Chapel

As some of you probably know from reading Facebook, I led chapel this past Wednesday. On Monday, Joyce asked me if I would be able to fill in as the main speaker and I said I would. I've been singing with our mini-worship band each week and that has been great! Usually we sing a few songs and then a visiting pastor will give a short message. Basically it's just a mini-church service every Wednesday morning at school. It's good when I can understand what the (more often than not) Ghanaian pastor is talking about, which, unfortunately, isn't that often. Anyway, something that I feel like God has been putting on my heart lately is to really think about and learn what the songs we sing mean. So often we sing songs but don't think about the meaning behind them. "Do I really mean what I'm singing?" The thought hardly ever crosses our minds. Or maybe you're different from me and think about it constantly - awesome! I never used to think about it until someone else brought it to my attention. I just thought I'd try to turn what I talked about into a blog post for you guys to read and hopefully encourage you! How I did it was to talk about the song then sing it, then talk about another and sing it, etc.

The first song we went through was "Every Move I Make." A pretty standard worship song, I think. Here are the lyrics:

Every move I make, I make in You
You make me move, Jesus
Every breath I take, I breathe in You

Every step I take, I take in You
You are my way, Jesus
Every breath I take, I breathe in You

Waves of mercy, waves of grace
Everywhere I look I see Your face
Your love has captured me
Oh my God, this love
How can it be?

It's upbeat, it's catchy, it's hard not to sing along. But how often have you thought about what it really means? Does Jesus really guide your every step and every breath? As I was thinking through these lyrics and what they mean, I think God laid on my heart that this song is really about surrender. Surrender to God and the leading of his Holy Spirit in my life. I know, it sounds deep for such a simple song but hear me out. Is it true that every move you make, every breath you take, and every step you take is for and because of Jesus? Are you really leading your life in such a way that everything you do is for Jesus and HIS glory? I definitely am not all the time - DEFINITELY not. I'm human. I fall. I make mistakes. Even though I can't say that this song is true of me all the time, every second of every day, I'm still going to sing this song out loud because it's a desire I have in my heart. I WANT this to be true of my life - I want Jesus to lead my every move, breath, and step. I want my whole life to be surrendered to Jesus Christ. And over the past several weeks He's been patiently teaching me how to do just that. Now, you might ask yourself two questions: #1 How do you surrender your life to Jesus? #2 Why SHOULD you surrender your life to Him?

Let's tackle that second question first.

Some scripture... Genesis 1:1, 27-31

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plan on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of all the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move on the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning - the sixth day.

God MADE us. Specifically. Uniquely. HE made us. No matter what you think about how that happened - evolution, six literal days of creation, something else entirely. Right now, that's not the point. The point is that God did it. He did it and he did it however he wanted. Don't you think that deserves some respect? Some surrender? In these verses we see that God blessed Adam and Eve and gave them rule over all the animals and plants. But what happened a little bit later in the story? THEY messed it up by eating that apple from the tree. Adam and Eve had one single rule to follow and they broke up. Adam and Eve messed up - but who fixed it? It wasn't Adam and Eve. God fixed it by sending his only son to die an excruciating death on the cross. Did you know that the word excruciating was invented to describe dying on a cross? That's how horrendous and unexplainable death on a cross was - they had to invent a word to describe it. We don't have to pay for the sin of Adam and Eve or our own sins that we commit every day because God loved us enough to send his only son to die for us on the cross.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God LOVED the world. It started with the love of God for us sinners. God loved us so God gave us his Son. If we believe in him then we will receive eternal life with God and his Son in heaven. God loved, God gave, we believe, we receive. Notice that it's God initiated! Our salvation and eternal destination depends on our response to the love God already demonstrated to us through the death of his holy Son on the cross.

Psalm 103:8-12
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

God does not treat us as our sins deserve. He has removed our transgressions, our sins, away from us as far as the east is from the west. Because he first LOVED us!

Still need another reason for why we SHOULD surrender our lives to God?

Psalm 18:30-36
As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord's word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great. You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way.

We should surrender our live to God because he is worthy! "His way is perfect." He will keep us strong and lead us in the way we should go... if you ask Him.


Okay, back to the first question: HOW do we surrender our lives to God? Well, this is something I'm still learning. God has been trying to teach me this in the past few weeks - complete and total surrender. In my limited experience, I think the answer to "how" is through prayer. Talking to God and thanking Jesus for his sacrifice on my and your behalf. Asking the Holy Spirit to convict you of sin in your and my life and how you and I should get rid of it. Talk to God about your day - just stay connected. Talk to God about your problems instead of gossiping about it with someone else. Talk to God about anything and everything. Acknowledge his authority over your life. Just talk to him and believe that he will keep his promises.

Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

If you earnestly and honestly seek him - God won't ignore you, he will reward you. But don't expect those rewards to be immediate or the way YOU think they should be. We can't put God into our little box and say, "Okay, I prayed this way and you didn't respond the way I wanted so I'm not going to pray anymore, God you must not really care about me." God doesn't work on your time schedule or always in the way that you want. Would God really be GOD if you could control him or put him in your own little box?

If you just don't know what to pray... pray scripture.

Psalm 51:10-12
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.



Now, even if the words of this song "Every Move I Make" don't describe you right this second - if the words describe a desire you have of how you want to live your life or maybe even how you think you should live your life... sing it out!

Every move I make, I make in You
You make me move, Jesus
Every breath I take, I breathe in You

Every step I take, I take in You
You are my way, Jesus
Every breath I take, I breathe in You

Waves of mercy, waves of grace
Everywhere I look I see Your face
Your love has captured me
Oh my God, this love
How can it be?

This post is pretty long so I think maybe I'll do this in installments since I talked about 4 songs...

Come back again!

:-)

Spring Break - part 2

Alright, I believe I left off writing after we ran away from Afrikiko.

To be honest, not too much happened after that. We were afraid to leave the relative comforts of East Legon! Amanda and her mom made a trip to the art market and we all made one more trip to Osu and other than that... you could find us lying by the pool. :-)

Let's re-focus on the FOOD we ate over spring break. Some I've already mentioned and some I haven't. There was just too much good food eaten over break to not devote an entire blog entry to it.

First up - Thursday night dinner at La Galette! No picture of the food but the chicken alfredo pasta and 4 seasons pizza Meg and I shared were delicious!

Friday morning breakfast - bow fruit. I have no idea how you actually spell it but that's what it sounds like. And it has nothing to do with fruit.

It's basically a donut. A delicious, greasy, mess of a donut. Yep, they cook it over a fire on the side of the road and serve it to you wrapped in a piece of newspaper. Classy!

Friday night dinner at Monsoon. The amazing sushi about which I've already written and posted a picture. Here's a picture of the rest of the sushi Amanda and I split - fashion sandwich and sashimi!

Can we go back now? Please?

Saturday night at Chez Afrique. Mmmmmm red-red. I wish I had some right now!

Top: Gari Foto. Middle left: palava sauce. Middle right: beans part of red-red. Far left: rice to be eaten with red-red. Bottom middle: fried plantain, the other half of red-red. Bottom right: boiled yams to be eaten with palava sauce.

Can we go back now? Please?

Sunday (Easter!) breakfast I made cinnamon pancakes with a delicious apple sugar-y topping!

I promise it's better than this picture looks. And I don't know why it uploaded sideways.

Easter dunch/linner/something between lunch and dinner! Bar-b-q chicken, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes. Mmmmmmm.

The green beans were an especially nice treat!

Easter dinner, aka feast!!! A family from the school invited us over for dinner. A Lebanese family. Lebanese food is sooooooooooooooo good!

Dessert MIGHT have been better... do you SEE that chocolate cake??? And the Lebanese goodies on the left and the chocolates on the right. Wow.

Monday was the Afrikiko debacle so let's skip to Tuesday.

Tuesday dinner I cooked again! And Amanda made one of my most favorite desserts...

I may look a little crazy in this picture BUT the garlic chicken pasta with broccoli and accompanying salad were delectable!

Dessert was scrumptious! Hot from the oven apple crisp. Mmmmmmmm, thanks Amanda!

Just when you start to think, "How much can these people eat?!" It keeps going.

Wednesday morning I made cinnamon rolls!

Yep, from scratch. And we had some mango. You know - for balance.

One more! Wednesday night we made our way back to Osu and feasted on Chinese food.

Amanda and I each got soup noodles: her with chicken and me with beef. It was soooooo good and made even better by the new air conditioning at this restaurant!

Sadly, we are now finished with the trip through "Spring Break Food 2010."

Hopefully I'll see you again at my next installment, "Mexican Food Extravaganza June 2010."

I didn't even give a shout out to the amazing mom who provided me with all of these pictures!!!
Momma Joyce - thank you for EVERYTHING over break!!! It was fun showing you around! :-)

Spring Break - part 1

I don't actually know that there will be a "part 2" blog for spring break but just in case... here's part 1.

Spring break started with a day off on Friday! Well, that's when it started for me but it kind-of started the day before for Amanda because her mom flew in to visit and got here Wednesday night! She was able to go with Amanda to school on Thursday and meet her students and most of the teachers at the school. Joyce, Amanda's mom, also brought TONS of goodies for Amanda and Meg and I and for that we will be forever grateful! Especially for the Oreo's :-)

I guess the official beginning to spring break was actually dinner on Thursday night at La Galette - a standby favorite restaurant! Jonathan accompanied us ladies and it was a fun time!

While to some it might look as if Jonathan and I are holding hands - we are in fact not. It's just a slightly awkward picture, haha.

Friday morning began with a ride in a tro-tro to Medina market in search of some fabric. Unfortunately, Friday mornings are apparently not a big time for the market because a lot of the little shops were closed. However, Amanda and I did find some good fabric and Joyce the seamstress is currently fashioning for us some fun PANTS! Joyce, Amanda's mom, is having a skirt and dress made. Let's hope they're ready on time and don't need too many alterations! The rest of Friday was spent at the pool for Amanda and Joyce and I stayed at home for a quiet afternoon. That night we made the trip out to Osu for some shopping and dinner at MONSOON - another favorite restaurant. I spent way too much money on some paintings for me and fun things for my little brothers but it's my last semester in Ghana - I'm justifying it. At Monsoon, Amanda and I were able to try some new sushi and it was AMAZING! Sorry Fashion Sandwich but you just won't cut it anymore. Unfortunately this new sushi, rainbow rolls, is far more expensive than what we usually get so we will probably never eat it again - but oh how great it was while we had it! Nice discovery, Amanda!


The gelato we had after dinner was the perfect after-dinner treat!

Saturday we were off to Labody Beach Hotel for a day at the pool and beach. It was an aaaaaaamazing place! The hotel was so beautiful, the pool was clean and even more astounding - the BEACH WAS CLEAN! The price was a little higher than we were anticipating because people are always raising their prices in Ghana but it was well worth it.

Don't judge my pastiness just because I wasn't born with Amanda's amazing olive complexion.

That night Amanda decided that her mom needed to experience some real, Ghanaian food and I was more than happy to join them at Chez Afrique. Gari foto, red-red, palava sauce with boiled yams... mmmmmmm! I can't say that Joyce enjoyed it as much as we did, though. Okay, so it's something to get used to, I guess...

We had quite the delicious spread!

Sunday was Easter, of course, and we spent the day relaxing around the house, which was a very welcome break for me. I felt like we had been going and going for the past few days and it was nice to just sit back and take a breather. For breakfast I made pancakes with a cinnamon, brown sugar, apple-y stuff to go on top and it was absolutely delicious! Then for lunch I made bar-b-q chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and heat up some green beans - Amanda's favorite! The worst part was when the power went out - 8 minutes after I had put the chicken in the oven to cook. Ummmmm, now what? Amanda had the good idea of taking the food upstairs to finish cooking because upstairs the girls have a gas oven and stove-top, which theoretically should work when the power is out. Well, let me tell you that it doesn't work when the power is out when the girls upstairs fail to have the gas tank replaced when the old one is empty - crap! Thankfully, 40 minutes later the power comes back on and we finish cooking the food and have one pretty good meal! And yes, we continued cooking the chicken after it sat for that long and I'm still alive to talk about it so I'm thinking it's okay :-) For dessert we busted in to the second package of Oreo's. That's right, the SECOND package!


THEN - as if all that food talk isn't enough - we went over to a Lebanese family's house for (a very late) dinner! Mmmmmm there was so much food and it was all DELICIOUS.


Sunday was an incredible eating day :-)

And that brings us to TODAY. Oh what a Ghanaian day we've had! Amanda asked around and found this hotel in Akosombo called Afrikiko. She looked it up online and it looked beautiful and it had gotten good reviews from friends here who have been there. I enthusiastically said "Yes!" when she asked if I thought it would be a nice place to stay when her mom came and everything made it seem like this was going to be a great getaway from the city life here in East Legon. So, Amanda booked a room for us and we got up and found our tro-tro to Akosombo this morning. When we got there, the place was beautiful. It's up north a bit and on the river and it was quiet and peaceful. However, the moment we stepped in to the reception area we knew this was going to be a totally Ghanaian place and experience. The room was nice enough even though I knew I'd be wearing my flip flops in to the shower and there were no towels to be seen and the TV was pretty small and only had 4 channels and they had yet to bring us the extra mattress for me to sleep on - I mean, there at least was an air conditioner. However, not more than 5 minutes after we were shown to our room and we were settling in, what happened? The power went out. Nice to see you, too, Akosombo! We were determined to make the best of it and changed in to our swimsuits and headed out to explore a bit and relax by the pool. Like I said, this place was really very pretty and had so much potential to be a great getaway. Where Afrikiko went wrong is in the details. Like not providing enough chairs around the pool, especially chairs with cushions and that weren't broken. Okay, we can deal with that. Let's put on our sunscreen and just take our towel and go lie on the concrete right next to the pool. Five minutes later the pool is swarmed with loud and obnoxious women. Joyce and I decide that it is in fact NOT rude for us to get up and move to the other side of the pool away from these women. Soon it becomes apparent that there is no getting away from these people because they're multiplying and the pool has become overrun with loud, screaming people. The three of us retreat back to the room and decide that it's just time to go. When we got back to the room they had brought the mattress for us and nonchalantly tossed it into the room with some sheets. Uh, thanks. Even after a two hour tro-tro ride there, it still sounded like a better option to get the heck out of there and take another two hour tro-tro ride home than be there any longer. We haven't regretted the decision since! The things I tried to describe above probably sound like no big deal to most of you reading this - guess you just have to live in Ghana and experience it to really understand.

Amanda and I running away from our room!

And here I sit now, in the relative comfort of my living room. Never have I been so thankful for East Legon and this house :-)


It's been a good start to spring break!

No light yet at the end of this long tunnel

All I want to do is climb on a plane and fly home. Is that too much to ask?

My time in Ghana has been filled with the highest highs and the lowest lows. When things are good in Ghana - they're great and full of laughter and so much fun! But when things are bad in Ghana - Ghana roundhouse kicks you to the face and then steps on your chest to make sure you aren't getting back up for a while.

What is it about us humans that makes it so much easier to focus on only the bad? What is it about us humans that makes us WANT to focus on the bad instead of the good around us? What IS that? Who wants to be miserable? Me, apparently.

I've just been so intensely discouraged at school lately and I don't know what to do about it. I know that any problems in the classroom originate with the teacher and that it's my fault what's happening and it's up to me to fix it - but I'm lost. All I see around me are students who don't care and want everything the easy way. They just want the answer and care nothing about learning the information. No matter how much practice I give these students, no matter how many worksheets, no matter how much reading, no matter how many problems I solve on the board in class - nothing I do is ever enough for these students. On almost every quiz and test some of my students have taken this semester, a certain fill-in-the-blank section has been included. They've seen these almost exact questions several times. Just glancing through a test these students took shows that several of the students are STILL MISSING THE QUESTIONS. Even after I remind the students to study their previous quizzes and tests. Even after I mark their questions wrong. I don't understand what to do. Then this morning I walked in to class to things like, "Miss Lyle, you're wrong! You gave us a wrong answer. You made a mistake! Hahaha." I had already been alerted to the mistake yesterday by one of the students but by that point class was over and I didn't have a chance to fix it. Yes, I made a mistake and no, I don't have any problems with admitting that because I did make a mistake. I told the class that yes, I made a mistake in the calculation because I used the wrong value for one of the variables and I gave them the new, correct answer. What am I doing that makes these students approach me in this way? WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?

Some of my students hate asking me questions. "Why?" you might wonder. Because I never give a straight out answer. I usually always ask them another question to try and help them figure out the answer for themselves. How can it be bad that I want to try and enable them to think for themselves? Almost always they ask me questions they can figure out for themselves if they would take me seriously when I ask them to think. Half of learning science is learning a new way to think in a problem solving way. I try to help my students learn that but I just feel like I'm beating my head against a brick wall. I guess I can't force people to learn if they just don't want to.

Okay, seriously. Just caught a student drawing on their desk. I told them that they will serve lunch detention and they told me that they didn't know it was wrong to write on the desk...

.............

Um, too bad?



I feel like I do so much for these students and all I get back is... well, not much some days. Granted - some days are really good and I get to laugh and joke with my students and have fun while getting done what we need to get done. But then other days... I'm sure I'm not alone in this and I'm sure it's much the same in schools all across the world - and no, that doesn't make me feel any better. And maybe I'm just having an exceptionally bad day and that's all it is, I don't know. All I know is that my students don't listen to a darn thing I say and then blame me when they miss something. I'm tired of being blamed. I'm tired of taking responsibility.

What am I doing to cause this behavior? What should I be doing instead? What should I stop doing? I didn't come to Africa to yell at students all day.

I need prayer. Prayer for my attitude and behavior. Prayer that I would be completely surrendered to God and the working of His Holy Spirit in my life. I can't fix or change any of this.

I can't do it.

But I know One who can. I serve a God who is mightier than all of this. Who knows exactly what I'm feeling and what I'm going through right now. He also knows exactly what my students are feeling and going through. Pray for my students. Pray that I would be sensitive to what they need. Pray that I would be open to a new direction for my classroom if that's what it takes.

Please help me to bathe this situation in prayer.

I've been trying to hold on to it and do it myself for too long. All God is asking of me is to surrender it to Him. He knows what to do with it. He knows the right course, the right words, the right everything. I'm supposed to be in Ghana working for Him anyway, so why do I try to hold on to what's rightfully His with such a strong grip? WHY???

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7

If I'm not submitted to God, does that mean I'm serving the world - the devil? If I'm not totally submitted to God and serving Him... then what am I serving? My own agenda?

At the end of my time in Ghana, I want so much to be able to say what Paul said in 2 Timothy, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." When I finish here in Ghana I want to be able to say that I did something good for the Kingdom here. That I kept my faith and submission to God above all else and shared it with others - my students. I want to finish well.

Please pray for my students and I as we struggle through this.


Thanks for letting me ramble and work through this. Sometimes I just need what's in my head to spill out to get it organized.

Leaving Ghana 9 weeks from tomorrow.