Ceciyaa's Call: Christmas Meditations

The Ceciyaa Foundation is a non-profit organization which was formed in order to meet the need for basic food, clothing, and healthcare services among the poor and the disadvantaged women and children of Ghana. Ceciyaa is a multi-service community organization which fulfills its mission through dynamic programming that is responsive to the needs of the diverse communities it seeks to serve.The mission of the Ceciyaa Foundation is to create a nurturing, stable, and healthy family environment which encourages and empowers women to initiate, attain and master the personal and social changes which are necessary to help fight ignorance, hunger, sickness and disease, in order to become effective contributing participants in the progressive development of their communities. The foundation values the expansion of opportunities and the enhancement of quality of life for the women and children of Ghana and seeks to empower these women and their families to initiate those necessary changes.Ceciyaa will accomplish its goals through a variety of programs, including a character education and training program for children to include a childcare and learning development center; The Children’s Closet which will provide free clean clothing to children as well as women, and a preventative and women’s health initiative which will include the construction of the Ceeiyaa Women’s Health Services Center (CWHSC), in Dabaah, Kumasi, Ghana. It is the foundation’s desire to collaborate with municipal and regional governments, local community leaders, business leaders and churches in order to best identify the most critical areas of need as well as the most effective plan of action for meeting its specific goals. Francis Aduoffei founded the Ceciyaa Foundation out of his great desire to see change in the lives of the people of his home country, Ghana. His first-hand knowledge of the plight of the women and children of Ghana fired the vision for Ceciyaa and came in great part as he considered how he could affect change using the abundant resources-- human and natural in most communities in Ghana along with the generosity and willingness of the American people. Mr. Aduoffei, who currently serves as a Sergeant First Class in the United States Army, knows what it means to have inadequate food, clothing, and healthcare services. As a child in Ghana, he watched his mother as she struggled to help her community overcome these obstacles and how she eventually lost her life in service to others and without the benefit of proper diagnosis and medical treatment. Of his mother, he says, “She shared the family’s food with the entire community and fed countless children at our school, without asking anything in return. She never profited from her business, because she loaned money to those in need and always forgave their debts when they couldn’t pay. Late in her life, though she was ill, she sacrificed her own comfort, and used monies I sent her from America to care for her ailing father and others in her village. Her name was Ceciyaa and the foundation is named in her honor. ”

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas Meditations

As I sit here, tonight, surrounded by my children and family, I am full of the joy and satisfaction that comes from having my loved ones near at Christmastime. I am keenly aware of the blessings of God and how thoroughly and completely He has enveloped me in his provision, grace and mercy. But even as Christmas Eve turns to Christmas Morning, I am unable to sleep. Amid all of this bliss, my heart is aware of a deep longing within...

My longing is to see all of the children of Ghana as happy and contented, as well-fed, clothed and cared for as my own daughters. My longing is to see all of the women of Ghana have the opportunity to be well-educated with access to the basic healthcare that I have, and more often than not, take for granted. My longing is to see the deaf, the blind, the disabled cared for as the beautiful creations of God that they are. No child should ever be abandoned. My longing is to give the poor and disadvantaged people of Ghana more than a donation that allows me to forget about them until this time next year. My longing is that the people of Ghana, all of the people of Ghana, would come to know the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is displayed to them through my giving, and yours. My longing is that, when I stand be for the King, it will be as it was according to Matthew 25: 34-36:

"Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; Naked and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me."

I want to pour my life out before God as an offering and a sacrifice and in my heart, the longing that will not be silenced, whispers to me... "Ghana"

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