updates

updates from Africa:

Everything is still going as planned and very well. we have been working in the orphanage by day and beach/town/devotionals by night.

Sunday we went to the english service at 7 am at the methodist church Ebenezer. it was so different and so beautiful at the same time. It made my heart warm to know that we were singing the same Christmas songs here in church as my family is back home, thousands and thousands of miles away. Although my heart is still a little selfish, I am working on that with God and I will continue to shine his light as my faith in him grows stronger. Please pray for this as I am on my walk and journey towards eternity.

We have had a few scares but not to worry- God has backed us up and remained ever so faithful. Gosh our God is mighty faithful, I can assure you of that! 4 of our friends from our group are leaving Wednesday. Tomorrow is their last day here in Ghana and at the orphanage.. We are sad they are leaving us and they will be deeply missed. We pray that they will remember what God has shown, taught, and reminded them over here in Ghana during their stay. Tomorrow we will go to the orphanage, play with the kids, and put on our christmas skit we have prepared then I imagine we will spend our last night here at Lagoon Lodge playing with Kwami, Evance, and Richmond (our three little friends from the hotel/village here). We have grown to love them as if they were family. Audrey and I have had a few wonderful experiences with Kwami I will have to share later. Although I will still be in Winneba at the orphanage, I know my heart will be longing for them and I will miss them so dearly. Anyway, Wednesday we will go to Accra and stay for a couple of nights and send our group off to the airport to head back home then we will be finishing up the rest of our stay at the orphanage in one of the cottages. This will be a wonderful experience and I am so thankful for that! 

Prayer requests:

 Please pray for our brothers in Christ who we have grown so close to and share such a tight bond: Kwami (8 years old), Evance (10 years), and Richmond (11 years). They are starving not only for food, but for the Lords food; and only he will be able to make them full so we pray that they will continue to know the Father and that he will be able to feed them while we are away and not able to. We pray ever so deeply for them.

Please pray for a woman Clint and Adam met in town today whose foot is swollen beyond belief. Clint says it was worse than he imagined it to be. We pray that The Lord will heal her and fill her with the Holy Spirit and she will be cured. We have faith in our Lord who is ever so faithful. 

Our hearts go out to the children at Rafiki and we pray for their compassion and understanding of our Father. We pray that they will be blessed this Christmas season and that our warmth will be shared with them from our Father. 

Please pray for our wonderful hotel staff who has gone out of their way to make our stay warm and comfortable. They have been more than great. That is an understatement. We have formed close relationships and tight bonds and we pray that we will see them as people rather than as workers and we can lift them up in spirit tomorrow, our last day at the Lodge. We thank God so much for the joy they have brought to our hearts!!

Please pray for Richard, who we met at the beach last year, and we saw him again tonight. He is a Christian and he wants to have a close relationship with the Lord. However, his father is making it difficult for him because he is not a Christian and he is still with the traditional church. He will not let Richard attend church and serve the Lord, so we pray that God will use Richard as a tool and his father will see the light God has put in Richards face and he will come to know our wonderful and ever so greatful Father. 

Of course we pray for all of our friends and families back home in America and we love you all and are so thankful for each and every one of you guys. This trip has definately made us all more thankful of everything back home, and we pray that we can somehow be an inspiration to those back home this Christmas. We pray that all of you will celebrate the real meaning of Christmas and not get all wrapped up in the holiday cheer. Because, that defeats the purpose of Christmas, right? And if it weren't for our LORD Jesus we wouldn't be celebrating Christmas in the first place. So thank you to the Father who sent his ONLY son to DIE for our sins.... we are so thankful for our Lord this Christmas :)

And not to forget us, please pray for myself and our team this Christmas as we are shining the Lords light and spreading his word to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Through his EVERLASTING love,

Catherine

finally in Africa- home away from home

Gosh Where to start? Hello to all my family and friends and whoever reading- we FINALLY made it to Ghana (yay!) After two days-ish of traveling and four days in Africa, we are all settled in and getting cozy at Lagoon Lodge! Lets see we left Jackson, MS on the 11th and flew to Memphis (had a 6 hour delay there) then met up with Shelley and Sarah and all flew together to Amsterdam and then to Accra! Funny little traveling story- As we were going through the security checkpoint Adam decided it would be funny if we tried to put a penny in Clint's pocket so the metal detector would go off.... well it didn't work and I don't think Clint had any idea soooo as I followed behind of course the detectors go off on me..... thanks Adam for setting me up with quarters! So anyway we arrived in Accra, Ghana that night and checked into a guest house for the night. Food was yummy, since I slept on both flights all of my sleep was messed up so I accidentally slept until 12:30ish (whoops) The next day we drove a while a way to Winneba and checked into our fancy hotel at Lagoon Lodge! Oh how I've missed you! The first day here (the 13th) we couldn't wait to go to Rafiki so Mathaias packed us all up and took us onto the orphanage! Oh that was sooo exciting! I didn't think we would get to see the kids until the next day because it was already late. It brought such joy to my heart that I could see the little faces once again. It made me so happy! So anyway the past couple of days we have been working in the orphanage then going to the beautiful beach in the late afternoon and ending our evenings with devotional and down time. Its so beautiful here I wish all of you could experience what I am experiencing. Using the word beautiful, I mean the beauty in the works of God in just three days. We have seen and experienced so much already so who's to know whats next to happen. Its amazing how our Father is working in each and every one of us. Its like we have all grown to be family already and we are working through each other, and of course the Lord is working through us! Praise him for that!!!

So on another note just aside from everything else. I want to let you all know what has been on my heart lately. I've been talking with my mom and a couple of my friends and I am hearing everything that is going on back home and being "updated" or "posted" Christmas parties, events, occasions, everything in between. From the I miss yous and I love yous I have really been doubting myself. With questions like why am I here? What have I gotten myself into? What have I signed up for? What 20 year old spends Christmas away from their family in another COUNTRY, across the WORLD? I even feel a little guilty, it being the first Christmas with a new family (note: mom got married day after Thanksgiving) I love my family and miss them so dearly and I want to be home so bad. A couple of nights ago I just kinda broke. I was wondering WHY I was here. What was my purpose. I got lots of encouragement and I know that God has called me to be here and thats simply why I am here on this Christmas. Its kind of like I am suffering and drowning in my own thoughts. Not so much suffering, but selfishness in a sense. Wanting to be home. talking to family and longing to be there instead of here. God has shown me that God uses the hardships and pain life brings our way to mature us. I've heard that "suffering is the greatest teacher..... and the crown of life" Its so true. Our faith is being tested here, and when our faith is tested we have the opprotunity to develop spiritual character as we persevere through the storms and feelings of doubt, worriness, pain, and suffering we are all experiencing. Just like when Paul testified to the character-building value of suffering in Romans 5:3-4 he says "we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope." Paul also brings me hope as he developed the gift of compassion through his afflictions, he praised in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 "the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."

So from these verses I have learned a lot in the few days I have been here. The trials we are faced with strengthen our souls as we journey towards heaven.

I want to share with you just one more thing. There are these two boys Eufrance and Quomoe (I'm not sure how to spell their names exactly) but they live in the village where our hotel is and are the sweetest little boys I have ever met. I promise you God is using us to minister to these two children. They remember our faces six months later and still cling onto us as if we were family. We had obviously touched them very significantly the last time we were here in May. They have been walking with us to the beach, waiting at the gate of the hotel every day for us to get back from the orphanage, swinging in our eno hammocks, peeking their heads through the little holes in the fence at dinner. They just want to be with us. At dinner I saw Adam put a bunch of rice in a waterbottle and stuck it through the fence. Unsure of what he was doing, after dinner I went to the fence to have a look. Sure enough I saw their two little heads. this was like 30 minutes later. They were still there. I spoke with them for quite some time and we discussed Jesus and Christmas and the beach and all the fun stuff. (I learned last year that their mom had died and their dad was off living in another town) It was dark out and the boys are about 9 and 12 maybe. I was wondering what they were doing out so late. As we were talking about the Lord Eufrance told me that he wanted a bible for Christmas. I started crying. What little boy wants a bible for Christmas? I'm not judging all little boys but most of them would ask for a playstation or a dirtbike or something ridiculous and expensive. This little boy asked me for a BIBLE. He was so excited when I told him we would be here for Christmas. These boys are starving. They ate rice we had given them and were still hungry. They need more than food, they need Jesus. They aren't hungry for food, but they are hungry for faith. It touched me so much that they asked me for a bible that I couldn't stop myself from crying. All of this suffering and pain I have been talking about the past couple of days doesnt even COMPARE to the suffering these boys are feeling. And they long for a relationship with Jesus. Jesus is their only hope. When things are going smoothly, we tend to get distracted and think that everything is going fine and there are no worries in the world. When we are faced with obstacles in life we have no other choice but to turn to God. Thats what these boys are doing. They have no other hope but to turn to the Lord and it makes my heart break and smile at the same time. I wish so badly that I could take them into a Sports Authority for christmas and let them go crazy. Like Adam said tonight, they deserve it. I don't even know what its like to be starving. And I know all of you have no IDEA what it is like to be starving. It tangles my mind how God is wellknowing of all of this and Isaiah 45:7 lets us know that God "forms the light and creates darkness,  bring prosperity and create disaster, I, the LORD, do all these things." I'm struggling so much with this right now. I guess God is testing them too and through this these two boys are putting everything aside and putting our good SAVIOR first. It makes my heart sooooo warm and happy.

As we continue our works here, we are searching for bibles for the boys. We are going to see which we think would best fit for them. Seeing as they are pretty young, we do not think they know english well enough to read an english bible, but do not think they are suitable for reading Fanti, their language, either. The Lord will definately give us an answer soon, I am sure of it. Because I am certain that we need to give these children bibles for christmas and teach them of the good Lord. Oh and good news: they are going with us to church on Sunday (yay!!)

Please continue praying, it all means so much and is greatly appreciated. It is a six hour time change ahead of America and we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow! I will try and keep you all informed, please pass this blog onto all other family members and friends so everyone can continue praying for us and the lives we are blessed to touch. I love you guys I miss you all so much but I will be home before you know it... time has already flown by! I said it in May, and I will say it again, there needs to be more time for me to be here doing God's work!

Through his faithfulness and love,

Catherine

4 days

We leave for Africa in four days. I've started packing today... just getting everything in order for our trip! Me and mom went to Dollar Tree today and collected lots of elf and santa hats for the kids to wear in the orphanage! I am so excited to get back, exams are (surprisingly) not holding me back any :)

Please pray for safe travels and safety over in Ghana. Also keep us in our prayers as we are away from our families during the holiday season and Christmas; we will surely miss you guys!! I will try to keep this blog updated during my stay, so continue following me to view updates from our trip! I will try and keep everyone informed!

With love,

Catherine