You are the Most High God Jehovah

Hi there everyone!!

I have officially been in Africa for 2 weeks!! God has been sooooo good!
As we were flying into Accra it was so crazy because from a birds eye view all you can see is little huts and dirt roads. The missionaries we have been working with are so awesome! My favorite is Kobe :-) He is like the father figure of our team. Anyways, I had some culture shock as we were driving down the street. The roads are dirt...so no lines...no policeman pulling people over for wreckless driving ha so basically every man for himself. People are walking up and down the street with baskets balanced on their heads of things to sell. They walk up to your car every chance they can. I have discovered Plantain chips which are really yummy :-)
We have traveled to our next location and we are staying at a 'hotel'. As we have traveled farther north there are fewer that speak English and many that speak 'Tree.' I am working on learning the language ha but everybody laughs at my southern accent. Apparently, I am the southern belle of this trip!
We have gotten to do some recreational things here and there such as we attended a professional futbol game, went to some waterfalls, a museum, and saw these 'holy' monkeys that are supposedly the children of the gods (needless to say we prayed hard for that village).
Our ministry work has been really awesome. In the mornings, we have been going to different schools to teach math and english (I actually tutored some kids in math haha!), we have been having some counseling sessions, we have helped some of the vocational schools make and lay concrete, and we have been preaching in these schools too. During the afternoons we have been doing ministry in the marketplace and that is overwhelming in itself. There are soooooo many people! But the key to any Africans heart is music and dance which has been lots of fun for me ha! The church services we have attended have been extremely charasmatic and refreshing. Every night we have been going to remote villages to play games with the children and preach the gospel. There have been many that I have wished I could treat medically somehow, but we won't have a doctor to work with until we get to our next location.
God is working in a mighty way through prayer and preaching. One of the biggest things I am learning on this trip is to really have an ear to listen to God and faith to believe that He is able to do anything.
My prayer requests would be the following:
1. I am sick right now with a stuffy nose and soar throat, so please pray for a fast recovery. Also, that my teammates would be healthy!
2. Pray against the discouragement of the devil in these villages and schools we are going to. There are many witch doctors in the communities and many lost souls. Pray that these peoples hearts would be softened before we come to them.
3. Pray that we would have the strength and endurance to be able to love on these people as Christ would. That we would not let ourselves get in the way of what God is trying to do.

I wish I could write more details, but the computer I am using is extremely slow ha! But Praise God that I have a computer to talk to ya'll with! :-)
I am praying for ya'll as well! I hope that the Lord is doing a great work in everybody this summer. I pray you allow God to use you! People need the gospel in Africa and America!

Nyamesheramo!! (God Bless ya'll!)

Orientation!

Hello everybody!

I am writing ya'll from West Palm Beach, Fl and it has been so encouraging to get support from everybody! I left my house yesterday at 6 AM! (Shout out to Ashley for being crazy and coming to see me off at 5:45 AM! Love you!) I arrived yesterday afternoon and met my team members! They all seem like great people and although we are all very different, I think that God is going to use those differences in a mighty way. We are staying here a few days to learn about the different culture, social norms, and meet other Edgers that are traveling to other parts of the world! At one of the sessions for the Africa teams we met a couple that was just awesome! It's been neat to meet so many people with the same passion to serve the Father.

My first challenge has been presented to me. It is not culturally acceptable in Africa to use the left hand when eating, greeting, receiving gifts, etc. because it is considered unclean.
I tried eating chicken fingers without my left hand and failed.
Hopefully repetitious practice will remedy that!

I found out something that makes me think I might be secretly African...they are never on time! ha but ofcourse I am working on that! ;-)

Things to reflect on:
1. It is important to have a 'can do' attitude. An attitude that reflects optimism in all situations!
2. It's not about me.
3. Everybody we come in contact with is an image bearer of the Father and they are somebody that He loves whole heartedly therefore we are called to love them as well (even the more difficult personalities ha!)

On that note, I cannot wait to update and let ya'll know what it is like once I get over there!
Until then keep speaking to the Holy one about our trip and the people we will encounter!!