Art in the Dark

Connor's Creative Art Center

The Creative Art Center is coming along great and the outside is getting painted! It is really looking more and more like 3 huge legos. Until the art center is finished, I will be doing art classes with all the children in the dining facility and in their rooms. Monday was our first official art class. So I packed up all my art supplies in the big bucket I purchased in the market and headed over to the dining hall with the kids drawing books in my other hand.  This week we are talking about telling our story through drawing pictures.  We talked about what the kids wanted to be when they grew up, and they got a chance to tell their own story through art! They were excited to tell me what they wanted to be when they got older. Felix said, “I want to be a solider because I want to bring peace to the world.” Albert and Freeman want to be doctors so that they can help sick people. Mikaya, Joseph, and Gameli want to be footballers. They had a chance to share with each other their story and show their drawings!

Gameli

Towards the end of art class, a big storm came with heavy rain and then the lights went out! It was pitch black, and we couldn’t see anything. (It is daylight in Ghana from 6 am to 6 pm.) Fortunately, I had my phone so I could see a little to gather up the supplies. The kids and I made a run for our houses, but it was pouring so hard and was so slippery with all the mud that I just about fell. Gameli was so sweet to run beside me and make sure I made it ok to the house. We were drenched, but the kids loved it! I must say it felt refreshing from such a hot day! Lesson learned…when teaching in Africa always carry a flashlight!  It just might be the most important supply!

Clay Creations



Micah



Jacob and Micah with their clay creations!



Johannes



Gameli's shark

Today was a fun day of making our own clay from the red soil and creating different kinds of animals, cars and creatures!!!  There are so many amazing artists here!  Gameli (who made the shark) told me he wants to be an artist.  He asked me if I could teach him how to draw everything…It is a good thing I am here for a while!

My Unfortunate Haircut

I made it safely to my new home in Kumasi on Tuesday! Kelly greeted me at the airport in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and we nearly ran to catch another flight to Kumasi. This was only a 30-minute flight as opposed to a long, difficult 5-6 hour car ride to Kumasi. When I arrived at Touch A Life Care Center the majority of the kids were in school except for a few home sick with chicken pox. (The kids got chicken pox on move in day Labor Day weekend and were dropping left and right.) I dropped my luggage off into my room and headed out to see the kids! I am living in a room in the younger boys home because they need house parents there. It is a nice big room with cheerful sunshine yellow walls and my own bathroom. I’m so thankful the Lord answered my mom’s anxious, persistent prayer for me to be with the kids at the Care Center instead of living in the nearby village! (Thanks mom!)


The kids are bused to school, and they come home around 4 pm so I didn’t have to wait too long to see all their beautiful smiling faces again! As soon as they got off the bus they came running when they saw I was there. As they ran they shouted, “Jenny Flowers! Jenny Flowers!” with huge smiles. I was so excited to see each one, a little older and a little bigger from the last time I saw them in 2010. After giving each one a big hug, one of the first things the kids asked was, “Why did you cut your hair?” After growing my hair out for the last two years for the children, I decided to cut it right before I left. Wrong move on my part! Joel said if I cut my hair again, he will cry. I reassured them it would grow plenty long over the next year here. It’s funny to me how they remember my hair so well even after not seeing me for almost 2 years! They are too cute!

Drawn From The Water: Designing Connor's Creative Art Center

I have the amazing privilege of being the Art Director for Connor's Creative Art Center!!!!!

September 17th...the faith adventure begins

  


Touch A Life Care Center in Kumasi, Ghana

 
The day has finally arrived. I will be getting on a plane tomorrow afternoon headed back to Ghana, West Africa!!!! I can hardly wait to see all the precious children these new houses hold!!!! My heart has been in Ghana since my last time there in 2010. I have been waiting on the Lord's perfect timing and plan, and that time has now arrived. My heart will be home once again with the precious Touch A Life children...48 in all are moved in and awaiting my arrival on Tuesday morning. I cannot begin to explain how excited I am to go and live at the TAL Care Center for the next year (Lord-willing longer)! As my friend Dawn-Marie always reminds me..."His faithfulness reaches the skies." God has been so faithful in providing for my every need in returning to Ghana for the year! His plan is "immeasurably more than I could ever ask or imagine!" What a complete joy to go and serve in Africa...loving His children!


Kids home at Touch A Life Care Center

These are the 48 children I know and love!  I cannot wait to hold them in my arms again!



His Faithfulness Reaches the Skies



Connor's Creative Art Center in Kumasi, Ghana


While growing up in South Bend, Indiana, surrounded by the comforts of American life, I felt so far removed from the suffering in Africa. However, in one moment, my life was turned upside down. I was faced with a difficult question, “As a follower of Christ, what are you going to do about the suffering children in Africa? “ God impressed this on my heart during a chapel service at Grace College where I heard the testimony of a man from Sudan and saw firsthand the suffering he endured as a child at the hand of genocide. At that moment in 2007, the cries of the children in Africa awakened an ache in my soul. God placed a burden on my heart that is central to His- to “look after orphans in their distress” (James 1:27). As only one person, I thought to myself, what could I possibly do?


After graduating from Grace College in 2008 with a Bachelor’s Degree in drawing/ painting and psychology, God provided me with the opportunity to teach in Ghana for an art/ music camp in 2008 and 2009. These precious children have forever changed my life. I returned to Ghana in 2010 for almost 3 months to teach art, and I knew the Lord was preparing me for long-term missions. I just didn’t know what His specific plan for me was until now. I completed my all grade art teaching license in 2010. Then, in God’s perfect timing, He provided Connor’s Creative Art Center and the beautiful Touch A Life kids that I know and love to care for and teach.


My heart’s passion and prayer for the Touch A Life kids is for each one to intimately know the transforming love of Jesus Christ and to find their identity in Him alone. This message of truth is fueled with passion from my own experience of Jesus making me new and walking my own journey of healing and freedom to a place of wholeness in Christ. I have experienced God’s healing and a deeper intimacy with my Creator through the therapeutic process of art, and that is my desire for the children as well. Connor’s Creative Art Center will provide the children with a fun, safe, and creative place to express themselves through art while allowing them to walk their own journey of God’s healing. As the Art Director, I have the amazing privilege of walking beside each one and helping them on this journey of growth and healing through creative expression.