Tatum's Stories

The Prayer Room

2010-04-14T19:50:00.025-04:00

The main reason I am here at YWAM Honolulu is to help start our prayer room. (I do a few other jobs, but that is why I'm here.)

Our community's vision statement is this:

YWAM Honolulu is a community of Christians who are called to give their time, talents, and resources for the equipping and sending of short and long term missionaries with a passion for reaching the un-reached frontiers.

We highly value the last commandment Jesus gave in Matthew 28:19-20

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

We've been pretty successful at pursuing this goal...we have sent thousands of young people on short term trips to Asia, the Pacific Islands, and beyond. Our ministry has trained and sent people to begin new ministries in previously unreached nations. We have long term missionaries all over the globe. This is our strong suit. We've done rather well.

But for the past couple of years, the Lord has been reminding us of the supreme importance of the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-39) ...

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

And THAT is the purpose of our Prayer Room. We want to set space aside on our campus that will be used solely to love the Lord. To worship Him. No work, no emails, no facebook, no meetings, not even discipling each other. Only glorifying the Lord Jesus and being in His presence. Loving Him.

We want this Prayer Room to be a place where the Great Commandment and the Great Commission come together....where we go deeper in loving the Lord and in passion for bringing others into a love relationship with Him. And as a ministry that sends out missionaries, we want to teach these people to go with the sustaining power that can only come from intimacy with the Lord.

And its all starting to happen! Next week we will have our first corporate time of prayer and worship in our (almost-finished) renovated Prayer Room. The room is already open 24/7 for people to worship and pray as they like. But we're starting to have weekly intentional times to worship and pray together. (Like a little version of IHOP. The prayer, not the pancakes.) I am beyond excited!! This is the beginning of a big thing. I'm excited about what this will be like for me personally and for our community here at YWAM Honolulu. My expectations are high. 'Cause our God is so good! I can't wait to share with y'all all that the Lord does with our humble little room.

Here are some pictures of the room before renovations began:

And here it is mid-renovation...

Job #1: Removing that huge tree that was tearing up our foundation. And building a new deck.

Our construction crew getting ready to lay our brand new carpet.

The beautiful new carpet! We got a great deal on a remnant. I walked around the store sticking my face in all the remnants to see which one felt the best...gotta make sure your Prayer Room carpet is ready for some face-down encounters with the Holy God!

New door. New (expectantly huge) shoe rack.

(No shoes inside...that's how we roll in Hawaii.)

Pretty painted new door and frame.

I loved seeing people using the Prayer Room mid-renovation! How cool is that?

During these renovations, we've sadly discovered some structural issues. So we can't paint and make it pretty inside until they put on a new roof (no big deal right?) and replace the rotted window frame. I'll put pictures up of that as soon as it happens.

So that, my friends, is what is going on with the Prayer Room here at YWAM Honolulu.

Questions? Comments? Encouragements?

I'll take any or all of the above. :)

A Random Photo Recap

2010-03-24T02:25:00.019-04:00

I was sitting here thinking about what to write, and I figured I'd give a little picture update of the past couple months.

Let's start with January.

After Christmas in Georgia (of which I have too many pictures to post, sorry!), I headed back to Honolulu. But first I made a stop in Arizona with my sweet Debbie! She's definitely one of my favorite people. And one of my mentors since middle school. She loves me. And I love her. It was so refreshing and encouraging to spend time with her and Leonard. (They are grandparents now!! Lucky kid.)

I returned to Hawaii just in time for a bridal shower for my dear friend Cary (in the middle). She eloped over Christmas and married our good friend, Chris! Crazy kids! We're all so excited.

My big January event was 2 days in Maui with my sweet friend Kelly from church. We drove around almost the entire island, went on 4 hikes, and saw the sunrise from a volcanic crater.

It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

February

I got a FedEx from my dad's office...complete with Caroline's post-it note still attached. All the way from Marietta. A trans-Pacific miracle! :)

I have AWESOME friends at my church here in Honolulu. We had a girls brunch for Valentine's Day. I love these girls! (And you will definitely hear more about them and our other wonderful friends in future blogs...)

February ended with the graduation of our latest Discipleship Training School students. This was a great group of students! I particularly adored two of the girls. My sweet Stephy from Spain and my cute Mandy from Georgia. I knew both of them before they came, and it was beyond a joy to have them here! I loved watching them learn and grow and minister. Here is a picture of Stephy and I...and one of Mandy sharing at the graduation ceremony.

What a rockstar! It was so cool to hear all the testimonies of what God did in the Philippines, Thailand, India, and Nepal...and how He changed these girls' lives at the same time. I love this ministry that I'm a part of!!

March

(I can't believe we're almost at the end of March. Where does the time go?)

March started with a trip to the North Shore of Oahu to hang out with some dear friends (twins!) on their birthday! Here we are in front of the "Lost" beach camp set. I'm not really a huge fan of the show, but it was still cool to see!

I'm in John Locke's grave!

One of my main jobs here at YWAM Honolulu is coordinating our campus-wide Prayer & Intercession times. One week, we prayed for modern day slavery. (Did you know that there are currently 27 million people enslaved around the world today? Its heartbreaking! Here's a website you can check out if that interests you: http://www.stopthetraffik.org/) Here is a cool picture of that prayer time. Everyone wrote prayers on the ground with sidewalk chalk. It was a great morning!

A BFF birthday tradition...

And last but not least, some highly anticipated Prayer Room construction! (I know I said last time that my next post would be about the Prayer Room...but apparently I was wrong. So maybe it will be the next one? We'll see where inspiration leads...)

I'll leave you with one last picture. A happy Skype date with my boy Hutch and Auntie H.

And THAT is a RANDOM recap of the past 3 months.

No Pictures from Kona

2010-03-14T22:15:00.006-04:00

This has been a fantastic week.

From early Sunday morning until late Tuesday night, me and 2 friends were in Kona at the University of the Nations. (I feel like Hawaii can be confusing to some folks, so I'll break it down for you. I'm live in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Kona is a small town on the island of Hawaii (aka "the big island"). So flying to Kona is a big treat and a real vacation.)

The University of the Nations is one of our biggest (if not THE biggest) YWAM campuses. On my little YWAM base in Honolulu we currently have 25 DTS students and 50 staff. They have somewhere around 300 DTS students and hundreds of staff. Its a totally different world.

I LOVE visiting Kona for so many reasons...

~ the obvious break from normal life and lack of responsibility. :)

~ there are some seriously awesome people there...people that I adore and rarely get to see

~ they have a prayer room in Kona and daily times of corporate prayer. I went both days that I was there. Amazing. That's all I can say. I'm so excited for our little YWAM base in Honolulu to have a prayer room/ministry up and running!!

I left Kona feeling blessed and refreshed. I had such a great time with my friends and with the Lord. My excitement for our new prayer room here in Honolulu was re-ignited. Which will be my whole next blog post...the soon-to-be Honolulu prayer room!!

But I forgot to take any pictures.

ANNNNNDDD to end my week, my sweet friend in Georgia, Katie B, had a beautiful baby girl, Lydia Rose!!! She's gonna be the best mom ever. I can't wait to meet that little one in a few months!!

i'm gonna blog more

2010-03-04T19:45:00.007-05:00

I am not pleased with my blogging skills.

When I was in Ghana, I loved using this blog to stay connected to people who were far away. Sharing stories--silly and serious--helped me feel closer to people that I love.

Also, writing this forced me to be more aware of what was going on in my life. When I look back on those posts now, I love reading the things that I thought were valuable enough to share with the world wide web.

But now I've gotten lazy. I can't seem to find the motivation to blog.

Even though I still live really far away from MANY people that I love. And I still have a not-so-normal life that is pretty fun to share.

So my goal is to blog more. Maybe even once a week.

Because I do like writing. I like what it does for me personally and I like staying more connected with you.

Cause if you're reading this its probably because you care about me.

So I'm gonna blog more.

But for now I must go pack. I'm flying to the big island of Hawaii tomorrow to hang out at our big YWAM campus in Kona. My next few days will consist of the following: quality lectures, killer prayer room times, really good coffee, and AHHHmazing friends. I am pumped!

Until next time...

(just in case you forgot what I looked like...its been a while, folks.)

so thankful

2009-11-24T22:31:00.019-05:00

Thanksgiving seems like a good time to write a new blog. (Finally)

I have an abundance of things to be thankful for this year. More than I can write about. God has been so very good to me. I'm confident that 2009 will go down in my journals as one of the best...if not THE best year so far.

Let's start with my cute family. Oh my family. I have never been so thankful for them as I have been this past year.

I LOVE my sweet parents! In this past year, I have often thought that I am so grateful for what amazing parents I have. Working in full-time ministry with young people, I often see the sad effects of broken homes and poor parenting. And every single time I think to myself "you are one blessed girl!" My parents are arguably the best on the planet. They have loved me unconditionally...even back when I was seriously hard to love. They have supported me 100% in all that I've wanted to do...even when it didn't make sense to them. From my earliest memory I have known that they love me and that they think I am beautiful and wonderful and could do anything that I put my mind to. They have supported me and prayed with me in my hardest times and rejoiced with me in my best. I understand God better because of how my parents have loved me. For that I am immeasurably thankful.

And my sisters. Oh those two. I am so thankful for 2 vastly different, equally fantastic sisters. I have grown more and more thankful for my sisters over the years. Both of them are hilarious and ridiculous and wonderful. I make a lot of phone calls to these 2 from out here in the Pacific. I call them to talk about stupid/funny things...or to tell them something that I'd be too embarrassed to say to anyone else...or to laugh about something that only they would get. And then I call them when I'm really sad or afraid...when I've had a terrible day...usually these calls involve tears. And its during these calls that they are checking flights to see how soon they can get to me. Cause that's how good they are. (At this point I have to talk them down from spending hundreds of dollars [that they don't have!] just to fix my bad day.) When we were younger, people would ALWAYS tell us that we would be "such good friends" when we grew up. Honestly, I had my doubts. (You probably did too if you knew us...particularly us older two, cause that little one is quite the angel.) But it is so true. I love my sisters. They are indeed my dear friends. And I am ever-so thankful for them.

I am thankful for my home. I have always adored my home. Georgia is one of the finest places on earth...the people there are what make it so. Living so far away has made me keenly aware of how blessed I have been to grow up in such a place. The kind of relationships and community I have at home is rare. I think it's the depth of commitment to one another and sacrificial love. And I'm not just talking about one small group of people...I'm talking about multiple big groups of people who are really good at loving each other. And I get to know them! So to all my dear friends from Georgia, I am thankful for YOU! Thank you for being my friends, my community, my encouragement. I am beyond blessed to have you as a part of my life.

I am thankful for my life. I live in paradise and work in ministry. Double whammy. Not only is Hawaii a glorious place to live, but YWAM Honolulu is an extraordinary community of people for whom I am so thankful. I live, work, minister, play and chill with some of the coolest people that I know. All for the purpose of knowing God more and making Him known in the nations. Amen.

And lastly, I am exceedingly thankful for what the Lord has done for me personally this year. I have experienced God in ways that I never dreamed I would.
He has opened my eyes and my heart to understand Him more.
He has healed wounds from my past that I just thought would just always hurt.
He has shown me just how much He loves me in meaningful ways that speak straight to my heart. And how He truly always has loved me and always will. His love is SO good!!
He has taught me so much about prayer (which makes me realize that I have so much more to learn!)
He has provided everything I need and more...which has been a thrill to experience-especially when I got down to under $30. He is a good Father and He has taken care of me.
He has given me a greater desire to know Him more...to know this God that created the universe and loves me deeply.
He carried me through a really hard season...one where I sometimes wanted to just cut and run...but God in His faithfulness held me close and comforted me.
There are more...too many to list...because He is indescribably good.

How could I not be thankful???? Each of these paragraphs has literally brought tears to my eyes. If this is what life with Jesus is like on this Earth, what will it be like when we can see Him clearly and know Him fully!!! Oh I am so thankful for my Savior.

I pray that you are blessed abundantly as you recall what you are thankful for this week.

Asia Slideshow!

2009-08-13T03:39:00.004-04:00

(you may have to hit pause to read some of the captions!)

A Month in Asia

2009-06-17T21:52:00.009-04:00

This is my latest update that I emailed out...it's a summary of my trip. More detailed updates to come!

Hi Friends and Family!

I’m home safely from Asia!! And I had an ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC MONTH! It was phenomenal. Grab a cup of coffee cause this one isn’t short!

Here is how I’m planning to tell you about my trip. I’m going to write a brief summary in this email. Then for a more in-depth description and more stories, I’ll write on the blog. (That may take another week or so though…sorry for you curious few!)

One of the coolest things about this month was that God used this time in Asia to re-fuel my love for different cultures and for missions. I hadn’t been out of America for 2 whole years, so I LOVED experiencing new cultures again!

My first stop was in INDONESIA. My friend/leader Raquel and I had a great time visiting our outreach team on the island of Borneo in the town of Pontianak. It was a rather rural area and it reminded me so much of Ghana! It has been 2 years since I was in Ghana and it was a sweet reminder of a place that I love dearly. The team was doing so well! Working well as a team and loving each other while ministering in super rural villages for weeks at a time. It was really fun to sit down with them and hear their stories and what God was teaching them.

Here is my favorite Indonesia experience: The day I was leaving Indonesia, I was not feeling well and I was a little nervous about the travels ahead of me. I wasn’t sure how to get from the Hong Kong airport to my next destination in East Asia. I prayed that God would bring some friends to help me. And did He ever! In the Jakarta airport, a older gentleman named Eric started talking to me while we waited for the flight. He was a Christian who traveled frequently throughout Asia on business and his English was perfect. We were on the same flight and he assured me that he would help me find where I needed to go in Hong Kong. He also let me call my parents on his phone! (Which was wonderful because they were a tad worried because I could not communicate with them.) When we arrived in Hong Kong, I got separated from Eric in Immigration. But finding the bus was so easy! I bought my ticket and went to the ATM while I waited to leave. At the ATM I ran into Eric! He had been looking for me to make sure I was ok. He bought me a bottle of water and then gave me the equivalent of $25 when the ATM didn’t work. He made sure I felt good about my bus and then headed on his way. How good is God?! He knew exactly what I needed and was faithful to provide beyond my need!!! I was so thankful.

I made it safely to EAST ASIA where my dear friend (we'll call her "Angel" cause that's what her Mama calls her) picked me up at the airport. My week with her was amazing! I spent time with her team of missionaries, met many of her local disciples, went to her language class, and experienced her everyday world. One of the highlights of East Asia was an Evangelism Party that "Angel" and her 2 teammates hosted for students they had met on campus. We had 8 local girls come to the dorm for a beauty themed party. We talked, got to know each other (they all loved practicing their English!), ate American snacks, painted nails, looked at magazines, and then "Angel" gave a Gospel presentation using a beauty analogy. It was awesome! All of the girls said they wanted to know more about Jesus. I was in awe. God is working in East Asia and I got to see a tiny piece of it. It was amazing. I really loved East Asia! And my visa is good until next April so I’m praying I get to go back soon!!

Next stop: TAIWAN! Upon my arrival, I was met by our YWAM Honolulu base director Vivian who is Taiwanese. We spent the week reconnecting with her church friends in Taipei, visiting a missionary couple she used to work with in a smaller town outside the city, and just exploring Taiwan. The week was not what I expected, but it was great nonetheless! My favorite part was visiting the missionaries, Gregg and Eva in the town of Tofun. They have been in Taiwan for over 20 years! They are working among the Hakka people who are considered “unreached” because less than 1% of Hakkas are Evangelical Christians (according to joshuaproject.net). We spent a few days in Tofun and I loved experiencing the work going on there. I sat in on a couple prayer meetings with local believers, toured around on a moped, and went to the Hakka church that Gregg and Eva pastor. It was cool to see what missions among an unreached people can look like. I loved it!!

Last but definitely not least: HONG KONG and the Call 2 All conference. I cannot say enough about this week (but I’ll try to keep it short). It was INCREDIBLE! Around 4,000 mission-minded Christians from over 100 countries gathered together to talk about the status of the world: how many people still haven’t heard the Gospel? How can we reach them? What is God saying and doing? It was absolutely incredible!!!! In my estimate, between 1/4 and 1/3 of the attendees were from "East Asia". The whole thing was just too incredible to be true. My friend Melissa was there with me and we said over and over to each other: “Is this real?”

The first afternoon, we focused on how many people still haven’t heard the Gospel. There are 3,000 people groups who are still “unreached”. 639 of those groups have a population over 100,000. We had a map on the floor that was 160 feet wide by 80 feet deep (that’s 3 basketball courts!). We spent hours walking bare-footed on the map and praying over the nations and worshiping. There was no shortage of dancing, singing, even crying. It was surreal watching "East Asian" believers kneel and weep over both China and Israel. Then there were times when the map was so jam-packed with people praying that you could barely move. It was a really cool experience. Prayer was a HUGE focus of the conference.

Throughout the week, we had general sessions with everyone and smaller workshops. The speakers were all amazing and I learned SO MUCH! We all got so excited about what God has done, what He is doing, and what He is going to do. The leaders of major missions organizations predict that we will reach ALL people with the Gospel in our lifetime!! Maybe even the next ten years! How awesome is that! What a great time to be alive!

The last day in Hong Kong, we had a day-long meeting of YWAMers from all of Asia and the Pacific. There were about 200 people there (that’s my guess…who knows what it really was.) I was SO encouraged by meeting our leadership and seeing what awesome men and women of God I’m serving under. It was also cool to be reminded that this thing that I’m a part of is so much bigger than I realize. YWAM has over 18,000 full time staff right now—and many, many more students and short term workers. It’s exciting to think about what God is doing in the world right now and that my “tribe” (as our founder likes to call us) is playing a part.

I left Hong Kong incredibly encouraged and excited. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I am SO thankful that I had this opportunity.

So there are the “brief” summaries. It’s difficult to summarize a life altering month! I hope I didn’t lose too many of you. Thank you for being a part of this with me! Thank you for praying and for giving generously!

I will be home in Georgia most of the month of July. Please email me if you’d like to get together! Or if you would like me to share with your church, cell group, youth group, etc. I would love to pass on what God taught me in this month and what He is doing in the nations!

For HIS Glory,

Tatum

Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"

Back in Hawaii

2009-06-12T03:31:00.002-04:00

Well I'm back! I've been in Honolulu since Saturday. There are 2 reasons for my blogging procrastination:

1. I had such an amazing time and I don't know yet how to put it into words. I'm working on it. I had an absolute blast in Asia. I've been back less than a week and I'm already missing it.
2. Jet-lag plus catching up on 4 weeks of work leaves me fully exhausted.

So hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll have some good words to share with you.

Thank you SO MUCH for praying for me and supporting me. I really can't say that enough.

quick update from asia

2009-05-22T23:17:00.003-04:00

Just a quick update to say I AM HAVING A BLAST!!! I am loving experiencing new cultures and seeing what God is doing!

Indonesia was awesome!! Our outreach team is doing SO great! They have been seriously roughing it in villages and they're loving it. I really enjoyed the little bit of Indonesia's culture that I experienced. It was a lot different than I expected--a lot like Ghana! So many things reminded me of Ghana. I loved that.

I am LOVING East Asia!! Being with Amy is just incredible. She is doing such a fantastic job over here and I'm so glad I've gotten to experience her world first hand. I LOVE her team! It has been so much fun and so encouraging.

I leave for Taiwan tomorrow. Its going to be sad to leave Amy and her friends!

Thank you so much for praying for me so far! God has been so good to me these past 2 weeks! My love for the nations has been re-kindled and I'm so excited about what God is doing in Asia! Also, God has been providing for me left and right. (I'll have to tell you stories when I have more time to write.) Please keep praying! Next week is ministry with Vivian in Taiwan and then on to the Call2All conference the following week.

I am just so thankful to be doing this! Thank you for being a part of it with me. I'm sorry I can't update more regularly...I hope to be able to write from Hong Kong.

Here I Go!

2009-05-10T04:48:00.010-04:00

So in a few short hours, I'm getting on a plane to begin a month long trip around Asia!! I can't believe its really happening.

First of all, I want say a huge thank you to the Lord for providing all that I needed to go on this trip. He is so good!! Thank you for being a part of it...for praying for me and for giving generously. I'm thankful for such incredible friends and family.

I need y'all to pray for me this month!!!!! Here is my itinerary and how you can pray:

May 10-May 17: In Borneo, Indonesia visiting our DTS Outreach team.
May 17-May 24: In East Asia visiting one of my best friends on the planet. She is a missionary there.
May 24-May 31: In Taiwan with my YWAM Base Director (who is from Taiwan). Her and I will be visiting with believers there, building relationship and partnership between our base and them, and encouraging the missionaries who are there working among the unreached.
May 31-June 6: In Hong Kong attending the Call2All. It is going to be incredible! Click on the link and read about it.

Please pray for...
~ Safe travel! I'll be traveling solo most of the time. Pray that everything will go smoothly. And that I will use wisdom and discernment along the way.
~ Good health. I don't want to miss anything from being sick! That would be lame.
~ I want God to use me for His glory during this month. I want to see how He is working in East Asia and somehow join Him where I can. I always want my life to glorify Him, but especially in a place where so many people don't know Him.
~ I want to learn and experience all that God has for me. I am expecting God to do significant and life changing things this month and I want to take all I can get!! I want to know God more-grow closer to Him. And I want to learn things that will blow my mind and set my heart on fire to reach the nations!!

I really am so thankful for your prayers. I know the Lord hears them and I pray that He will bless you abundantly for your sacrifice.

I'll try to blog when I can. I'll be updating Facebook and Twitter as well. So add me on those if you haven't already.

Next time I write will be from somewhere in Asia!

what just happened?

2009-03-27T21:35:00.003-04:00

I have said "what just happened?" about a hundred times today. You have GOT to know why. And that is why I'm blogging. Read on, reader...

So the 2nd half of the DTS is a 2 month outreach somewhere in Asia. Our teams are going to Mongolia, Nepal, and Indonesia. Each of the 22 students had to pay $2900 for outreach. But some of the students didn't have the money. So we've been praying, some were fasting, and we've taken up offerings for the past 2 weeks. Two weeks ago, we still needed $16,526. Money has been trickling in...and many people here have been radically generous. We got almost $3500 just from people here on the base (who, by the way, are either students or live here on support.)

So this morning, the total need was at $4874.

First of all, how awesome is that?? We saw $11,000 come in in 2 weeks!!! Incredible!

But today was the most incredible. Today is our last day of lecture phase. The teams leave Sunday and Monday. So it was the last day for money to come in. And let me just tell you what happened today...

First, one guy got $2500 from a friend back home.
Then a check for $1000.
Then one for $300.
Then $500.
Then $200.
Then $373.

Let me do that math for you. That totals $4873.

Remember what we needed this morning? $4874.

Within one dolllar.

What just happened?!?!?!?!

One dollar. Not too shabby of a margin considering we're talking about thousands of dollars here. God is so cool. Ridiculously cool.

I wish you could have seen all the students and staff freaking out. Laughing and cheering and clapping...running to tell anyone who wasn't in the room. It was awesome!!! I wish I could have a picture of that moment.

I have never seen anything like this. I've seen God provide many times, but never in such a dramatic way. This is one of my favorite parts of my job. Since I am the book-keeper for the DTS, I keep track of who has paid what, who owes what and blah blah blah. Not the most fun part. BUT it means I get to see it up close when God provides so radically! How awesome is He!

So I hope you are encouraged by this story of what God did. We may be in a recession, but God is WAY BIGGER than economics. He's good and faithful and constant. He is a good Father and He provides.

a quote

2009-03-18T00:50:00.002-04:00

"Does it really matter how many die or how much money we spend in opening closed doors, and in occupying the different fields, if we really believe that missions are warfare and that the King's glory is at stake?"

~Samuel Zwemer

Thoughts?

Five Things

2009-03-12T02:37:00.013-04:00

Apparently I'm a monthly blogger. And a list blogger. I hope you're ok with that.

I've been wanting to tell y'all about five things going on here...so tonight I'm actually sitting down and doing it. (I'm a bit of a procrastinator...I've been wanting to write this for a couple weeks now.)

Number One--The September DTS Came Home
All 40-ish staff and students came home and we held graduation on February 8. It was great to see everyone again and to hear about what God had done on their outreaches in Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, and Bangladesh! Its pretty amazing to see God change peoples' lives in a short 5 months. I love that I get to watch and be a tiny part. Here is a picture from graduation...all of the staff lined up to hug the students as they graduate.

Number Two--My More Normal Life
When I came back in January, me and five other girls decided to pool our money and cook together instead of eating in the base kitchen. Now there is nothing wrong with the base food...but I missed cooking and eating as a little family makes life out here feel more normal. We worked it out so that we each cook one night and have one night free. It has been so fun! (Any good, cheap recipes would be greatly appreciated! Especially beans...we eat a lot of beans.) We even redecorated the living space of the house where we cook (4 of the 6 of us live there...but not me). It really feels like a nice home now. This little change has brought a big amount of sanity to us all. And its only $30 more per month than eating at the base! (This is our cute living room...the kitchen was a bit too messy to document.)

Number Three--Perspectives
Also since January, I have been taking the Perspectives Course. A local church, Blue Water Mission, are the organizers, but the class takes place here on the base. So convenient! And I am LOVING IT!!!! I'm a bit of a school-lovin dork, so I am eating up being in class and learning. I love learning about missions: what God has done in the past...what He's doing now...whats left to be done...His heart to reach every people group. Man, I love it! Its been a lot more homework than I expected, but I secretly love that. Here's a picture of the homework I was working on this week...I stare at this book a lot.

I'm so thankful that I get to take this class. A couple of us on the base got scholarships to take it...a huge blessing! And it has been a great chance to meet people in the community. Which leads to my number four....

Nubmer Four--Church
For those of you that go to Riverstone, we are SPOILED! Marie Claire and I were talking about how hard it is to find a church because Riverstone is so awesome. Tom Tanner, you spoil us. Not to mention that the community at Riverstone/StoneBridge/Vintage 242 is uniquely incredible. I've just had to resign myself to the fact that I will never find its equal. (YWAM Honolulu is a close second, but its still not the same.) All that to say I've been a church-hopper for the past six months. Not fun.

But I think I finally found a church that I jive with. Blue Water Mission. Spirit led. Bible based. Good teaching. God honoring worship. Cool people. Free coffee. Total package. I've been going there for about a month. I plan on stickin with it for as long as I'm here.

Number Five--The Current DTS
This school is fantastic. Seriously. And God is doing crazy things. These students are hungry to know God more and to experience him more. I wish I could adequately express how much God has done in their lives in the past 2 months. It is unreal. People are being set free from sins and issues that have held them back for years. They're getting a passion for missions and for evangelism. We've seen physical healings and crazy evidence of God's presence with us. Almost half the school was baptized a few weeks ago in Kona. They spend their Friday nights in the prayer room...staying up praying til the wee hours of the morning. I am blown away by what God is doing. He is so good! I can't wait to see and hear what happens on their outreach. Which is happening so soon! They leave in two and a half weeks! We have teams going to three countries: Nepal, Indonesia, and Mongolia. (Its been visa and ticket crunch time...this is a current picture of my out-of-control desk to prove it!)

There are really many more things I could tell y'all about...like how I've been able to minister to the staff, mentor a couple girls, lead a small group focused on missions, connect with leadership in Honolulu and in Kona, and about the future international opportunities that God's bringing my way. I truly love this life. I was thanking the Lord today for allowing me to be here. Many of you are faithfully praying for me and sacrificing to partner with me financially and I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU. I really couldn't be here without y'all.

The Past 2 Months

2009-02-07T16:14:00.005-05:00

A lot has happened in the past two months. I'll try to tell you week by week...

3 weeks in December: I flew home and had an incredibly awesome time there. Being home was EXACTLY what I needed. It was so good to spend time with the fam, my amazing friends, eat good mexican food and chickfila, go to RiverStone, and sleep in a big bed with lots of covers. There is just not a lot about home that I don't LOVE.

For your viewing pleasure, 3 cute sisters in Christmas pajamas:

One of the highlights of my time at home was a wedding! My college roommate Stephanie got married to a great boy named Andy. It was so fun spending the weekend with my sweet college roommates. Here is a cute picture of us from the wedding. What a beautiful bride!!

1st week of January: I came back to Hawaii a couple days before New Years Eve. And I'm going to be honest about this, it wasn't easy coming back. We've had some hard stuff hit us over here...the hardest is that our leaders, Chris and Katie, have left because of a family crisis. This has been a really tough thing for all of us here. We love them so much and miss them being here. And it stinks because they are both hurting. So that has been really hard getting used to running the DTS without them…and just living life without them. Please pray for them and for us.

2nd week of January: All of our new students arrived! We have 16 girls, 4 boys, and one awesome married couple. And they are all incredible.

3rd week of January: The DTS Staff all volunteered at the Sony Open Golf Tournament. It was a long week, but it was really fun. We got passes for the whole week to watch golf which was definitely the highlight. And we made lots of tips!

Also during this week, the students decided where they will go on outreach. They had three choices: Mongolia, Indonesia, and Nepal. This is always really fun and exciting. They hear the options, go pray about it, then come tell us where they feel like God is leading them. It worked out beautifully.

4th week of January: Our speaker in the DTS this week, Keith Martens, taught on spiritual authority and freedom in Christ. It was a powerful week for students and staff. Personally, I had some awesome breakthrough during a prayer time with Keith and my awesome friends Cary and Mandy. God is so good!

Here is a picture of the entire school with Keith and his ministry team. (Its the only picture I have of the whole school so far.)

1st week of February: All of the outreach teams from the September DTS return home!! We got 3 of the 4 teams home without any issues. But our poor Kyrgyzstan team was stuck for a week because of the snow in London. They were disappointed, but they’ll be home today. It has been cool to see God take care of them this last week. Even last night in the LA airport, 2 of them were going to have to pay over $300 each for their new flight home (since they missed their original flight). I was on the phone with the airline for hours and they wouldn’t budge. Then all the sudden, they said it would be $75…I have no clue what happened, but I know that Jesus intervened and made it happen. J I LOVE seeing Him provide like that! Definitely one of my favorite parts of my job.

Next week we head to Kona for this quarter’s corporate DTS week. The speakers are from Bethel Church in California…so it should be pretty amazing!

Mele Kalikimaka

2008-12-05T03:02:00.007-05:00

It is Christmastime in Hawaii!! Which means I haven't blogged in a month. I've got SO much to catch you up on. Y'all know I love a good bullet list...so here it comes! (Sorry though, no pictures today.)

* As I told you about in the last post, we took an all school camping trip to the North Shore. It was a really fun weekend! We hung out at the beach, ate yummy grilled food, and made smores. We gave the students the opportunity to get baptized in the ocean up there. Two of the girls asked me to go out in the water to stand with them as they were baptized. It was awesome to be a part of that with them! What an honor. I tell you what...these students are seriously incredible. They love Jesus and are hungry and eager to know Him more. I love my job.

* I finished my substitute teacher training course! YAY! 30 hours of (pretty much useless) time in a community classroom. I did make a friend though. A really nice girl named Rachel. We've met for lunch a couple times and she even came by the base to see what life here is like. I forget how bizarre my little world is until I bring someone from the 'real world' in. I guess not all people live in a Christian community. Its funny when people call it a 'commune'...I guess that's kinda what it is, but it sounds so weird. (I can't wait to see how many google searches for Christian commune end up here now.)

* I had the opportunity to teach the DTS for one morning. It was for outreach prep. I taught on having the attitude of a 'learner' when we go into other cultures and I also taught on culture shock. This was one of the things that I was most excited about doing here, and it was so fun to really be able to share this stuff with the students. I had a terrible time with culture shock on my DTS outreach in India 8 years ago...and I didn't know what it was until 6 years later. I sadly just thought I went nuts for a couple months. I am passionate about preparing the students (and staff) for what they might experience in another country. And I loved being in teacher mode. I miss that.

* Changing topics...(which is why I love bullets...who has time to write good transitions?) Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving was also really fun. We had a base-wide dinner the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. Our rockstar kitchen manager made an incredible meal for all 100something people. Then Thursday, I helped make brunch for the base. Then, while watching the parade, I made my Grandmother Ruth's famous cornbread dressing to take to my friends' house for our family-sized thanksgiving feast. (Which was also delicious!)

* The very biggest thing that has happened in the past month is that we got all 40 staff and students on outreach! We have teams in 4 countries: Cambodia, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, and Bangladesh. (This is, by the way, my most legitimate excuse for not blogging.) They'll be there doing all sorts of ministry in these places until the beginning of February. As the school's admin, I was responsible for all the tickets, visas, money distribution, etc. It was hectic...and stressful...I made more than my share of mistakes...and maybe sometimes I was a bit snappy...but the Lord was gracious and we got everyone out there. One really cool part of my job is that I get to see first hand how the Lord provides finances for everyone. Quite a few people (staff and students) had no clue where their money was coming from, and it all came in. I'll give you one example. We have one student from Korea; his parents aren't believers and do not support what he is doing. He came here with a couple thousand dollars. He needed almost $7000 total. He was so faithful with what he had...he even washed his clothes by hand because he didn't have money for laundry. It was amazing to see his money come in. From churches, from staff, from students...it was amazing. And that is just one of the cool stories. The students were blown away by God's provision and faithfulness. It was so fun to watch. Our God is so good!

So now here we are on a practically empty YWAM base. My house went from 20-something girls to 3 girls. Out of the DTS staff, there are only 8 of us left. We've been spending time preparing for the next quarter that begins in January as well as tying up loose ends from this school. It has been fun and busy. We're taking a break this weekend and going camping. (I know what you're thinking...Tatum never camps...2 camping trips in one month? It is true. And I'm starting to actually like it. Weird. But not the being dirty part. I still don't like that.)

And last, but definitely not least....I'm coming home in 5 days for Christmas!! I know I've only been gone for like 4 months, but I can't wait to see everyone and sleep in my big comfy bed and eat my Momma's food. And La Parilla's food. (I'm pretty sure I could list about a hundred things that I can't wait to do.) I'll be there for 3 weeks--3 weeks full of resting and reconnecting. If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited about coming home.

Since I didn't get to say it on Thanksgiving, I'm gonna say it now. I am thankful for you. There are more than a few people out here who don't have supportive friends and family. I can't imagine what that is like. I am freakishly blessed to have y'all. I love you!! And I'll get to see a lot of you very soon!

well

2008-11-03T23:34:00.012-05:00

Here's another blog! :)

A lot has happened since that last blog. I'm a list kinda girl, so here's the list of happenings:

1. The whole DTS went to Kona for a week to join with the DTS students there. We had an awesome time. It was cool to connect with other YWAMers and to see another base. It was so different! here are some pictures.

This is at the front of the campus...flags of all the countries represented by the students. (They have hundreds of students on their base...compared to our 33!)

Here are all the DTS groups in lecture. Look how huge their place is! Our speaker for the week was Dan Baumann and Daniel Lehmann led worship. (Check them out. They're both awesome.)

This is the dining room in Kona.

This was our room...SO nice and BIG!

One morning, Me, Katie J, Katie M, and Raquel (that's clockwise) had breakfast with Chris (Katie J's husband) by the ocean. The ocean is right behind that red truck. While we were sitting and chatting, we saw DOLPHINS in the water! It made our day. We watched them for a long time.

2. I turned 27! i had a super fun birthday. We had a rock star karaoke party! Everyone dressed up like a rockstar. I was tiffany. I found this incredible dress at the thrift store and just couldn't pass it up!

Here I am with Jessica Simpson (Mandy) and Paul Stanley (Cary)

Dolly and Tiffany.

Enrique, Dolly, and Madonna working the Karaoke!
Root beer and Dr. Pepper bottles make great mics.

(I wish I had a big group shot, but its on my friend's camera and I haven't gotten it from her yet.)

My sweet friends got me presents...this one was wrapped in toilet paper wrappers and a grocery bag. That's YWAM for you! :) (I was done with the wig by then...but as you can see, Tina Turner and Paula Abdul were still going strong.)

On my real birthday, I went to dinner with Mandy and Cary. We went to a Japanese steakhouse and to Cold Stone! It was a really fun night.

3. Other random happenings include:

I finished my substitute teacher training course and passed the test! Yay! I have my Saturdays free again...and I can start working soon!
I've been working A LOT on DTS stuff. Duh, that's my job. But its been really busy since we got back from Kona two weeks ago. The outreach teams leave in 4 weeks! And we still need tickets and visas! So I'm working on those everyday. Trying to find cheap tickets...filling out visa applications...taking, printing, and cutting visa pictures...talking to travel agents...emailing the travel agency in Bangkok...etc. Today was a big day: I purchased tickets for the Cambodia team! It was very exciting.
I've gotten a few folks here into Georgia football. I didn't think I'd be able to see the games out here...but all but one have been on national TV! Cool, huh? It makes Saturdays so fun. I make good food...food that makes me feel like I'm home (dad's famous biscuits/mom's black bean salsa/grits!). My director/Canadian friend Chris loves NFL so I've introduced him to college football. He lets me watch all the games on his TV and watches with me when he can. He's only watched a couple games with me. Which games? Bama and Florida. Needless to say, I will no longer be watching Georgia football with Chris.
We're going camping this weekend on the North Shore. Clearly I'm not the biggest "camper" but I'm looking forward to relaxing on the beach. I haven't been to the beach in a month! How ridiculous is that?

Well friends, that's all for now.

Thursday

2008-10-03T17:46:00.015-04:00

As promised, here is a photo-blog documenting a day in my life here at YWAM Honolulu.

7:00am--Breakfast time. Today was bagels and yogurt. I like bagel mornings.

Sadly, it was raining outside so we couldn't sit at the tables to eat. Most of the students went to eat in our "Tin Cathedral" (where we have lectures and meetings).

All the school staff met in our office for our staff meeting. We meet twice a week in the morning to sort out details of the week and pray for the school. Here we are before our meeting (I couldn't't get everyone in the picture at the same time.)

8:30am--Base-wide Intercession. Usually during this time we focus on a specific country or issue and pray for it. Today was a little different. The first of the month, every base in YWAM prays for the same thing. This month, it was about encouraging ourselves in the Lord (like David did)...so we just spent this time praising God for His goodness and reminding ourselves of His faithfulness. (This is the "Tin Cathedral" where all our meetings take place.)

9:30am--As the students in the DTS gathered in the Tin for Bible Reading time (they're reading through Genesis), I ran to the office and made copies for them for lecture. Then I spent some time at my desk emailing and checking flights for the outreach teams.

10:30am--The DTS students have lecture from 10:30 to 12:30. I try to go when I can, but today was jam packed, so I used this time to clean my room, do laundry and take a shower. And some other random tasks like checking students' shot records, talking with our visiting missionaries, and delivering some mail.

So here's the before and after of the room cleaning. I'm sure you'll notice the new addition to my room...my fabulous brown chair! I found it in storage here and I love it! Its nice to have somewhere to sit and read...or just tie my shoes.

And here is where I did my laundry. (Thrilling, I know. But people like Moms and Dads-and probably Carolines-like to see these sorts of things.)

12:30pm--Lunch time. Look at that line! With 36 DTS Students, 17 DTS Staff, and 30ish Base staff, it takes a few minutes to make it through the food line.

The rain stopped by lunch so we could sit at the tables. Cute, isn't it?

1:30pm--Girls Small Group. Every other Thursday afternoon, all the girl DTS staff meets to talk and pray. Today we went to Starbucks. I love, love, LOVE these girls. They are all incredible. We spent a lot of time talking about deep, real stuff...and praying for each other...and laughing...and taking LOTS of funny pictures. It was a great afternoon.

4:00pm--Back to work! This afternoon, I searched more for flights for outreach, made sign up sheets for emergency contacts and birthdays, and updated the financial records of all the students. Here I am in my little corner of the world where I spend lots of time. (This is in the same office that we had our staff meeting in. I stood on this chair to take that picture up there.)

5:00pm--Dinner time. Pizza bread!! Yummy!!

After dinner, there was an awesome rainbow in the valley! Have I mentioned how much I love living here?

6:30pm--Community Meeting. Every Thursday night, we have a service for everyone on the base and anyone in the community who wants to come. Picture one: worship. Picture two: our fearless leader, Base Director Mike Heath introducing the visiting missionaries and our speaker for tonight.

8:30pm--My friend (and fellow staffer) Raquel and took 2 of our students (Kelsey and Jocelyn) up to the mountain side to this awesome lookout. Its sort of a little tradition we started...McDonald's dollar menu and hang out time while taking in the incredible view of Honolulu. (The big black holes in the first picture are those 3 lovely ladies.)

So that was my busy Thursday! Everyone loved being so thoroughly documented all day long. :) I'm sure you can tell by the facial expressions in all the pictures.

Life isn't this busy everyday. That's one of the great things about this life...everyday is completely different. Wednesday was a full beach day with a few friends--complete with grilled shish kabobs and corn on the cob. It was perfect!

That's all for now. This was a super long post...hope I didn't lose you. I'll try to be more consistent with updates so they won't be as long. Thanks for caring about my life and about what is going on here!

excuses

2008-09-29T16:00:00.003-04:00

Dear bleaders,
Greetings from Manoa Valley (do yourself a favor and google pictures of that because its one of the prettiest valleys in the whole wide world).

I'm terribly sorry for the lack of updates. I have many excuses...I will list a few for you.

1. I just got my own computer online again (after a month of being useless). Its annoying to try to write a proper blog on a computer that is not your own. (Apparently I'm a high maintenance blogger.)
2. Life has been rather hectic lately...36 students & 17 staff starting the DTS, community functions, job training, embarrassing/painful-to-watch football games, trips to the beach (its tough but somebody's got to do it)...all of which will be thoroughly discussed in my next post.
3. I was going to document my day today in photos--Mondays are the busiest--but I forgot my camera and even though its only 10am, I've already missed 3 events that need to be properly documented. So consider this a preview (although its a lame one) and look forward to a future "day in the life of" post.
4. Living in a community of 70-something people is not very blog-friendly. I'm not online a whole lot cause I'm always with people. And I LOVE these people!! My friends/family/church in Marietta are freakishly awesome and these fine folks are a close 2nd. About as close as you could get. God is way too good to me-these friendships are way more than I could have hoped for.

Four excuses. I hope they're enough for you. And now that I've promised a future blog, I'll feel guilty until I do it...so it will be sooner rather than later.

Georgia folk, I miss you. And you too, Ghana peeps.

Sincerely yours,
Tatum...the seldom blogger

Wanna see?

2008-08-31T00:19:00.004-04:00

Well hello. For those of you that care, sorry that it has taken me a couple weeks to get some pictures up. But for an added bonus, I made a video, too!

Everything is AWESOME here. We've been in staff training all week and it couldn't be going any better. The Lord has big plans for this fall and I'm so excited to be a part of it!! The students come at the end of next week...our first day is Sept 12th. It's going to be great. I can't wait to see what God is going to do!!

Now pictures...

Here is my cute room!

And here is my cute car! My good friend, Cary, and I are sharing this car. Car shopping was an interesting experience...stressful at times. But I'm so thankful to finally have it. You wouldn't believe how different life is here with wheels. I'm a free lady. I love it!

And here is a video of my room/house. Its REALLY shaky...be warned. And I pretty much look like an idiot. I guess anytime a person makes a video of themselves, they look slightly idiotic. Enjoy!

aloha!!

2008-08-19T22:31:00.006-04:00

i have arrived!! actually, i've been here since thursday. i've been having a great time hanging out with my lovely friends! no time for blogging when we're hanging out at the beach! :)

a real update and pictures to come...

tomorrow!

2008-08-13T16:57:00.003-04:00

i get on that airplane early tomorrow morning and i'm off to hawaii!!

i'm so excited. and so ready to be finished packing, cleaning, and saying goodbye. i hate that part. but it feels much easier this time...hawaii seems closer than ghana (although it really isn't). but i can have my cell phone and constant internet access. and i get to come home for Christmas!!

please pray for me as i'm traveling tomorrow. pray for safety and rest. and please pray for a quick and smooth transition to life in honolulu. i arrive tomorrow afternoon, and we have a fun weekend planned with lots of beach time and catching up with dear friends. monday morning i'll hit the ground running pulling things together for the upcoming Discipleship Training School!

you can also pray that all the details will fall into place for me to be a substitute in the local schools.

next update will be from hawaii! i'm amazed at how God works and where He has led me. He is SO good!!

**i recently sent out an email with an attached newsletter describing what i'll be doing in Honolulu. if you did not receive that email and would like to be added to my list, please email me using the link above. thanks!

aloha blog world

2008-07-12T16:34:00.005-04:00

hey old blog friends!
since the only people that read this blog are my real-life friends, you all already know that i'm heading to hawaii next month to work with YWAM. so today the blog gets a little make over in preparation of the big move. although i hate leaving marietta, i'm so excited about my life in hawaii. i'll be administrative staff for the discipleship training school (DTS). during my year, we'll have 3 schools come through the base. and have i mentioned yet that 2 of my favorite people will be there with me? cary and mandy have been 2 of my closest friends for the past 8 years since we met during our DTS. i still can't believe that we'll all be there together again. i'm so thankful! here is a picture of their cute little faces:

me, cary, and mandy

that picture is from Cary's birthday 2 years ago when we were all in honolulu for a few months together. so that makes this round three for our lives together in hawaii!

anyway, i'll be updating this here blog from the rainbow state. so check back in a month or so. maybe I'll even post a copy of my "i just need your prayers not your money" support letter sometime in the next week.

aloha.

even though i wasn't tagged...

2008-02-23T23:07:00.007-05:00

i just finished reading everyone's 10 random things. and even though i wasn't tagged (cause i never blog!!) i want to play too.

1. i hate being cold. i mean HATE. cold=torture.

2. i'm moving to hawaii in june. it is not cold there.

3. i love babies. LOVE them. especially african ones. they fully melt my heart.

4. it is 11pm and our neighbor is sawing and hammering outside. i find it annoying.

5. i had the most random meal of my life today. i experienced marie claire's fried world first hand at asbury's cafeteria. i had fried french toast sticks, fried hash browns, and a corn dog. and a salad and a bowl of lucky charms. i have felt disgusting all day long. poor choices indeed.

6. i hate scary movies. i really don't understand their appeal what-so-ever. (how's that grammar billy p? i'm really bad at grammar.)

7. i'm a certified home economics teacher.

8. my sweet daddy saved my life twice when i was a wee babe. once i rolled down the stairs in my walker and he caught me at the bottom. and once i fell in the lake and scooped me right up. that makes it sound like it wasn't scary, but it was.

9. i went to 6 different schools growing up. 2 elementary. 2 middle. and 2 high schools. which really isn't that weird until you know that we never moved houses. bizarre, huh?

10. i don't like orange cheese. or strong cheese. usually, the only cheese i like is mild, white, melted cheese. like on pizza or mexican cheese dip. its an annoying abhorrence because cheese is in everything.

that was fun. i'm glad i joined in.

i tag marge, anna, leah and brynn/charlie. and AMY! i tag her to resurrect her blog.

B2F attendees: i'm sad i missed it! i intended to be at B2F3 but i had to be out of town/got to be with miss marie in KY! hopefully (now that i'm qualified and all) i'll be able to make it to B2F4.

2 months.

2007-12-16T16:18:00.000-05:00

Its been almost 2 months since I blogged. Mostly because I don't feel like I have anything to say. I'm a talker. I talk more than I should...sharing things that people don't want to know. So when I'm done talking, I have nothing left to blog. This is my dilemma. Luckily, the past couple weeks have been pretty awesome and I have some pictures blog about.

First, Hutch Adair arrived in Marietta! (Well his parents came too...) He brought the posse together, which is always a beautiful thing. 5 nights of hanging out at the Drew's house until way past bed time. Laughing. Watching TV. Playing games. Talking. It was fabulous. I felt like I was in high school or college on Christmas break. I even looked at my watch one time and thought "oh no, what time am i supposed to be home?...........OH! right, I'm 26, I don't have a curfew anymore." Here is the photographic evidence. 6 BFF's, one cute offspring, and Grumpy in front of the fire. Precious.

Here's my favorite action shot of the week. Jenny trying to feed Hutch (who is 4 months old) a cookie. (fyi-bad idea.)

There is just something about friends who have known you since childhood. I know that its a huge blessing to have these girls...I'm sad for people who don't have a posse of crazy girls who have been around eachother way too long. But I'm pretty sad for us that we don't live in the same place. Our ratio is pretty good right now though--4 out of 6 ain't bad. If only we had time to see each other.

Awesome event numero dos: Last night, I got to spend hours with my great friends/roommates from college. Its so refreshing to be around people you love and have so much in common with. 3 of the 5 have lived internationally and plan to do it again. How fun is that? AND 2 of the 5 have babies. Unbelievably precious babies. Ones that you can stare at for long periods of time. See?

Two completely different groups of girls. But man I love them all so much. I'm thankful that God put us all together. These are the things I miss when I'm away.

Other than hanging out with some of the coolest people on the planet, my time lately has been spent with middle schoolers. I have loved teaching these past couple months! The school I'm at is phenomenal. I love the kids...the teachers...the administration. I don't think that's normal. But its true. Sadly, since its only a long-term sub job, this is my last week. The teacher that I took over for is returning after Christmas. I'm so sad to be leaving! I wish there was some way I could stay there. I do have a job possibility for January at another school...we'll see what God does.

Speaking of what God does, I love that He does things totally differently than I expect. I fully expected to be in seminary right now. And maybe that will still happen. But God has me here for now. And I like it.

However, living in America is hard. Really hard. How on earth do we live in this culture but not of it? How do we maintain a eternal perspective when we're surrounded by junk and nonsense? How do we not get sucked into the materialism and selfishness and busyness? Man, its a battle. I miss the simplicity of Ghana. I miss the servant mindset that was so encouraged by the culture and our community there. I miss the mindset I had there. I miss the way I analyzed everything in light of Jesus. I got tired of analyzing like that while I was there, but I miss it now. That might not make any sense. I'm leaving it there anyway.

Well thats all I have for now. This was for you, anonymous. And you, Mr. Pinto.

And for the record, I'm a huge Tebow fan. I even cheer for that team of his sometimes now. Only sometimes. Shows you what a good-looking-Jesus-lovin' boy can do.

for the fans--all 2 of them.

2007-09-18T14:29:00.006-04:00

So I know I haven't blogged in a really long time. Like months. And since Blog2Face is coming up, I figured I'd write a thing or two. But the reason I don't blog anymore is because I don't have anything interesting to say. So consider that your warning...this probably won't be good. I'll go with bullet points though. I just like them better. Maybe its a Downs thing...the lists and all.

--I'm on Federal Jury Duty for the next 2 weeks. I spent Monday morning in the Richard B. Russell building in downtown Atlanta. I was one of 45 jurors questioned to be on a criminal case. Man am I glad that I didn't get picked. The dudes looked like they were straight off The Soprano's. The judge said the case was gonna take 2 weeks. Yikes. Glad it ain't me. I learned a lot about our court system, so that was fun. We even did the whole "all rise" bit. But I still have to call every night at 5pm to see if I have to go the following day and be questioned for another case.
--In other news, most of y'all know my dad. And you probably know that we like to call him Big Tom Callahan, or BTC for short. My friends started calling him Big Tom when I was in high school, which quickly evolved into Big Tom Callahan out of our love for Tommy Boy. Dad even signs his emails BTC. But now he has a new nickname...Funny Man. Funny Man because he is now one of the South's Funniest Accountants. Seriously. Here he is. There is a competition for the South's Funniest Accountant and he made it to the finals...one of 9 out of 50! The final competition is in October. I can't wait. Until then, he's answering his phone saying "Funny Man here" (and by the way, Funny Man turns 57 tomorrow!)
--Annie's laid up with the tonsil removal business. She's in quite a bit of pain. She takes lots of drugs. She has a little bell next to her bed that she rings when she wants something (like Gatorade {the cure all} or more drugs). Someone asked me today if she says funny stuff on the drugs. I wish she did. But she can't really talk right (its kind of like a whispering frog...the British accent hasn't taken effect yet). And she only talks when absolutely necessary. So no funny drug talk yet. Maybe later in the week we'll get some. Rest assured, I will blog for that occasion.
--H and Amy get back from London on THURSDAY! I haven't seen Amy since I was in Ghana, so I'm pretty pumped for their return!! (And I get to see her cute nephews Thursday too!)

For my friends in Ghana, sorry I'm not better at updating. Here's the quick life update: I'm staying home for a year, saving money to pay for seminary (that I'll hopefully start next fall). After these 2 weeks of Jury Duty, I hope to get a long-term substitute teaching job. Until then, I seem to be developing a career as a house sitter. It's a pretty sweet gig.
There you go, bliends. Hope you enjoyed the peer pressure inspired blog post.

Current music: the random song on matt's blog
Current drink: cherry juice mixed with limeade. good decision.
Current procrastination: finishing the Beth Moore Bible study for tonight

the funny things..

2007-06-27T22:31:00.000-04:00

about being back in america.

1. i am freezing. they have a/c EVERYWHERE here. i had to drive home with the heater on my toes cause they froze at dinner. and i sleep in multiple layers...with the vent closed in my room. even now as i'm typing my toes are starting to lose feeling cause they're so cold. america is cold.

2. did you know the roads here are really smooth? they dont have pot holes. and there are street lights to light the roads at night. and all the traffic lights work. oh, and you don't have to change gears in automatic cars. or use the clutch. especially when the pedal that is in the classic clutch location is actually the emergency break. at first i drove with my left foot up on the seat so that i wouldn't be tempted to push the "clutch" (slash emergency break). oh and they have lots of street lights and i can see the road at night. that's a plus.

3. the internet is so fast! i mean, i can hit "play" on a youtube video and it plays immediately! no joke. and i just downloaded a sermon on itunes in less than 5 minutes.

4. cell phones have call waiting and voicemail. and you don't have to "pay" for every minute you use. so you can talk a lot. example: after i had been in the states for 10 days i had talked on my cell phone for 1200 minutes!!! (i'll do the math for you: that's 2 hours a day. insane, i know.) BUT 1132 of those minutes were FREE. yep, free. nights, weekends, free calls to other at&t customers. i'm apparently a strategic caller. and a chatty cathy. (source/researcher/minute analyst: sally downs)

In all, my transition back to American culture has been remarkably smooth. I'm grateful for that. The difficult part for me has been "catching up" with friends. But how do you really "catch up" on a whole year. That part has been overwhelming at times (i mean come on...1200 cell phone minutes!!). But I love my friends and I'm SO glad to have opportunities to "catch up". I've had some really great conversations with dear old friends...and THAT I love.

And of course there has been the family stress that we knew we would experience with Ma being sick. She's doing remarkably well considering the situation. She still has the blood clot...which causes her a great deal of pain and is still life threatening, but she's in great spirits. She frequently says that its no use thinking about her legs hurting or about being sick...cause she can't change that. So she might as well just enjoy the life she's got. That's what she says! And she always talks about how wonderful the people at her nursing home are. Today, as we wheeled her to dinner, she passed a nurse and said "hey little buddy." How cute is that? I am praising the Lord for her great attitude! It's phenomenal. And her mind is clear, which is a huge blessing because it hasn't been that way for a few years now. More praising!! I've been able to spend a good bit of time with her and its been "wonderful wonderful" as she would say.

So thanks for all your prayers for her! I'm still blown away by all God has done in this situation.

Since life has been non-stop busy since I arrived, we (my family) decided to go to the lake for a few days to chill out. We leave tomorrow and I'm so excited! I can't wait to have time to really process...and pray...and journal...and just relax. And maybe I'll do a little shopping at the outlets on the way. :) Maybe I'll have some interesting things to blog after I have some processing time....stay tuned.

That's all for now....I'm off to pack!

Overwhelmed.

2007-06-15T21:46:00.000-04:00

Some of you may not know that my time in Ghana has come to a sudden end. My scheduled departure was June 28^th, but we received news Tuesday that my grandmother, Ruth Strother (aka Ma) has a life threatening blood clot. I decided, along with Sally (who has been here for a few weeks) and the Mozleys, that we (Sally and I) would return to the States a couple weeks early in hopes that we’ll get to spend some time with her. We attempted to change our tickets on British Air, but they couldn't get us home until the day after our scheduled flight. They could get us to London on Sunday, but obviously that wouldn't help much. So a dear dear friend gave us 2 buddy passes on Delta so that we could try to fly standby on Thursday. So Wednesday was full of packing up and running around tying up lose ends. And our stories from Thursday are below. The long and short of it is that we made it home! And I can't wait for y'all to hear how God provided for us!

But first I'll update you on Ruth/Ma. She is out of the hospital now, back in her nursing home room. She's very glad to be back. She still has the large blood clot in her left leg, and they are continuing to give her the blood thinner. She is very alert and it was so fun talking to her today! Mom and I went to see her this morning and we talked for quite a while. I showed her some pictures from Ghana...she loved that. And we talked about some of the fun things we did when I was little. She's so funny...one of the first things she said to me what "we sure did have a good time when you were young"...we talked about eating sausage biscuits on the front porch steps, drinking mint sweet tea and making cross stitch Christmas ornaments. Mentally and emotionally she is doing great. But physically she's weak. She's in pain from the blood clot, and they're keeping her in bed (not letting her sit up in her wheel chair) which she doesn't like so much.

I am so grateful that the Lord allowed us to get home and gave me this time with her. She wasn't even this alert and 'with it' when I left for Ghana last year. It is such a blessing. I am so thankful. Thank you for praying and please continue to pray. God can take that blood clot away! Nothing is too hard for Him!

Now let me tell you about all miracles in our trip home. We flew stand-by on buddy passes (given to us by our sweet sweet friend!!). When we checked in at the Accra airport, the woman told us that our chances were not good to get on the plane. The flight was overbooked by sixty people. Sixty. So we sat and waited. While we waited I just kept praying. I really didn't want to have to go through the goodbyes again...once is hard enough. And I wanted to get home to see Ma. But I knew that God was in total control and that He knew exactly when Sally and I needed to get home, so I was trusting Him with that (even though I really wanted to get on that flight!). So after about 3 hours of waiting, a lady walked in with all the boarding passes for standby passengers. They all crowded around her waiting to see if they got one. I stood back a little and waited. When it was finally my turn, I timidly asked if we were on the flight, and when she said yes I just lost it. I started weeping! I felt a little silly but I just couldn't help it. And, to top it all off, we were in business class!!! Can you believe our God!! I re-gained control by the time we got to the plane. But after sitting there a while and thinking about what God had done for me and Sally...and how it was all out of His love for us, I started crying again. He really is too good.

We arrived in New York on time, but had to sit on the runway for an hour because of all the plane traffic at JFK airport. (Mind you, our lay over at JFK was only 1 hour 50 minutes.) We cleared immigration and went to get our bags. Our flight to Atlanta was scheduled to leave at 6:50. At 6:30 Sally and I were still waiting on 2 of our bags. I had pretty much given up on that 6:50 flight...and was hoping we could get on a later one at Laguardia. Our bags finally arrived at 6:40 and we literally left them with a Delta employee to re-check for us as we RAN to the gate. I was huffing and puffing all the way to A22. When I got there, I saw that our plane was delayed by one hour! We hadn't missed it! But there were tons of people at the gate, and again the agent told us that our chances of getting on weren't great. Again I prayed and trusted that God would get us home when we needed to be there. I mean come on, look what He had already done! So we waited again...and finally the agent behind the desk called our names! And you won't believe this, but we were in first class this time! We arrived in Atlanta at midnight to a sweet reunion with mom and dad.

I'm overwhelmed. Not by reverse culture shock. Not by grief for my sweet grandmother. Not by jet lag. But by how amazing our God is. I've never personally experienced His divine provision like I did with these flights. I tasted a tiny bit of God yesterday, and boy did I see that He is good. Overwhelmed.

And one more thing that God has done for me lately. He totally prepared me for my early departure from Ghana. This past Sunday, the Mozleys threw me a surprise going away party (even though I still had 3 weeks left until I was leaving). So I got to see everyone and say "goodbye" even though I thought I'd see them all again. I'm so grateful for that time with all my friends together. So thank you all for praying! God heard you! And He moved and acted because of your prayers! Thank you for praying...not only did God get me home, but He allowed me to see more of Him through this time! Praise Him!!!!!!!!!!

the past couple weeks

2007-06-08T07:19:00.000-04:00

Woah, it has been a busy couple weeks! Sorry for the lack of blogging.

Sally and I were accompanied by my dear friend, Lori, on our trip up to Obuasi. Everything went quite smoothly dropping Sally off. Lori did a great blog about it. Read it! And although it hasn't been easy, Sally has been having a great time at the orphanage. She's still there, and now there is a team from RiverStone there with her. She's loving it! She'll come home with the team on Monday.

The RiverStone team spent the first part of the week in Kumasi. Claire was there with them being hostess with the mostess. That means that I've been at home being "mom" to the 3 Mozley kids, 2 visitors (Ryan and Caroline), and 2 Mission Society kids whose parents are out of town. I'll do the math for you: that's 7 kids. It's been crazy. Making meals, taking care of sick ones, making sure they're all where they are supposed to be, making sure they're studying for finals. Crazy. But, praise the Lord, Claire came home last night. :) So now my mommy duties are done for good...bittersweet.

The Mozleys leave next Thursday for America! Less than a week! They're all getting excited to see people and eat Chickfila. After they leave, we'll relax for a couple days, then we're heading out on a 9 day tour of Ghana...visiting missionaries and ministries all over the country. It will be so much fun! I'm sure we'll all blog about that.

I arrive in Georgia 3 weeks from today. It's hard to believe. I'm not looking forward to saying goodbyes here, but I am looking forward to being home. Being with family and friends, relaxing, and figuring out my next step. Week one in America will be spent with my family at Lake Burton and I can't wait!!! Then I get to see a bunch of UGA friends at my old roommate's wedding. Then I get to chill in Marietta for quite a while. It will be a good summer indeed.

salita bobita

2007-05-27T17:30:00.000-04:00

sally is here!

she actually got here last saturday. its been so fun having her around. i've been dragging her around with me all week...running errands, going to a missions class that i attend, going to lunch with friends, youth group, the beach...everywhere. but the real excitement starts tomorrow!

we're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning. taking a bus up to Obuasi to get sally settled in at the orphanage where she'll be volunteering for the next couple weeks. she brought lots of stuff to do crafts with the kids...and she'll hold lots of babies too. she's really excited.

please pray for us as we travel. my sweet friend lori is going with us. lori and i will return to accra on tuesday. and pray especially for sally as she ministers to those sweet kids for the next 2 weeks.

thanks!

twighlight zone

2007-05-27T16:34:00.000-04:00

thanks for all your encouraging comments on that last post...you readers are great! to follow up on that post, guess what i read today? 2 Cor 5:1-9. go read it. its crazy how when God teaches you something, you seem to 'stumble' upon the theme everywhere you go.

ok, the rest of this post isn't very serious. just a fun update.

it's been a crazy few days. very "american". and kinda weird. let me show you.

first of all, thursday was the opening day of a new store called "game". its a south african store and its located in our new mall (its the first store to open there). its pretty much just like walmart. it was so bizarre! standing in such a typical western store in ghana. literally, my jaw was on the ground most of the time. i don't know how many times i said "this is crazy!" it was seriously overwhelming to see the aisles full of stuff. and the 13 check out lanes...like real check out lanes...the kind they have at kroger and walmart. its amazing how much stuff they had there. i'm still overwhelmed when i think of it. (and am i kidding? i really took pictures of the store? that should show you how freaked out i was.) but i've already thought "i need some blank cds...i'll just go to game." they've sucked me in already.

then on friday, after spending the day at the beach (celebrating african unity day) we got to see miss anna mozley and her friends all gussied up for prom! ain't she pretty?

my twighlight zone trip to america ended on saturday night. we went to our friend stacey's house to watch the american idol finale. it was so fun to hang out with friends, watch silly american tv, and eat good food (homemade banana crepes, peanut butter m&m's, twizlers, sour straws, and popcorn!...and all that candy was from my awesome friends at ywam honolulu!!)

all this american-ness made me realize that america is overwhelming! it will take some getting used to, that's for sure.

i'm crashing back into ghana tomorrow...taking public transport for 5 hours up to kumasi.

home?

2007-05-22T13:05:00.000-04:00

I have 6 weeks left here in Ghana. So my thoughts are starting to turn towards home. Especially when I get frustrated with aspects of life here. Whenever we have the electricity off ("light off"--which seems to be more often than "light on" lately), I think, "man, can't wait to be in America with constant electricity." Or when I'm driving down the road, dodging the many potholes, I think, "man, I can't wait to drive on smooth roads in America." And I start thinking about La Parilla, Starbucks, bagels, fountain cokes...and I get pretty excited about being home.

But the other day, when I was thinking about such things, I remembered my senior year in college when our electricity went off quite a few times...sometimes for days in a row. And I think about the cold showers I've taken when we've run out of hot water. I think about car troubles, and how annoying it is to get them fixed. I think about the ridiculously high gas prices that I'm hearing about. Home ain't all its cracked up to be.

And more than that, I think about how I'm always restless. No matter where I am. When I was in high school, I couldn't wait to go to YWAM. When I was in YWAM, I couldn't wait to go to UGA. At UGA, I couldn't wait to graduate and do something different. When I was back in Marietta, I couldn't wait to go back to Hawaii with YWAM. And after that, I couldn't wait to get here. Many times here I've been excited and anxious to get back home. At every step, I've thought "oh, _____ will be better when I get to the next place" (fill in the blank with anything...self-discipline, prayer time, exercise, friendships).

All of these thoughts together have made me realize this: this world is not our home. Even though I'm excited to get there, the things I'm longing for in Marietta won't fulfill me. I'll get there, go to La Parilla and eat cheese dip and salsa while drinking a fountain coke, and I will still feel unfulfilled. My restlessness that I always have is not a desire to get to the next stage...its a desire for my true Home.

But here is my question: why does that make me sad? Why does it make me sad to think that Marietta isn't my home? Why am I not really excited that my Home is far better than anything here on this earth? Why don't I love that I was made for much more than earthly things? And was Jesus ever sad that he had "no place to lay his head?" (Matthew 8:20) I'm sure He REALLY understood that earth wasn't his home...but still.

Maybe it makes me sad because I just want to be comfortable here...physically, emotionally, spiritually. Home is where you're comfortable. And if earth isn't our home, then true comfort just isn't in the cards. Ever.

(I'm just thinking out loud here...I really haven't gotten this one figured out.)

Many times when I've been homesick, the Lord has reminded me of Colossians 3:1-3

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

And man, when I really set my mind and heart on things above (instead of on a grande caramel macchiato from Starbucks) I remember how awesome my God is and He enough for me! I don't need silly Starbucks...or La Parilla. And I know that He put me here in Ghana to serve the Mozleys. I know that He'll give me everything I need to do just that...and to keep focused here until I do return to Marietta.

Really, when I think about God in all His majesty, sitting on His holy throne, how the heck can I whine about wanting to be in Marietta? Or when I think about His love...and how He sacrificed so much for me...so much that I'll never even understand it. Or when I think about His mercy and grace and faithfulness...and how He sticks with me even though I'm a total dork sometimes. Thoughts of Him totally override those homesick thoughts. Our God is so good.

I know this is a bunch of rambling thoughts. I guess I'm just trying to figure this out...what my desires are really about...what our lives here on earth are really about. I'm thankful that God has put these thoughts in my head to ponder now...weeks before I go "home"...I think it would have been a devastating shock if He hadn't prepared me. Again, He is just so good.

My friend Lori wrote a blog about feeling like this before her and her family even left Canada to come to Ghana. Check out her thoughts here.

(By the way, I know I used lots of worthless examples of things I miss...but for the record I miss people much more than these things...things just worked better for example sake.)

a few hours later:
I just picked up C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce today. I haven't read it since high school and after Ryan's last post, I thought I'd run through it again. Look at this quote from the preface:

I believe, to be sure, that any man who reaches Heaven will find that what he abandoned (even in plucking out his right eye) was precisely nothing: that the kernel of what he was really seeking even in his most depraved wishes will be there, beyond expectation, waiting for him in "the High Countries."

I kinda had to laugh a little bit at how God times things...even silly things like when I read certain passages in books. It was a reminder of how much greater our real HOME is. And that our desires and restlessness here on earth won't be disappointed when we get Home. How unbelievably incredible is God?!?

its a good thing

2007-05-18T11:30:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite thing about Ghanaian culture is relationships.

You know how in America, you can buy groceries, go to the bank, go shopping at the mall, get some coffee...all without TRULY interacting with people? It really doesn't work like that here.

Here, the ladies at the grocery store know me. The butcher knows me. The lady at the bank knows me. The man that I buy cell phone credit from knows me. (Now, when he sees me pulling up, he walks out to the car with credit for me to buy!) And its not because I'm somebody special...thats just how it works. You make friends with vendors, and you stay loyal to them.

I have a fun friend named Amanda that is a seamstress/jewelry maker/shop owner. I went by her shop today to get a few things. I wanted her to sew a new bag for me, and I needed some tablecloths and napkins for my Momma. For the bag, I just took her one of my favorite bags from home (old navy actually) and she's going to copy it. How cool is that? So I can get it in any fabric I want...I chose to get a patchwork of Ghanaian fabrics. And here is the awesome part: Amanda and I are friends. We know each other. She knows what colors and styles I like. She always laughs at me because I gravitate towards the same kind of fabrics...all of which have blue, teal, green, or brown in them. And she knows that's what I like! So I totally trust her to pick out fun fabrics for my purse. And, she really helped me with the fabrics for my Mom's tablecloths. We had to visit 2 of her vendor friends, but we got it all taken care of. I think I spent about 1 hour with Amanda today. Just talking, looking at fabrics, looking at the creative dresses and skirts that she has made. It was so fun! I walked away thinking "that was so much better than going to Target!" And, in a couple weeks, I'll have a great new bag--a perfect replica of my favorite bag in Ghanaian fabrics that I'll love from a friend that I enjoy. I love the way that works.

Here are Amanda and I today in front of her shop. (Ghanaians don't often smile in pictures.)

Ode to Momma

2007-05-12T19:23:00.000-04:00

A Mini-Montage to Celebrate My Momma!!

(jump forward a few years...)

We love our Momma!!

Annie proudly sports the lovin'.

I know you may think your's is, but the truth is that my momma is the best in the wide world. She's brilliant and loving and a fabulous example of a godly woman. She listens when I whine or rant. She actually likes it when I call her 50 times a day (in the states of course, not from here...I've gotten down to a couple times a week).Her love for our Lord Jesus is evident in everything she does! I know she prays for me. She loves to laugh. She speaks truth to me.
Man, I love that lady. A lot. And if you know her, I bet you do too. I'm seriously blessed to have her as my mom.

MOMMA, I LOVE YOU DEARLY!!!! Happy Mother's Day!

And you, dear bleader, if you happen to see my momma, give her a big hug. And hug big Sher and Beth for Amy and MM too!

(By the way, we're celebrating Mother's Day poolside. Sufferin'. I do declare.)

in a nutshell

2007-05-01T05:04:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I really updated about life. So I'll try to hit some recent highlights (including some marginally embarrassing pictures).

My Ghanaian Husband

For some reason, I have spent lots of time at the Ghana Licensing Office in the past couple months. In August, I got my drivers license. But of course it would be absurd to actually get your license on the very day that you apply for it, so they give you a "cover note" until your real license can be made. (Here is my cover note from August complete with my newly cut mullet.)

So I was at the office a couple times a month checking to see if my real license was ready. (And I was also checking for some other American friends.) Every time I went to the office, I would go straight through all the madness and chaos to a certain office. And this is where the real story begins. This certain office is the air conditioned office of an important man. He likes to constantly remind people how important he is...saying things like "did I tell you to enter?" and "go, if I need you, I'll call you, and I can call you 20 times if i'd like to". So its always very entertaining sitting in there. For some reason, the man in this office took a liking to me. He started calling me "sweetheart" and chit chatting with me (while 3-4 people were waiting in his office and 10 more outside his door to be helped). He told me about his recent travels...how he visited his wife and kids. And about the new technology from New Jersey to make new licenses. One time he had malaria so we talked about that. And we talked about his church.

He was always sure that our real licenses would be in the next batch delivered. But of course they never were.

So finally he told me to forget the old license. To bring my friends the following week and he would get us one of the fancy new ones from New Jersey technology.

And somewhere in there I got promoted from "sweetheart" to "girlfriend" to "wife". First reaction: ew. He's an old married man. But, you gotta do what you gotta do to get a new license for you and your friends. So I just let him call me "wife". He always tells the other people in his office that I'm his wife. He laughs and I laugh. Its a good joke.

So I went back with my American friends and we got our fancy new licenses with the technology from New Jersey. But again, it would be crazy to assume that one could actually receive a real license on the very day you apply for it. So we got a new temporary license. The real one should be ready in 2 weeks (says Important Office Man). But I'm not holding my breath. My temporary one doesn't expire until I'm back in Georgia, so I'm not worried about it. Here's the new fancy license (mullet free I might add!).

The following week, I took Margaret to get her new license. But now I'm done! I won't grace their presence for a while now.

Malaria?

I started feeling bad last Monday at the license office with Margaret. So I came home and went straight to bed. (I'm so thankful for a flexible job!) I woke up a couple hours later with a fever. Took some advil and felt better by the evening. I even drove with Claire to pick up a team from Mississippi. But I didn't sleep much that night. And in the morning, my fever was back. So I went back to sleep for a couple hours. Claire came in to check on me...felt my head and said "ew, you're sweaty" and then started kind of laughing. My fever had broken and I was drenched in sweat. It was hilarious. We even took a picture cause it was so funny. And disgusting. (I was representing Colonel...he played football for Lousiana College back in the day and momma sent me this shirt.)

Of course, our first thought is Malaria. So I was pretty bummed...mostly because I do not want to have to tell Tom Downs that I have malaria!! So we call our trusty nurse friend, Laurie, and she asks me all my symptoms. Fever...headache...feeling like I was run over with a mack truck. Oh, and my throat kinda hurt...but I'm sure thats just cause we slept with air conditioning. She said "oh it might be strep....check your throat for blisters" And it was like a blister party back there! After the diagnosis, she told me what medicine to take and then I went straight to the shower cause I was still covered in sweat. That's strep in Africa for ya.

So I was down for the count for a couple days...sipping on sprite...taking antibiotics. And honestly, it was kinda nice to have a couple days to do absolutely nothing! By Thursday I was back to normal. Isn't it weird that I got strep in Ghana? Not some tropical disease like malaria or typhoid...but strep. Ridiculous. But I am oh so glad that I didn't have to tell my daddy that I got malaria.

The Flaturnating Kids

I finally got some pictures of the kids at the childrens home in Pram Pram. The one with my glasses on is Stephanie...the 5-year-old flaturnating one. :) The smaller one is Joshua, he's 4 and so cute! And the 3rd one is Kujo. We spent our time this Saturday in the toy room. Everyone else was outside playing, but they wanted to play here...especially after they made a house out of couch cushions. We played the trusty ol' "where are Stephanie, Joshua and Kujo?" joke ...then they would bust of of the house laughing. Of course, this went on for a quite some time. What kid doesn't love that game? (You'll see in one picture that Stephanie thought it was super funny to pretend to be asleep.)

I love these kids. They are so cute! And they say the funniest things. I'm so grateful that I get to go hang out with them. The youth group kids go every Saturday...I get to take them a couple times a month. Its awesome. I will be very sad to leave them in a couple months.

So thats the latest! This week is a crazy one. I'm helping at AIS with standardized testing. I'm administering the test to the 3 kindergarteners. They are so funny...when we finished yesterday they wanted to keep going because it was fun. And I'm "mom" again starting Wednesday...Claire is traveling all over Ghana with fellow Mission Society missionaries and one of their bosses from the home office.

Is anyone else freaked out that its already May? Crazy!

a random list

2007-04-16T17:35:00.000-04:00

of things i love. in no particular order.

1. random and unexpected communication with friends far away. skype calls, facebook messages, emails, letters, text messages...i love it all.

2. rachael ray. i haven't seen her in 9 months...due to lack of food network in ghana. but today, i downloaded a (questionably legal) episode of her show with jenna fischer (aka pam beasely) and oh how i've missed her! and i like her new show. my favorite part has always been her seriously over-dramatic first taste of food...and in this episode she delivered big time. i love the internet. thank you al gore.

3. $10 haircuts...got one today. first one since my 'first ghanaian haircut' that i pretty much have hated for 9 months. i even made maggie cut some off once. but it doesnt really matter cause its always in a ponytail. however, i got it trimmed today and i feel like a new lady.

4. wisdom from folks that care. i can't tell you how much i've gotten in the past few days. i have no clue what i'm doing with my life after i get off that plane in late june. no clue. but i've been lovingly reminded about God's faithfulness in the past and how its not about what we do or where we go, but who we are. its easy to get bogged down with the unknown when i take my focus off of the Lord. (just ask my poor momma who was on the receiving end of a melt down) But He's good...real good...why do i freak out when i know he's so good? ugh. sin. yuck.

5. tacos. and now i can make a mean tortilla...and fresh salsa...better than mexico even. or moe's. yeah, i said it, better than moe's.

6. stupid youth group games. i had no idea how stinkin funny it is to watch the kids do those dumb things. i always enjoyed dumb games when i was in youth group, but now that i get to make the youth do the dumb games, i love them even more. it cracks me up. even the simple ones (like the "untangle the big human knot" game). but, sadly, they don't want to play pass the shoe anymore b/c they dont want to touch dirty, sweaty shoes (we live in west africa...its hot and gross here...so i dont really blame them, but i'm still disappointed.)

7. friends that have known you way too long. amy and i looked at some seriously old school pictures last night and reminisced about fun trips we've made. ole miss. ssi. lake burton. colorado. nyc. random beaches. choir tours. so good.

8. the kids at the children's home that we hang out at sometimes. you know, the "i flaturnate!" ones. today, the older boys played a football match (thats a soccer game for us americans) against the team at anna's school. and they won! 2 to 1. it was awesome. and fun to see a bunch of the older kids outside of their home. overall good day.

what a week!

2007-04-10T03:43:00.000-04:00

the team from first pres was awesome. we had such a great time with them!! we were in Kumasi most of the week...playing with the neighborhood kids, exploring the neighborhood, visiting an orphanage, helping finish a house for an orphan, taking the Bible Club kids to the zoo...it was great. pretty much anytime the team was at the house, there were kids there to play with them. they played lots of soccer...the white boys got whipped every time. and the kids taught them some new games...shaky shaky!

here are just a few reasons why this team was incredible:
1. they are hilarious. i laughed a lot. a whole lot.
2. they were so willing to do anything...play with the kids, prayer walk, make mortar, whatever!
3. they never complained. even after they had been traveling for 48 hours and we put them on a bus for another 5 hours, then arrived to a house full of kids and no electricity for the whole night. and no complaints. seriously? amazing.
4. they loved learning about Ghanaian culture. they wanted to learn, see and do whatever they could. the girls tried to carry stuff on their head and wrapped a baby on their backs. they tried to speak twi to folks! and when they weren't speaking twi, they were working on their Ghanaian english...slightly british, slightly pigeon, very funny.
5. they loved those kids! they played with them for hours upon hours.

so thanks for your prayers!!!! they were fully answered. every detail was taken care of by our Lord!! every request that i wrote in the previous blog was answered! He went before us at every step and i'm so grateful to Him! He also did some pretty cool stuff in the hearts of the team members. i loved hearing them talk about trusting God with their future...some even said they could see themselves in missions after this week. praise the Lord! i love how He gently shapes and molds us into the person He created us to be. and i got to watch as some of that happened this week. incredible.

now its back to the real world.

The Team

2007-04-01T18:41:00.000-04:00

I'm frantically packing tonight. Early tomorrow morning, Anna and I will go pick up our 14 person team at the airport. They are from First Pres. Marietta--10 high schoolers, 4 adults. We're heading straight up to Kumasi after a quick breakfast. We'll be serving and ministering there all week. Amy, Anna, and Maggie are going too! I'm seriously excited about this trip!

Here is what we need you to pray for:
1. That they'll get here! They were supposed to arrive THIS MORNING but their flight was canceled! Talk about a disappointment! Their plane had to turn around after an hour (I think) because of technical difficulties. They've been in New York waiting since last night. Now they are set to arrive tomorrow morning, 7:15am. However, as I'm checking the Delta website, they still have not left NYC...they were supposed to leave 2 hours ago!! So please pray that they'll get here (and on time!) tomorrow morning. Monday morning update: they are here!! Praise the Lord!

2. I'm the main coordinator/host going on the trip. There will be 18 of us all together. Please pray that I will have wisdom in every situation, patience, and that I will be thinking one step ahead.

3. Pray for the team as they serve and learn this week. God always does awesome things in peoples' hearts when they're on mission trips...let's pray this week will not be the exception!

4. Pray for the people we'll be ministering to...mostly children! :)

I'm Official

2007-03-29T10:20:00.000-04:00

I'm an official Ghanaian resident. And I could be for 3 whole years...I just have to renew every year in March. Isn't that just insane? Who knows if I'll even use it for all 3...at least I can travel back and forth for the next 3 years without being bothered with paper work. Now if I could just get my official driver's license. I've had my temporary one since August...it takes a little while here. :)

learning.

2007-03-26T09:21:00.000-04:00

first of all, mad props to the haiku authors...i was highly impressed with your skills.

this weekend i learned some random cultural things. things that i've done dreadfully wrong for the past 8 months...way to go tatum. the first is the word "stupid". apparently that translates into a super bad word. i can't tell you how many times i've said it since i've been here. again, way to go. the second needs a little more explanation. pretty much everyday, someone yells "oburoni" at me. it means "white man" or "foreigner". it's not derogatory, just a fact...i'm white. so, being the clever girl that i am, i decided that would yell back "obibini" which means "black man". they always laugh...its funny. but i learned that its not very nice to say that. after 8 months of saying it daily. nice. i guess i'll have to think of some other clever response.

on saturday, i learned another side of culture...things that cross cultures. i wish you could have been with me when i experienced this...i know it won't be as funny in writing.
every saturday, some kids from youth group go to a street kids home about 45 minutes away. its so fun. the kids are SO cute!!! and they love hanging out with us. i was playing with one little girl named stephanie. she wanted to teach me a song, so she was singing...singing...singing...then she stopped and said "go like dis" and make a face like she was sniffing. well when i sniffed, it did not smell nice! and i said "hey what is that" and she broke into laughter and said "i flaturnate!" i just died. she said "i can do it again"...i told her that wasn't necessary. she didn't listen. and when she did it again, one of the boys in the room said "ah! stephanie, you flash again! you need to go out if you have to flash, and say excuse me! ah! its smellin!" and ran out of the room. which of course made her roar with laughter. toots. they cross cultures. who knew? and they call it flash. that's funny.

the rest of saturday was spent at youth group. i love it! the worship, the teaching, the games...its always wonderful! for you old school bill and mark youth: i taught them pass the shoe...they loved it! but everyone went to wash their hands when it was over. i guess thats the difference when playing in ghana. this week we played classic telephone...its always funny. then i got to go watch american idol at our navy friend's house. thank you armed forces network. we also ate peanut m&ms and macadamia nuts that he just brought back. i'm so spoiled.

today, its back to work: organizing files for michael, working on last minute details for our team that arrives SUNDAY!, and enjoying the RAIN!!! yep, it's raining again. torrential downpour really. its dark outside. i love it!!

RAIN

2007-03-16T05:27:00.000-04:00

it's raining!

it has been forever since it last rained. i think it last rained in october or november or something like that. whenever it was, it was a long time ago. but last night, i woke up to the sound of rain on the roof...and even now its thundering and raining outside. and it is simply fabulous. it's so nice to hear the rain, to smell it, to sit in a dark-ish room-lit only by the lamp, to feel the COOL BREEZE.

a haiku dedicated to both my B's.

finally it rains
i love to hear it fallin'
keep it comin Lord

Ghana is 50...Let's all Celebrate!

2007-03-07T16:45:00.000-05:00

I wish you could hear how the song goes...the title of this blog comes from the "Ghana is 50" theme song...which is awesome and I'm sad for your ears that they don't get to hear it.

On Tuesday, March 6, Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence!! They were the first African nation south of the Sahara to gain its independence (check the wikipedia and this BBC news article...learn..its good for ya). The celebration was off the chain (as h. would say). It was seriously unbelievable. I'm going to try to describe it...pictures will help...so will this blog: Loreli and John Mark. She did a great job taking pictures. Hopefully between Amy and I we have some good ones too.

So here is how our day went. Amy and I spent the night at Margaret's house with some other girls here in town. We woke up bright and early on Independence Day, and after a great breakfast, loaded up the car with our nine friends to drive down to Independence Square for the celebration/festivities.

(I got a sweet Ghana @ 50 shirt at the market. And Margaret is straight up wearing the flag...love it.)

This celebration was a pretty big deal. There were something like 25 African heads-of-state in town (and ones from elsewhere)...I can't tell you how many times we had to pull over to let police convoys with dignitaries fly by...we saw cars from Zambia (holla to the Adairs!), India, South Africa, Botswana, Benin, Burkina Faso, just to name a few. Really, every few minutes we were pulling over to the sound of sirens. Rumor has it that President Kufor bought a fleet of new mercedes for the occasion...maybe not the best use of money in a developing country where people are hungry. (Read Steve Buchele's post about how the celebration was not for everyone.) Here goes the Cote D'Ivoire fancy pants convoy (the Ivory Coast):

We parked at Methodist Headquarters and joined the hundreds of people walking down the street to Independence Square.

As we were walking, Amy looked at me and said "this is so much bigger than SEC football...but somehow it has the same feeling." And she was so right! It totally felt like walking to a Georgia game. Everyone, EVERYONE, was wearing some sort of patriotic something...everybody had flags that they were waving...hats that looked ridiculous...noise makers of all sorts. And as we walked by packed tro tros, we'd yell "hey! Ghana!" and everyone would freak out and cheer with us. It was hilarious! Here we are, a bunch of white folks, clearly not Ghanaian, and they went crazy when we cheered. It was so fun! Here are a couple pictures from the walk.

they're cheering with us!

When we finally got to Independence Square, I was shocked. I wish y'all could have seen the amount of people that were there. It was unbelievable! Thousands upon thousands.

check out the folks in the tree! and the sweet hat in the foreground

We wound our way through the crowds...trying to get into the "stadium" type area where all the action was. We tried to climb over the wall, but a military man with a gun yelled at Margaret for doing that, so we went around and found a gate. Once we got inside, we fought (literally fought...pushing, shoving, trying not to push kids) our way into the crowd at the front (in front of the bleachers) so we could see something. One of our Ghanaian friends that was with us, Felix, lifted each of us girls up so we could see what was going on. Here is my picture from my lift:

I'm mad that I didn't take a picture of him lifting Amy. She took the opportunity to wave at all of Ghana. :) We passed our camera to another friend to try to get a picture of our white faces in the middle of all the Ghanaians, but he felt like it would be better if he zoomed...so here is what we got.

People were taking our picture all day. It was crazy! We're not very used to that. One man stopped us and asked us to take a picture with his son...so about 8 Ghanaians got in the shot with us...I love stuff like that. So funny.

So after this adventure, we decided to go to our friend Francesca's house to watch the festivities on TV (are you still thinking SEC football? cause I definitely bailed on a couple games and went home to watch it on TV). We got some more good pictures on the way out.

(This is what your feet look like after walking in all that dust. I think Margaret wins...she's on the right.)

They even made special coke bottles for the occasion!

We were all completely exhausted by about 1:30pm. Think about how you feel after a college football game or after going to Six Flags...that's where we were. We made it home by 2 and, after showering, Amy and I slept the afternoon away...and finished off Ghana's birthday with a Felicity marathon.

Here's to another 50! God bless Ghana!

fugitive

2007-03-02T09:21:00.000-05:00

This has been a busy-but-wonderful week! Claire, Anna and the Team from Marietta High School came back to Accra on Saturday night. We had a gourmet meal of lasagna, salad, yummy bread and brownies awaiting them. I'm glad I got to hang out with them a little more...they were an awesome team. They sadly left us on Sunday morning...and had to spend the night in airport in New York cause of snow. Poor things. But they're home now...missing Ghana (like everyone does when they leave.) :)

Sunday afternoon, my great friend Stacy Kinsell came to our house to stay for the week. She's been here in Ghana working at a Liberian refugee camp since December, and she's come to spend a few weekends with us. I love how God puts people in the same place at the same time! I'm so grateful for all the time I had to hang out with Stacy...we had so many great conversations. She's an amazing girl. Her friend Molly came and stayed with us too, which just added more fun! Sunday was Stacy's birthday, so we met a bunch of their fellow volunteers from the refugee camp at the only sports bar here in town. They show movies on Sunday nights! we watched The Queen...cool movie, maybe not best viewed in a sports bar in Ghana...but good. It was fun to meet all her friends. Cool people.

The rest of the week was spent hanging out with Stacy, running around Accra, last minute souvenir shopping, an afternoon at the pool, running errands for the Mozleys, airport runs.

I took my sweet Stacy to the airport last night. She's spending the next 3 months in Rwanda. (Molly left on Tuesday...she's in Uganda now!) Stacy and I had a new experience as we were rushing to the airport so she wouldn't be late. Due to some unwise lane-changing on my part, I got pulled over! But the funny part is, the police here call it being arrested. Yep, I was "arrested" last night. "Arrested" for "road obstruction and dangerous driving". The policeman that pulled me over (we'll call him "Mean Cop") just kept shouting at me and telling me how dangerous I was. (It wasn't really that dangerous...a very normal lane-change move...just so y'all know I'm not reckless.) So Mean Cop just kept coming back to yell at me and then would walk away before I could explain what was going on. I kept saying "my friend needs to get to the airport, she's very late"...but he didn't really care. The next cop (who was summoned by Mean Cop to write me up) was much nicer. He let me explain a little. And he was even kind. He wrote up a "ticket" (I don't know if you can call it that because it was just written on a small piece of notebook paper from his pocket). And he took my license. Took it and kept it. And told me that I had to come to the police station the next morning to be processed in court. Yikes. (It was one of those times when I'm thankful that God made me a crier...I cry when sad, happy, frustrated, tired...pretty much all the time. And last night was no exception. And I think the tears helped the Kind Cop have mercy.) Kind Cop gave me his number and told me to call him when I went to the police station...that made me feel a bit better.

I thankfully got Stacy to the airport on time, then sat in an hour of traffic on the way to Bible Study (we're doing Beth Moore's Daniel with some ladies...loving it!).

So this morning, I called our trusty friend William...he's the bus driver for AIS (the school Maggie and Luke go to, where I taught, where Amy teaches, blah blah blah). He's always our night in shining armor...rescuing us all the time...especially me and Margaret. Anytime we have a car problem, its William to the rescue. So sweet William called the Kind Cop for me, went to the police station, paid my fine, and got my license back!! It wasn't very easy...but God did it! He softened their hearts and gave me my license back. Yay! Thanks Lord! I was praying this morning that He would get the glory for fixing this mess I made...and that's what happened! I'm sure I'll drive more cautiously...and I've made copies of my license just in case.

I went up to the school this morning...one kid called me "jail bird"...word travels fast in our little community.

olé!

2007-02-23T06:02:00.001-05:00

we had tacos last night. with homemade tortillas and homemade salsa. and REAL tostitos chips and tostitos cheese dip!!! (white cheese of course--it ain't la parilla, but it'll do) a huge treat--all thanks to the US embassy.

just thought y'all should see how deeply we're suffering for Jesus over here. :)

back to school

2007-02-22T04:46:00.000-05:00

Seriously long post....just thought you should know from the get go.

As previously mentioned, I spent all last week (and this Monday) at Michael's school (where he's getting his PhD in African Theology). I was there to sit in on class for Michael while he was in California at a mission conference. I had a fantastic week!

First of all, the obvious part: class. The class I was auditing was "The Gospel and Culture"...lots of seriously fascinating stuff! Kinda made me want to go to seminary or something...we'll see. We learned about how the Gospel related to the culture of the Old Testament and the culture of the New Testament. And also the different ways that the Gospel can relate to cultures today. Awesome. The professor is a man named Kwame Bediako. From what I hear, he's the leading West African Theologian. Which is cool. He's a sweet old man. My classmates were 4 older Ghanaian pastors. Yep, 4 old Ghanaian men and me. It was pretty funny. But they loved asking my opinion and hearing my input. So that was fun! They are great fellows...I had fun getting to know them...and they took good care of me and were so encouraging to me! On Monday, we had a different professor...Professor Andrew Walls from Scotland. Yep, I got to listen to a brilliant, sweet, old Scottish man all day. He is seriously amazing. He has to use a cane to walk and a magnifying glass to read the Bible, but he comes down to Ghana about 3-4 times a year to teach at Michael's school. He even studies Greek with the students in the afternoon. He's so good.

Here is the campus, the classroom, and me with Professor Bediako (whom they all call "Prof"--which is sorta weird to me...its just a strange word, especially to call someone, regardless I was calling him Prof by like Wednesday) and then my dorm room and the view from there.

I stayed in Michael's dorm room. It was so nice...great breeze...COLD at night! I spent a bunch of time in the room...studying, writing, reading. It was wonderful! And right out my door was a fabulous view! Pictures don't really do it justice...but here is one example.

We had devotions every morning before class with all the staff and students at the school. They're studying Kings. And I love that book! The things God says and does in it are mind-blowing. So I really enjoyed it. And it made me miss my School of Biblical Studies that I did last year...we read a chapter out loud each morning. After we studied Kings, we prayed, then everyone stood up and went down the line greeting each other--right to left (the Asante Ghanaian way). A great way to say hi to everyone every morning.

Another cool part of my week was being in that little town--Akropong. It was fun to walk around and just explore. Sometimes its annoying that I'm white and stick out like crazy. But other than that it was so fun! There is a lot of the colonial architecture that I love in Akropong (but I didn't get any good pictures of it really). Monday afternoon I just strolled around and explored...got a pedicure girl to remove my chipped nail polish for 30 cents...walked through the local market...went to the pharmacy...sweated profusely. Then Monday night while I was reading in my room, I heard singing coming from the Presbyterian church next to campus (pictured below), so I went to see if they were having a service or something. It was just choir practice...but I stayed and listened for a while. It was beautiful. A full choir singing in an old church...you know how awesome that sounds? The acoustics were incredible.

On Tuesday, I was able to go visit a friend that I taught with, Auntie Jean. She lives up on the mountain about 30 minutes away from the school. She has a childrens' ministry on Tuesdays and she invited me to come help. It was so fun to see her world. And the kids were so cute. She's doing great things with them! They do Bible lessons and work on academic stuff. The schools that these kids go to are terrible...one 12 year old reads like a 1st grader...its so sad. But she's helping them so much! I got to read with a few of them. It was so fun.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I rode sweet public transportation the whole time. They have 15 passenger vans that they call a tro-tro. They're so cheap! And all the Ghanaians are so sweet and helpful. They told me where to get on and where to get off cause I don't really know the mountain well. On that Tuesday, I sat next to an old drunk Ghanaian man. It was hilarious. He assumed that I was here in Ghana to teach and kept asking me what I thought about schools in Ghana...I guess he never understood me when I said I wasn't a teacher. He had just come from a funeral...everybody gets wasted after funerals...they celebrate or jubilate as they say. And he was in traditional funeral clothes--a black cloth wrapped around him. Anyway, I was glad to get down cause he became pretty annoying and his breath smelled awful. Too many details for you? :)

Something that really blessed me this week was the generosity of Ghanaians. Twice while riding in a tro-tro or a taxi a friend paid for my ride and wouldn't let me pay them back! That wouldn't surprise me as much in the US, but here they see me as a rich westerner cause I'm white...they know I can afford my tro-tro ride. And who knows what kind of money they make...probably not a bunch. It was such a huge blessing to me! Seriously. Oh, and then one of the pastors in the class drove me home to Accra for free! (Saved me the whole dollar it costs on the tro-tro...that's right, one hour for one dollar...crazy.)

Here's some shots of the drive on the mountain (the big van in the front is a tro-tro):

I also got to practice my Twi a lot since I was one of the few white folks in town. That's always fun and humiliating all at the same time. (Cause I know pretty much the absolute minimal amount of Twi.)

The week was awesome because I had so much time to rest and relax and just spend time with God...reading my Bible, praying, listening to sermons...it was incredible to have the time to do all that. I'm so thankful for it!

This week is exciting too! We had a team from Marietta High School arrive last Friday. It's been so fun having them here! They're up in Kumasi now with Claire and Anna, so I'm "mom" for the week. So far so good...only one snafoo--apparently the electricity company didn't think we paid our bill cause they came and cut our line on Monday! Thank the Lord that we have a powerful generator that can run everything in the house...we ran it all night. And then we got the electricity nonsense worked out on Tuesday, so all is well.

We made Big Tom's famous chicken and dumplings last night. It was so fun and they were delicious! Comfort (on the far left in the first picture) LOVED IT! She came in this morning talking about how good it was. She called it "oburoni soup" = "white man's soup". She wants me to teach her how to make it. :) So Dad...your chicken and dumplings has gone international, congrats.

the culture i live in

2007-02-09T06:33:00.000-05:00

This was written last Friday...not sure why I didn't post it right away. But now I'm up at Michael's school auditing a course: the Gospel and Culture. Pretty interesting. So here's last week's thoughts:

Yesterday, Margaret and I took a (much needed) day off. We went and relaxed by the pool all afternoon. It was wonderful! It's nice living in a climate where you can go to the pool year round. :)

So while we were at the pool, Margaret and I talked a lot about culture and culture shock. I had a little training before I left the US, and Margaret had a lot. We learned about learning about a different culture, living in a different culture, being relevant there, and dealing with culture shock. And of course, we both related this all to living in Ghanaian culture. But what Margaret and I discovered is that we don't live in Ghanaian culture. We live in this weird-in-between culture. Not Ghana, not America...something in between. As I type, I'm sitting in American International School (they needed me to sub today)...in air conditioning...with many kids from a western culture. Even when I'm not here, my days are typically filled with interactions with white folks. And our lives are dramatically different from typical Ghanaians. But they are also dramatically different from y'all in America. We've got a foot in each culture. Which is fun (cause we can go back and forth) but sometimes confusing.

Margaret was reading a book yesterday about missionaries and cultural adjustment. And although its a great book, it doesn't at all address living in a bizarre culture like we do.

So this week, I'm pretty much in Ghana. :) A small town/village...riding on lots of public transportation (love it!) and eating all Ghanaian food (except for the peanut butter crackers that my sweet Pam sent!!). I spent yesterday afternoon just walking around the town and it was so fun. I'll save fun details for a full-on post with pictures.

When I signed on to post this, blogger came up in Italian (I think?) and I (obviously) can't figure out how to switch it back. Funny.

Happy B? :)

history, missionaries and fashion

2007-02-06T16:01:00.000-05:00

Last week, I went up to Michael's seminary with him and our friend Steve. Michael needed to meet with some folks, and Steve and I went along for the ride. While we were there, Michael gave us a little tour of the school. In the library, they had an exhibit of historical pictures. Pictures of Ghana from around 1880 to 1930. They were fascinating! I wish I could show them to you! Most of the pictures had missionaries as well as Ghanaians. Missionaries who started hospitals, taught children, taught seminary, and built roads. Those missionary women had some serious old-fashioned dresses...in hot Africa...riding bikes. It made me realize how easy it is to be a missionary now. Did you know that back in the day, missionaries used to pack in their coffins? That's how committed they were to their new home. It amazes me. I just fly over here, knowing that at the drop of a hat I can be on a plane home if I wanted/needed to.

On a less serious note...something else in the pictures caught my eye. Ghanaian women here all have these outfits called "kaba and slit"...its a top and skirt made from the same material. (Pictured below) Now, in these pictures from the late 1800's/early 1900's, the Ghanai an women were wearing the EXACT SAME THING!! Their styles haven't changed in over 100 years!! Isn't that crazy? Our American style has changed since I left Georgia 7 months ago! But here in Ghana, the ladies have been wearing the same thing for 100 years. So so interesting. What do you think that means? About America? About Ghana?

guess what we got!

2007-02-05T11:15:00.000-05:00

So now that all 3 Downs daughters have been sufficiently embarrassed...we're moving on to new topics.

A sweet, generous part-time missionary gave us his trampoline!!! And let me tell you, that thing is so stinkin' fun. I've always loved trampolines (I think everyone does). Maybe cause we never had one at home so I never got tired of it. But what is even more fun than jumping is watching our Ghanaian friends jump. They think its hilarious. They've never seen anything like it before. Comfort (in the white/beige) jumped on it day one and loved it. I jumped with her and double-bounced her...so funny! Efriye (in red) also loved it from the get go. Joseph (in black) was a little more timid..."I'll break my leg!". But now he loves it (as you can see) and he loves jumping with Luke.

I went to visit my sweet Prosper (see this post) on Saturday. And praise the Lord, his sore is gone! Woo hoo!

Sally Elizabeth Downs

2007-02-02T07:24:00.000-05:00

Today we celebrate the birth of Miss Sally Downs. She's been with us for 19 years now, and I must say, I'm pretty glad she's here. Without Sal, pictures like this would not exist.

Happy Birthday Sally!! Hope 19 treats you right. I love you!

2007-02-01T17:42:00.000-05:00

mozleyfamily.blogspot.com

go there.
comment.
make him feel welcome to blog world....blorld?
how ya like that ryan?

what are you?

2007-01-26T03:31:00.000-05:00

We've been talking a lot about personality types here lately. (Maybe cause we have a freakishly brilliant and wonderful cultural anthropologist visiting this week.) So Amy, Anna, and I took the Myers Briggs test online yesterday (you have to pay for the real deal, but the free online one gives enough info to figure it out).

I'm ESFJ (and sometimes ESTJ).

Here is the link for the test...its an excellent time waster. Just keep following the links at the bottom of the page. And make sure you click on your link on the "type dynamics" page.

What are you?

you ask, i tell

2007-01-20T15:53:00.000-05:00

i've gotten a few questions about what i'm doing now. well let me tell you. now that amy is here, she has taken over my teaching job. (and she's doing a seriously fabulous job.) so i'm back working for the Mozleys. and i just do whatever needs to be done. planning teams, organizing bookshelves, filing things, organizing and recording receipts, babysitting, being the chauffeur, cooking, whatever! and i love it! i love not waking up at the crack of dawn, i love the more relaxed mornings, i love the freedom to have lunch with margaret and run errands, and i love doing the random odds and ends. of course some days are annoying...like the bookshelf organizing day...but it was great when we finished! so there you go...that is my life these days. oh and in a couple weeks, i get to go sit in on michael's doctorate lectures and take notes for him while he's in america. i'm so excited. the class is apparently pretty awesome. and i know his professor is incredible. so that will be a fun, random job. now i'm just rambling. off to wash dishes with amy! much love to y'all...my faithful webstalkers.

Prosper

2007-01-17T10:09:00.000-05:00

The posts about the retreats will have to wait because I haven't gotten all the pictures yet. But while you wait (in anticipation I'm sure) I have a story about a new friend.

There is a market here at the Tete Quarshie round-about. We go there to get fabric, carvings, drums, art...pretty much any souvenir or gift. I've become friends with a couple of the shop owners there. One of my friends is called Charity. She works at the fabric shop (where i got the cloth for my mom's Ghanaian outfit that you can see in yesterday's post). She has a little boy named Prosper. He's 1 year 9 months and he's so cute! He didn't want to have anything to do with me at first, but now we're friends. :) I stopped by on Sunday and saw that Prosper had a sad looking sore on his chin. So I talked to Charity and said I would return the next day with some ointment. Also, as you can see from the pictures, Prosper is pretty small for his age. So I also got him some "weenie mix" which is pack full of protein and carbs to help little kids grow. When I went back on Monday, I took my friends Tonya and Dierdre (the 2 girls that came for 3 weeks and who ministered at both retreats). We went straight to see Charity and Prosper. I gave her the ointment and the mix. And then we asked if we could pray for Prosper. So the 3 of us laid hands on him as she held him and prayed. Tonya prayed the greatest stuff over him...for him to grow strong, for his appetite to increase, for his wound to heal, and most of all, for him to grow into the great man that God has made him to be. It is no coincidence that his name is PROSPER. I think we often forget how important name meanings are. If you look in the Bible, you see that peoples names really defined who they were. And we are believing that for Prosper! So I am looking forward to growing in friendship with his mom, Charity, and with Prosper...and I pray that God will use me to minister to both of them and that they will know more of who God is and who He has created them to be. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to minister to both of them. I think we often take for granted that God chooses to use us in other peoples lives. What an honor and privilege!

Family Time

2007-01-16T11:23:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay...life has been freakishly busy. But thanks to all my lovely readers who are so understanding. (roundhouse kick? bleach? seriously folks.)

Here are a few pictures of my family in GHANA! It was SO WONDERFUL having them here!!! I am so so so thankful that we had that time together...and that they had the chance to see life in Ghana and hang out with the Mozleys. It was fabulous.

There are more pictures on flickr...so check it out! And coming soon...pictures of our youth retreat and our ladies retreat (both of which were awesome! God did big things!!!!)

And don't forget to check Amy's blog now too!! She's here and I am LOVING IT!! it's so fun to have her here.

bitter sweet

2007-01-04T03:15:00.000-05:00

i just dropped my family and ryan off at the airport. a tearful goodbye for sure. but it has been so so good to have them here!! we had a great time together and i think they really enjoyed being in Ghana. thank y'all so much for praying!!!!!! God really blessed our time together and our time with the Mozleys. and dad's back is doing great! he didn't have any trouble...praise the Lord!!

i don't have too much time to be sad though cause we're leaving in 5 minutes for a youth retreat with the international church. oh, and guess who arrived last night? miss amy rambo!!!!! woo hoo!!! she's going on the retreat too. i'm SO excited that she's here. that helps with the sadness too. :)

i'll try to update sometime next week. i guess you could check annie's blog to see what the family thought about Ghana.

She's the best.

2006-12-31T19:44:00.000-05:00

Annie is the best sister in the world. I just can't even believe God would bless me with her. Wow. I't s a pleasure. I'm sure you are jealous because I get to be her sister. You should be.

(Why would Tatum remain signed on when she left the computer? That's just silly. -Annie)

Happy New Year!! :)

i guess i'm lazy...

2006-12-30T17:54:00.000-05:00

so you'll have to read annie and ryan's blogs for now...i'll wait to blog when they leave. they're blogging though, so read theirs.

later.

2006-12-29T13:53:00.000-05:00

my family is in Ghana. so is Ryan. life is good.

a little something

2006-12-27T06:02:00.000-05:00

Just to keep all our brains occupied until the Downs family and Ryan arrive...here's a funny little tidbit about my life here.

Well you know my friend Margaret. We're pretty tight. We are together a lot and we talk all the time. I know I've written before about how thankful I am to have her here, and it's so true. Something that is a little odd about our friendship is this:

That picture really isn't that weird. We happened to arrive at a Christmas dinner dressed alike. But let me tell you this...we "happen" to wear the same thing about 75% of the time we get together. (And 75% might even be a little low.) Most of the time we're wearing the same colors. Sometimes its just that we have the same type of outfit with slightly different colors. It's freakish really. It's gotten to the point now that we point out the days when we DON'T match. It's hilarious. I love her.

my thoughts are pretty consumed

2006-12-27T05:57:00.000-05:00

knowing that i will see these faces in less than 24 hours

(except for Colonel of course) :(

Christmas!

2006-12-27T05:40:00.000-05:00

we had an awesome Christmas! it was so fun celebrating with the Mozley family. and then we had a huge Christmas dinner with 100 other folks in town...complete with the biggest game of dirty santa i've ever played. it was awesome! then after dinner, i got to talk to my whole family at home using the greatest 2 inventions ever: skype and the web cam...it was totally free to see their cute faces and talk to them for like 30-45 minutes. it was a perfect day!! i hope your Christmas was fabulous too!

praise God for His awesome gift of His Son Jesus!!! it blows my mind to think about that He came here to live among our junk to save us from it. really, blows my mind. I love Him!

Sometimes the hard times aren't so bad

2006-12-22T10:28:00.000-05:00

Thursday, December 21, 2006

The Mozleys have been out of town this week. They’ve been delivering Christmas gifts to the Methodist pastors in the rural northern regions of Ghana. (I could write a hundred blogs about how awesome these pastors are and about how much they need—so the Mozley’s gifts and their company is such a huge blessing to them.) Margaret went with them too. They’re on a super short mission trip—only 5 days with lots of driving involved.

So my job this week has been taking care of the house and all the gazillion animals. (And also to teach of course. Wednesday was my last day. So…now I’m finished! No more Miss Downs. At least for now.) Anyway, back to this week at the Mozley house. It seems that every time the Mozleys leave, things here fall apart. Especially when they are doing awesome ministry. Sick dogs, broken phone/internet (been broken all week with no hope of being fixed before Christmas...so pardon my absence or lack of emails), diminishing water supply…yada yada yada. You name, it breaks when they’re gone. And this week is no exception. It has been super frustrating at times, but surprisingly good.

The first obstacle: the cars. I drove to school Monday morning. But then after school the car wouldn’t start. So 4 men pushed the car, while one tried to get it to start. (Apparently there is some trick to push-starting a standard transmission.) They finally got it going and I got home safe and sound. As I pulled into the drive way, I was so grateful to see Margaret’s car sitting there…I though “I can drive her car!” So my friend Comfort and I get in the car to leave and IT WON’T START EITHER! So I call our friend William who is the bus driver for the school. He got the keys and some money from me the next morning at school, and by the time school ended at 3pm, he had the car waiting for me in the school parking lot! He and the mechanic had a long day of searching for the right battery and installing it, but they got it done by 3! I was so thankful!

Fast forward to day 4 (knowing that the things I listed in the second paragraph all happened between day one and day four). So day four, Thursday…my first day off of school! But the joy of freedom was soon overshadowed by the frustration of a lost wallet. It is no where to be found. Not in my room, my purse, my back pack, not in Margaret’s car. I even retraced all my steps from last night. I last remember having it at the restaurant, but it isn’t there…or at any other stop I made on the way home. So I make all the calls to the States—cancelling cards and ordering them rushed to my parents so they can bring them. And then I head to the licensing office to see about getting a replacement license. Praise the Lord that I had made a copy of the one I had! The man at the office was so SO nice. And all he had to do was sign the copy of my license and its official. (Love how stuff like that works here!) And then he advised me to go to the Police Station and report my license missing in case it shows up somewhere. So that was the last stop on the missing-wallet-clean-up stop today.

So I get home and finally call my parents. The 5 hour time difference is annoying on a day like today. Anyway, so before I can even tell Momma whats going on, she tells me that my Dad has hurt his back and that his left leg is numb and not really working too well…which all means that his trip to Ghana is in jeopardy. So that is when I cried.

It was a frustrating and exhausting day. But as I sit here at the end of the day, I’m more thankful than anything.

First of all, I’m thankful for Ghanaians. They are such fabulous people. Whenever I have a problem, my sweet Ghanaian friends take it on as their own. Seriously, I haven’t had to handle one problem by myself this week. Today, when I told my friend Comfort about my wallet she was so upset. And all day long she was talking about it. Even tonight I called her and her first question was if I had found it yet. And the way that William took care of the car for me on Tuesday…so self-less! When the dogs got sick on Wednesday, my neighbor Gertrude called her vet friend for me and has arranged for a vet to come to the house. She wouldn’t even let me make the call. They are always ALWAYS taking care of me. The sense of community here is incredible. It’s a shame that we’ve lost that in the U.S. We’re so independent.

I’m also thankful for the community of believers. One of the first things Comfort said this morning was “God knows” and she was praying all day…when I told my neighbor and good friend Gertrude, she just grabbed my hands and prayed…as soon as I called the Mozleys and Margaret, they stopped everything and prayed for me…when I called my Momma at home, she prayed for me on the phone. And then my sweet Caroline emailed folks to get them to pray too. Thank you for praying if you got one of those emails! I’m in awe.

And I’m thankful for God’s provision and plans. Every person I came in contact with while on the wallet search was more than ready to help. Giving me advice, praying, and taking care of me. Although I don’t have my wallet back, I’m so thankful for the way God provided such wonderful people to interact with on my search.

The way God works through difficult situations is incredible. He is always using things that we see as annoying, frustrating, or just plain bad to let us see more of Him. The past few days He has put me in places where I have to trust in Him for the outcome. I love being helpless in His hands. I love when I can’t do anything but pray and trust in Him. I love seeing Him work in those situations, even if the result isn’t what I wanted. Of course it was annoying to lose my wallet…but through this situation I experienced more of God. And how much better is that? He is good. So so good.

Friday, December 22, 2006

But of course we had to end the week with a bang. The Mozley’s car broke (for the 3rd time this week) in Tamale (about 12 hours north of Accra) and they had to leave the car there. The good news is that they could fly home! A 1½ hour flight compared to 18 hours on a bus. God is good huh? But they came home to the sad news that the cat ate Claire's pet bird last night. Ugh. Nice grand finale.

But the reality is that God has been in control this whole week. And He is good! All 5 Mozleys, Margaret, and I are all safe and healthy. And we all had new opportunities this week to draw closer to God through the unexpected situations.

Thank you so so much for praying!!! It's amazing to have such awesome friends and family! And such a wonderful God!!

have i told you that i teach napoleon?

2006-12-14T09:25:00.000-05:00

cause i do. actually his name is caleb. but he has some sweet napoleon-esque glasses.

we are making Christmas cookies in Home Ec this week and next. we (the class) had to do a whole practice set this week so that we can help the little kids next week when they decorate their cookies. we decided that practicing decorating cookies is pretty fun...especially when you need to use up all the icing. he he. of course, only the 7th grade boys went crazy with it. here are a few pictures...the rest are on flickr.

last week in home ec we learned about party planning. don't i get to teach fun stuff?!? i love it!! they learned the elements of party planning and how to be good hosts. it was so great. they decorated my room beautifully! we made some 'snowball' cookies (like mexican wedding cookies for you bakers out there) and 2 wreathes made out of cornflakes and marshmallows. (i supplemented a little with popcorn and no-bake cookies.) doesn't it all look yummy?

we played a game called "pass the parcel". maybe i'm just not hip with all the Christmas party games, but i had never heard of it before. i'm telling myself that we don't play it in georgia...am i right? the deal is, you wrap a present like 15 times...and in each layer you put a little somethin somethin...with the biggest something in the very middle. you sit in a circle and play music and when the music stops, the person holding the present get to unwrap a layer. it was really fun! and the grand prize was ice cream and a coke at school...the lucky winner got ice cream and coke on his birthday! how great is that? here are some shots of the game. (there are more party pictures on flickr.)
this semester has been good...tiring, stressful, funny, frustrating, enlightening, and encouraging. all in all, i'm SO THANKFUL for the opportunity God has given me to teach here. i'm not gonna lie...i did a little kickin' and screamin' when it was first mentioned, but i'm so glad that God doesn't let me give into that kickin'/screamin' attitude. this semester has been such a huge blessing. i love these kids!! and i'm so grateful that i've gotten some teaching experience now. i love that God always knows what He is doing and that He leads us right where He wants us to be.

guess what we saw today

2006-12-12T03:59:00.000-05:00

It's amazing what we get excited about here...sometimes it doesn't take much.

This morning is a perfect example. I took my whole class outside to stand and wait to see this:

The first Delta plane in Ghana!! Flight numero uno arrived this morning! It was so exciting to see it fly over. It was like seeing a little part of home. Fun.

And in just 16 days, my awesome family and Mr. Ryan Kennedy will be on that plane!

Ok, I know this is a rather uneventful post. More to come later.

woo hoo!

2006-12-12T03:51:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Maggie Mozley!!!!

Can you even believe it? Maggie Mozley is 14!!
She had her birthday party this weekend: a luau/sleepover for her 10 closests girl friends. Complete with limbo and girly movies. It was so much fun. And I think every present she got was pink. :)

For those of you who don't have the pleasure of knowing Mags, I'll tell you a little about her. She's hilarious pretty much all the time. She loves to serenade me with "Wind Beneath My Wings" which is always funny. She's super creative. She loves to bake and she's so good at it! She's never swayed by peer pressure...she's got a great head on her shoulders. She's an excellent friend (her friends love her!). She loves babies and animals.
Maggie growing up to be quite an amazing godly woman. (Woman? Holy moly, I can't believe how old she is!) I can't wait to see what God does with her life. All I know is that it will be awesome!

Thanks has been given...

2006-11-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving was great! We had a fabulous time at both parties! (Above is a picture of the Thanksgiving celebration at the Mozley house...it was wonderful!) And we ate SO MUCH good food. Yum yum. Here is a picture of our bountiful Thanksgiving table (including the delicious desserts!):

I'm sure you've been waiting on pins and needles to hear how the cornbread dressing turned out...it was delicious!!! By the wisdom of my wonderful momma, I used apples in place of celery (along with some celery seed for flavor) and it tasted great!

There were sad moments...missing family and traditions. But in the end everything was wonderful! God has been so good and gracious to me here...teaching me so much--especially when I'm homesick. Isn't He incredible?

In other news, my students informed me today that we only have 15 more school days until Christmas break! Wowsers. That went fast! And that also means that my family comes soon!! That's right blog readers...my fabulous family is coming to visit me the week after Christmas!!! Can you even believe it? I barely can. I am so excited about it. And then, the week after that, Amy comes to stay!! I have so much to look forward to!!

So my question for today is: how are YOU doing? I blurb out useless info on this thing all the time (which is fun) but since its not an email in your inbox, I don't really get replies saying how your life is going. So how are you? Fill me in on your life.

2006-11-23T07:48:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!

First of all, to my sweet friends all over the world who are without their families today (H., Elaine, Stephanie, Mal, MM and James, all my friends here, and my dear YWAMers) I'm praying that God will bless you abundantly today!!

Why is it that it's so much harder to be away from home and family on holidays? I mean really, it's just another day. But still, anytime I've thought about it this week I've gotten so sad. Even watching dumb ol' Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving made me sad. Seriously, that's ridiculous.

But I'm not dying over here, that's for sure! We've got 2 fun Thanksgiving dinners to look forward to--today and Saturday. Complete with turkey (so hard to find here!), dressing (my speciality to be served Saturday...modified however, considering the lack of celery in Ghana...I'll let you know how it goes), casseroles, homemade bread, and pies! And I'm sure much more. Yummy!

This morning, we went to an American Thanksgiving service at an international church. They had a Ghanaian kids choir perform a couple songs...they were so cute! And as I was sitting there watching them sing and thinking about how stinkin' cute these kids are and thinking that I wouldn't want to miss that. I love the way these people sing and dance and I love how cute these kids are. God used that little choir this morning to encourage me. Thanks Lord.

And let me take this opportunity to be cheesy and say that I truly am thankful for all of you. To my family: you're the greatestest! I love you so much and I'm so thankful for you! You have loved me and sacrificed so much for me...you are just wonderful wonderful as Ma would say. And I miss you lots and lots. Everyone hug eachother today and pretend its a hug from me. :)
To my friends: you know I love you! I can't imagine who I would be without y'all. You have taught and encouraged me and loved me and I'm so grateful for you!

I'm so thankful that God has me here right now. I know He has a purpose here--things to teach me and ways to use me and I'm grateful for that. And for the wonderful Mozley family who loves me as their own...it is such a blessing living with them and being a part of their lives and ministry. God has been so good to me to allow me to be here.

Well I'm off to go help Claire make some pies. :) I hope you all have fantastic days full of wonderful food and loving family and friends!!

Introducing...

2006-11-19T13:15:00.000-05:00

A photo website! I've just posted pictures from when I was with the team. Only a few but more than are on here. I'll still post pictures on the blog, but this is easier when I have lots to post.

Enjoy!

My Flickr Page!

oh you...

2006-11-19T11:53:00.000-05:00

I ask you for questions and I am not surprised by the response.

1 clever response from Mrs. B--how could I ever decide what I love most about her? Is it her witty humor...her anchorman quotes...her amazingly good coffee...her tacos...I could never just pick one! :)

2 Downs sisters fighting over which one I love most (nothing new...the always fight for my attention because clearly I am the favorite sister)

1 ridiculous question from Jenny J C--and to answer, picking a favorite Gilmore Girls episode is almost as hard as deciding what I love most about Caroline...impossible.

from Miss Elaine: a hopeful journey across land and water to visit Ghana (a la "men in tights"). and a few real questions! alas! someone has a real question about life in Ghana!

real question #1: what is your favorite sweet treat?
real answer #1: that would have to be peanut butter ice cream from "the scoop". the scoop is a fabulous ice cream shop right by our house and they make all their ice cream from soy and use honey instead of sugar!! it is SO GOOD! but dont get adventurous with flavors...PB is the best and you'll be sad you didn't get it. topped with hard chocolate shell...heaven.

real question #2: how do you wash your clothes?
real answer #2: i am what some may call a princess. i live in a nice neighborhood, nice house, nice room...with a wonderful family who does my laundry! spoiled rotten am i. no one has done my laundry since 6th grade...before mom got fet up with us not bringing dirty clothes to the laundry room and only washed our uniforms from there on out.
but we hang dry everything outside on a line. so a few items are slightly distorted and a tad stretched out, but we got a DRYER!! a couple months ago and we use it ever so rarely when we're in a pinch or when we need clothes to fit again. :) it is magical.

real question #3 (and perhaps my fave): what is the funniest ghanaian fashion trend?
real answer #3: i'd have to say the short and fat tie for the gentlemen. its the latest fad here. a tie that hits just below the chest and is about 5-6 inches wide at its widest point. i saw the best one yesterday and i wish i could have photographed it...it was like an american flag--stars were on the bottom, verticle red and white stripes on the top with a lovely rendition of Lady Liberty. it was phenomenal.

Jenny and Kelly had some fun questions too! Jenny asked what my favorite worship song is these days, and I believe the answer is "Love Song" by Jason Morant. Incredible.

Kelly asked about dreams which is an awesome question! She wanted to know if I dream about life in Ghana or life in America. The past few dreams I've had have been so crazy...but all of them take place in America. It will be interesting to see if that changes the longer I'm here.

Well folks, that was fun. Especially because half of my readers are absolutely ridiculous. I laughed out loud reading those "questions". I love you crazies.

If you ever have a random question, just post it as a comment or email me and I'll be happy to answer!!

Random Thoughts

2006-11-14T04:07:00.000-05:00

So I don't have anything monumental to blog about, but my sister is harrassing me, so here are some rambling thoughts for your reading pleasure, Annie.

Jenny got married last week! I am so sad that I missed it, but I love technology. I got to talk to Jenny all weekend long. And I got all the stories from Momma and Heather, Amy and Tina. Heather blogged about the wedding weekend, so check her blog for sweet details and pictures.
My Bible class is memorizing 1 Peter. We're still on chapter one. On Friday, they were reciting their verses to me. Maggie came and sat down to do her verse, and she began to recite it a la Napolean Dynamite. (She talks like him all the time.) So I said, "Mags, you can't do your Bible verse in Napolean." She looked at me, oh so seriously, and said "Can I do it in a british accent?" That girl is crazy!
This weekend, Anna was in her school play, Oedipus Rex. Yep, the high school did Oedipus Rex. Crazy huh? Anna was great though. She didn't have to play a sketchy roll, she was the lead town member. She had a big part, but she didn't have to be Oedipus or his mom or anything. She was AWESOME! She's so good at acting. After the play, 20 of us went out for pizza. Real pepperoni pizza (which is rare here...I'm not sure what the fake pepperoni is, but I do know for sure that I don't eat it.) It was delicious and fun.
Michael, Claire and I have been working on some of our short term teams for next year. You would never believe how much planning goes into these trips. We have so many teams coming between now and the summer--they'll be ministering all of Ghana in tons of different ways...so exciting! I'm looking forward to that.
Last but certainly not least, thanks for praying for my homesickness...it has gotten so much better since I last posted and I'm sure that is because of your prayers!! I'm still waiting on the pictures from Margaret, I'll put some up when I get them.

My awesome friend Elaine is living in Spain right now ministering to college students. You need to read her blog because God is doing awesome things there! A couple months ago, she had a whole blog post that was just answering peoples' questions. And I think that's a fun idea! So if you have any questions please ask them and I'll answer if I can.

October...what a month!

2006-10-31T12:42:00.000-05:00

These past 3 weeks have been crazy! 2 weeks with the short term team and a super busy week last week with Claire and Michael out of town! Here’s the update on ALL of it:

The two weeks that Margaret and I spent with the short term team were great. I really appreciate y’all’s prayers. I sure did need them! I can’t tell you how many times Margaret and I said, “it is so interesting being on this side of a short term team.” (Meaning the receiving end that is.) It was good and hard all at the same time. It was good because it is so neat to have people give up their time to come serve in Ghana. This team was a mix of people from 4 churches in Georgia…both white and black Americans. God is moving in America and bridging racial barriers…it was so neat to watch that in this team! And I loved hearing the black Americans’ perspectives on everything here. It’s much different to visit this country as a white man than as a man of African descent…their ancestors could have come from this very place! But it was also hard and challenging learning how to host a team.

(Preface: Margaret was our photographer and I haven't gotten the pictures from her yet so I only have a couple...I'll get some from her soon and put more pictures up soon as long as the internet cooperates.) :)

Our trip began in Kumasi. It was SO GOOD to see my sweet friends in Kumasi (friends from my time there in 2003). It was like I had never left—we picked up right where we left off. (Except a few of them are now married with babies and the “kids” that used to come to Bible Club are now young adults!) I’m so sad that I didn’t take any pictures with them. But I will next time I go up there. While we were there, I got a good taste of the life of Claire Mozley…there was a constant stream of problems to tackle and people to take care of. The Mozley family’s ministry has helped and encouraged so many people in Kumasi and all those people know they can count on Claire to help them when they need it. And I was Claire’s representative, so I did a lot of praying with kids, meeting with them, and figuring out how we could get them into school and how it could be paid for. The team led Bible Club (the ministry Claire started about 6 years ago for the kids in their neighborhood…it’s so neat to see how it has kept going even now that the Mozleys are in Accra), they helped build a house for an orphaned boy who has legally changed his name to Abraham Mozley, and they spoke at a local church. We also enjoyed a site-seeing day in the local market (the largest open air market in West Africa) and some souvenir shopping.

After Kumasi, we traveled up through Tamale where we spent one night (we had a nice dinner with the Bishop of Northern Ghana who is a fantastic man…he taught us about the struggles of northern pastors…bad education for their kids, rented housing, and unreliable pay). And then it was on to Navrongo to work with Pastor Lawrence Beka. He is a wonderful man of God who has poured his life into the unreached areas in the northern part of Ghana. This guy has so much on his plate…pastoring multiple churches, teaching at a local university, taking care of the children in his churches, and of course his own family. We helped do some work on his new house that is being built. (A few members of the team worked on it last year too and were amazed at the progress and were glad to renew relationships with the people there.) Our first night in Navrongo was a Saturday and we went to one of Lawrence’s church’s camp meeting. (And when they say camp meeting here, they aren’t kidding…the people really slept there at the church on the ground. And then woke up at 4:30 for morning devotions before church!) Saturday night, Lawrence showed them the Jesus film in their own language (it is one of the smaller tribal languages). And praise the Lord!! Many people came forward to accept Jesus’ invitation of salvation. It was so exciting! And we got to stand around them and pray together with Lawrence for them. How awesome is that? In a rural village just inside the 10/40 window, we were able to pray with and for people as they gave their lives to Jesus!

God was in the huge things there at the camp meeting, but He was also working in small ways. Almost as soon as we arrived, a little girl named Rhoda attached herself to me and of course I did not object! She was the cutest thing ever. Dancing and clapping with the worship music (which was unlike any I had ever heard before…it’s thrilling to hear other cultures praise the Lord in the way that He designed them to!) Rhoda spent all night holding my hand (even when I went up front to introduce the team) and on my lap during the Jesus film. She was so tired…kept nodding off. I wish you could have seen her sweet face in person. But pictures will have to do. God continued to bless me the next morning when we returned to the same church for Sunday morning service. It was so cute when I caught Rhoda’s eye. Her little face lit up. After the worship, I was able to help out with the Sunday school class and just sit back and watch their normal activities. Another team member and I taught them new songs, gave them little metal crosses, and prayed for them. (Of course my cute Rhoda was in Sunday school too.) That morning was special for that team member and for me…to be able to minister to those kids was incredible. And I got these great pictures of me and Rhoda. Oh, and did I mention that Rhoda and her family rode home on the bus with us? God just used this sweet little girl to bless me and to remind me of why I am here…and why I’m not in Marietta or Honolulu.

Those were the major highlights of the trip for me. There was TONS more traveling…we probably logged between 35 and 40 hours on the van/bus. We were tourists for a few days at the game park, the rainforest, and at the beach. And Margaret and I learned a ton about hosting a short term team and leadership in general. The team was so patient with us as we just felt our way through the issues that came up. And we learned a lot from them.

The hard part about hosting a team is the crash after they leave. We were physically and emotionally exhausted. And then the homesickness hit. We had been in “American” culture for 2 weeks with them…talking about SEC football, restaurants, highways, churches, and sharing American candy. And then all 10 of them got on a plane and went home. And we are still here. They’re back with their families in their beds eating at their favorite restaurants worshipping at their home churches. And we’re here. So it was a hard transition back into our lives here. This is my first real battle with homesickness, so I’m learning how to work through it. It ain’t fun. Margaret and I had a good cry together the other night talking about this. I’m so grateful for her! She spent all week with us last week because Claire and Michael were both out of town and Margaret and I were co-moms. It was fun to have her with us all week. We watched a lot of Gilmore Girls dvds. (Which you know I loved!) She even threw me a really fun birthday party the Sunday after we got home from the team trip. (Such a good friend!) It was really fun to have a bunch of people over for good food and fun games. We played an intense game of spoons.

This past weekend, Margaret and I and our friend Jimmy and Stephanie (a young married couple that teaches at AIS) went to the beach. A vacation!! It was fabulous. We had Monday off of school, so we went from Saturday to Monday. It was a MUCH needed rest…after traveling for 2 weeks with the team and then being teacher and co-mom. It was beautiful!! Practically perfect! Great weather, beautiful beach, good food, fun friends. And rest. Lots of rest. I didn’t take any work with me at all! Just a good book (Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell…read it!) and my Bible. God used this time to remind me of what He’s doing in my life right now…that He has a great purpose for me here. It was such a refreshing reminder and such perfect timing. Right now, when I’m homesick and I just want to get on a plane, God reminds me that He has a plan for me here. He is so good! I’m not saying that in one instant all my homesickness is cured. I still have to keep reminding myself that God has a purpose and plan here. I’ll let you know how this process goes. In the meantime you can pray!

So there is the update. I’m sorry it has taken so long. The internet has been irritable and unreliable lately. Know that I miss you all so much and I really appreciate your prayers and encouragement!! (I think I say that every time…but it’s so true!) I could not be here without you!!

And by the way, Maragaret has some other pictures on her flickr site (there is a link on her blog). She was in charge of pictures, so I didn't end up with many cause I just relied on her to take them. :)

And a quick shout out to my sweet Jenny Jenkins who will be WED THIS WEEKEND! Here comes Mrs. Cain! I love you and I wish I could be there!

Caroline, hope you're happy now. :)

just a teaser...

2006-10-24T04:51:00.000-04:00

well the trip was great! thanks so much for praying! sorry i haven't updated yet, but it was back to crazy busy life as soon as we got home. claire and michael are both out of town, so margaret and i are moms for the week (so you can pray for that now!); my computer won't get on the internet at home (which is frustrating); and i started teaching again this morning, so i'm busy planning and trying to figure out where the sub left off. but i just wanted to give you something to hold you over until i could really write about the trip! :) it was a busy 2 weeks...lots of traveling. but it was so good! i promise i'll give you the real scoop very soon. thanks for all the encouraging messages and emails! i can't say enough how wonderful you are!

PRAY!

2006-10-08T19:40:00.000-04:00

Hello dear friends! Margaret and I leave tomorrow for two weeks of ministry all over Ghana with a short term team from Georgia. Please pray for us as we are traveling and ministering to each other and to Ghanaians! And pray for Margaret and I as we "lead" the trip!! This is going to be a great 2 weeks!!

I can't wait to tell you all about what God does! I'll try to update as soon as we get back in 2 weeks!

Thanks for praying!!

Good.

2006-10-04T18:22:00.000-04:00

that's what life is right now, just good. but that is only because our God is so good! really, even when i am wavering and unfaithful, God remains so good to me. baffling isn't it? but so true!

after almost 2 weeks, school is still going so well!! thank you so much for you prayers and encouragement! i KNOW that i could not do this without your prayers!

the kids are great...the staff is great...seriously everything is great. don't get me wrong, it's hard work and i'm SO tired by the end of the day. even now i should be planning a lesson on ancient egypt or making a test about mesopotamia or planning a Bible class lecture or sleeping. :) but it's good. i was just telling claire that God keeps giving me great ideas for lessons (usually right in the middle of class!)...He is so faithful to provide when He leads!!

tomorrow in home ec we're "tasting" southern buttermilk biscuits--thanks to the tom downs perfected biscuit recipe! we're learning about food and culture, and some of these poor kids had never even SEEN a southern biscuit. the only 'biscuit' they know is british (which is just a cracker or cookie). so we had to fix that right away! each kid has a culture that they're doing a project on and they start presenting them tomorrow. maggie did france and she made some crepes to take to school tomorrow and they are delicious! (of course we had to try one tonight!) so tomorrow will be a feast.

one thing i was working on before i started teaching was planning for a short term team that is coming next week. we had planned for margaret and i to go with the team to assist and serve them and handle their money and such. and since it's been in the works for a long time, i still get to go! they arrive sunday night and we leave monday morning for 2 weeks of ministry all over ghana. our first city is kumasi and i'm so excited to re-connect with my dear friends there! especially the sweet Bible club kids! and while the team is building a house, i'll be visiting with old friends and i can't wait! our last stop is at the beach and margaret and i get to spend an extra night after the team leaves to recoup. :) and we have lots of ministry and van time in between. it will be great! i am really looking forward to these 2 weeks. God always does big things on mission trips, and even though i'm not leaving this country, it is still a mission trip for me, so i'm expecting big things! you can pray for that with me! and of course i'm excited about getting to be with margaret for 2 weeks! since i've started teaching, we just don't get to hang out enough.

here are some other things you can pray for:
1. for the team...adjustment to ghana, protection, and ministry AND that margaret and i will have wisdom and understanding while with this team, and that we'll see clearly how best to serve them
2. for my students during those 2 weeks--they'll have a sub the whole time, and thankfully God has given me some good activities and resources to keep them busy and learning. but the poor things have had to adjust to so many changes in the school, and throwing another teacher at them for 2 weeks is just one more. pray that they can stay focused and feel settled at their new school
3. for the school--we have an interim director arriving in Ghana on Friday night. pray for him and the school! there are so many decisions to be made. you can also pray for the school books and supplies. they were scheduled to arrive in the port today, but it is quite the hassle to get containers through customs at the port. pray that everything goes smoothly and that we get all of our things quickly.

you're prayers are priceless!

i pray that you will experience more of God's love and provision for you today! He is such a good God, Father, and Friend! i pray that He will bless you today and blow your mind!

First Day of School!

2006-09-25T12:33:00.000-04:00

Here is where the magic happens.

This is my beautiful classroom. As you can see, the kids left all their stuff in my room when they went to music this afternoon. And that's my 'desk' in the bottom left corner of the picture.

So today was day one! And it went so well. I really don't know how it could have gone better. I was calm and peaceful all day (by God's grace!). I like the kids a lot, and I like what I'm teaching. I start off the day teaching Bible to the 7th and 8th graders (my largest class-9 students). Then I have 2 planning periods (but during one I'm the supervisor for a study hall). And then I teach world history to the 10th and 11th grades (2 girls...great class). The next class is 7th grade history. They've been studying Islam for the past couple weeks and they loved learning about it, so we're going through the "30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World" at the beginning of class. After that class, I teach geography to the 8th and 9th graders. And my final class of the day is home ec. with the 7th and 8th graders. I'm so excited about all of it!

I am especially excited about Bible class because we're doing inductive Bible study which I love! I'm also (logically) excited about home ec. I let the students pick today which aspects they would want to learn and they picked fun ones! Cooking, food in different cultures, food safety, interior design and housing technologies. So I'm excited. It's going to be a good 3 months!

Thank you so much for your prayers today!!

big day!

2006-09-19T06:04:00.000-04:00

i posted a few today so don't stop at just one! enjoy!

praising our Savior!

2006-09-19T05:54:00.000-04:00

claire and i experieced this most amazing thing a couple days ago. we have this friend, we'll call her sarah. she was born and raised a muslim here in Ghana. a few months ago, she met a missionary at a vegetable stand, he shared the Good News with her and she gave her life to Jesus! this missionary connected her with our neighbor and good friend, gertrude, to disciple her. so that is how sarah came into the our lives. she stops by regularly just to chat and to recieve encouragement and prayer. she came by a couple days ago with her two beautiful daughters. she is so full of joy and excitement about Jesus! and she is so eager to learn more about Him. she also wants to learn worship songs. she has a video of praise and worship that she watches with her daughters. they've now learned the songs, but she wanted to make sure that she was singing it right. so while we were sitting out on this patio, this former muslim and her two daughters sang "give thanks with a grateful heart. give thanks to the Holy One. give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son." it was incredible. just to sit there and watch her praise Jesus. in the midst of family that wants to disown her, a community that doesn't approve of her new life, a husband that threatens to send her away, she was giving thanks to the One and Only Savior. really incredible.

sarah recently went to visit her home town, tamale. tamale is a very muslim town. when she returned, she told us how sad she was for her family and friends there because she knows they are wasting their time worshipping something other than Jesus. her heart was broken for them and she wanted to tell them, but she knew the time wasn't right. God has already given her a 'missionary heart' for her own people! it's so cool to see that.

so my challenge and request to you is to pray for our friend sarah. she needs our prayers! pray for her to grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus (Eph 1:17-19). pray for her protection and safety. pray that her husband will come to know Jesus. pray that she will be a light to the muslims around her. pray for her strength and faith to endure the hardships of deserting islam. she will be so encouraged just to know that you are praying!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2006-09-19T05:40:00.000-04:00

To my wonderful Daddy
whom I adore and miss a ton!

Have a great birthday Dad! Big kiss, little wave!

the links...

2006-09-19T05:36:00.000-04:00

y'all should definitely check out the blogs of my friends here in ghana. they're better about talking about the culture and things like that. and, if i know that margaret posted something, sometimes i'm to lazy to post it too. :)

the bottom line

2006-09-11T16:57:00.000-04:00

if you don't want to read the huge post below, here's the gist:

1. God is awesome! And so faithful!!
2. I'm so thankful for y'all's support and encouragement
3. I'm gonna be a middle school teacher for the next 3 months...check out the school--there is a link on the right (crazy, ain't it?)

peace and love

my latest mass email

2006-09-11T15:28:00.000-04:00

in case you missed it...or if you just want to read it over and over again

So I’ve been here for two months now. And in the past 2 months, I’ve seen so much of our God’s faithfulness. He has provided for me in so many ways! He stirred your hearts and led you to partner with me and support me this year (which still blows my mind!). He’s given me an AWESOME friend at home who is taking care of all my money stuff, a fabulous supportive family, and SO many encouraging friends. And He has provided wonderful friends here in Ghana! I am so thankful for His faithfulness! I know I don’t deserve it, it’s only by his grace and love for me. Man, that blows me away. He is so good!

One of the things I have been learning since I’ve been here is that “ministry” can look a million different ways. In my life here at the Mozley house, there are rarely two days that look the same. I definitely have to fight off the lies that say since I’m not working in the slums or an orphanage that I’m not really ministering here. But Claire and Michael are so good about encouraging me and letting me know how much they appreciate what I do, even if the task seems menial to me. My dear friend Margaret and I were talking this week about “ministry” and how ministry is really just living your life and loving Jesus. And it’s so true! And right now, for me, that “life” is serving the Mozley family in whatever way they need me to. (Don’t get me wrong though, I haven’t yet developed the best servant attitude as I’m sure Michael would be quick to mention and joke about.)

So, here is the big news. God has opened up a new way for me to serve here in Ghana. A new Christian school just opened here this week…it’s an international school using American curriculum. It’s a part of NICS--the Network of International Christian Schools (www.nics.org). And they need a middle school teacher. They have been desperate to fill that position since before I arrived here in Accra. (I even posted a blog about their need for teachers here.) The person filling in for the middle school position is only here for another 2 weeks. So we all prayed a lot and discussed what to do. With Michael and Claire’s blessing and encouragement, I’ve committed to teach until December. The Mozleys (and many other families here) are very committed to this school and to seeing it grow into a world-changing ministry. I am excited to be a part of it! Michael and I have gotten “life” pretty well organized, and we think we’ll be able to juggle it all (with the help of Claire and the lovely Margaret Buell!). I’ll still get to travel with the short term team that is coming in October (and help organize and prepare for them.) So God is teaching me about the necessity of flexibility in missionary life…really in the life of a believer. Claire always says that we are putty in the hands of the Lord. It’s a good thing to learn! J I start teaching September 25…two weeks from today!

I need your prayers! Although I’m technically a certified teacher, I’ve never taught middle schoolers…I’ve only ever taught home ec. to high school students with a supervising teacher in the room. So this will be an adventure! I’ll spend the next 2 weeks tying up loose ends for Michael and planning for classes. Ah! I can’t believe this is real! God is so funny! :) Barry, the project manager with NICS, and I were saying today that it’s great to feel overwhelmed in life and ministry because that is when we have to rely on God. And that is exactly where I am. I know that I’m incapable of doing this job, but I also know that my God is so faithful and will continue to provide and equip me to do what He’s called me to do! Praise Him!

As always, please email me if you have any questions or comments. And keep checking my blog for updates on ministry and life. It’s been a couple weeks since I updated, but I have a ton of stuff waiting to be posted.

I appreciate y’all so much! You’re support and encouragement is priceless!

this week has been a good one!!

2006-08-30T19:41:00.000-04:00

here are the reasons why:

sunday we went to the Methodist Church Ghana's annual confernce church service (that's a really long title). it was a 5 hour service (which is pretty normal for Ghanaian churches). and there were about 5000 people there and we were some of the only white people (i love that!!).

have you ever seen a Ghanaian style offering? where everyone dances to the front of the room to put their money in a basket? imagine how awesome that was with 5000 people! it took 1 hour and 15 minutes and it was by far the best part of the service!! i love listening to Ghanaians sing and worship and i LOVE watching them dance! i try to clap and dance along, but i'm 100% white girl. :)

monday night, i went to dinner with a bunch of other young people here. 4 americans, 1 lebanese. we went to a chinese restaurant and then to the best ice cream place. it was fabulous.

tuesday i ran a bunch of errands with claire, had a great nap, and had some of my dad's friends who were visiting Ghana over for dinner.

wednesday (today!) was a very full very fun day. i branched out and took a taxi all over Accra. i took care of some computer things for michael, went to the u.s. embassy, met a crowd of missionaries for lunch, and then had my very first TWI lesson!! it was great! a university student is tutoring me and margaret (and maybe a couple other missionaries). and so far we love her! she is so friendly! we learned the alphabet today and what sounds different letters make. i think it will take some time to train my mouth to make the sound correctly...they are so hard! after the twi lesson and dinner, i got to talk to my fabulous cell group at home! it was so good to catch up with everyone, even if just for a minute. i can't really describe how much it means to have a group that is so supportive. i just love them!

i sure hope thursday, friday, and saturday go as well as the first half of this week.

thanks for reading! please keep praying for me and my ministry here. i need your prayers!

our first ghanaian haircut!

2006-08-24T13:48:00.000-04:00

we all got our first Ghanaian haircut today! sweet Maggie went with us too and got a pedicure (a necessary treatment around here cause our feet get really disgusting really fast!) it's so fun having other girls around to do these girly things! :) we are so thankful that the Lord put us here together!

so from left to right: stefanie (her and her husband jimmy came to teach at the new american/Christian school here), me, and margaret

my humble abode!

2006-08-23T06:34:00.000-04:00

here is my cute room...we've worked hard to make it homey and i LOVE it! i just need to hang a few pictures (which means drilling holes in the cement block) and it's finished.

Yep, that's an air conditioner. But I've only used it twice. We're in the rainy season which means it's much cooler, so I don't need it yet. And we have a great breeze too! But I'm sure I will use and abuse it in a few months.

This is the cluttery side. But if you know me, you know that this is actually quite clean by my standards. :) On top of my desk are the pictures that need to be put on the walls...to make room for more smiling faces of my lovely friends and family back home.

my new friends and family...

2006-08-23T05:53:00.000-04:00

The Mozley family at Michael's new school. We all went to visit for a day.

Me and the Mozley kids outside of Michael's school.

We went on a little day trip to some botanical gardens outside of the city. You should look at Margaret's blog (www.margaretb.blogspot.com) to learn about our exciting drive there. From left to right--Nicole, Stefanie, Margaret, and me.

Margaret and me. We're fun.

So.....what exactly do you do?

2006-08-16T11:05:00.000-04:00

I’m sure many of you are asking that question. I’ll try my best to describe life here so far.

These past few weeks have been all about getting stuff settled. Mostly getting Michael’s office organized and learning what he expects and what he needs. He is beginning his PhD this week, in fact he left this morning. His school is about 1 hour away. His plan is to stay there about 3 or 4 nights a week, and then be here one night during the week and on the weekends. So, since he’ll be gone most of the time, I’ll be doing a lot of his African Regional Coordinator work and other odds and ends around the house. So the next few weeks will be more transitions…figuring out what my job is when Michael isn’t here. I'll tell you what I do know: there is a good bit of organizing in my near future. Organizing files, books, emails, short-term teams, bills, you name it! I guess that doesn't sound fun to some of you, but oh the satifaction when you see a nicely organized drawer or bookshelf! I will feel seriously accomplished when it is all finished. :)

I’ve been working recently with Claire and Michael on getting ready for a short-term team who are coming in October. It’s amazing how many details go into planning…I love learning how it works! So that’s one thing I’ve been working on lately. But everyday is different. Some days we sit at the desk for hours working on emails, financial reports, calendars. And other days we’re running errands all day. And some days, it’s staying home with the kids while Michael and Claire have meetings. That’s the life of this missionary intern.

Also, now that Michael is gone to school, I’m starting to pray about other ministry opportunities that I have here. It’s great cause I can do practically anything: work at a children’s home (orphanage), work with youth, women, really anything I want to do. So we’ll see where God leads!

So here is how you can pray:
~ pray for the Mozley family as EVERYONE is in transition right now. Michael is away and starting school, Anna just started school today, Maggie and Luke start in a couple weeks, and Claire is excited about getting lots of work done in the empty house.
~ pray that I would diligently seek the Lord on his plans for me here and that I would quickly understand my roll with my boss-man away at school (I think it’s funny to call him boss, so I do it pretty frequently)

By the way, I hope to get some more pictures up soon…of my new friends, my room, etc. Think of it as a teaser…you’ll have to check back in a few days to see them! :)

i love my life

2006-08-07T04:18:00.000-04:00

i just want y'all to know that i love my life here. it's 8:15am, we're just starting breakfast, and as usual, there are about 13 people in the house. i love it. and there are a million things going on today...claire is helping a new missionary family move into their house, michael is setting up a cell phone and bank account for another guy that just arrived, anna is going shopping in the market with her friend that is about to leave for boarding school, and maggie and luke have friends over here that spent the night. and me? i'm answering emails and hanging out with maggie, luke and their friends all day. well at least that is the plan...but days rarely go as planned.

and have i mentioned my awesome new friend Margaret?! she's a young Mission Society missionary that just arrived a couple weeks before i did...and she is fabulous!! i am so SO grateful to have such a fun friend here! it means the world just to have someone to talk with about important life stuff and even dumb American things (like side ponytails and scrunch socks in the 80's.) and it's incredible that we're going through the whole move/culture change at the same time. God is SO GOOD!! he has provided for both of us by placing us here at the same time. and i LOVE it!

as i sit here typing, i'm listening to all the voices the house, and i'm am so grateful that God has put me here. i love this family, i love these people, i love Ghana! (can you tell i'm still in the honeymoon phase?) :)

i do miss people at home a ton! but i love technology! i get to talk to my mom at least once or twice a week. and even last night, i got to talk to 5 of my bestest (i'm so grammatically correct) friends in marietta when they were all together for one of their bridal showers. (you can go to mary margaret's blog using the link on the right to see a picture of them at the shower.) it's crazy how easy and cheap it is to stay in touch.

well i better go join the breakfast table so that i can get to work on Michael's emails. thanks for reading my wandering thoughts. :)

COME TO GHANA!

2006-08-02T05:11:00.000-04:00

so there is a new school here in Ghana...an international school...and they still need two school teachers for THIS year! so if you have a teaching degree, or if you are working towards one and you want to move to a sweet country in africa for the next year then COME ON! school starts in september, but if you can't get here until a little later then we can cover for you until then. check out the school's website www.aisaccra.org and pray about it!!! and let me know!

international livin'

2006-07-26T18:08:00.000-04:00

I wanted to let y'all in on a few cultural experiences I've had over the past week...

On Saturday night, I was invited to go to dinner with the Mozleys, another missionary couple, and one of their very good friends, a Lebanese man that lives here in Accra. I can't even begin to tell you what it was like hearing him talk about the things that are happening in Lebanon right now. His family is there...his wife and daughter were able to get to London safely, but his parents have decided to stay. His father is the mayor of a town in the northern part of Lebanon (the Christian part of the country)...and he told us that 1500 Muslim refugees have come from the south to his father's town and are staying in the churches and anywhere that there is room. Did you read that right...MUSLIM families staying in CHURCHES and with CHRISTIAN families. Did you know that the Christians in Lebanon are the ONLY ones in the middle east who are accepted and even have political power? The Muslims and Christians have been living peacefully there since the end of their civil war in 2000. And although this fighting was started by the Hezbollah (the Muslim extremists in the south), the Northern/Christian part of Lebanon is being attacked and is definitely affected by this fighting. It was so sad to hear our friend talk about how much this fighting has already affected Lebanon, especailly how it has set them so far back economically. Although it was sad to hear him talk about it, it was so good too to hear it from someone who is so closely connected. Do you remember how you felt on September 11th? I remember being so sad and a little scared. I was in Georgia, I had no family or friends in NYC, but it still affected me. And this is SO SO much bigger than September 11th. This fighting is not good for anyone...Israel, Lebanon, the entire middle east. But try to imagine how these Lebanese feel. The fighting is on their territory, in their home. Pray for peace in Lebanon and Israel!

Sunday morning, we went to an "international" church. It was very much like a typical American church service. But we had a special speaker...one of those guys that tears phonebooks in half and breaks cement with his head. It was entertaining to say the least. :) Not very Ghanaian though.

But tonight, we had the opportunity to go to a church service in a small village about 45 minutes away. It's crazy that only 45 minutes away from this big city we live in there is a village with no electricity, probably no running water, where the people live off of their farms. The church there is made from woven tree limbs for the walls and dried leaves for the roof. It was very stereotypical Africa. And it was awesome! Michael and a couple others spoke, Claire and me and the girls taught them an English song, and we had the opportunity to pray for a lot of them. I got to pray for three sweet little girls. They were so cute! I wish you could have all been there with me...to see their beautiful church, to hear them say "Amen!" when they loved what the preacher said, to hear them sing so loud, and to watch them dance around the room as they praise our great God. It was amazing. Many times tonight I thought about how wonderful God is that he let me come here and experience all of this. I love seeing how he made Ghanaians to worship him!!

new friends and sweet reunions...

2006-07-21T06:09:00.000-04:00

It has been a great first week here in Ghana! As the title says, it has been a week full of meeting new people and reuniting with some old friends from my time here a few years ago. Our God is all about relationships! And I love it!

There are always visitors at the Mozley house and this week was no exception. We had a full house and a full table. :) I love getting to know the people that pass through. Here are a couple pictures from my first day here. The first one is all of us eating breakfast my first morning here and the second one is right before we took Camron (the Mozley's last intern) to the airport that same day.

Last weekend, we ventured up to the north to a city called Tamale for a wedding! One of our missionary friends from Canada (Di) married a Ghanaian man (Dan) and it was a wonderful day! They work together at the Wycliffe branch here in Ghana. It was so fun to see her again and many other missionaries that were there! Two of Anna's friends from Marietta were here too, Davis and Ryan. They made the 12 hour drive so fun! 12 hours up and 12 hours back. Another person that made the journey fun was my old friend Eddie! He has worked with the Mozleys for a long time and he drove us there and back. Here are some pictures from the wedding:

I am so excited about being back here in Ghana...and about being with the Mozley's again. I just love this family and I love being a part of what God is doing through them! I am so excited to see what God has in store this year...it's gonna be awesome! Thank you for being a part of this year! I love being your hands and feet here. And I deeply appreciate you and your prayers!

IN GHANA!!

2006-07-13T17:47:00.000-04:00

YAY! I'M HERE! i'm so glad to be here. all the flights went well. and i had a crowd waiting for me at the airport, so that was fun. i have to go pack because we're going to a wedding 13 hours away tomorrow. :) we're leaving at 5am. i just wanted to let everyone know that i'm here safe and sound!

Much love!
Tatum

leaving...

2006-07-09T22:48:00.000-04:00

on a jet plane. i'm outta here on tuesday the 11th. that means i get there on wednesday the 12th. i'll let y'all know when i'm safe and sound. pray for smooth and safe travel!

if you're reading this then it's highly likely that i love you a lot and will miss you!!! thanks so much for praying!

next update will from GHANA!! yes!!!!

welcome welcome welcome!

2006-05-17T17:24:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog! I'll keep this updated while I'm in Ghana so that you can know what's going on! I am so looking forward to my year in Ghana with the Mozleys. I can't wait to learn about Ghanaian culture and I'm excited about what God is going to teach me while I'm there. It will be a great year! I'm looking forward to sharing with you cool stories about the Lord and what He's doing.

Please be praying as I'm preparing to leave...pray for my finances, relationships here at home, and spiritual preparation.

Thanks for checking out the blog!