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.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
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!
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!
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