Mr. J's Class and the Wonderful Waterfall

Well, school finished up two weeks ago, and two weeks ago to this day, I took my class on our last class trip. We went to Kintampo, about 3 and 1/2 hours from Kumasi, to enjoy one of the wonders of God's Creation there--- Fuller Falls. It was a lot of fun. I won't say much more, as thinking about it makes me sad (saying goodbye is oh-so-hard), but will let the pictures say the rest. Enjoy!

Thought for the Day- Reaching Out With Facebook

Hi, this is Jeremiah, and I'd like to share with you a "Thought for the Day."

Chances are, if you have internet access, you may have a Facebook account. I read recently on a Yahoo! article (don't remember which one so no citation, sorry) that there are 700 million Facebook subscribers, which is something like one out of every ten people on the planet. That's incredible, especially when you consider that there are billions of people with little or no internet access. If Facebook was a country, it would be the third most populous country in the world. See, as I missionary, I am looking at Facebook and I am thinking, "Wow! What a mission field!"

Facebook is also a force of society. The thing about pretty much any force is, depending on how and in what direction it is applied, force can be productive, or very destructive. Facebook is no exception. There is a huge potential for the Lord on Facebook but also a huge potential to destroy the Lord's work on Facebook. Today I want to encourage you to turn your Facebook account into a powerful outreach opportunity. Here are a few things we (and I am talking to myself here as well, make no mistake) could maybe bear in mind, to reach out on Facebook (or any social network for that matter).

1- Don't--- Don't destroy your testimony on Facebook. It saddens me to see many young people especially, who are in the church, destroying their testimony and even that of their church and family through their foolish behavior on Facebook, posting links that are inappropriate, putting up pictures that are shameful, liking things that are ungodly and so forth. Facebook means your Face is out there and especially when you are a Christian or in the church, people are looking at your activity on Facebook with a magnifying lens. Let's not give people a reason to disbelieve. You might say "that's hypocritical" but really, all we're talking about is living a Christian life... if you're doing that, you won't HAVE anything that you shouldn't post.

2- Do- Always try and leave some light out there, every time you get on Facebook. You might say, "I'm just checking for notifications on my phone." To which I ask... why? I mean, we can burn so much time on Facebook and other social media, doing nothing more than seeing what people say about us, preening basically. I know this. I was in college when Facebook first came out. Marist was one of the earlier schools to get Facebook. I remember people (myself even) checking their Facebook time and time again. That is, to be brutal, pretty narcissistic...http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=5887520&page=1 is an article among many which points this out. If we've got time to get on Facebook, I say we have time to leave some Light... an encouraging comment, a like of something uplifting, a link to something good.

One of the amazing things about Facebook is that there are so many ways you could reach out through Facebook... you could lift up a struggling friend, make a comment which will lead to a spiritual discussion, post a picture which will provoke discussion or thought, link to a Bible study website, put up a video that is powerful and so many more. It's just wating for creative Christians and tech savvies to reach the world.

Don't get me wrong... I have no problem with you putting up pictures of your kids, having a funny status or so forth. Facebook can be a lot of fun, but lets also realize that it's also a MASSIVE mission field. Facebook in some ways "just happened" to a lot of us. A friend invited us to something we didn't know much about, we got on and got involved in a pretty haphazard way. I know that was the case with me as a college student. What I'm calling for is for us to be conscious Facebook users. It has happened, and it's time we the Saint's make it a force for God. Some of you are already doing this... keep on brothers and sisters. In closing, I ask, "What's the point of connecting with people if it doesn't also help them connect with God?" That's my thought for the day. God bless.

Jeremiah

Hit up the comments with some ideas/ways to reach out with Facebook!

Staff Versus Students Basketball Game!

     Basketball is one of my favorite sports. Jeremiah coached the boys and the girls with my assistance this basketball season. It was neat watching the kids develop many skills that will help them in their Christian walk. They learned how to work as a team, be mentally tough, perservere, etc. "...I discipline my body and make it my slave.." Read 1Cor.9:24-27!
     Near the end of the season we got to play a friendly Bomso Beacon staff versus students game. The staff guys' and girls' teams both won this year! The staff girls were Brittney Hostetter (me), Gloria Wonder, Laura Judd, Margaret Nanu, and Jenny Judd. Because there were just 5 of us staff ladies, and we played full court, we set up a zone defense and on offense we all managed to score at least one basket. The students did a great job too, especially considering one of their starting players wasn't able to play due to an eye injury.
     We pray that as the students are being trained in school, sports, Bible studies, etc they will develop their character and do great things for Him!

Daughters of Dorcas

     I always enjoy having the Daughters of Dorcas meetings with a group of  young ladies that want to please God. It's a time to talk about how women can glorify God, learn how to bake or cook new things, talk about appropriate dressing, how to encourage others, tea parties, sleep overs, sowing, helping other families and so forth. Our last meeting the young ladies had the oppurunity to listen to Laura Judd, 20, as she was our guest speaker.

     Laura talked with the ladies about the 5 love languages. It was really neat because she un-intentionally showed us the 5 love languages in the meeting by giving us hugs (touch). She gave us pencils and cards (gifts). Then she spent time with us talking about the different qualities of ladies (quality time.) She said encouraging things about the young ladies (words of affirmation). And she washed our feet with a sweet smelling soap of our choice (acts of service). We thank you Laura for your encouragement and good example.

     Laura also talked about and had the young ladies talk about a few women they look up to. Most of the ladies said they look up to their mom's! What a wonderful thing it is to have your children rise up and call you blessed! Proverbs 31. Who do you look up to? :-)

Thought for the Day- Faith Matters

Short thought I wanted to share with you.

Faith matters. Not matters of faith, but rather, faith is pretty important. I know I'm stating the obvious, but the other day, as I was doing a Bible Study with my friend Father/Lazarus (two names), we were discussing the Garden of Eden, and that if not for Satan, Adam and Eve might never have sinned. This got me to thinking... what was it that Satan did to tempt Eve? If you look at it, you realize that Satan's main thrust was to attack faith. He challenged who God is, and challenged that what He said would happen, would not. He claimed that God didn't really want the best for Adam and Eve but that He was just worried about His own power and position. He also claimed, contrary to what God had said, or promised if you will, that those who ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would NOT die. Satan attacked Eve's faith in God, and without this to bolster her up, seeing that the fruit looked tasty and that it could make her "wise," out of a lack of faith she succumbed to temptation and the rest is the sin-filled history of mankind.

Now, you and I don't have a serpent sitting in a tree attacking our faith, but the core of the struggle against sin, against ourselves and against this world remains essentially the same. Hebrews 11:6 says that those who come to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. In other words, if we are to please God, we've got to do the opposite of what Eve did- we've got to believe in who God is, and we've got to believe that He rewards those who seek Him, He does what He says He will do.

This is why I'm saying that faith matters, because it's what Satan chose to attack with his opening salvo. In the Civil War, the most dangerous job was to be a Captain, a Major, or a Colonel- to lead your troops in battle. Why? Because you were the first target! Same thing in Vietnam... you didn't want to be the Lieutenant, because they were the first guys targetted. Enemies attack the most important targets first. Satan attacked Eve's faith, because he obviously knew what this is all about, that it all comes down to faith. Do we? That's my thought for the day. God bless.

Zoo Pictures!

An African Adventure

"O Lord, how many are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; The earth is full of your posessions. There is the sea, great and broad, In which are swarms without number, Animals both small and great." Psalm 104:24-25

After completeing the Learning to Read program I took my students as well as, Zion, Miss Laura, and one of her students to the zoo. What a time we had! The students were able to see many of the animals they learned about in school and more.

There was a fruit stand set up for people to buy food for the animals. The kids really enjoyed feeding the monkeys and peacocks bananas...yes, I said peacocks! I never knew peacocks ate bananas. Two of the peacocks jumped (or flew) right over Zions head missing him by just an inch. Zion ran away as he screamed and laughed. One peacock even spread out his feathers and did the boogy dance for a peahen.
On the way to see the monkeys we saw a water snake in the gutter...the zoo is kind of in a forested area so some of the animals were not in cages. We saw a momma chimpanzee with her cute litte baby (in a cage!) and gave them a banana. Before we knew it the papa came running over and took the banana from the momma and ate it and gave the momma the peeling back! The kids were quite upset because he took food from a nursing momma so they (the brave ones) decided to try and give another banana. Then...the papa spit a huge mouth full of water on us all, Laura's glasses were covered with water/chimp spit. As we and the kids were running from this the papa picked up it's poo and threw it at us!! Thankfully we were already in the running process so it landed just behind us. And then he started doing backflips and head stands. What a goof. We also got to play with a lively mona monkey. One of my students said monkeys are like human beings. So, I got to talk with him about how God made PEOPLE in His image and explained some of the ways how we are different from animals.

We also got to see camels, ostriches, hyenas, lions, birds, crocodiles, civits etc. We all had alot of fun on our African adventure at the zoo!