Ghana has been everything and more I thought Africa would be. As we are closing out our last week here, I find it extremely hard to leave because it has been so easy to do life here.
We are in the bush of Africa and are surrounded by mountains called the Shia Hills. It’s mostly hot and humid, but it rains nearly everyday which brings in a lovely cool evening breeze. Cold showers are a gift from heaven and I forget I have known anything different. Laughter is the predominant language spoken, shortly followed by English and then Twi as well as other local dialects. With the roosteres right outside our room windows, mornings start at 5 am and end around 9 or 10 pm. Even though I am exhausted and my feet and legs are covered in bug bites, my heart is full of joy. Ghana will forever be engraved in my heart.
We have been working with an organization called CORM (City of Regfuge Ministries) that works to prevent and rescue those who have been in or are susceptible to human trafficking. We have lived on campus at what they call the Children’s village. This is where they house many of the children that have been rescued. My team and I sleep on bunkbeds and a fan keeps us fairly cool during the night. We fetch our water a couple of times a day at the water purifier. Sounds of laughter and children echo throughout the campus all day. Every evening we gather together outside at a long table and we have dinner together as the sun sets. From the moment my team and I arrived, we have felt such peace and right at home. Family is a priority and belonging to the Heavenly Father is their lifestyle.
Monday through Friday I teach first grade at the school with the local teacher, Sir Edmond. We have a class of 12 students, 10 of them being boys. This means there is never a dull moment and I often loose my patience while trying to teach them about shapes or the creation story as they make fun of my accent. They make up for it during reading time though as they plead with me, “Auntie Mallorie pllleeeaassse. We are begging you! Read to us a story!” They know I can’t say no, which I am sure has caused an ample amount of chaos for Sir Edmond’s class while I have been here. Joy spills over my heart as I walk into school, as I am swarmeed by hugs and sweet smiles and giggles. Everyone calls me Auntie Mallorie; sometimes Auntie Malaria when they are being especially ornery. When school is over we come home and play with the kids some more. We help with homework, play with them on the playground, play soccer, and help with orchestrating the church children’s day activities–Happening October 2nd where the kids will lead the church service. Friday nights we have movie night outside with popccorn and sweet snuggles from the kids. We have watched Smurfs, Space Jams, Parent trap, and their favorite, Mr. Poppers Penguins. Weekends we have gone and explored Ghana in all its beauty, but have eagerly wanted to return home to our precious kids. Sundays we have church together with all of the kids and staff. There is of course lots of dancing and afterwards everyone rests to prepare for the next week.
When our team first arrived, we asked the Lord what He wanted to teach us this month, and I heard the Lord say, “Freedom is fun.”
I thought that meant freedom would feel good.
Truth is, Freedom is actually really uncomfortable.
When we experience true release from bondage and the ancient chains fall, yes a weight is lifted, but where shame, guilt, and self hatred once resided, is now this unfamiliar lightness. We’ve become comfortable with the stuffiness of what actually separates us from God, and now that it is gone, we feel naked and an eagerness to fill the beautiful void. So we welcome shame back in, and he buries his home deeper than before. Shame became my comfort as he made his warm nest deep in the roots of my heart. How gross. So daily I have been fighting and wrestling to break free from my own prison. I’ve been striving for freedom that the Lord has already given me.
As I stop wrestling, breathless from the constant waging, I look around and see the chains have already fallen. They’ve been unhinged for some time now. This whole time I have been fighting what I think I deserve. Actually pushing freedom away.
I hear the father whisper, “You see my love, you’ve been free this whole time. Now trust me and fly.”
We have to choose freedom. We have to choose to live uncomfortably in God’s love. The more we do, the more easy it will become for us to live freely in Christ. Freedom is going to cost something. It’s going to cost being uncomfortable.
But the thing about freedom, is it’s fun. Seeing that truth the Lord whispered in my ear at the beginning of the month unfold while being in Ghana has been beautiful. He taught me through the children here who don’t take life so seriously and live each moment to its fullest. He taught me through my teammates as we laughed at the simple things like the amount of bread we had eaten or the reality of our laundry smelling soured from the rain. He showed me to have fun as we danced crazy to the banana song and as we performed funny skits for the kids. This month we have laughed alot and have mostly learned to be children again, enjoying life in all its simplicity.
Freedom is fun.
So have fun my beloved, and be free.
