Jesus Is The Reason For The Season

We had a good Thanksgiving, with a lot of Turkey to eat. We had Thanksgiving with my family the week before and then headed down to have Thanksgiving with Mack's parents. Nehemiah turned 4 years old on Nov. 28.

We were able to be a part of a Missions Conference at the beginning of December. What a wonderful church. They are excited and are moving forward with the ministry this coming new year. That is always an encouragement, and we added another church family to our support.

December is here, the kids had their Christmas program at school. Today is their Christmas party. I am so glad they get to be a part of a great school this year. We have learned a lot. Just the routine of things has been good. Your supposed to drop your babies off for their first year of kindergarten, but I dropped mine off for 3rd and 6th grade. Sad to say but June will come fast and we will be back in Ghana. Speaking of Ghana, things are going well at the church. Prince and the church are supposed to call us on Christmas Eve, that should be exciting.

Well don't get caught up in all the hustle and bustle this holiday season. Enjoy the Christ of Christmas, put him first, not the gifts. After all he is the reason for the season. Enjoy the time with your families.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Time Flyies

Well it is the end of October. Time has been flying. The kids started school and they love it. Matthew played soccer this year. Didn't play much, but it was good for him to be on a team and practice. Naomi really wanted to play volleyball, but I have been sick since August and I just couldn't do all that. I feel bad for her. I am doing better but not 100%. The doctor said an inner ear infection, which you do nothing, except wait. Now that I have had it for a while I think it has to do with stress? but what do I know?

The ministry here has been good. We have been to supporting churches, which the people are wonderful. We have seen some missionaries that we used to see on deputation, they are home on furlough as well. Things in Ghana are well, they just had a revival this last week. In fact a missionary is going there with a group and going to be in our church in Ghana, while we are here.

The kids put on a program at school for missions. "Around the World" our kids got a small speaking part and did a great job, they all did. Glad to have my Mom and Jessica along with Macks parents there to watch them.

We carved pumpkins and for the first time did pumpkin seeds this year. Getting ready for the Holidays and all the good food. Please keep us in your prayers. We love you and have a wonderful time enjoying people this holiday season. Even if things don't go your way.

Home Sweet Home

We are back in Ohio. We have not stopped moving since we landed in Ohio. The first week I was not feeling well. I think it took me some time to adjust this time. We were nice and cold the first week home as well. We were able to spend some time with my family. My niece had her graduation party in which time I was able to see many of my family members. For 4th of July after church we had a cookout at my Dads house and my brother and his boys were up from Mississippi. Enjoyed the Chippewa Lake parade, that really made me feel like I was home. The good old, Chippewa Roofing, Bears Towing and Cloverleaf marching band, we can not forget all the candy they throw out to the kids.

Our second day back we had to take Naomi to the doctors. While in Ghana she got a bug bite, it got infected. My sister who works at a doctors office was able to help get us in and the physicians assistant saw Naomi. They were able to take care of it and get her on an antibiotic. The blessing was the physicians assistant did her intern in Zambia, Africa, she attends a Baptist church and did not charge us for the two visits. AMEN!

Shopping, shopping, shopping. The boys needed some new clothes. The ones from Ghana are either to short or just plain wore out after 3 years. It hurts the budget when you have to do it all at one time and not over the course of the year. God has blessed in providing for us. We have a great big farm house that is fully furnished. The guy who owns it, is such a blessing and couldn't be nicer.

Looking forward to the many things planned for this summer. Enjoying our time with family before our meetings and school begins.

Saying Goodbye and Hello!!

We have just 3 Sunday's left in Ghana, before we leave for Ohio! It is an emotional time as we say goodbye to those we have come to love here in Ghana. Yet we are excited because we get to say Hello to our family and friends back in the States! It has been hard to stay focused and it crazy around here. The kids got done with school last week. They are helping me (I think) to clean and pack. It is hard to know what to take and what to leave behind. We have been preparing for our return when we first got back in 2007. Training and teaching the nationals to carry on the work in our absence. We feel God has enabled us with two great preachers who have not only been trained in the Bible school, but my husband has spent years and many hours teaching these men. Our church is young and small and excited. We have preachers and teachers and leaders in the church we didn't have 3 years ago. God has blessed! It is His church, we are just a tool being used in His ministry.

We had the graduation of 5 students in the Bible School, two are from our church, Cornerstone Biblical Baptist Church. We have Revival starting Sunday, May 3oth. We will be leaving Ghana on June 15th arriving in Ohio on June 16th.

We are excited to see everyone again. I have nieces and nephews I haven't met yet. Please pray for us not only as we travel but for the church here in Ghana. The church land is still a work in progress. Mack and Pastor Davis met with the lawyer (he is the one who owns it) he says it is for us, we can't back out now...he says just be patient as we are getting paper work done?? We have been working of this since November? He says by the end of June? of course we will be back in the States. It is not what we had planned but we are trusting in the Lord. As you see a lot of ???? Ghana is slow on most things they do. You can see the frustration. Our rent is up on the little room we are meeting in, in November.

God is good! and His blessing are evident! "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Ps 37:4 Are you being a delight to Him?

Time is flying!

Where has the time gone? We have been very busy with church activities. We had a good Easter service at church and baptized 5 in the ocean afterward. The following Sunday our church went over our church constitution for the evening service. We fried up some spring rolls and went over the long constitution. This Sunday April 18th was our church anniversary service. We had our leaders of the church over for lunch after church. We had a wonderful time of fellowship. For the evening service we showed some pictures of them over the past 6 years. We laughed at everyone being so young. We praise God for those who have stuck and are still serving God. Tomorrow is the last day of Bible school then we have 2 from our church graduating in May. We thank God for these two preachers. They have been preaching and teaching since the new year.

We are still waiting on the building? The lawyer who owns the property can not find the paper work saying he owns the land. He has to put an article in the paper saying if any one owns this property to come with the paperwork. If no one claims the land then he can officially get the paper work done. It has to be in the paper for a month. It is frustrating to say the least. We are trying to be patient and wait on the Lord. The Lord's timing is best. So for now all we can do is wait.

Our doors inside our house were being eaten by termites and rotting. So our landlord replaced them all. They had to knock the old frames out of the cement and it was a mess. We have all but 3 doors left to put on.

I have some things washed and ready to be packed but I can't get anything done, with the workers in the way. So I have to put off packing for another week or so. I just pack up things to keep them out of the dirt. I will not pack everything up. I have washed all the kids comforters and they are ready to be put in a Rubbermaid container. The guest room shower curtains and throw rugs etc. things like that I am trying to get out of the way. Then we have to pack up all our books from the book shelf to hep keep the mold and dust off of them.

We have graduation Sunday coming up in May and then a revival is scheduled for the end of May. The kids have 21 days left of school. I will be glad when that is finished. We fly out on June 15th to the great USA!! Please be in prayer for us as we would like to sell our vehicle before leaving. We also have to pay rent for the house here in Ghana for the year we are gone. We have a lot of expenses, but know God will provide. We have already seen His provisions.

Love

Well with Valentine's Day just Sunday, of course our topic is love. On Monday I did the Ladies Bible Study on Love. The title to our lesson is "Love is not a feeling, but a CHOICE" oh the girls were saying Madame Jackie, love is not a feeling? So I got their attention!! To be fair, love is a feeling, when you think of your parents, you love them, a certain thought or feeling that you have towards them. Your spouse, your children, your family. What does God say about Love? What about your enemies? Do you love them???? What about someone who has been unkind to you? Do you love them? God commands us to love our enemies? This is when love becomes a choice. That feeling is not there. We must choice to love, the unlovely people in this world. God loves them and died form them. We must choose to love like Christ loves.

Keep praying for the building in Sekondi for the church. We hope to have the place by our Anniversary Sunday which is in April. Pray!!

The kids are doing well with their piano lessons. They really enjoy their teacher and spending time with the other missionary children. Matthew and Joseph have been learning to play soccer. Which everyone in Ghana plays. They practice with our watchmen and Kendall a neighborhood boy. Joseph is pretty good, he plays hard and really goes for the ball, he is very competitive. I don't know where he gets that from? We will be home in the States for furlough in June. That is not very far away. There is so much to be done here, but we are excited to see God opening doors for the church here in Sekondi.

Fruit of the Spirit

I have started a new Bible study with the ladies after finally finishing the Ladies of the Bible study. We are going over the fruit of the spirit. However before we even get to the fruit of the spirit we have to deal with the works of the flesh and empty ourselves and our desires and our will. Wow! The Lord spoke to my heart. Sometimes you don't realize how selfish you are until God shows you. If you read Gal. 5:19-21 these are the works of the flesh. We are just tilling up our ground getting rid of the rocks (sin) so we can plant the seed so the fruit of the spirit will grow. I have a lot of rocks and in some places my ground is hard. With God I can have the power to overcome the flesh and allow to be led by the spirit. It is a choice I must make, daily, hourly, to do right. Look at Gal. 5:22-23. These are the fruits of the spirit that can grow if we get rid of self. An old missionary said something to Amy Carmichael when she was a young missionary that stayed with her for life. She has spoken of something which was not to her liking. His reply was, 'See in it a chance to die.'

Lord,
I crawled
across the barrenness
to You
with my empty cup,

uncertain
but asking
any small drop
of refreshment.

If only
I had known You better
I'd have come
running with a bucket.

I am only on the third lesson, but God has spoken to my heart. The title of the book is "Be Patient - I'm Not Perfect Yet. Thank God he is patient. I remember as a little girl I had a book mark with the same title on it. I will never be perfect until I meet my Lord, however I can try to be more like Him. The choice is mine and yours.

Computer is WORKIG!!

So much has happened since I was able to write in my journal. Mack has made several trips to Accra this month. (DECEMBER) Our yearly renewal to stay in Ghana is all finished, we have the stamp and everything. PTL. Joseph broke his glasses so they both headed to Accra to get him a new pair. Then he headed back to buy some Christmas gifts. Then he had to return some Christmas gifts. JOY!

Our computer is up and running. On one of those trips to Accra he picked up an Internet security for the computer. I think we had a couple of virus.

Priscilla and Nellie came to the house before Christmas to help me bake some Christmas cookies and banana bread for the Church Christmas Party. I got them a little bracelet as a gift. Lamissy wanted to come but at the last minute her Uncle needed her at the house. Prince and Koasi came over and helped put together the Blessing baskets to hand out during our Christmas Caroling with the church. We had a great time Christmas Caroling. We have never done that before in Ghana. Not sure how it would work? I needed a scarf and gloves or something. We had candles so I guess that made it feel festive. We gave the baskets to four families with someone in that family who already comes to church, to encourage others from the family to attend church. We wanted to be a blessing and show the Love of Christ this Christmas season. Our last visit was to Lamissy's uncle. Lamissy is so excited for the Lord, but her uncle hinders her. He allows her to come Sunday morning but that is all, she would love to come for the other services and extra activities but is not allowed. When we showed up at her house, he was talking very rough, asking her if she knew we where coming. He came out of the house and greeted us, (he was not to happy) after we where done singing we presented our basket. He was surprised. He thanked us and Lamissy sent his thanks again on Sunday morning. We have seen her come even for the Christmas Eve service.

Mack bought some pizza cheese for Christmas. We are planning on having pizza for New Years Day! the kids are excited about that. It is a treat for us. We hope you all have a Happy New Year!!!!!!!

The end of the year is here

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving . I know we did. We had plenty of food and even had a turkey this year and it was good. Thanks to another family bringing it from Kumasi. We enjoyed the fellowship of our other missionaries friends and we certainly are thankful for God's blessings.

On Wednesday morning as we were scouring about to get the house cleaned up for our company to arrive. Matthew was running through the living room, tripped and knocked his head on the coffee table. He split his head open on the side near his eye. He ended up with 3 stitches. He is doing fine.

Did some Christmas shopping already. Not much to buy. It is our big good will store. I manage to find 2 pairs of NEW jeans for Mack, I just have to have them hemmed? Trying to find something for the boys is a challenge. Naomi there is always purses, shoes, girly stuff to buy. We are having a wooden checker board made for the boys. The kid are getting excited. Me, it is to hot to get excited. Way to hot, to be in the Christmas spirit. Remember Jesus is the reason for the Season.

We are having trouble with our computer. It has been working here and there. So if you don't hear from us that is the reason. Please keep praying for the property here in Ghana? They are negotiating on a price. The land is valued at a high price, but God can work and they can give us a reasonable price. AMEN! The building that is currently on the property has to be torn down. It looks like it could fall over any time. If this is not the place, pray that God directs us to another place. Bible School finishes up next week with exams and will have a break until the New Year!

Answering Prayer

I taught in Sunday school about the parable of Answered prayer. The man who continuously knocked at his neighbors door for 3 loaves of bread. He knocked until he got what he requested. So that morning I proved God and he answered my prayer. Our land lord to the place we meet for church, just said he have to pay extra or get out. Even though we signed a 2 year contract and have only fulfilled one year. So we are praying that God opens doors as only he can. The Bible says to pray continuously. God will meet your needs.

Tuesday we have a ladies activity. We went to Olivia's Kitchen to eat and then we came to our house to watch a movie. I made some banana bread and Nellie made us some toffee from the sweetened condensed milk. We had a good time of fellowship and before they left we had a devotion about being a friend. Jesus is the best friend that we have. Have you told your friend about your best friend?

6 Years in Ghana

On November 12, 2003 we boarded the airplane that brought us to Ghana. We have been serving God in Ghana for the past 6 years. We first took a trip to Ghana in 1999. The Lord has been good to us and blesses us as we continue to serve Him. Our first Thanksgiving we had in Ghana we were all alone, we prayed for our meal and cried. We were so thankful but we missed our family and knew everyone was all together on this special day. On Christmas we had a water fight it was fun, but in Ghana you don't waste water.

As I think about the past 6 years there has been some interesting events:
The time I was making breakfast and the watermelon was making a hissing noise. I thought I will take care of that watermelon just as soon as I get the kids fed. Well that thought no longer left my mind when all of the sudden the watermelon exploded!!! Matthew and I was standing there covered in watermelon and we were so surprised we just looked at each other and started laughing. Then the same week. I was making meatloaf. I set the cooked meatloaf on top of the oven. I turned to go to the sink and the glass baking dish EXPLODED into a billion tiny pieces. One landed on my toe and burnt it. I had never seen anything like that. Needless to say dinner was ruined. We had chicken and potatoes for the first 6 months we lived here. Matthew is not fond of chicken to this day. The kids would take their baths in big plastic tubs. If it was raining the kids would all run outside and grab the soap and take a shower in their bathing suits. We lived out of our suitcases for the first 9 months in Ghana. Not FUN! We only had what we brought in our suitcase. Once we moved to Takoradi we were able to dig a well and now we have free water! AMEN! The time Macks car rolled down into the garbage dump. DOWN in the garbage dump. They had to get a big truck with a crane to pull it back up the mountain of trash. The time our dog got electrocuted, she was frying, she is still alive today. Ghana's bumpy roads they will literally shake your car apart. This summer we took a trip up North to the game reserve. No bathrooms, no fast food, bumpy roads, getting lost, taxi breaking down in the middle of no where. It was not a fun trip. Traveling around Ghana is not something we look forward to.
As I look back over the years. I see God's hand in everything. Somethings I am not sure why they happened but I can still see God, maybe to make us laugh, maybe to be thankful for the little things. As we have been in Ghana we have had poisonous snakes and scorpions in our yard, we are around disease and sickness, poor hygiene and raw sewage. God has kept our family safe and healthy and that is worth more than all the money in the world. You can't buy good health. Only by God's grace. We miss our family. We have family member we haven't met. (newborns) Sometimes it doesn't seem worth the sacrifice and you want to quit. Then I get the focus off of me and back were is should be on God and I see it is worth it all. In Eternity if they have Christ as their Saviour we will have all Eternity to be together. I praise God that I have something to look forward to, Heaven, and I will be bringing some Ghanaians along with me.

Glad When My Children Listen to Me

We were waiting for the children to arrive for Sunday school. The kids meet under a tent across from were the church meets. There are some little kiaz (sheds) were people set up a store or a hair dresser or a shoe mender. Well I noticed some men working on cement and they were signing back and forth to each other. I thought to myself, I wish I new sign language. I know very little and we have tried to teach ourselves, but with no one to practice on it doesn't help. As we were waiting a girl was motioning to Nehemiah to come. I noticed she was deaf. I told Naomi to go and sign to her, the little that she knew. Naomi didn't want to go. I finally convinced her and together we went and talked/signed to her. I was amazed at how much you could understand what she was saying. She could speak some words, so she must of had some hearing when she was younger. We also got a pen and paper and communicated that way. I am so glad and so is Naomi that she listened to her mother. I hope she sets up her store soon, and maybe Naomi can even meet with her weekly for some lessons. I would love that.

I made some candy this week. Here in Ghana they make a candy or toffee made from coconut, sugar, lime juice. It is so good. I just discovered it about a few weeks ago. I think I tried it before and thought it was gross. A girl walked past the church with some every week so I would buy some and then give it to the kids for answering questions etc. Last week she didn't come. I had asked some of the girls at church how to make it. There is also another one made from sweetened condensed milk. This is the one I made. Just add the milk and a little butter and whola you have some toffee. You have to cook it until it changes to a brown color and it will become thick. The longer you cook it the harder it becomes. Just don't burn it. You roll it out and cut it into 1" pieces or so. YUM!! Mack even enjoyed it.

Busy Revival Week

We started out our Revival on Sunday. Bro. Widener and his family was coming from Cape Coast to preach for Sunday evening. Their van broke down about 30min. from the house. You can't call Triple AAA or someone to come help. Especially on Sunday. Mack called two of his mechanics and neither one could come help. P.T.L the van started and the made it to the church. Our electric was out all day on Sunday, it was so hot and no fans, and what did I cook for lunch?? Soup of all things. Who wanted hot soup on a hot day, I guess I was thinking we would turn on the air and it wouldn't be so bad.

Monday Pastor Davis preached. I enjoyed his message very much. Tuesday and Wednesday we had Pastor Dogar a national come speak. He knew Bro. Bob Hayes, Bro. Hayes taught him in Bible School in the early 60's. We enjoyed having him in our home. We had the Prince and Koasi (Bible School Students) join us for lunch on Wednesday. We had a great week of Revival.

Thursday I spend the day in bed. I was so sick. It started out Wednesday night. I stayed in my room so if I was contagious I didn't want anyone else to get it. It was that bad. Feeling okay now. The busy week is over and looking forward to Sunday.

Boxes

It was an exciting day at our house. Mack came home with 2 boxes from the Post Office. The kids were excited to see what we got. Grandma and Grandpa S. sent us some boxes, 5 to be exact. The first two arrived and we got some goodies for Thanksgiving and some clothes for the children. Which the kids didn't get to see. We are saving them for Christmas. Mack went and picked up the 3 other boxes form the Post Office the next day. Mack ate a bag of m&m's his mom had sent. He said he was going into a sugar coma, he hasn't eaten those in a couple of years. We did receive another box from our missions secretary with Bibles in them. My mom stuffed some shirts and kool-aid in on the side for me. It is nice to have a taste of home every so often.

Our revival at church starts Sunday. We are excited to have Pastor Dogor coming to join us. He was a Bible student of the late Missionary Bob Hayes back in the early days of his ministry. Looking forward to meeting and hearing from him. I have some batteries for my camera so I will get some pictures of the up coming events.

Why not?

I have been reading many blogs about people, ministries and family. Which made me think why not start one of my own. We have our newsletter blog http://matthewsiekbert.blogspot.com but I thought, why not start a journal. So you have it, Jackie's Journal. This will include everyday life here in Ghana. It may be about the family, ministry or whatever is on my mind...hmmm
Hope you enjoy reading.

Jackie