Visa Approved!

Now typically when I use that phrase it's in reference to a credit card purchase, but yesterday I got my passport back from the Ghanaian embassy with my visa stapled inside. woohoooooo!

One more potential barrier down!

So, in my last conversation with the volunteer coordinator at Linking Cultures he mentioned that he was working on my accomodations and getting me a "gas stove and some cooking utensils." I hope this doesn't mean that I won't have electricity. I think I need to clarify this point. On the other hand, the information on the website lists other perks, like my very own mosquito net. I wonder if I can strain pasta with it?

So . . . I have this friend

And her name is Yolanda. She's marrying her fiancee Edwin in December and I'm a bridesmaid. (the man in the photo is not Edwin, just some waiter we met in Paris last year.) The wedding is taking place in Accra and so - this is how I started researching volunteering opportunities in Ghana. I found Linking Cultures through a Google search, they posted a position for a volunteer music therapist at the Autism Awareness care and Training Centre in Accra. And so . . . through divine design I'll be working with kids with autism on the other side of the globe.

Doing this trip is easy, talking about it, well that's another story!

So, I've been asking for prayer and support from my church, Bethel Fellowship located at the Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia. http://www.fmchurch.net/ And they have responded in a big way. From the day I started talking about it, a couple who I deeply repect for their love of the Lord encouraged me to think about volunteering at the Autism Centre as ministry.

Now - doing music therapy . . . that I know! And it's not new to me to go into a different country and respond to their needs. I've been back and forth to Honduras several times over the past few years working with kids with special needs and supporting the Gerezim Church in Tegucigulpa, Honduras, C.A. I guess it's just thinking of myself as a missionary that I have a tough time wrapping my head around.

Anyway - I'm just a little more than a month away from departure and I've been asked to speak about this at my church and I'm terrified. General public speaking fear aside, I guess I'm afraid that talking about the gut feeling I have that I'm supposed be doing this makes me sound like a nut. God doesn't speak to me in a deep, booming voice. Perhaps if He did, that would make things a little more concrete and understandable. But what I do believe is that God created a very detailed plan for my life and this trip is a part of it. My previous trips to Honduras have been great preparation. I mean, what are the odds of googling (yes, it's a verb now) music therapy and Ghana and finding a volunteer job posting for a music therapist, working with children with Autism? Autism of all things happens to be a specialty for me. (Although reading this post, you might guess that run-on sentences are my specialty. whatever.) So I guess that there are times when God needs a traditional missionary who learns the language and starts a church where there needs to be one, and then I guess there are some of us with incredibly specialized training and experience who get to fill incredibly specialized needs.

And so, I will plan my (blessedly short) talk about this trip and try not to obsess over my fear of public speaking. More later on how Ghana even crossed my radar. . .