Thursday, November 28, 2013

attitude of gratitude

Do Americans understand what “giving thanks” means? Do we understand the significance of this national holiday?

I’ve worked in retail for going on 5 years, and endured several 12-hour shifts on Black Friday, so I tend to think that we’re missing something.

Teddy and I are leaving Africa today…on Thanksgiving. And truly, I have never felt more aware of all that I have to be grateful for than I am today.

At the top of the list are these eight girls:

Let me assure you that no one needs to educate these children on the meaning of Gratitude. They rejoice and say “thanks” for every gift they receive. One of my favorite stories is when Landon + Kate were conducting an English lesson, and at the end each girl received a tiny piece of candy. Little Sarah started to unwrap hers and eat it, and was promptly scolded by the other girls, who proceeded to bow their heads and pray a blessing over their “toffee.” They are the farthest thing from “entitled” that you can imagine.

We have so much to be thankful for…God is so good.

We are excited to return to the States, but our hearts are heavy to be leaving this beautiful place that has become Home and these wonderful people that have become Family.

And on this holiday of Thanks, we want to again articulate our appreciation for each and every person who has aided and supported us on this journey—through prayer, finances…anything and everything.

We are thankful for Landon, Kate, Bernard, Celestine, Mercy, and Helen, who make leaving easier because we know without a doubt that the girls are in excellent, capable, loving hands. 

We are thankful for our families who have been so incredibly encouraging from the beginning.

We are thankful for The Father’s House—for Jeff and Lori for “fanning the flame,” and Matt and Tammy who have provided priceless guidance and assistance.

We are thankful for our Eight Oaksters back in America who have been faithful and who stepped up to the plate to keep things running when we left in August.

We are thankful for Taylor, Lauren and Ryan who have managed the finances and been willing and content to do what is, honestly, a pretty tedious and thankless job.

We are thankful for CityLife, NewLife, Greenwich Road, River Walk, and all the other churches who have funded and sustained us prayerfully.

We are thankful for Ghana, for Jesus, for FREEDOM and new life in Christ. We are THANKFUL that we serve such a mighty God.

<<Prepare yourself for picture overload. It's been awhile since I last posted>>
This was our first time meeting Sarah, Regina, and Richlove. 
Regina.
We traveled for roughly 16 hours on Tuesday. 
It was obviously exhausting.
With Davi Mercy in the airport. 
Back home, helping Mama Helen sort beans for dinner.
Little Sarah getting a fire going. I told Mercy that kids in America aren't allowed to play with matches which she thought was hilarious. 
This girl fanned the flame and sustained it long enough to cook a whole pot of beans. She's seven. I'm all like, "Do we have any lighter fluid?"
It makes my heart so HAPPY to see EIGHT little pairs of shoes!
Picking beans. 
Gloria has displayed an amazing talent for falling asleep in the most unlikely of places & circumstances: including but not limited to under the dining table, in the pantry, and outside on a pile of beans, as seen here.
Lucky.
This is one type of Ghanaian breakfast called Tom Brown. It's a porridge made with beans, roasted corn flour, and peanuts. We love it. 
Counting lessons with Uncle Teddy
Dina + Flower
Left to right: Dina, Gloria, Richlove, Regina, Lucky, Sarah Sr., God's Way, and Sarah Jr.
We were trying to get a picture of them jumping off the little ledge...
There was a lot of falling and laughing, but not much jumping:)

Nothing beats hearing these giggles or seeing these smiles. We love them so much. We love that they are FREE.

Happy Thanksgiving, indeed. 

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

One big happy family.


We started as a group of five students sitting around Teddy and Ellie's dining room table. Now, around 20-25 students are consistently involved in Eight Oaks, including this lovely bunch of students and a few who are not pictured here. Photo by Megan Radley

A year and a half ago, I never would have imagined that this rag tag team of teenagers would one day become my family.

We come from all different walks of life, different friend circles, and different personality types. Sure, we all knew each other and, admittedly, a lot of us were good friends prior to Eight Oaks. But being friends is nothing compared to being family.

Over the past year, a core group of us have fallen in love with these eight girls together. We met together, prayed together, and, since most of us went to school together, we lived life together.

A little over two months ago, the time came that we realized that we really wanted our family to grow. New members had been trickling in over the months, but we wanted even more people to experience the sense of belonging and of fellowship that we had discovered. So, Kate and I got up on stage during chapel, spit out a few heartfelt words about Eight Oaks, and by God’s grace, our family started to grow again. 

For the past three months, though, two very important members of our family have been missing. Teddy and Ellie left for Ghana on August 8, and we have missed them ever since. We have received sporadic updates, emails, and photos from them, but we all dearly miss sitting in their apartments on Saturday mornings with them, drinking coffee and talking about life, Jesus, and eight little girls whose names we did not know. 

Obviously, we are overjoyed in the fact that they were faithful to the Lord’s call to go to Ghana, seeing as eight precious little sisters have since been added to our family. Still, we are beyond excited for them to come back.

During Teddy and Ellie’s absence, though, we have all learned what it means to step up and be leaders. Caleb and Jack suddenly had to lead the group, and all of the tedious little details that Ellie usually took care of were now passed on to me, Madie, and Taylor. In the midst of all that transition, our family was growing rapidly, and we had to get new members caught up and informed.

Things were not always easy. I spent many nights praying that the Lord would keep this whole thing running because, when it comes down to it, we’re just a bunch of high school kids. We don’t know how to run a non-profit, we don’t know how to fundraise, and we definitely don’t know how to save girls out of slavery. Despite our inexperience, God blessed us richly in ways that we never would have imagined.

For one, we have been blessed by all of the adult leadership that has guided us from the outside for the past several months, such as Mr. Loftin, Mrs. Goodvin, and Mr. Kriwiel. We have been blessed by various Trinity students who aren’t involved with Eight Oaks randomly giving us a fist-full of cash or a check. We have been blessed by finally being able to learn that when we choose to live a selfless life we find true joy.

We were blessed through our struggles as we drew closer to one another in the midst of difficulties. We learned to have each other’s backs. We learned to forgive. And, above all else, we learned to love each other just as much as we love those eight little girls.

My desire is that, as little boys and girls in Ghana find freedom, young men and women in America find freedom as well. We always want this family to keep growing, I believe that, by God’s grace, it will. 

-Clare Alise Warrington


Friday, November 15, 2013

so well loved

The girls have been home for one week today. Already I can barely remember a time when this space was not filled with their voices and personalities.

Dina, Sarah, Gloria, God’s Way, and Lucky have effortlessly settled into life at The Yellow House. Their joy is contagious and their presence makes us all indescribably happy

Mercy and Helen exceeded our wildest expectations. Mercy is adored by her sisters—last night she left for a few hours and when she returned it was to cries of “Davi Mercy!!” as five little people ran out the front door to welcome her home. They call Helen “Mama” and she is usually found sitting outside making akple or stew and laughing as they play and do their chores. Bernard, aka “Papa," comes over about three times a day just to check in and make sure things are running smoothly. Celestine, also "Mama," has been largely responsible for buying all of the girls’ clothes and supplies. We would have been SO LOST without her. These girls are so well loved!!

I also wanted to include just a few more pictures of the house. Our dining room table was finished just in time for our return to Akatsi and is used for everything from eating to playing games and coloring pictures. Our carpenter also finished cabinets for the kitchen and the hallway sink a few weeks ago. We are so pleased with how everything has turned out. 

At this moment, we are planning on returning to Yeji on Monday to meet and bring home the last three girls. Please continue to pray for smooth travels and no complications with paperwork or anything else on this trip!

<<Also--I apologize if the pictures are weirdly formatted. I do not know what the problem is but I cannot bear to spend another second messing with it! Computers are not my friends.>>

The girls were so incredibly ecstatic/nervous about the plane ride.
During the normally-silent take-off, our plane was filled with the sounds of little girls shrieking and laughing uncontrollably. We attracted a lot of attention.
They were so excited about flying to begin with that I thought their heads might explode when the flight attendant brought JUICE and CRACKERS!! Cute story: bottled water is pretty luxurious here, so most of the girls carefully saved theirs for later. We have spotted Gloria wrapping hers in a blanket and carrying it around like a baby doll.
Their first morning they woke up before the sun was out and immediately started doing their chores. Kids in Ghana always sweep in the morning. A child gets his or her own broom on their fourth birthday. This is Dina. 
Gloria
Sarah. Those eyes!
God's Way. 
Breakfast on our beautiful table.
front room, finally complete!
finished kitchen!!
Mama Helen 
Davi Mercy has taken it upon herself to make sure we become truly Ghanaian. As such, we have been eating African food for three meals a day. This is akple with light soup. Akple is a fermented dough made from cassava: you tear it off in little chunks and dip it into the soup.
This is my favorite meal: garri. Beans, black sauce, and ground cassava. Delicious and filling!
Mama Celestine
Sarah + Lucky
Getting measured for Sunday dresses

This picture cracks me up. It looks like the album cover for their rock band.


Fish face. 

We love these goofballs. 

Sunday, November 10, 2013

where to begin?

I’ve sat in front of this computer for approximately 17 minutes and I still do not know where to begin.

I don’t even know what the beginning is. Do I start when we arrived in Ate Bubu last week? Or when Ted and I stepped off the plane in Accra? No…all of this originates much earlier than that.

Truthfully I could start with the dawn of creation. Or the prophet Isaiah. Or the life of Jesus Christ. But I think I’ll skip forward a millennium or two and commence this post by talking about a few high school students who used to meet in our apartment on Saturday mornings with nothing but a love of Jesus and a stirring in their hearts (and the promise of donuts) urging them out of their comfy beds on a treasured weekend morning. A group that prayed and wept and cried out to God and listened when He answered.

I could write about so many things. I could share so many stories! About Caleb, or Jack...Kate, Emily, Ashlea...Taylor, Jacob, Ethan, Ali...

I could talk about a muggy evening in July--a year and a half ago--when Madie said “I’ve named these eight girls. I pray for a different one each day.” On Friday, she was able to see the faces of two girls that God planted in her tender heart when all of this was a distant plan in the future...Sarah and Gloria.

I could reminisce about the meeting when Lauren shared a holy dream...I could write out all of Clare's incredibly profound statements that would move you to tears. I could describe the time Jordan Sutton was buying a book at Barnes & Noble and pulled out a wallet with the words "MY SISTER IS IN SLAVERY" scrawled across the top, and how it led to a 45-minute discussion with the cashier about his siblings, in Ghana, whom he'd never met, but that he wanted to be reminded of every time he spent money.

I could share about the knock on our door late one morning. It was one of our high schoolers, about 45 minutes after that week’s meeting had ended, offering all the money he’d made working last summer. “For the girls,” he said.

I have a MILLION stories to tell (and a thousand pictures to share).

But suffice to say…God is good. We heard “No” so many times this week, from so many people. But the Lord said “YES” and here we are…in a beautiful yellow house with bamboo bunk beds and little girls dancing in the courtyard as Davi Mercy and Auntie Helen fry yams for supper and tease them from the kitchen window.

Three beds in their room and three chairs at the table are conspicuously empty, but for now we rejoice in God’s faithfulness and trust in His timing.

To our Eight Oaksters who have responded to The Call: We love you so much. We carried you in our hearts as we sailed across the lake, when we first laid eyes on these five girls we spent so many hours praying for together, and when we brought them through the front doors of The Yellow House for the first time...to their home that each of you built through your faith and your dedication. Thank you for illustrating the beauty of the body of Christ. 

I don’t feel responsible for this in any way, merely blessed to witness the story of Amazing Grace as it unfolds. 

We visited a village on one of the lake's many islands...where we met God's Way.
This picture just makes my heart happy.

The first time we met Dina, Lucky, Sarah, and Gloria was the morning we brought them home. They were standing on the side of the road holding little bags. How precious are those faces?

Gloria fell asleep almost immediately:) 
Davi Mercy got breakfast for all of the girls. Porridge and bananas and bread. Lucky was thrilled.


Sarah

They were so excited that they barely sat down for the entire 4-hour ride from Yeji to Kumasi. There was constant giggling and shrieking.
Dina

Gloria

Lucky


With Davi Mercy and Papa Bernard. These girls, they are SO loved. 
We will post more in the coming days. Thank you to everyone for all of the prayers. We are so blessed. All of us.