had a good weekend...saturday morning the
dental team went to the fishing village of ningo (N-I-N-G-O and ningo was it's name-o), located about and hour east of tema harbor. we went at the invitation of a former interpreter, moses, who interpreted for the dental team 12 years ago when mercy ships was last in ghana. now he's a pastor and sponsor of an orphanage in ningo..."hearts of the father outreach" which was started by an american couple after they lost their three children in a car accident. the couple now sponsors several such orphanages in various countries.
anyways, i had a mental picture of what an orphanage would be like...lots of disheveled little kids hoping to be adopted...and i was prepared to have my heart broken. well it turns out that my heart was more blessed than broken...
the kids at this orphanage are not
up for adoption, they have simply been abandoned by their parents. in ghana a child cannot be put up for adoption unless their parents sign a consent form. so kids who are abandoned are not eligible for adoption. however, often these abandoned kids are left homeless or worse, shuttled into the
child trafficking industry. hearts of the father is run by a ghanaian couple who, with the assistance of two paid helpers, have taken
in 27 of these abandoned children and are raising them in a large single story home. the two girls in the pic above are twins whose parents abandoned them after using them to beg for money. the couple feels that both ghana and the children are better served if the kids stay in the country (as opposed to being adopted out) and are raised as upstanding ghanaian citizens. the home has boys/girls dorm rooms with bunk beds, a kitchen, a family room and bathrooms, all surrounding a central courtyard area.
the place is amazing...the
"mama and papa" are some of the most loving, caring people i've ever met and the children are thriving in their care. after giving us a tour of their facilities, they gathered the children into the courtyard area and invited them to come forward individually to sing songs for us or give testimonies. mama's pride in the children was obvious in her smile and in her constant cheering and encouragement. afterwards we spent the afternoon playing games with the kids. we left there feeling
that they had blessed us way more
than anything we had done
for them. some of us are hoping to
make a financial contribution to their home...they rely on donations to keep the place going. they had to stop hiring a security guard recently because funds were short ("god is our security guard now") and the little bus they own has broken down and sits rusting in the yard. they said that their biggest need is for bicycles...they currently only have five that are shared between all the kids to get to school and back.
i've spent the rest of the weekend
doing laundry and catching up on sleep. this cold is refusing to go away so i'm trying the "if i'm asleep i don't notice my nose running" approach.
the pic at right is me and my friend meg (from seattle) sitting in the back of the land rover on our way to ningo.
# posted by Jenn @ 3:42 PM