4:00am came way too early! We all wanted to just hit the
snooze button on our alarms and go back to sleep, but the day ahead would be
one of our most memorable adventures on this trip. We all loaded up on the van around
5:00am and were headed from Accra to Kumasi where we would stay two nights and
three days at the House of Grace. For those of you who don’t know what this
special place is, it is a home that Dr. Mark Rutland, the current president of
ORU, started about a year ago on the same compound as the Trinity Foundation
School. Founded about 6 years ago, the Trinity school that provides education
to approximately 225 children from preschool to fourth grade. The House of
Grace is a girl’s home for Ghanian girls whose families are either deceased or
are no longer able to care for them. Currently there are ten girls residing in
the home. The neat thing about
this is that there are ten of us
girls who traveled half way across the world to present one of these ten girls
with multiple gifts that God has provided for them in various ways.
Our drive from Accra to Kumasi was about four hours long and
it was a treacherous journey to say the least. Bumpy roads that went on for miles, our heads bouncing off
of our pillows with each bump, lack of sleep and having to go through three
different police traffic stops along the way doesn’t even begin to describe how
the day started off. We did however happen to stop at a red traffic light where
we bought fried plantain chips through our van window…talk about a much needed
and delicious treat! These chips are so much better than our potato chips back
in America…much healthier too!
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| Our beloved plantain chips! |
We arrived at the House of Grace around 10:00am on Monday
morning and as soon as we got off of the van the children came running. It was
such a wonderful greeting as the children were waving to us, hugging us and
even got in a circle to sings songs of worship with all of us. We may have been
distracting them just a little bit from their schoolwork but they were so
accepting of us and so adorable that we couldn’t help not to play with them and
ask them their names.
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| Singing songs with all of the little ones! |
The children then went back to their classrooms and each of
us went to go pick out the rooms that we would sleep in for the next two
nights. The house we stayed in is Pastor Sammy and his wife Comfort’s home.
Once again, I am in awe of how loving and accepting the Ghanian people are of
us. Pastor Sammy and Comfort have made all of us feel so at home here. Comfort
made us delicious Ghanian food and homemade cookies just about every meal, and Pastor Sami told us some great stories about his life
and how he met Dr. Rutland. These two people truly are a gift from God to us.
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| Chelsea sitting in on one of the school classes. |
After we settled in to our rooms, we all decided to lie down
and take a much needed nap due to our lack of sleep from waking up so early.
Some of us napped longer than others but once we were all awake we felt very
rested. After our naps we decided to go meet each of our girls at the House of
Grace, and as we walked through the front door we saw all ten girls standing in
front of us with three different signs that they had made welcoming us to their
home. It was such a heartwarming experience and one moment that I will never
forget. We played with the girls for a few more minutes then headed back to the
house where Comfort had made us a delicious Ghanain dinner along with juicy
mango and pineapple.
Upon finishing dinner we gathered things to take over to the
girls that had been donated specifically for our trip to Kumasi. Some of these
donated items were from 2012 Alumni Matt and Rachel Ortiz who had come on the
Africa trip last year. They graciously donated ten backpacks with all sorts of
goodies inside for each girl to have as her own. Other items that we brought
over for the girls included coloring books, crayons and a pair of shoes. Each girl’s face lit up that evening as
we kept showering them with gifts. It was like Christmas in February! It’s moments
like these that make me want to stop and take a minute to thank God for the
opportunities He has given me throughout my life and for providing me with a
wonderful and supportive family. For these girls the road has been treacherous
but thanks to the House of Grace, they can now look ahead to the future.
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| The girls with their new blankets and goodies from inside their backpacks! |
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| The girls with their new backpacks donated by Matthew and Rachel Ortiz! The girls lit up when they got them! |
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| These shoes were bought with money donated to our team...the girls were so excited! |
We played with our girls until it was time for them to go
get ready for bed. None of them wanted us to leave but we told them that we
would come back over the next day as soon as they got out of school. Their
efforts to try and get us to stay were so persistent but we had to let them go
so that they could be up bright and early the next morning on time for school.
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| Coloring with our girls. |
Just as God has plans for all of our lives, He also has
specific plans for these adorable little girl’s, and He will richly bless them
in their walk with Him. Dr. Rutland’s House of Grace slogan states that they
are “Saving Little Girls for Big Destinies,” and through those big destinies,
each one of these girls will one day go out and change their world.
Kayla J. Keiser
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