Sierra Leone

This summer, I will be going with seven other teachers to the West African Country of Sierra Leone.

I made my decision to go back in November but have not blogged about it previously. There really hasn't been a good reason... I guess it is just such a big thing for me that I am going, and I wanted to write a post that did it justice. Finally after spending some really good time working on prep for my trip today, I've decided to go ahead and just write about it...

I am going to SL through the organization Children of the Nations (COTN) which seeks to empower national teachers to be Christian leaders in their respective countries. My dear friend Sarah spent a year (06 -07) in SL training teachers and working with the children. Her desire was to lead a team of teachers back in order to train the national teachers in practical teaching strategies, and this has become a reality. We are a team of eight, including four of us who are all JBU education grads. It is neat to see in a tangible way how our time spent growing as Christians in college is continuing even after graduation.

For three weeks in June, we will be conducting inservices with the national teachers and working with the children. I will be conducting inservices about the steps of teaching reading- something near and dear to my heart.

My thoughts and feelings.... I am so excited to go and to learn from my brothers and sisters in Christ, to share my faith through relationships, and to be used by God through the talents/gifts He has blessed me with. I am also afraid that our team will fail to be a blessing or that we will allow our Western arrogance to get in the way of ministry. And, I am still doing a lot of thinking!

I would love for you to pray for Sierra Leone, our team, and specifically myself:
- That we will learn from the people of Sierra Leone, and that they can learn from us.
- That God would be working in all of our hearts- calling us to Himself and refining us to be more like Him.
- For safety
- For unity
- For clarity in our inservices- that God would use us to meet their need.

There. I blogged about it. Now you know.

More posts to come...