75% of the way towards my mother having a Merry Christmas!

Four and a half weeks in over here in Ghana, and I’m doing well!  I’ve just finished my time teaching at St. Peter’s Mission school.  I spent about two weeks here, in the northern part of Accra, teaching 4th, 5th, and 6th graders.  We covered some English literature, specifically the Merchant of Venice.  Literature is something I’ve found sorely lacking here in both availability and appreciation.  There’s a certain pragmatism to the education, with the focus almost entirely on completing the mandatory curriculum and ensuring the students attain the highest scores possible on the standardized tests at the end of the year.  Additionally, getting books can be quite expensive here, since they must be imported, and imports are very expensive.  This means that reading for pleasure is something that is simply not common here at all.  Also means I should’ve totally thrown War and Peace in the bag, to be sure of always having something to read.
   

Anyways, the Merchant of Venice proved to be a very interesting book to cover since the central plot theme revolves around the power and impact of mercy (or lack thereof).  As such, it provided an excellent opportunity to talk to the students about what it mercy really was, and what forgiveness really means.  Additionally, there was a huge fight at the school a couple weeks back, where a foreign student attacked the director of the school.  This provided a great example to talk about what it means to forgive someone in the real world, how it’s not easy, and often fraught with risk, because it means losing power.  No-one deserves forgiveness…not Antonio from Shylock, nor Shylock from Antonio, nor the student who came after the school director.  Neither do we deserve forgiveness from God.

Tomorrow will see me head to the northern part of the country, to Tamale.  The Northern region is sort of the neglected stepchild of Ghana.  There’s a ton of NGO and Missionary work being done up there to help the people, but the region is extremely impoverished, and largely Muslim.  That said, most of the people in Accra are largely apathetic to the plight.  Much as people in the US are content to worry about their lives and businesses at home, most people in Accra worry about their own lives and businesses.  The north is the government’s problem, not theirs.  Most of the mission’s and development work (I think that those two are by necessity intrinsically linked together…you help people transform their whole lives, spirit AND body) is located in the north, and so my work will be centered around building connections with the various organizations, to learn what they’re doing and what full time missions work could look like. 

Please pray for my continued safety and renewed health, and that I’d continue to patiently trust in the Lord’s guidance.  I have much to learn still here in Ghana over the next week and a half, and then some big decisions to make when I get home.  The Lord is faithful, but it can be extremely frustrating constantly not knowing what’s going to happen next and all too easy to slip into imagining some fantasy future than focusing on the present God‘s provided.  Exhilarating too, but frustrating. 

Graduations, Villages, and Some amazing kids

The first 10 days here in Ghana have been a whirlwind!  I've been to see orphan children in both Accra and Cape Coast, was blessed to share in my new friend Nana Kofi's graduation from the University of Ghana, and even spent a couple days living in a village. I'm now at the Cape Coast School for the deaf and will stay for the next couple days. 

The kids at the school are amazing!  The first evening there I managed to learn the sign language alphabet, and a number of basic signs to communicate.  The kids were so enthusiastic helping me learn!  I was also blessed to meet a group of four Americans from Friends of Cape Deaf; today we helped clean up a local hospital and then went for a quick dip in the ocean, which was across the road. 

Next week week I'll be settling into the St. Peter's Mission school on the north side of Accra.  I'm looking forward to teaching there and helping with the children.

Thank you so much for your prayers...there's more to come I can't even fathom!  God is truly great!

I'm here!

Akwaaba!

I've arrived safely in Accra, and have met up with Pastor Samuel in town.  I'm getting situated well...it's amazing all that God is doing here!  We went to a church service this morning, and this afternoon visited the Kaneshie market.  I went to purchase a cell phone, and passed the police guard outside, who just happened to have an AK-47 in his lap.  This is Africa!

It's amazing here...while hot, the country is beautiful, and the people extremely friendly.  It's amazing how much just a few broken words of Twi can make everyone light up!  All's going well, we're off to visit the orphanage soon.  I'm going to end up either helping at the school for the deaf and blind in town, or at the church in Cape Coast.  Should be an interesting week going around though.

Will keep y'all posted as I can...In Christ,
Josh

40 Days in Ghana - How cool is that?

So it worked out that I'm going to be in Ghana for exactly 40 days, starting on Tuesday and running through December 11th.  When I first realized that, I started thinking "crap, that sounds too much like a really bad romantic comedy which noone watched."  Leave it to my friend Adam to point out that there was spiritual significance there too.  This of course got me reading the Gospels, particularly the sections detailing the tempting of Jesus.  The three replies Jesus has for Satan are extremely instructive:

1. Man Shall not live by bread along, but by every word of God. - That's pretty intense...we can't survive without Christ, but he feeds us and works through us and even blesses us magnificently.  It's God, not us.
2. You shall worship the Lord your GOD, and Him only you shall serve - You can't have two masters...Ellen, an elderly woman at our church, gave me a little one eyed tube.  Basically, it's a decorated paper towel roll, but it conveys the simple idea that you can only look at one thing at a time.  I can look at God, or I can look at something else, but never both.
3. You shall not tempt the Lord your God - Looking back to Dt. 6:16, where this comes from, you find that this is a commandment for diligence...constantly striving to follow what God wants every day and continually trusting Him.  He's big powerful and mighty, but there's plenty of examples of how God likes it better when we just trust Him rather than forcing a sign of some sort.

Anyways, the big flight is tomorrow.  I'm somewhat excited, but more than anything at this point I'm just content, trusting in His will and humbled by the blessings yet to come.

Visa!

Got my visa in the mail the other day!  So excited...the last bit of paperwork is now totally resolved.  Now about all the other fun things that I have no idea what I'm in for...

Intro

Six years ago I went on a short term trip to Dakar, Senegal to spend some time with missionaries there.  We did some work around their compound, took in some touristy sites, and most importantly, saw the work that God was doing through his people there.  We saw aid clinics outside the city, orphan kids with scabies, villagers digging a ditch into the desert to run water to their collection of huts, and one of our team fell extremely ill, needing to be life-flighted out of the country.  These experiences have left an indelible imprint on me.  I went hoping to have a good time traveling, and much to my chagrin I ended up running into God. 

These experiences have been used to slowly transform me, moving from my eyes to my head, and creeping their way into my heart.  God has used these to marinate me, not merely adding flavor but also softening me on the inside, breaking me down.  Over the last six years my walk with Christ has continued to mature…from times when I walked away from Him to the last few years where I’ve been learning ever more about how little I actually know of God. 

My walk is now taking me to Accra, Ghana for 40 days, from Nov. 1 to Dec. 10.  I am trusting that the Spirit will continue to guide me during my time there, as I learn more about Christ and His ways, and explore the work He’s already doing there.  My plan is to spend most of my time in Accra working with 60+ orphan children, as well as traveling to an outlying village to see the work of the church of Pastor Samuel Owusu, my host.  Several people from Richmond have been helping Pastor Samuel raise money to support these children, now God’s now leading me there to serve them first-hand.  I want to hear and learn their testimonies of Christ, and look forward to sharing them with you.   I don’t know where all this is going, but I’m stepping out in faith and obedience to our Father in heaven.

I’m sending you this letter to ask for prayer and financial support.  Money raised will be put toward supporting the needs of these orphans, and will complement our recent fundraising efforts.  In addition, if you’d like to help with my airfare and travel expenses you are welcome to do so.  Please send me an email at joshsheldon@gmail.com to let me know how you can help....I'd love to know that this trip and the orphans are in your prayers!

Thanks and God Bless!
Josh