Thanks!

These books, puzzles. curricula and school supplies are just a tiny little sliver of the donations I have received to send to Ghana! I just ordered about 40 classic novels and science books from betterworldbooks.com and have several items to pick up from church. We might even be able to buy more depending on how shipping works out! And word on the street is that I have a few more items coming my way from my sweet neighbor who is a teacher. All of these resources are going to go to The Village of Life to help increase literacy and increase their access to knowledge. It is a fun and beautiful thing watching it unfold. Thank you Temple Baptist Church and friends and family for helping to gather so many special resources for our kids in Ghana. I very much look forward to sharing with you about how these resources will be used at The Village of Life.

More on Education

What can I say... it's been on my mind lately. I have a 5 year old who is about to start Kindergarten. Five is about the age that children are bought from their families and taken to work on Lake Volta in Ghana. They aren't gearing up for their last summer adventure to see their first cubs game like my 5 year old is. They aren't buying nice shiny shoes, or pink and purple shirts (my son has pretty epic style), they don't get to have a bag to carry all their school supplies to school in. They are not guaranteed 1-2 hot, nutritious meals a day like my son will have at his school. There will be no tutors to help them learn to read or learn English (Ghana's national language). No one to make sure they have the resources they need to learn and grow into healthy men. 7,000-10,000 little boys on Lake Volta with no hope of a future. No education, no food, no clothes, no rest, no shelter, no family. 16 hr work days and maybe one meager meal a day. Boat oar beatings if they don't listen or get out of line. Little boys as young as my son, drowning in a lake after being forced to dive down 25 feet into the lake and untangle fishing nets from the trees below the water. These are the boys and there are thousands of girls with the same plight but different jobs. Beautiful little people forced into domestic servitude at young ages and on down the road into sexual servitude. Hope broken and lost and deprived of everything their lake brothers are deprived of. Utterly heartbreaking.

I often times think about what God wants for children... because I have a heart for children. I have known since I was 12 that I would work with children. Not only that I would work with children but that I would work with children that many people seem to note as "difficult". My aspirations have been to be a special education teacher, a child advocate, a child life specialist. I have always wanted to work with special needs children or children in the system or children who are ill or just children who didn't seem to get a fair shake at life. I was that child and I dearly love those children. So God puts it on my heart constantly... what does God want for children?

I can assure you that it isn't this:

photo from the touch of life foundation

or this:

It looks more like this:

Yes... this is the same boy as above after being rescued from Lake Volta and being taken to The Village of Hope (a sister orphanage of The Village of Life)- photo credit TOL foundation

and this:

Photo Credit TOL foundation

I want all of the children in Ghana to look like my son on his first day of school. Happy and excited and full of hope for his future. Please join us in making that a reality for the children on Lake Volta. Help advocate for the trafficked child. Help us raise the funds to build the new school for The Village of life and help us get to Ghana so that we can be God's hands and feet to show these children the love that God has for them.

Education

Girl in school_Ghana, a photo by Join Up! on Flickr.

When I think about meeting the needs of the children in Ghana the most important and influential immediate (physical and tangible...) need I can think of is Education! Sure all children need food and water and shelter and love. I absolutely think those things are primal needs for healthy lives. But what I am concerned with is changing a system that locks kids away from their childhoods. A system of work that enslaves children. If we can fight THAT system that is embedded in poverty then we will likely have well loved and well fed children. And the key to fighting a system that is intertwined with poverty is education. It is universal. That is how you fight it here in the US and how you fight it in Africa. 

When we go to Ghana in November, we will be working hard on bringing education to children. The idea is that these children are going to be the future business men and women of their nation. The future doctors and nurses and leaders. That is why building another school building at The Village of Life is of great importance! This will allow more children to be rescued off of the lake and given a formal education. An education that will allow them to employ moral business practices and to advocate for children as they turn into young men and women. 

We are also going to continue to work on educating the slave masters that own the sweet children on Lake Volta. Praying that peaceful attempts at educating these men and Gods movement in their lives will start to change the hearts and minds of the people who buy and use children in their fishing businesses. 

Please be a part of this! It is how we will help this region in Ghana change. It isn't a hand out at all... it is educating them and providing them with the skills necessary to go on to be honest and  moral business men and leaders in the future. Now that is a powerful goal! Please donate to the school if you can. Every single dollar will help. $30,000 is what it takes to  build this new school. That is nothing when you look at the school buildings our children go to in the US. NOTHING. We can do this. We can raise $30,000 to give beautiful children a family and education. We can raise that money to have a place for FORMER slave owners to take business classes or learn new skills so they can run an honest business that violates no ones rights. Get the word out. Donate whatever you can. If all of my friends donated just $10 we would be WELL on our way to building a new school in Kete-Krachi for rescued children. We would be WELL on our way to helping to transform a huge region of a country through empowering them and educating them. It is quite amazing when you think about it all. I truly believe that we can all take part of being the hands and feet of God in this. God has a heart for children and wants us to fight for their rights. I hope you can take part in this journey with us.