Other than monetary donations for our August projects, we will also be collecting tangible items again as well. Before I list those out, I think it is important to note a few things….
Handing out material items to the impoverished does nothing to alleviate the poverty cycle that the country of Ghana and much of Africa has found itself in. Poverty in and of itself is quite complex, with deep, long-standing issues. As Richard Stearns notes in his book, The Hole in Our Gospel: poverty is not just the absence of things (good food, medicine, better houses, clean water wells, adequate clothing, agricultural tools, etc.). Rather, poverty’s root causes stem from injustices (corruption, exploitation, manipulation) and lack of opportunity. These two underlying factors lead to the visible effects of poverty as we know it. In order to take stabs at alleviating poverty, these issues must be addressed. This is the basis for our foundation’s interest in creating the student hosting program (creates opportunities for Ghana’s youth), helping to enhance the village government school (allows equal opportunity to educational resources in a free education setting), building the medical clinic (good health = higher school attendance, higher work productivity, less disease epidemics, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, etc.) and there are partnerships in the works that will allow our foundation to have a bigger part in aiding Ghana adoptions in the near future (creates opportunities and stands up against injustices all in one shot!).
That being said, as you’ve seen on my blog posts our foundation does hand out material items on our trips….books, clothes, shoes, food, etc. And let me share our motivation. We believe that meeting the basic needs of the impoverished is a way to allow Christ’s love and compassion to be manifested through us. When the first initial contact between us and another human is to meet one of their needs, a bond is created. As if it weren’t enough that this was beautifully displayed time and again during our recent trip, this also hit home for me recently. Justice and I reached the point last week where we sat down for a heart-to-heart talk. I asked him, “Why was your life in Ghana so hard?” He could barely choke out these words as tears streamed down his face: “We didn’t have food to eat. We didn’t have clean water to drink. And we didn’t have clothes to wear.” Those were the first things that rolled off his tongue…I was, for the first time, listening to his heart…spilled open. Not having those basic needs met had punctured his life….and he still carries those sorrows and memories in his heart. So no, handing someone a package of tunafish is not going to take away their poverty. But, you can hopefully see that handing out ‘things’ can be a very meaningful and compassionate gesture. And over and over again scripture shows us that God can use these acts to showcase Jesus’ love through us (2 Corinthians 9:6-15, 1 John 3:16-18, James 2:15-17, Isaiah 58:6-11, etc.)
However, meeting basic needs should not be where it ends. In fact, the whole point of us wanting to create this initial bond is because it paves the way for relationships. Creating relationships with the people is a primary goal of our non-profit foundation in Ghana. How will we learn the assets, gifts, and talents that this community has if we don’t have a relationship with them? As Jake says, it is important to know their needs and weaknesses, but it is MORE important to understand this community’s strengths so that we can help to develop them. We can’t just come in and build a bunch of stuff and give them a bunch of stuff and then leave. We also can’t come in and expect to put everything in order as it runs in America. That just won’t work here. Long-standing relationships and partnerships must be a high priority.
Hopefully this gives at least a small glance into the reasoning of our foundation’s hand outs. Here is the list of items we will be collecting. If you would like to donate any of these, just get them to Jake or I in person, or ship them to the Huxley address listed on my side bar. Post any questions in comments section on this post and I will answer there. Thanks!
General:
-Flat pack tunafish (not in can)
-Shoes, sandals, flip flops (gently used or new; all sizes)
-toddler and youth sized clothes
-buttons and thread (for sewing shops)
Medical clinic needs:
-equipment & supplies
-newborn baby clothes (onesies/outfits to send newborns home in)
School needs:
-books for library (all types, all levels, in English)
-notebooks
-pencils and sharpeners
-chalk for teachers
-laptop computers
Always greeted with smiles:
-soccer balls (deflated for packing)
-soccer cleats
I am also collecting gently used or new pillow cases and men’s dress/button up shirts that a team of gals will be sewing into sundresses for the girls of Asikuma.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Asikuma Projects: Phase I
Phase I in August will involve 2 main construction projects in the village of Asikuma, and one smaller side-project for the community. We arrived at the main projects because of these factors:
1) The need for them is CLEAR.
2) At this time, they are the MOST needed.
3) Completion of these projects will allow us to have the greatest immediate impact on the community.
MAIN PROJECT 1: Medical Clinic
As I eluded to in this post, one of our two main construction projects for August will be renovating this currently standing building into a medical clinic. We will also add on a small area to the clinic that the doctor will utilize as his housing unit. As mentioned in my other post, the medical clinic will have 4 basic parts: a waiting room, 1 room to see patients, 1 room designated as a birthing area, and then the doctor’s onsite housing.
MAIN PROJECT 2: Library and additional classroom
We will be adding onto the current building of Asikuma Presbyterian Primary School to create an additional classroom (20x25ft) and an additional space which will be utilized as a library (20x25ft). To read more about this school and why these two pieces are needed, click here. To give you a visual, the library will look similar to this:
SIDE PROJECT: Completion of linguist’s house.
There is a man in Asikuma who holds a high position within the community named as the chairman/linguist. His housing unit needs some work and we have identified him to receive a little upgrade (I suppose you could think of it as Extreme Home Makeover ~ Ghana Style!). In August we will help to finish off his house which will be a nice gesture showing that we are coming to be a part of this community.
FUTURE PROJECTS:
There are many other projects that we have identified for the village of Asikuma that could be completed over time – God willing. The entire goal is to pave the way to create a full economy in Asikuma. A major, major piece of that will be helping Asikuma with farming. This will be a high priority for Phase II projects, and we are currently rounding up some great people to help with that….good thing we live in Iowa where farmers are everywhere! There are more things we want to do with the school as well, but the library/classroom will be a perfect first step. For the August trip we are also hoping to hold a few teaching seminars in which we can bring some American teachers on board to help train their teaching staff. This was one area that was identified as a high need – we need to come alongside the teachers and help them to know how to run classrooms more effectively. It’s also been in my heart to figure out a child sponsorship program. I want to be able to identify children who need financial assistance and match them with families in the U.S. who can provide for them (school fees, clothing, food, etc). I am just not sure how to get from point A to point B. Need some more time to figure that out. And of course, eventually somewhere down the line we hope to convert those 4 other buildings behind the medical clinic into a children’s haven. We’ve learned over the course of time that social welfare in Ghana is sort of the go-between for identifying orphaned children and placing them in an orphanage setting. We will need to create relationships with social welfare so that children would be referred to our children’s haven.
BUILDING MATERIALS:
Okay, so, in Ghana, every building is pretty much constructed from these:
Cement blocks. These blocks are formed using a block making machine that looks like this:
These cement blocks will be the main structure pieces for our projects. Chris has calculated that the 3 projects I explained above will need 2500 blocks total. All other building materials needed for our projects will also be bought in Ghana….everything from nails, to tiles, to sinks, etc. All of it will be purchased in Accra or surrounding areas and then brought to the building site before the construction team arrives in August. Chris and Doug spent lengthy amounts of time on our last trip going around to different ‘shops’ to scout out the best deals for building materials and tools. You know what? Chris has the HARDEST job of all of us. Take a look…..there ain’t no Lowe’s in these parts! (click picture to enlarge)
The funniest story I heard was when on one of our days in Accra during the recent trip, Doug and Chris purchased a few items for the projects including a toilet. They said they waited and waited and waited for this toilet to come out after they bought it….they waited almost about 30 minutes just sitting there on the curb by the stand. And then out walks a lady, CARRYING THE TOILET ON HER HEAD! Of course! This is Ghana! Chris said that he unfortunately didn’t think to take a picture, and then by the time he thought of it she had already set the toilet down and he didn’t want to ask her to put it back up! :)
Chris will be bringing a few of his home-building team members on the trip in August to act as team leaders. Other than that, we will employ Ghanaians for the construction labor and hope to teach them along the way.
THE COST:
Chris has estimated that the total cost for straight building materials (concrete blocks plus other) is going to be $25,000. This cost includes all 3 projects detailed above. Once we saw the cost and the amount of blocks that we need - $25,000 and 2500 blocks - it was easy to break this down into an agreeable donation number for individuals. We are asking individuals to prayerfully consider buying a cement block for our project. Again, we need 2500 blocks and a total of $25,000 needs to be raised. For ease, that means, we can label each $100 donation as purchasing 1 cement block. All we need is 250 people to buy 1 cement block at $100 a piece, and then the money for the building materials will be raised. You will see that I have created a section on my sidebar that will keep track of donations for the Asikuma Phase I projects. We have opened up a separate account off of our Kingdom Cares International account strictly for Asikuma funds. If you feel led to donate, please label your donation somehow with a sticky note or in the memo line of a check that says Asikuma Projects. This will ensure that your donation goes into the Asikuma account. From there I will be able to keep track on my blog of how much money is being raised as we look towards the $25,000 number. I also wanted to note, that these donations will go strictly towards the cement blocks and building materials. Donations will NOT go towards the other overhead costs such as airline tickets, hotel accommodations, food for the workers, etc. Those costs are paid for by each trip attendee on their own, and other expenses will be covered by our general Kingdom Cares International funds. Donations are payable to Kingdom Cares International and can be sent to 315 Ridgewood Dr., Huxley, IA 50124 or given to us in person. Also remember, Kingdom Cares International is a 501c3 non-profit foundation. All donations are tax deductible.
OUR ENCOURAGEMENT:
During our time in Asikuma we attended a church service right smack in the middle of the village housing area. Two moments stand out in my mind of that Sunday morning. First, I remember sitting there in the dirt, amidst mud huts, chickens and goats running free, underneath a canopy constructed of twigs and leaves. As I looked around I saw children and adults dressed in their best Sunday clothes, many of them sporting their new shoes that we had given them the day before. And there we sang our first song, “You are Wonderful, Lord” and our second song “This is the Day that the Lord Has Made”. I remember thinking that these people have NOTHING that anybody in America would ever label as materialistically valuable or sustainable. But yet, here they were praising the Lord in dance and song to the loudest and most genuine degree!!! In these small moments I was reminded that despite all the sorrow, oppression, injustice, disease, exploitation, and pure need in this village, there is also an evident feeling of hope. All is not lost. These people have learned to rely on God in ways that the typical American has never known. And this humbles me to the greatest degree. I want to be more like them.
The second moment that stands out in my mind was when the pastor gave his sermon. He likened our Isaiah 1:17 Foundation group to that of Nehemiah while sharing these verses from Nehemiah 2:17-18 - Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. The pastor motioned to us and said, “God spoke to these people. God told these people to come here – to this city – to our city – Asikuma – out of all the other places in all of Ghana. They are here to help us. God sent them to us, and they heard his voice, and they came.”
Goosebumps.
And Asikuma, we WILL be back!!!!!!!!!! So long…..until August!!!!!!!!!!!
1) The need for them is CLEAR.
2) At this time, they are the MOST needed.
3) Completion of these projects will allow us to have the greatest immediate impact on the community.
MAIN PROJECT 1: Medical Clinic
As I eluded to in this post, one of our two main construction projects for August will be renovating this currently standing building into a medical clinic. We will also add on a small area to the clinic that the doctor will utilize as his housing unit. As mentioned in my other post, the medical clinic will have 4 basic parts: a waiting room, 1 room to see patients, 1 room designated as a birthing area, and then the doctor’s onsite housing. MAIN PROJECT 2: Library and additional classroom
We will be adding onto the current building of Asikuma Presbyterian Primary School to create an additional classroom (20x25ft) and an additional space which will be utilized as a library (20x25ft). To read more about this school and why these two pieces are needed, click here. To give you a visual, the library will look similar to this:
SIDE PROJECT: Completion of linguist’s house. There is a man in Asikuma who holds a high position within the community named as the chairman/linguist. His housing unit needs some work and we have identified him to receive a little upgrade (I suppose you could think of it as Extreme Home Makeover ~ Ghana Style!). In August we will help to finish off his house which will be a nice gesture showing that we are coming to be a part of this community.
FUTURE PROJECTS:
There are many other projects that we have identified for the village of Asikuma that could be completed over time – God willing. The entire goal is to pave the way to create a full economy in Asikuma. A major, major piece of that will be helping Asikuma with farming. This will be a high priority for Phase II projects, and we are currently rounding up some great people to help with that….good thing we live in Iowa where farmers are everywhere! There are more things we want to do with the school as well, but the library/classroom will be a perfect first step. For the August trip we are also hoping to hold a few teaching seminars in which we can bring some American teachers on board to help train their teaching staff. This was one area that was identified as a high need – we need to come alongside the teachers and help them to know how to run classrooms more effectively. It’s also been in my heart to figure out a child sponsorship program. I want to be able to identify children who need financial assistance and match them with families in the U.S. who can provide for them (school fees, clothing, food, etc). I am just not sure how to get from point A to point B. Need some more time to figure that out. And of course, eventually somewhere down the line we hope to convert those 4 other buildings behind the medical clinic into a children’s haven. We’ve learned over the course of time that social welfare in Ghana is sort of the go-between for identifying orphaned children and placing them in an orphanage setting. We will need to create relationships with social welfare so that children would be referred to our children’s haven.
BUILDING MATERIALS:
Okay, so, in Ghana, every building is pretty much constructed from these:
Cement blocks. These blocks are formed using a block making machine that looks like this: 
These cement blocks will be the main structure pieces for our projects. Chris has calculated that the 3 projects I explained above will need 2500 blocks total. All other building materials needed for our projects will also be bought in Ghana….everything from nails, to tiles, to sinks, etc. All of it will be purchased in Accra or surrounding areas and then brought to the building site before the construction team arrives in August. Chris and Doug spent lengthy amounts of time on our last trip going around to different ‘shops’ to scout out the best deals for building materials and tools. You know what? Chris has the HARDEST job of all of us. Take a look…..there ain’t no Lowe’s in these parts! (click picture to enlarge) 
The funniest story I heard was when on one of our days in Accra during the recent trip, Doug and Chris purchased a few items for the projects including a toilet. They said they waited and waited and waited for this toilet to come out after they bought it….they waited almost about 30 minutes just sitting there on the curb by the stand. And then out walks a lady, CARRYING THE TOILET ON HER HEAD! Of course! This is Ghana! Chris said that he unfortunately didn’t think to take a picture, and then by the time he thought of it she had already set the toilet down and he didn’t want to ask her to put it back up! :) Chris will be bringing a few of his home-building team members on the trip in August to act as team leaders. Other than that, we will employ Ghanaians for the construction labor and hope to teach them along the way.
THE COST:
Chris has estimated that the total cost for straight building materials (concrete blocks plus other) is going to be $25,000. This cost includes all 3 projects detailed above. Once we saw the cost and the amount of blocks that we need - $25,000 and 2500 blocks - it was easy to break this down into an agreeable donation number for individuals. We are asking individuals to prayerfully consider buying a cement block for our project. Again, we need 2500 blocks and a total of $25,000 needs to be raised. For ease, that means, we can label each $100 donation as purchasing 1 cement block. All we need is 250 people to buy 1 cement block at $100 a piece, and then the money for the building materials will be raised. You will see that I have created a section on my sidebar that will keep track of donations for the Asikuma Phase I projects. We have opened up a separate account off of our Kingdom Cares International account strictly for Asikuma funds. If you feel led to donate, please label your donation somehow with a sticky note or in the memo line of a check that says Asikuma Projects. This will ensure that your donation goes into the Asikuma account. From there I will be able to keep track on my blog of how much money is being raised as we look towards the $25,000 number. I also wanted to note, that these donations will go strictly towards the cement blocks and building materials. Donations will NOT go towards the other overhead costs such as airline tickets, hotel accommodations, food for the workers, etc. Those costs are paid for by each trip attendee on their own, and other expenses will be covered by our general Kingdom Cares International funds. Donations are payable to Kingdom Cares International and can be sent to 315 Ridgewood Dr., Huxley, IA 50124 or given to us in person. Also remember, Kingdom Cares International is a 501c3 non-profit foundation. All donations are tax deductible.
OUR ENCOURAGEMENT:
During our time in Asikuma we attended a church service right smack in the middle of the village housing area. Two moments stand out in my mind of that Sunday morning. First, I remember sitting there in the dirt, amidst mud huts, chickens and goats running free, underneath a canopy constructed of twigs and leaves. As I looked around I saw children and adults dressed in their best Sunday clothes, many of them sporting their new shoes that we had given them the day before. And there we sang our first song, “You are Wonderful, Lord” and our second song “This is the Day that the Lord Has Made”. I remember thinking that these people have NOTHING that anybody in America would ever label as materialistically valuable or sustainable. But yet, here they were praising the Lord in dance and song to the loudest and most genuine degree!!! In these small moments I was reminded that despite all the sorrow, oppression, injustice, disease, exploitation, and pure need in this village, there is also an evident feeling of hope. All is not lost. These people have learned to rely on God in ways that the typical American has never known. And this humbles me to the greatest degree. I want to be more like them.
The second moment that stands out in my mind was when the pastor gave his sermon. He likened our Isaiah 1:17 Foundation group to that of Nehemiah while sharing these verses from Nehemiah 2:17-18 - Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work. The pastor motioned to us and said, “God spoke to these people. God told these people to come here – to this city – to our city – Asikuma – out of all the other places in all of Ghana. They are here to help us. God sent them to us, and they heard his voice, and they came.”
Goosebumps.
And Asikuma, we WILL be back!!!!!!!!!! So long…..until August!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, April 1, 2011
First, A Look Back
I know I said I was going to post today about the actual construction projects for Asikuma that will begin in August, but I changed my mind (glad it’s my blog and I can do that!)…..I am sure you already have a good idea of what we hope to accomplish on our next trip, so the exact details can wait until Monday. I think first, it is worth taking a look back on how this all started.
Rewind to our living room 2 ½ years ago. It was a few weeks after we had decided to adopt from Ethiopia that we had our first homestudy appointment. During our appointment our case worker (from a local agency, not the agency we were using for the actual adoption) shared some interesting things with us about her special Ghana adoption program that she was working on starting. I remember seeing Jake’s eyes light up, and then 2 hours later after an unplanned Q & A session with our case worker about Ghana I remember thinking, 'UH-OH – I see the wheels turning in his head.' I knew what was coming next. Our homestudy appointment ended, and as Jake waved good bye to our case worker and shut the front door he turned around and announced, “I think we need to consider adopting from Ghana instead.” Immediately I pictured all the time and effort I had spent on filling out and organizing paperwork for our Ethiopia program going straight down the drain. Not to mention the first fees we had already paid to the national adoption agency we had signed on with. All I could think about was all that hard work being lost, and starting all over again. And why? No matter which country we adopted from we would still be taking in an orphan. Immediately Jake explained his reasoning. “I don’t want to just adopt a child, take him from his country, never to return. I want to do something in the country to make a lasting impact. I want to create ties in the country, create relationships, and have reasons to travel back there with our child at least once a year. This smaller adoption agency has some great relationships and leads going in Ghana. We could use those leads to figure out how we can utilize our resources to help long term. Going with the larger national agency is going to make it harder for us to create intricate relationships in-country because there are so many intermediaries. The Ghana program would enable us to really get to know the staff members because it is so small. Plus, with it being a new pilot program we could help pave the way for other families into the country.” With that I think I mumbled something like “I’ll pray about it,” and then walked away thinking HE’S CRAZY!!!!! That was until the next day when I laid the kids down for their nap, flipped the Bob the Builder movie off, and God got my attention. As I flipped the tv from the DVD setting to DirecTV the channel happened to be on ESPN. And at that moment ESPN happened to be airing a special on a soccer program called Right to Dream….in Ghana, Africa. I think my jaw dropped open as I realized that this program practically mirrored the youth basketball program that Jake was currently running in Iowa….only it was for soccer…..and in Ghana. I remember thinking that this was something Jake needed to look into.
And he did.
And the rest of the story played out….
We switched adoption programs and agencies. Jake took his first trip to Ghana in February 2009 which ended up being paid for by the Right to Dream Academy to spend a week with them, and from there a vision was born (http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2009/02/jakes-journal-of-ghana-trip-day-3.html). Jake felt that he could mirror the Right to Dream Academy in Ghana, only instead of soccer he would help develop basketball players and give them opportunities for education. On this trip he also happened to give his business card to a young man playing basketball saying, “If you ever want to come to the U.S., give me a call.” And he did. Literally 3 weeks after Jake was home from Ghana, Yaw was on his way to our house, and our international hosting program was born (http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2009/03/introducing-nana-yaw.html).
From there we have had many conceptual ideas and visions of what could be accomplished in Ghana. We started off dreaming big (http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2009/10/facility-vision.html) and over a year’s time God narrowed our focus.
Our first Kingdom Hoops Ghana team was formulated and the international hosting program became our priority over building an academy for players in Ghana. We learned the student visa application process and in 2010, by God’s grace, we helped 3 young men get their student visas to come study in the U.S.
Key relationships in Ghana fizzled and others were created as God showed us who we could trust and who we couldn’t.
During the summer and fall of 2010 Nana & Esi’s lives intersected ours in huge ways, and we recognized that God was orchestrating something specific that would intertwine our hearts. We followed God’s prodding, merged our goals together, and the Isaiah 1:17 Foundation was born. We became an established NGO in Ghana. http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2011/01/isaiah-117-foundation-part-1-of-3.html http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2011/01/isaiah-117-foundation-part-2-of-3.html http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2011/01/isaiah-117-foundation-part-3-of-3.html
Originally the idea of building a foster care home was what bound us all together, and eventually led us to the village of Asikuma. After our recent trip however, we have come to realize that there are more immediate needs that should be addressed first. And that is what I will be detailing in my next post.
I wrote this post because I want to continually look over my shoulder and see how far God has brought us. I don’t want to just go onto the next thing and the next thing and the next thing without pausing to reflect. God has ROCKED our lives over the past 2 years as he has opened up our hearts, directed us, and guided us to where we are. This journey has been an over 2 year process of going from project concept/vision to refinement to reality. And along the way each of our passions have emerged and formed the backbone of our Foundation’s mission.
Jake is passionate about educating Ghana’s youth, empowering them, and giving them OPPORTUNITIES.
I am passionate about orphan care, adoption, and creating awareness for the looming crisis of the ‘least of these’.
Doug and Dawn bring with them years of business experience that have been the gateway in structuring and developing our projects in sensible and practical ways. They also share in our passion for helping Ghana’s youth, and their entrepreneurial expertise has kept us grounded and given us clear direction.
From the beginning Chris’s interest has been allowing God to use his talent for building and construction for something that would have a great impact outside of America.
Esi’s own impoverished background has given her a heart for orphan care and needy-child assistance and her hard work and in-country connections and relationships are a huge asset to our team.
Nana’s motivation is to utilize his position as chief of Asikuma to bring in the necessary resources to help create change and development for his people.
And of course, over all of this, a beautiful adoption took place, and was the start of it all.
I can still remember that night in our living room as Jake shared his hope….I want to do something in the country to make a lasting impact.
We’re getting there. As you can see, it has been quite the process, but now God has brought us into the reality phase which is the most exciting part! It's time for action!!!!!!!!!
Rewind to our living room 2 ½ years ago. It was a few weeks after we had decided to adopt from Ethiopia that we had our first homestudy appointment. During our appointment our case worker (from a local agency, not the agency we were using for the actual adoption) shared some interesting things with us about her special Ghana adoption program that she was working on starting. I remember seeing Jake’s eyes light up, and then 2 hours later after an unplanned Q & A session with our case worker about Ghana I remember thinking, 'UH-OH – I see the wheels turning in his head.' I knew what was coming next. Our homestudy appointment ended, and as Jake waved good bye to our case worker and shut the front door he turned around and announced, “I think we need to consider adopting from Ghana instead.” Immediately I pictured all the time and effort I had spent on filling out and organizing paperwork for our Ethiopia program going straight down the drain. Not to mention the first fees we had already paid to the national adoption agency we had signed on with. All I could think about was all that hard work being lost, and starting all over again. And why? No matter which country we adopted from we would still be taking in an orphan. Immediately Jake explained his reasoning. “I don’t want to just adopt a child, take him from his country, never to return. I want to do something in the country to make a lasting impact. I want to create ties in the country, create relationships, and have reasons to travel back there with our child at least once a year. This smaller adoption agency has some great relationships and leads going in Ghana. We could use those leads to figure out how we can utilize our resources to help long term. Going with the larger national agency is going to make it harder for us to create intricate relationships in-country because there are so many intermediaries. The Ghana program would enable us to really get to know the staff members because it is so small. Plus, with it being a new pilot program we could help pave the way for other families into the country.” With that I think I mumbled something like “I’ll pray about it,” and then walked away thinking HE’S CRAZY!!!!! That was until the next day when I laid the kids down for their nap, flipped the Bob the Builder movie off, and God got my attention. As I flipped the tv from the DVD setting to DirecTV the channel happened to be on ESPN. And at that moment ESPN happened to be airing a special on a soccer program called Right to Dream….in Ghana, Africa. I think my jaw dropped open as I realized that this program practically mirrored the youth basketball program that Jake was currently running in Iowa….only it was for soccer…..and in Ghana. I remember thinking that this was something Jake needed to look into.
And he did.
And the rest of the story played out….
We switched adoption programs and agencies. Jake took his first trip to Ghana in February 2009 which ended up being paid for by the Right to Dream Academy to spend a week with them, and from there a vision was born (http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2009/02/jakes-journal-of-ghana-trip-day-3.html). Jake felt that he could mirror the Right to Dream Academy in Ghana, only instead of soccer he would help develop basketball players and give them opportunities for education. On this trip he also happened to give his business card to a young man playing basketball saying, “If you ever want to come to the U.S., give me a call.” And he did. Literally 3 weeks after Jake was home from Ghana, Yaw was on his way to our house, and our international hosting program was born (http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2009/03/introducing-nana-yaw.html).
From there we have had many conceptual ideas and visions of what could be accomplished in Ghana. We started off dreaming big (http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2009/10/facility-vision.html) and over a year’s time God narrowed our focus.
Our first Kingdom Hoops Ghana team was formulated and the international hosting program became our priority over building an academy for players in Ghana. We learned the student visa application process and in 2010, by God’s grace, we helped 3 young men get their student visas to come study in the U.S.
Key relationships in Ghana fizzled and others were created as God showed us who we could trust and who we couldn’t.
During the summer and fall of 2010 Nana & Esi’s lives intersected ours in huge ways, and we recognized that God was orchestrating something specific that would intertwine our hearts. We followed God’s prodding, merged our goals together, and the Isaiah 1:17 Foundation was born. We became an established NGO in Ghana. http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2011/01/isaiah-117-foundation-part-1-of-3.html http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2011/01/isaiah-117-foundation-part-2-of-3.html http://team-sullivan.blogspot.com/2011/01/isaiah-117-foundation-part-3-of-3.html
Originally the idea of building a foster care home was what bound us all together, and eventually led us to the village of Asikuma. After our recent trip however, we have come to realize that there are more immediate needs that should be addressed first. And that is what I will be detailing in my next post.
I wrote this post because I want to continually look over my shoulder and see how far God has brought us. I don’t want to just go onto the next thing and the next thing and the next thing without pausing to reflect. God has ROCKED our lives over the past 2 years as he has opened up our hearts, directed us, and guided us to where we are. This journey has been an over 2 year process of going from project concept/vision to refinement to reality. And along the way each of our passions have emerged and formed the backbone of our Foundation’s mission.
Jake is passionate about educating Ghana’s youth, empowering them, and giving them OPPORTUNITIES.
I am passionate about orphan care, adoption, and creating awareness for the looming crisis of the ‘least of these’.
Doug and Dawn bring with them years of business experience that have been the gateway in structuring and developing our projects in sensible and practical ways. They also share in our passion for helping Ghana’s youth, and their entrepreneurial expertise has kept us grounded and given us clear direction.
From the beginning Chris’s interest has been allowing God to use his talent for building and construction for something that would have a great impact outside of America.
Esi’s own impoverished background has given her a heart for orphan care and needy-child assistance and her hard work and in-country connections and relationships are a huge asset to our team.
Nana’s motivation is to utilize his position as chief of Asikuma to bring in the necessary resources to help create change and development for his people.
And of course, over all of this, a beautiful adoption took place, and was the start of it all.
I can still remember that night in our living room as Jake shared his hope….I want to do something in the country to make a lasting impact.
We’re getting there. As you can see, it has been quite the process, but now God has brought us into the reality phase which is the most exciting part! It's time for action!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Lighthearted Adventures
Most of our days in Ghana were highly scheduled and down to business….and rightly so. But, we also had a few ‘lighter’ moments as well….
Two men of Asikuma who hold prominent positions in the village try some cheez whiz!
Two men of Asikuma who hold prominent positions in the village try some cheez whiz!
What could Doug be eating now?
Let's take a closer look.....hmmm...... 
He’s eating snails! Fresh ones. Meaning a few minutes ago they looked like this on the roadside… 
And while I am on the subject of food……for the first few days in Asikuma we couldn’t exactly figure out where the kitchen was for our hotel restaurant. They always came from ‘out back’ with our orders of food. One morning, Doug decided to go looking ‘out back’ to see what exactly was….well….’out back’! And let’s just say, our food was being prepared….Survivor style! That’s a goat being skinned and be-headed! 
And there's lunch!!!!!!!! 
And Jake's fish being seasoned... 
And guess who got to try to pound out some fu fu? 
Trust me, it’s way harder than it looks! While we were back there, I decided to opt out of taking a picture of the chicken who had just been slaughtered on the rock (you can thank me later). But, I was pretty impressed by their little outdoor kitchen. However, our surprise tour ‘out back’ was a reminder of why I become an instant vegetarian on our trips. It’s a good thing I like rice. And no blood shed or guts spilled when slicing open a mango. 
Alright, enough about food. Now for some cultural sights… 
Among the numerous things I’ve seen being sold on the roadside, I can now add coffins to my list. 
I am still amazed with how they do this!!!!!!!!!! 
An iron cooling off outside a sewing stand. 
And, oh look, our Kingdom Hoops guys are out for a run….wait a minute, who’s that white guy leading the pack?!?!? 
Oh, that’s just our resident Iron Man competitor, Doug. :) There is no escaping the leg lifts when Doug is leading the workout! 
The Kingdom Hoops boys also got a great practice in and learned 4-out motion offense for the first time…. 
And they got some encouraging words of advice and things to think about from Jake. 
And guess what? On our very last day in Ghana we got to go to the beach!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woot woot!!! 
(yeah, it was pure bliss) 
And here are a few more pictures of JJ living it up in Ghana… he pretty much spent every waking moment with the Kingdom Hoops boys. 
Thoroughly enjoying his goat's milk chocolate shake!!!! 
Our last day in Asikuma we were able to do a bible study with about 40 kids from the village. Katlyn, Emma & I taught the kids about salvation through faith in Jesus by making salvation bracelets which the kids LOVED!!!! 
I didn’t realize until later that the colors in the bracelets are actually the colors in the Ghana flag! :) I feel like I could keep posting about our trip for days and still not touch on everything that happened. The other tripsters on our team have started sending me their personal trip highlights, and they are AWESOME! I can’t wait to post them, which I will do next week. Tune in tomorrow for details on the construction projects we will be starting on our August trip. SO EXCITING!!!!!!!!! And I’ve had many people ask me what we need, what donations we are collecting for August, etc. I’ll of course be letting you in on all of that too.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tour of Schools in Accra
Our second to last day in Accra we were scheduled to tour the 3 different types of schools in Ghana: a government funded school (free education), a private school, and a vocational school. You will be amazed at the difference between a government funded school and a private school! When we visited the government funded school in Asikuma their entire school day was put to a halt as the teachers met with us and shared their concerns. However, the purpose of the tour of schools in Accra was to watch the teachers and students in action. We didn’t want them to stop what they were doing….we just wanted to observe what a typical school day was like in Ghana. First up we visited Lekma Primary School in Teshie (side note - the program I use to enlarge my pics on the blog is not working for some reason, but if you want to see any of these pictures in a larger size just click the picture). 
This school runs the two class shift as Asikuma did….the head master of the school said the first group of kids comes from 6am to 12noon and then the second shift comes from 12noon to 6pm. Each class size averages about 60 children. We were able to peek into many of the classes and observe the lessons being taught. Many of the children had workbooks and we were told that these workbooks were provided by U.S. Aid.
In one classroom the children were doing computer education….WITH NO COMPUTERS!!! Well, except one computer that was up at the front of the classroom on the teacher’s desk….and the computer didn’t work. But they were using it to teach the students the keys (each student could come up front and look at it).
Did you notice the board? The student’s learned/memorized the computer keys off the chalkboard!!!! And, since there were no computers, and the one that they had didn’t work, they also learned programs off the chalkboard too….
So, it’s basically all memorization and no practical experience of actually getting to use a computer. :( Another class we peeked into was learning some sort of textile technique…separating the fibers on this piece of fabric.
I also noted that this school took great length to post all sorts of signs like this everywhere in the classrooms:
Next up was a visit to a private school, Ford Schools Limited, and WOW was there a big difference!!!! This school was very comparative to a public school that you would find in the U.S. First of all, notice all of the educational pieces up on the walls!
It was easy to see that they had a lot more educational materials, more structure in the classrooms, and more teachers. In fact, the entire atmosphere was totally different than the previous school.
At this school, they also have a large number of kids, but they have enough classrooms, teachers, and materials to run multiple classes at the same time. They do not have to run the shift schedule school day as the government schools do. We observed 4 different kindergarten classes going at once. This little guy was working on his handwriting, and it was perfect!!!!!!
This school also has their own computer lab....
And they had a library!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seeing the library obviously brought us all some great excitement and it really helped us to envision what could be constructed for the Asikuma school. Jake really took advantage of this time visiting these schools. His biggest passion in Ghana is the educational side of things….and he wants to learn everything he can so that he will have a better idea of how to empower the youth through education.
And I bet a few of you teachers out there would like to be able to write this on the chalkboard in your class!!!!!!!!!!! :)
We were able to get a handout outlining the tuition/fees charged at this school. Enrollment for one term is around 200.00 Ghana cedis (1 Ghana cedi is a little less than 1 U.S. dollar) plus about 50.00 more if you are a new student. On top of this you also pay extra for things such as stationery, p.e. clothes, and a school uniform. Total fees are under 300.00 Ghana cedis, and a little more for the junior high classes. This seems pretty reasonable until you remember that many people in Ghana are living on less than a dollar a day. This was a great school, but it’s obvious that this type of place is only for the middle to upper class. There is just no chance for the impoverished to receive a great education like this. Now I understand why child sponsorship is SO IMPORTANT in Ghana.
Another thing that we learned today was the grade structure of these primary schools. Typically you would start in Grade 1 at the age of 6. Primary schools involve Grades 1-6….at Grade 6 you would typically be 12 years old. Then you attend junior high. Junior high involves Junior High 1-3. After junior high 3 you take a big exam that would get you into high school. If you don’t pass the exam on the first try you don’t get another chance!!!!!!!!!!!!! From what it sounded like, all high schools charge tuition…there is no free education for those levels. In Ghana you take 3 years of high school. If you don’t pass the junior high exams, or don’t have enough money to attend high school, you can attend a vocational school which teaches different trades such as car mechanics, sewing, hair styling, etc. A vocational school was the last type of school we visited. The one we toured had main courses for catering and fashion design.
And that was the end of our tour of schools! On this day Doug and Chris actually had split off from our group and had a few adventures of their own as they scouted around for tools and building supplies for our projects. :) Tomorrow I hope to post some pictures of the more light-hearted moments from our trip, and then Friday I hope to post about what our exact projects in Asikuma will be. Yay!
This school runs the two class shift as Asikuma did….the head master of the school said the first group of kids comes from 6am to 12noon and then the second shift comes from 12noon to 6pm. Each class size averages about 60 children. We were able to peek into many of the classes and observe the lessons being taught. Many of the children had workbooks and we were told that these workbooks were provided by U.S. Aid. 
In one classroom the children were doing computer education….WITH NO COMPUTERS!!! Well, except one computer that was up at the front of the classroom on the teacher’s desk….and the computer didn’t work. But they were using it to teach the students the keys (each student could come up front and look at it). 
Did you notice the board? The student’s learned/memorized the computer keys off the chalkboard!!!! And, since there were no computers, and the one that they had didn’t work, they also learned programs off the chalkboard too…. 
So, it’s basically all memorization and no practical experience of actually getting to use a computer. :( Another class we peeked into was learning some sort of textile technique…separating the fibers on this piece of fabric. 
I also noted that this school took great length to post all sorts of signs like this everywhere in the classrooms: 
Next up was a visit to a private school, Ford Schools Limited, and WOW was there a big difference!!!! This school was very comparative to a public school that you would find in the U.S. First of all, notice all of the educational pieces up on the walls! 
It was easy to see that they had a lot more educational materials, more structure in the classrooms, and more teachers. In fact, the entire atmosphere was totally different than the previous school. 
At this school, they also have a large number of kids, but they have enough classrooms, teachers, and materials to run multiple classes at the same time. They do not have to run the shift schedule school day as the government schools do. We observed 4 different kindergarten classes going at once. This little guy was working on his handwriting, and it was perfect!!!!!! 
This school also has their own computer lab.... 
And they had a library!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
Seeing the library obviously brought us all some great excitement and it really helped us to envision what could be constructed for the Asikuma school. Jake really took advantage of this time visiting these schools. His biggest passion in Ghana is the educational side of things….and he wants to learn everything he can so that he will have a better idea of how to empower the youth through education. 
And I bet a few of you teachers out there would like to be able to write this on the chalkboard in your class!!!!!!!!!!! :) 
We were able to get a handout outlining the tuition/fees charged at this school. Enrollment for one term is around 200.00 Ghana cedis (1 Ghana cedi is a little less than 1 U.S. dollar) plus about 50.00 more if you are a new student. On top of this you also pay extra for things such as stationery, p.e. clothes, and a school uniform. Total fees are under 300.00 Ghana cedis, and a little more for the junior high classes. This seems pretty reasonable until you remember that many people in Ghana are living on less than a dollar a day. This was a great school, but it’s obvious that this type of place is only for the middle to upper class. There is just no chance for the impoverished to receive a great education like this. Now I understand why child sponsorship is SO IMPORTANT in Ghana. Another thing that we learned today was the grade structure of these primary schools. Typically you would start in Grade 1 at the age of 6. Primary schools involve Grades 1-6….at Grade 6 you would typically be 12 years old. Then you attend junior high. Junior high involves Junior High 1-3. After junior high 3 you take a big exam that would get you into high school. If you don’t pass the exam on the first try you don’t get another chance!!!!!!!!!!!!! From what it sounded like, all high schools charge tuition…there is no free education for those levels. In Ghana you take 3 years of high school. If you don’t pass the junior high exams, or don’t have enough money to attend high school, you can attend a vocational school which teaches different trades such as car mechanics, sewing, hair styling, etc. A vocational school was the last type of school we visited. The one we toured had main courses for catering and fashion design.
And that was the end of our tour of schools! On this day Doug and Chris actually had split off from our group and had a few adventures of their own as they scouted around for tools and building supplies for our projects. :) Tomorrow I hope to post some pictures of the more light-hearted moments from our trip, and then Friday I hope to post about what our exact projects in Asikuma will be. Yay!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)