As I sit here in the backyard of my suburban house in Courtice, listening to the song of an obnoxiously loud cricket and gazing at the tiny stars of Cygnus that are peaking out in the blackness above me, it is hard to believe that in 24 hours I will, Lord willing, be within a few minutes of take off for a new continent. It has been a whirlwind couple days as I came home on Monday from my summer in Hamilton, saw my brother (who I wasn't expecting to see until Christmas), spent time with family, unpacked, re-packed, bought, organized, yada yada, and tried to find some time alone to prepare my heart and mind for what is about to happen.
There have been emails sent back and forth about baggage allowance, money, plans for the weekend, etc., but the most interesting thing that sticks out for me in all the chatter is the fact that we are going to be met at the airport in Ghana by soldiers! We have connections to a colonel in the Ghanaian army who will be sending soldiers to meet us and escort us through customs and immigration quickly and easily and then bring us through to our ride. What a way to enter Africa! We'll be spending this weekend in Accra, the capital of Ghana, getting acquainted with our contacts there and drinking in the first few days of life in Africa before we head north up to Asamankese on Sunday night.
A few of you have been asking about my address for Ghana. Here it is:
Cheryl Ritskes
P.O. Box 180
Asamankese, Ghana
As much as I love snail mail (who doesn't?!), I also love prayer and if my travels last semester in Europe taught me anything, it's that the prayers of those back home make a WORLD of difference! So if you can spare a couple minutes with our heavenly Father for me, please pray that our transition into Ghanaian life will go smoothly and that all the kinks and uncertainties will be ironed out before us. I know that God goes before us and with us into Ghana...thankfully, or else we'd be lost.
Some of you know that I love the Lord of the Rings movies ... which includes The Hobbit. At the beginning of the movie, as Bilbo leaves his comfortable hobbit hole and the conveniences of home and embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to lands he's never before seen, dear, wise Gandolf tells him one of my favourite lines in the movie:
"Home is now behind you. The world is ahead."
And doesn't that ring true. In just over 24 hours, home (wherever and whatever that really is - whether Courtice or Hamilton or whatever) will be behind me and life's adventures in the whole, wide world will be ahead. I'm looking forward to seeing what chapter 1 will entail.
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Monday, 19 August 2013
"I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected..."
When I was around 8 or 9 years old, I went to VBS at my church in Courtice. It was Space themed with spaceships and cool lights everywhere! But one of my most memorable moments from that VBS was when I was chosen to dance on stage with a ribbon wand while we sang "Down in Africa", a song sung by the Children's Choir in Zimbabwe. Maybe that's what sparked my desire to go to Africa and to see the smiling faces, bright sun and dusty roads that the song talked about.
12-13 years later, I am now within a couple weeks of boarding a plane headed to Ghana, Africa! It honestly is a dream come true. There have been very few times that I have been as excited as I was when I received the email in December saying that I had been selected to be an intern in Ghana for the fall 2013 semester.
So what am I actually doing in Ghana?
Myself and two other interns (Karen and Steph) will be traveling to a village called Asamankese, about an hour north of Accra (the capital city of Ghana) to live there for 3 months - 99 days. (Not that I'm counting down how many days we have there, but I had to know how many malaria pills to buy.) In Asamankese, we will be teaching in the kindergarten classes and we will be tutors to the business women who will be coming to learn literacy and business skills.
I'm staking a lot on this semester in Ghana. Since I was about 12 or 13, I've imagined myself and tried to prepare myself for going into the mission field in Africa. I'm just drawn to that continent, though I have yet to ever step foot on African soil. The name, "Africa" is full of excitement and opportunity and community and love, in my opinion, and my heart starts to beat just a tad faster when I hear that word. Many missions organizations/countries require you to have a degree in something other than religion/ministry in order to work abroad as a missionary, so I'm in the Education program at Redeemer. Recently I have begun to wonder if teaching is actually what God wants me to do with my life. Is overseas missions even something I'm called to do, or am I supposed to stay in Canada and be in church ministry here? In my conversations with God about this in the past couple months, all that I hear from Him in regards to my future is, "You don't need to know yet." Okay, God. But can You please use this semester as I teach in Africa to answer some of my questions?
So am I nervous, you ask? Are you prepared? Bit of a back story to this semester: I came back from a semester abroad in Paris, France in June and I breathed a sigh of relief to be back. It was a really tough semester over in France, for various reasons, and I was so glad to be back in Hamilton for this summer to collect myself and just enjoy being home. Until about a week ago, I didn't want to leave again. I have been packing up and moving at least every 4 months (sometimes far more often than that - for a total of 15 times) for the past 3 years and I just really wish that I could stay in one pace for awhile and call that home. So when I came back from Paris, I kept pushing the prospect of Ghana out of my mind, saying that I would start to think about it later and just enjoy being in Canada for awhile. In the past couple weeks, I finally did the online training for my Ghanaian internship and finally started talking to past interns about their experiences and trying to wrap my head around the fact that my age-old dream is coming true.
Am I nervous? No. Am I prepared? Is is really possible to be prepared? I'm excited. I'm willing to learn. I'm longing to see my dreams become a reality. I'm trying to keep myself open to what God wants to do in and through me down in Africa.
12-13 years later, I am now within a couple weeks of boarding a plane headed to Ghana, Africa! It honestly is a dream come true. There have been very few times that I have been as excited as I was when I received the email in December saying that I had been selected to be an intern in Ghana for the fall 2013 semester.
So what am I actually doing in Ghana?
Myself and two other interns (Karen and Steph) will be traveling to a village called Asamankese, about an hour north of Accra (the capital city of Ghana) to live there for 3 months - 99 days. (Not that I'm counting down how many days we have there, but I had to know how many malaria pills to buy.) In Asamankese, we will be teaching in the kindergarten classes and we will be tutors to the business women who will be coming to learn literacy and business skills.
I'm staking a lot on this semester in Ghana. Since I was about 12 or 13, I've imagined myself and tried to prepare myself for going into the mission field in Africa. I'm just drawn to that continent, though I have yet to ever step foot on African soil. The name, "Africa" is full of excitement and opportunity and community and love, in my opinion, and my heart starts to beat just a tad faster when I hear that word. Many missions organizations/countries require you to have a degree in something other than religion/ministry in order to work abroad as a missionary, so I'm in the Education program at Redeemer. Recently I have begun to wonder if teaching is actually what God wants me to do with my life. Is overseas missions even something I'm called to do, or am I supposed to stay in Canada and be in church ministry here? In my conversations with God about this in the past couple months, all that I hear from Him in regards to my future is, "You don't need to know yet." Okay, God. But can You please use this semester as I teach in Africa to answer some of my questions?
So am I nervous, you ask? Are you prepared? Bit of a back story to this semester: I came back from a semester abroad in Paris, France in June and I breathed a sigh of relief to be back. It was a really tough semester over in France, for various reasons, and I was so glad to be back in Hamilton for this summer to collect myself and just enjoy being home. Until about a week ago, I didn't want to leave again. I have been packing up and moving at least every 4 months (sometimes far more often than that - for a total of 15 times) for the past 3 years and I just really wish that I could stay in one pace for awhile and call that home. So when I came back from Paris, I kept pushing the prospect of Ghana out of my mind, saying that I would start to think about it later and just enjoy being in Canada for awhile. In the past couple weeks, I finally did the online training for my Ghanaian internship and finally started talking to past interns about their experiences and trying to wrap my head around the fact that my age-old dream is coming true.
Am I nervous? No. Am I prepared? Is is really possible to be prepared? I'm excited. I'm willing to learn. I'm longing to see my dreams become a reality. I'm trying to keep myself open to what God wants to do in and through me down in Africa.
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