mourn and make preparations for the funeral.

I'm heading back!

I haven't posted in quite some time, but I've had a few people ask if I will blog again when I head back to Ghana. This is me saying I will try, and maybe I'll even continue after... not like there aren't things I learn and do outside of Africa, hard to say... anyway, on to the actual post.

I'm headed back to Haven of Hope in two days, well a little less than that now. On Tuesday I will jump back into what seems in some ways like a whole different world, but in other ways, like home. It feels different this time, I know what to expect as far as where I'll be living, what I'll be eating, what I'll be doing, but then there are things that I'm not sure about.

Where will my relationships with the people I met and got to know be? Will they welcome me back warmly? I haven't gotten to talk to most of them since I've been back... will we be back to square one? I know I can't expect things to be the same as when I left, nor would I want them to be. Will "my" kids be all grown up? I've prayed certain things for them so hard this year, will some things have changed? - Just a few of the myriad of thoughts flying through my brain these days in case you were curious.

I want the interactions and things I do with people to have a purpose beyond being something to occupy time, (something I want more of here in the US and there). I want Jesus to be the center, loving sharing, taking every opportunity to talk about God and his blessings to us, to teach about grace. Pray that for me more than anything if you have the chance.

Logistics for those who don't know: I'll be leaving Tuesday and come back the end of July. It's the tenth anniversary of the home, so I'll be helping to get ready for some celebrations for that, working on some projects with summer teams, helping with the school, and hopefully getting to jump back into some of the bible studies and other activities I did with the kids and people around while I was there. I would appreciate, and NEED prayers for wisdom, health, patience, and many other things I'm sure. Please keep the home and those of us ministering there in your prayers.

If you have questions or anything else feel free to comment or e-mail me (Amanda.Smith512@gmail.com) I should have at least limited e-mail access some days.

~Amanda