Goodnight honeymoon stage

There always comes a time when reality sets in. In most phases and transitions of life we experience a short period when everything seems to be going perfectly smoothly and nothing will discourage you from the task at hand. And then there comes a point where you realize that being joyful and content takes work and lots of time with God.

Next week is going to be my first full week of teaching and though it is a short week, I became very overwhelmed yesterday. Part of the reason for that is because I had spent a lot of my free time during the schoolday painting the big backgrounds for the third grade play. It took quite a bit of time, and I was exhausted by the end of the week. Thankfully, the Lord put my perspective in the right place, reminding me why I am doing all of this: because this is where He has put me and because I have so much to learn from these kids. Not to mention that they are in need of someone to guide them and I am one of those people right now.

Last Friday (the 19th) I was able to go out to the Word of Life in Atibaia (about 2 hours from here) and reconnect with some missionary friends I grew up with in northern Brasil. It was such a great time, though short and really encouraged me.

There were some very meaningful moments this week. My parents got to come visit for Sunday- Tuesday which was a blessing!! We were able to have some fun times and good talks, and they got to see the church I have been attending as well as see PACA. We died laughing on Monday night playing Dutch Blitz and Mad Lib together. Mom got frustrated with Dad winning all the time that she threw all her cards at him and then with a laugh said, "That felt SOOOOO good!!!"

The kids did a wonderful job on their play. They sang a song by Mary Rice Hopkins called "Forgive" which is about the parable of the unmerciful servant. It is a really beautiful song and when kids sing it always gets to me. Such sweet sounding voices. Even though practices could get stressful and they wouldn't listen, that moment at the end when they would practice their song would help get my mind in the right place.

That is all for now! I have finished my lesson planning and am hoping to enjoy an evening with my roomate and another friend. :)

Thanks for your prayers! I cannot tell you how much I have felt them. There are times when I feel so discouraged and God just reminds me of His purposes and plans - they can be unknown to me, but He has already laid them out for me. SO thankful!

Seaweed, fossils and honesty

So Bbax, I totally stole the idea of putting three random ideas into the title to grab attention. :) The past two days have included many sweet moments, and have stood out to me in their own specific ways. First of all, let me make mention of the fact that these kids have a way of finding some way to work their way into your affections, despite their misbehavior. Even though there are many times I have to be strict and correct them, there are also those times when I look them in the eye and want to tear up from their sweetness.

So over lunch, I was finishing up the last of my rice, beans and salad, and chatting with the other teachers. H., a sweet Korean girl in my class, came flying over to me, hugged me and said, "Miss H, Miss H! I left something on your desk for you!"
"Oh, how sweet!"
"SEAWEED!" And off she goes in all her happy abandon.

Now I have made it my policy that I will not reject food before I try it, especially when I'm around the kids because many of them are pretty picky anyways. Though I have tried seaweed, it was a long time ago, and I didn't want to simply give it back to her without trying it. So, on arriving back to my desk, (finding a cell phone and a random scratch paper with numbers scrawled all over it....leftovers from a harried 10-year old boy in a hurry to get to recess), I found the infamous green strips of ocean produce. :/ Tearing off a tiny piece (I seriously do not like seafood, except for the occassional fish or shrimp), and quickly chewed. Hmmmmm, yeah not enjoyable. When H. came back into the room, I was able to tell her that I indeed tried it. She graciously took it back, offered it to Miss Deboer twice, (who also does not enjoy it), and munched contentedly on the wretched stuff.

So discussing fossils is harder than it seems. There are so many opinions about dinosaurs and mammoths and amounts of years, that it takes quite a lot of thought and careful explanation of the importance of not believing everything we read. They ask some incredible questions: for instance, "Why do animals kill each other now and they didn't when God first created them?" I know, amazing leading question right? I also had my first kid fall asleep on me during 8th period, halfway through the Science lesson. He's one of those kids who is constantly having to be corrected about not putting his head down on his desk or slouching all over the place. I was just scanning the room and one of the boys near T. (our sleepy friend), was raising his hand. I called on him and he said, "Um, T. is asleep..." WE all started slightly chuckling, and I went over and poked him in the arm, then harder, then had to shake him awake. I was trying so hard not to bust out, especially when he raised his head with the most confused look on his face, then saw us laughing and smiled somewhat. I had everyone stand up, and had our friend T. do 10 jumping jacks. "Did that wake you up?" I asked, a smile still present on my face.
"He just gave me a sleepy look and I had everyone sit down again.

The other thing that happened today that amazed me and blessed me beyond belief was during Grammar. A Brazilian/American girl, V., is a joy to have in the classroom. She lost her mother about 4 years ago, and does not seem to be bitter at all, but still will talk openly about it. That has nothing to do with today's lesson, but she is the kind of girl I would definitely trust with all kinds of responsibilities. We were going over one section of grammar together, and then they were to complete the second section on their own. I noticed that a few of the students had done most of the second section while we were carefully going over the first part as a class. I had them "flip a card" which is our way of keeping them in line. They are different colors and certain ones mean a warning, 5 minute in at recess, and so on. I allowed them about five more minutes to work, and thought nothing more of the matter. V. came over to my stool, and said quietly, "I was also doing the second part while we were working together."

HELLO!!! Gloria a Dios! Yay for honesty! I could have hugged her I was so happy with her! I asked her to flip a card, but thanked her for telling the truth. Right before they all left for the day, she walked over to my desk, and said, "My dad always told me it's better to tell the truth, even if it means you'll get in trouble." That's when a couple tears came to my eyes.
"That is exactly right, V.! I was so, so glad you told me the truth, and even though it means you had to flip a card, if I had found out later, and realized you hadn't told me the truth, you would have had to flip 2 cards." I gave her a big thumbs-up and her grin stretched clear to the ceiling. Talk about amazing moment!