Hello Everyone! It is May 16th and with exciting news! I got my visa extended successfully! :) Praise God. It went very smoothly, with the help of mama Dinah (Missionary nurse with FIM Ghana). She is so sweet and I thank God for her. The Kwao family have really made my stay here very welcoming and it has been so nice to feel a part of their family.

The last couple days have been a struggle…I threw my back out. haha! Its okay you can laugh...just imagine me unable to stand straight and waddling around. hehe ;) (don’t ask me how I did it) So I have been staying low for the past couple days. Praise God I am almost back to normal today. It is so crazy how little things like that can stop you from doing the normal things during the day and it can be quite frustrating! Haha Oh well, its healing, that’s all I care about!

Other exciting news is that a couple from the states is coming here this week to experience Ghana for possible future ministry here. Yay for people staying in the house with ME!!! It will be fun to show them around and I will continue to pray that they will want to come here to Ghana for ministry!! So I am looking forward to a fun week coming up. I have been keeping myself busy. Still going to the Baby HOMe and also volunteering at Beacon House. It has been exciting to see Sandra improving on her studies at HOMe as I am tutoring her. She continues to show interest in learning. I pray so hard that she will be able to attend school soon!! The babies are doing well! They continue to grow in my heart and it is always so nice to see their faces when I go there!! Highlight of my week: Akos smiled! This is huge, for I have seen hardly any facial expressions from her. I found her "ticklish" spot. I got so excited!!!! So I tickle her a lot, but sometimes she makes it clear that she has had enough! haha

Beacon House is always a joy to go to. There is nothing better than being swarmed by kids when you first walk through the door. To get free hugs and hear their laughter and smiles in the morning, is always a great start to my day. I teach the pre-school in the morning, and if their energy doesn’t wake me up at 8:30 in the morning, nothing will! haha I then work with one little boy and a much older person that lives there in the early afternoon who have disabilities. They are all a joy to work with.

There always seems to be something that needs to get done during the day after I am done working with the kids and babies. Whether it something that needs to get fixed at the house(which seems like all the time! Haha), errands, making dinner, power going off, meeting with people, power going off again!! Haha It is very eye opening to what it would be like to not only take care of myself and the house, but if I had a family too! God is teaching me a lot and I am enjoying getting a taste of overall missionary life. Excited to see what God has for me in the future and I am praying that He has long term missions overseas in my life.

I should go... I need to prepare for the couple coming today! Can’t wait to pick them up from the airport! May He be glorified, Selina

Hello everyone. Well a month has gone by! Wow! It is true the sun keeps rising and setting here in Ghana and with every day that passes I ask God for direction and guidance. I will be honest with all of you, it has been a hard month. It comes with two sides, I love to cuddle babies and teach children and play and interact with kids that need it!!! At the same time, it is hard to be away from family and friends and what is familiar to me. This is natural to feel I suppose, being here on my own. Coming from a house in the states that was always so busy, to a place where I have no family to come home to can be hard sometimes. Wow, but God is teaching me a lot so far and without a doubt preparing me for something bigger in the future. I am trying to find continual peace and joy in Him in my time alone, some days are harder than others, but at this time trusting the Lord that He has me here for a purpose. Today I taught three young children this morning at beacon house which was a lot of fun. Afterward I got to play with the cutest little boy for the afternoon.

Recently I got to attend a crusade with Franklin Graham speaking. I wanted to see and experience what that would be like. I was very encouraged to see so many people wanting to give their life to Christ. I can only pray they were all genuine in their hearts. A lot of people showed up!

This past Saturday I got to go to see what a Ghanaian wedding is like. It was very interesting and a cool experience. Their weddings are very different then here in the States :) A picture of me and my friend at the wedding.

The little girl I sat next to. :)

A sweet girl I teach in the mornings!

Thank you all for your prayers! I really do appreciate them so much! May He be glorified, Selina

This blog entry is simply pictures. I will write soon! Love you all. Thank you for the prayers :)

Hello again!

I am typing this blog entry, at 3:30 in the afternoon with the windows open trying to get as much breeze as I possibly can. Today is Sunday so I got up this morning and went to church, and visited and ate at a friends house for lunch. I am now home and I am having a electrician fix some things around the house. I have come to find out here in Ghana that the extreme heat takes it out of you! haha I am exhausted, but in my mind it doesn't seem like I have done a lot today. Ah yes, coming from MI, USA...with just experiencing 7 months of snow to 100 degrees and extreme humidity is quite a change!! haha (don't get me wrong, I would take this heat OVER SNOW ANY DAY)

I love the many sounds and smells of city life here in Accra, Ghana, which are becoming more and more familiar. As I close my eyes, I hear the local music of Ghana sometimes called "high life music" playing from my neighbors house along with some guys outside on the street speaking twi(local language). With the smell of Ghanaian food cooking over a fire coming through my window, I hear children laughing and playing on the dirt road as motorbikes and taxis drive by and beep their horns. Accra, Ghana is full of life and is always moving and busy. Coming from a small town in MI, to a big city where locking up at night with barbed wire over my fence and bars over my doors and windows is becoming more and more normal to me. God is good and is allowing me to adjust as time goes on. I have learned so much already and I know without a doubt God is preparing my heart of something big in the future.

I will be working at the Baby HOMe (West African Mercy Ministries) three days a week, and the other two days a week at another orphanage or care facility called Beacon House. It has been incredible to see how God has worked out my time here. I will be able to use my passion to work with people with special needs at both homes. I am so excited to start to build relationships and see improvements with the ones I am blessed to help.


What I have been praying about for many years is pursuing a degree in Physical Therapy and it is becoming more and more real to me as I stay here and see the needs around me. As I spend more and more time here working with babies such as Akos and Daniel, who are very special needs, my heart aches to want to help them more. I am currently considering going to school in September. This means that I will probably returning a lot sooner than I was originally planned. This is very hard for me, but at the same time I know God wants me to get this degree so I can pursue long term missions in the future. I have at least three years of school ahead of me and I can't see myself waiting yet another year to start. I will probably be coming back at the end of July or beginning of August of this year.

I want to make it clear that I am not giving up or wanting to call it quits here in Africa, I am simply taking the right steps toward a bigger goal. I have been putting schooling off for a while because I just "wanted to GO and help NOW!" That is what I kept on telling myself and I know I am suppose to be here at this time to help the ministry. I am so glad I came. I am learning so much being here on my own and living as a single women in a completely different culture and country. My heart has not changed to help those in need, rather is has intensified! I am only 22, but the years are flying by, and I feel it is the right time to start school again.

I see myself returning to Ghana, Africa long term or another country here in Africa after I finish school and join a mission organization. At the time I will have my physical therapy assistant degree along the passion to help the abandoned and needy.

All the babies are getting more and more precious every time I go there. I am in love with all of them! Prayer of course is needed for every one of the children at the home and their needs.

I have had and hopefully will continue tutoring Sandra before she starts school. I want to love on that girl so much. She is in need of Christs love!!

Some of the prayer requests are:
pray for families willing to adopt.
I also ask for prayer about the improvement of the babies health and physical conditions.
Prayer for my future plans and what God is asking me to do at this time.
Prayer for the McItyres, for they will be coming back to Ghana in June to stay a while.
Prayer for Akos and Daniel, that they will be able to receive physical therapy and teaching as time goes on and even after I leave!
Prayer for baby Ama, that she will be able to start on her meds soon!
Prayer for Sandra(a 13 year old girl staying here at that baby home that she will come to know Christ as her savior and know His wonderful love.




May He be Glorified,
Selina




Klink the dog, my companion at the house and keeps me safe ;)