The Raining Season: The Covering
Summer 2020
My name is Emily West. I am a special education teacher in Nashville, TN and I am about to graduate with my master’s degree from Lipscomb University. I work with children with moderate to severe disabilities and I love it so much. My students bring me joy even on the hard days and I am so thankful to be able to serve them each day. While in grad school I met a professor who travels to Sierra Leone every summer to work with The Raining Season, and this May I will be joining her! We will be working with the residents with disabilities and those who serve them. We will be training teachers and caregivers on how to teach these special children as well as assisting them in their daily routines. I am so excited for this opportunity and I hope that you will join me!
The trip
This trip will leave from Nashville, TN on May 26th and will return on June 8th. I will be traveling with a group of about 10 people, all of whom are educators in the Nashville area. During our stay, our group is going to be focusing on providing care for the children with disabilities at The Covering which is an orphanage that children live while they await permenant placement through adoption. This includes anything from designing communication devices to training the teachers on different teaching strategies to better serve the children. We will be bringing supplies, both medical and educational, to provide better care than can be purchased in Freetown. We are working to supply the teachers with a phonics program that will stay at The Covering so that when our team leaves, the children will still have access to academic materials. My team will be working with The Covering’s teachers to train them on how to access, become familiar with, and implement the program. You can visit The Raining Season’s website to read more information on their mission: https://www.therainingseason.org/the-covering
How you can help
This kind of experience comes at a cost, both financially and spiritually. I first want to ask for your prayers as my team prepares for this incredible trip. Overseas missions require physical, emotional, and spiritual preparation and I ask that you pray for each member of my team to allow God to prepare them. I am also asking that you would prayerfully consider giving financially. The cost of traveling to Sierra Leone is roughly $3,300 (including flights, accommodations, and meals) and each participant is required to raise their own funds. Any donation you make is tax-deductible and no amount is too small. If you would like to contribute financially, please read and follow the simple instructions below.
- Visit www.therainingseason.org and click the donate tab and it will take you to a donation form. In the donation form under notes, you will need to type my traveler’s code: WESEMI and then submit the rest of your information.
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Emily's mission to Sierra Leone 