Fun Fair

Saturday was a really good day! We had over 30 of our high school and middle school students helping to organize a fun fair for some of the kids from a nearby orphanage and the kids on the street that participate in a bi-weekly Bible kids club. Our students have been really excited about the whole idea for weeks now and it was fun to see everything finally come together. Everyday I have had kids come up to me asking if they could help with the fun fair or asking me for a reminder of when the fun fair was going to take place. I was so happy to see the students getting interested in something that would help someone else! Often times I get discouraged and think that our students will never think of anyone other than themselves. I guess we are all selfish though. It's only by God's loving grace and mercy that we are able to break free from selfishness.

We had the high school students running each station for the fun fair and the middle school students in charge of the groups of kids, leading them to each station. I was happy to see so many of our students really step up and take ownership of their roles! We had one group playing a water relay game, one group playing on the school playground and getting their faces painted, one group working on a craft and coloring, and one group playing in a bouncy castle. All was going so well, until I mentioned that fact! Not a few minutes after that, did the bouncy castle come crashing down with kids panicking and screaming! Luckily, no one was hurt and the kids didn't seem to mind once they were on the ground again. Quick on her feet, Christy came up with a new game for the fourth group and all was well again!

All in all, everyone seemed to really enjoy the day. The kids had a ball and the students took ownership of the event. Today I was asked many times when we were planning our next fun fair. We'll see...

The bouncy castle before it fell over!

Water games. They had to fill a bucket with a leaking cup.

Writing numbers with sidewalk chalk.

Craft time!

The only lion in Ghana!

Middle School Madness and High School Hangouts

It's been a big week at American International School! Well, really Friday was a big day! As a staff, our students are always on our hearts. Lately we have been trying organize activities to build relationships between students and between students and teachers. We have also been trying to organize discipleship groups to help our students grow spiritually. I think God is moving to bring a harvest at our school. We are on the brink of seeing something big that God is doing!

We launched our new discipleship groups for middle and high school students yesterday. It was a lot of fun and I think that we are going to continue to see a lot of students involved. We are combining the two lunch periods on Fridays so that we can have extra time to meet in discipleship groups. We started out with a few crazy games. Then one of the teachers got a student to eat from a can of dog food! She had actually switched the labels from a can of spaghetti to make a point. Just like that student believed a lie, that she was going to eat dog food, many students have been believing lies about what Christianity really is. From this we broke into small groups to discuss what the vision of these discipleship groups is and ask the students if they had any ideas of topics they would like to discuss. This first meeting was kind of a test run to see kids' interest. Then we asked each of them to make a commitment to continue coming to the groups. God is so good! Many students decided they wanted to participate. One person mentioned that students were only coming the first week because it was required, but then no one would return the following weeks. I'm glad we didn't believe that lie Satan was trying plant! I'm excited to see what God will do in the lives of our students through these discipleship groups!

This was just the start of the crazy day! After school a group of teachers and I took 15 middle school students to a mini golf course in the area. We have started planning monthly activities for the middle school students to give them opportunities to have some fun and hang out with their friends. So "Middle School Madness" started with mini golf! I couldn't let them just play mini golf, so to make it interesting I added a few extra rules to follow at certain holes. Crazy things like "putt sitting down" and "shout 'FORE' at the start of each hole" made the day interesting! The students were not excited about my additional rules at first which I found really funny. But they humored me and ended up enjoying themselves in the process! Next month we plan to organize some "Minute to Win It" games.

Christy and a couple 6th graders.

Putting sitting down. The tricky part is that we had to putt uphill!

The boys were WAY more competitive than the girls! They all wanted to beat Josiah (the P.E. teacher)!

After the Middle School Madness, Christy and I joined in the high school craziness! 18 out of the total 28 high school girls participated in a sleep over. Not much sleeping actually took place! Two of the high school teachers planned a picture/video scavenger hunt. They had to do crazy things like put all their clothes on inside out (with underwear on the outside!) and reenact a Bible story and a famous movie scene. Watching the videos and pictures on a projector was hilarious! This was followed by a crazy dance party, several movies, and some toothpaste shenanigans played on those silly enough to fall asleep first! The girls seemed to have a great time and hopefully we can continue to build relationships.

Back to Work

So It's been FOREVER since I've written a blog! I been at home enjoying family and friends for Christmas and now I'm back in Ghana. I've been back for three weeks now and I am definitely back in the swing of things. I am very thankful for my friends here who make it a bit easier to leave my Chicago life. God is good, providing me with everything I need!

The first week I got back, we had Spiritual Emphasis Week at school. The middle school and high school kids were packed into buses and taken to a local church where two men from the States encouraged and challenged them to follow after God. Mick and Rick have such a passion for youth and even though their southern style was a bit different from what our kids would describe as "cool," they were still able to make an impact. The last day was amazing because they had a "Say So" session. (Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!) The kids were given the opportunity to tell about what God is doing in their lives, how they are struggling, or what they are learning. I was amazed at my own doubt as we started the morning. I was sure that the kids didn't get much from the week. I was positive we would just sit there and stare at each other without saying a word. How could I doubt God so easily? God is amazing and his Word is powerful and active! The kids came up the microphones in droves. What a blessing to be able to hear how God is changing lives! Now as we are a couple weeks out from Spiritual Emphasis Week, I am challenged to continue to pray for my students. As the feelings dissipate, I pray the commitment remains!

We are starting discipleship groups at lunch on Fridays with the middle school and high school students. Hopefully this will be a great way for the students to go deeper in their faith. Many of them have a basic idea of Christianity, but few truly live it out. And even fewer have any idea in how to challenge their walk. Pray the kids will be open to participating in these groups. Kids not in the groups will have study hall and I just hope and pray they see a higher need for discipleship than study hall!

Last week we had our annual International Day. I love this day because it's different from the norm and we get to see all the students out of their red, green, and yellow AIS polo shirts! The students are supposed to wear traditional clothing from their home countries. Every year I am disappointed with the fact that Americans have nothing good to wear! The Koreans and Japanese look beautiful and delicate. The colors of the Ghanaian fabric are bright and bold. The Americans...wear jeans. Not quite as exciting as the other countries! This year was pretty fun though because one of the teachers/parents ordered Captain America shirts for all the American teachers. I also had Captain America shield that I had found over Christmas break! The kids loved it! I had so many elementary kids come up to me asking to see my shield, which was fun since I never really interact with the little ones! The day was full of presentations from different countries. I was so excited that I didn't have to come up with a presentation this year! The high school kids got extra credit for a class if they participated and presented. The kids did a really good job! I was impressed and I learned quite a bit! After the presentations the parents come and everyone shares a meal together. People bring food from their countries and it's fun being able to try some new things. I rarely get much food though since us teachers eat last and by that point most of the food is gone, but it's still a fun day just the same! I'm always in awe of God's creativity when I see how many differences there are in the people around the world. All these differences and God is still the God of us all. We are still so very alike. We all enjoy community, we find beauty in our cultures, and we need a Savior.