Ghana 2013: Day 20: Just let them touch you...

This morning began about 4am for me with the sounds of Ma Comfort in the kitchen scratching up 8 loaves of Ghanaian banana bread for breakfast. I joined her around 530 for a cup of coffee and to bag the loaves to keep them from drying out. She and I plan to meet up in the morning to learn how to make her special and delicious bread and the tricks of scoring mangos.

Janice with Ma Comfort - Banana bread muffins in the background.

Pastor Sammy shared a little more with us about the school. Trinity Foundation is a private Christian school PK-4. He said the families cannot afford the monthly tuition fees so they pay 1 cedi daily. For those who do not know that computes out to around 50 cents depending on the fluctuating exchange rate of Ghana. “Just let them touch you” were the words spoken by Pastor Sammy. He said each of these children will remember meeting us for the rest of their lives and encouraged us to let them stroke our skin, hair, and face because they are curious of what we “feel” like. That explains all of the caressing I received yesterday. A funny story shared by Pastor Sammy when he was a small Ghanaian boy was that he had believed white people switched their eyes out with cat eyes at night. His parents sent him to live with a British couple for education and he was eager to see if that were true. Of course after four years, he found he had been previously deceived.

According to Pastor Sammy, a man went to a Fetish god (through some form of a witch doctor or local fetish priest) and paid him to charm the mother of his children into marrying him because she had declined his marriage proposals. The father promised the children to the spirit in exchange. She was charmed by the spirit into marriage. The mother started to attend Trinity Foundation Church sometime after. The spirit came spiritually to take the children many times and every time there was a white shiny man with a sword drawn protecting the children as professed by the father to a pastor while very ill in the hospital. He said the spirit was angry and said he was going to take his life because the man tricked him. Not soon after the man had died. Presently, the mother and her children attend Trinity Foundation Church and the son attends Trinity Foundation School and his sister is in high school now. It is amazing to see God Almighty protect and reign in power over darkness.

Shortly after breakfast, the Ghana Faith Team dispersed to the school to witness their daily morning assembly. The sounds of the 2 male and 1 female drummers accompanying the marching students with swinging arms as they dismissed one class at a time to their classroom left me awestruck. Abby went to class 4 and ended up being the teacher for the day because there was not one today. God always amazes me to see how He works things out ahead and with whom. Abby did such a great job. She taught on subjects and predicates, religion, and math. With her creative juices flowing (as usual) she taught the subject and predicate lesson with “The Tale of Mr. Morton” by School House Rock. This girl knows a song for everything! For the Bible lesson she led her students outside to sit under a shade tree and talked on the Good Samaritan because it was too hot in the classroom.

Abby with some of the girls form her class

I was in class 2 which is the classroom that my Esther 1 (House of Grace girl) is in. I sang songs with them, graded math for Miss Esther (teacher), and spoke into the children to always trust God and to never quit—always try and try again as some do struggle. One thing I observed today in this class was the difference I seen in the House of Grace girls from the rest of the class. Overall, I see great potential in each student present, but the House of Grace girls appeared to be more alert, better dressed in appearance, and have a leadership style of their own. It is evident that in a year’s time and sometimes less for some of the newer girls that God is restoring their lives through the House of Grace staff and school.

Janice with her girl Esther and one of her friends

We stayed in the school until noon. We ate fried plantains among other things for lunch and then rested until 230pm. We then went to the girls’ house behind the mission house to help them with homework and do their physical assessments. Some of the girls have opened up right away but some are still blossoming. Kate’s Esther 2 smiled at her today! It may not sound like much to some but this is a big deal. These girls have hard life stories and a smile means trust and excitement between them. Later this evening, after supper, we went to paint and make bracelets with the girls, compliments of Mrs. Butay and Ms. Shipley. The girls really enjoyed this time as did we. Just prior to this, we were going to have to present them with their special church dress and other apparel by flashlight as the power went out. This appears to be common all across Ghana and you never know when or how long. It’s always a surprise! Indeed, to our amazement the power came on just as we began giving gifts. First, I want to give a big shout out to all of the wonderful givers who donated every piece of garment, coloring books, and crayons, socks and undergarments, etc. The girls were so excited for everything and because of the blessing of our time and your giving their countenance changed. Each girl’s eyes lit up as they put on their dresses and twirled. It was so amazing how headbands matched dresses they presently had on and with the dresses that were given. Each girl’s outfits and apparel seemed to match up even though they were not purchased by the same person. My Esther smiled and said “Wow!” over her five pairs of socks. Each girl got a church dress, three interchangeable outfits, seven underwear (they call them “pants”), five pairs of socks, and a backpack with a headband and bracelet inside. It was like Christmas in February and it was such a special time with them. We wish we could have had a little more time with them. We retired to the house around 815pm for devotion and to hear of how the African (Pastor Sammy) and the American (Dr. Mark Rutland) met. It has been an honor to meet such a man and woman of God as Pastor Sammy and Ma Comfort and to be a part of God’s big plan for these girls. God is so good all of the time! Letting them touch us on the outside as encouraged by Pastor Sammy deeply touched us on the inside.