“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD. Plans to
prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11
This is the verse that has kept me
going since I became an SM. As some of you might know, I wasn’t planning on
becoming a student missionary. I wanted to finish my schooling, and get my
masters all in 5 years, non-stop. But apparently God had other plans for me. A
couple of days ago, I broke down. I just couldn’t help it. I kept seeing
pictures and posts made by my friends back in Walla Walla and I just wanted to
be there with them! I miss my family, my friends, delicious food, cold weather,
and so much more! I’m missing seeing my nieces and nephew grow up a whole year!
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| Haylee loves posing for the camera. :) |
But, these past couple of days I
have found so many things to be thankful for. Working with so many kids who
don’t really know Jesus can be a huge blessing. For instance, Ellie, who
teaches 4th grade, answered many questions that the kids had about
Jesus and the end times. Children have some very curious minds! There are so
many kids that are curious about Christ and we are here to tell them about Him.
Maybe some kids just need some love and we’re the only ones who show it to
them.
This week went by pretty fast I
think. My kids seem to be learning their letter sounds quicker. Except for a
few kids who don’t seem to know their alphabet still. I try to work with them
but it is very hard to work with each and every child individually. So even
though it’s second quarter, I STILL have parents coming to my classroom
everyday. So I talked to Mrs. Jano, my TA and told her that I talked to Franky
to talk to them and ask them to not come to class anymore. So Mrs. Jano solved
the problem by telling the parents that starting this last Monday, they were
allowed to be in the classroom, but they could not help their children in
anyway. I was really grateful to Mrs. Jano because truthfully, it doesn’t
really bother me that they were there, I just hate how their kids depended on
their mothers for answers.
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| Saw this little guy while snorkeling! |
So on Monday, the mothers that
came, sat in the back of the classroom and didn’t talk to their kids. Goodness!
It made a huge difference! I found the kids getting helped by their mothers
didn’t really know as much as they should and seeing how their papers were
always perfect, I could not tell what level they were at. Sometimes during
class when I was helping those kids with their work, I would ask a question and
they would look back at their mothers and speak to them in Pohnpeian. They
would reply to them, “Ask Ms. C.” My quietest kid, EJ, always had his mother or
grandmother coming to class. Ever since she has stopped coming, he has become a
lot more outgoing! He has started to talk to other kids more and has started to
play at recess more! He loves making animal noises while hiding nearby me at
recess and I pretend to be puzzled by wondering where the cats and dogs were hiding.
I love seeing his little face light up with delight and laugh! And I found that
my student Yuree, who has a hard time in school, is a fantastic gymnast! She
can do the splits both ways and can do a perfect cartwheel two handed AND one
handed! These children find some way to surprise me everyday! J
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| Lonie and Jessica! |
The rest of the week went pretty
well. It was a very hot week though. By 7:30 am, we were already sweating!
Wednesday night we played volleyball. We had so much fun! We didn’t play very
seriously and had some really funny moments. Thursday was United Nations Day (or as we heard in staff meeting, Imagination Day!),
so we had the day off! It was a much needed day off! I slept peacefully until
early the next morning around 6:00 am, I was rudely awakened by our kitten
Lentil yowling right outside our window. And by right outside, I mean hanging
on our window screen, meowing to be let in. After hushing him up, I dozed in
and out until 8:30, when I got up to get ready to go snorkeling. Apparently
after full moons, the place where we went snorkeling has a lot of manta rays. I
was pretty excited to go! I couldn’t wait to see something other than fish in
the water. We took a long boat ride out to the spot and the 7 of us that came
hopped in. The water was a very pretty blue, but it was hard to see very deep.
Before we hopped in the water, Franky told us, “Now remember, today it’s a
holiday, so if there aren’t any manta rays, blame it on the holiday, not me.”
And the manta rays were on holiday. We saw not a single one! We couldn’t see
very deep at all so I don’t think that helped. We did see a lot of cool fish
though. Tomorrow is no uniform day! I’m so tired of wearing polos that are way
to big on me!
I’m glad it’s almost the weekend!
We could all use some more rest.
Thank you for all your prayers and
support! The encouragement I receive is always helpful and it’s amazing how
many people I have out there supporting me this year. I love you all!
God Bless!
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