HIS plan

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:11

So, I have tried to plan my life out.  I tried.  I did not take time to ask God what in the world I was suppose to be doing - I just did.  For most of my life I have make choices according to what I "ought"do.  And, I never thought I "ought" to go to Africa.  It's funny how God's plan is so different from what we think it should be.  God always knew He was going to send me here.  

I went to the orphanage Tuesday to see the kids and also see what I could do to help.  I was able to sit down with the amazing woman behind the whole operation.   This orphanage is unique because it takes in orphans with special needs.  This amazing woman travels out to the villages surrounding Accra, and finds orphans who need a home.  She even takes in orphans from other orphanages that are not able to meet their specials needs.  She told us how they have been blessed with an overflow of medical supplies, clothes, books, etc. - so much that she is able to take supplies to places that have less access to supplies.  They just got their first full time volunteer teacher for the 30 orphans she is housing right now, and it's looking like two more volunteers are on the way.  

Because these children have never had toys, they have never learned to play.  Therefore, they can not have toys in the orphanage because they honestly do not know how to play with them.  I thought that all kids had imaginations, I thought that all kids played "house" or "school."  These kids have never had the luxury of seeing such behavior, much less had the time or ability to imagine such things.  

She liked the idea of murals on the walls - and bringing some of my high schoolers over to do art projects with the children.  I am going to try to get this together in the next two weeks, and hopefully be able to take kids over to love on the kids and help them create something to decorate their temporary home.  Please pray for the timing of my visits, and for supplies to use for a mural and art projects.  I leave in tears each time I walk out the door, so broken by the orphan's little smiles and from realizing the opportunity God has blessed me with. 

Yesterday, I went running after school.  It was the first time I had run without my ipod (last time, someone had asked me for it, and it made me nervous) so, I was hearing the people I pass talk to me for the first time.  The men were saying "my wife, come here" or "I love you."  Younger children would begin to run as I passed them, many would say "may I join you?" One made me laugh out loud - without pausing, he said "actually, I will join you, but tomorrow." So funny, the culture here is overly polite - If someone were to ask us if we would like a fufu ball (for example), we would say "no thank you"  - here, they are so polite, they actually lie and say "tomorrow" - even when they have no intention of eating fufu balls tomorrow.

Later in my run, I was passing another empty/half finished/filled with squatters house, with a red dirt driveway.  I stopped running when I noticed the tiniest little kitten in the middle of the driveway.  I know, I am not suppose to have anymore pets, and this one was surely full of disease and infection and fleas and all things bad from Africa, but it sat there and looked up at me with the biggest blue eyes, and I had to pick it up - or someone would surely have tried to eat it.  So, I picked it up and started walking back to the house, feeling a little crazy, several people asked about my cat - keep in mind that I am the only white person I see anytime I run - and now I am the "obroni" (white person) carrying an animal that they do not keep as a pet, but would cook for dinner.  One man actually said to me, "hand me your cat," and licked his lips as if it was some delicious chocolate cake.   I was so glad I had saved him.  

No, I did not keep him.  One of the teachers has been wanting a cat, so I walked straight to her house - I didn't know if she and her husband would be happy or upset that I brought it to them - because it was right off the street - but she was so happy.  She cried and said God knew she needed this, and we named her "Nani nani" and we cleaned her and took her millions of fleas off her and fed her and she's going to the vet this weekend and she is amazing and so so so cute and tiny. I will post her picture tomorrow, I left my thingy thingy that puts the pictures on the computer at school.

School, by the way, is amazing.  Last year I had millions (over a thousand, really) elementary age kids, and this year I have a little over a hundred 1st - 12th graders.  I was nervous to teach high school - but it has gone really well.  We have been discussing articles and pictures, and the kids are super smart and insightful.  Right now, all grades are beginning self portrait projects.  We have been reading together from Genesis 1:26:

"Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

We talk about how cool it is that God loves us so much that He created us in His image, and how each one of us is special.  It is really different teaching in a Christian school.  We pray together at the beginning of each class - it is really awesome.  I am really excited to get to know all the students and brighten up the school and the orphanage with art work.  

I forgot to blog about this earlier, but one of the funniest things that has happened since I have been here was in a taxi ride home from dinner.  The taxi driver put in a new CD for the 5 "obroni" pilling in - and he played for us "I will always love you," sung by Dolly Parton.  So, of course, all of us burst into song and the driver laughed at us the whole ride home.  Good stuff.