Zach Groves's Archive

its crazy to think that we have less than one week left in africa, but that is indeed the case. im ready to be home but there will be some sadness too.
the kids are going to take it pretty hard, cuz lets face it- im pretty cool. seriously though, saying goodbye to the kids is going to be tough but im ready for american life again. cleanliness, fast food, and people that speak good english, not so early mornings, late nights, cars, satellite television, and bacon, hot showers, cold drinks and reliable internet being among them. these are the things i am looking forward to.

the next couple days offer some excitement though. the president of ghana comes tomorrow so thats pretty cool. also we might get the chance to visit a liberian refugee camp before we leave. im pretty pumped about that.
its difficult to process this trip while i am still on it so i will not attempt to do so at this time.

we have been back in fetteh at the voh for almost a week now which means we only have like 2 and ahalf weeks left before we leave to america. sad stuff.

i love how unscripted my days at the village are. every morning i wake up (usually around 4 due to all the noise of the kids and the birds and the light of the sunrise) and think to myself ‘what do i feel like doing today?’ most of the time the answer is ‘go to the beach!’ i usually lay in bed for  an hour and a half or two hours and go to tills beach resort to read the bible and have some hang out with jesus. its so beautiful. when i get back its time to eat breakfast at which point i get to decide if im going to help teach, work at the clinic, or help out at the nursery. also, they started a construction project at the church so i might help with that.

im so honored to be a part of the ministry that is taking place here. maybe day to day im not doing anything that groundbreaking or spectacular, but im sowing into what God is doing in ghana and that has eternal ramifications.

im also very blessed to be here with shelby ashton and michelle. shelby is a baller shot caller and everybody knows it. she she’s cool without trying. ashton has gods heart for kids and it shows all the time. all the kids love her because of the holy spirit inside of her. michelle is so gifted as a teacher and a goalkeeper. also she loves jesus so much its hard to describe and creates a culture of positive peer pressure.

i like it here.

peace out girl scouts.

ok so ghana is really cool.

lately i have moved from the classroom to construction work. i was having a lot of fun teaching, but i really love construction work. the workers are so much stronger and faster than me so i feel like i have to outwork them to keep up. the only problem is their work ethic is also a lot better than mine.

we leave nkwatia to go back to the village on thursday and tho im really looking forward to being back with the kids and the beach, but there is a lot i will miss about nkwatia. first there’s the van that takes us to and from school. its a vw bus circa whenever vw busses stopped being cool. the battery is by the door, the engine is under the drivers seat and the radiator is under the passenger seat. the back windshield is made of scotch tape, the doors are all stuck and they cram like 40 kids and there. and thats a conservative estimate. then there’s richmond. richmond is the headmaster at church of christ school nkwatia. he looks shockingly like randall from monsters inc. he loves the kids so much and our wellbeing is so high on his priorities. he’s one of the most gentle people i know. then there’s christopher, the preacher. he is such a man of god. his knowledge of the word is so solid and he’s so goofy. he’s such a character i love him. then there’s the whether. its a lot cooler up in the mountains than down in fetteh.

more updates later.

the team has been in teaching at the village of hope’s sattelite school in nkwatia.  we’re living in a guest house in nearby abitifi with the lipscomb group.

the weather here is a lot cooler and a lot less humid cuz we’re tucked up in the mountains. its still pretty tropical tho.

our job here is pretty much strictly teaching. we have a lot of down time cuz all the kids here go home after school so our days end at 4. back at the village when school ended we would hang out and love up on the kids till bedtime. i figured out im a lot better teacher than i thought. i also figured out teaching is as fun as you want it to be. when the kids act up i make them do push ups or spin around until they’re dizzy. if they get a hard question right i let them take a victory lap around the class while their classmates applaud for them.  its pretty fun.

while im having a good time here im really looking forward to going back to fetteh in 2 weeks.  i feel like im making a difference at the village whereas here, even if im doing an ok job, im still not as good a teacher as the ones already employed here. plus we dont spend anytime with the kids outside of school so its hard to do ministry with them.  its definitely a learning experience here in nkwatia, but i dont think we’re really doing anything special. im not one to measure the effectiveness of kingdom work by numbers, but practically speaking, we’re not making an impact in the kids lives. 

the food situation is a lot better at the village too. not gonna lie, thats a big factor in why im excited to go back.

so ya i dont really know how people usually end blog posts cuz im not a hipster and i dont have a blog so ya. the end.