Close of Chapter

Hey,

    First off, I wanted to say that I am safe and sound at home. I was met at the airport by my parents, two of my sisters, one of my brothers-in-law, and 15 or 20 of my friends from youth group. Since then, been catching up with family and friends while getting over jet lag.

    There is really no where to begin when trying to sum up the last 7+ months. The first 2.5 months (lecture phase), were totally different from the second 2.5 months (outreach phase and debrief), which were totally from the last 2 months (working with Evergreen). I learned so much during each one of these periods and I am really excited to start applying what I've learned to life at home. Next up is finding a job again, applying to UTSA to start in the fall, and get my band back together to try to recreate something similar to what I've witnessed the past couple of months with Evergreen.

    I can't thank you enough for all the ways you have supported me since September. I feel that God has been preparing me for something amazing and I am excited to step into that.

    "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit"
(Romans 15:13)

Will Clegg

Heading Home

Well,

    The time for me to head home has finally arrived. The past two months have been amazing and and I have learned a ton. Going to probably give one or two last updates once I get home, but for now I just wanted to thank you for your prayers to this point and also ask for your prayers for safe travel.

    I leave for the airport in less than 24 hours, and I am pretty much ready to go; so I can in just enjoy my last day here. Prayers that I would be able to endure some hard goodbyes would be appreciated as well.

Again, thank you so much for all your prayers and for keeping up with what I've been up to!

God Bless,

Will Clegg

Provision

Hey,

      There were a couple of stories I wanted to share related to God’s provision for me able to stay this extra time. First off, when I was first given the opportunity to stay on with Evergreen, realistically, the funds to even consider staying were not to be seen. I was essentially planning on forgetting the idea of staying, but literally a couple hours before I let for Ghana, Andy (of Evergreen) reminded of the things which seemed to confirm that God wanted me to stay. I left the continent telling God that if He wanted me to stay He had a good bit of providing to do. Over the course of outreach I got multiple emails from people saying that God had put me on their heart recently and wished to support me more financially. Also, important to mention, before outreach (and before the opportunity with Evergreen came about) I had given a good chunk of extra support money to the Ghana team because a couple of the other members were very short in their funds. I had felt slightly uneasy about that choice after the Evergreen opportunity came up, because if I had not given that money, staying the extra time would be no problem. I really had to pray through releasing the money totally in my heart. However, at the end of outreach, Ghana team ended up with extra funds; so we prayed about how to use the funds. We had already given several hundred pounds to the orphanage, and had supported some of the people we met who were in need. After we finished praying about how to use the extra money, both leaders felt that some of the money should be given back to support me in my new adventure. Coming back from outreach, I had the funds to stay, but just barely. I had two months of rent  and food to pay for, and that was just the beginning of the expenses, but God wasn’t done providing yet.

    Another issue to face was housing. At the beginning of March there were only two unallocated beds on the whole base, and it was unlikely I could get either of these. For a couple weeks I had been trying to find a time to sit down and talk with the housing people about getting someplace to live, and when I finally found a time to talk them another miraculous provision occurred. As I was walking into the administration building, one of the staff from my school was also walking into the building. He had a situation to work out as well. He already had a room and bed allocated and paid for, but he was leaving the country for a month and a half to have surgery back in his home country (Egypt). He and I actually talked just outside of the office realizing that our situations solved each other. We agreed that I would stay in his room while he was gone and I would pay for one month of rent while he paid for the other. So not only did I have a place to stay, but I had it for half the price I thought I was going to pay. BUT WAIT, there was one more issue; there was a week between I was supposed to move out of the room I was in and when I could move into the new room. However that was solved too, because the person in charge of the housing area where I lived got graduation dates mixed up and therefore the kick out date was a week later, exactly the day I could move into the new room.

      The last issue I was facing was a soon to expire visa. Since I was not technically staff, I could not apply for the extension of my existing visa. Thus, since I was officially just hanging out with the Evergreen guys, I needed to get tourist visa. This required me to leave and then return to the country. I had planned on just flying to Dublin, Ireland for a couple days to meet this need, but things were not working out the way I expected. I had been informed that I could easily find a plane ticket to Dublin for 20 or 30 pounds, but the day I got online to book my ticket, the cheapest ones I could find were 120 pounds.  This was definitely beyond what I could afford, but God had a plan up His sleeve. I started looking for the cheapest plane tickets I could find, and that ended up being tickets to Germany. In that moment I was like, “Hey, I know people in Germany now. This will be cool.” I sent out an email asking some of my German friends asking if anyone could put me up for a couple of days, but almost the whole day went by and I heard no replies. I was starting to stress, because the longer I waited the more expensive the plane tickets got. Just near the end of the day, I got an email from one of my friend’s parents offering me a place to stay. However, they ended up not only offering me a place to stay, but also offered to pay for all my expenses (including traveling to Germany and traveling within Germany to visit some of my other friends in Germany). This was the peak of perfect provision. Just when my plans fell through and I couldn’t afford what I needed, God stepped in and surpassed my expectations through some amazingly generous people.

      Now, every little detail has been worked out to stay, and I can just enjoy my time here till I head home in just under a month now. Like I said, it is so clear that God wants to be here right now, so I am just trying to take everything in to make sure that I get everything out of this that I am meant to get out of this.

I hope this encourages you that God is indeed our provider.

God bless,

Will Clegg

Graduation and March

Hey all,

    It has been a little while since I gave an update on what I’ve been up to recently. It was a month ago last night that I officially graduated the DTS, and since then a lot has been happening.

     Between getting back from Ghana and graduation, we had two weeks of debriefing. During this time we reflected on a lot of things that God had taught us over lecture phase and outreach, and talked through what it might be like to adjust back to life outside of the DTS context. This led straight into our graduation on February 28^th.

     Over the next few days after graduation, our DTS began to separate for the final time as people packed and headed home. This was a very hard couple of days. It was literally just one hard goodbye after another, but it wasn’t anything we didn’t know would come eventually.

   As you know, I was planning on starting to work with Evergreen (the band I mentioned before) after graduation, but on their suggestion I took a week off between graduating and starting with them. I spent the first half of the week trying to survive the above mentioned goodbyes, and the second part of the week winding down and getting a chance to take a deep breath. Then, exactly a week after graduating I started going on the road with them. (Again, just to reiterate my goal in staying on with these guys: I am really interested in trying to recreate something similar to what they do, back home, and by spending this time with them I hope to get a clearer picture of how God wants me to do this and to learn from these guys’ wisdom). After just the first night helping the guys get to and set up for a show, I was already learning lessons about how real of a mission field the music industry is. Just seeing the presence that Evergreen brought to the venue compared to the presence that some of the other bands brought to the venue was amazing. While other bands were glorifying violence, sex, and drugs from the stage it was awesome to see 4 guys pick up some instruments and worship God through their music and their words.

     Since then, I have been to several more gigs with them, and right now I am just hanging out as they write up the finishing touches for their new album which they will begin recording the 1^st of April. I have already gotten a lot out of my time with them and I am sure I will learn much more. Being here at all has been a miracle of God; everything has been provided for in amazing ways, from finances, room/board, to visa situations. There are a couple more testimonies I would like to share in regards to those things, but they will have to wait till next time.

I do have a couple prayer requests I’d to mention:

(1): That I will apply myself in getting all that I need to get out of this extra time here.

(2): I find myself needing the simple self-discipline to stay spiritually healthy, now that I am  again making my own schedule. (No longer being in the very structured schedule of DTS,).

Thank all of you again so much for your concerns and prayers.

God bless,

Will Clegg

Ghana: Churches

    The second biggest ministry we did in Ghana was to speak at and work with local churches. Every Sunday, we would attend (and possibly speak at) a church. With the exception of two churches, which we visited twice, we visited a different church every week. If we were to teach there, we would pray about who should speak and/or give a testimony, and then he or she would give a message to the church. This was one of the most stretching experiences for me. Attending these churches was stretching in and of itself, as they were very charismatic, but the opportunity to speak at them was an opportunity I was glad to have. Within most of these churches, there was a lot of materialism and religious tradition with no true understanding behind it. Through our testimonies we were able challenge many people to really walk out their faith beyond the walls of the church.

    Also, through connecting with some of these churches, we were able to join alongside their existing ministries. For example, there were two churches with which we did street and door-to-door evangelism. This was another awesome experience that I was glad to have. Door-to-door in Ghana could not have been more different from door-to-door in the States or in the U.K.. In Ghana, you knocked on a door and before you got a chance to say your name you had been invited inside, been given a place to sit, and possibly been given something to drink. It was a great experience to share my faith, or even just to encourage somebody through a visit. This something I hope to continue to do now that I have more experience with it.

    I hope the past several blogs have given you a taste of what we did in Ghana. It is impossible to totally describe how we impacted Ghana and how Ghana impacted us as a team, but I hope this gives you some Idea.

Again, thank you for all the pray you guys supported us with while we were there.

Will Clegg

Ghana: Tegby

    The fourth week we were in Ghana we went to the Volta region of Ghana, specifically to the area of the Tegby village. The two main reasons we were there were to (1) visit a slave castle that was near Tegby, and (2) to get cultural exposer to some of the less westernized parts Ghana. We spent four days in Dean Dallas’s father’s village, eating off of banana leaves with our hands, bathing in water out of a well, fishing with the locals, the whole nine yards.

   The night before we left for Tegby, getting ready to leave early the next morning, it was slightly depressing to be setting my alarm for 2:30 am. 2:30 am seemed simply way too early for a day to start, but never the less I went to bed ready to get very little sleep. After what was essentially a prolonged nap, we had a quick breakfast and were headed toward the bus station by 3:00 am. By 4:00 am we were on a crowded bus, sitting, waiting for the bus to leave. This lasted for about an hour. This was one of the more miserable hours of my life. Having people rub various parts of their bodies up against you as more and more people continued to push the bus’s capacity to new limits, was not exactly my idea of a good time. Shortly after 5:00 am we were on road to Tegby. Things got less miserable as the open windows let some cool air into the overcrowded bus. A little after 9:00 am, we finally arrived in Tegby (or at least the bus dropped us off on the side of the road near Tegby). It was so nice to finally arrive at our destination, but as I grabbed my backpack off the bus I was slightly bitter that it was possible to have already been awake for seven hours.

     After a 15 minute walk with all our gear, we were finally sitting in the enclosure of Dean Dallas’s father’s compound (a little area inside four cinder block walls). We said greetings, saw the duck that was later to be dinner, and then we were ready to face the rest of the day. By 10:30 we were heading toward the beach. The beach was literally about a 45 second walk, and was probably the most beautiful beach I had ever seen (it reminded me of a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean). There, we joined the line of local villagers pulling in their fishing nets. It took about 45 minutes to drag in one net, but for our efforts in helping pull in the nets, we were given a portion of the catch, and as guests of the village we awarded the prize catch, which was a 4-ish ft. barracuda.

    We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach, enjoying a chance to swim in the good old Atlantic Ocean. By the late afternoon we were heading back to the enclosure to try to get our mosquito nets up by night fall. By 7:00 pm, after a barracuda dinner, we were all huddled in our mosquito nets trying to get comfortable on the sand. This, not surprisingly, proved impossible. Besides the sand being really uncomfortable to sleep on, Dean Dallas snoring loudly, and a rooster thinking that the sun rose at 3:00 am, it was almost a somewhat restful night. Despite the day’s many discomforts, I laid under my mosquito net having enjoyed the day as a whole, and was quite pumped for the rest of the weekend.

     The next morning, after a breakfast of some corn…stuff, we headed back to the road side to get a van to the slave castle. After our time at the castle, we had some traditional Ghanaian spicy rice and beans (after being in England for 3 months it was nice to have spicy food again): then, came one of our coolest and possibly most impactful opportunities of the weekend. When our visit was first planned, Dean Dallas’s father let the “Chief of Chiefs” of the Tegby region know of our upcoming visit. Thus, we were given the honor of being invited to come to the house of the “Chief of Chiefs” (who was called Togby). When we arrived at his house, our eyes met two rows of chairs facing each other. We, the guests sat in one row, and the chief’s elders sat in the other row leaving one seat open for Togby. Soon after we sat down, Togby exited from his house and took his seat among the elders. It was a very traditional meeting, and we did our best to honor those traditions. Another man sat in front of Togby; he was the mediator between us and Togby (we were not allowed to make eye contact with or directly address the chief). Still, we were welcomed with hospitality and had the opportunity to explain the reason of our visit to Ghana. Togby also talked about his heart and vision for the area, and by the end of the meeting he was offering us land to build a YWAM base in Tegby. Dean Dallas, who thinks he may be called back to Ghana, is still seriously considering taking the chief up on the offer to build a base there to further bring up young men and women in God’s word. As we left, the chief who we were at first not allowed to look at, was insisting we take pictures with him, and we walked out of his house with his blessing on our mission.

     The rest of the weekend consisted mainly of what had already been doing; swam some in the ocean, helped out the villagers again with their fishing, and in general just really let the culture of the village really sink in. The girls were slightly scarred by the slaughtering of the duck for dinner that night, but besides that and never getting much sleep, it was really an incredible weekend that none of us will ever forget. 

Ghana: Slave Castles

      The only other pre-planed ministry we had in Ghana was to visit and pray at several slave castles. We ended up only visiting two over the duration of our time in Ghana, but both were powerful visits. Facing the reality of the horrible things that took place at these castles was very humbling for all of us. Since one of the main focuses of our mission to Ghana was reconciliation/justice we felt it was important to pray at these locations where so much injustice happened.

     Several of us, upon simply arriving at these locations, felt nauseous and sick to the stomach. There was clearly a heavy presence at these castles, but battling that presence was ultimately the reason why we were there.

(hopefully I can get some pictures of these castles soon, but without pictures it is really hard to explain just what these slave castles were like to visit)

Ghana: City of Refuge

    Our main ministry while in Ghana was with an orphanage called City of Refuge (or C.O.R. for short). Three days a week we would make the hour-long, bumpy journey to C.O.R.. What exactly we did there looked different as we were there longer and as we adjusted to how we could be most helpful. At first, we were there while the kids were still on Christmas break (their Christmas break lasted until the middle of January); so, we spent pretty much the entire time of our day there (10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) just hanging out with the kids. We would play football (soccer) with them, play basketball with them, organize activities for them, eat lunch with them, and really just try to be there for them. This went on until the time school started, at which we were planning to start helping out at the school that was on the C.O.R property. However, once we started helping out at the school, we realized that our time was not being best used there, because we were actually less help at the school than we thought we’d be. So we again adjusted to how we could help the most. Thus, we started coming an hour before school ended to help with a little bit of the practical work that needed to be done around the school (organizing books, etc.); then, once the non-C.O.R. kids left, we would help with homework and then play games with kids.

     This was probably the favorite ministry we did in Ghana. Even in the relatively short time we were there, we were able to build some awesome relationships with the kids. I personally got close to a boy named D.K. He and I spent several hours a day playing basketball together and I would occasionally break out my mad math skills to help him with his 6^th-grade math homework. One thing that surprised all of us was what a passion for Christ all the kids had at such a young age. The couple that ran the orphanage and the couple that acted as the “mom and dad” for the orphanage were amazing, and their love for the kids was so evident.  As it often is in ministry, you go expecting to just bless others, but end up getting blessed yourself.

     Just to tell you a bit about what  C.O.R. does exactly, I’ll elaborate a bit on what I had said before we left for Ghana. Essentially, C.O.R. works rescuing kids out of the Volta region in Ghana. Child trafficking is fairly common in that area, as parents will end up selling their children to the fishermen who work Lake Volta. C.O.R works raising awareness for child trafficking, and also takes it upon themselves to get as many kids out of the hands of the fishermen as possible. Working the lake is extremely dangerous for anyone, but these kids are forced to work as young as the age of 6 years old. The conditions are horrible and the children are treated as no more than property. To rescue a child, C.O.R. would start by tracking down the parents of a child and getting their permission to take the kids away from the fishermen and put them in school; then, the rest would be dealing with the fishermen trying to get permission to rescue  the kids, paying them if necessary. Once at C.O.R, depending on the age of the child, they would either try to find a family to adopt the child, or just plan on raising them themselves at the orphanage/school. That is just a rough summery of what C.O.R.’s mission was; to see more about what they do I would REALLY encourage you to check at their website at http://www.cityofrefugeoutreach.com/

    One other story from C.O.R I wanted share was just once really unexpected ministry opportunity. In our second week of working at C.O.R another team of college students came from Cornell University in New York, who were there as a required part of their degree. In just saying hi to some fellow Americans we were able to say who we were, why were there, and some about what YWAM was. One of the Cornell students, Michelle, was really interested in what we were saying. As the week went on, we were being a bit more intentional about ministering to their team, and by the end of the week Michelle was getting all of our contact info so she could continue to ask us questions about some of the discussions we had had. Apparently her dad was Catholic, but it was more of just a thing to do with family religion and tradition rather than relationship with God. It was just another way you have to always be ready to minister to others, because you never know who God is going to bring your way.

    Tuesday, February 7 was our last day, and it was a hard day indeed, but also quite awesome. Again, we were blessed by the kids when they prayed for us after we had prayed for them. Hugs and little gifts were exchanged. D.K. gave me a necklace that is currently tied to my guitar neck, reminding me of how much I loved working at City of Refuge. I spent my last 20 minutes at C.O.R. doing the same thing I had spent most of my time there doing, shooting some hoops with D.K.,then I got on the bus to say goodbye to the one, the only, City of Refuge.

Leicester (December 18th-28th)

      On December 18^th the team jumped on a van to jump on a bus to jump off a bus in Leicester. The work we were to do in Leicester revolved mainly around ministry to the homeless and the underprivileged. Upon arriving, we were greeted by a couple named Paul and Vicki, who were the heads of a ministry called Open Hands. From the bus station, we went off to the building that Open Hands was run out of. There, after a lovely dinner of jacket potatoes, we sat with and met the rest of the Open Hands staff. As we went over what the week’s schedule would be looking like, the reality of, “Holy cow, were actually on outreach!” was just starting to set in. At the end of the evening we headed off to the different homes in which we were staying. Our team was divided between four different host-homes, with two or three people at each house, and at each house we were greeted with amazing hospitality. After a long day of traveling and meeting new people, it was great to be able to sit down on a bed, take a deep breath, and get some much needed rest to prepare for the rest of the week.

    Starting up the next day, we were back at Open Hands helping to get stuff organized for the opening of the second-hand charity shop. I was personally working in a very unorganized kitchen, using my slightly OCD-ness to put some order to a fair amount of chaos. My focus on moving plates/bowls, separating silverware, and organizing various kinds of hot-drink mixes was occasionally broken by Dean-Dallas, our fearless outreach leader, doing a dance across the room. That morning, there were shelves being raised, clothes being sorted, and a general readying of stuff for the people who were to come to the second-hand shop. Open Hands, in this stage, was essentially a free Goodwill store, plus a place to get a free cup of tea, coffee, or hot-chocolate. Once the “guests” came we served them drinks and socialized with them as they waited their turn to go through the shop. It was pretty cool to talk to people and to hear their stories, and it is gosh darn amazing how much people love the opportunity to simply be listened to.  Personally, just socializing and getting a chance to “pick” people’s brains, is one of my favorite things to do, so I thoroughly enjoyed this part of working with Open Hands.

    Also working with Open Hands, we made a full Christmas meal for the homeless people in the area. I quickly became an expert at piecing together what the English call a “pig on horseback”( a.k.a sausage mixed with stuffing, wrapped in bacon). Fortunately or unfortunately, as the case may be, I did not get to eat any of my “pigs on horseback” due to the fact that the 108 people we served ate them all. This dinner was essentially the last of the work we did with Open hands, but we had much more ministry to come.

    On the third or fourth-ish day (my memory is being put to the test by how late I am writing this blog), we did some street evangelism. Having done some street evangelism before in London, I was not too uncomfortable with the idea; however, this time MANY comfort zones were pushed to new levels.  In London we had simply started conversations with people through surveys, offering free hot chocolate, and generally being friendly; in Leicester we found ourselves with a group of……enthusiastic……elderly women who were quite literally blowing horns and waving flags in Leicester’s town center.  Despite some new and uncomfortable situations, we were still able to get into some good conversations with people, simply sharing a little bit about why we were there and what we believed.

    The rest, and actually the main part, of what we did in Leicester was with “The Bridge” ministry. The Bridge was a homeless shelter only open during the Christmas/New Years holiday season. Essentially, the bridge gave people a place to stay for the night and 3 warm meals a day to those in need of it. We worked out of a Salvation Army building which had a capacity for about twenty guests. (Meaning there was a room big enough to fit twenty cots in). To be allowed to stay at The Bridge center, the guests had to be referenced by another nearby charity. This was to control numbers and to be careful we weren’t allowing any dangerous criminals in the center or anything like that. We helped make meals, socialized with the guests, and every night two people from our team would stay the night at The Bridge to keep the guests company and keep some level of control among the potentially drunk, potentially high, (potentially both) guests

     We took a day off for Christmas to go to North Hampton, one of our staff, Matt, was from North Hampton so we spent Christmas with his family. It was hard to be away from home and family on Christmas, but being with somebody’s family did help the homesickness. Christmas day involved a small gift exchange between us trainees (I got a much needed guitar strap!), a full English meal, and some fun times just playing games with Matt’s immediate and extened family. Again, the hospitality we experienced amazed us as we felt included in a family’s little Christmas in the beautiful rolling hills of the English countryside.

    We went back to Leicester early on the 26^th and continued ministry that afternoon; then, that evening was my night to stay over at The Bridge. We had ministry only in the morning on the 27^th (cooking and serving breakfast at The Bridge), and on the 28^th we said goodbye to our awesome hosts and to Leicester to head back to Harpenden. Back on the Oval, we had a little over 24 hours to laundry and catch up on sleep before, on the evening of the 29^th, we left for the one, the only, Ghana….

Two Announcements

Hi all,

      Well, we got back from Ghana Tuesday night, after another long day and a half of traveling. We were the first outreach team back, and since then the other outreach teams have been arriving one by one. It has been so awesome seeing everyone from the DTS again, after not seeing them for over two months.

     Monday will start our week of debriefing, during which will be doing different stuff to reflect on what has gone on during DTS. Then, a week from Tuesday (on February the 28^th) we graduate.

     Over the next couple of days I will be posting more about the different things we were involved in, in Ghana; so keep your eyes open for several new posts coming your way.

     I can’t thank you enough for your prayers over the course of the past 2 months. Our time in Ghana was really amazing and will never be forgotten.

     Lastly, (for now) I wanted to briefly let you know about an opportunity God has given me. Recently, something that was just a possible opportunity has been confirmed as a plan for the time immediately after my graduation. One thing that has been on my heart a lot since I have been in England and in Ghana, has been my passion for music. I frequently found myself wondering what to do with this growing passion, and after several weeks of thinking, praying, and being prayed for, it was becoming more clear I needed to talk to someone who shared this passion and had done something with it.  That someone, or someones, ended up being a band called Evergreen. Evergreen is band that lives and has a recording studio on the YWAM base here in Harpenden; their passion is music and sharing the love of God through music. After multiple people suggested that I talk to them, I finally pulled aside one of their guys, Andy, and asked if we could talk for a little. I presented to him an array of questions from, “How does one balance a passion for music with a passion for serving through music?” to, “What does it look like to try to sustain relationships when living a life tied around the music industry?” As I asked these and several other questions, Andy was chuckling because these were apparently the exact same questions he was wrestling with two years prior. At the end of the conversation Andy brought up an idea that would eventually become the opportunity which I mentioned earlier. He suggested that I pray about staying on with them (Evergreen) for a month or two after my DTS ended to get a feel of what they do and why they do it. They would do their best to not only show me what they do, but also to mentor me along the way.

      Since this discussion I have prayed into it a lot and really feel that this is an opportunity God wants me to take. It will give me a chance to see what using the music industry as a ministry really looks like, and it will give an opportunity to hang out with and be mentored by some awesome guys. Also since the discussion I had with Andy, God has provide me with the previously not-to-be-seen funds to stay the extra time.

    It is super hard, if not dang-near impossible, to overstate how excited I am about this. I think it will be great for getting continued guidance on what I think I will continue to after DTS and university. I would REALLY APPRCIATE prayer for this though. A lot of the details have been figured out already, but there is still a fair amount of little details to get organized.

Again, thank you so much for your support. I hope you will look forward to seeing what I post over the next couple of days about our time in Leicester and Ghana.

God bless,

Will Clegg

Hi from Ghana

Well,

Wanted to say a quick hi from Ghana. Things have been going really well so far.

I won't have a lot of time to be updating this, but the team as a whole has a blog at http://ghanateam.tumblr.com/.    I hope you get a chance to follow that.

However, was going to put up a quick post a little more personalized to me rather than the team as a whole.

Our first 10 days of "outreach" was actually spent in Leicester, U.K.. There, we were involved wholly in homeless ministries. It was a really good week. Parts were stretching and new for me, but were really good. The main thing I got out of the week was how much just being there for someone to talk to can make a difference. Spent the night one night in a homeless shelter on Dec. 26th. It was actually pretty fun, (while also far beyond my comfort zone.

It has been two weeks today that we have been in Ghana. The first was actually really hard for me. I had kind of gotten into a rut and I had lost sight of my motivation for being here. I talked through it with one of my leaders, and he assured me that I wasn't feeling anything uncommon. Since the end of the first weekend though, I have been given a refreshed passion for our work here and a new perspective on serving. I led a bible study last Sunday, and gave a short sermon on Monday. Neither experience was totally new to me, but it was definitely  in a context very different than anything I had experienced before. The orphanage we are working with is awesome, the kids are awesome, and my teammates are awesome. I am truly thankful to God for the opportunity to be here.

On to prayer requests:
-That we as individuals and as a team will see break through. Both for ourselves in our relationship with God and in those around us that we server and work with.
-Health/safety for all our team
-Energy to face a very demanding schedule.

Thank you so much for your prayers!!
God bless,

Will Clegg